Shall Not Be Infringed (SNBI)

Making Amends - Armed and Safe

As is often the case for me, I found that my comment to this post grew a bit lengthy. So, for once, I decided to just make it a post of my own. The main thing that got my attention in this post was his reference to the "SNBI extremist" slur that floats around some of the gun blogs. To that, I had this to say.


While I do see the "SNBI" mentality criticized off an on, I really don't see people criticizing the belief that "shall not be infringed" means just that. It was my understanding that SNBI was used to refer to people like the following:

1. Believes that just yelling "Shall not be infringed", or similar, in debates/conversations about gun rights is an effective tactic to sway those in the middle with no real opinion.
2. Sees any law pertaining to firearms that infringes in some was as a horrible violation on us, even when it's a law that actually makes things better for us.
3. Believes there's a realistic chance of having every bad gun law (i.e. virtually all of them) wiped away in one fell swoop, and anything various groups do to improve things that still fall short of that are proof of us "selling out".

Frequently, the issue the people who use the term SNBI really isn't with a lot of what the "SNBIs" believe, but with how they present it. It's also with the fact that many of them don't take a long view of things, because that perspective requires patience. I actually had the misfortune to work the VCDL table (www.vcdl.org) at a gun show with someone that personifies what I think of when people talk about SNBIs. He wasn't a bad person. But he came across as almost beligerent when trying to get people to learn more about what the VCDL does for gun rights in the state. All that did was make people that aren't active in the gun rights community want to stay that way even more. He just had no grasp of the fact that we're trying to sell a product, that product being the concept of self-defense and individual rights.

There are a few things that I think are pretty safe to assume are true. First, gun owners are a minority, and gun owners that really care about gun rights are an even smaller one. Second, until we get more people in the middle to look at firearms the same way they do at a fire extinguisher, power tools, or a spare tire, we won't have much chance at getting the court decisions and laws that we would really like to see.

Personally, I refuse to alter my behavior to accomodate those who fight to take away my rights. But I will alter what I say and do to sway those in the middle towards my point of view. The way I see it, the former is just a pointless compromise, because nothing you will change their goal. But the latter drastically increases my chances of adding more people into our fold.

More on reloading

Strangely enough, one of my posts has managed to somehow make the first page on a google search for "homemade ammo". For anyone who is looking at that one, I thought I'd add a little something I've learned from reloading. If you're going to try reloading, my biggest piece of advice would be to start with 9mm ammo. Of the calibers I have done so far, 9mm is the only one so far that appears to be impossible to overload. I had thought that switching to a powder that would only need 5 grains of powder, as opposed to 7 grains, would leave more room in the cartridge. Instead, it turns out that the other powders just didn't pack as well and took up as much room. I also haven't been able to get remotely close to the minimum overall length specified for any max load I have used. The powder takes up so much space that the bullet just won't press down that far.

To put it simply, I have yet to press a bullet in far enough to risk high pressures, and the one time I "double loaded" a cartridge, I had a huge mess on my hands.

Concealed Carry Class

Recently, I decided to start putting my NRA instructor certification to good use, and started helping a friend teach his Concealed Handgun Permit class. Granted, there's no such thing in Virginia as a "concealed carry class" as such, or at least the state doesn't give any real guidance on what needs to be covered by a class like that. As such, our class is just an NRA First Steps class, with a little extra time spent on explaining Virginia gun laws.

This most recent class, I had a new winner for scariest response to a question in class. There are a few things we like to stress in one portion of the class. The first is that you don't draw your firearm unless you believe you are going to have to shoot to protect yourself, and you have to have the will to pull the trigger once you draw. The second is that you have to have the self-control to not shoot if the criminal bolts as soon as you draw. There is a third thing we use a scenario to highlight, but I'll get to that in the story.

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Me: "Ok, a guy comes at you with a knife. You draw your firearm, and he hightails it as soon as he sees the barrel come up. At this point, is everything over?"

Them: .....stare blankly, followed by one or two saying "I guess so."

Me: "No. While you go about your business, thinking it is over, the thug is on the phone telling the police that you pointed a gun at him for no reason, and you end up in cuffs. So do you think you should do to prevent this."

Normally, I get more blank stares. Occasionally, I get the correct response of "call the police first?". On Saturday, I heard "So should I shoot him before he gets away then?".

The fact that I visibly cringed at this response was a pretty clear indication to the rest of the class that this was definitely NOT the correct action.

Me: (pulls cell phone from my off-hand pocket) "No. You use this. You call the police before he can. Police will try to claim this isn't true. But when it's one man's word against another, the first one to call is generally considered the real victim. You DO NOT shoot a fleeing man in the back."

As much as I love teaching people to shoot, and helping them be able to carry concealed for their protection, comments like that scare me. It's not his answer to that question that scares me. What scares me is that he may have another screwed up notion about something important, and I haven't thought to include that question in our course. I realize that the state only requires me to conduct a safety course, and that I only have an obligation to make sure what I say is correct. But I still wish that there was some way I could actually prepare a class for every circumstance in a four hour course.

Free Shooting Introduction

First, I'd like to admit upfront that I've stolen this idea from Armed Canadian, to the point that I didn't even see much need to rephrase his words much.

In the effort to promote firearm and rights awareness, I make the following open offer to any resident or visitor in the Hampton Roads area: If you have never shot a gun and would like to try, I am willing to take you shooting free of charge. I will provide the firearms, ammunition, eye/ear protection and I will cover your range fees. I guarantee if you are on the fence about gun ownership and usage, you will not be at the end of the session. You will have fun and learn a little in the process. I am certified by the NRA to teach the NRA Basic Pistol and NRA First Steps classes, and would be delighted to do a formal class with you if you think you'd like to pursue this farther.

I would also be more that willing to post contact information for anyone else who would be willing and able to help people in their area learn that people in the shooting sports can be friendly and outgoing. Just give me the following information, either by emailing me or posted as a comment, and I'll add it to this post.

1. Name
2. Email address
3. Name and location of the range(s) where you would meet interested parties.
4. Preferred nights, if any.

I'll start with myself here, and hopefully I'll have more people to add as time goes by.

VIRGINIA
Brian A.
laughingdogevolves@gmail.com
Superior Arms; Virginia Beach, VA
Sunday through Wednesday

FLORIDA
Gregory Morris
gextyr@gmail.com
Shoot Straight; Tampa, FL
Any evening

Homemade ammunition

About 2 years ago I bought a reloading press, along with an assortment of related accessories. Being a WoW junkie, all of that ended up sitting in the box it arrived in until a couple of months ago. Then it took me until about a week ago to finally buy primers, bullets, gunpowder, and clean up some used brass. After all of that, tonight was the night that I finally made my first batch of 9mm ammo.

Normal store bought full metal jacket (FMJ) for 9mm uses bullets that weigh 115 grains. I decided to use this opportunity to make something a little different from the norm. Instead of trying to basically duplicate factory ammo, I used 125 grain FMJ bullets and used a gun powder variety (Blue Dot) that takes up so much volume that it's impossible to accidentally put two loads into one bullet.

Tomorrow should be the day I go try this stuff out. Hopefully I'll still have all my fingers once I've tried it out.

Update: Read this if you're looking to start reloading yourself.

NRA Certified

It's downright amazing to me just how much I've done in the last couple of weeks when I think of how little I accomplished the 6 months or so prior to that. Yesterday was the last day of my NRA Basic Pistol Instructor class, so my wife and I are now both certified to teach people how to shoot safely (or at least we will be once the paperwork gets back to us).

Before my wife's shooting instructor encouraged us to do this, I really hadn't given it much thought. I've always spent a lot of time trying to introduce other people to the shooting sports before this. So, when the opportunity was presented to me, it did seem like a logical extension of what I was already doing. What was the most shocking to me was how quickly I've found myself already in a position to start doing actual instruction. It turns out the range where I do some of my shooting, and my wife does all of hers, has a shortage of instructors available. I had friends teaching there already, so I hadn't thought I'd be able to do classes at the same location. But apparently they still have a surplus of people that want to take classes. So before I my wife and I had even finished taking the class, we had a gentleman that works at the range talking to us about helping him run more classes there.

I'm just excited that I'll be able to help more people get started in this incredibly enjoyable hobby, make some extra money on the side to buy even more toys, and do something that would look fantastic on an FBI application all at the same time.