Jerry Miculek AMA this weekend.

He's doing a live question and answer session on Reddit this Saturday, 1/11/14.  Go check it out!

Do you want your kids to learn how to use a knife properly?

Do you live in Eastern Pennsylvania?

If so, this might be worth checking out. It's a half-day $20 workshop that includes the sharp&shiny.

H/T BoingBoing

People from states other than Maryland - your assistance is needed!

A while back, shortly after the Newtown shootings, my friend Kizz asked for some help. Before she got involved in the gun debate, she wanted to be more informed about the laws regarding firearms, specifically AR15s (since that's what's been in the news lately). I offered to help. I saw this as a great way to educate myself as well as a more liberal-minded friend.

And then lots of stuff happened, and life got in the way, and I found myself overwhelmed with everything that involved more brain power than the absolute basics like showering and eating.

So we're asking for your help. We've got Maryland covered, but if you live in a state that isn't Maryland, we need your input. To quote Kizz,

If you can distill what you learn into a paragraph ... then I'll put up a post with all our paragraphs. You can give us the heads up that you're doing a state by saying so in comments below. I believe we can get this information on the internet and without too much difficulty.

Please, feel free to share what you know and/or can dig up here or over on her blog. And please, be polite. This is an opportunity for those of us firmly on the pro-gun side to educate those who really don't know the laws. Kizz has a decent readership, and she's willing to learn. Please don't just link to your state's laws - we want the basic information.

Thanks for any assistance you folks are willing to provide!

Some of you might find this interesting.

A friend of mine is doing a series of posts on the Federalist Papers. He's attempting to translate them so normal folks, not just history and politics dorks, can fully understand them. Go check them out!

So SB281 went to the House.

And the final testimony was heard at almost 4AM on Saturday morning.

Here's one gem from the day:



More later.

Beretta's off the bench.

I have a thought.

Jay (and just about everyone else) has mentioned a couple of companies are no longer willing to work with law enforcement in states like New York and California. Sean has started keeping track of this list of companies, and will keep it updated as more companies join the list.


I have a suggestion.

Why not contact your favorite gun/ammuntion/gear manufacturer, and suggest they join in the boycott. Congratulate these companies for what they're willing to do, and urge them to show their support of this effort.

At best, it will bring this movement to their attention; at worst, they'll say no.



It was something that occurred to Chris the other day and I figured I'd voice that to you folks. What do you think?

Request for more data: signal boost.

Stephen Adams needs your help. If you have access to the data he needs, please get in touch with him. If you don't, please consider boosting the signal.

Thanks!

I want Gayle Trotter to be my friend.

I really, really do.

I went to my first protest/rally today.

I drove down to Annapolis with a female friend in tow, and we were amazed. I'd estimate about three thousand pro-2A people showed up for the rally, and we FILLED the MD Senate building. They had to shut down the building - it was at capacity. We had folks from Maryland Shall Issue, Maryland Shooters Forum, the NRA, and I believe I spotted one of the Alans from the 2AF...that, or he has a twin running 'round Annapolis.

So, an observation: the crowd at the rally was possibly the most polite and respectful crowd I've had the pleasure to be around. I'm slightly agoraphobic in certain situations - for example, the photos of the Ravens rally yesterday made me nervous - but I only felt a slight amount of ohgodTOOMANYPEOPLE near the end, while waiting to sign the testimony book. This group of men, women, and yes, children, really helped to put a pleasant face on what many folks down in Naptown think is a big evil monster. I'm proud to be a part of it, and given the opportunity I think I'd go back down for similar reasons.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to testify. We stood in line for over 2 hours just to be told we wouldn't be allowed in. I have faith my fellow protesters said some fantastic things. I just hope we have a prayer of making a difference. I'm told Beretta has threatened to leave Maryland if SP281 gets passed, and I trust them to follow through with that threat. If anything has an impact on my state senators, that might. Maybe. I hope.

And because I remembered to take a photo, here's a crappy picture showing the amount of people who were there:

The crowd filled that ENTIRE square, plus maybe another hundred people on the steps immediately in front of me, and another 100 or so in line to get in the Senate building. SO MANY PEOPLE. More pictures and updates have been and will be posted here, here, and probably in other threads in that section of MDS. Please feel free to keep an eye on them.


Also, as we were leaving, "someone" in a police motorcade, two tour buses, and a guy with a Mini-14 hanging out the back of the last car in the motorcade caused the trolley we were in to practically beach itself on the curb. Thanks, nitwit. So glad to know you felt the need to show off your might.

AMEN, sir.

via SayUncle.

Attention Marylanders.

There's a survey going around. Please go fill it out. This is being sent directly to Senator Miller, so be polite.

Thanks!

Another handy-dandy gun facts site, complete with infographic.

Courtesy r/guns.

New USEFUL gun crime stat resource launched today.

A gentleman I know just launched Check Your Gun Stats after being frustrated at the lack of useful info collected in one location.

To quote him,

CheckYourGunStats.com is my current side project. It is a site to view crime rates, murder rates, assault rates, and robbery rates for the USA as a whole as well as each individual state. ....

This is no simple process. But it's coming along. Every data point will be cited. Once again, the purpose of this site is simply to show data in a meaningful manner and to give users an idea of what key events (just legislation based) have happened over the years. It's not to sway anybody one way or another. My opinions are kept off of this site.

Go read the rest of what he has to say about it. I think it might come in handy.

Yesterday was a good day for Maryland.

Judge Legg lifted the stay on permits in Maryland. Barring anything happening, in 14 days some 365 people who applied before the stay was put into place will start getting their permits in the mail. The Maryland State Police have said as much.






HOLY CRAPBALLS. We're going to wait and see how many of those people actually get permits, then we're applying. :D

Well this just made my day.

For all the crap I like to give Baltimore and its police force, I do tend to appreciate individual officers, particularly those who aren't into drug trafficking, tow scams, and the like. And occasionally, certain individuals do something that most of us would consider normal, but is so unlike the force on the whole that it becomes an exemplary action.

This is one of those incidents.

WOW. Four years.

Four years ago today, I started babbling here. This was an attempt at removing all gun-related discussion from my livejournal, because I had "friends" who would cause me trouble for talking about what was then a new-found interest.

I started talking, and y'all started listening. Who'dathunk anyone would care about what *I* had to say?

I know I said this already, but thanks for reading. :)

This is the best example of trolling I've ever seen.

Last Saturday, a trio of individuals took a mess of scrap guns to a gun buy back in Chicago. They turned that money into...well, go look.

I like it.

FINALLY.

Woot has finally really embraced the shooting sports. First, earlier this week, they debuted sport.woot. Today, sport.woot has a passel of things to shoot outside. As if I couldn't love woot any more than I already did, they go and do this. :D

While I don't think this is a "flash mob" in the sense that it is organized, I am happy they were given appropriate recognition.