chris_gerrib: (Default)
In an effort to reverse the drought of postings here as of late, a few semi-random thoughts.

1) Personal Update: I am in Westville Il, where I was raised and my parents still reside for the rest of the week. On Monday, I attended the local American Legion's Memorial Day service, which was well-executed and surprisingly moving. I also won a shotgun at a fundraiser for the Westville Sportsman's Club.

2) I found a link to somebody who wonders how much of the disfunction we see from are Tech Business Overlords is a mid-life crisis. I have to admit it's an interesting idea.

3) I've said on many occasions that small towns are not Mayberry RFD. Here's a true story: The Story Of Ken McElroy, The Vicious Town Bully Who Was Eventually Killed By The People He Terrorized. I just started a science fictional novel in which a character like him may appear.
chris_gerrib: (Default)
(With apologies to the film Ice Station Zebra). I went out to breakfast today, in -11 Fahrenheit and snow-covered temperatures. That was enough "out" for me - I'm staying in and cooking chili for dinner tonight.

As I've been mostly staying in, much entertainment has been consumed. Currently on the docket is finishing Season 2 of Joe Pickett. Now, it's the second TV series based on the books of C. J. Box - none of which I've read. (The other series was Big Sky which aired for 3 seasons on ABC.)

I liked both series, but this season of Pickett is bothering me. Hollywood seems to be of two schools with regards to gunshot wounds. School #1 is somebody is shot once, they drop immediately and die quietly. School #2, which this series is following, is the "John Wayne School of Gunshots." This school, most clearly seen in John's 1971 movie Big Jake, is where one is shot, goes "ouch" and shortly thereafter is cracking jokes with your buds.

The reality is somewhat different. Most people do not die from a gunshot wound. I've seen figures like 1 in 6 actually die. However, neither are they (usually) running around cracking wise. Getting shot hurts and causes physical damage that can render one less mobile.

Having said that, I'm kind of liking this series.
chris_gerrib: (Default)
So, here we are again - another mass school shooting. I'm not sure why the 18-year-old shooter decided to kill first-graders and it's doubtful that we'll ever know. It's also noteworthy that three cops traded lead with the shooter but were unable to stop him. A "good man with a gun" was not helpful. Other thoughts:

A Brief Thought on the Shooter

I was a somewhat weird kid in a small town so this thread by Amanda Marcotte rings true. Fortunately, I had a stable home and the general wherewithal to get myself out of my small town.

Longer Thoughts on Guns

I've expressed it before, but I'll say it again - in a society with the technological resources to put a toaster oven in every kitchen, you'll never be able to successfully ban guns. I am, in fact, writing a book in which somebody on a space station makes a gun for what they see as good and sufficient reasons. Having said that, making a gun, even one designed specifically for ease of manufacture, is not "easy." The kind of loser or lunatic that shoots up a school won't be able to do so.

There are things which can be done to reduce the number of shootings, mass or otherwise. They require the Republican party to vote on changing laws and provide funding to law enforcement. Specifically:

1) Background checks for all gun purchases. Currently, private sales (like from me to you) do not require Federal checks.
2) Better information-sharing between law enforcement so background checks are more accurate.
3) Anybody buying guns at retail in high volume is selling them on the street illegally. Flag and investigate those people.
4) Federal law preventing straw purchases (people buying a gun specifically to sell it to somebody not otherwise eligible to own one.)
5) Private citizens do not need assault rifles. Definition of an assault rifle = a weapon of intermediate caliber with a high capacity magazine and a high rate of fire designed to kill a man at 300 meters. This is a military definition, not a civilian one. You might as well argue that you need a 105 MM howitzer as an assault rifle.
chris_gerrib: (Default)
I have not been watching the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse with as much attention as I would like. This is largely due to the demands of Ye Olde Daye Jobbe and life in general. Back when the event happened, I expressed opinions on it. Here's where my opinions have evolved to. (Disclaimer - not a lawyer, not legal advice.)

A) Taken entirely in isolation, Rittenhouse has a case for self-defense. People did appear to attack him.

B) Taken as a whole, maybe not. One of the things you're taught in concealed carry classes is that you can't be the aggressor in a confrontation and then claim self-defense. In this case, Rittenhouse:
1) Traveled many miles to a place he knew was full of hostile people
2) Visibly armed himself
3) Decided to defend property not his and without even asking permission of the owners

To me, this suggests aggression, especially point #2. I could see somebody seeking to provide medical assistance bringing a concealed pistol in the event things went from bad to worse, but strapping a rifle on your chest - not so much.

C) As the prosecutor pointed out in the trial, "You're telling us that you felt like you were about to die, right? But when you point the gun at someone else, that's going to make them feel like they're about to die, right? That's what you wanted him to feel." In short, at least two of Rittenhouse's victims had valid self-defense cases of their own.

I don't know how this case will end up, but anybody who calls it anything but a disaster has a hidden agenda to advance.
chris_gerrib: (Default)
The most dangerous gun in the world is the one you're pretty sure is unloaded. That's one of the many gems from the video below. I highly recommend watching it. For those that don't, a few highlights:

A) The three basic rules of gun safety:
1) Always assume the gun is loaded
2) Keep it pointed in a safe direction and your finger off the trigger until you're ready to shoot
3) Always personally inspect the gun to determine if it is loaded or not

B) The response to the Alec Baldwin incident where he shot somebody on the set of a movie has been an example of a lack of leadership and responsibility from the gun community. This would have been an excellent opportunity to educate people and reduce the thousands of accidental shootings which happen every year. Instead we get "leaders" like Donald Trump Jr. making fun of Alec Baldwin. Again from the video, the current "leadership" of the Republican Party aren't leaders, they're Internet trolls.

chris_gerrib: (Default)
I am opposed to giving stupid people guns. Over the weekend, a pair of wealthy lawyers became yet another set of poster children for this premise. The pair of them came out of their house with guns to "protect" said house from a mob. Thoughts:

1) All indications were that this "mob" was no more dangerous than the crowd at the midway of your local fair.
2) If, however, one feels threatened by a mob, one should not stand in such a place that mob members can easily lob bricks at your head. Stand inside your house by an open window - much harder to be seen or hit.
3) Should the tactical situation require you to be visible to the mob, avoid verbally engaging individual mob members. While you're arguing with Mob Member #1 and distracted, Mob Member #2 can be up to no good.
4) If you have time to get your gun, you have time to put on shoes. Should matters go kinetic, the ground will quickly get covered in debris.
5) Our pair of defenders, the Straight Out of Applebee's Kids, felt they were "defending the Bastille." Given that the defenders of the Bastille lost, one should have a plan to retreat if need be. Again, shoes would be helpful.

In short, stupid is as stupid does.
chris_gerrib: (Default)
I've been away from this blog for a while. Once you get out of the habit of posting, you're out of the habit. Herewith, various thoughts.

1) Writing: I have committed writing again, adding nearly 4,000 words to the mystery novel. Based on the comments at my critique session, they were generally good words. More (hopefully) to follow.

2) Marching Morons, Gun Division: Comes news that a Minneapolis cop shot a crime victim through the car door of his squad car. Moreover, the cop was in the passenger side and the victim was talking to his partner through the driver's side window. It seems like the cop had his gun out and finger on the trigger way too soon. Unfortunately, that's called "involuntary manslaughter."

3) Marching Morons, Politics Division: After months of assurances by Donald Trump that nobody from his campaign met with the Russians, we hear that his son, son-in-law and then campaign manager took a meeting with the Russians. Words fail me.

4) Marching Morons, health care division: the wealthy comedian Scott Adams has, in the wake of the failure of the Republican party to repeal Obamacare, been pedaling various solutions to American health care. Conspicuously they all seem to have been conceived in a vacuum, and are completely unaware of the fact that the rest of the world cracked this code a long time ago.
chris_gerrib: (Default)
Guns, Fictional

One of the writers I follow, Tanya Huff, recently released a new book A Peace Divided. It's pseudo Mil-SF, in that the lead characters are ex-military who serve as a SWAT team for the interstellar police. It's an entertaining read.

However, in Huff's fictional world, civilians are completely disarmed. I've had issues with that before, in that a society that can repair toasters can make guns. Here, she's gone to even more extremes - her ex-military types literally do not have the word "pistol" in their vocabulary! All guns are long guns. I like the story, but this I don't buy.

Guns, Real

Readers of this blog know that I recently purchased a Ruger LCR. This "light carry revolver" is, as advertised, light. With full-power .38 ammunition, it's frankly painful to shoot. At my dad's recommendation, I purchased some Hornady Critical Defense bullets. These have lighter recoil and are designed for light carry guns. I shot some last night. My LCR still bounces, but it's gone from painful to unpleasant.
chris_gerrib: (Default)
I've fallen off the wagon of daily posts here. This week the main reason was my getting sick on Wednesday, which put the whole week in a tailspin. In any event, I shall try to do better.

Since they've accumulated, have some links:

1) My radio interview is up for a re-run. Visit The Author's Show.

2) An interesting two-part history of one of the most popular cartridges in history, the .38 special. Part 1 and Part 2.

3) Cora Buhlert on false memories.

4) Some pretty pictures: Equihen Plage: The Village of Inverted Boat Houses.

Ruger LCR

Dec. 29th, 2016 10:51 am
chris_gerrib: (Me 2)
I discussed this on Facebook but not here, so I'll do a bit of recycling. Over Thanksgiving, I bought a Ruger LCR pistol. The "LCR" stands for "Light Carry Revolver" and it is exactly what the label promises, a light revolver. It's aluminum frame and I got the hammerless version, so it will fit neatly in and come out of a pocket.

Over the Christmas Holiday That Was I took it out to the local range and fired it. The gun does in fact go bang and it's as accurate as any weapon with a 2 inch barrel has a right to be. 90% of self-defense shooting is inside 25 feet, and at that range any misses will be due to operator error, not the gun.

I will say it's not a pleasant gun to shoot. Recoil, even with standard target loads, is unpleasant, and I shot a few +P hollow-point rounds through the weapon (Article on what +P means). That really caused the gun to bite back! Having said that, I bought this gun as a "use in case of emergency" weapon, and for the limited amount of practice-firing I do I can handle the recoil.

In short, a useful addition to my collection.
chris_gerrib: (Me 2)
I went home over the Thanksgiving weekend, where much food was eaten. Dad and I shot skeet on Friday, and on Saturday went to a gun show. I really didn't need to buy anything, but I talked myself into picking up a Ruger LCR. Thanks to the weirdness of Illinois gun law, I won't have it for a few days, but it's mine.


Simply put, I realized that in the unlikely event I need to carry a gun, it will be an improvised situation and I won't be able to "dress around my gun," so small is better.
chris_gerrib: (Me 2)
In order not to be "all Trump, all the time" herewith are three links of interest.

A) Via the fascinating show Air Disasters I got the full story on Helios Airways Flight 522. This is the flight where, due to a cabin pressurization failure, all passengers and crew were killed. Of especial note is that one of the flight attendants attempted to save the plane but waited an extremely long amount of time before doing so.

B) Actor Mike Rowe, who's made a name for himself as the star of TV's Dirty Jobs reality show, has interesting thoughts on who should or should not vote.

C) I have to admit a personal preference for revolvers. Having said that, I found this article recommending that the USAF use revolvers as their service pistol interesting.
chris_gerrib: (Me 2)
My writer's workshop held their monthly meeting last night. As a result of a discussion of a plot point in my book, I asked the five attendees "if a gun fell in your lap, could you get bullets for it?" All five said yes, even though only two of them had FOID cards, which are legally required in Illinois to own firearms or ammunition.

Back to the drawing board on that plot point. And this, folks, is why you should have a writer's group.
chris_gerrib: (Me 2)
Long-time readers know I own guns, and am in general interested in their use for defensive purposes. I am also interested in keeping guns out of the hands of crooks and crazy people, but that's another post. In any event, here's three thoughts on gun ownership.

Thought #1

Just because some stranger is in your house doesn't mean you can shoot them. The author, a long-serving police officer, recounts a number of cases of finding drunks, Alzheimer's patients or "several unknown young men drinking the beer in his fridge. His college-aged son thought dad would be away on vacation another day and had given his buddies keys to the house so they could use it for a party spot."

Thought #2

Sometimes life is out of your control. The author walked out of the shower with nothing but a towel to find two strange women in her house. They were teachers, let in (against specific instructions) by the homeowner's then 4-year-old son. Another moral: "This goes to illustrate that if you are weighing the safety of yourself or your family on the understanding and application of instruction on a young child you are making a gamble with your life and the lives of your family members."


Thought #3

Clear communication in high-stress situations is important. Think about what you're going to say and do before you have to say and do it.
chris_gerrib: (Me 2)
Over the weekend, I took my concealed carry course via Roy and Company in a nearby suburb. I have no immediate intentions to carry a gun. However, concealed carry permits are much like parachutes - if you ever need one, you need it right away and don't have time to go shopping for it. Due to the wide variation in state licensing standards and reciprocity, I took a multi-state class, which included training for Utah and Florida non-resident permits. The three of them give the broadest coverage available.

The class itself was underwhelming. The two old fogies teaching it were knowledgeable, although I had to put up with more than a little political BS. (Did you know that the Oklahoma City bombing was an inside job?) Since I was there to get training, not argue politics, I kept my mouth shut. There were only six of us, so it was a quick class.

The Illinois statute is poorly-written, with several clear cut-and-paste errors, and can be contradictory. All the contradictions were pointed out as proof of Madigan's conspiracy against gun-owners as opposed to errors, but again, not there for the politics. Illinois, unique among concealed carry states, requires one to actually shoot a weapon. This does not have to be the weapon one plans on carrying.

This class provided all materials needed, from pens and paper to a gun and bullets. We shot a small-frame .22 semi-auto. It was the same size as and mechanically functioned like a typical concealed carry 9 MM, just chambered in .22. I (and the rest of the class) had no problem scoring enough hits to pass the test. Now my task is to assemble all the various applications, pictures and related paperwork and send it off to the correct locations.
chris_gerrib: (Me 2)
I'm on vacation, not in a coma, so I do have thoughts. Herewith are a few:

1) Comes news that a woman in Texas who made at least a side job of being armed and talking about it got shot in the back by her 4-year-old with her own gun. (Google it if you need to.) Here is Land Gerrib, 4-year-olds and guns do not mix, full stop.

2) Hilton Head Island is pretty. It's also nuts to drive in. Whomever laid out the roads has a near-vampiric allergy to right angles, and they don't believe in streetlights, even at major intersections. Add to that the local signage laws are "small and discreet" and that 90% of what you're looking for is in a shopping mall, finding stuff is Right Hard. (as opposed to Left hard, or whatever.)

3) I am not good at just "hanging out." I had a 30-minute argument with myself before I gave myself permission to do what most people do on vacation, namely hang out at the pool and read a book. I've also rode a bike up and down the beach, done some editing, caught a movie and relaxed.
chris_gerrib: (Me 2)
This is the last day of the year at Ye Daye Jobbe for me. So have some links to keep you happy.

A) Christmas dinner in Medieval times was not what we eat now.

B) Iceland has a wonderful Christmas Eve tradition - they give each other books and READ them that night.

C) Of interest to gun people - a quiz of gun knowledge. I got 28 of 30 right.

D) An interesting article about feminism and the latest edition of Star Wars.

E) For the "war on Christmas" set, a picture:

chris_gerrib: (Me 2)
I had a nice Thanksgiving downstate, and hope your holiday (if you celebrate) was equally nice. The chief crisis of Thursday was that my key lime pie had not quite set, so got a bit runny after a lack of refrigeration. Next time, I'll need to test it before calling it done.

Friday was rainy, windy and cold, and so we spent the day inside, helping Mom with Christmas decorations and in my case doing some writing. On Saturday, which was sprinkling, windy and cold, we decided to leave the house. First, Dad and I went to Cayuga, IN to shoot skeet. There were eight people in the clubhouse, but only three of them were motivated to shoot.

Then, in the afternoon, Dad and I visited the Fluid Event Center, which is a grandly-named ex-warehouse, to visit a gun show. Dad was looking for a holster, and I was just looking. He found what he wanted, and I got to hold a KSG - Keltec shotgun. This is a futuristic weapon (enough so that I used it as the standard police shotgun in a novel). It's a downward-ejecting bullpup shotgun with two six-round magazines. The weapon, even unloaded, is quite heavy, but very short. Should one want or need a real "crowd-pleasing" shotgun, consider the KSG.

On Sunday, I came back up north, and caught a 4 PM showing of the latest movie in the Hunger Games series. The theater was reasonably full, suggesting that the movie is doing financially well. I concur with Anne Geyer - the movie did the ending better. Overall, I had a nice weekend, and now I'm back to the salt mines.
chris_gerrib: (Me 2)
One of the things about writing science fiction is that it's really very difficult to not write about politics. Politics, simply put, defines what much of we do and how we do it. In nations with authoritarian regimes, avoiding interaction with the police is highly desirable, difficult and something everybody does. In nations with weak court systems, avoiding being cheated in business dealings is difficult. So for my books set on Mars I needed to think about what political system I would apply and how it would work. Since I write action novels with pirates and crooks, I had to decide on gun policy for civilians.

A total ban on guns won't work in an industrial society, even one without 3-D printers. The same tools used to make toasters can be used to make a gun. So how does one decide who gets a gun? At the same time, I decided that Mars' early history consisted of a pair of invasions bookending a series of off-planet wars. I also looked at what I thought the American Founding Fathers had meant when they talked about a "well-regulated militia."

I decided the default policy on Mars is that to own a gun one needs to be a member of the state militia. Said member doesn't have to be a "drilling" member, so they don't have a uniform or a unit, but the do have some affiliation with the local militia. I also decided that the militia is not the US National Guard, which is defacto a Federal reserve army with some State gloss, but that the Martian Militia is fully under the control (and budget) of the states.

Since I'm not a fan of open carry, that's generally prohibited, unless going to or from a militia event, and I'm leaning towards concealed carry being a separate level within the militia. In short, the Martian Militia has teeth.

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