December 11th, 2009
Dear Friend,
There’s lots of exciting stuff this week! Be sure to check out the Armed American Radio section. Let’s get started!
Sex and Guns
"…When it comes to guns, liberals and anti-gun groups, are unwilling to discuss how educating children can lead to a decrease in these very type of accidents…."
by Gerard Valentino
When abstinence is floated as a way to keep teenagers from having unwanted pregnancies the left is openly scornful of the idea. Liberals claim that sex-education and familiarity with contraception are the only viable ways to teach teenagers to practice safe sex. They argue that kids are going to have sex so it is important to teach them how to avoid the pitfalls involved with irresponsible behavior.
Liberals preach education as the answer for a host of other social ills as well, including discrimination, sexism and environmental issues.
Funny, however, that the only problem liberals refuse to attack with so-called education are accidental gun deaths among children. When it comes to guns, liberals and anti-gun groups, are unwilling to discuss how educating children can lead to a decrease in these very type of accidents.
Several times in the recent past, Ohio has considered a bill that would offer gun safety training as part of the high school curriculum. While pro-gun groups are quick to praise such a move as a way to decrease gun accidents through education, anti-gun leftists are already using their tired propaganda in opposition of the bill.
They claim that teaching gun-safety in schools will push a pro-gun culture on unsuspecting students. Yet, at the same time liberals claim that teaching sex-education with mentioning abstinence won’t teach a culture of promiscuity among high-school students.
The question at hand isn’t whether people agree with how sex-education is being taught in schools. It is simply a useful example of how the liberal anti-gun movement continues to fight their losing battle against guns with blinders on, completely unaware that they are becoming a political laughing-stock.
Pro-gun advocates have for years claimed that groups like the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence are not interested in pushing gun-safety and decreasing gun accidents, but instead have only one goal—total gun confiscation.
Their decision to oppose a current proposal to teach gun-safety in high schools proves that pro-gun advocates are correct.
Liberal anti-gun groups, and their cohorts in the establishment media, are blinded by an emotional hatred of guns to such an extent that they would oppose a program designed to achieve their claimed goal of making kids safer. They won’t admit that if gun accidents are reduced it takes away their biggest public relations bonanza.
The liberal anti-gun reaction to such programs is actually a public relations win for the pro-gun movement because the American public is smart enough to see that anyone who truly wants a decrease in accidental gun deaths should support teaching gun-safety in schools.
Only the help of the establishment media keeps the anti-gun movement afloat by giving credence to the otherwise discredited studies and statistics bandied about by groups determined to confiscate guns. The establishment media also fails to point out the hypocrisy of how liberals recommend sex-education as a way to stop teen pregnancy, but refuse to accept gun-safety education as a way to stop teens from accidentally shooting each other.
The anti-gun movement has seen its power and credibility wane as gun-control laws have failed to bring about a violence free nirvana as promised. Legal concealed-carry put more guns on the street without a corresponding increase in crime which further damaged the argument that guns are at the root of crime. Now, in desperation they steadfastly refuse to accept that properly educating children about gun-safety is just another example of how far they will go. They are quick to exploit a tragic gun accident, but refuse to educate to prevent them.
They are terrified because they know that as people become educated about guns, and the gun issue, it will further expose their duplicity. A great example is how the anti-gunners use the absurd assertion that the definition of children includes anyone to the age of 25 when it comes to statistics on gun deaths, including suicides. But they are unwilling to care for children when it would really matter due to the fact that it would hurt their message.
Gun-safety programs in schools will save lives, and to steal a line from the anti-gun movement, if only one life is saved by such a program they are worth implementing.
Gerard Valentino is the Buckeye Firearms Association Central Ohio Chair, BuckeyeFirearms.org, and writes for the ValentinoChronicle.com
USCCA Toon of the Week
Health Care Reform
Gun Rights Roundup
by Buckeye Firearms Association
Health Care Reform May Not be Healthy for Gun Rights
With the 2010 mid-term elections on the horizon, the gun issue is nowhere to be found … or is it? Health Care and the nation’s economic problems are dominating the news, and are likely to remain front and center in the upcoming campaign season.
However, gun owners need to remain vigilant. The fact is those in power want to take our guns. They always have. And they will come for them when we’re preoccupied with other issues.
One tactic to watch for is the Trojan horse, a type of attack that hides anti-gun provisions in a seemingly harmless bill. Health Care reform is of particular interest since once the government is paying medical bills, they can use the medical-related costs from any activity as an excuse for regulation.
Ken Hanson recently showed how this could work in an in-depth article called Will Health Care Reform Regulate Guns? We have successfully fought off direct attacks on our gun rights in recent years - it’s the indirect attack that should concern us.
Gun Rights Roundup is a joint venture of Buckeye Firearms Association and USCCA. We will keep fighting until every American enjoys their natural right to carry and self-defense. For more news on pro-gun law, politics, and events, click here to subscribe to Buckeye Firearms Association’s FREE Newsletter.
Coming Up On Armed American Radio
The Official Voice of the USCCA
by Mark Walters
So much going on I can’t stand IT! For starters, last weeks show was an easy going discussion amongst friends that was absolutely packed with information. Politics, guns, churches and global warming were all on the table. Head over towww.armedamericanradio.org to listen to last weeks program or get it on Itunes. Either way, don’t miss it.
This week I will be sharing the microphone with one of my favorite television hosts, Mr. Rob Pincus of The Outdoor Channel’s Best Defense and we are going to do something different.
Last week I received an email from a listener asking if we could cover a specific topic he recommended. I agreed and read his email on the air and asked Rob to join me to discuss the fan’s topic of specific ways to defend the home. To highlight the importance of having a gun at home for protection, I will be playing two very disturbing home invasion 911 tapes ending with totally different outcomes. Afterwards, Rob and I will discuss in DETAIL, what happened and why. These tapes are very powerful and I recommend no kids in the room. The discussion and the horror of these real life moments will send chills up your back and give you goosebumps.
Joining us will be Blade and martial arts expert Michael Janich and we’ll talk about just near everything you can think of. These guys have been on AAR before and are back by popular demand. They’re the best.
NOW, on to something a little different. As you are probably aware by now, Armed American Radio is one of the fastest growing radio broadcasts in America. It is literally sweeping the nation and is the favorite of most stations for weekend content. Well guess what? Salem Radio Network is doing a GREAT job growing the program and we’re gonna help them out and we need YOU to assist us.
Introducing OPERATION VELVET HAMMER
Operation Velvet Hammer is designed to help us grow AAR even bigger than it is even faster than it is! So many of you have sent emails and made comments on the radio website asking where you can get the station on YOUR hometown dial. Now we’re growing fast but we KNOW we can do it even faster with YOUR help. If you are interested in assisting us in growing this program, please visitwww.operationvelvethammer.com and sign up to help out.
I’ll explain in more detail in the coming days but first I need you to join the select group that will dedicate some of their time to assisting me. Don’t worry, by doing so you’ll get not only the satisfaction of helping me counter the anti-gunners and freedom haters voices but I’ll also make sure you get some pretty cool stuff for helping out. The anti’s and freedom haters have a voice in every major newspaper, television network and Washington itself. Now it’s OUR TURN. Help me turn Armed American Radio into the voice heard in all 50 states faster than we already are! Visit www.operationvelvethammer.com for more details and:
I’ll see YOU on the radio!
Mark
Review of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day
USCCA Gear Review
So why in the world am I writing a book about bread for a newsletter that is about concealed carry? There is a method to my madness. USCCA is all about concealed carry of firearms for those who are permitted to legally carry, but that mindset of defensive preparedness spills over into all areas of preparedness.
Now the thing about disaster preparedness is that it is fickle based on a lot of variables that makes it tough for a teacher to teach a mass audience and have it apply to everyone. I’ve found something in this book that will be a help to everyone who wants to be a bit better prepared when the grid goes down.
Here’s the scoop about Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day that makes it good from a died-in-the-wool survivalist to the man or woman struggling with just getting through daily routines while the utilities are still on. For the hardcore, the recipes are just the thing, and the time savings free up more minutes to spend on outdoor adventures. For the person who dreams of developing a better preparedness mindset, following the recommendations for bread making in this book is easy and it establishes a pattern of behavior that can be built upon to become a citizen who is better prepared for any natural or man-made disaster.
Take a look at me and you can tell I’m a fella who just might like a slice or two of bread. That’s an understatement actually. I’m like Pavlov’s dog if someone sets some good Cheddar cheese and a piece of Baguette bread down in front of me. I tried the electric bread machine route and though it’s easy to do, it just never impressed me as being great bread no matter what recipe I tried.
Okay, I don’t want any jokes about the big guy who learned a lot of tough things over the years writing about bread recipes in the Armed American Report. If I get any funny emails, I’ll get my wife after you!
My father-in-law is a tough coal miner who really likes a good loaf of bread served with dinner. He tries all of the store-bought stuff and my wife and I get the rest of the loaf after he is disappointed with the first slice. And I must admit that my doggies get most of the ones that fail to please the palette. They don’t care what it tastes like. Except for Sally that is. She’s picky like me.
We bought my father-in-law a bread machine before we got one. He used it for awhile but just as I discovered, there is something lacking. I think I found a middle ground between the quickness of making bread in a bread machine, and traditional take all day bread making. And it’s as simple as the secret along with the recipes of this book.
The secret is preparing enough dough in advance for two weeks of bread making. No, not dough pieces that will be frozen and then thawed (except for some really enriched doughs). This secret is prepping enough dough for two weeks of everyday bread making, and keeping it in a container in the refrigerator. It’s the recipes for the dough that makes the system work.
And NO KNEADING! ‘Nuff said there.
When it comes time to actually bake the bread, just turn on the oven, pull off an appropriate size hunk of dough from what’s in the storage container, let it rise for twenty minutes, and bake.
While the oven is heating up the dough will be rising. You can go and do whatever else you need to be doing, come back later, pop the bread in the oven, and fresh bread will be on the table in no time. Actually, making bread this way can be much faster than even an electric breadmaker.
Some may think that dough approaching two weeks of storage in a refrigerator would just be nasty. Not so at all. It actually can make flavors better as the days go on if the recipes that have been adapted for this type of use are followed.
Written by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe François, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day is a combination of innovative thinking, or the technology of bread making, combined with recipes that will turn anyone within smelling distance into Pavlov’s dog.
Musician, physician, professor, IT consultant, and bread enthusiast Hertzberg teamed up with the Culinary Institute of America trained pastry chef and baker François to work out an easy system to be able to have fresh bread at the family table every day without hassle. They took the art of bread-making, that can truly get as complicated to make it seem as if it is on par with rocket science, and distilled it down into a simple five minute a day way to prepare a hunk of dough for baking. Maybe a couple of folks could team up to make rocket science easier? But I digress.
Who can resist the aroma of a fresh loaf of bread baking? How about pizzas? Maybe your thing is more along the lines of a great loaf of bread for sandwiches, or a chewy Baguette such as I like. Or maybe you need a sugar fix from a fresh hot pastry? Whatever your bread vice is, you will find something pleasing with close to a hundred recipes in this book.
Now what is it about the psychology of preparedness that has me recommending this book? It is establishing a pattern that will be built upon. Yes, you do have to gather and mix ingredients for a week’s worth of dough to make bread. If you are already a bread making expert you will be learning a new twist. If you are looking to do the simplest things to become better prepared, this is it too.
Most of us need to slow down a bit. We need to stop living on boxed foods heated up in a microwave. However, we can’t add hours to the day nor more burdens to already busy schedules. So beyond a hastily packed Bug Out Bag for when it gets really bad, what can the busy do to help make the readiness senses become a bit keener?
We can discover or rediscover some basic skills that will definitely be of benefit when the grid goes down. Skills of learning the behavior of how bread reacts to our own personal touch are skills that can be built upon for much more serious disaster preparedness skills.
Trust me. Once you bake your first loaf of bread in any manner more traditional than an electric bread-maker or the frozen white bread dough from the store, all arrogance of being under the impression of being "the master" will be adjusted. The first thing you will learn making bread is that each loaf will turn out different no matter how hard you try to make it exactly the same as the last one. The next time you go to the bread aisle take a look at the commercially made loaves of bread, and you will see what I mean. There are differences loaf to loaf and batch to batch of even commercially made bread that is made under strict controls.
The simple thing of getting back to some basics of making fresh bread every day, or every couple of days will get you thinking, and that is what I want anyone that I teach to begin to do. Think! Think about everything!
This is one thing that you can do to start the journey of changing your whole mindset about preparedness. It’s much more than packing a Bug Out Bag for every member of the family, and even much more than taking an ultimate survival course where you could die if you mess up.
Survival is building skill sets that become first nature. No thinking. No worrying. No panicking. Just get the job down as long as there is breath in your body. Skill sets that aren’t just practiced once a year, but every single day of life. And you can begin the journey by baking a simple loaf of bread.
Nature is raw, and making anything from the basic raw ingredients teaches in a subtle way that the best plans (recipes) need to be fluid, dynamic, and adaptable not only to personal taste, but also differences in raw ingredients.
Experiencing the subtle differences from loaf to loaf from the same batch of dough puts it into that hardwiring of the brain the truth that you only have a truly limited amount of control over anything and everything. I was fortunate to learn a long time ago that the best made disaster plans are only good up to the point of first contact. After that it is the skill sets that make the difference.
Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking is published by St. Martins Press. Come on. Make the spouse or kids think you’ve really lost your mind this time. Start baking fresh bread every day. You can get a copy of the book HERE.
Quote of the Week
“I have a very strict gun control policy: if there’s a gun around, I want to be in control of it.”
—Clint Eastwood
USCCA Forum Highlights
Every paying website member has complete access to the USCCA forum, which is constantly being accessed by members sharing information, knowledge, insight, and fun. With well over sixty-thousand posts and growing by the hour, this is one heck of a valuable resource!
If you have never logged in but are a member, visit THIS location to watch help videos, including how to find out your username and/or password!
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This week in the Forum Highlights I’m giving you an example of the responses members get from their posts. I want you all of you who aren’t yet members of our exclusive online members only forums to not only get a taste of the questions and other posts, but also the wonderfully informative replies.
A Single Carry Weapon Platform
I have been considering going all Glock (with the exception of pocket guns). My wife loves "her" (I bought it for me) G-26. My idea was to stick to the 9mm and get another g-26 then possible a G-19. I cannot see to many downsides to going all Glock. Has anyone else done this, are there issues that I am unaware of?
Before it is brought up, my wife LOVES the Glock. She has tried the HS2000 aka Springfield XD and does not like it.
I Think This May Have Been Stupid
Last night I got home from work and armed myself. (I am not permitted to defend myself at work on Fort Jackson and can not bring a weapon on post and keep it in my car while working.) I then get ready to go out and run errands, one of which was to fuel my truck. I go by the dry cleaners, the grocery store and stop at the BP station / convenience store close to the house to fuel up. This is my last errand and I am mentally already home. Thinking about supper, getting the dogs in and what I am going to do for the rest of the evening.
I am fueling up when a car with three males and loud rap music pulls slowly in to the parking lot. They park in the last space, farthest from the entrance. No other vehicles are in the area. It is just me, them and the clerk inside. I am shaken from my daydreaming and start paying close attention. They turn of the music and lights, but not the engine. They are just sitting in the car. I finish with fueling my truck and decide to go in to the store.
I don’t need anything, I just felt like this could be a possible robbery. I like the owner / clerk. He is a good guy and my plan is to get a candy bar and chat with him for a while. I am waiting for some more customers or for them to come in or leave. They leave without coming in.
As I leave it dawns on me that I intentionally put myself in a possibly bad situation.
Should I have just taken the license plate and wrote a description down in case I needed to file a report? Should I have just drove down the road a ways and watched? I don’t feel bad for doing what I did, I just think I may have been a little to proactive.
I don’t know must be the Army in me.
Thoughts?
Tonight my training conflicted with the fact that there are other people living in this house. Modified my behavior naively assuming nothing was wrong. When it was all over I got to wondering if not being on full alert would get me killed in the future.
Roughly 2 hours ago I was woken up seconds before a loud crash. (What woke me up was a nightmare where I had just been killed.) It took me a disgraceful amount of time to put on shorts, get the cell phone, flashlight, pistol & second mag. (Note to self - clean room)
Carefully went down the dark hallway and down the stairs. Front door is still locked, lights are off, scanned outside, looks clear. I make my way toward the kitchen and see the light is on. All the bedroom doors are closed and their respective lights are off. I start thinking too much and I enter the kitchen quickly instead of inching my way in until I see everything. Kitchen is empty, I make my way toward the back door and a familiar face walks in. I put the gun in my pocket, again perhaps a little too quickly. I’m thinking maybe I should have been a little more dramatic and kept it aimed at him for a second longer to show that he scared the hell out of me and shouldn’t slam doors at 4AM. I told him that his door slamming woke me up and I headed back to my room.
I got trained by Blackwater 2 weeks ago, and the first chance I get to test it I’m throwing it all out the window. Things I’m kicking myself over: taking too long to suit up, reverting to a Harries Grip, going through the house more quickly than tactically sound, lowering the gun from the non threat too quickly.
Our exclusive members-only forums are an incredible resource due to the numbers of experienced members ready and willing to help answer questions. An added plus is that it is for paid members only. That hands down eliminates the creeps and losers that can be found lurking in other online forums.
Video of the Week
Officers work long hours risking their lives for low pay. Over the past few decades they have slowly been transformed from people everyone in the neighborhood knows into citizen soldiers. Then they have to deal with rigid policies enacted by departments who are scared to death of liability issues.
See what happens when an officer goes by-the-book as it was given to him in training. I ask the question, what would you have done if you faced the same situation as the Mr. Wayne Abels?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiF5ljMCq-w
USCCA Photo of the Week
All Photos of the Week are taken from Mr. Oleg Volk’s
website:
http://www.a-human-right.com/.
It is a
fantastic site. Please check it out!
USCCA Self Defense Story
Every day, thousands of Armed Americans use their firearms to preserve human life. Let this section of my newsletter serve as a record of this fact!
December 4, 2009
Cushing, Oklahoma
From: The Oklahoman
Woman Shoots and Kills Intruder in Lincoln County
A woman with a shotgun was on the phone to a 911 dispatcher this morning in Lincoln County when she shot and killed an intruder who crashed through her back patio door.
Donna Jackson 56, told the dispatcher a man she didn’t know was at her sliding glass door to her back patio about 12:40 a.m. at 352112 E 800 Road south of the Cushing city limits, said Lincoln County Sheriff Chuck Mangion.
She was armed with a 16-gauge shotgun when the dispatcher heard the glass door smash and the shotgun blast, Mangion said.
A man identified as Billy Dean Riley, 53, was struck once in the chest and pronounced dead when emergency medical workers arrived, Mangion said.
Jackson was not harmed.
Jackson was home alone when her dog woke her up, Mangion said. She turned all the lights in the house on and then armed herself with the shotgun. Her husband was not home, Mangion said.
She went into her kitchen and saw a man trying to break in. The man saw her and screamed threats at her, Mangion said. She told him she was armed and on the phone with police, he said.
The man picked up a patio table and threw it through the patio door, Mangion said. He stepped into the kitchen and that is when she fired the fatal blast, striking him in the center of the chest, he said.
Deputies arrived and found the man lying on the back porch.
Jackson did not know the man, Mangion said.
Closing Thoughts
I have a Florida Concealed Carry Permit, and usually carry in whatever states I’m allowed (We are campers and drive a motor home). This coming summer, we are driving to Alaska. I do not know know what to do with my gun. I cannot bring it through Canada, but I can carry in Alaska. I’d hate to leave my gun home! Can I ship it to Alaska when I am ready to go through Canada? Any Ideas would be appreciated…
Hello friend! This is a very good question. You are dead-on, my advice to you would be to ship your gun to a gun dealer in Alaska, and then pick it up when you get there. There may be a ‘handling’ fee associated with doing this, but if you are going to be there for a while, I would imagine it would be totally worth it.
Of course, be sure to call a gun-store (or FFL) in Alaska before doing this to see what they recommend.
(Hey- this might be a good opportunity to convince your wife that you need to buy a second gun!)
Do you have a pressing concern? Use the ‘Ask Tim’ contact form found at this page to let me hear your advice. Just use the graphic below!
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