I’m getting this under the wire, but I wanted to wish any readers out there a happy new year, and also expound a little on what I hope for in the new year.

I’ve never been much for new years resolutions, but after reading David’s article on New Year’s gun rights resolutions, and listening to the sermon my pastor gave this morning, I’m going to break with the tradition and make a few commitments.

I’m dividing them into four categories and if I can make progress with at least one of the four every week, I will consider it a success. I will still aim for progress in at least one every day, but I want to make a commitment I’m sure I can keep. So I’ll start with one step of progress a week.

First area I will be working on is what I’m calling Prayer. But I’m really referring to a much more broad topic. What I want to do is deal with some personal demons of mine more seriously. In tough times, which I believe are coming for this country, and this world, having a ball and chain of conscience can be a great hinderance to survival, even if it’s just emotional and spiritual survival we’re talking about. Whatever I write here regarding this will be in general terms, of course, but I think it’s important at least to mention progress and I hope it encourages others, as well.

Second, I want do something for the cause of Liberty in general. A recent is example is my letter to Richard Burr regarding the TSA. Letters to the editors, calling or meeting with congress critters, filling out a contact form to tell a sheriff to stop abusing his power are all important to this effort. Participating in a Tea Party event or even just having a constructive conversation with someone with a bit less understand of what it means to be free. I won’t be cutting off any arms while declaring “Tell Xerces he faces free men here,” Stelios style, but hope to have anecdotes of facing down wannabe tyrants.

Third, though I have been preparing for some form of collapse to some degree, it’s been quite haphazard Preparedness. There’s been no organized thinking to my prepping. I think one of the first things I will do is go buy some waterproof matches, pay in cash, and demand privacy after being asked by a wannabe Judenrat sales dweeb what I’m up to. Face it: we’re all on those much feared lists, anyhow. And besides, hmpf, lists. Why is it that people think the government is the only one with lists?

Lastly, I will step up and organize my efforts at the county, state, and federal level to turn back the tide of infringements on the Human Right to Keep and Bear Arms that has been marching along at least since the Jim Crow era. This also includes some of the ideas presented by David Codrea at the article above and the addendum by Dave Workman: Follow Fast & Furious to the end.

So that’s my list for this year. I’ll do my best to accomplish at least one thing from one of the four categories per week, but will work hard to make that per day.

I have a hunch this year is going to be one hell of a ride.

May you live in interesting times.

To the jerks at Circle K management:

So you fired Eric Henderson for fighting for his life against the lowlifes who tried rob your store AND threatened his life. Only in an alternate universe where good is evil and evil is good would it be possible to justify this indefensible action of firing a man from a job for defending his life, your suicidal corporate policy notwithstanding.

There are Circle K stores in my vicinity. Don’t expect me patronize them until I hear that you have publicly fired the individual or individuals who devised that above referenced policy and eliminated said policy. And readers of my blog will be encouraged to do likewise.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2079972/Store-clerk-fired-disarming-gunman-urged-shoot.html

Go here and do likewise if you are so inclined.

h/t: David

I haven’t even read all of this yet, but given the excerpts at Michelle Malkin’s place, it sounds like a good start. Also be sure to check out the video of Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) being kicked out by Schumer staffers. Such slime in that swamp we call Washington, D.C.

I love that Mike Lee proceeded with the meeting in a location outside of the control of those so corrupt, so evil, that they DO NOT want to hear from constituents.

I’ve heard some fiscal conservatives say that they’d like to see the size of the federal government cut in half. I’d call that building momentum. At about 5% of the current size, I’d say we’re finally winning. And yet, even then I’d say it wasn’t time to quit fighting to reduce it more.

Our baseline budget to start cutting should be ’08.

1908.

(That last line shameless stolen from Knitebane.)

The collectivists of today may not want us to consider that the government of every socialist hellhole in more than the last century has not just seen it necessary to slaughter a goodly portion of the humans inhabiting the land they saw themselves fit to rule over, but actually glorified their obliteration.

Today’s would be rulers want us to think that it’s just a small matter of the wrong people being in charge.

So what happens next time the liberty stealing pigs bump up against those of us who only want to be left alone?

My advice? Don’t try to find out.

Your utopia has been beaten to a bloody pulp and left for dead. And we’ll stand guard over its body while it bleeds out the way the Pima County SWAT team stood over its prey, Jose Guerena after riddling his body with government bullets for no good reason.

May your hopes of a utopian workers’ paradise die a vicious death. It deserves no sentimentalism.

h/t Mike for the Daily Iowan link.

The collectivists of today may not want us to consider that the government of every socialist hellhole in more than the last century has not just seen it necessary to slaughter a goodly portion of the humans inhabiting the land they saw themselves fit to rule over, but actually glorified their obliteration.

Today’s would be rulers want us to think that it’s just a small matter of the wrong people being in charge.

So what happens next time the liberty stealing pigs bump up against those of us who only want to be left alone?

My advice? Don’t try to find out.

Your utopia has been beaten to a bloody pulp and left for dead. And we’ll stand guard over its body while it bleeds out the way the Pima County SWAT team stood over its prey, Jose Guerena after riddling his body with government bullets for no good reason.

May the your hopes of a utopian workers’ paradise die a vicious death. It deserves no sentimentalism.

h/t Mike for the Daily Iowan link.

Had a great time at the TigerSwan class last weekend that Sean at the NCGUNS blog arranged. Some of it was a refresher of some techniques in the basics from classes I’ve taken in the past from David Bramble of Shoot to Live who teaches his classes out of Personal Defense and Handgun Safety Center on Tryon Road in Raleigh. There some differences, but none of any real significance. Grip, trigger control, sight alignment, stance were all basically the same.

But an interesting thing happened to me near the end of the all day class. We had just finished up with some shooting from retention exercises.

We would stand about two feet from the target in front of us, within hands’ reach, and at the buzzer, drawn but not extend the gun out. If you do extend it, there’s a good chance your assailant is going to be able to hit the gun away or possibly wrench it away from you and maybe even break one or two of your fingers. So you draw, and keep the gun at our hip, possibly wedging it between your holster and your side, being careful not to hold it in a position that would cause the slide to hit you and cause a malfunction.

You would then fire three rapid shots, then back up at about a 45 degree angle and fire three more shots to center of mass while on the move. In this situation it’s often better than backing up in a straight line as it might be unexpected and forces your assailant to reorient a bit and either shoot at an angle (if he’s also armed) or change his stance.

So onto the last course of fire we worked on which was extreme transitions. There were four targets probably less than eight feet away, two on the left and two on the right. The angle between the two targets farthest from each other (with respect to angle) was about 120 degrees. You would fire two shots per target. Outer targets first, forcing you to move between the furthest targets, leading with your eyes/head first and then moving the gun to reduce the chance of over travelling and missing the second target. Then transition back to the other side and shoot the targets that are closer together.

Well, immediately after I drew and before I was on target, I let my first round off, about two feet in front of me into the ground. Yes, I believe this could rightly be called a negligent discharge. No one was hurt and no property was damaged, but I did violate rule 3.

I’m in! I’ll be putting together some ham sandwiches and/or BLTs, iced tea (I’d make it Manhattan Iced Tea to tick off our enemies even further, but due to NC law, one mustn’t carry concealed – which I do everywhere I can – and have *any* alcohol in one’s system) packing up all my undisclosed number of guns (or at least the American made ones), a camera, maybe with some Bin Laden targets and a Koran. Weather permitting, I will head up to an Secure Undisclosed Location with a few friends and commemorate all those who died in the attacks on September 11, 2001, except, of course, the 19 subhuman wastes of oxygen consumption that carried out the attacks.

Here was my note to the governor. Submit yours here.

Governor Perdue,

In the Executive Order you issued yesterday declaring a State of Emergency for several North Carolina counties, you asserted the following:

“This order is adopted pursuant to my powers under Article 1 of Chapter 166A of the General Statutes and under Article 36A of Chapter 14 of the General Statutes. It does not trigger the limitations on weapons in G.S. § 14-288.7 or impose any limitation on the consumption, transportation, sale or purchase of alcoholic beverages.”

After the issuance of EO62 on 9/1/2010 right at the beginning of Dove season and the ensuing uproar regarding the ban on firearms off of one’s own property that is spelled out in Article 36A, Chapter 14, all subsequent EOs issued by your office until this this one have specifically stated that they were only being issued under Article 1 of Chapter 166A.

Your comments following the issuance of EO62 indicated that you were not invoking the firearms ban provisions of the law (presumable due to the court case, Bateman vs. Perdue). I question your authority to invoke Article 36A of Chapter 14 in an a-la-carte fashion.

You have put the Sheriffs’ Offices in the 39 counties listed in EO103 in a rather difficult legal position. Do they enforce the law as written? Or do they do as the governor says? This morning, I spoke with Johnston County Chief Deputy Bengie Gaddis and he indicated that his office will not be going after those exercising their right to keep and bear arms during this State of Emergency. But the question this raises is, why is a Sheriff’s office choosing to selective enforce the law as written?

I implore you to terminate this Executive Order immediately and re-issue it invoking only Article 1 of Chapter 166A. You could also re-issue without the exclusion of the firearms ban, as well, which would at least provide clarity to the Sheriffs’ Offices in those 39 counties. I believe those are the only legally sound actions you can take regarding the matter.

Thank you for your time.

If you live in Johnston County, NC go here and send your inquiry. If you live in any of the other 38 counties (Beaufort, Bertie, Bladen, Brunswick, Camden, Carteret, Chowan, Columbus, Craven, Cumberland, Currituck, Dare, Duplin, Edgecombe, Gates, Greene, Halifax, Harnett, Hertford, Hyde, Johnston, Jones, Lenoir, Martin, Nash, New Hanover, Northampton, Onslow, Pamlico, Pasquotank, Pender, Perquimans, Pitt, Robeson, Sampson, Tyrrell, Washington, Wayne, Wilson) where the state of emergency has been declared, then find your Sheriff’s office contact information and ask them, in your own words, what their policy will be.

Here’s what I sent:

Sheriff Bizzell,

I note that Governor Bev Perdue’s Executive Order 103 has this in Section 7:

Could you please clarify for me how your deputies will be informed regarding encounters with legally armed citizens during this state of emergency that on the one hand makes it illegal to possess arms off of our own property, but on the other hand, the Governor has unilaterally modified a codified statute declaring that she is not invoking the prohibition on firearms portion of it?

h/t to John for the info on the Executive Order.

Update: Although I am appreciative that I got a fairly quick call back from Chief Deputy Bengie Gaddis regarding this matter, assuring me that the Sheriff’s office has got much more important things to do than go around looking for people carrying guns and that they pride themselves on respecting citizens right to keep and bear arms, it does raise an important question. And that is, why is the Sheriff’s Department choosing to selectively enforce the law?

Admittedly, this is the fault of the governor for putting Sheriffs’ Departments in the above 39 counties in this position. Hence, my next action: contacting the governor’s office.

If you live in Johnston County, NC go here and send your inquiry.