Headline calculated for maximum spin--I'm practicing to be a professional.

But "seriously,"  New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson has jumped through the hoops and received a license to carry a concealed handgun.  Apparently this is a big deal to some people, both pro and con.  He did it, he said, "to symbolically show my support for concealed carry."  He also said he doesn't plan on actually carrying one.  And why should he?

Richardson, who was flanked by state police officers from his security detail during an interview Friday, said personal safety wasn’t a factor in his decision to apply for a concealed-handgun license.

I'm sure personal safety isn't a factor in being flanked by state police officers from his security detail, either.

In further details, Richardson has revealed himself to be a GLOCK elitist--although he doesn't plan on actually carrying it.  I have to give the reporter credit for actually using a GLOCK to illustrate the article, and even more credit for correctly using all caps just like the company does.  Because lower-case letters aren't good enough, I suppose.

In related news, he has also applied this year for a license to hunt elk.

In even further related news, he is still straddling the fence about cockfighting.  (Why do I hear Peter Griffin snickering in the background?)  Even after being lobbied by celebrities--celebrities, mind you--who are among the most powerful, influential, and wisest people in the world, he still hasn't taken a stand.

Unfortunately, cockfighting is "an important Hispanic cultural tradition."  And we all know what that means.

Xavier has started a meme.  It sounds like fun, but I've already posted these kinds of pix so I won't bother posting them again.  I'll just point to previous posts.

The usual -- okay, I admit, this one was staged.  I don't normally carry several pounds of .38 Special +P semi-wadcutters.  No, really.

Special occasions -- Not a very impressive picture, but then I did just unholster it and take the picture.  That's the .40, by the way.

And sometimes -- Staged again.  It's usually loaded.

UPDATE:  Xavier has created a Carry Gun Gallery!

This time at the University of Michigan:

College Libertarians chair Jeremy Linden reached his hand deep into a white box yesterday and pulled out a raffle ticket. He then read out the number, and University alum Laura Dodd stood up, holding the winning ticket.

Dodd walked to the front of the room, shook a few people's hands and smiled for a picture with Linden.

She had just won a gun.

Since it's against the rules to defend oneself on the campus, "the group will take Dodd to purchase a gun of her choice at another time."

Dodd said she already owns one gun and uses it for home safety as well as target shooting.

When asked what type of gun she was interested in, she said "something concealable."

Of course, certain people are unhappy about it.

College Democrats chair Jamie Ruth disagreed with the group's message.

"The College Dems do not believe that focusing on the Second Amendment should be the priority of anyone genuinely committed to the preservation of the entire Bill of Rights and our  Constitution," he said in an e-mail interview.

Ruth questioned why the College Libertarians have made the Second Amendment a priority while "the Bush administration has condoned violations of the First, Fourth and Sixth Amendments."

Typical anti-logic.  Just typical.  And besides, Jamie-boy, Bush has condoned a few violations of the Second, too.

I wonder sometimes if anyone out there wonders why I post these things.  My targets are certainly nothing to be boastful about.  I post them because:  shooting is fun!

My usual practice now is to take at least three guns to the range:
1) For general practice and trigger pull improvement--Walther P-22, minimum 100 rounds
2) Utility gun--Springfield XD-40 and/or Ruger SP-101, minimum 50 rounds
3) Something else just for fun.


Starting out with the P-22 as usual, I started out right at the tiny bullseye in the center and didn't do much good, so I switched to the big target and, also as usual, my shooting improved as I went along.  Many of the .22 bullet holes in the big target were later chewed out by .40 holes, so you can't see them all.  Later I worked on the two small targets on the upper left, and finally went back to the tiny center target one more time.  I finally managed to hit it a couple of times.

I switched to the XD and worked on the big target, doing pretty well except for some extreme fliers.  This is a problem I have.  I'll do quite well for a while and then I lose concentration or something and I'll have some bad fliers.  I finished off by working on the small target at center right.

Just for fun, I took along the CZ-52 as pictured.  The first two shots were at the big target, but then I realized that I couldn't tell where they were hitting anymore so I moved up to the top center target, and as you can see the remaining six rounds of that magazine went into the black (woo hoo!)  Then I went for the target at top right.  Some strayed off-black, but that raggedy hole had quite a few bullets going through it.  I shot 35 rounds in all, I think.  Four 8-round magazines worth plus a few odd extra to finish out the box.  As usual, my trigger finger was starting to get numb from the beating, so I switched to right-handed shooting for one magazine.  I think the nagging tendonitis that I've had for several years in my right wrist is finally starting to effect my off-hand shooting.  I didn't do too well right-handed today.

All targets were shot at the 7-yard line.  They recently rebuilt the range and eliminated the 10-yard position.  Now they have only 7, 15, and 25 yards.  I'm not ready to go up to 15 yards in public yet, although when alone I have even attempted 25-yard shots with pistols, just not with very good results.  I think I have improved since the last range session.

The plus side of their rebuild is that they now have a separate range for the Saturday morning CHL class, so the rest of us can start when they open at 10:00 instead of having to wait for the class to finish their qualifications.  This morning's class had about a dozen people in it, and at least three women.  It is actually quite fun to hear those volleys of gunfire in the distance when the command to fire is given (a dozen semi-autos all going off at once).

I don't just blaze away as fast and furiously as I can.  I like to take some time, take breaks, and get a look at the guns and performance of other people.  Today a couple of guys came in and each rented 9mm Glocks, which they did quite well with.  They were obviously experienced shooters, and I couldn't figure out why they didn't have their own guns.  Maybe they just wanted to shoot Glocks today.

To my immediate right was a man shooting a small .38 Special.  I'm not an expert at identifying guns at a glance, but my guess is it was a Rossi or Taurus.  To his right was another man with a larger-framed .38.  The odd thing about these two were that, although both of their guns were double-action, they were both cocking and firing single action.  In my opinion, that's cheating.  It almost made me want to break out the SP-101 and make a few holes double-action just so they could see that it is, in fact, possible.  The man with the larger revolver also had a S&W Sigma in .380 ACP.  They were both shooting quite well.

To my left were a couple of friends who were taking turns shooting an H&K 9mm and doing quite well.  All the way at the far left, in one of the 25-yard positions, was a man shooting a Ruger P-345.  That's one gun I recognize even at a distance.

I had planned on trying to get the rightmost position on the line but those four other people got there first.  So when I got around to the CZ, there was some room to my left so I shifted down a little to give them some space.  The guy with the H&K gave me an odd look, and I told him, "I just want to give them some room so they don't get pelted by my empties too bad."  He thought he understood until I actually started shooting.  It immediately became apparent that no one there, including the range marshall, had ever seen a CZ-52 before.

After the first shot, I heard someone exclaim "Whoa!"  After the second shot, someone said "Wheee!" or something like that.  When I finished the magazine, the range marshall had to come up and look at it.  "I was catching your empties from 10 feet away!" he said.  I told him I had actually measured it before, and the empties can easily fly 30 feet before they hit the ground.  I'm almost positive he pocketed a couple of the empties.  As I said, he had never seen anything like it before.  Heh heh.

Ammo used today was Remington High Velocity .22LR, Winchester white box 165-grain FMJ .40 S&W, and Sellier & Bellot 7.62x25mm 85-grain FMJ.

Final result:  I shot better with the CZ than with either of the other guns.  I have said before that, as far as my own guns go, the CZ and the 1911 are the most naturally "pointable" of them all (with the XD following closely behind).  I also like the narrower sights on the CZ.

And I was happy not to be the worst shooter at the range.

UPDATE:  Updated to fix the graphic link and change the category.

Here's an interesting thread at The High Road about a pro-shall-issue candidate for sheriff of Orange County (CA).

This is huge. We talk about CCW battles in Delaware and Maryland and a lot of places. Let me point out that if Orange County were a state, it would be the 31st largest state (in terms of population) in the US. Bill Hunt winning is as big of news as getting shall-issue in 20 other, smaller states, including Delaware, Hawaii, and Rhode Island (currently may-issue states).

To put it another way: If Bill Hunt wins and Orange County goes shall-issue, it will probably double the number of permits in California. Logic: OC has about 3mil people. In states that are shall-issue, typically between 1% and 2% of the population gets issued. CA currently has 40k CCWs. That would probably double of OC were truly shall-issue.

Emphasis in original.

--New York narrowly escapes collapse of civilization as they know it:

A strike would have left apartment owners and residents to take on tasks performed by their doormen, porters and handymen -- everything from pressing elevator buttons to moving furniture and taking in deliveries.

Ye gads, they may have even had to flag down their own taxis!  Oh, the humanity!

Apparently once, in his younger days, "Bloomy" (do people really call him that?) used a .22 rifle as a Boy Scout:

"When I grew up, I was at Boy Scout camp. We had riflery," Bloomberg, 64, said. "When I was, I don't know, 15 or so, I had a .22-caliber rifle. But I used it only at a range. And, you know, there's nothing wrong with that."

"Probably my hearing's gone because of it," he laughed. "But that's not the same thing as having guns."

The mayor, a lifelong Democrat who became a Republican to run for mayor, has repeatedly said his pledge to staunch the flow of illegal guns into New York has nothing to do with ideology or partisan politics.

"If you want to go hunting and have a gun, you know, I'm not opposed to that," said Bloomberg, who explained he's trying to stop illegal guns and the violence they cause.

Even when trying this lame, half-assed attempt to sound gun-friendly, he slips up.  Target shooting to get your merit badge as a Boy Scout is not the same thing as having guns.  As in, getting your merit badge is okay, but having guns is bad.  Note that he didn't say anything about "having illegal guns" (whatever they are).  He just said "having guns."

Newsflash, Mikey:  it's not about hunting.  It's not about getting a merit badge.  It's all about freedom and people like you.

NOPD, NRA call truce over gun seizures

We have video evidence of guns being seized from the hands of people, not picked up from an abandoned house.

We have a police chief declaring that "No one will be able to be armed. We are going to take all the weapons."

Where is the criminal prosecution?

Wayne?  Anyone?

I forgot to mention it, mostly because I was very tired and actually went to sleep early on a Friday night, but yesterday was San Jacinto Day.

The Tattler mentions partying on Cinco de Mayo.  As for myself, Cinco de Mayo is...well, the fifth day of May, and that's about it.

Instead, how about some parties on February 2?

And as long as I'm on the subject, take a look at the way prisoners were treated.

Mexican soldiers captured at San Jacinto:

After having kept us sitting in camp about an hour and a half, they marched us into the woods, where we saw an immense fire. . . . I and several of my companions were silly enough to believe that we were about to be burnt alive, in retaliation for those who had been burnt in the Alamo.  We should have considered it an act of mercy to be shot first.  Oh! the bitter and cruel moment!  However, we felt considerably relieved when they placed us around the fire to warm ourselves and to dry our wet clothes.  We were surrounded by twenty-five or thirty sentinels.  You should have seen those men, or, rather, phantoms, converted into moving armories.  Some wore two, three, and even four brace of pistols; a cloth bag of very respectable size filled with bullets, a powder horn, a sabre or a bowie knife, besides a rifle, musket, or carbine.  Everyone of them had in his hand a burning candle. . . . Was this display intended to prevent us from attempting to escape?  The fools!  Where could we go in that vast country, unknown to us, intersected by large rivers and forests, where wild beasts and hunger, and where they themselves would destroy us?

Texan soldiers captured at Goliad:

The Texians were marched back to Goliad and held as prisoners. On 26 March 1836, at 7P, Portilla received orders from Santa Anna in triplicate to execute the prisoners. At around 8A on Palm Sunday, 27 March 1836, Colonel Jose Nicolas de la Portilla; commander at Goliad, had the 342 Texians marched out of Fort Defiance into three columns on the Bexar Road, San Patricio Road and the Victoria Road. Urrea wrote: ..wished to elude these orders as far as possible without compromising my personal responsibility.

Once the columns reached their selected location the Mexican soldados formed into two ranks on one side of the captives. The defenseless and unarmed Texians were then fired on point-blank a few hundred yards from the fort. The wounded and dying were then clubbed and stabbed. Those who survived the initial volley were run down by the Mexican cavalry. Fannin's men wounded in the Battle of Coleto were shot or bayonetted where they lay. Colonel Fannin was the last to be executed, after seeing his men butchered. Their bodies were stacked into piles and burned. There were twenty-eight Texians who did manage to escape by feigning death and other means. Three known survivors escaped to Houston's army and were known to participate in the Battle of San Jacinto.

I don't see what's so great about Cinco de Mayo anyway.  It celebrates a victory of Mexican forces over the French.  Who hasn't beaten the French at one time or another?