Of Arms and the Law posts an opinion piece in response to the recent U.N. anti-self defense diatribe, said response having been printed in the Bangkok Times of Thailand.

It reminded me of a site I came across recently called thailandoutdoor.com.  Check out this page.

Of course, since I don't have the proper character set installed to display his language correctly, most it is gibberish.  And let's face it, it wouldn't matter if I did have the proper character set installed, because I wouldn't be able to read Thai anyway.  However, I think the pictures speak for themselves.  Spoiler:  he's a Ruger fan.

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UPDATE:  More news from Thailand, via NRA-ILA.

Teachers have one of the deadliest jobs in southern Thailand, with 44 killed by the bombs and bullets of an Islamic insurgency since 2004.

So the teachers are learning how to shoot back.

The Chulabhorn naval base, on the Gulf of Thailand in Narathiwat province, recently opened its heavily guarded gates to a training course for 100 public school teachers, mostly Buddhist men and women who say bringing a gun to school has become essential.

"You'd never see a teacher anywhere else in Thailand carrying a gun," said Sanguan Jintarat, head of the Teachers' Association that oversees the 15,000 teachers in the villages and towns of the restive south. "But we need them, or we'll die."

Emphasis mine.

I've been reading through the most recent issue of USCCA Magazine.  As usual, there are a couple of things that drive me to talk about them.

First of all, go back to last month when I mentioned a humorous review of the H&K P2000.  Humorous to me because it was honest and not entirely favorable.  This time there were a couple of semi-hostile reactions to the review that I thought were also kind of funny.  Man, you say something not 100% in favor of someone's chosen model of gun, and they act like you insulted their mother or their dog or something.

This month's review by Mr. Hill (a.k.a. Mad Ogre) was for a gun I actually own for a change.  He did a great review of the NAA mini-revolver.  His is the same model and barrel length as mine.  I would like to say that I have never had the problem with the retaining pin firing loose on mine, and I have even gone so far as to shoot CCI Stingers in it just for kicks (literally).  I'm hoping this is a problem with only his example, and that it can be repaired.  Like Mr. Hill, I am also looking forward to seeing NAA's newest project-in-the-works when it comes out:  a compact revolver chambered for .32 H&R Magnum.  I doubt if I'll go out and buy one, but I am looking forward to seeing it and reading some comments on it when it does come out.

He didn't seem to say at what range he shot his demonstration group in the photo for the article.  I have never been able to shoot mine that well.  That was some mighty fine shootin'!

There is one article in here that I personally don't have any objection to, but I fully expect letters of complaint to come from it.  The title is "Blood Your Carry Gun," and recommends actually hunting and killing an animal with your chosen piece, if possible.  Guns made for concealed carry are not guns made for hunting--they are made for last resort personal defense at close range--although certain calibers of carry guns can be used for hunting in other guns.  Although it probably won't be legal or very effective or humane to hunt bigger game animals with a carry gun, there are plenty of varmints that can be legally hunted and humanely taken with proper shot placement.  I grew up hunting in a family of hunters.  I have used carry guns for dispatching certain small varmints behind my house (usually possums), and I unfortunately did have to euthanize a dog once.  I see the writer's point:  that it may benefit some people to actually see what it looks like to shoot a living creature at close range.  It ain't pretty.  Unfortunately, sometimes it's necessary.

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UPDATE:  Yep.  I just checked into the USCCA discussion forum and they're already going ape-spit crazy over it.  And just in case one of you comes here and tries to go ballistic on me, note that I did not say "everyone should and must without expection hunt and kill an animal with their carry gun."  My exact words, which I will repeat, were:  "I see the writer's point:  that it may benefit some people to actually see what it looks like to shoot a living creature at close range."

New York (of all places):

Margaret Johnson might have looked like an easy target. But when a mugger tried to grab a chain off her neck Friday, the wheelchair-bound 56-year-old pulled out her licensed .357 pistol and shot him, police said.

Johnson said she was in Harlem on her way to a shooting range when the man, identified by police as 45-year-old Deron Johnson, came up from behind and went for the chain.

"There's not much to it," she said in a brief interview. "Somebody tried to mug me, and I shot him."

Deron Johnson was taken to Harlem Hospital with a single bullet wound in the elbow, police said. He faces a robbery charge, said Lt. John Grimpel, a police spokesman.

Margaret Johnson, who lives in Harlem, has a permit for the weapon and does not face charges, Grimpel said. She also was taken to the hospital with minor injuries and later released.

A New York license to carry.  I wonder who she knows.

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UPDATE:  The blogosphere is all abuzz with this story.  Not just gunbloggers, but everyone it seems is cheering for this lady who shot a punk.  I wonder if the reaction would be the same if the punk had tried to rob a healthy, fully-abled adult male--someone more or less just like himself.  I think many people would be condemning such a hypothetical person for using a gun in self defense.  I think this because such condemnation happens all the time.

But no matter how healthy, strong, or non-crippled you are, you still have a right to protect yourself by the best means available.

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UPDATE 2:  Another article updating the report at New York Daily News.  Two quotes from Mrs. Johnson:

"I feel bad, but it was his choice," Johnson, 57, said of the mugger she wounded.

[...]

"Actually I feel sick about the whole thing," she said. "Picking on a handicapped woman is about as low as you can go. I feel sorry for him, but it was a choice he made."

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UPDATE 3:  And bumped to the top.  There are things about this report that have been bothering me, but which I have been unable to put my finger on.  I had noticed a sort of sideways bias in these reports and some comments I've read, which I'll summarize like this:

1.  It's okay this time because she had a permit.

2.  It's okay this time because she was only on her way to the range.  [Allegedly.  Yeah, I'd say I was only on the way to the range too, if I were her].

3.  It's okay this time because she is a wheelchair-bound old lady who was attacked by a strapping, healthy young thug.

Any of these "it's okay this time" conditions are irrelevant.

I still think if this attacker had attacked someone more like himself (younger, male, and not disabled) the NYT would be calling the attacker a "shooting victim" or a "gun victim."  Political correctness has somehow managed to insidiously and temporarily trump their bias against the use of guns for self defense--they can't dare to say anything against an old, black woman in a wheelchair.

Kevin at The Smallest Minority details several more levels of stinkiness in this report.

I gotta say...this guy creeps me out.  I have nothing special to say about this ad except that it's the scariest pipe tobacco ad I've ever seen.  If I can ever figure out how to select this guy's face out of this picture and transfer it to other pictures, I will do it.  I'm still working on figuring out how to do that.  If I ever do it, he will probably become a regular fixture on this blog, somehow, somewhere.  This guy must be the Dr. Evil of pipe smokers.

I will admit the obvious:  it is harder to hit a moving target.  But I wonder whose butt they pulled an actual statistical percentage from:

If you're outdoors and a gun is pulled on you, run. The predator has a 4 in 100 chance of hitting you as a running target.

If they are trying to "hug the earth," then what planet are they standing on?