Brick Fight

...Why do you think we can only get more gun control? Overall, the pro-gun side is winning, not losing.

The whole point of my post was to try to make a connection between the two perspectives on this issue. When you say: "I'm not going to take arguments like books/red meat the same, as they are fundamentally different from what is created as an intended weapon.", that doesn't seem to be getting the point, which is that the other side does see them that way. They see self-defense as essential to a livelihood (just like food), and an armed populace as essential to a functioning society (just like free speech). If you see guns as a potentially dangerous privilege, then fine, but don't try to use arguments that rely on that premise on the other side. 

Keep in mind that I'm not arguing for control, I feel more of it as an inevitability. I guess I mostly get it by looking at the mounting anti-gun movements, and those state-to-state wins don't mean all that much with federal bans looming over political issues (like with Russian/Chinese import bans). I can only see more happening every time another issue hits the media loop. You're in a better position to know than I am, so I'm only saying it's how I perceive things. All I know is that the anti-gun arguments mount every day, and the arguments we gun owners use are losing their foundation, and the tone seems to only get worse.

The relatable argument thing is a bit more complicated to me, and I'm mostly looking it at from the perspective of "I'm convinced, but are they?." I live in a town that has maybe had two homicides since the early '80s (one of them being committed in another town and dumped here) and very rare break-ins, so I own guns mostly because I enjoy target shooting and as an emergency switch when I'm hiking (My M44 has scared off more bears than it will ever shoot). I mostly buy older rifles because I have more of an interest in their history and looks, and since I'm in PA I can't hunt semi-auto. A person who buys guns for regular hunting or personal defense is unrelatable in terms of reasons why to own firearms, but I can relate to their tools and draw a reasonable conclusion on what they want and need. However, the average Joe whose only familiarity with guns is from media or cultural influence will have a more difficult time relating. If they've made twenty, thirty, forty, etc. years without ever owning a gun and never feeling they did,

For example, it's possible to spin the CCW permits as a good thing to those on the fence. People with CCW permits tend to make up an absolutely miniscule percentage of violent crimes (disingenuous arguments put the number higher, but they leave out the "violent" part). This can show CCW holders as those who crossed hurdles to protect themselves. They wanted to be responsible gun owners looking out for their safety, jumped the hurdles, and proved themselves and the CCW system. The "tyranny of kings" and "what if someone came to your house and raped your wife" arguments are good for riling up a base, but being Angry Man with Gun is most of the time going to push people away. And people vote.

A closer example to the disgust some of us have-

 

"You need a license to buy a book. Any book the government finds to not meet it's criteria for public consumption, you need to pay a tax on, and allow the government to inspect your bookshelf at a moment's notice. If you are found in possession of a book the government finds offensive, without having paid the proper taxes and licensing fees, you will be subject to a fine and prison time."

 

That is a fair summation as to how absurd I find the vast majority of firearms laws to be.

I'm sorry, but that argument is as weak to me as mine was to you. I'm not going to take arguments like books/red meat the same, as they are fundamentally different from what is created as an intended weapon. My concern is that at the current rate, we will only get more gun control whether we like it or not, so the gun community and lobbyists are going to have to think really hard about what their arguments are going to be further down the road.

Working in food, I've seen states and countries ban food here because the fervent sanctimommies hear "something something microbes" about say, certain types of cheese, that it gets banned due to apathy and misinformation. Now making certain types of artisinal breads, cheeses, and meats are straight-up illegal due to lobbying and lack of any sort of strong "pro-food" base. Guns are not out of the equation. The problem with arguing gun control is that there is more of a passion now against them than ever, while at most other times it was indifference, with exceptions perhaps in the prohibition era. There are people actively rooting against gun ownership, and the apathetic types who live just fine without a gun, so we're going to need something besides "guns are a right, no dice" because there are people that are just not going to be convinced.

I tend to keep my mouth shut since I know that probably all of my political views are counter to the general opinions around here, but it bothers me that it's easy for anyone to get a gun in many places. I'm not in support of any substantial bans, but making it easy for the average jackoff to just go and get one when they please bothers me. My aunt recently purchased a gun, and that scares the hell out of me for lots of reasons like the fact that she's so terrible at raising dogs that they bite everyone and she regularly injures herself due to the neglect that are the garbage piles that are her houses. She's gonna keep that thing loaded or something and best case scenario it goes off without hitting anyone.

I've met people that don't do their yearly taxes because it's too much work (and they'd end up coming out ahead by paying someone like $30 to do it for them). Imagine the amount of dumb-dumbs we'd weed out just by requiring at least a short safety course.

I'm finally starting to read up on gun internals lately. I've been familiar with a few of the guns I'm most interested in (Vz. 61 was one I mentioned recently), but I've lately started scratching my itch to know more. It's kind of been a problem because I've rarely had a visual aid for when something is direct impingement or roller-delayed blowback or whatever. I've been using World of Guns to as the visual aid as I look up text on particular guns or mechanics. It's been handy, but I'm afraid to rely on it too much since it looks like the game and its animations are straight out of a Quake 3 mod. it's kept me even more interested in subguns than usual, since a good chunk of them feature some kind of unique mechanic like rotating barrels or something.

A month or so ago there was a story about a Roman sword found off of Oak Island in Nova Scotia. 

 

However, its probably just an 18th century remake that is being used to get those History Channel TV ratings. 

My dad watches that awful show. He used to watch it seriously, but makes fun of it now, too. We've discussed drinking games for it, and some great ones would be if you took a shot every time:

-A sentence starts with "I strongly believe."

-Someone talks about a "rare opportunity" to stand around picking their asses

-A person's name is listed with no job underneath it besides "Oak Island Theorist/Enthusiast"

-They excuse a failed expedition experiment with things like "Well, we narrowed down a quite a bit, so I'd call it an overall win."

and many others.

Went through a spat of reading Poland's WW2 history around a year ago. Holy shit, that was depressing. My babysitter told me a little bit about it when I was young, but I'm guessing she held a lot back because of my age.

When I was little, I picked up phrases here or there from neighbors speaking Russian, Polish, Hungarian, etc. I got all worked up later in life about forgetting languages and lost youth and all that, but I never really realized until recently that I was more just repeating things rather than learning languages. When I went to take Russian in college, one of my older friends who spoke it heard of my troubles and told me not to bother getting really worked up over the conjugation since most people will know what you're talking about, which made a lot of it easier.

Otherwise, I've gotten kind of interested in the Amish languages/dialects. Last year, I tried to ask the Amish people at the markets a few phrases, as it kind of sounds like a Dutch tape put on rewind.

I tried to replay Enemy Unknown recently, and I don't know how people can get into it. My soldier is fully behind cover in a flanking position with 80% chance to hit, and I miss. Same basic alien fires from outside cover against my guy who is behind a full-shield barrier and hits him. Un-weighted dice rolls are stupid.

The Division is the only game coming up that I have much of an interest in, but I'm more cautiously optimistic than anything.

The real (NFA) versions are absurd fun.  I still preferred the APS though, and if there was any justice in this world someone would offer a semi only version in 9X18 and 9X19.

They're one of the few firearms whose guts interest me. I find the rate-reducer and extraction especially neat. If I owned one, I'd probably be tearing it apart all the time.

Tamale Thursday pics:

At work, we do them traditional style: soak corn in water and slaked lime for like a day, then grind it into dough, etc. But since I'm at home and fuck all of that, this is made with maseca, essentially a corn flour.  It gets a good taste, but the straight-up corn masa is in a league of its own. The filling is pork shoulder with home-made sofrito with some green olives. Lemmy is frame-right providing supervision.

Add in the Skorpion Evo and you've got a good chunk of the best 9mm SBRs covered.

I'd do nasty things for a properly SBRed Vz. 61.

Training without so much as digging in the weapon and just putting any sort of ammunition on the ground is like doing physical training in fucking ice cream trucks 

I'm just mostly not so keen on the "here is a photo, must be something stupid because it's those people" talk. Goons do it to the rebels, too, and I'm willing to give each side some kind of benefit of the doubt.

Could be a training photo for all I know, or just a setup for some press photos. Or could be genuine combat formation. Maybe the threat of counter-battery isn't there. Was there any context provided for the photo?

 

Brave Ukrainian artillerymen are training to defend from the Russian asiatic hordes!

 

 

• Positions are not prepared, they're firing from open ground, I guess they live in a world without air support or counterbattery.
• Shells are lying on the ground.
• Trails are not deployed.
• Welp

 

It's been pretty much a thing since day one that little air support is happening. Product of a stalemate conflict with lots of air defense. Hell, you can't fly a commuter plane over the rebels.

Finally the firearms industry begins catering again to the lucrative Meplet market.

Hope they like being paid in beaver furs.

Got a new internet connection yesterday, so I don't have to click "stop loading page" when Looos posts a shitload of pics, and I can watch Alex's videos in 1080p. Sweet.

Ah, thanks for the correction.

Didn't the early deployments of Shermans have a radio set that was placed in the co-driver's seat, but were eventually moved to the commander's position?

I'm not saying it isn't unsettling if claims are true (this really just seems like someone read a story, and extrapolated, so I'm absorbing what information I can). I just think China just has more obviously repressive shit on their resume than this that they've been doing for decades that a game that for now mostly measures credit rating to even compare.

How are the Radom pistols they sell on AIM Surplus anyway? They're pretty handsome-looking pistols.

Keep in mind that the G36K has a pretty whippy little 12.5" barrel... But still, it's a fairly light rifle.

http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/mm205/saboteur7271/IMG_3507.jpg

Honestly, the G36 would be one of the best rifles in the world if it didn't have the thermal and humidity issues it has.

Are the results on the trunnion/sights problems solid enough yet? I see people speak up against it, but they're usually using certified non-polyethylene trunnions, or mostly based on political opposition, so I took such claims with a grain of salt.  I haven't heard any other adopters of the rifle chime in either.

G36K was the biggest surprise to me.

I don't like to dump on content when people I know are involved with it. Lord knows I don't want this forum to go "surprise from the internet" and start shitting on my cooking, but James' videos stand out as being that much worse than Alex's (props to Pat for his contributions, especially since he actually made CCW interesting to a liberal douche like me) content. Most videos are just long-winded footage of him holding a gun out in front of him, with tangents that completely dip away from the gun. I'll admit he's got presence, and his videos are edited. They're just so boring, not just in the object of what he's talking about, but I can't understand how a third-party folding AK stock from Magpul or a .22 AK is just interesting enough for me to watch a guy standing around talking about it for long periods of time.

God damn it. Any time I watch anything even mildly involving CCW, I have to clear my Youtube history. Also, I realize James is a hunk, but a 3/4 camera view of him for up to 15 minutes is boring. He even greenscreens his face over front views of himself.

That image hits home.

Is that one of the statues destroyed by the Taliban?