Before I get to the political, first the personal. Though the personal being the political and all, I guess it doesn’t much matter the order.
Still, there’s beef to the post for those of you who make it all the way through.
Anyway, I finally made it up to a nice little area in the mountains yesterday, complete with nice natural berms and a collection of metal and paper shooting targets. Got my SCAR-17 mostly zeroed in (I’ll take it to my range this week and get it set perfectly in a more controlled environment, with more exact yardage markers), and was able to fire it for the first time. After a few rounds, and an adjustment to lengthen the stock (I was shrugging my shoulder to rest the butt at first, and needed to learn to relax my posture), I started putting rounds on 5-10″ targets at about 135 yards from a makeshift bench, and using the swivel tripod / pistol grip as my front rest.
I also made an adjustment with my trigger pull, which is why I need to make with my pistols as well: pulling the trigger all the way through and holding all the way through the shot, then releasing it to get an audible reset click. With my pistols, I’ve noticed at longer range my shots tend to be low, which suggest to me that I’m using my ENORMOUS AND PRACTICALLY SUPERHUMAN hand and grip strength to pre-emptively compensate for the pushback/recoil of the report. So next range session with pistols will concentrate on a slower, more complete squeeze and hold — at least until I build the muscle memory to fully complete the shot.
— Not that I’m terribly off, mind you. I hit my targets, even out to 25 yards with both 45 pistols. In fact, I knocked one resetting target out of te ground with what I’m assuming as a +p+ round that had inadvertently found its way into my FMJ rounds. It’s just that when I learn to do something I like to really learn to do it well, until I’ve (mostly, and conditionally) mastered it.
Unless it’s like sex or some such. In which case, well, you know. I assume that leftist entitlement mindset and let my wife pay the taxes. IYKWIMAITYD.
My wife also shot the SCAR-17 308 / 7.62×51 from bench rest and tripod and she found the kick, such as it is, quite manageable and not at all uncomfortable. For such a stopping round, the 308, in concert with the pistol gas system, the ergonomics, and the delivery tubing not making its way into the stock in the SCAR-17 (which also allows the stock to be folded for easy maneuverability or, say, auto staging), is surprisingly comfortable to shoot, with very little jump, even as it heats up (like with, say, a FAL). Having said that, another petite woman who was with us — the wife of a former special forces buddy of mine with lots of rifle experience (she was one of the most helfpful in detailing my shoulder shrug problem) — felt that shooting the rifle from a standing position might have been a bit much for her frame. My own opinion is that the problem was that I had the grips and such configured for my wingspan, and that with a few adjustments she’d handle it fine. Even with the combat rifle scope, the pistol grip/bipod and a full 20 round mag, the weight comes out at just under 11 pounds.
My oldest son shot too — though not the SCAR. We gave him a full mag with the S&W M&P 15-22, and he loved it. He’s also probably the best shot of the family, at 8 years old. At about 25 yards he was plinking metal resetting targets with regularity as well as putting some nice groupings on the paper targets we’d set up.
All in all, a great and informative day — and one day closer to preparing me for the zombie apocalypse.
The night before, however, was a different story — and re-initiated the police drama I’ve been experiencing, which is quickly becoming, to my mind, harassment.
I went to the local brew pub Saturday night while my wife and kids were on a Cub Scout excursion to the Denver Zoo. I walked up, figured they’d either swing by to pick me up on the way home, or else I’d just hoof it back (it’s no more than a mile).
Before I left — and I kind of went on the spur of the moment because I was done working out and I was kind of bored — I texted the special ops guy I was going shooting with the next day to find out when he wanted to leave in the morning, where he wanted to meet up, what kinds of targets he wanted me to bring, etc. He gave me the info, and I let him know in my last text before walking out the door that I was heading to the brew pub, and that if he wanted to drop by I’d be there for an hour or so.
When I walked into the brew pub, I immediately saw my neighbor, the State Trooper, and his wife and one of his daughters at a table near the bar. And they saw me walk in.
I went directly to the bar, made some small talk with the tenders and some folks sitting next to me, and had a beer.
About 15 minutes later, my buddy showed up, tapped me on the shoulder, I turned, shook his hand, and we moved to a table right behind the bar stool where I’d been sitting.
Now, here’s the thing you need to know about my buddy. As an 8-year special forces soldier, a gun dealer, and a guy who teaches shooting, tactical combat technique, survival skills, etc., he is always carrying his sidearm. As he’s described it, putting it on is to him like grabbing a wallet is to us.
So he was wearing his sidearm, open carry, holstered, and once he sat down — out of view of the State Trooper and his family — he never once got up the entire time we sat and talked.
Over the course of 2 hours, he had one small beer (to my, say, 4, I think). Of the patrons in the brew pub that night, I knew all of them except for a table in the corner behind my friend (who would have been out of view of the side arm). The rest I’m friendly with. And I’m certain none of them were bothered or felt threatened by a friend of mine carrying a holstered sidearm, even if they knew he had it, which they likely didn’t. As I say, he was open carrying (he usually wears a longer shirt to conceal, but that night he was in a t-shirt), but the pistol and holster are both low profile, and as I reiterate, he didn’t get up from the table.
The State Trooper, now at the table next to us, got up a least once to go into the back where the restrooms are. After about an hour and a half, he left.
— And then 5 minutes later, two Frederick Police Officers walked into the bar and noted someone had complained about a guy with a handgun — mentioning that they felt “threatened”. This call was similar to the one the FPD received when I was outside with pieces of a pistol, running a bore snake through the barrel, and is the key language to compel the local police to come investigate.
That is to say, we have open carry laws, but if someone sees you open carrying and claims to feel threatened, you can be charged with, eg., menacing. Yet another example of the receiver of (and unspoken and iconographic) message being given control over the intent of the creator of the text — a situation that, as should be becoming apparent, is rife with the potential for abuse, particularly by motivated actors who know the laws and are looking to use them to harass or persecute you.
Now, the FPD was once again very friendly and nice; and in fact, both officers we spoke with, after my buddy was taken outside, told us that they always carry, even when off duty (I wonder if the State Trooper does, as well?). But because my 200+ pound ex special forces friend had a beer over the course of two hours, technically he could be considered “impaired”; and the fact that he never unsheathed the weapon, nor touched it any way, didn’t much matter.
Also, for the record, I have no proof that the State Trooper or his family had anything at all to do with the complaint. The FPD told me that the complaint was initially called in to some strange outpost, then relayed to them, and it was an hour before they finally responded.
So take that for what it’s worth.
Still, because I years ago filed a complaint against this State Trooper — I wanted it on record that I felt he was using his law enforcement authority to try to bully me and others in the neighborhood (plus, he had frightened my wife when he mentioned that, b/c of my fight training, had I tried to defend myself against a guy who’d cold cocked me, he could have legally shot me) — I have my suspicions that he and his family and their clique of friends, if they are in fact involved at all (and they may not have been on Saturday evening, though they have been before, and the coincidence is a bit too much to dismiss), are using wives and friends and calls to outside departments to keep the provenance of the complaints as hidden as possible.
But here’s the thing — and my buddy, who had to call his wife to come pick up his firearm and take it home for him (next time, just conceal it, he was told; and the owner of the bar and the bartenders, it so happens, weren’t happy with whomever called in the complaint, because they weren’t themselves first approached; and also, they told us that they don’t have any problem with responsible firearms bearing) — made the point: either the complainant actually thought, after an hour of my friend and I sitting and talking quietly and keeping to ourselves, that the open carrier, former special forces with many years in Afghanistan, was a legitimate lethal threat to someone (and so called in the report, potentially bringing the FPD into harms way. Or else they were using the FPD simply to try to harass a friend of mine in order to keep going a long-running feud, depleting limited town policing resources, and pulling officers out to intervene in a non-situation redounding to a fundamental Constitutional right.
Oh. And the State Trooper. Is former army. As an MP. Naturally.
Now, where am I going with all this. Well, first, that such a backdoor attempt to neuter remaining open carry laws — sure, you can open carry, unless that is someone sees you open carrying, or sees you cleaning a pistol or rifle, or sees you carrying ammo cans to a vehicle and claims to fear for their safety, because they see you have a firearm (rather than not knowing you have one, if you happen to have a concealed carry permit, which both he and I do) — is absurd, deconstructive of open carry laws on their face, and it’s something I’m thinking about taking up with some Second Amendment lawyers and town government.
And that’s not just because I believe the law is being used by unscrupulous people who themselves are around guns all the time (but believe only State Troopers should be able to have them; lest the balance of power gets all out of whack, and the little people without badges can just do whatever it is they please without proper vetting from state traffic police. For instance, my neighbor loves to carry his rifle by the sling from his cruiser to his house, not through the garage but in open site and taking the long route) — but rather because the law itself is in keeping with my years-long dissertation on what comes to count as honest interpretation, who controls the locus of meaning, and the increasing move, through the guises of safety or tolerance or some sort of “discomfort”, to use “progressive” PC tactics to criminalize legal behaviors and restrict freedoms to those sanctioned by government and bureaucratic agencies, despite their stature as natural rights.
No one has a “right” to feel “comfortable” at all times — and in fact, our First Amendment was written as a way to give that proclamation the force of a natural right. Too, people most certainly shouldn’t have a right to have our freedoms abridged — or keep us so harassed that we eventually relent and “voluntarily” relinquish our rights — just because they lay claim to not liking something we happen to be doing, be it on our porch or on our hips.
So you see? Synchronicity. protein wisdom coming full circle! The tyranny of an incoherent, but largely legally (and institutionally) adopted view of interpretation — here, the viewer of a visual text (the holstered sidearm) determines which possible meaning of that text works best to achieve her own motivation — and the law follows the business model of taking the (self-interested) path of least resistance (without worrying about the long term implications of what it is they are institutionalizing), putting the onus on the creator of the text to prove he didn’t mean what the receiver of the text decided he must or could mean.
Work that through in your heads.
Because I know that while this post began as a rather pedestrian recounting of my weekend — nothing more than an extra long Tweet, in fact — there really is more here. And it’s the how we get there matters portion of my years-long explications of language that need to be considered.
When I say that language — and more specifically, incoherent but readily adopted and institutionalized views of language — are at the root of lost liberty and the deconstruction of the Enlightenment paradigm erected around our founding ideals to protect and secure our natural rights and the freedom that flows from those rights, I am talking about more than mere semiotic niceties. The real-world applications of those beliefs — and our social/cultural/and legal concessions to the seemingly conciliatory nature of advocating mediation, compromise, and the path of least resistance with respect to the challenges of those founding ideals — is but providing short-term solutions while institutionalizing long-term moves toward tyranny and a police state, with truth built on consensus, and mob-rule populism taking the place of hoary old natural right designed specifically to protect the unpopular from the brayings of some temporary faddish mob.
So.
To slightly alter a great Reagan line: There they go again.
Q: “Are you threatening me?”
A: “If you have to ask, the answer is ‘No’.”
Those who try to go along and not make waves are punished for their civility; those who abuse the system are rewarded.
Great incentive system they’ve set up. What could possibly go wrong?
I’m glad I live in the wild west were young and old alike carry handguns in the sidepockets of their truck doors or long guns on rifle racks.
This seems like the sort of thing your local NRA and other freedom loving gun nuts ought to be collectively kicking up a stink about. It’s sort of like calling in and saying “I saw a black dude, and I’m frightened!” And having cops respond.
Once is an anomaly. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is a pattern.
See, leigh, that sounded facetious. Instead, I think you’re happy we put sensible gun control measures into effect, and if that means some people abuse the system — so long as it’s not you they are abusing the system against — well, then that’s some very tidy and civilized looking police state we have there.
And appearances matter!
Yup, Pablo. Or stopping women in taxi cabs because their skirts are short, or they are wearing heels.
To stop sex trafficking, you see.
Might the police eventually arrive at a response policy which insists that the complainant be available on the scene, else they’ll refuse response? Some sort of accountability would seem to be in order. Otherwise, the police find themselves willing dupes to dupery. Maybe they figure that out?
Jeff, as I read the post, it reminded me of the “only feelings matter” crap that was popular in the 90’s.
Evidently, “only feelings matter” is no longer popular, rather, it is mainstream thought. (fabulous, even the word “thought” is being redefined)
See, leigh, that sounded facetious.
Well it’s certainly not meant to sound facetious, Jeff. No one has the right to tell me or you when, where and why we can or cannot carry a weapon. You think I’m kidding about the Wild West? I’m not.
I moved out here in the middle of nowhere because I want to be left alone.
Good on you then. My apologies for misreading your tone, and so your intent.
Or should I say — well, you made me believe you meant to be facetious because you weren’t careful to disabuse me of your sometime propensity to use sarcasm. Plus, if you apply irony — and I have every right to do so — a reasonable person could see in your words that very same irony, making MY interpretation valid. QED.
I’M THE VICTIM HERE!!1!
The police have already figured that out, sdferr. Some of them are cool with it: they get to rush in and assert authority. Others are bothered by it, because it is a waste of time, and they are being used, which has got to piss them off.
I got the same nice officer from my first encounter — the one where I hadn’t even had a gun out but was called out of my house during a salmon dinner with my family and frisked at the end of my driveway.
He asked, and again, though I’m licensed to, I wasn’t carrying. A gun.
The problem is, he was just doing his job. That’s the law as we’ve allowed it to be written here, and it’s a dumb ass law, because it gives power to those who wish to abuse that power. Whereas people who open carry, if they were out with ill intent, would have already acted long before the police could have arrived.
Still. I love the fact that a traffic cop tried to get a special forces soldier arrested for carrying a sidearm. There’s something so very “police state” vs. “fighting for American liberties” about that juxtaposition of motivations and actions.
We’re cool, my man.
I’ll make sure to use a suitable sarcasm alert in the future. ; )
They’ve figured out they’re being used, yes (and how not, since I assume they’re of normal intelligence) but it seems they’ve (at the command levels) not figured out how to adjust their formal policy in order to cease being used, not only for the sakes of those police who don’t like being used but also for the sakes of the citizens who don’t like the relatively few police who like to abuse their otherwise limited authority. Seems, I say, only because the response appears to continue complainant unseen, as well as that I haven’t any insight into the detail necessary to know how the issue works itself through their bureaucracy.
It was one of those easy feel-good provisions that get passed into law as “sensible” gun control as an appeasement of sorts to the anti-2nd Amendment folks.
Without the politicians who vote on such things having the long view that such a “compromise” is really a wedge to begin prying away the bonds that hold liberty securely in place.
leigh, I live not too far from Jeff. I went to high school in the area and we used to bring our guns to school and go shooting when school let out. Not too far away from us is The Peoples Republic of Boulder. Being an overpriced shithole, many well meaning people moved out and into our area. By well meaning I mean think as I think and let turn this backwards area to be just like Boulder. Jeff , let me know when you want to have an open carry rally and me and my backwards ass friends will be there.
Sounds to me like a low-grade form of SWATing. It sucks to get crosswise to a vindictive person, it really sucks to get crosswise to a vindictive cop with a very small penis.
charles w, I went to high school in southern Californistan and back then (mid 70’s), my high school had a rifle club. The boys used to ride the bus with their guns every Friday.
My ex husband lives in Monument. I’m not sure where that is and don’t intend to visit him ever, but he’s a transplant from California who is part of the “guns er bad, m’kay?” crowd. You guys have my sympathies.
There are several schools in my county that close on the first day of deer season. I’m thankful for this, as I regard the long-legged yard rats as an infestation and not a symbol of nature. A tasty infestation, but annoying nonetheless.
“Weird outpost” huh?
Not generally known? A non-911 call, so no caller ID?
Sounds totally legit to me.
JawaReport: Deer vs Skateboarder
leigh, I have always wondered why people leave a place they have made unlivable and try to do the same thing in their new home? Monument is north of Colorado Springs. Pretty conservative area.
Wait, is there a statute that requires a response to calls like these?
Wait, is there a statute that requires a response to calls like these?
“There is an armed man here, and he’s giving off a scary vibe. He hasn’t done anything overt yet, but I have a bad feeling about him.”
You’re an operator/dispatcher who gets this call on the non-emergency line. Are you really going to risk your ass by not sending a patrol car over there? I mean, sure, in the Land of Grownups you’d just tell the caller to put on her big-girl panties and call back if things truly started escalating, but we don’t live in that world. We live in the real world, where if you said such a thing and the scary guy opened fire ten minutes later, you might have to sit through two or three meetings with your union rep before the Powers That Be confirmed that you were completely protected from any repercussions.
Two or three meetings, Pablo! They’d probably suggest you wear a necktie, too! Would you really put your ass on the line like that?
You trivialize Squid, but the fact is, these people live under a truly horrendous threat. I mean, what if Geraldo Rivera got hold of it? Or *shutter* Nancy Grace.
These days goats live in terror of being scaped…
According to the cops, yes, there is a statute requiring them to respond if someone feels put off by the site of a holstered pistol.
(Semi-sarcastic ahead, Jeff):
If they’re a-skeered of someone with a holstered pistol, how are their fears assuaged by calling a guy who drives a car with a big scary shotgun attached to the dash; who wears a holstered pistol himself as well as handcuffs and a big flashlight that will dent your skull?
I think your small penised state trooper neighbor’s wife is a badge bunny.
I’d be interested to see that. State or local? Is it just firearms or are there other perfectly legal but potentially off-putting things that they must respond to?
“Hi, I just saw a monster truck…very scary.”
“Hi, I was just at restaurant, and you wouldn’t believe the size of the knife this guy in a white jacket had.”
“Hi, I was just at Target, and they’ve got baseball bats just laying around!”
If there is a local Benihana, you could call from there about the scary teppan-yaki chefs chopping stuff at lightening speed and tossing shrimp at the customers.
there is a statute requiring them to respond if someone feels put off by the site of a holstered pistol.
that sucker needs repealed
“911, what’s your emergency?”
Caller: “there’s a guy on the corner of Jackson and 5th, he’s threatening some people, and he’s got a gun!
“We have an officer at the scene.”
Caller: ” a pencil neck geek, all dresses in blue? Yes! that’s the guy! He’s got a gun! And it scares me!”
“Um, just stay right there, we’ll have someone come by and talk to you, don’t move now, OK? They just have a few questions…”
That’s one of the things that pissed me off most about the situation, Lee. My natural riposte would be to start calling in fearful accounts of armed men wearing some kind of gang uniform and driving cars with fake license plates and gang slogans painted on ’em. But we all know that rather than treat my calls as a social/political statement about pantywaist anonymous callers and thin-skinned cops who can’t admit that they’re just civilians, the authorities would lock me up for “misusing public safety resources.”
Never mind that I’m not the one who started it.
I mean, “To Serve And Protect” — that’s totally the Crips, or the Surenos, or something like that.
If the gang slogan reads “To Serve Man,” it’s the Kanamits.
Police are either cops or “the bronze”.
Cops stick to the law and try to protect and serve without going above the law as written.
“The bronze” does whatever is necessary to SOMETHING VAGUELY POSITIVE SOUNDING CITIZEN and it’s absolutely necessary that they maintain a certain amount of loose cannon “above the common man” initiative so they can continue to SOMETHING VAGUELY POSITIVE SOUNDING CITIZEN in these unusually challenging times. The bronze will happily enforce unwritten laws for the good of the locals they work for. And they’ll cheerfully unilaterally confiscate cars money and houses that a trained dog says smell like drugs without a trial too. Heck you might not sue ’em.
And they NEED to do that because if they don’t, then the terrorists, the mafia, cults, cartels, racists, and ‘that scary old bitch down the street that you think might have poisoned one of your cats two years ago but you can’t prove anything’ will win.
Well, I know that when people tailgate me in my truck, the terrorists win. I mean, that’s just unpatriotic.
The fact some of the worst tailgaters hereabouts used to be sheriff’s deputies is just a coincidence, I’m sure.
The bronze does whatever the bronze needs to do to to SOMETHING VAGUELY POSITIVE SOUNDING CITIZEN. After all, someone must sack up and man the walls of Fort Apache against the horrors on the other side. Otherwise the baby seal clubbing, polluting, misogynists win!
http://www.jammiewf.com/2012/obamas-america-man-ticketed-for-having-romney-bumpersticker-on-his-vehicle/
From Jammie Wearin’ Fools via Instapundit link.
Wanna buy a ticket for the upcoming policeman’s ball ?
Old cowboys need to turn off their fucking left blinker and get their slow asses out of the fast lane!
-Tailgaters
Obama makes an appeal to “hard-workin’ folks like you.”
Or, alternately: Obama abandons his base.
Hate Crimes
A hate crimes law protects LGBT Coloradans from harassment, violence, and other bias-motivated crime.A hate crime threatens or takes the life of more than just the victim; it creates a ripple effect that threatens the well being of an entire group.
link
gun peeps excepted
I’d say this is less of an interpretation issue and more of a bold face lying issue.
Unfortunately it has an unimpeachable alibi. I’d say the voters need to eliminate that problem if they want open carry to mean what it says.
Coweta County doesn’t have fast lanes except on the interstate.
Of course, on the interstate we have a word for those who only drive the speed limit: “Scenery.”
Last time I had a Sheriff’s deputy riding my ass, I “saw” a deer come bounding out of the ditch and had to take evasive action, such action consisting primarily of a vigorous application of brakes.
Deputy was unamused, and pulled me over. “I’m fine, officer — just a little jittery from that close encounter with the deer. Thanks for checking on me, though!”
That was the end of it. I guess he figured it would be no fun to continue playing the game, not to mention very difficult for him to allege that I didn’t see a deer in the middle of a well marked deer crossing area (as if rural Wisco wasn’t entirely a deer crossing area).
You’re friend is lucky he wasn’t wearing long shirt tails at the pub.
(Assuming he always open-carries, which is probably too much of an assumption on my part.)
Complainants shouldn’t be allowed anonymity absent a compelling reason.
I wouldn’t rule out gravity just yet.
No, not far enough back for any bullet drop caused by gravity. It’s me anticipating the boom boom.
The bullet starts dropping the milisecond it exits the muzzle.
Try adjusting your POA higher as well as working on your grip is what I’m saying.
Yes, I know. But at the velocity and distance I’m discussing, the drop is nearly imperceptible.
I know what I’m doing wrong. I need to correct it. Aiming higher doesn’t fix the underlying problem. That is all.
The center mounted barrel carbine/smg’s (Kriss Vector semi-auto) and pistols(Rhino revolver) are supposed to fix that, as is barrel porting (which I don’t recommend as it makes a hell of a flash at night, when you are probably most likely to need a weapon in your home). Presumably with less up-kick you’d compensate less.
There’s nothing like that for a .308/7.62 that I know of though.
Rifle I mean. But they have pistols and SMG style guns that try to fix that problem.