Day: April 17, 2019

The TIPPING POINT for Constitutional Carry – Online Self-Training

There is a LOT going on in the concealed carry world – and in particular the area of CONSTITUTIONAL CARRY.

Constitutional carry is winning big.

For those who don’t know what constitutional carry means – it means (roughly, subject to NUMEROUS state and federal laws) that anybody who is legally allowed to OWN a weapon is allowed to BEAR that weapon in any legal manner, including concealment.

Practically, it means that law-abiding people in a constitutional carry state can carry a concealed weapon without a license. Since most people (particularly non-criminals) are somewhat scared to do this without training, in practice, there is little difference between a state with licensed, law-abiding, trained carriers and a state with unlicensed, law-abiding, trained carriers.

Ironically, this is a byproduct of liberal laws that kept chipping away, federally, at who could own weapons, and how that would be determined. Thus, at this point, one passes an FBI background check to simply OWN a weapon, so there is almost no issue other than TRAINING with the idea of letting the person CARRY that weapon.

And THAT is where I think we need to STRIKE HARD – assuring voters that – yes – concealed carriers in YOUR NEW constitutional carry state are going to be WELL-TRAINED, which is even better and SAFER than simply WELL-REGULATED.

The National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) today applauded Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin for signing Senate Bill 150 into law. SB 150 is NRA-backed legislation that fully recognizes the constitutional right of law-abiding gun owners to carry a concealed firearm.

“On behalf of the NRA’s five million members, we would like to thank Governor Bevin for his leadership on this critical issue,” said Chris W. Cox, executive director of NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action. “This law is a common sense measure that allows law-abiding citizens to exercise their fundamental right of self-protection in the manner that best suits their needs.”

Kentucky already recognizes the right to carry a firearm openly without a permit. Current law, however, requires a state-issued permit to carry that same firearm under a coat or in a bag. This new law simply extends the current open carry rule to concealed carry. Those who obtain permits will still be able to take advantage of the reciprocity agreements that Kentucky has with other states.

NRA Institute for Legislative Action

My prejudice on the topic of TRAINING comes from having known somebody who was an early concealed carry (CC) trainer in an early CC state. That person – a former assistant DA, strongly influenced my thinking, even though I was not a concealed carrier.

Back then, CC licenses were generally hard to get and required considerable training. Not all states were “shall issue”, meaning that the state had to have a damn good reason to deny a permit. Denials were common and arbitrary – kinda like New York City and Washington DC.

There were many excuses NOT to grant permits. TRAINING was the most plausible one, but also the one that was most easily remedied.

“So you want training? I’ll get training.”

Most state laws had provisions for REQUIRED training, with various degrees of specificity. This was done, in part, to assure both legislators and voters that the CC legislation would not be a RISK to the public and LEOs (law enforcement officers) from untrained or poorly trained individuals.

What I learned, over the years, is that training REALLY IS IMPORTANT. Thanks to the knowledge I gained from this instructor, as well as what I learned myself in the following decades, I came to realize that training is not just a good idea – it is ESSENTIAL. If you, as a gun-owning individual, want your gun to be a guaranteed HELP and not a potential RISK TO SELF – both physically and legally – you NEED training.

I don’t care who DOES the training – even YOURSELF – you need training!

This tweet pretty much sums up the issue, minus my belief in the power of SELF-TRAINING.

https://twitter.com/j_graves1997/status/1118269987754528773

NOW – before you start typing – nobody needs to tell me that forcing people to get more and more training is often a DODGE to knowingly suppress the right to keep and bear arms (RKBA). Training is not cheap – and thus it is in many ways a POLL TAX and in some ways the VOTER SUPPRESSION of RKBA. The TIMING of training is also an annoyance for most, and an obstacle for many.

https://gundigest.com/wp-content/uploads/ccw-training.jpg

And yet – of all the excuses that can be mustered up against constitutional carry, training is by far the most reasonable and plausible.

But here it the thing that changes the dynamic. The most important part of CC training, in my opinion, is not HOW TO SHOOT. It is actually WHEN AND WHERE NOT TO SHOOT.

The most important part of training, in my mind, is actually LEGAL. It is these points of KNOWLEDGE:

  • WHEN and WHERE a person may or may not CARRY
  • WHEN and WHERE a person may or may not DRAW
  • WHEN and WHERE a person may or may not FIRE

None of which requires anything beyond self-training, online, or from a booklet.

This is why I think that – if ANYBODY can carry, ANYBODY needs access to the BASICS of training.

If we BELIEVE that self-training is possible, and make it easy to get, then I believe there are no true logical barriers to constitutional carry in TWICE the number of states that now accept it. AND I think it becomes entirely possible for those states to have a reciprocity pact.

Trust me – the main message of all of this stuff is DON’T SHOOT. It’s not just assurance to people who are scared of guns – it’s assurance to YOU, the gun owner.

When I see ANY incident on the news where a concealed carrier is involved in a questionable shooting – either by the carrier or by an LEO, it is almost always apparent that the carrier was either not trained, or not paying attention to their training. And the parts they were not paying attention to were not the parts you learn on the range. They are the parts you get in a classroom, or from a book.

While I am going to support constitutional carry under almost any circumstance, I would PERSONALLY be much happier to see constitutional carry legislation accompanied by a minimalist ONLINE SELF-TRAINING – possibly with self-testing – that makes certain permitless carriers are free to become familiar with the rules of the road before they carry.

And there’s no reason this training can’t provide incentives for REAL training, too.

I don’t think this is a lot of money – probably far less than permit systems. But I do think that it’s going to help make constitutional concealed carry the SUCCESS that it really deserves to be.

Remember – TRAINING and TRAINING REQUIREMENTS are not the same.

WOLF snarls at training requirements, but he makes happy panting noises at TRAINING.

MOAR TRAINING is a good thing. It means fewer and fewer accidents, incidents, and problems. I believe it’s in everybody’s interest, too.

Train your dog. Train your WOLF!

W

Why the Border Wall Will Work

The Border Wall Proposal from Fisher Sand and Gravel deserves more attention. It’s brilliant because of the way Fisher is using “cast in place concrete forms” which can take a 17% rise in elevation and still smooth.
Think about concrete as cake batter. A cake pan is the same thing as a concrete “form”. With cake batter we can make a cake in the shape of Mickey Mouse, a Bundt cake, or we can make cupcakes. The GREAT thing about a cake pan, is that we can put it in the dishwasher, and make the SAME shaped cake tomorrow. We can also tint cake batter green for St Patrick’s Day, the same way we can tint concrete — which means no more painting, no more rusty old steel walls.
cake
We have companies who have forms/cake pans to make sections of pre-fab walls but the form is back at the factory, which means large sections have to be moved from the factory to the Border Wall installation. In effect, Fisher brought the cake pan to the Border Wall. The idea never existed before, — until Fisher created one.
Think about when you go to Lowe’s/Home Depot in the spring. You see concrete stepping stones for your garden, right? They usually come to the garden center shipped on a wooden pallet, and a few of those stones are already broken, right? Well, some concrete company made a concrete form, poured concrete into the form, let it cure overnight – the same way you let a cake cool before frosting it – and then the stepping stone is shipped to your local garden center, where YOU pick it up and move it into place in your garden.  It’s the SAME thing with large precast panels of concrete wall, which are made at one location and then shipped/transported to another location, and lifted into place. The TRANSPORTATION becomes more difficult the bigger the item is. Remember how heavy those concrete stones are? And remember how YOU sometimes chip and break them, moving them into place?
NOW – imagine you had forms, several cake pans, at your house, which could be used, over and over again, to make an unlimited amount of stepping stones. The concrete truck comes to you. No problem with transportation. No heavy lifting, no cranes (which would be almost impossible in a mountainous region) to put the Border Wall sections into place, and……… no cracked concrete. No waste. No broken stepping stones at the bottom of the wooden pallet – or in your car.
What Fisher Industries has done is miraculous. The made a cake pan… a concrete form, which can be reused, over and over again for our Border Wall. AND — if the government will give Fisher a larger contract, Fisher will make MORE cake pans, so we can go faster. In other words, you could make 20 stepping stones per day, instead of 10 stepping stones per day — or 2 miles of Border Wall a day, instead of 1 mile a day. Fisher’s solution represents an “out of the box” solution, which is so far out of the box, it makes people wonder — why didn’t I think of that. I love it!
Here is the actual presentation Fisher created for the President and his team. Watch!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=-Mb4JoUgg-E
My first husband actually certifies concrete testing per local architects for jumbo projects. The process of building the form, and making sure the concrete is level across the form, takes time. If you screw up the form, the concrete makes a permanent mess, won’t drain correctly, etc. Premade forms are a truly brilliant solution….. but it gets better.
Fisher industries added a benefit which is a deal closer…. fiber optic sensors, even radar,  with a ballard steel wall if the Border agents want to be able to see through the wall. Here is William LaJeunesse reporting on the Border Wall, ballard style, with the fiber optic capability:  LINK to Border Wall with Fiber Optics
Here is the regular link if needed: https://video.foxnews.com/v/6026779741001/#sp=show-clips
The fiber optics, encased in concrete are so good, they can detect pedestrian traffic approaching the Border Wall to give agents a “heads up” about possible intrusion. Most impressive. Back in 1984, I worked for ADT Security. We had ultrasonic vibration sensors we used to install, encased in concrete, which could detect an attempt on a bank vault. The install guys joked that we could hear an earthworm puking at 100′. When the subject of a Border Wall came up during the campaign, I thought, yeah……, I bet the sensors are a lot better now. And what do you know…. they’re a whole lot better.
The Dems and opponents of the wall gripe about “they’ll just dig under a border wall”. Breitbart (I think it was Brandon Darby who has done excellent work on this subject but am unable to locate the interview this morning) had a long interview with a guy, working in Mexico, spent a decade tracking cartels. Most interesting. I was surprised to learn only about 100 tunnels had been found in 20yrs. We’ve been led to believe tunnels are a huge problem when they are actually quite rare. Come to find out, the reason there were so few tunnels was based on simple reasons.
-Tunnels are expensive. They need infrastructure, lighting, and forced aeration, and take a long time to construct.
-Tunnels in open areas of the desert are easily detected by Border Patrol. Where we mostly find tunnels are in places where there was a city on both sides of border. Illegals cross over into a house or sheltered building, to avoid detection, ….. but the neighbors quickly reported the problem, because they didn’t want police hanging around their neighborhood.
Here is one more video worth sharing. Again, this is Fisher Industries using time lapse photography to show the install.

Overall, the ingenuity shown by American companies is inspiring to us all. Makes me think there is nothing Americans cannot do when we put our minds to it. 
Well done. 
Makes me proud to be an American! 
wall
 

Dear MAGA: 20190417 Open Topic

This very special Worthy Is The Lamb WEDNESDAY
open thread is VERY OPEN – a place for everybody
to post whatever they feel they would like
to tell the White Hats, and the rest of the MAGA world.

Say what you want, comment on what other people said,
comment on people’s comments.
Keep it civil.  Treehouse rules, but expect lots of QAnon.

See the January 1st daily thread for the rules of the road,
which are few but important.

Remember – your greatest gift to President Trump is FIVE WORDS:
I AM PRAYING FOR YOU

Silver-Lion-SQUARE

Worthy Is The Lamb

Revelation, chapter 5

The Lamb Opens the Scroll

1 Then I saw a scroll in the right hand of the one who was sitting on the throne. There was writing on the inside and the outside of the scroll, and it was sealed with seven seals. 2 And I saw a strong angel, who shouted with a loud voice: “Who is worthy to break the seals on this scroll and open it?” 3 But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll and read it.

4 Then I began to weep bitterly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll and read it. 5 But one of the twenty-four elders said to me, “Stop weeping! Look, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the heir to David’s throne, has won the victory. He is worthy to open the scroll and its seven seals.”
6 Then I saw a Lamb that looked as if it had been slaughtered, but it was now standing between the throne and the four living beings and among the twenty-four elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which represent the sevenfold Spirit of God that is sent out into every part of the earth. 7 He stepped forward and took the scroll from the right hand of the one sitting on the throne. 8 And when he took the scroll, the four living beings and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp, and they held gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of God’s people. 9 And they sang a new song with these words:

“You are worthy to take the scroll
    and break its seals and open it.

For you were slaughtered, and your blood has ransomed people for God
    from every tribe and language and people and nation.

10 And you have caused them to become
    a Kingdom of priests for our God.
    And they will reign on the earth.”

11 Then I looked again, and I heard the voices of thousands and millions of angels around the throne and of the living beings and the elders. 12 And they sang in a mighty chorus:

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered—
    to receive power and riches
and wisdom and strength
    and honor and glory and blessing.”

13 And then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea. They sang:

“Blessing and honor and glory and power
    belong to the one sitting on the throne
    and to the Lamb forever and ever.”

14 And the four living beings said, “Amen!” And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped the Lamb.

And the beast was allowed to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them. And he was given authority to rule over every tribe and people and language and nation.

And all the people who belong to this world worshiped the beast. They are the ones whose names were not written in the Book of Life that belongs to the Lamb who was slaughtered before the world was made.

Revelation 13:7-8

Think’s Thoughts…

Socialism – Communism offers nothing to compare with the majesty of this scene depicted in Revelation chapter 5. This moment has been revisited by believers in the liturgy of the church for millennia. For the faithful, anything less is a cheap substitute.
Perhaps this is why in totalitarian countries all of the color, majesty and joy of life is squeezed out by the oppressive burdens of living in fear and deprivation. Let us war against this by celebrating the creation and the created beauty it has inspired.
Think*3