Christmas Wishes

First seen at Caleb's, followed by JayG's & RobbA's places:

5 Christmas wishes:

1. Delivery of the Stag Arms upper ordered at the beginning of November. They estimated a 6-8 week lead time which puts it at the SandCastle sometime right around Christmas. BTW, Their website now estimates a 20-24 week lead time!

2. Learn the science of long range shooting. Books to get me started, Joe's Precision Rifle clinic all culminating with a trip to Boomershoot and Camp Perry.

3. .30 carbine brass. I've borrowed the dies, but don't have much brass. OTOH, I do have a bunch of .45 Auto and a handful of .38 super brass. Anyone wanna trade?

4. Chronometer. Needed to eliminate the "anemic", "it feels right" and "OUCH" guesswork of reloading pressures. Sure Midway has 'em for round a C note, but we wanna build our own.

5. (Whirled Peas category): I wish that our rabid opposition would experience a flash of insight and understand that restrictive gun laws have no effect on criminals (because they are crimials). "Smart gun" technology should be certified to life critical safety levels, where any failure means loss of life.* That any law you have to exempt police government is probably a bad policy.

Failing that they would publicly admit their opposition to guns is purely a political calculation. That their constituents include the criminal element and those that love them. Guns in the hands of free people represent an occupational hazard to murders, thieves and rapists. A Disarmed public provides a safe work environment.

Might as well wish for the decked out Barret fifty, a truck load of Class III toys and enough ammo for these to never want. This has a better chance of coming true than the former.

* Note this is higher standard than aircraft autopilots and medical devices which are designed to be "failsafe". That is they can only rarely fail (one in a billion) and if they fail, the fail in a safe direction. Smart gun should be certified to a higher "Never Fail" standard. It can't go bang when it shouldn't and must go bang when it should. Any lower standard is something I wouldn't bet my life nor the lives of my loved ones on. Nearest system I can compare to is aircraft autoland systems where close to the ground the pilot cannot recover from system errors. These typically employ three or four parallel autopilots and a voting systems to regulate the control systems. Still the system has the failsafe "go around" option. That is, system parameters exceed control limts. therefore, apply full power and climb away from the danger (terra firma).

But even this system is insufficient for the smart gun case. Here is why: When a captain realizes they are getting into an "autoland only" situation, the first item on the agenda is to verify autopilot operation. If one fails the out is to land at an alternate field with out the automation. This happens long before entering the critical life or death "must work" phase of the operation. Trouble is, in the smart gun case, when evil presents itself, there isn't time for such preflight checks.