The Wandering Minstrel

This is good news - the NRA says there are now 20 states with some form of the Castle Doctrine - that’s fine, but falls 30 states, one District and several territories short of how it should be.

Senate unanimously OKs ‘Castle Doctrine’ bill

CHARLESTON — Senators agreed Tuesday that one’s home is a castle, open to the wind but not to intruders with evil in mind.

And if any is caught pilfering, the owner is allowed to use deadly force, and may use the fear of a threat the intruder poses as a “full and complete defense” in case the burglar files a lawsuit over his wounds.

From the Buckley Register-Herald

Just in case you might have missed this thought-provoking political cartoon.

Once in a while, the Glock 30 will get stuck in mid action when a .45 ACP round hangs up as it’s going into the barrel. I’m not sure if it’s the cause or the effect, but the round has a nick in it about a third of the way down the exposed jacket. One in a thousand rounds or more will do it. I’m curious if the nick is the result of getting stuck, or if it is nicked before feeding.

Maybe someone can tell me.

It’s interesting that the Glock 26 9mm has never done this. I can’t remember a single problem with it since I bought it almost a year ago. I shoot it every week too.

We’ve already seen this flick on the old TV, and that was a while before we started posting here. Recently, MadRocketScientist left a comment in the Shoot ‘Em Up post, comparing that flick to Crank, another non-stop adrenalin rush (literally). So, as I said I would do, I drug out the Crank DVD and queued it up on the HDMI DVD player and watched it on the new big-screen HDTV.

I’m very glad that I did!

Synopsis:

Chev Chelios (Jason Statham) is a professional assassin working for the West Coast crime syndicate. Chev’s girlfriend Eve (Amy Smart) is unaware of what Chev does for a living. Chev however, was planning to quit the crime syndicate so he can spend more time with her.

But for Chev, things are about to get very bad - he learns he has been injected with a poison called “The Beijing Cocktail” by his rival Verona (Jose Pablo Cantillo), which will kill him if his heart rate drops. Trying to stay alive and seeking help from friend, Kaylo (Efren Ramirez) and Doc Miles (Dwight Yokam), to keep his heart pumping. Chev sets out to find answers as well as protecting Eve, and get his revenge on those who have betrayed him before the poison kills him.

Statham performs in his usual over-the-top action-packed style while Yokam superbly portrays the slimy Doc Miles - almost as despicable as his character in ‘Sling Blade‘. We watched it two dizzying times on the big screen.

By the way, Mad Rocket Scientist writes a very good weblog, so we’ve added him to the Comrades-in-Arms list. Read his post about how the NIU shooter had time to reload his shotgun!

And thanks for reminding us about this very intense flick.

I took several firearms to the range today and had a lot of fun shooting. Perhaps the most enjoyable part was when I put fifty rounds of .357 magnum 158 gr. ammo through the little Smith & Wesson seen in the last post. It’s been a while since I shot magnum loads, but the satisfying report and concussion was worth the extra money I paid for the ammo. I’ll continue using wadcutters (the Devil’s suppository) for regular target practice, but once in a while I need to feel the power.

This is my nice little S&W 686 .357 magnum revolver. A small firearm, to be sure, but packs a powerful punch with a 158 gr. bullet. I can get seven rounds off while prone, on my side or on my back without worrying whether it will misfeed or stovepipe on me. Makes for a good little pillow gun. I plan to get the little laser-in-the-grip for it one of these days.

The United States’ Solicitor General, in a naive attempt to safeguard the Government’s current laws regarding the constitutionality of existing federal legislation, including machine-gun regulations, filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the D.C. vs. Heller case before the Supreme Court. The Goldwater Institute, a nonprofit, independent, nonpartisan research and educational organization dedicated to the study of public policy, submitted it’s own brief in response to the Administration’s position.

In filing it’s brief, the Administration has effectively sided with anti-gun proponents since the brief recommends that SCOTUS return the question to the lower court for reconsideration. All this will accomplish, sadly, is to postpone a Supreme Court ruling until a later date when the composition of justices may likely rule against the Second Amendment. What a disaster that would be.

The Government’s brief correctly states that the Constitution establishes and requires the Supreme Court to protect the right to keep and bear arms as a personal right, but then urges the court to apply a lower, “intermediate” or “heightened” standard of review to measures that impair this right, rather than the strict scrutiny that traditionally attaches to fundamental personal rights enumerated in the Constitution.

The Goldwater Institute asserts that there is no basis in logic or law to remand the question to lower authorities. According to the Goldwater Institute brief, the Solicitor General demonstrates a failure of principle and logic in the Government’s brief.

Let’s hope that the Supreme Court sees it that way.

References:

D.C. Gun Case - Bob Levy on the Solicitor General’s amicus brief

The Washington Times - Promises Breached (Editorial by Robert levy)

Goldwater Institute Brief (PDF)

If you like over-the-top action flix, this is a sure bet, but be prepared for a plot that’s thinner than a third-stage anorexic. The puns and innuendos in this movie are ‘groaners’ but you scarcely have time to let out a groan before the next action sequence begins.

There’s plenty of hot lead flying around during the action, augmented by a carrot or two. Yes, I said carrot - have you ever seen a carrot shoved through a bad guy’s eye and out the back of his skull? Have you ever seen a lactating hooker running a wet nursery in a whore house?

See?

You haven’t seen everything yet.

Puns, guns and fun - 4½ on a scale of 5.

DVD cover and synopsis from IMDB:

Late at night, in an unnamed U.S. city, a solitary man sits at a bus stop. A pregnant woman runs by, pursued by a man with a gun. With reluctance, the man at the bus stop rescues her and assists with the baby’s delivery, while additional pursuers fire at them, including the gang’s particularly nasty leader, an intuitive man named Hertz. Our hero, known only as Smith, determines to save the child and find out why Hertz wants the baby dead. At a local bordello, he tries to employ a lactating hooker to watch the child, but things quickly escalate, and this makeshift family is soon on the run. Heavy metal music calms the baby. Why? A laboratory, a gun factory, and a presidential campaign all figure in Smith’s search for the child’s ultimate safety.