GUNS, GUN COLLECTING AND SHOOTING FOR FUN

GUNS AND SHOOTING

Yep ... I confess ...

I am a crazy,
............whacked out,
.............GUN LOVER

I hate to spoil the image that the media loves to promote, but.....

I'm an astronomer working for NASA at JPL and shooting and gun collecting is my hobby when the weather is bad and I can't open up my observatory to do some asteroid chasing or astro imaging work .... It requires loads of skill and coordination, requires fast reflexes and steady nerves and muscle control.... It really works great for taking my mind off of WORK !

And ... it's just plain fun !!!

I support the following organizations who support

The Constitution of the US
The BIll of Rights of the US
The notion that all Americans should be considered innocent until proven guilty.
The notion that only criminals should be denied the right to own firearms.
Stopping violent gun crimes and deaths all across the Nation.

NRA CRPA HSSHF GOA

Shooting for FUN :

Try putting 5 rounds from a pistol into a 1-inch group at 50 yards sometime... ..... ( the XP-100 is a great target pistol ! )

Try putting 5 rounds from a rifle into a 1-inch group at 200 yards...or a 10 inch group at 1000 yds .... I'm gradually working to those longer ranges.... 4/22/00 === I shot a group at 200 yds that can be covered with a quarter ... 0.75 inches center-to-center !! YES !!!

Try your hand at Skeet and/or Sporting Clays or 5-Stand with a shotgun...
Put a few 45-70 rounds through an old Sharps Buffalo rifle that is some 125 years old ....
Try strappin' on some irons and skinnin 'em in fast draw competitions...
Try recycling some plastic bottle by filling them with water and then blasting them before you haul them off to the dump ... THIS is a lot more fun than paper targets <GGGG

I guarantee you these are all a lot more fun and a lot more challenging than snoring through some board meeting or painting lines on a freeway ....

SORTING OUT FACTS AND BIG BAD WOLF TALES:

SO... You are against the NRA.... You HATE the NRA !!!

Does that mean you are against enforcing laws already on the books that would take armed criminals off the streets and KEEP them off the streets ??

Does that mean you are against teaching gun safety to anyone who plans on owning a gun ??

If you answered 'NO' to both of those questions then you are a victim of the media and the BIG BAD WOLF Image that they have created for the NRA. And if you believe the BS pushed in the press that the NRA is a bunch of crazy folk out to let nasty mean horrible guns loose out on the streets so that the horrible, awful street killings can go on then you really need to visit the NRA's home pages and see what the NRA really is in favor of. They have pushed gun safety laws for years and instead of getting meaningful safety laws we got the Brady Bill. When the NRA's Instant Check was finally put into effect in some states it stopped more felons from buying guns in one week than the Brady Bill did in nearly a decade. NRA's PROJECT EXILE

If you live in a County or State that has NOT yet adopted PROJECT EXILE, then your legislators are GUARANTEEING that you live in an area that could be as much as 50% safer by just passing and signing a law that would put EXILE into effect. PROJECT EXILE uses existing laws regarding the CRIMINAL USE of guns and enforces those laws to the MAXIMUM and does not allow DAs to bargain away those gun law charges for lighter sentences. PROJECT EXILE makes the use of a gun in ANY crime VER unattractive to CRIMINALS. PROJECT EXILE does not attack the innocent gun owning citizens of the US. Project EXILE take the VIOLENT CRIMINAL off the streets and keeps them off the streets !

I'd also suggest you do some checking on your own over the so called 'FACTS' about how many gun deaths there are each year. Look at auto caused deaths ... Look at cigarette related deaths ... look at alcohol related deaths.... Look at how many deaths can be directly attributed to on-the-job stress.....also look at how many lives are saved each year by guns in the prevention of violent crimes and assaults..... then decide which of these 'weapons' is the most dangerous.

GUN MYTHS AND FACTS

**MORE LINKS TO GUN MYTHS AND FACTS and a QUIZ !!**

I just got back into shooting after almost 20 years away from it and I am STUNNED by the number of absurd, totally ridiculous and idiotic gun control laws that do NOTHING to help keep guns out of the hands of criminals. There are laws on top of laws all covering the same offense ( sometimes breaking one law now amounts to breaking 6 laws... all federal felonies ). Virtually all of these laws infringe upon the LAW ABIDING CITIZEN and have little to zero effect upon real criminals. I went to wander off to the range with my XP-100 target pistol, carrying it in my car like I used to do and was informed by a friend that I had just violated a federal law and that it was a felony to have that monster single shot target pistol in the car unless it was in a locked container. So, if I someday just forget to lock my new pistol box before heading to the range I would then be guilty of a federal felony. UNREAL !!!

Then we get to the really crazy laws....

The same exacty gun can have a few ounces of wood removed from its stock and become an illegal assault weapon.
I have an antique 1873 Winchester that can be considered an assault rifle because the magazine will hold 15 rounds or it can be considered at non-gun because it was made over 100 years ago !!!
Two guns by different makers can be identical in both appearance, function, cost, magazine capacity and caliber and yet one of those can be termed a 'Saturday Night Special' and we are talking $250 plus handguns here. There is no such thing as a $50 gun like you might see in some 'B' movie scene....
California's SB-23 was designed to take 'cheap' guns and "Saturday Night Specials" off the market... It took some of the finest and most expensive handguns and target pistols off the market as well.
California's ASSAULT RIFLE BAN basically considers guns to be assault rifles based on their APPEARANCE and NOT on their functionality !!!
I own over a dozen guns of various sorts for various types of shooting and I have to wait 10 days anytime I make a gun purchase before I can pick up that new gun and take it out for soem shooting .... If I run across a gun I've really been looking for in another state I am just about sunk on making the purchase there on the spot even if it is a 99 year old $15,000 1886 WInchester....
I just had to buy a $200 trigger for my target rifle because Remington has tried to put triggers on guns that kids can not pull. I guarantee you they can pull ANY trigger and a simple $10 trigger lock is all that is needed to make sure that the gun is 99% safe.

We are talking totally senseless crazy laws !!!!

I really think we need to have an IQ test as a mandatory check for anyone running for office !!!!

CALIFORNIA has the most Gun Control Laws of any State in this country.

Have you ever heard anything to indicate that Los Angeles is one of the safest Cities in this Country ???
In fact, LA rates as #3 for violent crimes and #2 for murders in 1993.
California had 46% more murders than other staes in the US in 1993.
Does this tell you anything about the effectiveness of Gun Control Laws?
Could it be that Gun Control is the WRONG ANSWER?

Virtually all 'Gun Control' Laws are simply ANTI LAW ABIDING GUN OWNER Laws.

They ONLY strike at the Law Abiding Gun Owners of this Country
They DO NOTHING to stop criminals who plan on breaking the law.
They clearly DO NOTHING to take the criminal element off the streets.
They clearly DO NOTHING to study or solve the real causes of the violence that seems to be growing in our society today.

Use MEANINGFUL laws to take the CRIMINALS off the streets. Guns are a sort of tool just like a screwdriver or a chisel. ( well maybe more like an expensive TOY for 'adults' <G>). The gun can not do anything that the person handling it does not make it do. ( In all of my 35 years of shooting I have NEVER seen a gun get up and walk around on its own!). If a gun is used in a crime then triple the mandatory prison term. If a gun is discharged in the course of a crime then make it a mandatory life term. Take look at what the NRA really want !! PROJECT EXILE

If the amazingly violent video game industry is part of the cause then let's rate the VIOLENT ones as PG-35. If we need to stop depicting such horrible violence to our youth then Movies with violence should be rated a lot worse than PG-13 and the news media should not be showing blood soaked accident scenes on the 6PM news! We already have plenty of laws to keep guns away from kids so maybe we need to stop exposing them to all the violence that they get dosed on in thier daily TV viewing and in their toys.

If I turn on the TV or go to a movie I can see dozens of murders and shootings and other attrocities in a single evening.
In real life I have never once seen anything like the horrors I can view on TV or at the movies.
WHY are TV and Movies so incredibly VIOLENT ?
WHY do parents let their kids watch such VIOLENT shows ?
WHY do Parents let their kids 'play' with horribly VIOLENT video games where they practice murdering people for hours and hours on end ?
WHY is it that, in the US, it is completely acceptable to show someone being brutally slain and/or blown to pieces in a PG-13 movie but it is totally forbidden to show a man or woman completely naked in anything but an 'R' or 'X' rated film ??

And... Then there is the role and responsibility that parents need to take on:

How a parent can leave a gun where any child can reach it is unfathomable.
How a parent can have ANY gun around the house without a $10 trigger lock on that gun is unconscionable.

Put the responsibility where it belongs. If a parent leaves a loaded gun around the house and a horrible accident occurs, that accident is certainly not the responsibility of the person who mined the ore that was used to make the steel that was used to make the gun. If you are a gun owner then you not only take responsibility for your own use of that gun but you must take responsibility for the safety of anyone that you expose to your guns. It seems like we have a society where no one wants to take responsibility for anything. What a concept !! ( Too many lawyers, too many managers !! )

Why am I a SHOOTIST ?

I do not own guns to fend off the so called 'Jack Booted Thugs' of the US Government (I think that phrase is referring to the IRS <G). I do not own guns just for self defense but I will use one in self defense if such an ugly confrontation should occur in my home or if my own life is threatened. I own and use guns for sports, to exercise my skills at long range target shooting, at skeet and sporting clays shooting and at 'plinking'. Virtually all ammunition used in the US and in most countries is used in sports. Shooting is FUN !!!. It is that simple.

I can and would use a gun as a weapon in self defense but I would not advise anyone to own a gun merely for self Defense reasons. First, if you are afraid of a gun you should not own a gun. ( It's hard to imagine being afraid of an inanimate hunk of steel !). Secondly, if you are not going to train to know how to instinctively use a gun and enjoy shooting the gun then you just have it stashed someplace and I think that is asking for trouble. I own and use guns because shooting is a skill and it is fun but I surely do not believe that the police and the cavalry will ride over the hill and save me in the event that I have to face down a prowler in the night or a raider out in the desert when I'm camping. If I had to rely on that miracle happening I would just be making myself into another victim. Anytime someone tells me that the government will protect me I get REAL nervous. I've worked with and for a number of Federal agencies and I would not trust them with a $5 bill much less my life and safety.

OH ... BY THE WAY

There is a very interesting book out that reports on the results of extensive studies in states where personal gun carrying is now allowed once again and that study shows that violent crimes drop in those states. It would appear that criminals don't like the idea of facing a victim who is just not ready or willing to be a victim. If your state has restrictive permit to carry laws ( like CA,AZ,CO,NM and a lot of others) , your legislators are guaranteeing that the VIOLENT crime rate in your state will be at least 20% higher than in a state that has an "issue on request" CCW policy.

"More Guns, Less Crime :
Understanding Crime and Gun-Control Laws"
by John R Lott Jr

You should really read over this study if you are female. While it shows that violent crimes drop dramatically in areas where Permit To Carry laws are issued upon request (with safety and training course requirements), it shows that the effect in lessening violent crimes on females is nearly double the effect on males !!!

8/23/00 LA TIMES ARTICLE by JOHN LOTT

You might also take a look at the works by Gary Kleck. If you think your basic murderer is just really a very normal guy who just suddenly decided to take on murder for a hobby then the studies by Kleck should be an eye opener. He has looked at the criminal records of violent criminals and managed to even get some jeuvenile records opened up for his studies.
BOTTOM LINE: You can probably pick out the 8-10 year old kids in your neighborhood who will be carreer violent criminals and who will murder.

Then there is hunting .... Ya ought to go out there into internet land and do some more fact finding... The results of this little quest should be a really eye opener when you finish looking up a few facts......

How many dollars do some of your well known 'Save the Wildlife' funds put out to really protect and preserve wildlife?
How many dollars do hunters put out there to protect and preserve wildlife?

Do some homework and you'll be surprised.....

I'm doing my homework after 20 years of thinking that just paying
my NRA dues was enough to keep my hobby safe .... OOPS !

Enjoy !!!

MORE !!! and ... A QUIZ !!!

LINKS: (under construction)

NRA Home pages

If you own a gun and want this hobby preserved ...
you should be an NRA member and fork over those dues !

and .... Don't just support the NRA !!!

Here are some other groups that believe that gun owners
should not be classed as criminals because of their hobbies.

Gun Owners of America

Gun Owners of California

Calfornia NRA Member's Council