Here’s a CNN article on deaths by influenza in the US and worldwide.

From it we learn that according to the CDC the US has already experienced 13,000 deaths related to regular ‘ole influenza this year. Average is about 36,000 per year.

Those numbers are awfully close to something else: Deaths by gun in the US.

We get about 30,000 a year, over half of which are suicides. We end up with about 14,000 homicides and that’s lumping in justified homicides too.

So, if we lop off the folks that intentionally kill themselves with a gun while ignoring that of the remaining 14,000 deaths some were perfectly justified shootings by police officers and regular citizens, and we ignore that you’re more likely to die from the flu if you’re very young or very old, basically pretending that everything is random about these situations, you’re twice as likely to die from the common flu as you are from gun violence.

Every human, bird, and pig, is capable of carrying a virus twice as deadly to you as a gun, statistically speaking, but folks from the Brady Bunch don’t think me going through 40 federal background checks (at least) over the years, fingerprinting, and mandatory gun safety classes (for a CCW permit) is enough. They think I’m a danger to society when a snot-nosed 2 year old stands a far better chance of killing you than I do.

Simply amazing.

Via Dave Hardy I learned that in Q4 of 2008 American citizens purchased enough arms to outfit the Chinese and Indian army combined. That’s over 3 million firearms.

I’m sure we’ll end up seeing at least that many in Q1 of 2009 too, if not even more.

That’s in addition to the 270 million firearms we already have in this country.

“You cannot invade the mainland United States.
There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.”
– Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto

It was true during WWII and it’s true today.

The ‘loaded chamber indicator’ on a gun, if it has one, is often decried by some as a non-essential do-dad stuck on a gun by some lawyer to fend off lawsuits. There’s some merit to that line of thinking. Suits have been brought to court nothing the lack of an LCI when some idiot teenager removes the magazine from a semi-auto pistol and shoots their friend thinking it was unloaded.

But they have their uses.

Now that spring is upon us I figured it was a good time to tear own my bigger pistols that I used for carry during the winter. One is a S&W 1911 and the other is a Glock 21. The S&W has a loaded chamber indicator on it, in that there’s a small cutout that lets you see brass if you look down at the pistol from the top of the slide. Works pretty well, though I would prefer something that could be felt in the dark like the Springfield XD series has. Anyway, the Glock has nothing of the sort.

Guess what I found when I took them out of their holsters and unloaded them? The Glock didn’t have a round in the chamber. I thought it did, but it didn’t. Of course the S&W did because I was able to verify that every single time I stuck it on my belt quite easily. Sure, I could have press-checked the Glock, something I have no qualms against, but failed to do so I don’t know how many times.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is why I like having an LCi on a pistol. I’d never rely on one to tell me that a gun is unloaded, but it sure is nice having a super easy way to verify that one’s already up in the pipe before you set off for the day’s activities.

Note to self: Start press checking. None of my spring/summer pistols have an LCI on them.

See SayUncle’s post for pointers to the details.

The 9th Circuit Court has, in the Nordyke v. King case found that the 2nd amendment cannot be violated by state or local government via the 14th amendment. Took a while, nearly 150 years, but it has finally happened.

I kinda made a purchase in April for BAG Day. I put a S&W 442 on layaway this month. I’d have bought the darned thing that day but they were out of stock, so I paid everything but $1.00 of the purchase price and will take delivery whenever the shop finally gets them in stock.

The kicker is that I got it for only $409! I had been thinking about picking up a lightweight Taurus 85, but those selll for $399.00 around here. The usuaul price. Paying an extra $10 for S&W quality over the Taurus was no-brainer.

I expect it’ll take 6 months before I actually get the gun though. That bums me out a bit.

Uncle has links to what others take in their range bags.

I must admit, I pack pretty darn light usually: Guns, ammo, hearing protection, targets and either a staple gun or some push pins.

That’s it. Of course, it helps that I only live 0.5 miles from the range. Literally 2 minutes from my door to the shooting line. So, there’s not much reason for me to put in a whole lot of error lugging a big bag around.

I might think about a first aid kid though.

First Caleb and then Robb lets us know that they got a little teary eyed on their wedding day.

I’ve been married a little over 6 months now, and naturally I still remember the day. I didn’t get teary, which is surprising, because I’m a rather emotional bugger for being on the male side of the species. But I did have a memorable moment just before walking down the isle.

A minute or two before the march started I produced a small bottle of lotion from my pocket. I had told the wife I’d lotion up my ring finger to make it nice and easy her her to slide the ring on during the ceremony. So, there I was, stroking my ring finger up and down heavily coated in lotion when my best man looks at me, our eyes, meet, and he barks, “We don’t have time for that!” He was insinuating that I was preparing to insert my ring finger into his rectum for those of you out there with your heads out of the gutter.

It cracks me up to this day. Heck, I broke out in a minor giggle fit during the ceremony when it popped back into my head. It will, for the rest of my life, kick over my giggle box, to steal a phrase from LawDog. Happens every time I think about it.

On a more serious note, what he said was also comforting. This is a guy that I’ve gone to high school with, wrestled with (high school team), went to college with, dropped out of college with, lived with, worked with at 2 different jobs, started a company with, worked for him as an employee, and introduced him to his wife, which is one of my 1st cousins. We know each other. Well. He’s been there for me in pretty much every major decision that I’ve made in m life. Him cracking a joke just before I walked down the isle said something to me: This was the right thing to do. If it wasn’t, he would have said something. Instead he was joking around with me like we were back in a high school locker room.

Best day of my life.