Why Are We Ticklish?

Very cool!

Usually in the afternoon my daughter gets scrappy, and the only solution to tame the savage baby-beast is to tickle her into submission, and let her repeatedly body-slam until she’s burned off some energy.

Very neat that it has some survival basis.

Posted in Biology, Family and Friends | Leave a comment

Kahr Gen2 Revealed!

A Video was just posted on Kahr’s Youtube Channel!

As I initially suspected the gun in the video is a new variant of the TP45 gun. They have a page up explaining it!

Our new Gen2 Premium series pistols have increased the value added on our Premium pistols to an even higher level. The tolerances are tightened, magazine catch release is reversible, serrations are machined in the front of slide, the trigger stroke has been shortened allowing for quicker firing rates with an integrated trigger safety, an accessory rail has been added on the frame and Tru Glo® night sights on our Gen2 Premium pistols. In addition we are adding a 5 inch barrel and a 6 inch barrel with an integrated compensator to our TP Gen2 line. The 5 inch and 6 inch pistols will be optics ready featuring a Leupold® DeltaPoint™ red-dot sight. These additional features make the Kahr Gen2 Premium pistols unrivaled in accuracy among concealed carry handguns.

So far it looks like so far they are just making these in the TP series (TP45 Gen2 in the video, TP9 Gen2 in the image gallery on the page), but I wonder if this will be translated over to the shorter guns. Some people might not like the REALLY long trigger pull in the Gen1 guns, this new trigger will probably be closer to most of the other striker-fired guns…but likely still have the even pull that Kahr is known for.

What do you all think?

Posted in Guns | 8 Comments

Children and Risk

So my daughter is napping right now. When I saw that she was tired, I asked if she wanted to go upstairs where her room is. She immediately walked to the stairs and started tugging at the baby gate.

Now we have a baby gate on the stairs because our first floor is as close to 100% child proof as reasonably possible. I feel perfectly comfortable when she walks into another room that I don’t need to pursue, just keep an ear out for sounds I can’t identify. of course there is a gate on the stairs because stairs are dangerous. When you look at stuff that offs little kids you see things like drowning (this house HAD a pool…I dismantled it and disposed of it) auto accidents (LaWeer’da has a VERY expensive car seat that I have become proficient in, but this one effects us all), poisoning (chemicals are all locked up, which is a pain in the ass when there is a mess, but it beats the alternative) and falls. A tumble down the stairs can easily kill a baby pretty easily…especially when it’s an old house with 12 foot ceilings.

Still what do I do when she tugs at the gate. I open it up, and let her start climbing with me right behind watching closely. In the beginning up came VERY naturally, as she just wants to climb them on all fours and so far there have been NO scares or bumps going up. Down took a bit more effort. She saw us going down standing up, and decided that even tho her legs are shorter than the risers she could do that. I’ve even let her take that last step on her own because a short fall onto a nice wool rug is a better teacher for this stubborn little girl than me constantly telling her she’d be better off sitting down and scooting.

The lesson was learned, and now she’s REALLY good at stairs. This doesn’t mean I don’t let her climb stairs unsupervised, and it doesn’t mean the gates don’t get closed once we change levels. Still when we’re at homes without small children and child-proofing, I’m not HORRIFIED of her getting past up to a short set of steps.

She knows to respect stairs, and knows how to properly handle them. That’s better, in my mind, than pure avoidance.

This will be performed at every development step in her life. I already have one of these as well as a few simple live-steel knives for her when she’s old enough to understand how knives work, and like me as a child she’ll eventually probably have a knife or two tucked away in her things to play with when she wants to. I remember being elementary school age, and having in a toy bin a few small pen knives and Swiss-army knives, and taking them into the woods and whittling away at a stick or cutting up various things I found. I probably also cut myself with it, tho I can’t remember, I do remember cutting myself with scissors at a very young age when learning how to use them.

See I can block off my stairs, and keep my knives out of her reach very easily because she’s still very small. Somebody is always with her now, but that isn’t forever. Eventually she’ll be old enough to be able to handle true freedom, or go over to other kids houses where the preparations might not be as complete (or be ideal for THAT child, but not mine).

I see exposure as the best form of safety, while it seems that “Progressives” see restriction as the best way. I think that’s unrealistic.

Posted in Family and Friends, Safety | 1 Comment

“Gun Death” Trash Fire

In urban areas we have trash collection:

Authorities responded to a grass fire near Golden Valley Road and found a man with severe burns. Officials said the man was burning trash and the fire got out of control.

The man suffered life-threatening burns and was flown to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, where he was pronounced dead the same evening, officials said.

In rural places you need to haul your own trash to the dump, or burn it so you only need to dispose of the ashes, but with that there’s danger!

I’m sure the “Progressives” who only care about “Gun Death” think that municipal trash removal is a “Right” the same way health care is…

H/T Whipped Cream Difficulties

Posted in Gun Death? | 1 Comment

I Almost Forgot!

The Gunblog Variety Cast episode 20 is up!

So yeah tune in and enjoy!

Posted in Guns, Podcast, Politics | Leave a comment

Images of the Antis: Need

The “Progressives” SURE love to tell others what they NEED and DON’T NEED

First let’s pick off the easy ones. The 2012 figure is saying “Nobody Needs a Gun”? Sorry, but 2012 was a heavy year of losses in the anti-gun political movement, and a year where gun shops couldn’t keep guns in stock and police departments struggled to keep up with demand for concealed carry permits. That image just doesn’t make a lick of sense.

Next we have some good-old anti-gun blackface. A dude loaded down with guns and ammo, floppy cowboy boots, some gross baggy sweater…and a sauce pot? Wait, I’ve been using mine for making tea and cooking food…you mean as somebody who owns more than 10 guns I should be WEARING that?

Also what’s the story with TEN guns? Like I said, I own more than that, but that’s because I’m a gun dude, and I enjoy collecting them. The freak in the picture only has 5. Plus what’s the issue with the AMOUNT of guns a person has? Most Police officers are issued two guns (duty gun, and rifle) and may have 4 or more for department use (backup gun, shotgun, possibly smaller duty gun for plainclothes work). I generally only carry one, occasionally two, and I have several carry guns that I keep simply because if there’s a problem with one of the guns I usually carry it might take weeks before it’s fixed again, so I can rotate in another gun. Plus I have a rifle and a shotgun that I bought for the sole purpose of being defensive guns. Then rest are for training, collection, sentimental reasons, or just because I wanted them. Where’s the issue?

Reminds me of this scene:

Even spree killers with mass-murder as their #1 intention rarely had more than 3 guns. So yeah I don’t get it at all.

Still let’s get deeper in the minutiae. OK so the old-west cowboy NEEDED his guns. Not only did they protect him from rustlers, thieves, and the generally violent people that have always, and will always exist, but in the time before cellphones, they were the best signaling device for long distances. Say the cowboy’s horse steps in a prairie dog hole and breaks it’s leg, or is bit by a rattlesnake, maybe even when the horse falls the rider is injured. It was customary for him to shoot his gun at regular intervals to let others know to come looking for him.

But what about the 1970s dude:

Now the 1970s was really when the anti-gun movement started to take off. In most of the country concealed carry was 100% illegal. The Gun Control Act had been passed in 1968 creating the FFL system, and banning free interstate commerce of firearms. Chicago started their gun ban in the late 60s, DC in the mid 70s. This trend would peak in the 1990s with the passage of the Brady Bill and the Federal Assault Weapons ban. Really if the artist did a little bit of research, the lady in green should have “1994” under her, and that would make more sense, as the 90s where also the time when gun owners REALLY started fighting back hard. This was the start of the modern concealed carry movement, and birth of what is frequently called “Gun Culture 2.0” where gun owners stopped looking at guns as the tool of the hunter and target shooter, and more as a defensive tool.

Still crime in the 1970s was on a steady rise. It didn’t start to fall until the 90s. Now the antis will point out that in the 90s their new wave of national gun control hit the scene…but locally gun control was failing. Further, in 1998 the National Instant Criminal Background Check System came into effect allowing people to once again walk into a gun store and walk out with a gun, rather than having the gun sit in probation until the background check could be conducted via post mail, and in 2004 the Federal Assault Weapons ban was allowed to sunset.

Now recently we have what could probably be called “Gun Culture 3.0”, where people are not only thinking of defensive guns over target and hunting guns, but now with 50 states of concealed carry, people are starting to actually CARRY guns. Further until recently gun ownership was heavily weighted by white males. That’s still the majority demographic, but females and minorities are rapidly being represented in gun culture 3.0 at similar rates to the white population. This in turn also shows the rise of the urban and suburban gun owner, rather than just people who live in the rural areas, where gun ownership has always been high.

Yet still crime falls. I don’t know what Ms. 2012 is talking about, as she isn’t terribly representative to the population of that time, but the 70s dude probably would have been a LOT better off with a gun.

While the artist portrays Mr. 2014 as a lunatic with his bulky carry garb and his interesting choice of headgear, it’s not like we’re living in some post-apocalyptic science fiction movie as we enter 2015. We’re safer than the unarmed dude in the 70s, and because we don’t have “Progressive” busy-bodies telling us what we need or don’t need, I’d say we’re happier.

Maybe that’s what they hate so much…

Posted in Freedom, Guns, Safety | 5 Comments

“Gun Death” Suicide

Man, go big, or go home!

The life of a New York State resident came to a shocking and grisly end Monday when police say he committed suicide by beheading himself in The Bronx.

**DEPARTED**, 51, from Port Jervis, New York, tied his head with a chain to a pole in the Hunts Point section of the borough and then pressed the gas pedal on his car.

Moments later, the man was decapitated, with his severed head left lying in the middle of Longfellow Avenue.

While I have to give him credit for ingenuity, he did this during rush hour in NYC. The pictures make it look like an industrial district rather than residential, but at 9:30am I would be AMAZED if there weren’t a TON of witnesses who probably WISH he had shot himself.

But in New York, you really aren’t allowed to do that…

H/t Bob and Wallphone

Posted in Gun Death? | Leave a comment

Play Me Out: Warren Zevon

Don’t know if he was forecasting his own death, but that’s what he did with this number.

Posted in Movies | 2 Comments

Great Video on a Stupid Topic

Brilliant commentary from brilliant guys.

What’s the take away? We REALLY need to end the NFA. Or at least end the tax stamp side of it. I’d be willing to compromise and let the ATF maintain their registry of all NFA items (for this political move the Huges Amendment would also remain intact) but dump the silly tax stamp, and let people buy/build whatever the hell they want, and let the ATF know to make sure any of this stupidness doesn’t bite them in the ass.

But really this whole talk really shows how stupid the NFA is. In the end we’re talking about the same gun that shoots the same cartridge, but quibbling over what it’s called, and that’s simply pedantic and has no bearing on real life.

You want a tiny gun that shoots .308, or a big gun that shoots 9x19mm I really don’t see what that has to do with the price of tea in China.

Posted in Guns, Politics | Leave a comment

For Those Who Use Stitcher

The Squirrel Report is now on Stitcher

Gunblog Variety Cast is also there.

So yeah, if you listen to podcasts on Stitcher you probably already knew about it, but if you didn’t, there you are!

Posted in Podcast | Leave a comment