puzzler

At this past NRA convention in Charlotte, I spent quite some time looking at the collections of antique firearms. I especially liked this delightful and deadly cabinet of curiosities.


Some of these pistols were ingenious, some were works of art, and some were just plain strange but it was fascinating to see the variety of concepts people dreamed up in their quest to simply be able to hurl small balls of lead at high velocities.

People have continued this quest in modern times, to either improve firearm design or just because they can...and this is one of the most interesting, and involved, examples I've ever seen.

Congratulations, Chicago.

Today's freedom brought to you by The Second Amendment Foundation* and this guy...

Alan Gura...a true 2A hero , an honest-to-goodness legal genius, a super nice guy, and deadly with a light saber smartphone app.

*send them a few bucks today to say thank you - they do good work and really get things done.

snakebite

Weer'd Beard has an excellent review of the Cobra firearms we handled at the NRA Annual Meeting.


I wasn't impressed.

(& what irritated me perhaps more than the crap triggers, the frighteningly bad engineering, and the cheesy pastel chrome finishes is that Cobra actively markets these guns for women. Sure, your little gun may be shiny, pink, and really affordable but it will hurt your hand when you try to shoot it. And if you get one of those cute little derringers? Expect to have to use two hands to use it. Not exactly the best way to encourage new female shooters.)

a girl can dream

My birthday is coming up, y'all...

(click for the pretty)

What? it's only $6600.

(& yes, I've been going through the catalogs I brought home from Charlotte.)

dirty deeds

I hate to admit it, but I didn't carry the entire time I was at the NRA Annual Meeting. I ended up leaving my Bersa in my motel room during the day- in its lockbox, inside my locked suitcase - but would take it out each night, and leave it on the table next to the bed. I really had no other options since the convention center was posted and restaurants and bars were a no-no.

Charlotte is not a very gun-friendly town, I knew that going in, but I didn't realize how bad it really was until later...

it's not about the guns

By defending the Second Amendment and promoting the right to self defense, the NRA is sometimes called the largest human rights organization in the world. They put on a terrific annual meeting every year and while discovering new products and handling guns is always fun, (well, almost always - Cobra Firearms is another subject entirely) what happened this past weekend in a convention center in beautiful Charlotte, NC was really about people. I met people from all over the country, each a testament to the diversity of not only the NRA, but also the gun culture in general.

Gunbloggers, of course, are no different and I had the pleasure of meeting a lot of them. A few were people I'd already met, many were long time online friends, and quite a few were new to the blogosphere.

Here's a few sites that will be added to my blogroll. They are all written by exceptional people and their voices are a welcome addition to the already thriving gunblog community!

Wai, blog commenter OrangeNeckinNY and author of the new blog The Blazing Orange.

Weerdbeard, who needs to get himself a real blog, pronto.

ChrisM, author of Simple musings from a guy with guns.

Tony, author of The Newbius Papers.

NancyR, author of Excels at Nothing.

Scott author of MacBourne's Musing's.

Rick Ector, blogger and proprietor of Rick's Firearm Academy of Detroit

The Columbiaist, who promises to blog more often

also? These bloggers have excellent photos and written coverage of the 2010 NRA annual meeting. Thanks for all your hard work, guys! (AKA "blogging so I don't have to can link to you")

recoup

Sorry, after all the NRA Annual Meeting excitement, an awesome blogmeet, days of walking, missing my flight, being stranded in D.C., and only getting 4 hours sleep since yesterday, I needed a day off.

Back tomorrow, but here's a pic to tide you over...

(not a booth babe)

And can you believe it? No swag, no job offer, no free gun...nothing! Bah.

Is Breda, is (a) safe

I can't begin to imagine what you might put in this thing but what an amazing country, huh? Only here can you get a gun safe bigger than most apartments in Hong Kong.

Neat!

I went to a protest and an NRA convention broke out!

A spokesperson for Protest Easy Guns was speaking to NRA News and a number of bystanders...and after a short debate, a man who might be considered the quintessential redneck bitter clinger put his arm around the anti-gunner and said something like, "You know what, buddy? We understand that you're exercising your 1st Amendment rights - we just want to protect our 2nd Amendment rights."

Good people, these gun nuts.

woo hoo-ing

I'm not entirely sure what RapidZ is selling,

but I know all about "woo hoo-ing"...yesterday was full of it.

I got my first look at the exhibit floor, hung out with these guys,

(MikeW, Weer'dBeard, JayG, Alan, SayUncle) *

enjoyed the lovely weather, met some interesting new people, tried collard greens, grits and sweet tea, and laughed - a lot.

Oh, and did quite a bit of this:

(the guy in the background just cracks me up)

* I also enjoyed meeting Countertop, Joe Huffman, and Xrlq - check out them out for some great photos and NRA Annual Meeting coverage!

oh, also?

On my flight out of Cleveland, I sat right behind this guy...

Who is a member of this group and is doing his best to make Cleveland just like the gun-free paradise of Chicago.

I really wanted to tap him on the shoulder and say (with my most charming smile, natch) "Hey, Mr. Mayor! I'm on my way to the NRA convention! And I carry a concealed handgun every time I visit your city! Whoo!!"

Instead I just quietly smirked to myself and admired his impossibly tidy coiffure.

I made it

When I left yesterday, Cleveland had had 3 days of straight up murk - a damp, chilly grayness that left us all asking ourselves, "This is still spring, right?" We were starting to believe that we had slipped into something of a weather wormhole, zipping us right past summer and into fall again. There was even frost on the windows Monday morning.

But after a near painless TSA experience and two quick flights, oh-so-very early in the morning, I arrived in Charlotte only to find that it looked a lot like home...if home actually had sunshine a noticable portion of the time. Suddenly I had summer, all at once.

A stop at the gun free zone convention hall to pick up my media pass, a visit to Walmart to find a pair of cheap sunglasses and all at once it hit me - I was tired. I found my motel, befriended the desk clerk (who gave me a tip on a nearby Indian restaurant, plus a room with a fridge and a microwave) and decided to just relax - streaming Netflix, a big ol' bathtub, and a king size bed were calling my name.

The NRA could wait - the real fun starts today, anyway.

leavin' on a jet plane...

...at an absolutely obscene hour. I best get to bed so I'm bright eyed and bushy tailed for my date with TSA.

Stay tuned for all the NRA gunbloggy goodness you can stand - once I've landed and had my nap, of course.