Proof

After the shooting incident in NYC where there was more collateral damage from the police than there was from the bad guy, the gunblogs were atwitter with ridicule, as is proper.  After all, the media always claims that police are "highly trained" and so are the "only ones" who should be able to carry guns.  Never mind that cops qualify once or twice a year, whereas people who like to shoot hit the range much more often and are more likely to have taken better training.

Anyhow, Say Uncle linked to another gunblog that has a course of fire based on the LAPD qualification course, except he made it harder.  That'd be a fun test for USPSA shooters--to see if they can shoot well enough to be a major metropolitan police officer! *wink*

Unscientific Plastic Magazine Test

In case you were wondering what those plastic AR-15 mags could take, here's one data point from Arfcom.

Saudi girls packing heat

Yeah, that's one way to stick it to the powers that be.

Items you need in a crisis

Parts one and two.

Assignment of National Security and Emergency Preparedness Communications Functions

More nasty shit from our buddy Barack.  Did they stop numbering these executive orders so you don't know how many of them there are?

The Shape of Things That Hide

A guy I know self-published a book of short stories on the Tokyo life.  It's available on Lulu, and soon to be available on Amazon.

Steel Targets

Gongshot, a place to buy AR500 steel targets (link via the good doctor).

RAV4 Towing, Redux

A few months ago I went looking for info on how to get a trailer hooked up to the family RAV4.  It looked like it was going to be a problem because I thought we didn't have the towing prep package, which has some extra hardware for beefing up the radiator and alternator.  From some additional forum reading, I found out that RAV4s made in Canada all have the towing prep package, and it turns out that ours is Canadian.  There's another way to check by looking at the fuses in the engine compartment on the driver's side: if there's a 140A one instead of a 120A one, then it's the towing prep package.  This is mentioned in the owner's manual (for the '09 model, pp.394-395), but it's buried in there.

John Davies' site is very useful for figuring out how to install the towing stuff DIY. I haven't done it yet, but looking at the howto, I figure that I can manage.  He's also got a page for installing a brake controller, which links to a howto on installing the factory wiring harness, and also has a PDF of the wiring harness.

Several sites sell Toyota OEM parts.  One site lists the receiver hitch as about $400, and the wiring harness is another $100.  Plus the trailer.

Apparently, if the trailer plus load is over 600 lbs, trailer brakes are necessary, which means adding on a brake controller.  That might as well be done at the same time as the wiring harness.  (eTrailer.com has a FAQ on the trailer wiring connector types.)

On the forums, there's also mention of a "weight-distributing hitch" that helps stability when the tongue weight is on the high end.

Northern Tool+Equipment has a funky steel trailer that's supposedly made in the USA.  There are a couple downsides, namely that it's only seven feet long and the capacity's only 1500 lbs.  Oh, and it costs $1800!  Still, other than landscaping rock, I'm not sure what I'd haul that's that heavy, and sheet goods (4x8 plywood, drywall, etc.) could probably be left to hang out the back end as long as it's tied down.

The last thing that I need to know about is maximum speed while towing specific trailers.  The RAV4 owner's manual indicates that you shouldn't drive over 45 mph while towing, but obviously people do that all the time: contractors hauling stuff and people hauling boats, etc.  Presumably part of that is whether one has trailer brakes or not, but I assume axle construction and tire ratings are part of that.  I definitely want a trailer that I can take up to highway speeds, so further study is necessary.

Google Online IME

Google Transliteration has a web-based Japanese input method editor so that you can type Japanese even on computers that don't have an IME installed.  Kewl.  I knew that in this day and age, there had to be one....

Cannons for Everyone

From NC Gun Blog, a little reading between the lines in the Constitution shows that private ownership of cannons were intended!  To wit:

What’s going to be really interesting is when he’s presented with the historical information about crew served weapons. He thinks that cannons are not covered. He’s going to be shocked when he learns that at the founding of this country to well past the writing of the Constitution, cannons and warships were privately owned. In fact, we can prove that the writers of the Constitution considered cannon and warship ownership by private citizens to be normal.

[Congress shall have Power...] To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

We don’t issue Letters of Marque anymore. While we are not a signatory to the treaty forbidding them, we generally follow that treaty. What is a letter of Marque? It’s basically an official commission from the government for a private person to attack enemy shipping without being branded a pirate. What do you think that a person would have to have in order to attack enemy ships with? You guessed it, a ship, armed with weapons appropriate to naval combat.

So there you have it. The very text of the Constitution tells us that it was not considered wrong for private citizens to own a ship nor to fill that ship with cannons.

Makes it pretty tough to argue that the Government has the power to prevent people from having cannons without running afoul of the Second Amendment, doesn’t it.

I'm all for it!