9 yr old Boy killed in Boston

Very sad news today.  A 9 year old kid was killed by accident when his 14 year old brother shot him.

Folks this was in Massachusetts where we have some of the toughest gun laws in the country. . . and not one of them stopped this.

Facts so far:
The two kids were not in school that day for some reason
The 14 year old had a hand gun and was playing with it
The 14 year old had a negligent discharge killing his brother
No one else in the house knew of the gun

So we have multiple laws broken ending up in the death of a child by accidental shooting.

Things to consider:
A 14 year old cannot have a pistol permit in this state (or anywhere in US)
He could not legally buy the gun
He could not legally own the gun
It was not stored safely
He obviously did not know how to handle the gun

So where did he get it?  Probably off the streets in Boston.
Why did he have it?  We don't know
One kid is now dead and his brothers life ruined - heck the whole family now has to deal with this.

If you really want to prevent this kind of tragedy in the future then kids need to be taught gun safety.  Period all stop.

We want to prevent this kind of tragedy going forward then we need to make sure every kid knows not to play with guns.  Not to handle the gun, and to tell a parent.  Kids need to hear over and over from a young age that guns are not toys, that they need to tell a adult when they find one and never to point them at anyone.

Until we are willing to add gun safety to our schools just like we teach drug awareness then we are not serious about saving these kids.  A gun is not a magic talisman, it is a chunk of metal that does nothing without a human doing it.  Time to stop the liberal agenda and put some reality back into things here - time to teach kids about gun safety.  How many more kids will we let die because the left is afraid of guns and education?

Open Letter on the Mass Gun Committee Report

Dear Representative

Now that the long awaited report on guns in Massachusetts is out I have to say like many I am disappointed at the end result of months of work.  GOAL does a great job on answering this report and you can read that at: 

http://goal.org/newspages/report-response-2-6-14.html

Personally I have a few issues I would like to point out(sorry for the long email):

1 – Suitability – they don’t want to define it.  This is the problem with our current system as there is no standard and who is considered suitable differs from town to town.  Not a just way to deal with a RIGHT.  This needs to be taken away from the whim of the town Police Chief and spelled out so all citizens are treated fairly.  If you are not a criminal or otherwise prohibited person you should have no problem getting a permit of any type as it is your right to have one.

2 – They are staying with the 10 round limit on magazines.  This should be removed.  In NY state they lost the court case on their 7 round limit as the judge found it to be an arbitrary number with no facts backing it’s choice.  The same can be said for a 10 round mag limit.  This limit is not followed  by criminals and only puts a burden on the law abiding citizen.  Police don't have this limit and when they need it back up is a radio call away.  Citizens don't have that support why do we have the limit?

3- Removal of the 90 day grace period to renew licenses.  This shows how disconnected this committee was from the real issues in our state.  The state has been unable to meet it’s own law for a 40 day process to issue a license or renewal.  We got rid of this grace period once before and many people had issues as they applied for a renewal but the state did not process it before their existing permit ran out.  Even with the 90 day grace period folks are facing this problem.  We need this grace period until the state can live up to the law and process permit applications on time.

4 – Consistency with Federal Law would be good.  We need to share who in MA is a prohibited person for mental or legal reasons.  Then the existing background check program would work much better.  As part of this we also need to get rid of the “approved Roster” lists for pistols we have in this state.  It does nothing to promote safety as the guns we restrict are sold all over this country without issues, some are even carried every day by our own police.  This approved roster only burdens law abiding gun owners and raises the cost of a gun without doing anything to stop the criminals.

5 – Gun trafficking.  We are all against this but if we would just enforce the laws we already have on the books at the state and Federal level this would not be an issue.  We do not need more laws here to burden law abiding citizens.

6 – Mental illness.  This is a very hard one.  What constituts an illness  that will strip you of your rights?  I personally feel we need to be very careful with all of our rights.  To be striped of your rights should require an impartial court ruling and must have an appeals process to prevent abuse.  We cannot let this snowball into anyone with ADD or who sees a Psychologist for any reason cannot get a permit.  Doing this will scare people away from seeking the help they may need and do nothing to prevent problems.

Thank you for taking the time to review my issues with this report.  Sadly it does not look like the committee really understands the current gun laws in our state and the issues we have enforcing them now.

 As I said when we talked last month all lawful gun owners want to prevent gun crime but we need to do it in a way that does not trample our rights.  Being free has some inherent risks and I would rather be free and deal with armed criminals than live in a police state.  Either way the criminals will always find a way to get a gun.  They have no problem getting drugs into our country they can and do get guns.

Please support our effort to clean up our gun laws and take the red tape off of the law abiding gun owner while punishing the criminal use of guns.  We don’t need new gun laws in Massachusetts, we need to fix the ones already on the books.

Thank You

Electronic Ear Protection

OK, so my last post was on the new ear protection I need to test out. . .

Here is what I have been using, especially when teaching a class and I have been very happy with it.  Also proof you don't need to spend a fortune on it as these were about $60 at Dicks Sporting Goods. . . Now these are analog and not digital but they work.

They run on two AAA batteries and you can see the volume control on the right side in the lower photo.  The black spot on the left is the microphone, one on both sides of the headset so you get stereo hearing like normal.  They also have an input plug so if you want to you can plug in your MP3 player.  Not sure I would do this at the range but it works when I am mowing the grass . . . .

For sound you can actually turn it up to help you hear things you would normally miss if out hunting or such.  Now that would be bad except it also has a special circuit in there so if the sound gets to unsafe levels (such as a gunshot) it turns off the mic and you get the hearing protection.  I have found they fit better than the ear protection you can get at the hardware store, seems like the better fit means less noise leakage around the glasses frames and such.

I have used these for almost six months now and have been very happy with them.  They are comfortable and when am working with students on the range I can hear everything going on.  I think that is key to these for a class.  They add to the safety level in my book.  I can hear what is going on, any range commands or comments from other instructors or the students and you can talk at a normal level yet still keep your hearing safe.

I highly recommend these to anyone doing a lot of shooting and who still wants to hear what is going on around them.  Be safe out there folks and have fun!

Ear Protection for Shooters

Showed up at the gun club the other day and they had a guy there making custom ear protection. . .

I watched for a while, talked to a few folks there that either were doing it or had done it and then I broke down and had a set made.  Figured they would be good for rifle shooting since my normal headgear is a bit bulky and can get in the way.

So what is custom ear protection??  Well it is silicone that is fitted to your ear and is rated at -30dB.

It looks like this:

 OK, they look a little weird in the photos but not that bad in person. . . you pick you color when they make it and I wanted something easy to see if I drop them at the range or a blogger shoot.

It is a quick and painless process to get them.  They first put a bit of foam in your ear to set how deep the silicone will go.  He then used a syringe to fill your ear canal and outer ear with the silicone.  It takes about 6-8 minuets to cure then they pull it out.

They then take the mold back to the office to trim and clean it up a bit and a few days later this little box shows up in the mail. . . .

I am told they work well. . . I will be testing them at the Junior Rifle night I help with to see how they do and will update things after that.

I can say they are a bit different to put on.  Unlike the foam plugs you have to twist these to get them in but once in they are very comfortable for the time I have worn them.  They do seem to do a great job in dampening the sound at home, we will see at the range.

Folks I talked to that do wear them say they work well.  They are also good for wearing under a standard set of ear muffs when you have to deal with those really loud rifles and such and you want to double up on your hearing protection.

My personal thought was these would be great for rifle use since they would not hit the stock of the rifle like the standard ear muff type hearing protection.

We will see, more info after I have used them a few times.  More info at the link in the photo or click here

I think for my classes though I will stay with my standard ear muff style since they have the electronic mic in them and let me hear what the students are saying but cut off the gunshots. . . more on those later