You Can't Silence Us

It was fifteen years ago today that my father passed on. I  still miss him.

My son remains in Harlem. He says that last night was busy with gunshot wounds, heart problems, stabbings, but no COVID. He is coming home finally, on Wednesday. Eight weeks of working in Harlem.

He also tells me that there is a protest scheduled in Harlem today. The people there were once happy that he was there to help, but no longer. Now he gets called cracker, honkey, and other racial epithets. He points out to people that he flew more than 1,000 miles to Harlem to help minorities in the middle of a pandemic, and yet still gets called racial names and told that he is a racist. He said that, as far as some are concerned, there is nothing that anyone with white skin can do, you will always be viewed as a racist and hated for it, simply because your skin is lighter in color that theirs.

So much for MLK’s dream.

From time to time, people suggest that I get into reloading. I periodically look at it, and I just don’t see any advantage. Let me explain:

Cost of equipment

First, I would have to buy reloading equipment. In order to make bulk ammo, it doesn’t make sense to buy a single stage press. It would just take too long. So, progressive it is. A Dillon progressive in a decent configuration will coast about $700. There are other things that you need as well, but I won’t even list them. Suffice it to say that you are already looking at at least $800 before you load a single round.

Cost of ammo

Second, the cost of expendable supplies. Let’s say that you want to load the ammo I go through the most of (besides .22LR): the 9mm FMJ. Using the cost calculator here, and prices from Midway USA, here is what I get:
115 gr 9mm FMJ: $88 for 1,000
Brass I will even consider as free
1,000 pistol Primers for $51
1 pound of Blue Dot powder $24

This brings us to a cost of $170 for 1,000 rounds, or if you prefer, $8.50 for a 50 round box- and that is assuming that you don’t need to get brass. If you have to buy brass, you can add another $100 for that, and assuming that you use each case 10 times on average before it is lost or damaged, still increases your cost to $180 for 1,000 rounds- again also ignoring the costs of buying your reloading equipment.

When it is in stock, I can catch 9mm on sale for between $7 and $9 a box for either Federal FMJ or Winchester. (I don’t shoot that Tulammo or Bear junk) If I buy bulk pack from Georgia Arms, I can get 1,000 round cans of 115gr FMJ for $230 even now, with the shortage.

Time

Third, my time. How long does it take to reload 1,000 rounds? I will admit that I am not sure. It sure seems that standing in front of that press, pulling that handle for hours would get tedious. Tedium leads to carelessness, which leads me to my next point:

Risk

Four: Mistakes. A mistake when reloading can cost you a gun, a finger, an eye. There is always that consideration.

Alternative

Yes, right now ammo is expensive and hard to get. So are reloading supplies. Many places that I looked were out of powder, low on primers, and out of projectiles. Who cares? I buy large stocks when I can get it cheap. A case here, a case there on sale will cost you less in the long term, and isn’t more of an investment than all that reloading equipment.

I have, not counting .22LR, nearly 10,000 rounds here in the house. I could tell you exactly how much, but all of my records (including inventories) were lost in my recent data breach. I know that I have at least 2000 rounds of 9mm, 700 or so of .380, as well as .40S&W, .357Sig, .45ACP, and that is just pistol ammo. I have about 25 ammo cans full of every caliber that I own, except .38 spl and .357 magnum.

The only reason I had to buy that expensive .38 the other day is that I just didn’t keep that caliber around for range ammo because up until last week the only revolver I had was the J frame, and I don’t practice with it as much as the others. Now that I have another, that will change, but not until prices come down.

Conclusion:

Reloading can save money when ammo is expensive, but actually costs more under normal conditions. When factory ammo becomes scarce and expensive (as it does periodically) reloading supplies also tend to become scarce and expensive.

There is no real benefit to reloading for me. Your conditions may be different.

The medical examiner in Minneapolis says that Floyd did not die from asphyxiation or strangulation. They are waiting for toxicology reports. Read the arrest report here.(pdf alert) This is going to make it very difficult to get a conviction.

Note that the ME report says that the cops holding him face down “likely” contributed to Floyd’s death. The standard is “beyond a reasonable doubt.” Likely won’t be good enough, it has to be a sure thing for a criminal case.

If he didn’t directly die from the officer’s actions for certain, they have an uphill battle here.

According to the NSA, was the Russian GRU who hacked my computer.  It seems to me that we are at war on the Internet.

Rioter says: “We are coming to the suburbs, if we don’t get what we want.“

Not a good idea, skippy.

As far as the in custody death that occurred in Minneapolis: I am withholding my opinion until all of the evidence is in. So many are rushing to judgement based upon selected bits of a video that hasn’t even been published in its entirety. There are many missing facts, too many to rush to convict the officers in this case.

I am seeing people say that there is no way you can justify keeping a knee on someone’s neck (not throat) for 7 minutes. Anyone who says that either has a political agenda or no experience with violent people. I can think of times that it is not only justifiable, but necessary. That doesn’t mean that it was in this case, but that there are times when it is.

Let me explain:
Back when I was a firefighter/paramedic, we were once called to a mobile home park for “altered mental status.” When we arrived, we were met in the yard of one of the mobile homes by a woman who told us that her husband was a diabetic who became combative every time his blood sugar dropped too low, and that she had just measured it at only 46 before we arrived. She also said to be careful because the man was on disability and had nothing to do all day but lift weights 8 hours a day.

We entered the front door to find a mildly agitated and confused male, pacing back and forth in the living room. He wasn’t a big man, but there was no fat on him. I asked to take his blood sugar. He refused. I tried for ten minutes to get him to eat something, or to agree to come to the hospital. He refused. For ten minutes.

Finally, I told him that he had no choice and he would have to go. He smiled and said, “Let’s do this, then.”

There were nine of us: Six firefighters and three cops. Not one of us was small. I weighed 250 pounds. He grabbed by Battalion chief by the throat and lifted him off the ground, straight armed. We tackled him and eventually wrestled him to the ground. He was still kicking our collective asses for almost ten minutes, even after we were on the ground. They tried a Taser- no effect.

We finally, with all of us lying on him, managed to get a pair of handcuffs on him. He strained, and broke the chain. Finally he got a little tired and we managed to get a second pair of cuffs on him. At that point, the easiest way to control a patient is the same way you control a steer- control the head. You pin them at the neck (not throat), shoulders, waist, and ankles.

I was unable to start in IV to give him sugar, so I had to resort to giving him a shot of Glucagon. Now glucagon takes a while to work, especially when you give it in a muscle. He continued wrestling with us for another ten minutes before we could get him in the rig. The only way to keep him down was to continue pinning him.

By the time we got to the hospital, his blood sugar was back in the normal range, and he was completely lucid. He shook my hand and thanked me, then apologized and said he hoped that no one was injured. He turned out to be the nicest guy in the world, once he was feeling better.

As for me, I had a torn uniform, fat lip, black eye, and bruises all over. I was sore for three days. There were nine of us, and he solidly kicked every one of our asses.

With all that has happened this month- a house fire and loss of all of my data to a hacker– I bought a new gun. I decided to make it to the range.

Since this is a new gun, I needed ammo. Everything is in short supply, and what is there is quite expensive. I saw 9mm FMJ selling at $20 a box. I wound up buying a 50 round box of .38 SPL FMJ that cost $35. There is a one box limit per customer per day at the LGS. I had brought a 50 round box with me. I had gotten it on sale back in January for $8.

There are two pistol ranges there, and there was a person who had rented a full auto was in the first one, so they put me into the second. I was the only shooter, so I took advantage of that and broke out the shot timer. I started by putting a pair of 15 round magazines of 9mm into a 7 yard target as quickly as I could line up the Holosun sight on my M&P9c. 30 rounds with a reload in 16.42 seconds. 29 of the shots were inside the 9 ring on a B-29 target. The seventh was low and left in the 7 ring. I slapped the trigger a bit and I knew it was a bad shot as soon as it broke.

I don’t consider myself to be a great shot, I just think that the Holosun has made a HUGE improvement in my accuracy and speed. That doesn’t change what happened next. The RSO came up behind me and said, “I was going to come over to tell you that you will do better by slowing down to aim, and not trying to be a cowboy, but I can’t argue with that target, that is great shooting.”

I replied that it wasn’t me, it was the sight. It really has done wonders for me.

He said, “It isn’t just that. You have to have great trigger control to be that consistent when shooting that fast. You are one of the best shooters I have seen shoot here in quite a while.”

When I switched to the revolver, I admitted to him that I rarely shot them. He told me the story about how he was a retired cop, and the 629 was the pistol he started his career with. He then gave me some pointers to help my shooting with it. One was: “Speedloaders are cheating. Learn to load them by hand before you worry about mastering speedloaders.”

Just two gun guys alone at a shooting range, sharing stories and talking about guns.

Despite all that has happened, I walked out out of the range smiling.

I bet going to gun control protests don’t make people feel like that.

“The spirit of the Boston Marathon is to be strong and to be smart, you need to have the strength, wisdom, and guidance from public officials to do what’s right.“