Tornado Eschaton

If you're a millionaire socialist, like Russell Brand, or Hillary Clinton, you might not be affected by the weather. Just climb into a private jet when things go wrong, and fly somewhere else. 

I'm not so lucky, when a Tornado Warning flashes across the screen, there it is and there I am, in the midst of it.

That's what happened this evening. The sky turned grey, then green, then black, and big hail started rocketing down from heaven like so many icy meteors.

I took in a worried parishioner who thought it'd be safer in the Compound. Perhaps it was, as the ice rattled off the house like shrapnel at the battle of Verdun.

It was neat driving around the town in the storm. Good thing I had a truck; other drivers were less fortunate, stranded in the flooded streets. Maybe they're armed, maybe the're not. If not, they'll wish they were.

As I write this, rain falls down in sheets, lightning flashes across the sky and we stand here, resolute on the perimeter, magazines full and round in the chamber.

Go on, Libs, come and take it. Just you try.

Be safe,

LSP

Go On, Shoot Your Upgraded AR15

Keen-eyed readers of this family oriented info blog, will know that I decided to take my AR15 apart and install a new gas block and a Yankee Hill free-float tube. Why? Just for fun and because I wanted to learn more about the rifle, with a view to building one myself. Neat project.

Must Get Front Sight...

I reckon the reassembled gun looked good, in a deadly black assault rifle kind of way, but I took it to a friend who knows about these things before I shot it. He gave it the green light, so off I went to the range with some boxes of cheap steel cased Tulammo and a value pack of Remington .223.

That'll Do

How did it shoot? Just fine, and I had fun setting myself various drills from 30, 50, 75 and 100 yards. Were the groups any better with the free-float thing? Maybe a bit, given no magnification, eyesight that could be better and a dog who enjoyed leaping up in sheer joy and excitement at the sound of the gun.

I Love The Range!

I had to put him on a leash in the end. But I'm pleased with my first foray into the world of under-the-hood ARishness. The gun worked and worked well. Next step? Keep this carbine to shoot cheap steel cased ammo and build a 7.62/.308 on the same platform. I've decided against a "6", you see, but that's a whole new story.

Shoot straight,

LSP

Texas Open Carry

When people think of Texas they imagine cowboys, big skies and a Wild West, six gun spirit. Something like this:

"Nearly every man we met with in travelling was armed with a knife, seven-shooter, and double-barrelled shot-gun," stated Brigadier General W.E. Strong, after patrolling Texas with a cavalry force in 1866.

Unsurprisingly, this didn't sit well with the occupying Reconstruction government and Texans were disarmed by the Act to regulate the keeping and bearing of deadly weapons of 1871, leading to the following complaint:

"The police and State guards are armed, and lord it over the land, while the citizen dare not, under heavy pain and penalties, bear arms to defend himself, unless he has reasonable grounds for fearing an unlawful attack on his person, and that such grounds of attack shall be immediate and pressing. The citizen is at the mercy of the policeman and the men of the State Guard, and that too, when these bodies of men embrace in them some of the most lawless and abandoned men in the State, many of whom are adventurers--strangers to the soil--discharged or pardoned criminals..."

Make of that what you will and note that today's ban on openly carrying sidearms in Texas is based on the 1871 Act. Government, it seems, doesn't like to relinquish control over its subjects.

But that looks set to change, with 6 Bills up before Texas' state legislature proposing a repeal of post-Civil War disarmament. Governor Greg Abbott has pledged to sign open carry into law as soon as the relevant bill lands on his desk. Until then, here's Sam Houston, Commander-in-Chief of the Army of Texas, writing in 1835:

"[T]he Dictator required the surrender of the arms of the civic militia, that he might be enabled to establish, on the ruins of the Constitution, a system of policy which would forever enslave the people of Mexico. Zacatecas, unwilling to yield her sovereign rights to the demand, which struck at the root of all liberty, refused to disarm her citizens of their private arms. Ill-fated State! her power, as well as her wealth, aroused the ambition of Santa Anna, and excited his cupidity. Her citizens became the first victims of his cruelty, while her wealth was sacrificed in payment for the butchery of her citizens. The success of the usurper determined him in exacting from the people of Texas submission to the Central form of Government; and, to enforce his plan of despotism, he despatched a military force to invade the Colonies, and exact the arms of the inhabitants. The citizens refused the demand, and the invading force was increased. The question then was, shall we resist oppression and live free, or violate our oaths, and wear a despot's stripes?"

Gun rights,

LSP

Open Carry Texas

Now that Demoncrat Wendy's been trashed at the polls, Greg Abbott's stepped up to the plate and announced he'll sign-off on an open carry bill as soon as it hits his desk. What! You're thinking, Texas isn't an open carry state? Not really, you can carry rifles but not handguns. That looks set to change.

And it's not just men, a lot of women support open carry. After all, who knows what you might meet.

At Target.

The diner.

Or even San Antonio.

Let's leave Austin out of this, but I reckon being armed would be useful there too.

Well done, Greg. Let's see that bill.

LSP