Welcome back, readers. As most of you know, we took last Friday off from regular Carnival posting in order to focus on relief efforts for those affected by Hurricane Katrina. This week, our prayers continue to go out to those in need. If you haven't already, please help.
And now we begin our special DOUBLE LENGTH Carnival of Cordite. Due to the overwhelming number of posts, plus those left from last week, I'll have to keep my own comments to a minimum. I'm doing my best to ensure each and every submission is included; if I've left yours out, it's an oversight on my part for which I apologize: it's only because I'm a little overwhelmed by the sheer number of excellent submissions.
And now, on with the Carnival of Cordite...
The BIG BREAKING NEWS in shooting circles has come up in the last 24 hours: there is talk of gun confiscation beginning in New Orleans. Worse, it appears to be an elitist action, as bodyguards for the wealthy are exempted.
THIS IS OUR NIGHTMARE SCENARIO!
Glenn Reynolds first alerted me here. From Glenn's post, I navigated to Volokh for commentary and then on to Cam Edwards.
Some early commentators:
Countertop was ahead of everyone with this post written before the breaking news.
Libercontrarian: "We don't have to worry about the 2nd Amendment anymore..."
Publicola: "Hypothetical, My Ass!" More: "Of Constitutions, Laws & Emergency Powers."
Of Arms and the Law: "Same old-same old in New Orleans."
It's too soon to expect a lot of volume in the way of commentary, so I am asking all of you readers to read these links and make this the center of your posting for next week!
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(photo via Memento Moron -- only things missing are the pliers and blowtorch!)
Publicola has the quintessential post on looting.
(brief pause while you go read it... it's long...)
There, now that you have read it:
As my regular contributors know, I spefically asked for posts this week about the role of firearms in disaster preparedness. I am pleased to say you came through!
Posse Incitatus tells us about when things fall apart. Key point:
Be certain of this: the roving gangs of looters need no firearms. Their numbers and physical size allows them to plunder and murder at will. Unarmed citizens can be robbed and beaten with impunity - unless they have the means to protect themselves.
And remember, you are on your own.
From Instapundit:
If you've got a week's supplies, and a gun, you'll usually do okay after a disaster. If you don't, you're in much bigger trouble, because it generally takes that long for some sort of order to be restored. We saw that after Andrew, and we're seeing it again.
Indeed.
Confederate Yankee writes about disaster guns and the Second Battle of New Orleans.
Thirty Second Thoughts wants to help you survive calamity. And a message for the antis:
If you don't own firearms, then make the decision today to learn how to handle and use them safely and effectively... and buy a gun. If you truly believe that the government will always be able to protect you, and that ownership of weapons is a sign of sexual inadequacy, please save my bandwidth for more intelligent readers and skip reading the rest of this because your stupidity has condemned you to be one of the first victims of post-disaster anarchy.
Countertop explains why he has guns. More here.
Ah, Shoot! brings us disaster and the armed citizen. Follow up here.
Supplies like ammunition and gas are essential. You want to be sure you always have what you need before disaster strikes instead of waiting until you really need it to go shopping. Why? SondraK has the answer.
Speaking of shopping, in other areas gun stores may be seeing good business as people decide they don't want to be caught without should their time gun. Les Jones buys into this, adding a new emergency gun:
Do you live near water, or where there is a chance of flooding? As the Civilian Gun Self-Defense Blog points out, a canoe can be as important as a gun:
Stephen DeFerrari, a Dedham native whose sister-in-law lives in Hanover, and his wife, Pam, escaped from their New Orleans home yesterday, brandishing a shotgun, in a canoe with their seven cats. Stephen spoke to the Herald last night after they arrived at a Baton Rouge hotel.
Side note: if you own pets or livestock, be sure to include them in your disaster plans!
The Civilian Gun Self-Defense blog has more from the disaster area here.
Also, it's good to know your neighbors: form a neighborhood watch and have a neighborhood disaster plan. CGSDB also has this story on good neighbor relations:
In Popps Ferry Landing, many neighbors had lived near each other for years but had never spoken. The realization that their safety and homes were vulnerable and police presence was scarce brought them together quickly.
Irons in the Fire responded to my call with three posts:
Disaster guns;
More on disaster guns;
And still more on disaster guns.
Hell in a Handbasket has three disaster preparedness tips of his own:
Get a good flashlight;
Get a good shotgun;
Efficiently arm your whole family:
Just as it’s important to have more than one family member trained in the use of firearms, it’s also important to choose the defensive guns based on how many can effectively use them. That way there’s a greater pool of potential defenders that can all use the guns, and they can swap out broken or damaged firearms without diminishing any hard-won skills. Ammunition can also be pooled, meaning that it’s much less likely for one member to become disarmed if the ammo for their one-of-a-kind gun is used up.
For that matter: if you only can afford a few or even one gun, make it something common. Don't invest in a rare or exotic gun if it has to be your emergency gun. You need to think about spare parts and ammuntion. When you are serious enough about shooting to have many custom guns in wildcat calibers made for you, great. But keep things like a Remington 870 12 gauge on hand for emergency. You may need to share it with someone else, and odds are if they have any shooting skills at all they will be familiar with such a basic and common firearm. And if it breaks, it will be a lot easier to get a replacement part than it would be for some custom-built European model.
Also on my list of essential "common" firearms:
Ruger 10/22
1911 .45 (any well-built "basic" model)
Glock 19 9mm
.357 Magnum revolver (just about any well-built model)
Winchester 70 .30-'06
Not that you need ALL of these (although if you can, do), nor are these the only emergency guns worth owning, but these are all good examples of the types of common and generally useful firearms that you should consider. But start with the 870!
Back to links: No Quarters relays a story about having to learn about guns in an emergency that ties in to the "simple gun" theory.
TFS Magnum has his HER idea of a survival rifle:
I can't argue with that! But maybe Cowboy Blob can:
It's not just the cowboy in him, he makes a lot of sense. For one thing:
Why the Winchester over a battle rifle? The lever gun is friendlier-looking than an evil black rifle; in a civil disaster, I don't want to look like a militia yahoo to the authorities or my fellow civilians. To someone threatening violence, the great big .44 inch muzzle ought to be threatening enough.
It's a sad reality that, depending on where in the country you live, the "political correctness" of your emergency gun may be important...
Techno Gypsy has his list of essential guns.
More from Montieth. And thanks to Montieth and Oleg Volk for this fine visual aid:
Toys in the Attic addresses the emergency gun issue, and asks us to get serious.
Gun talk is great, but all the best guns in the world won't do you any good if you don't have (and FOLLOW) a general plan. Al has the semblance of one, and would like to hear more from readers.
One place for ideas is Publicola's post, Needful Things. There's a ton of good information here above and beyond guns.
TriggerFinger also weighs in on planning:
The most important thing you need to have before disaster strikes is a plan. If you've got that, you'll know what you need to do and how to do it, and you'll be doing useful work designed to preserve your life while most people are still frantically trying to figure out who was supposed to pick up Johnny from the day care and whether the government will be evacuating Jenny from her high school.
Along those lines: if you have children in school, and there is a high probability of emergency (like a hurricane on the horizon, for instance), keep them home with you until the danger has passed! You can't count on the government to get your kids to safety. That is your job! Don't worry about them missing a few days of school for nothing if the storm blows over. For one thing, public schools are so bad that your kids will probably learn more and gain better skills staying home and preparing for a disaster than they would learn at school. For another, the potential consequences if you send them to school and a New Orleans-like catastrophe occurs far outweighs the loss of a few days of schooling.
Oh, and if you are going to wear body armor, be sure to put in the plates.
That wraps up the special section on disaster preparedness. Thank you all for writing about it this week.
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A number of you wrote in specifically about forced evacuations in New Orleans. I certainly appreciate the importance of the topic. But I am not going to include those posts here as they are less related to the main topic, firearms, featured here. Rather, I want to point you all to another blog, the Life, Liberty, and Property Blog. These guys are responsible for another blog carnival, the Carnival of Liberty. To do proper justice to your posts, I recommend entering them there. Thank you.
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In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, it is easy to overlook all the other events in the world. I'd like to ask you all now to put the suffering along the Gulf Coast aside for just a moment to say a prayer for one of our own: regular contributor Shakey Pete of Shakey Pete's Shootin' Shack has suffered a stroke. He's home now, and on the road to recovery. Let's all wish him well.
Cowboy Blob thinks the best therapy for Shakey Pete is some good gun pr0n. I agree, so here is Cowboy Blob's submission:
That will cheer him up! And if you know anything about Luger triggers, please drop Cowboy Blob a line.
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Another note about a regular here, hell, about a regular in the gun blog community since long before I was a blogger, Kim du Toit is calling it quits, or at least cutting back on blogging big time (I see he managed to come back from hiatus long enough to respond the New Orleans situation). Let's all wish Kim the best of luck as he makes some changes in his life!
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Mr. Completely is asking for prayers for Sgt. Buzz Robertson. And now is a good time to remind you all about Project Valour IT.
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Let's get back to the gratuitous gun pictures:
This Colt 1911, an actual WW I era model made in 1917, is one of Toys in the Attic's favorite, um, toys. I have no idea if he keeps it in the attic. And Posse Incitatus ruminates on the modern version from Kimber.
Meanwhile, Irons in the Fire gets to shoot the Mosin-Nagant Model 38:
Be sure to read the whole thing for a handy tool tip for rifle cleaning!
Baboon Pirates is posting letters; here's one about a fun .22 pistol:
Mr. Completely links to what he calls the motherload of sub-gun videos. COOL! But then he ruined the mood by posting this:
Why do people think chicks need pink guns?
No pink here:
For a glorious full-size version, click here. I am guessing Kit doesn't buy guns just because they are color coordinated. Neither should you.
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Back to serious stuff:
New Orleans has been the hot topic, but it's not the only place about which we should be concerned. Hell in a Handbasket sets the table for us. And Of Arms and the Law serves the main course:
Results indicated that self-protection in general, both forceful and non forceful, reduced the likelihood of property loss and injury, compared to nonresistance. A variety of mostly forceful tactics, including resistance with a gun, appeared to have the strongest effects in reducing the risk of injury, though some of the findings were unstable due to the small numbers of sample cases.
There was a shooting in a Texas church that didn't get as much attention as it deserved, as our eyes were elsewhere. But ChuBlogga brings us some details and analysis:
Whenever I hear of a senseless massacre, like the church shootings above, or anywhere, in fact -- I cannot help but wonder: what if somebody had been armed? What if they could've saved themselves?
But invariably, someone always responds, "Are you kidding? We don't want people with guns in church! What if they go crazy and start shooting?" The irony of their own words is lost on them. Barring putting up metal detectors on the doors and frisking every churchgoer that comes in the building, banning guns in the church means that the only ones with a gun will be the crazy ones, the disturbed, and the angry. Sane, law-abiding people follow the rules, and leave their weapons at home. The crazy ones waltz right on in. But you can't have a crazy test to determine eligibility -- it's either all or nothing. And nothing is not a viable option. In the end, you just have to allow everybody, and hope that the sane people can take care of the crazy ones.
Be sure to read the whole thing, as there is a good discussion of guns and religion. Speaking of which, there is a Patron Saint of Handgunners!
CGSDB has another news story for us about good guys beating bad guys.
Countertop remembers responding to an alarm.
New Mexico is learning that law-abiding citizens who carry concealed weapons stop bad guys and save lives. Larry Elder has analysis.
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Follow up:
The Ten Ring has more about the ongoing Virginia gun show story:
I didn’t believe the story at first. I didn’t believe that responsible law enforcement officials in a free country would act so irresponsibly. Sad to say, I was wrong.
More from Cogito Ergo Geek.
Of Arms and the Law has more on the Joyce Foundation.
More from TriggerFinger in his on-going Beretta series here and here.
Uncle has more on his Blog Ads Gun Network.
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Shooting fun!
I hadn't heard from Analog Kid for a while... turned out he had e-mail problems. So now we have finally caught up and he has sent in a 5 part serious on the big blogger shoot:
There are TONS of great pictures! This one might give you an idea:
New contributor KeeWee enjoys some pin shooting.
Speaking of new contributors, Les Jones and Uncle would like me to introduce two gun blogs:
Here's View from the Porch and The Munchkin Wrangler.
Tam, of View from the Porch, and Coal Creek Armory, just might give Kit a run for her money...
Ahem... back to shooting fun:
Mr. Completely has more range reports here and here. Also, e-postal results.
The Freeholder checks in with his family trip.
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And... shooting NOT fun!
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On the legal front:
Individ talks 14th Amendment.
The Blogonomicon is not happy with the Houston DA.
Of Arms and the Law informs us about some Second Amendment conferences!
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On to technique, gear, tech, etc:
TFS Magnum talks stopping power.
The Blogonomicon has two posts here and here about lefty shooting.
Mr. Completely brings us mouse guns. And cleaning kits.
Cowboy Blog talks mag pouches:
PawPaw has a post on measuring powder.
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From the department of stupid:
Confederate Yankee takes aim at media ignorance. I'm glad he wrote this, and glad I got his e-mail quickly so I didn't have to spend time saying the same thing. I was so outraged when I heard this nonsense going on that I got online ready to blog about it, only to find that Confederate Yankee had already done a perfect job.
The Smallest Minority fisks an anti-gun hit piece in the newspaper.
And finally, Publicola takes on stupid comments.
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That wraps up our double issue Carnival of Cordite! For more information about the Carnival, including how to submit your entries, please see the Carnival of Cordite information page. We'll see you all next week, hopefully with a LOT of follow up on the New Orleans gun confiscation debacle. In the meantime, keep your power dry!
Now this is the type of Carnival I like to see. It may take me three days to read all the articles.
Great Carnival Gully.
Posted by: Tyler D. | Friday, 09 September 2005 at 09:57 PM
Thank you for the linkage, Gullyborg.
I didn't even think of sending in links for this special edition of the CoC, but last year, I started a disater self help series: By Ourselves, For Ourselves (just click cancel on the password box that pops up)
http://www.softgreenglow.com/mt/archives/by_ourselves_for_ourselves/index.html
My archives are out of whack right now, so we're missing Parts 1 & 2 that dealt with firearms and ammunition, but they were simply; One long gun and one handgun for every member of the household, plus spares for friends who come to help. 5k in long gun ammo for each gun and 1k in handgun ammo for each gun.
Hope you don't mind me putting htese here, Gullyborg.
Posted by: AnalogKid | Saturday, 10 September 2005 at 02:36 AM
I don't remember exactly where the bARbie-15 came from, but I'm pretty sure its tale involves a girl under the age of 10. So it isn't as though someone thought it needed to be made that way for a woman.
Posted by: Jay Kominek | Saturday, 10 September 2005 at 07:22 AM
just making a little humor there...
Posted by: Gullyborg | Saturday, 10 September 2005 at 11:13 AM
"TFS Magnum has his idea of a survival rifle:"
TFS Magnum, a.k.a Zendo Deb is a SHE, not
a he.
Posted by: anon-a-mouse | Saturday, 10 September 2005 at 08:18 PM
mucho apologies!
will correct !!!
Posted by: Gullyborg | Saturday, 10 September 2005 at 10:02 PM
Will you be doing any more "how to survive" type post in the next carnival? I have one for you if you do.
Posted by: Bill | Monday, 12 September 2005 at 10:57 AM
Any post relevant to firearms will be accepted. Please feel free to send it in.
Here is a handy form:
http://www.conservativecat.com/Ferdy/Carnivals.htm
Posted by: Gullyborg | Monday, 12 September 2005 at 02:53 PM
"Essential guns" ......lets see, there are five of us in the tribe and all but one has firearm expierence, so here goes.
1. Four double action SW .38 specials, with leather.
2. Two 1911's with leather, with five loaded mags each. and two .45's locked away in a "hidy hole" and five more mags.
3. Two .45acp revolvers with mucho moon clips already loaded. and leather...locked in the hidy hole.
4. Two Rem 870's in twelve gauge with us, and one single shot 12 left in the hidy hole.
5. One Mak 90 with 7 loaded mags. would like two but only have one...
8. either a .243 bolt action, or a marlin lever gun. I like the lever, but others in the tribe have shot the bolt. one rifle will stay in the locked hidy hole.
9. 22. rimfires in bolt action, and a SW 617. others locked away in the hidy hole.
10. extra ammo in the hidy hole, along with other survival essentials...and various other guns (.44, 9mm, 32. .25, etc etc).
...So that looks like a sidearm plus backup for all the shooters, plus two shotguns and two rifles. sounds good to me. what about you?
Posted by: jimmy | Tuesday, 13 September 2005 at 05:25 PM