Novice Shooters
Two of my wife’s friends were interested in going to the range, so we scheduled it for early this afternoon.
The first had taken the NRA Basic Pistol course a few years ago, and hadn’t been shooting since. She was excited, and hopes to get a suitable defensive gun and concealed carry permit in the near future.
The other had only fired one shot from her former husband’s rifle, which left her bruised for a week. She wanted to go, but is VERY nervous around guns. She was expecting to fire a few shots, not like it, and retreat to the ’safety’ of the car while we finished shooting.
I gave them about 10 minutes of safety & basics before we headed out. It consisted of the NRA’s three rules, and basics on grip, stance, trigger control, and sight alignment. I took an old broken Marksman bb pistol that I’ve painted red to use as a training aid.
The first remembered most of her prior training, but wasn’t clear on if she should be using the Weaver or Iscocoles stance. I spent a few minutes with each of them and we worked out a comfortable two-handed stance for both. This led to a discussion on the drive to the range about stances, which I explained are a very personal matter. Physiology and strength play a large part, and very few people use a textbook one.
Since these were novice shooters, I went over my other two rules. If something is wrong, I’ll tap their shoulder, at which point they are to remove their finger from the trigger guard. This allows me to correct errors without them removing their grip or sights while they are still occurring. My other is that if anything unexpected or troubling happens, the gun is to be laid down on the bench pointing downrange. As these are novice shooters, any malfunctions they experience are beyond their ability, so I correct them at that point.
Once at the range, after a brief wait for a lane, we finally got down to shooting. The least experienced goes first. As I always do, the first magazine is only loaded with one round so that the gun is empty in case they don’t manage the recoil well or (gasp) turn around. The next two magazines are loaded with two each, and if they are comfortable we then move up to five.
From then on, we shoot 5 magazines of five rounds between target changes. I stand behind them and reload so they have a fresh magazine by the time they’ve run the last one dry. I also keep an eye out to correct any problems they have as soon as they appear. It’s easy to avoid bad habbits if you never get into the habit in the first place.
Both of the new shooters ended up firing about 75 rounds, with groupings about 8 to 10 inches from 30 feet.
Then my wife wanted to shoot her .45. Apparently two Marines who were firing in the lane next to ours had made some comment about the ‘wimpy’ .22 that we were using. They were shooting a .40 glock or sig at the 20 foot line, and patterning like a short-barreled shotgun. (Grouping at that distance shouldn’t be measured in feet, guys.) So she sends her special VisiShot target out to the 30 foot line and proceeds to put 20 rounds in an 8 inch group. We change targets, and she’s not quite done showing off yet, so she fires two more magazines one-handed. Her friends, and the Marines were suitably impressed. As was I, because she’s really only been shooting for about three months.
On the plus side for the day, two novices have a bit more experience. A person who ‘didn’t like guns’ had a really good time shooting, and my wife’s flinch with her .45 seems to be gone. The only downside was that of the 100 rounds of .45 that we shot, I only brought home 80 spent cases to reload.
Not-so-HOT lanes
I commute to DC daily, so I’m interested in anything that will have an impact on my commute. Currently, I’m a SLUG, but occasionally take the VRE or bus.
Virginia has been talking about converting the existing HOV lanes, which only busses and cars with 3 or more passengers can use, to HOT lanes which would be open to anyone with enough cash to pay the toll.
Official information can be found at virginiahotlanes.com and www.vamegaprojects.com.
The entire process seems to have been done in a less than open and honest manner, to the point that the Prince William County board of Supervisors passed a resolution requesting that VDOT or the contractor appear before them. It’s gotten so heated that the slug-lines forum was invaded by a troll that turned out to be Shirley Ybarra, a lobbyist and former VA Secretary of Transportation.
I have problems with anyone messing with my commute, so I wrote the following letter to my two state representatives about it.
To: Sen. Charles Colgan
district29@senate.virginia.govTo: Del. Jeff Frederick
DelJFrederick@house.virginia.govI am writing to you as a commuter from Northern Virginia who is concerned about the impact that the proposed HOT lanes on Interstate 95 and 395 will have.
Any additional capacity on 395 section of HOV lanes would only cause more delays. The bridges into the District and streets surrounding them are already at or above capacity. Additional cars arriving at these choke points will not help things.
According to an article in the Free Lance Star (http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2009/022009/02102009/444886) the re-striping of the lanes near the pentagon would result in lanes that are extremely narrow, and dangerous for busses to travel in at speed. This is already an area of congestion, and would only get worse with narrower lanes.
An article in TheNewspaper (http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/24/2458.asp) said that Transurban/Fluor are expecting a level of revenue, and if any other road improvements are made that adversely affect it, Virginia would have to reimburse them for it. This clause makes a lot of sense for them, but not for Virginia. It would have the undesired effect of increasing the cost of necessary road improvements or halting them entirely. Any improvements that Virginia would make to the roads near the HOT lanes, especially improvements in traffic flow, would cause fewer drivers to pay for the HOT lanes. This would trigger the payment for their decreased revenue, effectively punishing success.
An article in the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/19/AR2008071901651_pf.html) revealed that Virginia would have to pay Transurban/Fluor if the non-paying vehicles in the HOT lanes exceeded 25%. Assuming that busses and carpools currently using the HOV lanes would remain, I have not seen any proposals for improvements that would increase the carrying capacity of the HOV/HOT lanes by 300%, which would be required to keep Virginia from paying.
Relinquishing control of the existing HOV lanes would also cause problems, because the State Police would no longer be allowed to open the lanes for all traffic in the event of an accident. It would also extend the rush hours because the extra capacity would not become available at a set time.
I think that a much more sensible alternative would be to change the HOV-3 to HOV-4 requiring four passengers in each car, removing the exemption for hybrid vehicles, and building additional commuter parking spaces in Prince William County and south. Every space in the main commuter lots in Prince William County is filled daily, with many people parking along the sides of roads or other unauthorized areas. Every parking space built removes a car from the road.
The costs are quite troubling as well. The total cost of the project is expected to be over $1.6 Billion. Transubran/Fluor are only contributing $349 Million to it. And for that, they get a guarantee that 75% of the traffic will be paying, the completely unregulated tolls are geared to maximize their profits, there is no fixed buyout price should Virginia decide to take posession of the roads again, and their monopoly will outlive children born before it starts. Perhaps that is best explained by the illegal $177,000 donations that Transurban/Fluor has made to the Governor and legislators.
Other people have written about it as well:
Tennessee Paper Publishes Concealed Handgun Permit List
Well, another newspaper has decided it would be a good idea to provide a searchable database of all the concealed handgun permit holders in their state. This time it’s the ‘Comercial Appeal’ in Tennessee. They try to justify it at www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/feb/15/inside-the-newsroom-case-for-gun-permit-listings/ (No links for them, sorry)
The list can be found at www.commercialappeal.com/data/gunpermits/ (No, I’m not linking it, copy & paste it if you want)
Feel free to express your displeasure with their decision to make the data available by calling them at 8OO 444 6397 or by their online feedback form at www.commercialappeal.com/feedback/
If you do, please be polite. No sense ranting at them, it will just perpetuate the stereotype.
D.C. Tea Party 2009
Friday at noon, I attended the New American Tea Party in front of the White House.
One thing that anyone who has been to rallies knows is that conservative rallies tend to be much less well attended than liberal ones. From what I’ve seen, especially at the World Bank protests, this is because conservatives have jobs, while the attendees at liberal protests are unemployed kids being financed by their parents.
Even so, and with the short notice given for scheduling this protest, it was quite well attended. I would estimate between three and four hundred people, counting the ones that arrived late or left early.
Here are some pictures that I took of it:
There were a few Gadsden flags, including a home-made one in attendance:
And since it was at the White House, there were the perpetual orange-clad AbuGhraib/Gitmo protesters (who outnumbered anyone watching them).
And no picture of gatherings in front of the white house would be complete without a picture of the grizzled (and probably smelly, nobody gets very close to him) No Nukes protester, who has been there since the 70s.
