The registration form is now available to print out, and the Silver Legacy is taking reservations! The Group Rate Code is GBLOG14, and the number you must call to get the special room rate is (800) 687-7733. I made my reservations tonight. Get yours in soon!
Tag: Rendezvous
Alan Gura is the MAN!
Another victory in Palmer v. D.C.
In light of Heller, McDonald, and their progeny, there is no longer any basis on which this Court can conclude that the District of Columbia’s total ban on the public carrying of ready-to-use handguns outside the home is constitutional under any level of scrutiny. Therefore, the Court finds that the District of Columbia’s complete ban on the carrying of handguns in public is unconstitutional. Accordingly, the Court grants Plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment and enjoins Defendants from enforcing the home limitations of D.C. Code § 7-2502.02(a)(4) and enforcing D.C. Code § 22-4504(a) unless and until such time as the District of Columbia adopts a licensing mechanism consistent with constitutional standards enabling people to exercise their Second Amendment right to bear arms.4 Furthermore, this injunction prohibits the District from completely banning the carrying of handguns in public for self-defense by otherwise qualified non-residents based solely on the fact that they are not residents of the District.
I guess I need to write another check to the Second Amendment Foundation.
I sincerely hope Alan can make a third appearance at this year’s Gun Blogger Rendezvous so we call all bow towards him and chant “We’re Not Worthy!!”
Gun Blogger Rendezvous IX Fast Approaches!
Another reminder: If you haven’t already, start making plans to attend the ninth annual Gun Blogger Rendezvous in Reno, NV September 4-7, 2014!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxDgFU03j8k?rel=0]
It’s a lot of fun, and you can go home with some GREAT stuff!
Capitalism
Well, I found some Alliant Unique.
One e-tailer that I’ve found shows stock. I’ve had an 8-lb. keg on order with my local Merchant O’Death since I got back from last year’s Gun Blogger Rendezvous. No word on when I might ever see it. Every other source I’ve checked shows no stock – Midway, Powder Valley, Natchez, Cabela’s, etc. etc. etc.
Except this one. A couple of days ago, they showed that they had one (1) 8-lb. keg left in stock. Today they show they have only three 1-lb. bottles.
The keg was $299. The one-pounders are $42.49 each. That’s right at double what Unique cost a year ago. (Plus, of course, the $28.50 HazMat charge and shipping costs.)
People call this “gouging.” I call it “Economics 101 – supply and demand.” Had this e-tailer offered their stock at “normal” prices, they’d be out of stock just like everyone else. By elevating the price, they still have some – for whoever is willing to pay.
I’m not their guy. More power to you if you are.
Rendezvous!
Here’s another video, this one from the 2011 GBR VI:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzyHWQZYzxk?rel=0]
Still working on getting registration set up, but soon!!
You NEED One of These!
Linoge over at Walls of the City is offering these T-shirts for a (very) limited time. He needs 30 orders in order to make a production run. My order is in now – I want to wear mine to the Gun Blogger Rendezvous (mentioned below). There are eleven orders at this point – nineteen more are needed.
C’mon, y’all! I want one of these!!
Gun Blogger Rendezvous Update
OK, the dates are now officially set, the contract with the hotel is signed. Gun Blogger Rendezvous 2014 is officially scheduled for September 4, 5, 6 & 7.
What goes on at a Rendezvous? Well, lots of shootin’ –
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJiXYKdAlNw?rel=0]
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NW2Dno36OWo?rel=0]
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hvm7oFct97Y?rel=0]
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cq7xBerIQQE?rel=0]
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHGTHgRRTdk?rel=0]
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHzNNcdpIQk?rel=0]
That’s on Friday. On Saturday, we generally do this:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYEenS0dcHE?rel=0]
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3Iz7vqMruc?rel=0]
Now we’re using Mr. Completely’s International Steel rules.
On Sunday we’ve done Cowboy Fast Draw:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1MMHW72DNc?rel=0]
Cowboy Action (which I don’t have any footage of), and last year, this:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88UiUwxFpfA?rel=0]
Which was pretty fun! Easily the largest caliber I’ve ever personally fired.
Then, there’s food:
Yes, we’re that animated.
That’s breakfast. We’re not fully awake yet.
There’s a lot more eatin’, but I don’t have any pictures of it. I’m sure you can understand why.
That last shot is our Saturday pizza feast and raffle. Raffle? Oh yes:
And that’s just SOME of the stuff that’s been given away or won over the last eight Rendezvous. Bring an extra suitcase for the stuff going home with you. Here’s a list of some of our previous sponsors:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPUxmaCZOYM?rel=0]
This year the Rendezvous will be raising funds for Honored American Veterans Afield (HAVA). Last year’s fundraising effort netted about $4,500 for Project Valour-IT. I’d like to see us do better this year.
On top of that, we take a trip on Thursday to the local Cabela’s or (hopefully this year) Scheel’s (I’m working on that) for a tour and to stock up on whatever shooting accessories we might need, and then every evening we have a hospitality room (the one where we have the pizza feast on Saturday) to sit around, drink adult beverages and shoot the breeze, which is why so many of us look bleary in the breakfast photo, and you’ll see inexplicable things like this:
So, hopefully soon we’ll have the 2014 Rendezvous Registration form all set up, and we’ll post the hotel reservation information. Start making your plans now. September is not that far away!
Rendezvous!
The Ninth Annual Gun Blogger Rendezvous is coming up, September 4-7, 2014.
Here’s a good reason to go:
(Click for full size)More info to follow.
The Secret to Happiness
You know what? I’m tired.
On Wednesday, May 14, 2003 I hit “publish” on the first post here at The Smallest Minority. That was eleven (11!) years ago today. This is post 6348, for an average of about 1.6 posts per day. As you may have noticed, I’ve not posted much here in the last few weeks. I’ve been reading a bunch of my older posts and the links in them that still work. I had plans (and I actually began work) to crank out an über-überpost for this anniversary, but I decided instead:
The one consistent overarching theme of this blog during the last eleven years has been “Tough History Coming.”
I still believe it. I’m just not going to repeat myself for the one-hundred and eleventieth time. Been there, done that, got the t-shirts. But this shit is tiring, especially when I’ve seen no reason to alter my outlook over a decade later.
It’s not all been negative, though. I was surprised as anyone when Arizona got Concealed Carry in 1994. If you’d asked me in 2003 if I thought Arizona would be a Constitutional Carry state, I’d have had you involuntarily committed. This map makes me grin every time I see it:
But it’s not enough. Legal recognition of the right to arms is not enough. Incorporation of that right is not enough. Kim du Toit, in that quote on the masthead (that goes to a broken link) has it right:
I don’t just want gun rights… I want individual liberty, a culture of self-reliance….I want the whole bloody thing.
And I’m not going to get it. If there were any chance of that, Obama would not have been re-elected. Mitt Romney would not have been the most recent Republican nominee for President, nor McCain before him. Politicians wouldn’t keep getting re-elected. IRS and NSA officials would need to be in protective custody.
Tar, feathers, pitchforks and torches would be an appropriate response to what our government has become, but the change has been so gradual, and associated with “de-moralization” over the last century that a significant majority of the nation is simply incapable of considering such, much less being inspired to outrage. Hell, few even bother to write letters-to-the-editor anymore. The TEA Party movement has apparently been successfully co-opted by people more interested in enriching themselves, and by the few rabid partisans who value ideology over, you know, winning. And the Big-“L” Libertarians still frighten the white people.
So we’re going to keep on spending like the money will never run out, our foreign policy will continue to be based on fundamental misunderstandings of geopolitical realities, our immigration policies will remain chaotic, schizophrenic and completely dysfunctional while our borders will remain porous, our supposed “security” agencies will continue to monitor everyone and everything, molest children and old women getting on airplanes while never catching a “terrorist…”
And we’ll keep putting up with it.
‘Cause we’re Americans. It’s now what we do.
So, I’m done worrying about it. I’ve got other things to worry about.
1) My mom has lung cancer.
2) I’m busy as hell at work.
3) I’ve volunteered to help Mr. Completely organize this year’s Gun Blogger Rendezvous
4) I’ve got a stack of books that need reading.
5) I need to get out and shoot more. (ANYBODY seen Unique on a shelf in the wild?)
6) My home needs maintenance that I’ve been neglecting.
7) I want to spend more time with my wife.
I’m not completely hanging it up here. I’ll still post from time to time – mostly in the near future I suspect about the upcoming Rendezvous – but I doubt seriously that there will be any more überposts. I greatly appreciate the hundreds of readers and dozens of commenters, and I still hope you drop by and visit, and maybe leave a comment from time to time.
Thank you for your attention and your support over the last decade-plus. It’s meant a lot to me. It’s given me hope. Not a lot, but it’s better than being alone.
(click for full size)
It’s too late for me, but obviously there are millions out there who have already saved themselves!
UPDATE: I was on Squirrel Report Episode 104 on Thursday talking about this post, überposts and blogging in general. Longest Squirrel Report ever.
Appropriate.
“How Much for the Blog Little Girl?”
So, a few weeks ago, several bloggers received the same email from a David Smith at GunAuction.com, with the header “We want your blog”:
My name is David Smith and I work for GunAuction.com. Your website, http://smallestminority.blogspot.com/ has sparked our interest. Recently we have realized that we are in need of high ranking blogs about guns. Our company is working to build a blog network that will be seen by millions. With gun rights under attack, we want to create an effective network for letting the public know about current legislation, and new gun products. We’ve started some blogs from scratch, but as you know, it will be months before they develop a following. With the work you’ve already done, we would like to acquire your blog so that we can release our content quickly and effectively. In order to maintain your page rank and not alienate your reader base, our intention would be to keep the content of what you have – just use your blog as a base to release even more gun related material.
If you are willing to utilize our content or even sell us your blog, please let me know. Depending on your ranking and quality of blog we would be willing to compensate you accordingly.
David Smith
GunAuction.com
This, as you might imagine, did not go over well in the gunblogosphere. The general reaction was as if the question were this one:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvZgwtpPmLY?rel=0]
My personal response was short and to the point:
David:
No.
Shortly thereafter, a follow-on email arrived:
Dear Kevin,
Thank you for your response to our proposal. GunAuction.com respects the major contributions that the gun bloggers have and continue to make to Gun Culture 2.0, bringing important new viewpoints and an entire new generation into the broader gun community. Your efforts have allowed the gun community to step beyond “preaching to the choir”.
We support your hard work and we want to help it have even more impact. With the tools below, including our content writers and content exchange with our online gun magazine GunNews, we think we can help your blog grow and you can help our online presence grow at the same time.
We are working on offering more options to bloggers and are open to suggestions. We’ve already identified some options (below) that may work for you. Call me and let’s talk about what works for YOU.
• Banner Ads or Text Links
– We offer this option as a per click program. (I.e., a fee paid for each click-through to GunAuction.com) but are willing to discuss annual lump sums in special cases. We will provide both artwork and guidance on setting the text or art up so you will be compensated.• Content Sharing
– We provide, at no cost, relevant gun content for your blog, helping both parties build ranking. You would retain editorial control – any financial agreement would need to be individually arranged. This also includes mutual content sharing as an option, where we would exchange articles with you.• Recruiting Partnership
– We provide a steady income stream for recruiting new users to gunauction.com• Purchase of blog
– We leave all previous content the same including URL and use our in-house content writers to build readership and online visibility. (Our content writers would post on it daily). Depending on the agreement, you would continue as a contributor.If this interests you, give me a call. I will also be at the Gun Blogger Rendezvous with the GunAuction bowling ball mortar, leading the Frosty Beverage Initiative in the evenings. If you can’t attend GBR or we’re not able to meet in person, know that I am grateful for your efforts in helping to protect our gun rights. Please contact me through email or phone!
David Smith
GunAuction.com
My response remained the same.
However, GunAuction.com was a sponsor of this year’s Gun Blogger Rendezvous, and so I promised to speak to Mr. Smith if he was one of the attendees – and he was. He’s the young gentleman standing here, next to the bowling ball mortar his boss brought along to the event:
As you can see, he’s a young(er) guy, and after talking with him I think I can say confidently that he was hired for his enthusiasm and search-engine tech savvy, and NOT for his experience and feel for the blogosphere – the gun blogosphere in particular. He had a hard time understanding why those of us who had gone to all the trouble to create our blogs would not be interested in selling them!
“How much for the little girl?”
I am convinced that no insult was intended (that was pretty much a given, anyway) but the tone-deaf nature of the email and its follow-on was precisely that: tone-deafness. He really didn’t get it. Isn’t the internet for making money? So, while Linoge has sworn an oath to the third generation of GunAuction.com’s descendants, I’m willing to cut the kid a little slack. Everybody’s new at their job once.