San Antonio Blogmeet

A bunch of the bloggers from the central / southern Texas areas are meeting at the Braken Rifle and Pistol Recreational Range just to the North East of San Antonio. The group is meeting at 0900 on Saturday 02-07-2009, but I'm driving down the night before.

From what I'm gathering, it looks like I'm going to have to pay for each gun that I want to shoot. I've never been billed for a range that way, so it'll be interesting to see. I've offered to the host of the meet to bring up to 7 different firearms, as seen in the pictures below.


I'm planning on bringing the following:

• Bushmaster AR-15, 5.56mm
  
• Henry .22LR Lever Gun, .22LR
  
• Ruger 22/45 Mark III, .22LR
  
• Ruger Single Six, .22 LR
• Glock 19 with CT grips, 9mm
• Springfield XD45 Service, .45ACP
• Kimber Custom TLE II/ RL with CT grips, .45ACP
  

And I laid the rest of my supplies in today for the blogmeet. I visited Champion Firearms in College Station and picked up the following:

• 200 rounds .45 ACP
• 100 rounds 9x19
• 200 rounds .223 Rem
• 50 rounds 7.62x25
• 40 rounds 7.62x54R

Also picked up a Serpa holster for XD45, a package of snap caps, and a set of Radians Electronic Muffs. I'll post a review of the new muffs after I get a chance to try them out at the blog meet.

Unfortunately, Champion was SOLD OUT of .22LR ammo. As a gun shop, how do you sell out of ammo for a .22? I headed over to Gander Mtn and picked up 1000 rounds of .22LR for the Henry and Ruger pistols.

Anyway, if you live in the San Antonio area, or want to make the trip, you're more then welcome to join everyone who's going to be there. Just for the record, I have never met any of the guys who are meeting up before.

Introduction to EMS

So I was told the other day that my blog needs more EMS stories and content. Although I'm not active on he ambulance like I was, I do have a couple of old stories floating around in my head.

When I first joined the volunteer first aid squad in June of 2002, I had already been a firefighter for about 3 years. I honestly expected them to be very similar atmospheres. I made it clear to the squad when I started that I was going to be a firefigter first. At least I had thought it was clear. See, about a year before I joined the first aid squad, the fire department decided they were going to start an EMS unit to help the local volunteer squads. At the time, in the firehouse, EMS was considered a second priority, meaning that if I went to a working fire with the fire department, they'd use me for firefighting, as opposed to EMS. They did have some people who did not have any fire training, who would be used for EMS at the fire jobs. I wanted that to continue on after joining the squad.

I joined the EMS unit in the fire station, and went through training to become an EMT, while most of the guys were content with a lower level of training. When I graduated EMT class, and the fire department started taking runs (I tested 2 weeks prior to the runs commencing), I was an EMT running with a bunch of first responders, and we were ALL inexperienced, so we had no institutional memory to help us. After a couple of months, I realized that I wasn't learning anything, and my comfort level was improving. I decided that I needed to start running EMS with people who could teach me better skills and help me learn, but I still wanted my priority to be on the fire station.

I first realized that EMS is a completely different animal from the fire house the first time I was at the squad house and a run was dispatched. See, my adrenaline jumped, and I was half-way to the bay when the guy I was meeting with motioned me back to my seat and told me there was a duty crew who would be handling the call. We would stay at the station and provide a backup crew if necessary.

I was floored, and couldn't believe what he was telling me. I was pumped, ready to go save a life, and then I was sitting on my hands.

Later in my time at the squad house, I would learn to throughly enjoy the small unit cohesion that I got to experience in the squad house. I enjoyed it so much, that I started spending less and less time at the fire house, and more and more time at the squad house. I loved my crew like family, and in some ways, I'm closer to them than I am to my own family.

New Idea...

I do most of my reading of blog posts through Google Reader, and that definitely has some advantages.  However, it also has some disadvantages.  I followed a link tonight from Murdoc over at GunPundit to the Armed Canadian.  When I first opened up the page, I noticed the header that AC has on the top of his page regarding taking people to the gun range for their first ever visit.

I want to make the same offer, and I'm going to put a similar message on the header of my blog.  Just wanted to say thanks to AC for giving me the idea!

ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ!

Amen Dude!

And I'd be willing to bet that push come to shove, and the chips are down, I know how it would turn out.

Politically Incorrect

I've always hated the idea of being politically correct. I understand why it is necessary in this day and age (translation: to keep myself out of trouble) but I don't enjoy having to do it.

With that all said, please enjoy the following politically incorrect (at least in this day and age) picture.

For those of you who aren't aware, that's a Bushmaster AR-15 with 30 round PMag and an EOtech HWS and a Glock 19 with Crimson Trace laser grips, a Glock light, and a 33 round Glock mag.

Both are a TON of fun to shoot.

Unity

So I was talking to Jay the other night on IM, it doesn't matter which client we were using to talk and we were talking about the difference in the laws between states like MA and NJ vs. states like TX and IN.

Don't misunderstand me, I hated the way the gun laws were written and enforced in NJ.  I mean, on a range trip, if I stopped off at Dunkin' Donuts, I was committing a crime!  That includes if I used the drive through, which I was never inclined to do.  I remember hearing horror stories of people arrested in NJ for having a SPENT shell casing rolling around in their vehicle.

I was expecting a change when I moved to IN in June of 2007.  I fully expected that it would be easier to purchase a new pistol (because it was worse than pulling teeth in NJ), and I was anxiously anticipating getting my concealed carry permit.  But there were changes that I was not expecting to deal with after I moved to IN.

One of the first goals I had when I moved to Indiana was to scope out the different gun shops in the area.  The area that I moved to in IN is a decent sized city in the southern part of the state, although my family moved to a location about 20 miles north west of the center of town, we were definitely close enough to access all of the benefits of the city life.  The city has 3 gun shops, and the county it resides in has an additional shop (which actually has a city address....).

When I walked into the three shops that were actually located in the city limits, I couldn't believe how much the guys behind the counter treated it all as a business.  There was not necessarily any warmth in their eyes, even when I started asking questions, to show that I'd actually done a little research.  One of the shops that I visited, the owner or employee (not sure which) didn't even get off of the stool he was sitting on when I walked in the door.

Compare that to the scene I was used to in Southern NJ (where I went to school).  I was a regular at Bob's, in Glassboro, on Friday nights.  If I was in town, I was at the gun shop.  Most nights we shot, some we sat around the counter and talked, and some of the more regular guys then me actually helped answer questions if it got busy.  With the group of regulars, it was almost like a bunch of friends, as opposed to people conducting a business transaction.

For the first 6 months that I lived in IN, I couldn't find a shop that duplicated the feelign I got when I was at Bob's shop.  Finally, about a year or so ago, I found Red Ghost Gun Shop (sorry, no website).  I've been doing business with the owner ever since.  Some times when I walk into the shop, I only want a couple dollars of merchandise, sometimes I want a new toy to bring home (like the Kimber I got last week), and sometimes, I just want to talk politics, or guns.  It doesn't matter what I want out of the visit, Terry is always pleasant when I show up.

But it's interesting to note, that the two states that I've visited gun shops in that have relatively gun friendly environments, I find that the gun shops are run much more like a business atmosphere.  Although, all things considered, I prefer the way it is in IN and TX!

--Jim

New Toy

Put this sucker on lay-a-way just after Thanksgiving (I'd already bought 3 new toys that weekend.)

Paid it off this weekend.

Will take it to the range on Saturday or Sunday for sure.

Kimber Custom TLE II / RL wearing a set of Crimson Trace Front activated laser grips. I can't wait to shoot it.

I won't tell you how much I paid for it, but I will happily say that it wasn't in the gunshop and available long enough to earn a pricetag.