How Helene Affected The People Of Appalachia

Herschel Smith · 30 Sep 2024 · 11 Comments

To begin with, this is your president. This ought to be one of the most shameful things ever said by a sitting president. "Do you have any words to the victims of the hurricane?" BIDEN: "We've given everything that we have." "Are there any more resources the federal government could be giving them?" BIDEN: "No." pic.twitter.com/jDMNGhpjOz — RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 30, 2024 We must have spent too much money on Ukraine to help Americans in distress. I don't…… [read more]

The Purpose of the Law in the New Covenant and Other Notes

BY PGF
1 year, 5 months ago

Some reminders, foundational instruction for us, and a few points of core importance to the Christian faith are set forth. Parts of this may appear as a simple Sunday School lesson to some, but we often meet folks who lack these baseline principles of the workings of God. As you read, some meat may be found in opening the Scripture and examining the context surrounding the cited verses.

Where Deuteronomy in the Old Testament is the foremost book of the law doctrine given to Moses, the book of Romans is the primary book on the New Covenant doctrine of grace by faith in Christ. Hebrews has much weight to lend to these foundational principles by showing how the Old Testament law of sacrifice was fulfilled in Christ, but it’s Romans to the mind of the man in the new birth through faith in Christ Jesus, that must be studied and understood to know the full import of faith by grace in Christ’s atoning death, burial, and resurrection.

We’ll look at several sections in Romans bringing three vital truths.

The Reward of Debt or of Grace.

“4 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. 5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” – Romans 4:4-5

The reward is the consideration in repayment, but Christ is the final and full payment to Holy God for your sin. To those who seek or attempt to maintain soul salvation by works of their own doing, they are not under grace but debt. You could read this burden as debt after faith because you love God for saving your soul by faith, but though we commend the believer’s service, that’s not what is meant in verse 4. Verse five is included for context.

The debt spoken of is sin debt to God, as though a man were worthy to offer up to God anything to repay God for violation of His holy law. (See Romans 11:6.) If you try to work your way into heaven, you make the grace of God through the offering of His own Son of no effect, having rejected Christ’s humiliation in offering Himself on your behalf. I greatly fear the end of these men.

Works salvation is an impossibility in the first place because God already owns you (Ezekiel 18:4), and all things you have or could ever give are His granted to you. A man has nothing to give because all of creation is God’s! That’s why the blood of bulls or goats could never fully satisfy God’s wrath for sin but only put it off temporarily (Hebrews 10:4). Though you kill a thousand fine heifers, the justification for sin was always through faith.

But most importantly, and the doctrinal point of Romans chapter 4, is that no man shall be justified except by faith in Jesus Christ. It’s Christ’s work, His atonement fulfilling the promise of faith given to Abraham, the father of our faith. The assurance was not given for creating heirs through the law of Moses (Deuteronomy) by works but through the righteousness of faith. If the heirs of the kingdom were by the law, then the law of grace is void and of no effect, and you remain lost to burn for eternity.

“13 For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. 14 For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect” – Romans 4:13-14

But righteousness was not imputed to Abraham alone. It is written to us in the Old Testament and New Testament that by faith alone, those who would come to Christ, who is the justifier of all, shall be justified; for none other, including any works of our own at all, can justify.

How is a man justified? Speaking of Abraham: “23 Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; 24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; 25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.” – Romans 4:23-25

There is a chapter break after Romans 4 and verse 25, but the rounding out and summarizing statement of Chapter 4 is in verse 1 of Chapter five, and we’ll include verse two for context: “1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” – Romans 5:1-2

Therefore, since the justification of the ungodly (sinner) is by faith and not repayment through works or human activity of any kind, we stand fast in the grace of God through the blood of Jesus Christ. We pray you never lose sight of the simplicity that is in Christ Jesus.

Sin By One and Atonement By One

Next, Romans 5:12 is a verse we often cite in many circumstances. It points back to the fall, where sin entered into the world, and evil becomes inherited by all men, for all men sin and die.

Adam is a figure of Jesus but only in federal headship over all men. We understand that you didn’t make Adam your federal head, but that’s just tough; the sooner you get over the fact that you’re not God and He is, the better everything will become for you and your civilization. The number of humanist Christians is alarming, if they’re actually converted by Christ, which we doubt.

In the single offense of unrighteousness, Adam, in violation of God’s holy ordinance in the covenant He made, came sin and death, both of which passed to all men. But, the figure of Adam is only in that universal imputation; through one (Adam) was sin ascribed to all, and therefore death passes upon all men.

In Christ is the perfect fulfillment of the covenant of God, that forgiveness by the grace of God might pass to all men by faith in Christ, who gave himself a ransom for all, fulfilling God’s plan according to the many prophecies of Scripture, and testified of today by those who know Him as the true and living King. Christ alone is the federal head of salvation from the sin you inherited. There are two inheritances; eternal life or eternal damnation.

“15 But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. 16 And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.” – Romans 5:15-16

The purpose of the law in the New Covenant

Another concept of Romans is essential and often misunderstood by modern evangelicals, believers of many stripes, and unbelievers. The notion that the law is of no use today and contrary to the purposes of the Christian in service to our Lord, drawing his family nigh to the throne of God, is wrong. Also, the law of God must serve as societal and governmental boundaries for the man, the body of Christ, the family, and the entire nation.

“11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. 12 Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” – Romans 7:11-12

Sin, when seen in the light of the law in the word of God, makes our sinful condition apparent. It’s not the law that causes death but the sin that the law reveals. The law of God is still perfect, holy, and just. Sin deceives us, and we deceive ourselves in sin, attempting to blame God for the perfection of His commands. And often, we are brought into thinking we’re not sinful, it doesn’t matter, or that somehow we are self-justified in our words or deeds. We also point out that the grace of God found in Christ is not license to sin.

When a man says he hates God’s law or even simply rejects it, he is, in fact, saying that the Holy Bible has revealed his sin, and he doesn’t know how to deal with that knowledge. This is an opportunity to understand the grace of God in the New Covenant; it was never the law that saved, but only faith. If you’re reading this and struggle with faith in God, understand that the rules outlined in the Holy Bible are not, and never were, designed to free you or put you in a forgiven position with God. Yes, indeed, the law of God is binding, and that’s the point; you need the grace of God to bring forgiveness for your inability to keep any set of rules, let alone the perfect letter of the highest and holy law in creation set forth by our heavenly Creator.

You need Jesus Christ, for He paid through obedience where you never could or ever will. Have the faith that Christ’s obedience today stands good for you before Holy God; make your covenant with Jesus to belong to Him. No amount of religious law or ceremony will save your soul; you must be Christ’s.

It’s by the ordinance that we know sin even today. When the Spirit of God convicts a sinner, be it unto initial salvation or working in the soul unto consecration, all instances have a related section of the law that has been trampled.

Again, by the law is the knowledge of sin (Romans 3:20). No man is justified in keeping the law, for he cannot maintain the whole, but justification comes only by faith in Christ and Him crucified.

Verse 7 of Romans seven offers the example; thou shalt not covet. The cravings men claim in their desires they self-justify as requirements all day long, seeking that which is not only unnecessary but sinful or wicked. In our nature, we sin, having no knowledge that these lusts are wrong until the law is revealed by Scripture or Spirit. God’s holy law is good and does not kill. But the sin that the law reveals in us shows the end in us, which is death (Romans 6:23). Perfect obedience is not the point, but the fear of God by awareness of sin through knowledge of the law brings us to function in the service of Christ.

Believers today also fail God when they reject the law because they don’t allow it to convict them that they might purge their sins, one by one, being set apart now, drawing ever closer to the Holy One. Having first received the law of grace, the law in ordinances is an aid in refining the man that he be made worthy to carry the title of Christian, by faith, belonging to Christ as his King, and having no other.

Where the law of commandments is the conviction for sin, the law of grace is not allowance of sin, but forgiveness from sin. The law of God is the conviction of sin unto death; the law of grace is the mercy of God unto eternal life.

The maturing Christian comes to love the law of God, for it points out our weakness, enlightening the eyes to just how holy our Creator and Redeemer truly is; the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous by any measure of depth or breadth. The law points us to our need for Christ to grow ever closer to Him. The law directs us to understand our wicked ways so that we might be active participants in the purging of our sins, for it’s sin that separates the man from his God. And the law of the Lord is perfect to convert the sinner to walk in the love and light of Jesus Christ our Lord by faith alone. The law only ever pointed to the grace of Christ by faith in Him.

How Recoil Affects Handgun Accuracy

BY Herschel Smith
1 year, 5 months ago

The wheel guns do actually experience muzzle rise before the bullet leaves the muzzle, albeit small, but small at the muzzle means big at the target.

I haven’t done a detailed analysis of it with a “free body diagram,” but I’m willing to bet that the reason this effects revolvers and we didn’t see it with semiautomatic handguns is that the round is in front of the hand rather than at the back of the gun, providing a force “couple.”

I won’t attach a picture here.  You can research “couple.”

Trap Shooting for Beginners | Rules, Tips, & Techniques

BY Herschel Smith
1 year, 5 months ago

This is a good video.  I’ve shot trap, and I didn’t know some of the rules of etiquette he covered.  By the way, if you don’t shoot clays, you’re missing out on the most fun you’ll ever have.

‘This is just my conscience’: Georgia gun store closing over shootings targeting children

BY Herschel Smith
1 year, 5 months ago

Source.

A Georgia gun shop owner has decided to shutter his business, saying he does not want to be responsible for children dying in a mass shooting.

Jon Waldman opened Georgia Ballistics in Duluth in March 2021, hoping to get into a line of work that would survive the pandemic — but as gun sales increased across the country, Waldman noticed that the number of children impacted by mass shootings also shot up.

“I don’t want something that I’ve personally touched, that I’ve helped a client with be used on children,” Waldman told 11Alive. “What stops this [gun] from being used against my kid? That’s the problem I have, you never know the person getting it just because they pass a background check.”

‘This is just my conscience’: Georgia gun store closing over shootings targeting children

Okay, whatever.  On that logic, every person who works in pharmaceuticals should quit because people can overdose, including accidental ODs by unwatched children.  Same thing for every cleaning chemical manufacturer, which also causes deaths of children every year.  And every worker for a car manufacturer should quit because their vehicles can be used to cause roadways deaths (and there are tens of thousands of them every year).

Anyway, do you see that rifle he is holding?  It’s an Ohio Ordnance HCAR.  I sent him a note asking what he is charging for it.  I have yet to receive a response.  Or else, this is a stock photo and not really a picture of the guy selling the business, in which American journalists suck.  But we already knew that.

Does a Police Checkpoint on a Bike-Trail Violate the Fourth Amendment?

BY Herschel Smith
1 year, 5 months ago

He poses some interesting questions, and I’d like to see this issue studied a bit by him or someone equally familiar with both constitutional and case law.

My own view is that simply putting a sign up at an entrance to so-called government property (like a park) isn’t reason enough to justify a search.  That’s not a so-called “administrative search.”  I assume and believe that for public places, the rules of “Terry Stop” still apply, i.e., there must be articulable reason for the search such as suspicion in the commission of a crime.

I’ve given this some thought too concerning stops and searches of hunters on public lands.  Almost every hunter is aware of his training, i.e., when you are approached by a DNR officer, put your weapon in a safe condition, be polite, and be prepared to have your privacy invaded.  He may and probably will demand to see your hunting license and examine your harvest.

But why?  What gives that DNR agent the right to do that?  The fact that they’re on “public land?”  Do the citizens not own the public land?  What’s the difference between public hunting land and a downtown sidewalk?  Do we allow cops to come up to us and frisk us, demand to identify us, and demand to search our belongings because we’re walking on a sidewalk “owned” by the state?  No, most states do not have stop and identify statutes, and besides, those are unconstitutional even if they exist.

Why does a DNR officer have the right to assume I don’t have a hunting license just because I’m hunting (that’s the assumption behind demanding to see my hunting license, right, that I don’t have a license)?  Why does the DNR officer have the right to force me to open the tailgate of my truck and examine my harvest?  Does he have evidence of a crime to make such invasive demands?  Without such evidence, or at least suspicion, does that search violate the fourth amendment?

I would claim that it does.  England had rules regulating hunting under the notion of the royal forest.  As of the 12th century, nearly a third of England’s land was designated “royal forest,” and only the king’s men and other nobility were allowed to hunt game there.

We don’t live in England.  We live in America.  We fought a war over things just like this.

I think this is pregnant ground to be tilled, and I’d like to see lawyers take this up with some offended hunter – perhaps all the way to the supreme court.

Big Bore Bear Defense

BY Herschel Smith
1 year, 5 months ago

Guns Magazine.

An elk guide I know prefers his .357 with heavy hard-cast bullets. SA or DA, a .357 revolver can be made slimmer and lighter than a .44 Magnum. While big-bores have the clear edge in power, bullets of high sectional density from stiff .357 loads hit hard and bite deep. In auto pistols, the 10mm is more than a match, its 180- and 200-grain bullets packing over 600 ft-lbs. Buffalo Bore lists a 180-grain JHP at 1,350 FPS for 728 ft-lbs., also a 220-grain hard-cast at 1,200 FPS for 703 ft-lbs. This 10mm load is shared by Grizzly Cartridge, which also sells a 200-grain flat-nose at 1,250 FPS. Muzzle-energy: a “mere” 694 ft-lbs! Underwood wrings 676 ft-lbs. from a 150-grain solid at 1,425 FPS. Black Hills has a 10mm HoneyBadger load, the 115-grain fluted bullet exiting at 1,664 FPS with 695 ft-lbs.

The only round to challenge the 10mm in standard-size auto pistols is the .400 Corbon, developed in 1995 by Peter Pi on a necked .45 hull. It kicks 165-grain bullets at 1,300 FPS, for 619 ft-lbs. While the .400 Corbon is only commercially chambered in a few pistols, the 10mm appears in countless 1911 platforms and other autos from SIGGLOCK and Springfield — even revolvers!

Why does no one ever discuss use of the 450 SMC for bear defense?  I have carried a .44 magnum wheel gun before, but I’ve also carried a 1911 with a stronger spring loaded with 450 SMC cartridges.  This round is 230 grains at > 1200 FPS, which matches the 10mm rounds he’s describing.

Furthermore, if that’s not enough out of a semiauto handgun, you can always bump up just a little bit to the 460 Rowland with a barrel and spring change.  That gun will send a 250 grain round down range at 1300 FPS.  There are kits for this modification.

The Founders Were Well Aware Of Continuing Advances In Arms Technology

BY Herschel Smith
1 year, 5 months ago

David Kopel.

While the Founders could not foresee all the specific advances that would take place in the nineteenth century, the Founders were well aware that firearms were getting better and better.

Tremendous improvements in firearms had always been part of the American experience. The first European settlers in America had mainly owned matchlocks. When the trigger is pressed, a smoldering hemp cord is lowered to the firing pan; the powder in the pan then ignites the main gunpowder charge in the barrel.

The first firearm more reliable than the matchlock was the wheel lock, invented by Leonardo da Vinci. In a wheel lock, the powder in the firing pan is ignited when a serrated wheel strikes a piece of iron pyrite. The wheel lock was the first firearm that could be kept loaded and ready for use in a sudden emergency. Although matchlock pistols had existed, the wheel lock made pistols far more practical and common. Paul Lockhart, Firepower: How Weapons Shaped Warfare 80 (2021).

The wheel lock was the “preferred firearm for cavalry” in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Id. The proliferation of wheel locks in Europe in the sixteenth century coincided with the homicide rate falling by half. See Carlisle E. Moody, Firearms and the Decline of Violence in Europe: 1200-2010, 9 Rev. Eur. Stud. 53 (2017)

However, wheel locks cost about four times as much as matchlock. Moreover, their moving parts were far more complicated than the matchlocks’. Under conditions of hard use in North America, wheel locks were too delicate and too difficult to repair. The path of technological advancement often involves expensive inventions eventually leading to products that are affordable to average consumers and are even better than the original invention. That has been the story of firearms in America.

The gun that was even better than the wheel lock, but simpler and less expensive, was the flintlock. The earliest versions of flintlocks had appeared in the mid-sixteenth century. But not until the end of the seventeenth century did most European armies replace their matchlocks with flintlocks. Americans, individually, made the transition much sooner. Lockhart at 106.

Indian warfare in the thick woods of the Atlantic seaboard was based on ambush, quick raids, and fast individual decision-making in combat—the opposite of the more orderly battles and sieges of European warfare. In America, the flintlock became a necessity.

Unlike matchlocks, flintlocks can be kept always ready. Because blackpowder is hygroscopic, and could be ruined by much water, it was common to store a firearm on the mantel above the fireplace. Another advantage, which mattered greatly in America but was mostly irrelevant for European warfare, is that a flintlock, unlike a matchlock, has s no smoldering hemp cord to give away the location of the user. Flintlocks are more reliable than matchlocks—all the more so in adverse weather, although still far from impervious to rain and moisture. Significantly, Flintlocks are much simpler and faster to reload than matchlocks. Seee.g., W.W. Greener, The Gun and Its Development 66-67 (9th ed. 1910); Charles C. Carlton, This Seat of Mars: War and the British Isles 1585-1746, at 171-73 (2011).

Initially, the flintlock could not shoot further or more accurately than a matchlock. Lockhart at 105. But it could shoot much more rapidly. A matchlock takes more than a minute to reload once. Id. at 107. In experienced hands, a flintlock could be fired and reloaded five times in a minute, although under the stress of combat, three times a minute was a more typical rate. Id. at 107-08. Compared to a matchlock, a flintlock was more likely to ignite the gunpowder charge instantaneously, rather than with a delay of some seconds. Id. at 104. “The flintlock gave infantry the ability to generate an overwhelmingly higher level of firepower.” Id. at 107.

[ … ]

In 1777 in Philadelphia, inventor Joseph Belton demonstrated a firearm that could fire 16 shots all at once. The committee watching the demonstration included General Horatio Gates, General Benedict Arnold, and scientist David Rittenhouse. They wrote to the Continental Congress and urged the adoption of Belton guns for the Continental Army. Congress voted to order a hundred–while requesting that they be produced as 8-shot models, since gunpowder was scarce. However, the deal fell through because Congress could not afford the high price that Belton demanded. Repeating arms were expensive, because their small internal components require especially complex and precise fitting.

Hence, the Founders who served in the Second Continental Congress were well aware that a 16-shot gun had been produced, and was possible to produce in quantity, for a high price. Delegates to the 1777 Continental Congress included  future Supreme Court Chief Justice Samuel Chase, John Adams, Samuel Adams, Francis Dana, Elbridge Gerry, John Hancock, the two Charles Carrolls from Maryland, John Witherspoon (President of Princeton, the great American college for free thought), Benjamin Harrison (father and grandfather of two Presidents), Francis Lightfoot Lee, and Richard Henry Lee.

Likewise, the 22-shot Girardoni rifle famously carried by the Lewis & Clark expedition starting in 1803 was no secret, as it had been invented in 1779. It was used by the Austrian army as a sniper rifle. Powered by compressed air, its bullet his as hard as the modern Colt .45ACP cartridge. John Paul Jarvis, The Girandoni Air Rifle: Deadly Under Pressure, Guns.com, Mar. 15, 2011.

The Girardoni had a 21 or 22 round caliber tubular magazine, and could be quickly reloaded with 20 more rounds, using speedloading tubes that came with the gun. After about 40 shots, the air reservoir could be exhausted, and would need to be pumped up again.

As of 1785, South Carolina gunsmith James Ransier of Charleston, South Carolina, was advertising four-shot repeaters for sale. Columbian Herald (Charleston), Oct. 26, 1785.

Visit his article for further discussion of innovation, as well as the founders in literature and their own positions on development of weapons.

Suffice it to say that the founders would have been delighted with massively powerful and rapid firing weapons for the purpose of effecting quicker victory in the war of independence.

Also, note that innovations (except for crew served) almost always come from the civilian sector, even today.  The 30-06 was a civilian round before it was used in the original M1.  The .308 was introduced to the civilian market 2 years before adoption as the 7.62 by NATO.  Even Stoner adopted (and adapted) a mostly civilian equivalent for his 5.56 round in the M16, and the AR-15 was introduced into the civilian market before it was ever adopted by the U.S. military.

Revolvers have been in existence for a very long time, and yet were adopted as one of the sidearms by the U.S. and British militaries and in use up through WWI and even a bit beyond (M1917).  The venerable 1911 design by JMB may be the exception to the rule, having been designed for use by the military.

Don’t allow anyone to tell you that the founders would have felt differently about the second amendment had they known culture today.  They’re just being emotional and ignorant.  The founders would have said to spank the children and send them back to the schoolmaster to learn the bible, letters, mathematics and logic.

How We Stopped Mass-Murderers Time After Time

BY PGF
1 year, 5 months ago

We posted about this two months ago when the President of Ecuador authorized citizens to carry and use arms for defense against crime. I argued that the media will need to report these uses to be an effective deterrent to further crime there. And here in America, if there were robust reporting on all defensive gun uses, including when the gun is not fired, the amount of armed robbery and other violent crimes would be drastically lowered.

Slow Facts argues that mass shootings would also be reduced.

Real life isn’t like the movies. Bad guys don’t walk around with a soundtrack thumping with every step. Movie makers want to thrill us, but saving lives in real life is a lot more ordinary than that. Because it doesn’t sell tickets or sell soap, the news media isn’t interested in how our neighbors stopped mass-murderers about once a month for the last eight years. Ordinary people like us would do it even more often if politicians got out of our way.

Recognizing a new problem- Times have changed. Today we live in a media driven culture. Mass-murderers feel like failures and they want to take revenge on society. These narcissists know that the mainstream media will give them a multi-million dollar publicity campaign if they kill enough innocent people. The murderers revel in the thought of being famous even if they are not alive to enjoy that infamy. That feeling of anticipation is one reason the mass-murderers spend years in the planning stage. Those feelings of resentment and anticipation explain why these murderers write such lengthy manifestos and diaries.

Recognizing new solutions- Mass-murderers already feel like a failure. They don’t want to experience more failure when they come to kill. That explains why they seldom attack a group of armed policemen or attack an NRA convention where about half the adults are armed. The media won’t give mass-murderers the recognition they want when they are stopped and killed so quickly.

At first, we weren’t sure if armed citizens were a workable solution. Because the news media doesn’t cover it, it was hard to find cases where the attempted mass-murderers were stopped by ordinary citizens who happened to be nearby. Oddly enough, the mass-murderers did our research for us.

More at the link.

Eyes Wide Open: Using Situational Awareness to Avoid Trouble

BY PGF
1 year, 5 months ago

I’ve given initial training to a few folks, women and children mostly. I’m not a professional trainer, but the study of situational awareness is important. Sadly, it seems that police support sites are the only good sources of writing about firearms mindset

I’ve not read the book Spotting Danger Before It Spots You, by Gary Quesenberry from which the linked article makes mention. Also offered are opinions from the President of the United States Conceal Carry Association, Tim Schmidt.

When researchers videotaped people walking through a busy intersection in New York City, they later showed the tape to inmates who were incarcerated for violent crimes. They asked the inmates to rate the pedestrians on a scale of one to 10. One is an easy target, and 10 is a hard target.

The inmates rated the following body language characteristics as being a soft target:

  • Short, shuffling strides
  • Not swinging their arms in proportion with their stride
  • Exaggerated side-to-side movement when walking
  • Head facing at a downward angle

Conversely, the inmates rated the following body language characteristics as being a hard target:

  •  Medium to long stride
  • Arms swinging in proportion to their stride
  • Body movement in vertical alignment; appeared as a strong and determined walking pattern
  • Head level and eyes visible when walking

[…]

“Don’t go anywhere with your gun you wouldn’t go without it,” says [Tim] Schmidt.

This is a great point. It’s folly to assume you’re better off someplace you shouldn’t be just because you have a gun. If you shouldn’t be there or don’t belong there, don’t go. Similarly, becoming accustomed to always carrying is essential; never be without your gun, regardless of where you go. The first rule of a gunfight is to have a gun. Nor should carrying a firearm cause a more relaxed posture in any circumstance, be it home, work, or out.

It’s easy to make the error that peace of mind comes from having a gun. Peace of mind comes foremost from the Lord, having trained and prepared to defend yourself and your family. Peace of mind comes from being sure of yourself. That’s the basis of what the survey with the prisoners above shows, confidence in yourself, your surroundings, knowledge of where you’re going, and having purposeful intent in your demeanor.

I used to travel for word. Before I stopped flying completely, I very often got pulled from the gate or boarding line for “extra screening.” Now, I’m not particularly unusual. In fact, you could say my most unusual physical feature is my very usual size, build, and appearance. But, I’d get pulled because I was the only one not drooling into a cell phone; I was paying attention, examining the passengers, security measures, and conducting general safety observations. Well, it wasn’t hard for me to spot security; they were the only ones that were also paying attention. It’s better in that situation not to pretend you aren’t checking things. Trying not to be observed while being aware is sometimes a bad choice, as with the street crossers that had their heads up and eyes open. The point is you may be the only one paying attention, but it can save your life and the lives of others.

There are a few interesting points in the article.

Ryan Muckenhirn Discusses Rifle Bipods

BY Herschel Smith
1 year, 5 months ago

As I’ve said, I would enjoy listening to Ryan discuss paint drying.

Anyway, there is a lot of wisdom here, but the best thing is that I learned about the Spartan Bipod System.  I had never seen this before.  It doesn’t look any less expensive than other bipod manufacturers, and may be a bit pricier for the higher end models, but it seems to me to be worth it if it works as advertised.

I’ll have to look into one of these models.  I’ll take one with the sling stud attachment, please, for the bolt gun I’ll take deer and hog hunting.



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