Stuff I Didn’t Know…

…could fill uncounted libraries stacked to the rafters with (blank) telephone directories…

This was one of those things:

Human Events.  Yes, Human Events (!) brought me this information.  Quelle surprise, eh?

I’ve owned a few rifles.  Most were acquired due to the previous so-called Assault Weapons Ban.  Because I greatly dislike the government telling me what rights I have and don’t have!

But, while I’m an ‘okay’ rifle shot, I’m no rifleman.  I’m a much better pistol and revolver shot than I am with a rifle, comparatively   And with the exception of a .22, the AK variant, and the M-1 Garand, all the others were AR-15 style rifles.

And I didn’t know this.

Is firing a 5.56 NATO cartridge in your .223 Remington chambered AR15 dangerous?  Or do Internet forum-ninjas and ammunition companies selling you commercial ammo instead of surplus overstate the dangers?  Believe it or not, a real danger exists, and some gun owners who think they are doing the right thing may not be safe.~

~The significant difference between the .223 Rem and 5.56 NATO lies in the rifles, rather than the cartridges themselves.  Both the .223 and 5.56 rounds will chamber in rifles designed for either cartridge, but the critical component, leade, will be different in each rifle.

The leade is the area of the barrel in front of the chamber prior to where the rifling begins.  This is where the loaded bullet is located when a cartridge is chambered.  The leade is frequently called the “throat.”

On a .223 Remington spec rifle, the leade will be 0.085”.  This is the standard described by the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers’ Institute, Inc. (SAAMI).  The leade in a 5.56 NATO spec rifle is 0.162”, or almost double the leade of the .223 rifle.~

~Many of the AR-15’s currently sold on the market are made for the 5.56 NATO cartridge.  If you own one of these, you should be fine with any .223 or 5.56 ammunition.

However, ATK dropped this bomb in the bulletin on the .223/5.56:

“It is our understanding that commercially available AR15’s and M16’s – although some are stamped 5.56 Rem on the receiver – are manufactured with .223 chambers.”

So, even if your AR is stamped 5.56, is it really?  Check your owner’s manual or call the company directly and make sure you get an answer you feel comfortable with.~

You should go and read the whole article.  Then check your rifles’ manuals and markings.

Just to be and stay safe.

Now we both know.

Gun Appreciation Day

Today has been designated the first national Gun Appreciation Day!

On 01.19.13 got to your local gun store, gun range or gun show with your Constitution, American Flags and ‘Hands Off My Guns’ sign to send a loud and clear message to Congress and President Obama.

Most of the media coverage I’ve seen on the Internet of this event has been negative, e.g. why the coincidental day with MLK Day, after all, he was shot?

Maybe MADD should have a similar day recognizing when Senator Ted Kennedy drove off a bridge with Mary Jo Kopechne?  Isn’t that the same logic?  Perhaps we should ban booze?  Oh wait, that was done, and ended poorly.

Regardless, go to the website and sign the petition, in an effort to reach 50 million Americans.  Please.  Then go celebrate your rights.

And be careful out there!

Guffaw

Cleanliness is next to…

So, I’m reading passing-over, yet again, another warning on the Internet regarding keyboards.  It seems, more than public bathrooms, computer keyboards are THE source of e-coli bacteria for most folks.  E-coli is one of those nasty things we sometimes access through uncooked food and can cause serious illness and even death.

Yeah yeah, sure sure…yawn

I’m a bit of a germaphobe.  Being slightly OCD and having been ill many times in my life, this is not surprising.  A while back I was reading how the so-called 5-second rule is more realistically a 5-minute rule.  (dropping food on to a generally-clean-appearing floor does not automatically mean it’s instantly acquired enough strange bacteria to be a health hazard if eaten!  As if I’d do something like that! )  Currently living in a house with three dogs and a cat usually means mishandled food doesn’t even make it to the floor.  If it does, it means they’re kenneled, sleeping or seriously full.

So, back to the keyboard.  Specifically MY cordless computer keyboard.  Usually observed in low-light conditions, no issues are observed.  Wait-a-minute…what’s THAT on the keyboard, that red stuff (OH, it’s probably wearing paint…) WAIT!  The keyboard has black with white lettering, no color!  Uh-oh…

Yep.  A couple months back, just after my move, I developed a habit of eating at my computer, over my keyboard in some cases.  Usually…aw geez!  That’s it!  Jack-In-The-Box Tacos!

Old, dried TACO SAUCE ON AND IN-BETWEEN THE KEYS!  Yucch!

Apply Clorox Disinfecting Wipes to the affected area, twice!  And to all the electronic gadget remotes living in my room, just in case.  Because one never knows.

I feel better now, and a little hungry.  What sounds good?  mmmmm-tacos!

Made in USA? (NOT U.S.A.)

Miss Cellania is a site I link to often, mostly for humor and trivial entertainment. But, sometimes she provides Items of other interest.
For example:

The Cover-Up

When you see the words “Made in USA” it just might stand for Ulhasnagar Sindhi Association, which is in Mumbai, India. Or maybe Usa, which is a town in Japan. Or it could just made in the United States, but just that tony little part. (via reddit)

I’m not a xenophobe, and I do believe in free trade, but this is the kind of thing which brings us substandard and even dangerous products, like poisonous baby and pet food. - Guffaw

Prepper Mindset

Brigid has a terrific post regarding prepping.  Not so much the specifics, but the attitude.  You should go read it!

Home on the Range

The key line is the final one:

Being prepared is harder work than remorse, a lesson that as individuals and a nation, we often learn the hard way.

I’ve thought much of prepping – ever since the onset of survivalism (ala Mel Tappan) in the 70s.  But rarely have had the resources to do it properly.  And I’m no former specops guy; wasn’t a Boy Scout, and as an older, infirmed, overweight, crippled American on regular medication, there is much I cannot do.  Not to mention my income was cut 60% a few years back – due to my disabilities.  It’s not as if I can shave a couple gold bars to trade for some cases of ammunition and Metformin.  I’ve no gold bars.

But Brigid’s post brought up for me the mindset.  After all, didn’t Sun Tzu say we first fought with our minds?  I may not be able to have a survival bunker in the wilderness stocked with food, fuel, ammo, gold and water.  Hell, if TEOTWAWKI arrives, or even an earthquake or a bank run, I won’t panic and expect my government to take care of me.

I can fend for myself.  That’s the beginning.

Smoking

While out running an errand this morning, I saw another driver.  Smoking.  Well, he actually wasn’t smoking.  He had a lit cigarette in his left hand, and had it dangling out the driver’s door window.  I was in the car adjacent to him at the light, and I could smell the smoke.  I watched, and when the light changed, he drove off, never ever taking a drag.  WTF?  Is he a smoker or not?  Was it just a prop or a talisman?

I don’t smoke.  I flirted with cigars and pipes in my youth, in an effort to look older and cool, but didn’t pick up the habit.  As a result, I just look older.  My real mother died when I was in grade school, of emphysema, contracted as a direct result of her smoking.  I don’t blame smoking, I blame an addictive personality.

This doesn’t mean I like smoking.  I don’t like the smell of smoke around me.  But I also abhor the anti-smoking zealots who simply can’t stand to be around it – and who treat smokers (users of an entirely legal substance) as if they are pedophilic lepers.

The common societal meme is smoking kills.  The American Cancer Society and other groups have successfully placed this thought into the American psyche.  Turns out, all factors added in, only about 20% of smokers contract lethal illness as a direct result of their addiction.  While not a positive statistic, it’s not the you smoke your gonna die! meme.

The same can be said for the whole second-hand smoke thing.  Turns out, many of the same political forces responsible for establishing this as settled science are the same folks who want to impose their thoughts about greenhouse gasses and socialism upon the Republic.  I’m not providing links – do your own research.

I’m about Freedom.  And I can handle a little sniff of tobacco if it really isn’t affecting my health.  Being locked in a small office opposite a chain smoker is one thing; sniffing a bit of smoke outside at an intersection quite another.

And, while I’m ranting – what IS it about many smokers who somehow think that it’s okay to fling a burning stub of paper, tobacco and filter on the ground willy-nilly?  I’ll bet if I walked or drove around striking matches and throwing them away I’d attract the attention of the authorities!

I’m not pro-smoking.  I’m not anti-smoking.  I’m pro-freedom.

A Public Service Announcement

Peter, aka Bayou Renaissance Man posted a warning a couple days ago that slipped through the cracks.  Well, MY cracks.

It seems that Winchester produced some faulty duty ammunition in caliber 40 Smith & Wesson.  The  failure  involves some of the cartridge casings having been produced without a flash hole. This condition completely eliminates the ability of this Service cartridge to fire.  (speaking of slipping through the cracks…)

Ya think?

Obviously, this warning is primarily for law enforcement and previous law enforcement officers who may have some of this ammunition in their possession.  Certainly, some may even have reached civilian hands.

Again, boxed ammunition with the following codes must be removed from service IMMEDIATELY:

• Product Code: Q4355
• Day Code: Any code beginning with F or EN

(I wonder if any of this was included in the mega-bazillion rounds of ammunition recently purchased by the DHS?  Just thinking outloud.  -  Guffaw)

Just Wondering…

Weer’d World shares a tale of almost woe…

Wherein his wife is home alone, and called him, because it sounded as if there was a burglar downstairs.

Frightening stuff for anyone.  And Wee’rd Beard stayed on the telephone with her, until it appeared the threat was gone.  AND he checked the premises and perimeter upon his return.

The most frightening part of the tale for me was when he recounted:

She told me she’d heard a noise downstairs. I told her it WASN’T me, and she should be loading up the gun.

How frightening is THAT?  That they live in Massachusetts, which requires their firearms be unloaded in storage (and, I presume locked away).

How much time do they have to respond to a home invasion or burglary?  And still be ‘legal’?

I do wonder, if a burglar, home invader, misguided youth is found alive after such an encounter, if they are armed and their gun is empty and locked.  And if not, are they appropriately charged?  Just wondering.

…and it went off

Mother in Wash school shooting makes plea deal

The Associated Press – May 15, 2012

SEATTLE —

The mother of a 9-year-old boy who brought a gun to a Washington state school that discharged and wounded a classmate pleaded guilty on Tuesday to weapons charges under a plea deal with prosecutors, dismaying the victim’s family.

Jamie Chaffin pleaded guilty to two counts of unlawful possession of a firearm, with the state recommending a sentence of 14 months in jail, Kitsap County Deputy Prosecutor Jeremy Morris said.

Authorities had said Chaffin and her boyfriend, Douglas L. Bauer, caused the shooting through the negligence of leaving the handgun where the boy could pick it up at their house. He put the .45-caliber handgun in his backpack, and it went off Feb. 22, critically wounding Amina Kocer-Bowman.

Kocer-Bowman’s parents issued a statement saying they were disappointed by the deal.

“We want legitimate accountability for the heinous act that nearly ended her life. We want responsibility from those whose irresponsibly and negligence nearly cost us our daughter’s life,” her parents said in statement. “Finger-pointing, plea deals, and court-mandated apologies are like a slap in the face as we watch those accused receive a slap on the wrist.”

In March, Kocer-Bowman’s classmate was sentenced in March to 12 months of probation and counseling. The boy also wrote an apology letter to his classmate and apologized to her in court.

Kocer-Bowman underwent weeks of recovery at a Seattle hospital after the bullet pierced through her body.

Chaffin was originally charged with unlawful possession of a firearm and third-degree assault, which would have brought a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

Morris declined to comment on the case because it is still pending.

Does your toaster, blender, toilet, folding knife or car just go off?

Now, WHAT are The Four Rules, AGAIN?  And do firearms just go off by themselves, as if by magic?

SIGH

h/t The Gun Wire (TM)

Dust Bunnies after Easter

not like this

As it’s been unseasonably warm here in the Valley of the Sun (with some intermittent cool-downs) I’ve taken back my Smith & Wesson 442 electroless nickel for my primary carry.
Because it’s easier to conceal or because I’m lazy.  Pick one.
And I noticed, as I have been carrying the 1911, the 442 is pocket-linty.  She suffers from dust bunnies, obviously acquired in years of pocket holster carry.
Her barrel IS clear, though, I checked!
I always think of the old military/police joke about weapons inspection, wherein the sergeant peers down the barrel of the veteran’s gun and announces, “Hey!  There’s a spider in here.  And he has hash marks on his sleeve!”
If you carry daily, when was the last time you looked down your barrel?  In safety, of course.  I suspect most modern firearms would function flawlessly, if the first round encounters some stray dust, regardless.  But, I prefer knowing my barrel is clear.  And my firearm is clean and properly lubricated.
I’m touchy that way.