I just got back from San Francisco, and while I realize it might not be for everyone, I really like the city. My wife does too. And it has become one of our go-to destinations for vacation. We like the food, we like the weather, we like all the wine and the sea lions on Fisherman’s Warf are pretty cool, too. Austin has a lot of things, but a certain “depth” it does not. So when we want to visit cooler weather in a city, SF is usually the ticket. That said . . .
I hate traveling around SF as I’m almost completely disarmed compared to my day-to-day life in Texas. And that bothers me quite a bit as I’m sure you, dear reader, can understand. So bothered, in fact, that I’m constantly on edge walking around the city. Factor in the high number of people muttering to themselves and the “keep it weird” vibe, and I think that’s fairly rational.
Further compounding my fear (irrational or not) was a story one of my wife’s friends told to me several weeks before our trip. A resident of Oakland, she was chased down the street by a man very clearly on drugs shouting, “Come here white bitch. Give me your money!” She’s an athletic young gal at roughly 105 pounds, and managed to outrun her aggressor, but that was her only option. Had she not been situationally aware, she very well could have been yet another statistic.
I’ve met the young lady. She’s a hardass and would be well-suited to carrying a gun. Unfortunately, Oakland isn’t exactly gun-friendly if you’re on the right side of the law. Her roommate, also a friend of ours, posted this appeal to friends earlier this week.
Went to the Army surplus store for mace. Each canister contains 8 blasts. Man behind the counter suggested I buy the refills at the same time.
So, that’s Oakland. Tell me about your city. How many canisters of pepper spray laced with tear gas does your local army vet suggest you need for your walk home?
What level of “kicked in the head” stupidity does it take to have a place where two women are afraid for their safety, but have to resort to running or pepper spray. Neither of them are withered flowers. They’re both tough as nails and, I have no doubt, given the means, could fight off damn near any attacker. But the hurdles are too high to let them use the best tool for the job.
Now if Mitchell, South Dakota decided to disarm me of my constitutionally protected, God-given right to self defense, I’d miss the corn palace, but not much more. The San Fran area, however, has a whole lot of things I like, and I think this last trip has really opened my eyes to the plight of our California-quagmired brothers and sisters.
I see them comment here occasionally, begging you to not let them fall by the wayside. Further, they tell you that what happens in California will spread to the rest of the country. Wanna call bullshit on their claims? Right here in Austin, the SAXET gun show was not able to renew their lease on the Travis County Fairgrounds because they wouldn’t comply with a demand for common sense, comprehensive background checks.
Community groups in Austin raised concern that individual sellers could sell to buyers at the show without the federal checks that are mandated for vendors. The owners of the gun show and attendees point out Saxet hasn’t had any issues in its over 20 years in Central Texas.
Those “community groups” are very likely transplants to Austin, as the SAXET show has been going on since 2010 without impediment. This move could potentially cost the city of Austin hundreds of thousands in revenue. Negotiations failed late Tuesday when SAXET rejected Travis County’s offer. This should have been a non-issue. Long story short, the transplants aren’t coming. They’re here.
Now before you brand me a xenophobe, know that I love me some immigration. If for no other reason than the kimchi tacos I get once a week. And actually kimchi is a pretty solid example of immigration being a good thing. Kogi BBQ won a Bon Appétit award in 2009 and kicked off the whole Mexican/Korean fusion food truck thing. Soon after, Austin saw Chi’Lantro serving up Korean tacos. The folks at Kogi saw a lot of success, and the people at Chi’Lantro said, “Hey maybe that’ll work here too!”
Gun control and hysteria spreads no differently. Buoyed by the success of magazine limits, feature tests, and FOID cards, out-of-state transplants attempt to implement them in their new homes because, “Hey, it worked back home and I felt safe there.”
So yeah, California matters. A lot. And that’s why I’m so pissed every time I visit. It’s one of the most beautiful places in the U.S. with beautiful coastlines, great mountains, vineyards, deserts, and everything in between. An outdoorsman’s paradise. Not to mention great wine, amazing food and culture out the ass. But my guns, my ideals and my money are not welcome there. Frankly, that’s shit. I want California back. Let’s make it ours. Only one question…how?
I don’t have experience with most of the items on that list but I run their competition fulcrum trigger with the factory connector in a G34 and it is a significant upgrade in multiple ways.
Oh noes…FC is losing business. Its so unfair that such a nice, helpful retailer who cares about its customers is running afoul.
Why do the truly great businesses always get th shit end of the stick?!
Its not like he hates all his customers, anyone not knowledgeable in what they are purchasing, “poor” people, people who dont want to wait a year for their item if they dont have to, any customer who asks a reasonable request if it takes ANY of his time, or that he blatantly gives gun owners and retailers a bad name any chance he gets. What a shame hes losing customers. It just doesnt make sense that buyers would go somewhere that doesnt hate them, talk negatively about them, and charge them more any chance they get. IT JUST DOESNT MAKE SENSE!
went to Napa for my 10th wedding anniversary last summer. . . . gorgeous area, but too many damn hippies
BTW – fixed it for ya Tyler – you forgot the damn quotation marks:
the Travis County Fairgrounds because they wouldn’t comply with the unreasonable demand for “common sense”, comprehensive background checks
I don’t think there is anything wrong with hippies. I let them be as long as they let me be. I am all for “free love.” Just let me be free to enjoy the things I enjoy as well.
California would be a great place to live, except for the people.
Gee thanks Peter! Dr. Vino and I will still buy you a drink if you come visit. 😉
Get off the Media, culture and all the unnecessary com crap. It’s numbers. If we have 9 million gun owners in a state of 30 million, you move the needle by filling the circle. ALL OTHER CONSIDERATION IS BULL SHIT.
Next time you come out, visit L.A. If you think it’s bad here, wait ’till you try to do a mag change on a CA-Compliant AR or AK pattern rifle.
Bring a video camera. I’ll have the Xanax ready.
I would like the sea lions, the rest..not so much. Randy
Congrats! Maybe now we can have less ads!
“Just because you are law abiding and safe person today does not mean I won’t need a firearm to defend myself from you tomorrow”.
When did England transform into a nation of absolute pussies!!
Interesting how the transplants felt safe because of the very laws that those of us who actually take responsibility for our own safety know create a fundamentally unsafe environment. Allow all law abiding adult citizens to own any firearms they want, and can afford, and carry guns open or concealed everywhere but specified secured locations with sufficient secure firearms storage facilities, return to community policing and curb police militarization, stop the drug war, and crack down on violent crime and repeat offenders and the country will soon be a safer place.
Eh, I was born, raised and live in the heart of SF. In my experience it’s not the crazy ones you need to worry about it’s the gang-bangers and the nice folks in public housing who see you as an ATM. While we of course cannot carry legally I believe it’s just a misdemeanor if you get caught packing. Of course you’ll most likely never see your pistol again.
Had drinks with the owner of Chi’Lantro not too long ago, nice girl, pretty sharp too.
I was very disappointed to hear about the Saxet Gun Show. I personally called my district commissioner and asked him to leave the Saxet gun Show as is. I need to follow up with him and see which side he fell on.
While it’s very true that Austin is a progressive socialist hang out but…..it’s still in Texas. I’m often pleasantly surprised at some of the people I meet here that own firearms, here’s my story about it: http://walkingtofreedom.com/forum/index.php?topic=542.0. What I didn’t add to this little story yet was that this past weekend I met a guy working at Whole Foods and we made a trade: my lower for his rifle. Who would have thought, Whole Foods, the bastion of firearms enthusiasts!
What can be done? Right now: support Calguns, SAF, and the firearms manufacturers for their work to overturn the Roster.
Send Exile Machine a few bucks to help them with legal costs fighting a lawsuit from (surprise) the City of SF regarding magazines sold as rebuild kits.
TTAG could run a story or two on how Calguns and SAF are methodically restoring CCW rights to CA residents, forcing one county after another to go shall-issue.
We try Alpha but then again the woes of CA tend to drain on the readers too.
It is about balance.
Thank you for your efforts.
CA banned high capacity rebuild kits this Jan. I’m not sure of the details, but there was a mad rush to get them in late December.
+1
Fight on, CalGuns!
…if you want even better tacos than Kogi, go try some of the tacos over at East Side King’s new place on South Lamar. They’re bad ass.
Austin has basically turned into a liberal stronghold. The place is FULL of them now. Wont be long before the laws there start to make it obvious itll be like how some Colorado cities have become
Yep. Anyone not a member of the Texas State Rifle Association should really join. These guys have done a great job in the past decade of restoring what we already should have had all along. No doubt these next couple sessions will be focused on open carry.
https://www.tsra.com/
Was just there for my Honeymoon – SF and Sonoma. I tell you though – I was shocked to see many people with knives clipped in their pockets. Driving to Fishermans Wharf to show my wife the seals, she got tired of me counting them. I dug mine out of the bag in the parking garage first chance I got.
I wish I knew. There’s more wrong with cali than just hoplophobia. There’s the “bullet train,” a now slow moving, Amtrak 2.0 rail line that has outgrown the initial budget by several factors. It’s now technically illegal to stay construction because the legislation was worded to prevent the scope of the project from spiraling out of control. But that might not stop them from starting. If they do, it will prove that it has nothing to do with transporting Californian people up and down the state but is intended to transport Californian dollars from our pockets to friends of the legislators.
There was a law signed recently that would allow for a school boy to decide he’s “always been” a girl and start using the girls bathrooms and locker rooms. The attitudes surrounding Gerber identity often preclude honest discussion which would facilitate abuse if this well intended bill by young pervs. (I’m not sure what’s happening with this currently).
There seems to be a complete lack of common sense here. I think it’s been largely replaced by highly rationalized utopian ideals. The are plenty of common sense folks here but they are all drowned out by S.F. and L.A.
On top of that the economy here is withering. All of the acquaintances I’ve made in my industry are working for companies based out of state. All of the CA based companies are in bad shape, several have gone out of business.
I think CA is a lost cause until reality Birch slaps it hard. Until then the lack of jobs here is going to disperse our politics like pollen on the wind.
I’ve said it before. Fortify your state constitutions now. We need to be as active and persistent as the progressives.
Also I recommend reading Thomas Sowell, Milton Friedman, Von Mises and Murray Rothbard. Get your arguments in order. Economics and guns are what keep people free.
I friggin love LA. It’s my dangling carrot, the place I want to be sooner than later. It’s hard to believe that in that embattled place, almost nobody can carry a gun. So, yeah. California matters to me, too.
How do you fix a place where everyone there likes its being all messed up? and those same people then want everyone else to be like them?
My wife loves SF also because her best friend lives there, even though she realizes it for the shithole it is.
About half of the jobs in my industry are in CA and the yearly Game Developers Conference is in SF no less. So many smart dumb asses.
The escalators for the subway (BART) in SF were shut down in 2012. The reason was that so much human excrement had jammed up the escalators machinery. They had to send in hazmat crews to deal with it. In Dec. 2012 I was working a job in SF and outside the building on the sidewalk someone had…left a present, to borrow a pet owner’s euphamism.
When people talk about SF as a shithole, they rarely know the half of it. Staying north of Market st. (the diagonal one, look at a map, you can’t miss it) and it’ll be nicer, that’s where all the tourist spots are.
Boy, when the NAZI’S decide to retake England they are going to need guys like this to train their pellet gun troops against the evil dictator.’we will fight them in the air,the sea, the land ,we will never surrender!'[OUR DEADLY LETHAL PELLET GUNS].
Well, did they or did they not learn a little something about physics?
Stop calling it DOJ, it’s DOI, justice/injustice are not the same!
Nobody is going to confiscate your guns.
Please define words:
Nobody
Confiscate
Guns
It’s quite simple, in the communist utopia there is no such thing as “your” so you are just returning the guns to the government.
i weep for my state 🙁 and am terrified of where it will go if we don’t stand up and fight 😛
simple advice: HOME CARRY
When the Po-Po shows up, ask for a warrant. If they don’t have it, ask them to come back with one. Otherwise, an unlawful entry and home invasion will be presumed.
Recommend several video cameras with offsite streaming and storage to accompany this strategy.
That way you have a chance of appearing justified in the eyes of the common man even when you’re dead or doing life.
Could get a bit hairy.
Love it. Making them do their job, get a warrant, upsets them and causes them to threaten and escalate.
How dare you little pissants stand in the way of great American heroes as they dispense glorious justice.
You sir, are nuts for ditching the F355 for a PCar. Properly maintained, the Ferrari would have made a fine DD, and the F355 is one the best driving Ferraris built. A Porsche is an excellent car, but ditching the Ferrari for it would be like letting go of a Wilson Combat custom to pick up a Dan Wesson. A fine 1911 no doubt, but no where near the realm of a Wilson.
As a warrant is one of our natural, civil and Constitutionally guaranteed rights I would hope that as a matter of course, and regardless of threats from LEOs, we would demand that they provide the document. If an arrest was appropriate they should undertake that as a first effort, not as a result of you forcing the warrant.
Also, it seems to me that if an arrest were appropriate for the violation that preceded their appearance at your door they would have asked for and obtained the warrant beforehand.
Always keep in mind, people, that it is NOT illegal for law enforcement to lie to you in order to gain information or compliance.
As someone who put in his time in California, here’s my #1 suggestion to SF, Oakland and Berkeley to attract tourists:
Get the bums off the streets. Make people quit using random business doorways as a urinal.
The stench of SF/Oakland/Berzerkeley in the summer is, at times, overpowering.
And I say that as a guy who has been around animal feeding operations, with hundreds of head of cattle in a couple of acres of ground.
When dealing with cops there very touchy thing they well give chose of turn in all your guns or take you jail for not turn in your guns. So no win choses of doing as they say or not going jail for not doing as they say there. Best way void that is live some where else where never going happen.
Quite the interior decorator, the Merritt missus.
Good shooting. Wish I was able to watch the competition while I was st ft.benning
You know what would make that thing look even better? If It was the main prop in a new KJW video!
ill never buy another ka-bar again after a machete i bought last year sent a chunk of the blade wizzing past my face while cutting wood camping. no there was not a nail in the branch and i couldnt find any evidence of a stone having been imbedded in the branch.
I’ve owned many different brands and calibers of handguns over the years. HP has been one of them. I can truly speak objectively in saying I found no out of the way issues with the four different models of HP(380, 9, 40, and 45). I’m by no means an expert marksman, but hitting a man sized target at 50 feet away and keeping a spread of about 6 inches has always been the norm for me. In the 5 years that I had my HP’s I had one clip that gave me problems on my 9mm, but other than that they were acceptable and trouble free. They were not the most comfortable to shoot, but for the price, the reliability that I got from them, and the simple design they were good firearms.
San Fran Nan’s advice is to ….”Embrace the suck”
From my cold dead hands.
I think all People should go too jail who kill people.
Perhaps a sign that says “Gun free zone. We promise we won’t shoot you or defend ourselves.” Maybe a picture of a dead kid on it. These people are so stupid.
Chainsaws are something I fear. Not real rational but I do. But just because I’m afraid of them is no reason for me to try to ban them from everyone else.
My daughter lives in San Francisco and my wife and I love to visit. It’s the most livable large American city and I’ve been to all the ones I consider in that category But the people! I’ve never seen such a bunch of pathetic weirdos and that’s after working in NYC for twenty-five years.
I haven’t unfriended anyone, but I have been unfriended for the opposite reason, being too pro-gun. I didn’t shed any tears over the loss, and my blood pressure has never been better.
From the archives:
‘Speculation has it that among the many reasons marijuana wasn’t long ago legalized, regulated and taxed accordingly was due to the ‘big bucks’ influence on government by the pharmaceutical industry.
If it had been legal years ago to just smoke a joint, many of the prescription meds popular today wouldn’t ever have been sold in the first place, and ’Big Pharma’ would have lost billions of dollars in revenue.
Now that there’s only a small portion of people who smoke at all and millions of people are hooked on prescription meds and won’t use pot, ’Big Pharma’ probably won’t notice much of a loss at all. Besides that, government’s now in control of virtually every aspect of everyone’s life and legalizing dope’s not only a new source of quick money, but what’s better for government than making it perfectly legal for people that don’t take prescription meds to self-anesthetize?’
******
With regard to the decriminalizing / legalizing possession and use of marijuana and Fire-Arms ownership —
Consider as you may be so inclined the GUN CONTROL AGENDA is based on the singular goal of eliminating legal ownership of all Fire-Arms by every person not employed within or specifically authorized by government.
Pressures on those within Fedgov to implement this AGENDA are being exerted from a variety of sources on global levels.
Given this rudimentary understanding, every conceivable tactic will be used to affect this intended outcome.
With the aforestated in Mind, if you’re a user of marijuana and own a Fire-Arm, it’s only a matter of .gov’s tracking users just like yourself, and enactment of but a single law making it ‘illegal’ for users of marijuana to own any Fire-Arm to transpose YOU into one among the rapidly increasing numbers of former Citizens that .gov has already turned into Instant Criminals Under Law.
Conscience, Morality and ‘Rights’, my friends…Conscience, Morality and ‘Rights’.
Do No Harm / Successfully Defend
It looks like some states are getting it right.
Just when you think things are bad and getting worse, a person like Nikki Haley comes along and we move forward, not backward.
Believe it or not, there are some perfectly reasonable law-abiding people out there who are illiterate. I wouldn’t want to see them in violation of a law because some moron replaced a very clear sign that anyone can understand with something else.
” The new law will prohibit legally armed citizens from consuming alcohol while in these establishments”
No problem with that common sense restriction
Living in CA, cold day in hell for getting a CCW
!@$$%!
Stupid autoplay flash ad turns on in the middle of the video.
Can’t pause or mute it.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Governm…-Patients-Away
“I’m a complete fan of the Affordable Care Act, but now I can’t sleep at night,” Nelson said. “I can’t imagine this is how President Obama wanted it to happen.” — from the Cancer patient in the LA Times article.
Holy shit, did jerry miss? first time Ive seen that. Always a jokester this guy, gotta have a glass of tea 🙂
Governor Haley has gone on record saying “I will sign any gun legislation that does not restrict SC citizen’s 2nd amendment rights”. If the legislature would pass HB115: South Carolina Constitutional Carry, we would be set.
The only issue I have with SC, more specifically counties like Dorchester, is the tendency of Sheriffs to refuse to sign off on NFA items. There are LOTS of trusts here, and if the ATF tweaks the requirements, quite a few gun owners will be hosed.
Ahhh; The ring of steel from a well placed fast moving object; it’s as satisfying as the first sip of a hot cup of coffee on a cold morning.
Good job SC, I was just annoyed at you last summer when I went to Myrtle Beach but couldn’t (legally) carry in any of the restaurants we visited due to stupid laws. A good win for the good guys!
Cops don’t know how to knock. They only know how to shoot and kill – that and arrest you for “obstruction of justice” if you argue, disagree with them, or make them feel bad in any way.
I was a little skeptical of this rifle at first….BUT, it performs really well!!! In 308 I get 300 yard shots EASY and it has performed flawlessly! The bolt could be a little smoother, but for the money, you can’t go wrong!!
When I walked into my kids preschool class the other day he was being scolded by 2 teachers. When I casually inquired what all the hubub was all about I was informed by a very distraught and serious young teacher that he was “playing guns” with another boy and “we can’t condone any kind of weapons in this classroom.” I laughed in her face.
Bypass everything with this….doesn’t make this secure at all!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKLiU7yMdbk
Jerry= Skills.
IMO, never open the door for the police. If you do by accident, be polite, ask if they have a warrant, if they say no, tell you are sorry but that you cannot let them inside. I would not respond to any questions about my guns (no “yes” or “no”). If they get the warrant and come back, and take your guns, why arrest you then and not if you just say from the get-go that you have guns? In either case, you are still a felon in possession of guns.
Why leave you go if you just give them the guns up-front (where you were still a felon in possession of guns) versus arrest you if you require them to get a warrant first because you exercised your rights (remain silent, unreasonable search and seizure)?
What makes the warrant any different?
I like how Zimmerman keeps magically turning into a “white” man when he’s less “white” than Obama.
What these autodefensa groups need is for Rod Steiger and James Coburn to come back. Because when the federales come to take you away:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJGnPQCkzko
FYI this bill was ratified yesterday.
http://www.scstatehouse.gov/billsearch.php?billnumbers=308&session=120&summary=B
Abomination indeed.
I cherish my “obsolete, overweight, brass-chewing monster that kicks like a mule” over all other semi rifles in my collection.
Too much plastic and quad rails around these days. However, to address your contentions:
1) Obsolete: Hard to foul, simplicity of design, easy to clean. I’ll take ‘obsolete’ then
2) Overweight: Backpack gun it isn’t, nor would I ever use it as such
3) Brass-Chewing: No argument here. Delayed-Roller. It happens. Though not nearly as mangling as one would be led to believe
4) Kicks: Meh. Subjective. Its a .308
In the interest of fairness: I would never consider the above stock arrangement. S’like a VW dune buggy Baha tailpipe on a Ferrari 348.
Heh… Well I decided to throw a HK collapsing stock on my CETME a while back. And you’re right… forget about a cheek weld. But I DO like the rifle.
That being said it really does aggravate me to see a M4 stock stuck on everything any more. As I think about it it seems that about the only reason they are sticking an M4 stock on everything because their relatively cheap to made. Why make a nice AK wood stock when you can just use some cheap injection molded thing. Plus that takes care of the 922r issue as well, if we’re talking about something made from a parts kit.
I live on the central coast. But love visiting the Monterey bay area with my wife for our honeymoon and now anniversaries. But life on the central coast where the sheriff won’t approve a CCW unless you are a cop or you donate 6 figures to his campaign fund doesn’t seem quite fair. I don’t trust my wife being out with our one year old after dark when gangs and drug violence are growing worse and cops are shooting cops while on duty.
We have a beautiful outdoor range in the area and a good third of my coworkers in a 200 person building are all shooters and builders of ARs. Don’t discount California as lost, we are just outnumbered by big money and a Shit ton of people living off our tax dollars and EBT cards…
Is it wrong that I look at that map with no small amount of pride?
TEEEEXXXAAAASSSS!
In Ohio, the only really dumb gun law is the greater than 30 rounds per mag ban they have here. Other than that, no waiting periods, registrations, monthly limits, NFA limits, nothing. OC is allowed though would be weird, and CCW is shall issue and not hard to get.
West Virginia I feel until the bleeding hearts from MD move there.
Forgot to mention. Our local constabulary bought 2 FN “sniper” rifles last year (local rag’s verbiage not mine)… to “save lives during hostage situations”. …Of which there have been none.
On the other hand, they bought them just after a bill calling for the confiscation of most firearms hit the state senate. Some times 2+2 = 4… some times it equals .308
“To me, all of that makes sense. An exploding population needs to be controlled, and there’s a demand to eradicate as many of these animals as possible.”
let me start by stating that I’m not a murderer.. but if this statement applied to humans, which are far more detrimental to ALL environments, maybe the quality of life for all living things would be much better. I’m sorry to offend, but I just can’t understand the Christian mentality of human life being more precious than any. nor can I understand the thought of humans being supreme beings amongst “animals”. humans are more beastly than any animal to walk on all fours. I have nothing against Christianity as long as the followers are Christ-like and nothing against hunting as long as the food is consumed. just some healthy food for thought..
I am not a Christian, either, and neither was Yahweh or Adam or Eve, so far as can be discerned, however, in Genesis 1:26 – 28
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image…he will be master over all life – the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the livestock, wild animals and small animals
27 So God created man in his own image; God patterned him after himself; male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them and told them, “Multiply and fill the Earth and subdue it. Be masters over the fish and birds and all the animals.”
Seems unambiguous, taken at face value.
Grampa’s unwavering inability to talk about any other subject made certain that only one particular kind of girl would ever be willing to listen to him long enough to become interested.
That’s Gramma on the right, of course, playing naive. She would regularly mop the floor with him at 600 yards.