Rule #1

A sixgun or automatic pistol is a tool, and a deadly one; handle them as such. From the start, consider all guns as being loaded whether you know them to be empty or not. Treat them as loaded guns and you will never have an accident. I am scared of empty guns and keep mine loaded at all times. The family knows the guns are loaded and treats them with respect. Loaded guns cause few accidents; "empty guns" kill people every year.

--Elmer Keith, Sixguns, p. 87

Posted because I'm tired of telling grown adults nicely.

Photo from Dean Spier's site.

S&W Model 19

This is a model 19-3.  There are many like it, but this one's mine.

The Model 19 is the descendant of the Combat Magnum, introduced in 1955 at the behest of Bill Jordan.  Jordan recognized that the K-Frames were a marvelous balance of weight and accuracy, but he wanted a Magnum, and Smith & Wesson's N-Frames were a bit heavy to be carried all day.

So the engineers started brainstorming.  They gave it a heavy barrel and an underlug (like the N-Frames), and thanks to advances in heat-treating, the steel was strong enough to handle the increased chamber pressures of the .357 (1).

It was an immediate hit with law enforcement, and when Smith & Wesson starting numbering their revolvers, the Combat Magnum became the Model 19.  The 19 was produced until 1999.

On Joe Satriani

I went to high school in the late 1980s.  I was a musician.  You can sum the whole situation up in two simple words:  hair metal.

So yeah, I knew who Joe Satriani was.  Even though I was a bass player at the time (and, given that I could read and write music, an overemployed one), I lived in the land of lead guitar players.

You see, there were "rhythm guitarists" and "lead guitarists."  Though lead guitarists were known at times to be seen playing rhythm, it was made quite clear that their purpose in life was to step up and cut loose after the second chorus with the obligatory guitar solo.

The guitar solo is a unique vehicle for proving the musician's alpha-male status among other musicians, as well as ensuring that he would get laid like a madman (1).

Of course, there wasn't much to it.  All he really had to do was play a harmonic minor scale really fast for sixteen bars, ensuring that he ended it with a frenzied run up the neck, finishing off by hitting a high artificial harmonic and dive-bombing it down with the tremolo bar.

Seriously, that crap worked like Viagra for 16-25 year old boys with bad perms all across the United States for a few years.

Senate Bill 9

Well, we've got a preview of the Legislature's agenda for 2009, and I have to admit to some confusion.  The early draft of SB9 reads in part:

To amend Code Section 16-11-126 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to carrying a concealed weapon, so as to repeal the requirement that such a weapon must be kept in a holster; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot...huh?

Price gouging or not?

There's a simple duality of laws at work in a market economy known as the supply/demand relationship. Generally, if demand for a good increases, then the supply of that good scales up accordingly. This keeps the price of that good somewhat level.

However, if the supply cannot match a sudden spike in demand, then the equilibrium is skewed, and prices rise. That's what's happening in a segment of the gun industry right now.

बंदूक नियंत्रण मारता है

A few weeks before the Mumbai attacks, I met a few Indian shooters.  I asked them what the licensing scheme in their country was like, and their response sounded all too familiar.  While it's certainly possible, under certain conditions, to own firearms in India, the system is so complex and difficult that most people don't bother.

As a result, Indians are raised in a culture that eschews gun ownership.  They don't have them in the house, they don't engage in the shooting sports, and when a crisis arises, their police don't even shoot back at their attackers.