Shooter Self Care

"First Aid for Shooters" by Ambulance Driver

This 4 hour class seems to have spawned from an intarweb comment thread:

Do you have a blow out kit in your shooting bag?  You Should!

With the logical follow on questions:

What should I have in my blow out kit?

 and

if you had one, would you know what to do with it?

I could not answer these questions in any favorable response.  So when this opportunity, A Blowout kit + 4 hours training for a very reasonable cost arose,  I jumped on it and signed up the entire SandCastleCrew.

This is BLS (Basic Life Support) with an eye for likely range accidents.  First Aid.  ABC:Airway, Breathing & Circulation.  AD covered these basics and what to do should one of these be compromised.  Good class and hopefully we learned some skills we'll never have to use in anger. But in the meantime, we are a little better prepared than we were at sunrise this AM.

If you can wrangle AD into a class within "convenient distance", whatever that means to you, jump on it!

And thanks to Brownells for covering the refreshments!

NRA AM day 1

1st day on the floor at NRA Annual Meeting.

Met up with old friends & met some new ones.  Spent the day walking the floor.  I'd thought I saw most of it, but reviewing the SCSon's photos, I've missed a couple spots.

The show floor is a mind-numbing array with yet another AR builder/AK shotty glock parts booth.

A couple things caught my eye though.  An AR builder with an eye to the 3-gun market offers ARs with anodized barrels.  Turns out they are just up the road from the SandCastle.  The colorful anodization helps to identify "your" gun in a rack of near-identical rifles.

I need a new forestock for a recently purchased shotgun because the holding screws are stripped.  The manufacturer would fix it under warranty but to do so will require sending it back to the factory and being without the shotty for several months.  In reality, just purchasing the part will be less than the price of one way shipping so I'd rather just buy the part and put on myself.  Talked to the good folks at Brownells and they suggest a reasonable course of action.

Med class Sat AM & more Sunday.

Negative rate of return

Well that's thoroughly depressing.  I just went to ssa.gov to see my estimated retirement benefits as well as contributions to date.   I have been working and paying into Social Security for some 30mumble years.

Lets assume I retire tomorrow so I am no longer contributing into the system even though I'm well short of retirement age. I'm fully 40 quarters vested.  Under the best case scenario and I wait until age 70 to start benefits and lived to 90,  I would get back less than 58 cents of every dollar I have contributed over my producing life.  I will have to live to 104 to break even.

Stand by while I consult the magic 8 ball.  "Not Optimistic"

But that's only half the story.  My employers have matched my contributions plus a little bit I don't understand.  That means given the total contributions by me and on my behalf, I will net ~28 cents for every dollar over the same time period.  I'll have to live to 141YO before I break even (again assuming the most optimistic scenario where I stop contributing today and start collection at age 70)

Re-consult magic 8 ball: NFW!!!

I've said for years, I would walk away from my all my SSA contributions todate if they would let me opt out. My calculations show the contributions I will likely  make more contributions in the next ten years that will exceed any withdrawals.  Another way of looking at this, writing off my past thirty+ years contributions + my employer's contributions.  Put my sole contributions into an account with my name at 0% interest,  I still come out ahead on day one!  Add in the employer contribution and I come out way ahead!

Now FedGov wants to sell me into MyRA?  See the negative rate of return shown above!  You have proven you can't manage my money.  Why would I trust you with my next dollar let alone everything
savedtaken over my working life?

I weep for the SCSon's generation.

Are you going to NRAAM?

Never mind... the window has closed.  

Wal*mart shooting video released

Video from the previously mentioned shooting has been released.  Looks to me like the shooter tried to walk away and was followed by the now dead guy.  There is a confrontation by the door where the NDG makes it physical.

But don't take my word for it, see it yourself and you decide.  Still no charges filed.

Still I hope he has or gets a lawyer to protect his rights.

Hope this turns out well...

That covers both possibilities, a good guy successfully defends himself or a bad guy goes to jail having committed murder.

surveillance video ... show a physical confrontation that occurred before the shooting.

Story here from ABC15.

Unfortunately the shooter left the scene but apparently doesn't read NotClauswitz who recently reminds up to STFU after a shooting.

If it's a good shoot, I wish he'd called 911 and remained at the scene, then STFU.   He didn't and now he's talking.

I hope this turns out well.

Wonder if he's thought to call a lawyer?

I happened to visit a WallyWorld a couple miles away at approximately the same time.  This caught my eye:

Was the rest of the bicycle stolen?  Who would lock up just a quick release front tire?  More proof a lock is but a polite request to leave it alone?

Approaching the store, local PD had a mid-20's girl up against the car, handcuffed behind her back.

Update 19Feb2014: (From Phoenix ABC15)  Shooter claims he tried to walk away but was grabbed from behind and thrown to the ground.  And while he left the scene, he called local PD from home.

I gotta think surveillance video substantially backs up his story as he has not yet been arrested.  Still DUDE... CALL A LAWYER!  They should be the one talking to the public, not you!

The Stars Came Back

[Author's note:  I thought this went up a month ago.  But apparently not.  Short version:  Go buy Rolf's book.  You'll be glad you did!]
 
Rolf, the author of "The Stars Came Back" published part over on Joe's place. The story piqued my interest but TL;DR at the time and forgot to check back when I did have time.

A call for proofreaders went out in December and having some experience in proofreading, I volunteered.  Christmas Vacation provided the time to do a proper read.  What the heck..  I'm not getting paid so if it doesn't hold my interest I can always use the "ran out of time" excuse. 

I had no inkling of the ride he was about to take me on!  And the editing was far more professional than I'd expected for a self published work.  I had to look hard to find any critiques.

There is a lot of good stuff in there.  Right thinking philosophical stuff, military strategies, etc. I sent it on to the SandCastle Son to read as he is considering a future in the military.  The read includes some good lessons in proper use of military force.

And an ending I never could have imagined!

I hope I was able to help Rolf improve the final product.