Good Self Defense Article

Kelly Muir has a good article on the Personal Defense Network entitled The Need for Integrated Self Defense. She emphasizes that self defense is more than knowing how to use a gun. It also means knowing something about bare hands, teeth, Tasers, pepper spray, knives, sticks, stones and harsh language. It means having at least a minimum level of physical fitness. Most important of all is it requires the proper mindset.

Read it. It is worth your time.

Good News from India

Looks like Indians are becoming aware of the need for self defense.

In the land of Mahatma Gandhi, Indian gun owners are coming out of the shadows for the first time to mobilize, U.S.-style, against proposed new curbs on bearing arms.

When gunmen attacked 10 sites in Mumbai in November 2008, including two five-star hotels and a train station, Mumbai resident Kumar Verma sat at home glued to the television, feeling outraged and unsafe.

Before the end of December, Verma and his friends had applied for gun licenses. He read up on India's gun laws and joined the Web forum Indians for Guns. When he got his license seven months later, he bought a black, secondhand, snub-nose Smith & Wesson revolver with a walnut grip.

More here: New groups mobilize as Indians embrace the right to bear arms

Nordyke v King En Banc

Volokh Conspiracy Ninth Circuit Will Rehear Nordyke v. King En Banc
Law.com Giving Gun Case Another Look

The whole gun rights blogosphere is abuzz with speculation on this. I'll post more as information comes in.

DIY Speed Loader for 22 rifle tube magazines

For trips to the range I have one of the fancy speed loaders like this on from Cabelas or Cheaperthandirt

At home I sometimes need to quickly load specialty ammo like CB caps or SSS so I keep a few in homemade "speed loaders".

Materials:

1. Straw or other tube large enough to let a 22 round slide freely. (Any tube with an appropiate inside diameter will work. I have a couple made from sections of an old aluminum arrow)
2. Used foam ear plug.
3. White glue.

Instructions:

1. Put few drops of white glue on the inside surface of the straw.
2. Compress the ear plug and insert it about 1/2" into the straw.




3. Let the earplug expand and set the assembly aside.
4. Let the glue dry overnight.
5. Clip the exposed part of the earplug off.
6. Fill with the desired ammunition and use the remainder of the earplug to cap the end.
   

To load your 22 rifle:

1. Pull out the magazine follower.
2. Uncap the straw.
3. Upend the straw spilling the ammunition into the magazine tube.
4. Replace the follower.