A report of the recent tragedy in Alabama where a shooter killed several family members and wounded others included a claim that he carried an assault rifle, an SKS. The SKS is not an assault rifle. An assault rifle has a continuous-fire mode. The SKS does not have this capability.
But that fact does not prevent reporters from mislabeling virtually every semi-automatic rifle as an assault rifle. Ignorance is rampant.

2A - the Second Amendment explained in 3 Videos

You need to watch these videos!!

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3

Tech Sights

I'll be off to an Appleseed shoot in a couple of weeks, so I succumbed to the praises heaped on the Tech sights for the Ruger 10/22 and the SKS. I bought a set for the .22 because of course its ammo is cheap. And Fred at Appleseed says markmanship depends on skill, not on the weapon so bringing a .22 is OK by him. He's the father of the Appleseed project.

But those praise-heapers claim the instructions for the sights are in great detail. Maybe there's a paper crunch at Tech Sight because my instructions are one side of an 8.5x11 sheet. They say nothing about the two apertures on the TSR100o (sigh). I'm a little edgy about fiddling with stuff that cost me 1/3 of the price of the rifle, so I'm going to ask for enlightenment from Tech Sight and see what they tell me.

The SKS

Fred, the father of the Appleseed Shoot (http://www.appleseedinfo.org/) has a website that got me going on rifle training at http://www.fredsm14stocks.com/.
If you like feeling a sense of history and commitment, then Fred is your man. And those are the websites that will tell you all about it.
My wife and I attended our first Appleseed shoot last April and thoroughly enjoyed the training and the camaraderie. I had my SKS and my wife had her Ruger 10/22. We didn't qualify as marksman, but we learned what it is going to take. The next Appleseed shoot near me is in October. I'm anxious to get my Ruger 10/22 into Liberty Training Rifle configuration.
Fred says the SKS is an excellent choice for the training, but considering the price of ammo and the fact that training on any rifle will let you do well on any other rifle, I'll take the Ruger with me.
Gabe Suarez also praises the SKS for its simplicity and reliability. He likens it to the AK for those reasons. He faults it for not having a larger clip, but I have 20-round clips for mine, so that problem is resolved.
I bought mine on the internet from Classic Arms (http://www.classicarms.us/) and I've been impressed with the company. My first purchase from Classic Arms was an M44 laminated and it was in very nice condition. After I cleaned it up with excellent instructions found at http://www.surplusrifle.com/russianmosin189130/index.asp, I shot it, had fun with it, then sold it at a gun show for a bit more than I paid for it.
By the way, I don't have any connection with any of the places/people I'm telling you about.
Enough for now.

I mentioned owning an XD40. When I took it to my second Front Sight experience, it was brand-new. Pulling back the slide was really difficult. Worse than that, I guess I wasn't gripping the weapon firmly enough because I kept getting fail-to-fire episodes.
At first, I thought it might be the ammo, because one of the presenters at Front Sight told us that Winchester White Box evidently had some bad runs and we should retain the boxes if we found bad ammo and report that fact to Winchester. Of course, I didn't pay attention until after the f-t-f's became more common. But by then, my used boxes were buried in the rubbish.
On this second visit, I had my daughter with me. She had an XD9 and had no problems. So I thought it was me and my lame grip after all. I didn't want to say anything to my daughter because I wanted her to have a great experience at Front Sight--and she did.
On our way home, we talked about it. She said she could see I was having f-t-f's from time to time, so when I told her about my frustrations, she said she some other other shooters had taped their grip safety closed. Well, I thought that was a bad idea because the grip safety was put there for a good reason.
When I got home I checked the XD forum and read many pro's and con's about the grip safety. Then I re-read Mel Tappan on "Survival Guns" and he recommended taping the grip safety because they were redundant.
Time to stop here, but I'll have more to say soon.

Front Sight Training

Have you heard about Front Sight yet? I have been there twice for Defensive Handgun training and I was very well impressed by the facility and by the staff. The first time I went, my wife went with me and we were well taken care of. Neither of us had any skills with a handgun. In fact, the handgun I brought with me was deemed by the intake person to be difficult to use.
(When you arrive, you go to a table where they examine your weapon, ammo and gear. The examiner was very competent and friendly.)
After the first quarter hour on the range, I was obviously having difficulty. So, one of the instructors took me to the gun shop and had me fitted out with a Glock and all the gear. I was grateful that no one looked down their noses for my having brought an inadequate pistol--a High Point .40 calibre in an Uncle Mike's holster.
The rest of the 4-day training was exciting and really eye-opening. I now own a Springfield XD40. I follow the practice procedures recommended by Front Sight and I feel very comfortable carrying my weapon (concealed) whenever I am out and about.
I'll say more about this experience in days to come--and about my second visit, this time with a daughter.

The picture is of my Dad, his cute wife, Anne and me, his cute son.