RECCE ROOM

Please watch this clip - it contains a lot of useful information about handgun carrying persons. It also answers a few questions / concerns that people often cite when they are frightened by the thought of citizens carrying guns. Concerns such as: - What if a police officer cannot tell the difference between the permit holder and the criminal? - Won't more guns on the streets just lead to more crime? - Aren't carry permit holders more likely to commit a crime? - What about road rage - won't someone just shoot in anger? (The answer to this one was a surprise to me!) - Gun bans reduce crime (yeah, right!).

Arizona recently passed a law recently like Tennessee's - allowing carry permit holders to carry in restaurants that serve alcohol - provided the carry permit holder does not drink while carrying. Arizona became the 42nd state to allow such. Starting today, the law takes effect. Here is a report about it. Seems to lean a bit liberal for my tastes, but that happens often. 42 down, eight more to go.

I read several liberal blogs, primarily to see what they are saying and discovering what is their take on things. I often find swearing, rants, and a general lack of any sort of logical process. But I do find what they think and feel about things. Today, I found an excellent one. In this blog post ( warning - Graphic Language! ), the blogger talks about medical breakthroughs by capitalistic endeavors as compared to those made by government run entities. One problem, of all the 14 breakthroughs the blogger listed from Canada, only four happened after the government centralized control of the medical system! And those breakthroughs were mostly genome discoveries - not actual procedures that helped anybody.

I am referencing this post I made a few months back. I have come across an article that explains things more thoroughly and poignantly than I ever could. Please read this. It is not wrong to choose any lifestyle except that of the "wolf." But be aware that every day, each person chooses to be one of the three. Which one are you? More importantly, how close are you to the nearest Sheepdog?

From this previous post , as a follow up. My step-brother has resigned his position. I think he was asked to do so, but I have no proof. All because of comments he made on Facebook. Again, though they may not have been the most eloquent, they were patriotic in nature and only a complete imbecile would think he was engaging in "hate speech" or otherwise being offensive to a certain racial group.

My son, Cael, today competed in his first ever TaeKwondo tournament. As his father, I'd be proud if he simply did his best - which is exactly what he did. His best today landed him a 1st Place for Forms (under 5 division), 1st Place sparring (under 5 division). He was so dominant in the under 5 division, that with my permission, along with our coach (assistant instructor from his TaeKwondo school), and the head referee all agreed to give the 1st place trophy to another little boy in that division and allow Cael to compete with the next age-group (ages 5 & 6). He placed 6th out of 8 contestants, losing only to the 3rd place winner - a girl who was two years older than him. Two of his classmates earned a 1st place in forms and a 2nd place in forms in their respective divisions. My son was as happy for them as he was for himself. Dang! I only got two 4th place trophies in my first karate tournament!

Granted, she is not yet two years old, but I think this will be the list for the boys some 12 years from now or so. Rule One: If you pull into my driveway and honk you'd better be delivering a package, because you're sure not picking anything up. Rule Two: You do not touch my daughter in front of me. You may glance at her, so long as you do not peer at anything below her neck. If you cannot keep your eyes or hands off of my daughter's body, I will remove them. Rule Three: I am aware that it is considered fashionable for boys of your age to wear their trousers so loosely that they appear to be falling off their hips. Please don't take this as an insult, but you and all of your friends are complete idiots. Still, I want to be fair and open minded about this issue, so I propose his compromise: You may come to the door with your underwear showing and your pants ten sizes too big, and I will not object. However, in order to ensure that your clothes do not, in fact, come o...

A woman in Mount Juliet - where I live - was the victim of a burglary recently. This article details how she chased the burglar out with her gun and shot at his car. The suspect was arrested later. Lucky for him. Now he will only do a few years in jail versus losing his life by being shot during the attempted robbery.

From this article . South Korea is going to sell over 100,000 old rifles to the US. I'll take one of each, please!

Next year, we the people of Tennessee will elect a new governor. As I lean very conservative (I know, you never saw that coming, did ya?), I look first to the Republican primaries for a candidate I will support. Knoxville mayor Bill Haslam is the first one to disqualify himself, in my opinion, as he is anti-gun. During a recent vote to decide whether to ban HCP holders from being able to carry in Knoxville parks, Haslam voiced his opinion that "repealing the ban would be impractical." One down, three to go. Let's see if any of them are real conservatives. I know the candidates on the Democratic side are not. Link to article .

I really like this letter to the editor. The name of the letter is "Branding." It is the third one down the page. Here's the letter: "In reading the letters in The readers' forum, listening to the national news and reading a lot of articles on the Internet for the last few days, I have become sick of hearing the political left-leaning members of society brand those who disagree with the policies of our president as racist. I am registered as an independent, I am white, I work hard for what I have, and I fundamentally disagree with our president's policies. Does that make me a racist? According to those like Jimmy Carter, Janeane Garofalo, and it seems a lot of local citizens, it does make me a card-carrying member of the KKK and a tea-bagging redneck. Playing the race card is a feckless, ignorant, languid and last-ditch effort to win an argument when you have nothing left to offer for said argument. It's pathetic and diminishes those who play it. Let ...

Reason 1 Reason 2 Reason 3 The sad thing is, two of these crimes happened in Nashville (one in Knoxville), which is much safer than Memphis. There are places in this fair state that are really, really dangerous - and Nashville is not one of those.

Here is a link to the article. It is one of the best I've seen - using quotes and resources from varying backgrounds. Very well organized and well written. Only drawback is it has no pictures. Oh, well.

I have been asked by multiple people in the last few months exactly what it takes to get a Tennessee Handgun Carry Permit. Here is a link to the Tennessee Department of Safety requirements . Most of the questions I get involve the training course. It is an all-day event (8 hours). It is split into two large sections - Classroom and Range (four hours each). The Classroom section involves instruction in the following areas: - Deadly force and criminal law. - Deadly force and civil law. - Where you can & cannot carry a handgun. - When you can & cannot use your handgun in self defense. There is a written exam at the end of the classroom portion. After having just covered the information, it seemed about as hard as a drivers license exam. It is geared toward the person who has minimal, if any experience with firearms. The range section involves qualifying. To do so, one must place 33 out of 50 total shots on a life-sized target (silhouette of an averaged-sized man). - Anywhere on th...

ABC News' George Stephanopolous had a bit of a verbal sparring match with President Obama Sunday. This story from Fox News, detals how Mr. Obama wants to enact a tax on we, the people, and yet he is not willing to call it a tax. Hmmmm...

This clip on Youtube is an excellent PSA detailing why we do not need guns in our society. Of course, if you have ever read this blog, you know there has to be a catch, and there most certainly is. But to see the catch, you will have to watch the clip. BTW - the zombies aren't going to kill themselves!

Well now they've done it. Liberals have gotten all personal with me. Sort of. The story goes like this, my step-brother made a comment on Facebook on September 11 that was very patriotic, and portently appropriate, if somewhat slang in delivery, I thought. Well, somebody got their panties in a wad and complained. Now there's an article on the Facebook post by the Chattanooga Times Free Press . Hayes, my step-brother, put this on his facebook page: "This picture says it all, even after eight years. It symbolized our anger after those ragheaded b------ds manifested theirs through death and destruction. There is no substitute for victory and plenty of work left to be done. There is something to be said about the 'Chicago way,' but Sean Connery (in the film 'The Untouchables') left out the last line ... when they send one of yours to the morgue, you send a thousand of theirs straight to hell. "We don't need to be reckless in our resolve, nor fail to r...

From the rally in Washington, DC, this last week. The best poster anyone could have made was this one:

A medical student at Johns Hopkins University was assaulted by a home intruder. The med student fought back with a samurai sword. Link to the story. The assailant lost his hand, then his life in the struggle. The only sad part to the story is that police have not yet determined whether to file charges. Folks, this is a no-brainer. No charges should be filed.

The march this past weekend on Washington was a record turnout for any event in the city, according to the National Park Service. The estimated 2 Million people in attendance dwarfs not only any turnout for any protest in our nation's capitol to date, but also dwarfs the mainstream media's attempt to play down the numbers. "Tens of thousands" my eye! Also, check out this pictorial from American Thinke r . The comparison of the trash left behind by the Americans who protest our government compared to the trash left behind by American Socialists who celebrated the inauguration. Incredible. I must not be in a small minority.

A Federal Judge, hearing a case stemming from New Mexico, has ruled that the police may not detain a citizen for open-carrying a firearm. The whole case stemmed from a situation in which a man open-carried into a movie theater. The officers illegally ordered the man to leave his gun in his car. Unknowingly, these officers just made that theater a lot safer for the criminal to work in.

Yesterday, many people showed up in Washington DC to protest our out-of-control government. MANY people. The NY Daily News , like some other liberal outlets, has reported this assembly numbered in the tens of thousands. Most liberal news outlets (NBC, CBS, ABC) did not even cover the event. However, the DC Police department numbers the attendees at 1.5 to 2 Million people, according to a British news outlet . Look at the photos, some taken by DC Police cameras. I do not think it was only a few thousand people. In Nashville, I saw a few hundred people. The numbers could have been in the thousands as I was not there long, and always there were some people leaving and coming in.

I went to the 9-12 assembly in Nashville today. Good time. Got to hear Ray Stevens perform. Got to see a bunch of people who feel as I do. Mrs. Usagi saw some Gadsden t-shirts - you know, the ones that are yellow in color and have printed on them the phrase "Don't Tread on Me!" She has been wanting one for a while, so she ordered one as soon as we got home. Saw many cool signs, mostly protesting government spending and the Obamacare package. I saw a few geared toward keeping the government's hands off of our guns, too.

A couple of weeks ago, I was out of town on business, as I often am. One evening, I was eating at a restaurant, as I often do. I had checked for those silly signs that a very few places post that prohibits Handgun Carry Permit Holders, like me, from carrying within their establishment. Note: any place can post such a sign, not just restaurants. I do not patronize any business that does. It is obvious by the sign that they do not want my business there. Sometimes, I drop off a card that explains why "no guns = no money." Anyways, I finished up my dinner, finished up an interesting conversation with the waitress (that will be another post!), and was speaking with the manager, as it was nearing close and he saw that I was a friendly sort of person. I asked him what he thought about the "guns in bars thing." He actually "corrected" me and stated it was in reality a guns in restaurants bill. He was right, of course, and I knew that, of course; but I get much mo...

I remember where I was. Do you? I had just started a new job, and was actually staying in a hotel across the street from the office in Nashville. My wife was still in Memphis, as we had not moved yet. I drove across the street, my car radio was playing "John Boy & Billy show" (Yes, my tastes have improved in 8 years). The cast of the show was unusually somber. They broke the news to me and I'm sure many others. The boss tried to make us focus on work, but so many were not in a mood to focus. We all felt the weight of the situation. My wife was scared that weekend when we moved our things to Nashville. After a brief unpacking, she wanted me to do something to make her feel safer. I grabbed several of my rifles and showed her how to operate each of them. She felt inherently safer.

This is from one of my most reliable sources, who happens to be an insider in one of the "big, evil Insurance companies." "BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee agrees with President Obama and members of Congress that the health care system is broken and needs to be reformed. As a leader in our industry, we have strongly advocated to guarantee health coverage to all Americans, eliminate pre-existing condition exclusions, and no longer base premiums on a person’s health status or gender. To keep the health care system financially viable, we also agree these reforms must be paired with an effective individual coverage requirement and need-based subsidies to get everyone into the health care system. These health insurance reforms and consumer protections make it unnecessary to fund a government-run plan that will disrupt the quality coverage that millions of Americans rely on today. We share the concerns that hospitals, doctors, employers, and patients have all r...

I have been looking for quite some time. I have found two blogs, originating from Tennessee, that have contradictory viewpoints to mine. Two. One more than one. One less than three. I follow three times that many blogs that agree with my side. Who is really in the majority? Maybe the carry in restaurants law was just fine.

This article on whether guns should be allowed on campus for carry by law-abiding carry permit holders caught my interest. Of particular note is the statement toward the end of the article by Cole County Sheriff, Greg White: "In actual shootings, citizens do far better than law enforcement on hit potential,” said White. “They hit their targets and they don't hit other people. I wish I could say the same for cops. We train more, they do better." It was fascinating to see a news outlet offer both sides of an argument. Contrary to what some may think, I welcome opposing views. Please, feel free to leave them on this blog. Understand I might well respond to an opposing view with facts and research.

Banning guns works, which is why New York, DC, and Chicago cops need guns. Washington DC's low murder rate of 80.6 per 100,000 is due to strict gun control, and Arlington, VA's high murder rate of 1.6 per 100,000 is due to the lack of gun control. Statistics showing high murder rates justify gun control but statistics showing increasing murder rates after gun control are "just statistics." The Brady Bill and the Assault Weapons Ban, both of which went into effect in 1994, are responsible for the decrease in violent crime rates, which have been declining since 1991. We must get rid of guns because a deranged lunatic may go on a shooting spree at any time and anyone who would own a gun out of fear of such a lunatic is paranoid. The more helpless you are the safer you are from criminals. An intruder will be incapacitated by tear gas or oven spray, but if shot with a .357 Magnum will get angry and kill you. A woman raped and strangled is morally superior to a woman with a...

Overview Well, the Appleseed shoot is in the books. I had a great time. Mrs. Usagi learned a lot about handling and shooting her rifle. There were several women and children present who were fairly new shooters. This was good to see. Unfortunately, one particular instructor's comments and antics frightened a few of them off. This was addressed with the "shoot boss." We will see how they handle it. (Post-edit: They didn't handle it.) (Post-edit  2: The instructor is at it again .) I was disappointed in one part of the instruction. The instructors present taught students to use a very tight loop sling. This might work well on traditional rifles, but is not a good idea on AR15 platforms. I had hoped to learn how to use a sling from the program, as they say they teach that - but I will be forced to learn from other sources and practice on my own without outside coaching. On the flip side, I shot a 221 on my last AQT - which is Appleseed's "Rifleman...

I never wish ill will on anybody. And this post is no different. However, there is definitely some irony in this story. Recently, there was a robbery in a Hendersonville park. The irony is that just a few weeks prior, Hendersonville had opted out of allowing Handgun Carry Permit Holders to carry in the park. Seems these criminals just did not respect that recently passed law. But then again, they did not have HCP's, either. So, the point is made yet again that when you prohibit the law abiding from carrying, the criminals know they have a safer working environment. Sheesh. ***Usagi nods head in a disappointed way***

This weekend, I am taking my wife to an Appleseed shoot . Naturally, she is nervous and excited about learning to shoot accurately with a rifle. I will be attending as well. For Mrs. Usagi, we selected the Ruger 10/22 rifle, which comes in the ever-popular .22 LR caliber. Mrs. Usagi is very uncomfortable with her shooting ability with a rifle, so I put a large powerful scope on it and sighted it in personally so that she would have every advantage. It kinda looks funny - a $150 rifle with a $1000 scope on top. Since she will be using the .22 rifle for her practice, I am "forced" to use my AR15 - the quintessential "Evil Black Rifle" (EBR). Mine is made by the wonderful people of Bushmaster Firearms in Windham, ME. It is a really fun rifle to shoot. The only drawback is cost of shooting - the ammo I'm using this weekend was $0.25 per round. Compared to the $0.04 per round of the .22 that Mrs. Usagi will be using. My Bushmaster AR15 is topped with iron sights , a...

So this morning on Facebook, I find the following quote: " No one should die because they cannot afford healthcare, and no one should go broke because they get sick. If you agree, please post this as your status for the rest of the day." I could not possibly agree with this. So I did a little searching and found a perfectly acceptable alternative: "No one should die because the Government is involved with health care, and no one should go broke because government taxes and spends everything we make. If you agree (that government is the problem and never a good solution) please post this as your status for the rest of the day."

Words cannot express how mystified I am at this clip . Hollywood stars pledging to "be a servant to our President." Mr. Obama is a President, not a king. There is a difference. A King rules over subjects. A President serves the public that elected him. Our president - any president - is a servant of We The People. Now pardon me while I go vomit!

The Fourth Amendment is one that was created to prevent a police state - that is to prevent police from having ultimate power. The founders wanted the people to have the ultimate power - not government, judges, police, or other. The man in this clip is legally open carrying and one cop goes way overboard, violating the man's 4th Amendment rights, and attempts to lecture him on how wrong he was for open-carrying. This happened in Indiana, apparently. Ironically, Indiana's carry laws are very similar to TN, with the exception that someone with a permit can open carry a long gun. Man, I wish I could carry my rifle/shotgun.

Setting: This is a regular repo situation - guy's car is in the shop and he does not have $500 to pay his deductible. Phone calls go unanswered, etc. The address he gave me is, in reality, his mother's address. I find this out after several drive-by attempts to spot the rental car. Finally, I go up to the front door, Kevin - an experienced Management Trainee is in tow. I knock. The door opens to reveal a lady of average height (5'5" perhaps) in her late 40's to early 50's who outweighs me and my coworker combined (I alone am over 275 at this point). There's a strange smell that I identify quickly as marijuana coming from the domicile. I ask for the renter by name and his mom identifies herself as such. She says he, the renter, does not live there any more. I ask where he lives. She says she does not know. I know better. So I try the civilized, logical approach: I tell her the basics (he's rented a car, insurance not paying anymore, etc.). I let her know...

A store clerk in Memphis successfully defended himself this week. Here's a link to the story . Another round for the good guys.

Which is more violent? A gun? A Vote? I think a vote is more violent. Look at it this way, a gun, even if fully loaded and accompanied by more guns, in the hand of a single individual, can determine the future forever of multiple people. The Virginia Tech shooting claimed the lives of 33 people - the most of any school shooting in American history. Second most is the University of Texas at Austin massacre where 14 people were killed. A single vote, however, can affect every person on the planet. Each election has the possibility of being decided by a single vote. Though that exact scenario has not yet happened in major American politics, it is still possible. One vote for the wrong person can put them in power and can have an effect on everyone.

California, it seems , is in the process of passing a law that allows Sikhs to open carry their kirpans (swords) wherever they go. The legislature claims this is in respect to their religious beliefs. ***Insert Gun-Nut humor here*** Hey, California, my religion requires me to carry an AR15. Since open-carried handguns must be unloaded in CA, I wonder if the sword will have to be dull? ***end Gun-nut humor***

This article , from today's Washington Post, was a fascinating read. You have what I would describe as an unknowing liberal, in a liberal town, decide to get his boss at the paper to let him purchase a firearm in Washington DC and write about it. If I ever need to hire a salesman, I think the author would be on a short list - how he sold upper management of such a liberal publication to allow him to not only purchase a gun, but to do so at their expense is a work of salesmanship. It has to be. Though you can see the evident bias in his story - likely form his upbringing - you can also tell he is giving what I would describe as a genuine effort to keep an air of neutrality while describing the story.

This case is a situation of self defense from FL. A person on a bike called for a driver to slow down. The driver of the truck got out and started fighting with the bicyclist, forcing him to the ground, getting on top of him, and starting to punch him. The bicyclist was a concealed-carry permit holder. He drew and shot the aggressor in the face with his .40 caliber GLOCK (much like what I carry). The aggressor died at the scene. A judge threw out the DA's charge of manslaughter, citing that this was clearly a situation of self defense. Oh, yeah, the passenger in the truck testified before the judge against his dead friend - stating that his friend was clearly the aggressor and likely would have seriously harmed or killed the bicyclist. As an unarmed combat instructor, I could teach almost anybody how to escape the position this bicyclist was in, with or without the use of a firearm. Which defense one uses is up to them.