Tuesday, April 18, 2006

On Weekends, Conventions, and Wal-Mart

Bill and I made a long weekend of it. His work closes on Patriot’s Day (it is in Massachusetts) and I took leave. We used our long weekend to do everything but blog.

Let’s see, we made a trip to a brand new Lowe’s store (I’d never been in one), bought a bench grinder, set up a new work bench we’d bought earlier, and found that its four corner braces are missing—arrrgghhh. That’s why the instructions say you need to inventory all the parts before you put it together. Wouldn’t you know it, the braces were almost the last parts to go on.

Corner braces are simple parts and we could use something else, so thank goodness we don’t have to tear it all apart and put it in that box again for a return trip to the store. We have too much sweat equity in it for that. I checked into sheet metal fabricators and found a really interesting web site that fabricates custom metal parts. I haven’t used them, but it’s amazing the services you can find on the Internet.

Let’s see what else about the weekend. Oh, of course, we got out to the range. We shot our target pistols, 1911s, and cowboy pistols. I tested a new mild .45 Long Colt loading for target shooting. Bill shot his Glock and I overcame my dislike for Tupperware guns and touched off a few Glockster rounds.

I still haven’t tried my BAG Day Nambu, put I’ll be buying ammo for it from Buffalo Arms. At $52.00 for a box of fifty, these cartridges better have little seeker elements in them that can find the ten ring without any help from me.

Bill and I are formally announcing that we’re going to NRA’s convention in Milwaukee this year (May 19-21). We went last year and really enjoyed it. We’re planning to blog it on a regular basis if we can resolve technical issues (like buy a laptop for one).

Every time I mention my support for the NRA I get e-mails or comments about bad things the NRA has done. I realize they’re not perfect and I keep my eye on their leaders and make sure they’re following the straight and narrow—at least as much as I can.

I support them though because they’re the only pro-gun group that scares the anti-gunnies. I work with a few people who give money to anti-gun groups who’ve never heard of Gun Owners of America and Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership. In fact, a Jewish anti-gun coworker had me get on their website because he couldn’t believe Jews would support gun rights. He was a little shocked.

Finally, a couple of people e-mailed me about Wal-Mart taking guns out of some of its stores I’ve never bought guns from them and only rarely do I buy ammo from them—usually when everything else is closed like on a Sunday. It’s a company decision and retailers won’t carry something that’s not putting money into their pockets.

However, we need more outlets for guns. Before 1968, almost every department store, hardware store, and gas station carried ammo and most carried guns. If repressive legislation hems guns sales into “gun ghettos (see update below),” pretty soon buying a gun will be too much hassle for many people. One wonders if the legislators had that in mind when they passed the Federal Firearms Act in 1968. Hmmm....

Well that’s all folks, for today anyway. Thanks for stopping by.

UPDATE: After posting I realized I could be misunderstood. I don't think a gun store is a "gun ghetto," but I think a combination of making it difficult to get a license to sell guns "ghettoizes" gun sales into specialized small stores. It would be easy in time to put these stores out of business with aggressive zoning laws, changes in regulations, and picky enforcement of ATF rules--all of which we've seen in the past few years.

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