Obama on Guns

With the election less than a week away, I suspect most of you have made up your minds, and perhaps have even already voted. If you’re one of them, this post isn’t for you. I promise the next post will be politics free, and 100% about guns (it’ll be about a new AR upper I built).

For anyone out there who’s still on the fence, if the one thing that’s keeping you from voting for Obama is his position on guns, I’d encourage you to check out this video:

If you’re concerned it might be biased (and it probably is), check out this analysis on some of NRA’s claims. Now, I won’t lie and say that Obama is going to be a pro-gun President. He does support something similar to the Assault Weapon Ban that we got in the 90’s, and if it comes to it, I’ll be there fighting against it with you. But remember that we face much bigger issues today, whether it’s the economy, the war, health care, social security, education, or even the fact that our country is so politically polarized. On those issues, I think Obama has the right ideas, but to get anything done in those areas, he’d need the support of Republicans and moderate Democrats. That’ll limit his ability to do anything drastic around gun control, especially when his liberal base doesn’t actually consider guns to be a major issue (trust me, ask any liberal to name the top 5 issues, and I’d be surprised if gun control even comes up). So I, for one, am pretty confident my guns will still be safe under his presidency, if he is elected.

SCAR sighting (sortof)

I went to San Francisco today to try and go on a tour of the amphibious assault carrier USS Bonhomme Richard, which is here for Fleet Week. Unfortunately, by the time I found the ship, they weren’t allowing any more people on board, so I wandered into a nearby exhibit put on by the Navy Special Warfare group. And what did I see hanging off the side of an inflatable boat? Yup, a SCAR! One of the sailors(?) told a little boy nearby that it wasn’t real, but it looks more like a real rifle that’s been rendered inoperable (the flash hider looks weird, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s missing the bolt or other crucial parts). At least it looks more real than other mock weapons I’ve seen (which tend to be made of brightly colored plastics with no moving parts).

SCAR

letter to Obama

I’ve stated elsewhere in this blog that I’m a liberal, but I’ll take it up a notch and reveal that I am also an Obama supporter. Wait a minute. A proclaimed gun enthusiast who’s also an Obama supporter? Isn’t that a contradiction? Well, my answer is no, it’s not a contradiction. Obama acknowledges that we have an individual right to own guns, as the Supreme Court recently ruled (and those of you who think he’s going to “sign away our rights” are crazy; he taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago, he knows and respects the Constitution more than you or I — and certainly Bush or McCain). He does support “sensible” gun control laws to decrease gun crimes, but guess what, so does McCain and the Supreme Court. So the difference comes down to what they think of as being “sensible”.

Obama’s views on what’s “sensible” probably is more restrictive than McCain’s views. But here’s the thing about us liberals: we’re open minded. We’re so open minded that we frequently change our minds about things when faced with convincing arguments backed by credible data. Some people call that “flip flopping”, but admitting that you’re wrong isn’t a bad thing. And when it comes to guns, we (gun owners) have the upper hand because most liberals don’t know jack about guns, and their positions are based largely on ignorance. I know this because most of my friends and coworkers are liberal, and it didn’t take much to convince them that having my guns taken away would be wrong (and nonsensical).

So, here’s a letter I’m sending in an attempt to convince Obama (and other liberals) that gun bans simply don’t make sense. Regardless of whether or not you support Obama, I’d encourage other gun bloggers to spread this around. Because if Obama is elected, you’d want him to have read this.

I’m a strong supporter of Senator Obama in his presidential candidacy, and have donated hundreds of dollars to his campaign. I support him because I believe he is a truly inspiring leader, and agree with him on many issues, except one. As a gun owner and a liberal, I find his position on gun control, specifically his support for banning certain types of firearms¹ to be contrary to the liberal ideal.

Let me tell you a story about my friend Anne. Anne is another vocal supporter of Senator Obama. She has a degree in English from a prestigious university in Chicago, and works at a large internet company as a technical writer, while studying for her LSATs. A while back, she went to a local shooting range with some coworkers, and really enjoyed the experience. So I took her to the range recently, and after showing her how to safely operate a variety of rifles I own, I let her shoot them all. Her favorite gun? The AR-15, a civilian version of the M-16 rifle. It is a semi-automatic rifle, and looks like a military rifle to the untrained eye. She liked it so much, that she wants one of her own, except Senator Obama seems to think she shouldn’t be allowed to own one.

Why does Anne need a military-type semi-automatic rifle? Anne doesn’t need ice cream on her apple pie². Anne doesn’t need an occasional glass of wine³. Anne could survive without knowing how to drive too⁴. We don’t need most things in life, but in this country, we are afforded a myriad of freedoms, because freedom is what makes us happy. Anne needs a military-type semi-automatic rifle because it makes her happy⁵, and because nobody has any rational reason to deny a responsible girl like Anne that happiness.

Gun violence is a problem in this country. However, gun bans aren’t the answer. No study to date has shown conclusively that gun bans are effective at all⁶. Yet, gun bans unfairly and irrationally punish law abiding and responsible citizens like myself and Anne. It is analogous to banning alcohol consumption because occasionally someone drives while drunk and kills people. The only reason liberals don’t propose alcohol bans yet support gun bans is because most liberals enjoy alcohol, while most of them never learn about firearms, their safe handling, and why some people enjoy owning and shooting them. However, ignorance is not a sufficient condition for legislation. I’m not attracted to men, but that doesn’t mean other men shouldn’t be. I don’t believe in god, but that doesn’t mean other people shouldn’t either. Liberalism is about inclusiveness and tolerance for views we may not agree with or understand, within reason. Yes, reason. Show me that I, and millions of other law abiding gun owners are a menace to society. Show me that denying us guns will stop criminals from committing crimes. Then I’ll agree to a gun ban. Until then, gun bans are irrational and wrong, and I urge Senator Obama to focus on approaches that more effectively curb gun violence without unnecessarily restricting our right to happiness.

1. 1998 IL State Legislative National Political Awareness Test Jul 2, 1998, as cited on http://www.ontheissues.org/domestic/Barack_Obama_Gun_Control.htm
2. Obesity kills over a 112,000 people every year, according to the CDC.
3. In 2000, 85,000 people were killed by alcohol.
4. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 41,059 people were killed in automobile accidents in 2007.
5. According to at least one study, gun owners are happier even when controlled for income and education.
6. Gun Laws and Crime: A Complex Relationship on NYTimes.com

Super hot XM193

I recently bought a case of Federal XM193A (came packaged in black American Eagle boxes) from ammoman, and was surprised by what I saw at the range this weekend. I know these are loaded to “military spec”, and the previous case I got showed signs of high pressure (flattened primers, extractor marks). But the shells from this recent lot show signs of way excessive pressures. Out of a box of 20, I had one primer completely blown out, and had a few shells with clear signs of gas leaking from around the primers. I think I might pull the bullets, measure the powder, and try and build up a load with a little less powder.

WWII Bombers at Moffet Field

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve seen a number of WW2 aircraft circling the airs above my area. A quick search revealed that a number planes operated by the Collings Foundation were in town as part of their national tour, and flying out of Moffet Airfield. I decided not to shell out $400 for a flight, but $12 to walk in and around the planes seemed worth while. Check out some of the pictures I took (or see the whole set).

muzzle loading supersonic potato pellets

You know how your momma always told you not to stuff things down the muzzle of a breach loading firearm? Yeah, neither did mine. But I’ve still heard of horror stories resulting from obstructions in the bore, and know that it’s a stupid idea to put anything that doesn’t belong there.

Unless… if it’s for scav hunt. I couldn’t possibly fully describe this amazing tradition that takes place at my alma mater, but it’s basically a giant scavenger hunt lasting 3 nights and 3 days, where teams compete to acquire, create or perform some 300 or so items on a list (also check out video and photos).

Anyway, I participated with the graduate/alumni team this year, and one of the items was:

33. Have a potato break the sound barrier. [8 points]

Now, it’s supposedly possible to create potato guns capable of propelling potatoes past the speed of sound, but that seemed like an awful lot of work for 8 points (in contrast, a monowheel was worth 300 points). I do, however, own rifles with muzzle velocities way above the speed of sound. So, I figured, what if I just shoot a piece of potato out of my rifle? This might sound really stupid, but having read about similar experiments in Hatcher’s Notebook, I also had reasonable confidence that a relatively squishy potato right at the muzzle probably wouldn’t cause excessive pressures, and even if it did, pressures wouldn’t be high enough to do major damage. So, I picked up one of my least valuable rifles, an Ishapore 2A1, some 7.62×51 ammo, a chronograph, a potato, some odds and ends and went off to the range. You can see the rest in this video:

Caution: Do not try this at home. Or at the range. If you do, don’t blame me if your gun blows up in your face and you lose an eye and half your nose.

Since the bullet went 2700fps+, the potato that was in front of it right at the muzzle must have also gone as fast, albeit likely not entirely intact. I’m also happy to report that there was no noticeable damage to the rifle, and the Scav Hunt judge also seemed pleased with the experiment.

We’re happier and nicer!

Came across an interesting op-ed piece on the Wall Street Journal about gun owners (via Boing boing).

Some interesting statistics:

• [Gun owners] have the same level of formal education as nongun owners, on average
• [Gun owners] earn 32% more per year than nonowners
• 36% of gun owners said they were “very happy,” while 9% were “not too happy.” Meanwhile, only 30% of people without guns were very happy, and 16% were not too happy.
• In 2002, [gun owners] were more likely to give money to charity than people without guns (83% to 75%).

(I would like to remind the reader at this point that 84.23% of statistics are fabricated or otherwise doctored to support a particular position.)

VTR upgrade: Timney trigger

I don’t know if anyone reads this blog periodically, but apologies for the lack of updates. Rest assured, I have at least 3 posts planned for the next couple of weeks, and the first one is about my first upgrade for my Remington 700 VTR.

The X-Mark Pro trigger that comes with the VTR isn’t bad, but the trigger weight was a little heavier than I like. I tried to adjust it myself, but had a hard time removing the anti-litigation goo to get to the adjustment screw, so I decided to just replace it with a Timney trigger instead.

Replacing the trigger assembly on a Remington 700 is fairly simple, and only requires a couple of pins to be punched out. I did, however, notice a couple of gotchas, which I’ll document here:

• When removing the existing trigger, watch out for the hammer spring(?) which will jump out when the assembly is removed. You probably don’t want to lose that.
• I don’t know if this is a general problem with Timney triggers, but the bolt catch release doesn’t mate with the bolt catch very securely. I have to jiggle the release “button” a bit to make it engage. Also, if you hammer in the front pin too far, it’s easy to pin down the bolt catch, so watch out for that as well.
• Adjusting the trigger pull on the Timney is dead simple. Loosen the lower front hex-nut, then use a 5/64″ allen wrench to turn the screw in (to make it heavier) or out (to lighten). I lightened mine to about 2lb, but the adjustment screw was jutting out so far that I had trouble getting the action back in the stock. Filing away material on the stock in front of the trigger assembly fixed that though.

In general, these are all minor issues, and I really like the new trigger. It’s dead simple to adjust, and I also like the wider and flatter trigger, which further reduced perceived trigger weight. Last time I was at the range, I got some nice 3 shot groups, although I can’t seem to get really tight 5 shot groups. Might be me or the ammo… (Left: factory X-Mark Pro trigger on the left, Timney installed on the right. Below: My Remingotn 700 VTR with a Leupold VX-III 40mm scope and Harris bipod)

WW2 Bolt Rifle Match

My club had a WW2 Bolt Rifle Match yesterday, and I shot my 1903 Springfield. We shot a variation of the National Match course, with 10 rounds off hand in 10 minutes, 10 rounds sitting in 90 seconds, 10 rounds prone in 2 minutes, finishing with a 20 round slow prone stage. I shot pretty horribly, but it was fun. I’d forgotten about the peep sight on the 1903, and shot most of the match with the slit rear sight, which gave me a lot of grief. My ‘03 shoots high (even at 200 yards with the rear sight bottomed out), so I had to use a 6 O’Clock Hold with lots of white, which was made further challenging by the fact that my front site blade (a.k.a “razor blade”) is worn and shiny in the California sun, rendering it all but invisible. It was also my first time shooting rapids with a bolt rifle, and boy, that was hard! I only got 6 shots off in the sitting rapids. Someone noticed that I was completely breaking position to cycle the bolt, and after receiving a very helpful tip to learn to cycle the bolt without breaking position, did much better in the rapid prone. I finished with an embarrassingly low score of around 220, but seeing how I consistently have been scoring in the 425-450 range with my AR, I think I can do better with a little practice

The Perfect AR?

Do you want an AR with moderate recoil but an effective range comparable to that of .308? I learned recently that that is not a pipe dream. What you’re looking for is the 6.5 Grendel.

Based on the highly accurate 6PPC, the 6.5 Grendel lets you use heavier (but shorter) 140 grain 6.5mm bullets in a cartridge that fits in an AR-15 magazine. Its ballistic coefficient is comparable to .308, and the bullets supposedly stay supersonic out to 1000 yards and beyond to offer less wind drift and drop, as well as better terminal ballistics than .223 or 6.8 SPC (there are some nice graphs over on 65grendel.com).

So what’s the catch? For one, adoption of the 6.5 Grendel cartridge is still very limited, possibly because the designer, Bill Alexander, owns the cartridge. The name “6.5 Grendel” appears to be trade marked, and it appears manufacturers need a license to create parts and rifles chambered for the cartridge.

Nonetheless, a number of affordable AR uppers are available from Alexander Arms, as well as slightly less affordable ones from Les Baer, and they should work with any 5.56 AR lower. For those who prefer Minis, ASI also sells them chambered for the 6.5 Grendel. As for ammo, Alexander Arms sells quality loaded ammo, and cheaper Wolf ammo is available for plinking (ammoman has it on sale right now at $250/500). Of course, for hand loaders, dies, brass, and bullets are available as well. To top it off, there’s a fairly active forum for everything to do with 6.5 Grendel, and if you’re lucky, Bill Alexander himself may even answer your questions (now imagine having that kind of access to Eugene Stoner or John Garand…).

So… I think I know what my next AR project is going to be. Hell, it won’t even be a project. I’ll just get an upper and drop it in my existing lower. Gotta love modular designs