I've heard this argument before. So just because there is a restriction on shell capacity when hunting ducks, that it applies for all other applications?
Have you considered that ducks aren't predators? What is the main predator to humans?
OTHER HUMANS!
If Hitchcock's movie, The Birds came true, I guarantee that three shell limit would be lifted so quick. Just because you have an extremely small percentage of all gun owners that are using an ar-15 in a predatory-like behavior to other humans, you feel that the rest of those that do own ar15s should be limited in how many rounds that they can have in a magazine to defend themselves? That just doesn't make sense.
Let's just say for the sake of argument some law passes which restricts magazine capacity. Do you for one minute think that those magazines would just dissolve into thin air, and that evil human predators would obey that law? There are already laws on the books about not killing people, but that isn't stopping them.
The argument about limiting magazine capacity for me just doesn't make any sense.
I’m already a lifetime NRA member however I’ve noticed the best organization that fights for our second amendment rights is not the NRA based on my observations, but Gun Owners of America.
Today I saw this advertisement on YouTube and finally got me from “thinking about” joining GoA to stopping everything, going online and becoming a member (and then some) to support their efforts to fight for our rights of self defense.
There are alternatives to simply getting rid of guns to protect our children in schools. These alternatives should be explored rather than rely on politicians to do anything.
Apparently there are lots of people who vote that are also ignorant about guns. As well as many other things.
There are many topics I’m not educated on for sure. But the importance of maintaining a free people that have the ability to defend themselves is a concept that confuses politicians and people.
The people’s need to protect themselves from governmental tyranny. It’s not a “what if”. But rather a “when”. It’s happened before and if things keep going the way they are trending, it very likely would happen again.
This sounds really familiar. Fortunately, we have checks and balances to prevent the 2nd amendment from getting steamrolled. The Taliban however, with their almost instant overtaking of the Afghan government can't trust their people to not retaliate when the beheadings become more frequent, and rights are taken away in the name of religion.
If your kid is obsessed with guns, and you don't ever let them shoot them at the range, you've failed.
Every gun owner has a responsibility to not just ensure their guns are secure, but that youth in their households no longer look at firearms with that twinkle in their eye. They aren't toys. They aren't magical. They have a purpose.
Sneaking out, and taking one from your house at night to play with your friend is a tragedy waiting to happen.
It angers me that America put this incompetent fool in office. But he isn't unique. There are a ton of others government officials that talk about firearms which they know nothing of. I'm sure there are many other topics where the same pattern applies. They just repeat misinformation they are given without doing their own homework and knowing for themselves.
But here is one exception. When a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun, that’s a hard sell to the anti gun community. They just want all guns to just disappear. It’ll never happen.
The Desert Eagle 44 magnum in gold has been on my wish list for a while, but I was turned off by the Picatinny rail in the front. Mainly because I didn't want my red dot to be whipped around like crap. In this video, I just noticed that the front of the rail doesn't actually move. Notice when he racks it in this video:
The first exercise "Open Training" 20 shots; each time change from a standing position to a kneeling position and then shoot. The score must average over 90. It doesn't matter which kneeling position you do (left knee, right knee or both knees on the ground) - Focus: shooting from a different position.
The second exercise "Reload, In Battery" 20 shots at a time. Gun is in front of you on the table (muzzle facing the target); on the buzzer, pick up gun, loading motion and shoot. Average over 85 and under 4.0 seconds. (Remember in SETTINGS - ADVANCED SETTINGS - set Buzzer Delay for Reload Drills up to 6 - 9s). Focus: Improve pistol grip
The third exercise "Shot Timer" 10 shots. For this you need two mags. Hold the pistol at the holster position. On the buzzer, "draw"and engage (it clicks), malfunction tap rack, (slide stays open), immediately execute a reload and engage. The total time must be less than 6 seconds. The exercise must be restarted each time. Focus: Speed up and improve Weapon Handling
The fourth exercise "Hostage Taker Beginner" 2x 10 shots. At the buzzer, move backward at least 6ft (2m) while drawing and firing the pistol. You have to rescue min. 7 out of 10 hostages. Here it is important to have covered the 6ft (2m) before you pull the trigger. Focus: Move and still hit
In the Mantis facebook group, someone brought up the lack of holsters that accommodate a mantis attachment. This is an issue when you are doing drills that require holstering and drawing. My existing holster for my Mantis is this Ghost Holster, but when the mantis is attached, the holster won't work.
The barrel goes on that little knob on the bottom, and the trigger goes in that slot by the "Gh" part of the logo. The Mantis is attached on the underside of the rail and prevents the trigger guard from fitting into the slot and locking.
This last year for a family fun activity, Cathi stopped by Walmart and picked up a bunch of roles of different colored duct tape. She designed an activity where the family would have a duct tape building contest. You can make whatever you want out of duct tape and any other type of material. I found some cardboard and measured my CZ Shadow 2 while it has the Mantis attached under the rail.
This worked awesome, and I even fashioned it with a G. Except when I was done, I realized I had put in the belt slot on the wrong side so that the holster was built as a left side holster. But it still works, just not as form-fitting as I originally had designed. But it's tight and keeps the gun in a functionally protected way and stable for doing holster draw / shoot drills. I would never use this as a real world holster by any means.
Here is some video of me using the CZ Shadow with the Ghost holster for drawing. I've only done 2 USPSA matches which were totally fun by the way. And I'd like to do it again sometime. But right now ammo is so pricey, that it would have to drop back down to normal for me to justify that expense.
So now that I have all the challenges completed from Mantis. While I should just keep training, someone on the Mantis X facebook group has created a series of challenges to keep things interesting. So here is the challenge for Week 4 that I just completed:
Calendar Week (CW4)
Open Training - 50 shots - score over 90
Support Hand Only - 40 shots - score over 85
Compressed Surprise Break (Finger on the trigger) - 20 shots - score over 85, less < 0.3s
Open Training (90° pivot to left / 90° pivot to right) - 40 shots - score 85 points
Explanation:
All scores are average scores. Each drill must be done in one piece. For Support-Hand Only drill, you will do it 4 times (4x10) and if you don't succeed one of you need to redo it until you complete it.
Open Training 90°: Your body is 90° turned away from the target. Pivot to shooting position and shoot. You can do 20 left and 20 right.
50 shots open training averaging 95.6
4 sets of 10 support hand each averaging over 85
4 sets of 10 compressed surprise break each averaging over 85 with less than .30 sec
Last two sets of 20 shots open training with 90 degree pivot left, then right both averaging over 90.
I didn't vote for Governor Cox. I don't have much confidence in our national two-party system. But this past week Governor Cox and Utah lawmakers Walt Brooks and David Hinkins, got something right. Utah HB 60 passed.
For those who opposed this bill, may I remind you that the funding of suicide prevention programs is not mentioned in the constitution, whereas the 2nd amendment "Shall not be infringed" is.
Thank you, Governor Cox, and Utah State legislators for remembering that the role of government is not to restrict our rights of self-defence despite the fact that roughly 50% of suicides are through firearms. (https://www.sprc.org/scope/means-suicide).
Whether a person has a CCW or not will not change the state of a suicidal person's mind.
Make a difference in someone's life for good today. Be more caring, more patient, and helpful. Doing that every day will make a bigger difference than requiring CCW permits.
With all of that said, the CCW Class is a tip of the iceberg chance for folks to learn about the laws surrounding appropriate gun use. For me, the CCW Class I took did not include any on-range training but was just a short classroom setting talking about when you can lawfully and morally use a firearm in self-defense.
Firearms owners should be extremely familiar with their function and diligently train those in their household about gun safety. Just because you have a CCW doesn't make you proficient and competent. There is an opportunity for everyone to supplement their "arsenal" with professional in-range firearms and safety training which is more important than the caliber of the firearm itself.
I felt like my Hunter's Safety class that I took was a better course for firearm safety and competency than the CCW Course. I have no problem with the requirement to take the Hunter's Safety course to hunt. Because the 2nd amendment has NOTHING to do with hunting. It is appropriate in my opinion for the government to require a hunter's safety course in order to get a hunting license. That is totally different from requiring a permit to conceal a handgun for self-defence.
Do I feel that every person who carries a gun should receive training? DEFINITELY! But it is not the role of the government to enforce that. And despite this law removing the CCW permit requirement within Utah to carry concealed, I will continue to renew my permit so that I may be permitted to conceal in other states which respect the Utah permit as well as their own. In that case, it's a voluntary program. And I have no problem with that money continuing to go to suicide prevention programs. But to require it despite the 2nd amendment? That's wrong.
This Utah Senator, Jacob Anderegg, made the very same points I just pointed out above. This guy has it totally right!
Before covid-19 hit in early 2020, the cost of 9mm hit a low point. When I first got into shooting in 2016 the cost for 1000 rounds of Blazer Brass was a little over $220 per 1000 rounds. Last time I bought ammo in November 2019, I got 1000 rounds of this ammo for $209.62 (after shipping). I know because Cathi made me track every stinking penny on anything firearm related and put it in a spreadsheet so I could see how much money I was "wasting".
The cost now (Feb 2021), for the same ammo has increased over 400% compared to a little more than just one year ago (Nov 2019). $795 compared to around $180 before tax and shipping.
One of the best investments I've made that gave such a return so quickly. Unfortunately this means I am not taking trips to the range to shoot. With today's prices, a double tap of 9mm would cost about the same as a Sausage McMuffin going down range. Putting it in that context makes me want to cry.
So the way I train today, is dry fire drills with the Mantis X training system. I love it. I've tried a few different types of dry fire training systems.
I bought the iTargetPro in Summer of 2017 for just under $100, and after about a few weeks the laser wasn't consistently going off with each trigger press. The rubber portion of the laser cartridge where the primer would be, was wearing out, and only turning on the laser when the firing pin hit it just right. That sucks. If I train, I don't want to have to fiddle with anything. It should fire the laser every time.
In August 2018 I bought the Mantis X system from Amazon for $159. That system is awesome because I just attach the very small bluetooth Mantis X system to the underside of any gun that has a slot under the barrel for a laser or something like this. There is an app that you download to your phone and it connects to the Mantis system that is mounted to your gun. With every press of the trigger it announces a number of how accurate you are. It considers the amount of movement during the actual trigger pull, then captures the spot at which the firing pin clicks, and then the follow up movement afterwards for tracking any kind of flinching. To better understand that whole thing, here is a great video that goes over the mantis x and how it works.
I use the Mantis X with my CZ Shadow 2 handgun. The rail on the bottom of my Hellcat isn't deep enough to allow it to attach securely. That's fine. I don't want to have to take it on/off my CC gun every time anyway.
Another reason I like it on my CZ is has a double-action trigger pull, so I don't have to rack the slide after every trigger pull which I would be required to do with the Hellcat, or any other striker-fired handgun.
But with this training system, the double action of the CZ Shadow comes in handy as I can keep my grip right where it should be and I can continue shot after shot, although the trigger travel and weight of pull is quite significant to normal shooting practice. Considering that every trigger pull is basically free, I'll take it!
Here is a quick demo of the basic app features.
I'm very happy with the Mantis X training system as it has lots of features and tracks my history so I can evaluate my progress. I love that it announces verbally with every shot how I'm doing with the grading number.
The app includes many different training programs, which if you pass the 10 step program for each, you will be prompted for your address and Mantis sends you a Velcro-backed patch to recognize your achievement! Free of charge! That's so awesome. This past month I've worked at practice and got all 4 patches currently available:
Each achievement is done in this order, and you can't skip any of the levels:
Basic Marksmanship
Advanced Marksmanship
Elite Marksmanship
Basic Combat
If you end up getting a Mantis X system, go to Groups, and add me. My username is: gords
This system will make it easy for you to have fun, and improve!
Update: 3/8/21 - I've passed all the pistol courses listed above. Now going to try the Mantis out with my CZ Scorpion.
Unfortunately, there aren't any courses with rifle option. Just USMC Qualification. So I'll probably just go back to training with the Shadow 2 until there are some decent drills and achievements made specifically for rifle.
