The Wandering Minstrel

Next week, effective November 1st, the state of Wisconsin’s concealed weapons permit law goes into effect. On the same date, permit holders from 25 states will be able to carry guns in Wisconsin. Arizona is among the 25 states.

This is good news for The Better Half and I since we will probably find ourselves transiting through Wisconsin when we visit that region on a long-planned motor tour.

Excerpt from Madison.com:

Those states include: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

Arizona and Wyoming made the list despite the fact that residents in those states are allowed to carry firearms without a permit. However, those states offer a permit that can be used for reciprocity. Alaska also has an optional permit procedure, but didn’t make the list. Neither did Vermont, the only state that allows residents to carry firearms and doesn’t offer a permit.

Hat Tip to the NRA-ILA.

The Better Half got her Arizona Concealed Weapons Permit last week, one week after mine came in the mail. Hers took 45 days to get here but still a lot better than the 60-75 days that the Arizona Department of Safety estimated it would take.

I ordered “The Arizona Gun Owner’s Guide” last week. The book contains a synopsis of “where you can carry” in the state.

That brings us to the main topic, “Perks.” Carrying is not legal everywhere but possession of a valid permit allows the holder to access some places that are still off limits to non-holders “Constitutionally” carrying. The list of perks is below.

1. Ability to carry a concealed weapon within 1,000 feet of a school.
2. A permit is required to carry a weapon in Arizona’s National Parks.
3. Ability to carry concealed in states with reciprocity.
4. Permit holders do not need a background check when purchasing a weapon.
5. You need a valid permit to carry your weapon in a commercial establishment that serves alcohol (you may NOT consume alcohol).
6. When you take a concealed carry class you learn the laws of when you can use deadly force.

I will double check this list when the Arizona Gun Owner’s Guide arrives and update as necessary.

After only a 38 day wait, my Arizona CCW permit arrived in the mail today. The DPS website says expect up to a 75 day approval cycle, so it arrived in about half that time. The Better Half’s permit did not arrive yet, so we’re still waiting on hers. We hope it shows up within the next few days.

Even though Arizona is a Constitutional Carry state, The Better Half and I got our CCW training so we can carry in the 32 other states that recognize Arizona CCW permits. There are also several perks within Arizona, like being able to carry in restaurants that serve alcohol and the background check to purchase firearms is waived for permit holders.

Say Uncle posted a knife meme today where he says “Take knife from pocket, post pic on the internet.” I’ll go one better and post a video from January of 2009 taken on the day the knives arrived in the mail. I demonstrate the assisted opening feature and a one-handed closure.

The Better Half and I carry our SOG Trident TF1 folding knifes every day. She carries hers on her waistband and I carry mine in a cell phone pocket in my cargo shorts.

Genitron.com has an interesting feature on their site. It is a utility to access their database which allows you to search the database for the top 100 guns ranked by the following criteria:

• Power Factor
• Recoil Factor
• Total Capacity
• Concealability
• Defense Factor

When the results show up, there is a “pop up” button next to each gun. When you click on it, a window pops up with details about that weapon.

I created the (clickable) image above using a screen capture for each of our carry guns and a utility to merge the four into one. The five criteria are ranked in the bar graphs at the bottom of each panel.

The guns from left to right are Fat Man, Little Boy, Miss Piggy and Rosie the Riveter. Click the image to read the fine print.

I finally got around to catching up on my reading today. I finished reading Jeff Cooper’s “Principles of Personal Defense.”

I actually went back to the beginning of the book and re-read the first couple of principles. It took me about an hour to read the entire book since it’s under 80 pages in length. Just because the book is small doesn’t take away from the importance of Cooper’s principles in defending yourself and loved ones.

After finishing the principles, I read the chapter entitled “A Final Word,” in which Jeff Cooper describes the reasons for increased risk for violent crimes in today’s society. He stresses that the police won’t be there to help you if you have an encounter with one or more of an increasing number of malicious persons. Cooper quotes General George S. Patton - “Don’t worry about your flanks. Let the enemy worry about his flanks.”

This is what I got from each of the seven principles:

• Alertness - in spite of the fact that you don’t have a first strike advantage, you can be ready for an incident through awareness and anticipation by being alert.
• Decisiveness - you must consciously and quickly make the decision to defend yourself.
• Aggressiveness - if you need to defend yourself, you must present a violent and determined offense against the perpetrator.
• Speed - this principle embodies the trite “he who hesitates is lost.” Defend yourself with rapid, but well-placed hits on the target.
• Coolness - the ability to keep your head without panic is an important factor. Direct your anger with the perpetrator to your advantage. You have the right to be good and God damned angry for having to defend yourself.
• Ruthlessness - you’re under attack; don’t worry about over-reacting. Administer the revenge that your assailant deserves for placing you in this situation.
• Surprise - thugs who are met with a sudden and violent reaction from the victim are going to be surprised. Most will not be able to cope with your defense. As a potential victim, surprise works to your advantage.

I give the book five stars. I plan to pick it up every few months and re-read the principles as a review and to keep motivated to use these if it really comes down to having to defend ourselves. If we continually practice the awareness principle, we may never find a need to defend ourselves.

Perhaps the whacko hoplophobes in the Kalifornistan Legislature realize that a complete ban of open carry would result in litigation from the likes of CRPA, the NRA and the 2AF. Nah! They will go ahead and test the waters regardless of how much it costs the taxpayers over there.

We are glad that we made the move to a Constitution-observing state. We still have to go to the L.A.area to visit family and tend to our property. If open carry is our only option, then so be it.

From Gun Owners of California:

8/30:AB 144 sent to the inactive file in the Senate….making it 99% dead for 2011!!

Just the day before the above report, GOC reported the following regarding AB 144:

In the Senate, regarding AB 144, Assemblyman Portantino’s ban on open carry, rumors are that it will probably not be heard until sometime during the last week of the session (next week) but we’ve heard that before. Scuttlebutt is that the Assemblyman is trying to put together some sort of a press conference which would seem to indicate that he is definitely planning on having Senator Kevin de Leon (surprise, surprise) jockey the bill in the upper house soon.

De Leon is always at the center of anti-gun issues in the legislature.

This morning, I contacted our congressman using the NRA-ILA Elected Officials contact webpage. I urged the congressman to support a bill coming before the House of Representatives. The bill is the Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) and Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) bill H. R. 822, The National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act Of 2011.

Using the contact really simple - you just input your zip code and select State or Local politicians. When the next page comes up, you can choose your legislator and get on to the contact page where you can compose your message. You can choose “email” or “send a letter” options.

Now, why not just get your representative tuned in to the fact that National CCW is a good idea, starting with support for H. R. 822?