You've noticed. (-: The tax system in America is part of the problem. We pay people not to grow food, we pay oil companies incentives to do what they would be doing anyway, the personal income tax forms get more complex each year . . . you get the picture. And now we have a health bill that essentially feeds more victims into the badly broken health insurance system under threat of fines. It makes me wonder just "Who runs Bartertown?"
-- Bobby G.
It's sad that in some states you have to add "and I had no means of escape."
My buddy just had to have one of the Cop .357 four barrel derringer pistols. Apparently it's a close cousin to the Judge in the "better than nothing" category of personal sidearms. Accurate to within a foot from a foot away. The ultimate belly gun for someone with incredibly strong hands. Pulling the trigger rotates the internal hammer to strike each barrel's firing pin in turn, so the action is already stiff. The shape of the pistol is such that it puts your finger at the worst position possible to apply strong pressure.
Like a lot of backup guns, it was just too small. Nice stainless finish but at 20 feet the accuracy was abysmal and nowhere near that of a smaller automatic pistol. It did have an interesting buzzing noise that it made with some types of ammo when the bullet tumbled in flight (not enough barrel length to insure a spinning flight, I would imagine).
He was fortunately able to sell it to another guy who also "had to have" one for almost what he paid for it. His has a disturbing tendency to misfire with the hammer not striking the round hard enough and that made it pretty useless as a backup gun. The guy who bought it was happy to have it, misfires and all because they've stopped making them. Some people swear by them. It's likely to be able to take down a drug crazed 300 pounder, too. Deceptively heavy. He threw his out of a fairly sturdy ankle holster when running at a good clip. The COP .357 owed most of its success to being a prop in Blade Runner. I'll bet it's like The Judge. If it's saved your life in a bad situation, it's your friend for life. Otherwise, get a real gun.
-- Bobby G.
The one time I was cornered (but unarmed) I shouted out (to the neighbors looking out their windows) "I have no avenue of retreat and have no choice but to use deadly force" as I reached into my (empty) jacket where a shoulder rig would be. Did the trick. The asshole with the tire iron retreated back into his building (he was irate that I took his parking space - they were open to all, of course, but not according to him!). It probably helped that he knew I had once had a carry permit (which lapsed when I changed jobs - which I don't think he knew). Afterwards, I sent the sheriffs to arrest him for assault (didn't help him that he was smoking crack when they came for him). Assault charges got dropped but the drug charges stuck. I put it in the win column. (-; FWIW, he was the local VP for Common Cause.
All my cop friends are of the same mind as you regarding warning shots, although I have fired them twice in my lifetime with good results when displaying a pistol wasn't convincing enough. They also insisted on killing anyone who has tried to kill you for two reasons. One, to prevent him from trying again and two to make sure there's only one side to the story - yours - in any ensuing civil litigation. A dead creep is worth far less than a crippled one for some reason.
-- Bobby G.
There's a very definite geographical pattern to where it's good to be a landlord.
That's a good idea. I know that we have some section 8 rentals in my neighborhood already, but I don't know any of the terms of the deals. I'll search out some answers . . .
-- Bobby G.
With hot sauce!
This thread has convinced me that renting houses is for a certain type of person whom I don't resemble in the least. I don't cope with "agita" very well, particularly from deadbeats trying to play me.
-- Bobby G.
I say now, ain't that a commie gun, son? (-:
I've never seen a folding revolver. Got any pix?
I look at it this way. If you're in serious trouble, what would you rather have: Your schvantz in your hand or a .22 "ladies gun?" I'm sure I posted this before, but I had a good cop buddy who kept a 32 in his back pocket and who shot himself in the butt when he took it out somewhat carelessly. He was on rubber donut detail for quite some time. His co-workers NEVER let him forget it, either - they even went so far as to make a paper target out of a photocopy of someone's butt. That was 20 years ago and I'll bet he's still getting grief over it. I'll bet they bring it up at his funeral.
I was lucky to find a mint condition Baby Browning while helping a neighbor buy a .357 Python to use if her ex-husband came around violating her protection order (after bashing her head in with a hammer - only netting him
4 years in prison). Derringers are illegal to sell new in Maryland (AFAIK) but old guns are grandfathered in. Got it for a steal. It had no marks whatsoever - apparently never even been fired. The only problem is that it's SO damn small that if you don't hold it exactly right you'll skin yourself but good. Happened the first time I fired it and I didn't realize I had been cut until I saw the puddle of blood on the range rest/shelf. The damn slide edge is razor sharp and slit me open quite cleanly. My first reaction was "what idiot bled all over the damn shelf!?" (-: Oops!Same thing happened with the Beretta, but never with the Glock or the Browning HP. They're both hefty enough to keep big hands like mine away from rapidly moving pistol slides.
The only thing bad about BUGs is that you can almost never count on them to work through intimidation alone. Racking the slide back on my .25 makes less noise than flipping a Zippo lighter. The Browning HP has a much more authorative "snap" to it. Of course, for intimidating pistols, nothing beats the SW.500. Useful for putting down rogue grizzly bears, werewolves, elephants, blue whales, dinosaurs, zombies and Mack trucks:
Now *that's* intimidation. I guess I won't be strapping that puppy to my ankle, either. I have a bad feeling that some psycho will one day take a .500 to Red Lobster on a Saturday night to see how many people he can shoot through with one bullet. At 2600 ft-lbs, it's gotta to be at least four or five. They used to make it with a short barrel for carrying but it wasn't very popular so they discontinued it.
Maybe next Christmas if I can convice SWMBO that we need another gun. That's gonna be a hard sell, even though she's a retired Army colonel. She's a crack shot with a .45 but it's just a qualification thing with her, not a passion. There's clearly a gender component to gun love. (-:
Now that I've read the specs again, I really, really want one. Just for bragging rights. And for keeping escaped circus animals under control. (Shades of an old Gahan Wilson cartoon.)
-- Bobby G.
i agree here about the 18" shotgun. I do have a Judge, but i bought it for the pasture and snakes. I always grab the pump shotgun when i hear a bump in the night.
Under the chin. The jawbone is shaped so that a gun barrel will "center" itself if pushed hard enough. Also a good place to stick an icepick or a long-bladed cabinet screwdriver. (AHR topicality!) (-: There was a mobster whose name escapes me (something to do with tooth) who managed to avoid being murdered by deflecting a .22 round with his front tooth. So yes, you have to know where to put it. The secret to so many things in life.
I was reading last night about gangster Roy DeMeo who perfected what became known as the "Gemini" system for mob hits. He would invite the victim to his nightclub, the Gemini, which was connected to an apartment building in the back. As they walked into the apartment, someone would be waiting with a .22 and would shoot the victim in the head. They immediately wrapped his head in a towel and then stuck a kitchen knife in the victim's heart to stop the blood from gushing. Then they would dismember the victim in a kiddie pool and take the various pieces to restaurant garbage dumpsters. Some estimates place the number of people who were completely "disappeared" at close to 200. But as HeyBub has said, they were mostly other gangsters whom not many people missed. IIRC, it was Paul Castellano who eventually put DeMeo through his own murder assembly line. Poetic justice. A short while later, Castellano was gunned down by a small army of Gotti button men outside of Spark's Steakhouse in NYC at the height of the Christmas shopping season. As you might expect, "Big Paulie got shot, but nobody seen nothing!"
-- Bobby G.
Yes. And a most excellent gun for killing Communists (they like to get up close, as in "in your face").
Sure. Look here:
Heh! At the range three weeks ago, my Glock 19 fired out of battery. Blew the shit out of both sides of the weapon!
Glock says they'll fix/replace the gun under their lifetime warranty. I've had it with guns made of Bakelite. Soon as this one gets fixed, I'm trading it for about a dozen CZ-82s.
Search for "Glock+Kaboom" and you'll get, oh, 26,000 results. Here's the search with pictures:
Why would you be racking the slide on a pistol? That's pure Hollywood.
Love, possibly. Practicality can make a difference though. My current squeeze is a mental health diagnostician at a psychiatric hospital and works the 4:00 p.m. to midnight shift. It didn't take much convincing that a CHL was in her best interests.
In fact, she's going for the mandatory class and range qualifications today. With two master's degrees, she won't have any trouble with the classroom part. Earlier in the week she shot a 225 out of a possible 250 on a qualification simulation.*
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And yes, in Texas, you can use deadly force against a squint, mope, 'roided up primate, or any other malefactor who is departing the scene at high speed.
It's regrettable that you live in a jurisdiction that mandates retreat.
Pressure your legislators for a true "Castle Doctrine" statute that incorporates a "stand your ground" provision. In our last legislative session here in Texas such a statute was incorporated. It says that you may use deadly force to repel an attack, without retreating, at any place you have a right to be: in your home or place of business, on the street, at a movie, riding a bus, anywhere.
The following states have "No duty to retreat" statutes: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah.
Yeah. Blame the Great Crash that we're stuck here. It sucks, but what can you do?
Sadly, the state is moving in the opposite direction and the recent Tuscon shooting is going to accelerate that trend. Still, there *are* some ways around the limitations. Always keep a deadly weapon thoroughly cleansed of DNA and prints handy, for one thing. Make sure to insert it into the hand of your dead attacker (or drop it nearby if there are witnesses!). We have an "apprehended danger" statute that while not as strong as "castle doctrine" does allow you to defend yourself if you can prove that escaping was as likely to get you killed as standing your ground. It's even been used successfully by people without a carry permit, as in having to take an unusually large amount of cash somewhere and having someone try to rob you. CHL's are hard to come by here and now cost about $5,000 and a lot of luck to acquire. Across the river in VA, almost anyone can get a permit to carry. And in nearby DC, no one can get a CHL although the Supreme Court put the kibash on that BS. The Congress got all excited about guns in DC when Rep. Stennis was shot many years ago.
But at least half of those states have enough *other* stuff wrong with them that we wouldn't want to move there.
-- Bobby G.
Well, I've got a commie starlight scope for my Ruger and it's pretty serviceable except the rubberized coating is now as sticky as if it had been honey-coated. Cheap too, just like the CZ's. No auto-shutter so one aim at a bright light will likely kill it, but so far, so good.
Looks sweet but it's probably illegal in Maryland unless I come across a used one. What f''ing sense such a law makes is beyond me, but that's what my gunsmith said. Of course, he also said the S&W .500 was just an urban legend about two hours after I had handled one at a gun store up the road. Since I've never seen small guns and derringers new in the display cases, I assume he's right on this one.
Maryland has a "bullet database" which means all new guns sold have to be test fired and a bullet sent to the State Police for logging. AFAIK, not one prosecution has resulted from the massive and intrusive effort. It just means remembering to use an older gun or a shotgun if you're going to kill someone. (-: In a case we had here a while back, someone killed a two people with bullets that had no identifying barrel marks. Turned out they were firing 9mm shells from a .40 gun and the bullet didn't contact the barrel completely, although it clearly had enough oomph to be lethal. Someday I will build a ballistic water tank to check it out.
Gack! That's certainly not what you want to have happen in a showdown with a psycho. How old is the Glock? I know they were plagued with problems early on but I thought they had eliminated them. From what I recall, Glock blamed a lot of KB's on reloaded and/or non-jacketed ammo and lead buildup in the barrel leading to overpressuring. It's why both ranges I use will ban shooters that bring their own ammo (50 year old Korean War era surplus was what one guy tried to sneak in!) What were you running through it?
(-: I have to admit that the Glock and the Taurus (both with a lot of plastic) are a hell of a lot easier to lug around than the all steel and wood Browning HP. I'll have to weigh them all later today when I clean them all.
Jeez. If that happened to my wife I could never get her to the range again.
The HP is single action and after my bud shot himself in the ass, I got hinky about keeping a round in the chamber. Thus the need to rack it. Now I trust it enough to keep one in the chamber and the hammer back with the safety on.
A lot of women are preprogrammed to fear firearms but once you get some of them down to the range and they do well, that reticence tends to disappear.
The only problem I see with that is that some patients now know where to get a gun. I hope she's "strapped" and doesn't keep it in her purse.
Here in Maryland, if someone shoots a fleeing perp (even a cop!) bad things happen. It's already happened twice to Baltimore cops. There was even a big stink raised because a cop shot someone armed with a Bowie knife as if it were a foul in a jousting contest instead of a life or death situation. People are stupid and this state attracts them like a magnet.
That's definitely not the rule here. We have lots of wealthy enclaves where people lead lives so sheltered that they have no idea what it's like on the streets. Five years as a police reporter gave me the typical cop's outlook on the world: "Trust no one and you'll stay among the living." As a reporter I mostly interacted with the "white shirts" (Lt's and above) and we would always laugh at how green and naive rookies could be for the first few years. That changed after enough exposure to the scum of the earth or when they got their first serious service wound. That's when they grew eyes in the back of their heads.
-- Bobby G.
I can only speak for the laws here in AZ but if you are worried about being able to get rid of them just rent on month to month leases. If you start to see problems, either in them paying the rent on time, or in keeping up the place, just give them their "30-day" notice. If they stay past that you'll have to take them to court for eviction, not much you can do about that part, no matter what you do you can't physically throw people out, only the court can authorize it and then you have to have the sheriff or constable do it.
Note - 30 day notices can take as long as 60 days, you have to give them the notice BEFORE the start of the "next rental period". So if you wait till the 2nd of Jan you have to give them notice to be out by the end of Feb., not Jan, which will be almost 60 days.
That's risky. If they had stuff stolen he could wind up on the hook. Most tenants have no idea of their rights. But every once in a while you run into one who knows every part of the law AND is malicious in applying it. We had a guy like that in our town for a while making life miserable for the apt complex he was living in. He'd go around looking for problems and if he couldn't find any he'd create some.
Did he soon have a problem finding a place to live? Any landlord who doesn't do background checks is lawyer bait.
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