Sleep Is For The Weak

Dear Senator Gard / Representative Richardson,

I previously wrote you regarding the Herald Times in Bloomington, IN and their publishing of the License To Carry a Handgun database on their website.  I expressed how this issue causes serious privacy concerns for law-abiding citizens.  This provides an avenue for criminals looking for streets that are easy targets, either with a low number of known gun owners or a high likelihood of finding firearms in the home they can steal, making our streets far less safe.  Allowing the list of people who are licensed to carry a handgun to be public is no different than publishing a database that says fourteen African Americans live on Brookschool Road or seventeen Jews live on 126th street.  Would making such a list serve the Public’s interest at all?  It would certainly make it easier for those who wish to commit hate crimes against others easier.

This database is required to be made available to the public under Indiana Code 5-14-3.  I humbly request that you author or support legislation to change this code to make private the database for use by Law Enforcement Officers only in relationship to a case under investigation.

Thank you for taking the time to listen to a concerned citizen in your district.  I look forward to your thoughts on this issue.

Sincerely,

http://www.commonwealthconversations.com/?q=node/97

VCDL Fights to Extend 2nd Amendment Rights on Federal Lands

Author: Dave Yates
Executive Member, Virginia Citizens Defense League
Election Issue 2008 Vol1 Issue6

In the near future the National Park Service (NPS) will be amending its regulations to decriminalize self defense. It’s about time.

In 2003, members of the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL) began lobbying members of Congress to help get the NPS regulation changed. The NPS rule on firearms is a total practical ban on the possession or carrying of a firearm unless secured in a vehicle trunk.

Most people do not realize that NPS makes it a crime to have a gun, even for off-duty state and local law enforcement officers, licensed citizens or permit holders on federal park lands. NPS is careful not to post this publicly at their park entrance. However, this ban is now in question following the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling that Washington D.C.’s firearms ban was a violation of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. At first, NPS steadfastly insisted their ban was constitutional and enhanced public safety. They were wrong on both counts.

According to NPS, it administers 79 million acres with another 5.5 million acres not under federal control. Using the former figure, the combined NPS land would make it the fifth largest state in the country with an area of 123,437.5 square miles, placing it just ahead of New Mexico but behind Montana. NPS likes to throw out crime figures that purport to show how safe our national parks are. But these figures ignore the reality that there are few full time NPS “residents” and no “inner city” issues to contend with. In fact, considering the sparse population of NPS land, its crime rate is significantly higher than most states.

In February 2005, VCDL submitted a petition to the Department of the Interior (DOI) to revise the NPS regulations with more than four dozen co-petitioning organizations to “assimilate” the state law where a national park was located. NPS repeatedly stalled, obfuscated and ignored inquiries. The petitioners presented supporting justification for the regulation change to DOI with NPS Morning Reports and newspaper articles detailing hundreds of pages worth of crimes in national parks over a two year period. It was not until December 2006, when under pressure from congressional offices, that DOI reluctantly agreed to consider the VCDL petition. It was then summarily denied in January 2007.

After a nine month FOIA battle with NPS, it finally conceded that it had no evidence to support the claims made in its denial of the VCDL petition. The petitioners submitted a second revised petition in February 2008 that accounted for previous NPS assertions. Finally, in April 2008, DOI published a proposed rule that would allow approximately 25 percent of national park visitors to protect themselves without fear of criminal prosecution.

The DOI proposed rule was obtusely worded so that a person could protect themselves with a firearm in a national park only if the state permitted such protection in its own state parks or analogous lands. The public comments overwhelmingly supported amending the rule using the petitioner’s requested language, not the confusing DOI version. Therefore, in early July, DOI arbitrarily reopened the comment period on the revised NPS regulation. Even then, public comments still favored changing the regulation, but changing it so that all federal lands had the same rule: assimilating the state law.

It is unclear if DOI will assimilate the state law as the petitioners requested, or go off the reservation with its own regulation, which would open up NPS to multiple court challenges. What this saga makes clear, however, is that the National Park Service is a dysfunctional government agency in need of a vast overhaul.

This arduous battle is a fine example of what one motivated and determined group of citizens can do. The Virginia Citizens Defense League stepped up to lead an effort to overturn a federal rule that obliterated the citizens right to self defense on NPS lands. Soon, citizens will at least have the choice to protect themselves in our national parks.

At the Indy 1500 Gun and Knife show I replaced my HK P30 with a second generation Glock 19.  The Glock has a July 1994 mfg. date and shows signs of being carried for a number of years.  For what I want a defensive handgun to do, the Glock will be a slightly better fit than the P30.  It does not feel as good in the hand as the P30, but things like XS Sight Systems Big Dot Sights are available for it.  Magazines, Holsters, Magazine carriers are all readily available from a number of sources rather than having to custom order everything.

I’m looking forward to taking the new handgun to a USPSA match to run it through it’s paces.  As always you can stop by the Indiana Gun Owners Website for more information about gun ownership in the state of Indiana.

If you are outside of Indiana, and interested my FFL will ship the firearm to your FFL per ATF rules.  I will have the firearm with me at the Indy 1500 on Saturday August 23rd.  Contact me for more info if you would like to meet.

What I have:
1 Heckler and Koch P30
all adjustable grip panels
Factory “Super Luminova Sights”
Original box, paperwork, and spent shell casing
4 15 round magazines
P30 Kydex body for Comp-Tac MTAC holster

What I’m looking for:
$700

The source video was captured with my Nikon digital camera. It’s not very good.
The completed video is my first attempt at video editing. It’s also not very good.

Shooters are. Fenway, Pami, and W9ZEB. Then Rhino and ObiJohn from http://www.ingunowners.com

I think this about sums it up.

Amazing day!  We, members from the Indiana Gun Owners Board, traveled down to the Rice property in Brown County.  Lots of short barreled rifles, suppressed weapons, and even a couple machine guns.  The real winner of the day was the Serbu Super-Shorty.

The event was run very safely.  We had three range officers, and two firing lanes.  The RO’s weapon you were going to be shooting was in charge of your lane while you were ready to shoot.  You would get a detailed rundown on proper function of the weapon, insert your magazine, and unleash hell.

I fired three rounds through the Serbu Super-Shorty shotgun seen in the attached image (That’s a friend of mine taking his turn)  I also put twenty rounds through a suppressed Ruger Mark-III semi-automatic pistol.

More information after I’ve slept.

A Photo Gallery of the Event.

On August 9th, 2008 Pami and I visited Hamilton County Fish & Game to watch an IDPA match.  We had traveled to Atlanta Indiana last month to watch a USPSA match and were interested what the differences between the two sports were.  IDPA focuses much more on practical defensive shooting.  It is much less of a game and each stage is laid out with a story, such as “A man in a parking lot confronts you with a knife.  He says unless you comply his four friends are going to join the fight.”  The first stage started with you standing at contact distance from Target #1.  You are to backpedal while you draw your weapon and put no less than two shots into the him.  Next you move behind cover and engage two targets.  Be sure to engage them in the order you see them, or you will get a procedural infraction.  Finally you cross the gap to a second cover wall and engage the last two targets.

We weren’t able to stay for the whole match.  What we saw interested me and I think I’ll get involved in the next match.  I would like to sit down with someone from HCFG before the match and get a complete list of the rules and procedural requirements to avoid infractions.  Both USPSA and IDPA look like a lot of fun.  I can’t want to start sending lead down range with the best of them.

Click here for a photo gallery from the event.

Well, I didn’t make it into the top five for the HKPRo.com first photo contest.  The five photos that were selected were pretty awesome.  Take a look at what I was up against here. I cast my vote for #2.  The Black and White photo of a USP Compact, Combat Boot, and Handcuffs.

Linked in this post is the image I selected to enter.  Maybe I should have gone with the one I was leaning towards before.  I thought it was interesting to include an image with my handheld ham radio.  I’m pretty certain there aren’t a lot of hams over at HKPro.com.

There will be more photo contests going forward I’m sure.  I’m bound to enter a photo that others like well enough to get me into the top five in the future.

It’s time to write a little bit about the handgun I carry for personal defense, the Heckler and Koch P30.  This is a 9mm handgun, with magazines that hold 15 rounds.  It is a DA/SA gun with a decocker, and no manual safety.  Prior to the P30 I owned a Heckler and Koch USP Tactical in .45acp.  This gun was also DA/SA with both a safety and a decocker.  Unfortunately the USP Tactical is just too large to carry concealed, daily.

The P30 is a good size for concealed carry.  It is not so large as to be difficult to conceal or uncomfortable in a good holster.  It is also not so small as to be difficult to control while shooting.  The grip on the handgun fits my hand perfectly, however Heckler and Koch went a step further and made the back strap, right panel, and left panel all independently adjustable with three sizes for each piece.

I look at the P30 as an evolution that started with the USP Compact.  Then came the P2000, and finally the P30 which shares a lot more with the P2000 than it’s USP heritage.  The trigger feels unchanged from the USP which is to say it’s not a great trigger, but there are far worse out there.  The gun is typical H&K Reliable.  I’m sure you could drop it in the white river, fish it out two years later, load a fresh magazine and have it go bang.

I’ve trained with the P30 in three Defensive Handgun Courses now.  It is far more accurate than I.  It has never failed to go bang when there was a live round chambered and the trigger has been pressed.  It’s recoil isn’t any worse than any other 9mm handgun I’ve fired.  All in all it meets all the criteria of a good fighting pistol.