The Shot Heard 'Round the World: It's been 233 years since a scared but determined group of Massachusetts militiamen stood on the village green in Lexington and faced off with British regulars who had entered the town searching for powder and ball. No one knows who fired the first shot but the result was tragic. Eight militiamen were killed and 10 wounded in the first pitched battle of the Revolution. No one could have forseen what would ensue over the coming years; independence, hardship, civil war, and the final victory at Yorktown. But there is little doubt that as a result of British oppression in Massachusetts, the colonies were united and determined to win their rights. Strangely, only two states celebrate and remember this day in history as a holiday... (And one of them, ironically, in light of current politics, is Massachusetts. Note that in 1775, as it is today, gun owners were more vulnerable to shortages of ammunition than of firearms.) http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/04/the_shot_heard_round_the_world.html --- Obama and the Joyce Foundation: Barack Obama's presidential campaign has worked to assure uneasy gun owners that he believes the Constitution protects their rights and that he doesn't want to take away their guns. But before he became a national political figure, he sat on the board of a Chicago-based foundation that doled out at least nine grants totaling nearly $2.7 million to groups that advocated the opposite positions. The foundation funded legal scholarship advancing the theory that the Second Amendment does not protect individual gun owners' rights, as well as two groups that advocated handgun bans. And it paid to support a book called "Every Handgun Is Aimed at You: The Case for Banning Handguns." http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=66551746-3048-5C12-00921D2BE9528C54 --- From John Farnam: 14 Apr 08 Safariland's Double-Holder for AR-15 Magazines: Safariland is currently marketing a double-magazine-holder. It's brand new and not on their Web Page yet, but I've been using a copy for several weeks. I had a chance several days ago to give it a thorough workout during an Urban Rifle Course we conducted with Homeland Security. It is superior to any of the others I've used! Magazines are correctly offset and staggered, so that an exchange can be accomplished quickly and deftly. Magazines are held securely, and the device works equally well for right-handers and left-handers. It is compact, and it protects the top round on both magazines, all without physically attaching to the rifle nor requiring special brackets/attachments. There is a separate magazine "cap" that goes atop the exposed magazine. It protects the top round, and also prevents the top round from "inching forward" as the rifle is fired via the other magazine. This feature solves the main issue with most of the rest of the double-magazine holders I've used. The cap is instantly removed via striking a projection in its rear, and is tethered via a rubber-band to prevent loss. There is little not to like! Safariland's double-magazine holder provides a significant "grab-and-go" enhancement, which I like! I've used it on my excellent Sabretech M-4, but I've not tried it on other rifles that accept AR-15 magazines, like the RA/XCR and SIG 556. Recommended! /John (I had hoped that John was describing a double-magazine pouch for AR-15/M16 magazines but it sounds as though it's a system to couple two magazines for a quick shift from one to another. I once tried such a system and found that it added more weight than I cared to handle, at least with 30-round magazines. John does not mention if the Safariland system will work with the 20-round magazines that I prefer as they will allow the operator to get closer to the ground in prone positions.) 17 Apr 08 Comment on campus "security" from one of our students attending a state university in the Southwest: "Yesterday, we had yet another 'Campus Lock-Down.' I'm a 'Resident-Advisor' in one of our dormitories, and I was advised, via cell-phone, that 'a-man-with-a-gun' was seen on campus. No details, of course, and I was ordered not to breath a word of it to anyone! Under, 'lock-down,' no one is supposed to go in or out of our dorms, but, of course, there is no way to enforce that. And, students are told nothing aside from that fact that there is a lock-down in place. As you can imagine, with so many false alarms, such 'lock-downs' have long-since become a local joke and are now largely ignored by the student population! While campus bureaucrats scurry about in a desperate attempt to justify their existence, students, and faculty, nonchalantly continue to come and go as if nothing is happening! We were never given any additional information, via e-mal nor cell phone, and the 'lock-down,' that no one paid any attention to anyway, eventually faded away. Yes, we have 'security' cameras, but none are actually monitored in real time! Videos are only viewed after the fact. Big help! We do have a campus PD, but they are all unarmed! I'm not sure what they are supposed to do. I'm fairly sure they don't know what they're supposed to do! Most students didn't even know about the lock-down until their parents, watching it all on TV, called to advise them! Since the VA Tech shootings, the foregoing is apparently the best we can do. So, those of us who actually live here naturally consider the whole 'system' a joke! We know that no one in the Administration gives a damn about us, and that we are thus 'on our own.' Accordingly, several friends and I have put together an informal arrangement between ourselves, whereby, when the next lock-down occurs, we will all assemble at a pre-arranged location, pile into one of our cars, and then drive across town to the home of one of our parents. We've decided that 'escape-and-evade' is going to be the best tactic. Failing that, I'm armed, and, as your student, I know how to take care of myself. Of course, this is in contemptuous violation of campus 'rules, but I've already decided that my name will not be appearing on any 'victim list!'" Comment: "The proposition at debate is a socio-political one: it is possible and practicable to maintain a comfortable and reasonably secure social order with lethal weapons not only ubiquitously present, but in a high state of readiness? Naive VBCs can't imagine how it can be so, never mind how they could be capable of doing it. Yet, Operators do it routinely." D Kahn Yes, we do! /John ("VBC" is Farnamese for "Victim By Choice.") -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .