Gun Culture

Monday, November 28, 2005

Resurrect the Sport Hits the Media

Nice to see that the shooting media have noticed Ian’s site Resurrect the Sport.  The site featured in this month’s Target Sports, the one with the nice blonde shooter on the front cover.
Well done Ian mate.

Friday, November 25, 2005

The Labour Party Institutionally Racist

If you were to replace England with Scotland/Ireland/Wales and English with Scottish/Irish/Welsh in the following text then there would (justifiably) be outrage at the slur and insult therein.  However because Terry White, Communications Manager of the Labour Party, is talking about the English then this is somehow acceptable.

England, as opposed to Britain, has an unfortunate history around the world and within the British Isles and please do not say that it is all past.

It is a fact that the right and extreme right in Britain cloak themselves in the English flag, the cross of St.George and claim to be the true representatives of the English.

Wherever there is hooligan behaviour, usually linked to extreme right-wing political groups e.g. at football matches here and abroad, it is the flag of St.George that is displayed and that, I would imagine, is the reason why the MP referred to this type of ‘Englishness’ as a threat to democracy

To suggest that the re-emergence of an English identity is a threat to democracy as Gisela Stuart (Labour) MP does is beyond insulting, for Mr White to try to justify this by implying that the St Georges flag is a symbol of hooliganism or the so-called extreme right is worse.  Notice he also says ‘the right’, implication that the Conservative party are also a threat to democracy?
We need no more evidence that the Labour Party machine hates England and the English and will pass up no opportunity to put the boot in.  I don’t suppose too many Labour supporters visit this site but if you are a Labour supporter - look what they are doing in your name, work within your movement to purge this disgusting bigotry and racism.

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Cop Killers Asylum Seekers?

When I was leafleting for the General Election this May, I was ashamed ASHAMED to be putting paper through people’s doors with the biggest single issue being immigration or asylum seekers.  Whilst I want to get a grip on immigration I felt that the obsession with immigration that UKIP seemed to have was bordering on racist and giving ammunition to those who describe UKIP as the BNP in suits.  The immigration obsession lead me to even reconsider my association with UKIP.
The news that the suspects in the shooting of two WPC’s recently may be asylum seekers from Somalia makes me wonder if the immigration thing is more significant than I prefer to believe.  This is hardly the first time that a gun crime has been linked to immigrants, either from Eastern Europe or elsewhere.  It is thought that many of the illegal firearms are coming via these immigrants/illegals from their country of origin.

Somali gangs are known to be increasingly active in the gun-running trade across Europe and have smuggled weapons into Britain in addition to trafficking drugs and people

Lord John Stevens, previously an opponent of the death penalty has decided that for cop killers the punishment should be death.

I am now convinced the monster who executed this young woman in cold blood should, in turn, be killed as punishment for his crime

I am open minded on the death penalty, but I do not believe that the rules should be different for police than they are for an ordinary Joe.  Similarly of the calls for routine arming of police, if the citizens cannot be armed then neither should the police.  Up until the PACE act, a police constable was merely a citizen who is employed to enforce the law.  i.e. they had the same rights and responsibilities as the citizen but they were professionally employed.  I believe that this should still be the case today, if police can carry batons, pepper spray or guns then so should the law abiding citizen.  I do not believe that we should be creating special classes of people who are considered more worthy than the average law abiding citizen.

Battlefield 2 Modern Combat

Just bought Battlefield 2 for my Xbox.  Great fun online, not so convinced with the single player game myself.  Here’s my stats so you can see just how much I suck!

Plus my Xbox Live Game Tag thingy

Monday, November 14, 2005

Daft Cow

Previously I have mentioned local lottery winning lovely Callie Rodgers (18 with 34DD - yummy!) and suggested that being in the paper all the time is not the best of ways to keep yer head down to avoid the attentions of the great unwashed of West Cumbria.
Front page today of The Local Rag carries the sad news that she tried to do herself in.

I did it because winning the lottery has ruined my life

No it hasn’t love, your inability to deal with the win and peoples reactions have cocked things up.

I wish I had never won

This one always pisses me off, quite a regular quote from lottery winner glums.  The solution is simple, give the cash to me.  Job done. Situation remedied.  If you don’t want to just give me the cash then I’ll shag you for it.  You might feel you’ve got poor value but just think of the happiness that your impending poverty will bring you.
Callie says she was poorly advised by Camelot

They should have told me to move away

Camelot weren’t to know what a lot of petty jealous bastards there seem to be in West Cumbria now were they?  In any case I told you to move away, granted you couldn’t hear me because I was in my front room reading the article about your win but no sense complaining about it now.  So what’s stopping you moving away now?  Not like you’re strapped for cash is it?  Sell your houses and do a bunk love, don’t forget to leave that sponge of a boyfriend behind though eh?
Oh, since the link to the News of the Screws piccy of the young lass displaying her assets is bust in the other article you can see it in continue reading if you’re that way inclined.  Purely public service you understand.

Continue reading Daft Cow...

Road Kill

Waste not want not and all that.  Returning from visiting the folks took me through a piece of woodland which is used by a local syndicate for pheasant shoot based purposes.  One daft pheasant wandered in front of the car, evasive action saw that it would live for now.  Further on though a shape in the road turned out to be a slightly unluckier fellow.  Fresh kill too, so in the boot he goes - much to the horror of her indoors!  An oddity of law states that if you were the one to run the bird over you commit an offence by picking the bird up, if you are in the car behind then no offence is committed.  Designed to deter harvesting of birds by motor vehicle.
Back in the Gun Culture bunker, the bird awaited plucking.

A fine bird (alreadly lost his tail feathers in the meeting twixt car and bird!), I’m thinking he was one of last years as this years intake aren’t so large just yet.  In case you’re wondering the green poles are hide poles, a bit of an improvement over clothes line poles and they have a great kick plate for skewing them into the ground.
It’s been a wee while since I plucked a pheasant so it was a bit of a novelty, can’t say I’d like to pluck a days worth of shot birds mind, the colouration of the feathers was quite wonderful.  Pulling the fellows innards out showed the condemned man ate a hearty meal of grain before meeting his end.  No pictures of this process as fingers were rather bloody at the time.  There really is something marvellous about preparing game, it tickles something deep in the soul of the hunter gatherer.
Into the oven with the bird and sometime later a superb meal emerges, the bird was quite plump so didn’t suffer any of the dryness that you get sometimes.  Fantastic, first pheasant of the season to be eaten in the Gun Culture bunker.  A slightly unconventional means of aquiring the bird but somehow all the better for it.

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Unload and show safe

Apparently some firearms owners aren’t using their common when visited by their Firearms Liason Officer (also called Firearms Enquiry Officers).  On renewal the FLO will make a visit and ask to see your weapons and facilities.  As part of this he will ask to examine your guns.  At this point you need to observe some pretty basic firearms safety.
First and most obvious - don’t store your guns loaded.  Ever.  If you are the sort of person who leaves them loaded ‘just-in-case’ then make damned sure that you unload them before the FLO comes ‘round.  Better still don’t keep them loaded. 
Secondly when you take the gun from it’s cabinet, assuming a side by side or O/U, break the gun and show the FLO the empty barrels.  Throw in a range phrase like ‘showing safe’ or ‘check safe’ before handing over the weapon. Don’t wave the barrels around when doing this!
With bolt actions some constabularies want you to remove the bolt, I’m not into that.  You don’t want to be getting your bolts mixed up, and removal is un-necessary.  Again show the FLO the empty chamber, drop the magazine if fitted.
Semi-autos, drop the mag if fitted.  Assuming there is a hold open pull the action and show the FLO the empty chamber.
Simple commonsense when handing someone a weapon but maybe some field shooters (and clay shooters) aren’t quite so rehearsed in these disciplines as club shooters.
Article from The Sportsmans Association prompts this public service reminder!

Monday, November 07, 2005

Whitehaven Time Gun

A time gun is a gun fired regularly at a particular time, originally to give passing ships a time check apparently.  Such beasts exist at Edinburgh (this gun was introduced for the folk of Edinburgh’s benifit), Cape Town, Hong Kong and now Whitehaven.  For some reason (lack of volunteers I expect) the Whitehaven gun is only to be fired on Fridays, so if you’re looking for a time check any other time then you’re out of luck.

This particular beast was constructed by a chap called Peter Hathaway-Jones, top banana at Low Mill Range gun club (where your correspondent is a member).  Peter reckons that the gun cost £6k to make, I can only assume that he’s including his time in this as the gun doesn’t look especially costly in construction to me.  The design is apparently a cross between a field artillery piece and a Mobat recoil-less weapon - except it fires 4-bore blanks loaded with black powder.
I’m not entirely sure what the legal situation with this is.  Under current legislation the piece looks capable of firing a projectile and would therefore be considered a smoothbore gun.  Under the proposed VCR Bill this looks a hole lot like a proper gun and presumably would fall foul of the ‘replica weapon’ rules.  I’ll try to remember to ask Peter the ins and outs next time I’m there.

Peter is the fellow on the left.
Apologies for the crappy little pictures but they were the best I could pinch from the local rag’s website!
Articles from same here and here.

Dunblane Website

Via The Sportsmans Association comes this link to a site which highlights some of the cover-ups and inconsistencies surrounding the Dunblane tragedy.
There is a fair bit regarding Freemasonry on the site, personally I remain unconvinced that Freemasonry played much of a part in the lead up or later cover up of the tragedy.  Whilst I’ve no doubt that some of the players were masons I suspect that the cover up was more ‘old boys’ network based rather than mandated by masons.

Friday, November 04, 2005

Hypocrisy of Wade

Friend of Labour and Sun editor Rebekah Wade is a scary looking individual.  I can well believe that she gave ‘TV hard man’ Ross Kemp a beating.  Kemp looks like the kind of guy that would stay his hand if being attacked by ‘a lady’ - a title I wouldn’t gift this particular harridan but he must see something in her.  In fact I expect that Wade is the one that wears the pants in that household.  What is a mystery is how the plod came to be involved, did the fight occur in public?  Not as far as we know and Wade was arrested in her home at four in the morning.  So one presumes that Kemp called the five-oh.  Poofter.
What is particularly delicious about this incident is that Wade has, as part of her editorship, campaigned against domestic violence.  Ah, but of course that’s different.  She campaigns against domestic violence against wimmin.  Doesn’t count when it’s the other way around see.

The Religion of Peace

I have seen my arse with Islam.
Normally I like to consider myself a good libertarian, I consider that you can do what you like.  Provided that it does not impinge on my (or others) rights to do likewise.  Hence I have been trying not to consider Islam per se to be a danger or a negative thing, and it certainly has been trying.  Whilst we have seen terror attacks in our own nation and abroad I have tried to hold to the view that these are crazies on the fringe, that the majority do not share these views and are as horrified as I am.
The steady drip drip of incidents and baffling suppresion of English culture to accomadate an immigrant minority belief have taken it’s toll.  Nothing can exist in a vacuum and it seems to me that the Religion of Peace we keep hearing about is either a myth or in fact the true extreme of the religion.
What do I propose we should do?  Wipe Islam from the face of the Earth?  No, I still can’t bring myself to come to this conclusion.  We should however cease pretending that Muslim is a peaceful tolerant religion and we certainly need to stop making accomadations to these minority.  If I want to have a piggy bank then I shall, if I wish to fly the flag of my nation then I shall, if I wish to denounce Islam then I shall.
If you don’t like it Mohammed Ahmed, or Tarquin Tofu Guardian-Wank-Boy then I invite you to go and fuck yourself.

I’ve added a graphic to the sidebar which shows the number of terrorist attacks by followers of the ‘religion of peace’ since the twin tower attacks.  Thanks to Isiah for pointing me to The Religion of Peace

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Trick or Treat?

"Trick or Treat” is one US import I could do without.  Most of the little bastards ‘round our way use this as an excuse for begging for money, followed closely by the even more tiresome ‘penny for the guy’ (try giving them a penny really pisses them off), bollocks immediately after.  Some times TorT can start a coupla weeks into October, these are always the beggar variety rather than kids who actually expect to receive some sweetmeat or another.  These little bastards get short shrift for sure.  This year the local tossers have pissed me and Mrs Culture off so much that she declared they could all get bent and that the door would remain firmly unanswered.
Perhaps we should have taken this fellows lead.

Two Italian boys were recovering in hospital on Tuesday after a 70-year-old man shot them with his hunting rifle

Little axe

Many moons ago I bought a rather splendid axe.  I was extremely chuffed with it, as axes go the Gransfors Bruks are the dogs danglies - a real artisans axe made by hand in Sweden.  For a blade and axe fan such as I these are as much a piece of art as a working tool.  I pressed my axe into use for hide building on occassion and for this it is just the job, compact and sharp enough to shave with.  I was so pleased I bought a larger beastie the Small Forest Axe.  This is the size that bushcraft guru Ray Mears likes to use.  Again a superb piece of kit, but to be honest I’ve not really got a use for it, but I still get pleasure from owning such a splendid item.  Any how I remember seeing a little axe at a bushcraft event a couple of years back, this is called the Mini Hatchet.  The Mini is made by only one of the Gransfors team a Lennart Pettersson and is a little exclusive because of this.
When Andrew at Outdoor Code (worth a look for outdoors/hunting kit) announced he had one left in stock at a good price then I just had to have it.
When the day arrived I opened up the package with no small degree of excitement (I don’t get out much!), opening the package the axe was (of course) exquisitely put together and there on the head the mark of Mr Pettersson.  I couldn’t help but think though that it wasn’t much smaller than my Wildlife axe.  So got home and put the two together and chuff me if they weren’t the same!  Turns out that my ‘Wildlife’ was a Mini.  Slaps forehead.  So I’m off to trade in one of the Minis for a proper Wildlife.
Here’s a pic of the Mini:

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Dogging, with a difference

Ugh.

Never before in my time at the bar or on the bench have I ever had to deal with somebody who voluntarily allowed himself to be buggered by a dog on the public highway

Story here
Found at Seatcupra.net

Cumberland Sausage

I like a good Cumberland sausage.  I like the size of the thing, the coarse texture and that spicy kick.  Plus of course the beast originated in mine home area.
I’m unsurprised to hear that some makers of this particular style of sausage are trying to get the EU to declare it a regional protected food, yet dissappointed.  Anything to do with the EU is a non-starter for me in any case but I’m generally opposed to this kind of regional protectionism.  Cumberland sausage refers to a style of sausage not just a location.  There is nothing special about the region such that the sausage can only be made here.  It is true to say that the further you stray from the region the more likely you are to encounter a Cumberland sausage not worthy of the name.  It is also true that there are a goodly number of producers here who make insipid disgusting concoction that I wouldn’t give to my dog.  I need go no further than my home town to find a purveyor of such a foul excuse for a sausage.  Laughably the vendor styles himself ‘Lakeland Luscious Sausage’.  Should you encounter any of his products I urge you to decline, these are the most disgusting fucking sausages I have ever had the misfortune to try.  Fatty, gristly and completely without taste.  A shame, the idea of a hot sausage sandwich of a lunch time is appealing in the winter time but I shall not be darkening his door ever again.
It doesn’t help the case that the area of Cumberland was consigned to the bins by fatty Heath some time ago, the folks bringing the proposal are suggesting that being in Cumbria is geographical area which will define a geniune Cumberland sausage maker.  What a load of bollocks.