Posted by
Old Bill on Friday, August 22, 2008 7:51:17 PM
I just got back from the gunshow a few days ago with, of course, a few new possessions. Nothing fancy--a few antiques, a bunch of marine corps surplus field harness (perfect for camping and hiking), a couple of field knives and a bunch of cheap old holsters. Oh, of course I bought half a dozen rifles and shotguns, and a pistol, but I have to wait a couple of weeks to pick those up--damn California Democrats have made it impossible for a man to do business in this state in a business-like manner, even if he has a clean record as can be established in a matter of seconds by anyone with access to a computer.
The Damn Democrats (I call them this to distinguish them from simple, ordinary members of the Democrat Party such as I used to be--"Damn Democrats" are left-wing fanatic politicians-from-hell who constantly do everything they can to expand government power at the expense of American Freedom, increase taxes without any need or limit, and harass-and-destroy any American who registers as a Republican, expresses conservative values, or owns a gun) have made it a law in this state that no one may pick up a gun after legally purchasing it, and take it home with him, until the state government has collected a special $25 fee and conducted a 'background check' to make sure he isn't prohibited from legal possession of firearms.
Now, I have no objection to a law that prevents Bad Guys (convicted felons, lunatics, America-hating terrorists) from acquiring arms, but that can be accomplished by maintaining a computer data-base of prohibited individuals that any police agency, gunstore,--or individual, for that matter--could access in a matter of internet moments. But in California, the leftist Damn Democrats have made it a law that no one--however honest, peaceful, and legally entitled--can pick up their gun for at least 10 days after its legal purchase.
Now, this is just pure harassment, and damn stupid. First of all, it means that a perfectly peaceful, entitled American has to wait 10 days after purchasing a gun befor he can take it home to protect himself and his--or her--family.
Now, back in 1992, when the last Los Angeles Riot took place, this meant that literally thousands of California Americans were denied the right to effectively defend themselves while riot mobs were rampaging through the streets of their neighborhoods, and the National Guard was unable to arrive on the scene for 4 days due to a screw-up in their mobilization by the state government.
No doubt some of the 60+ people murdered in Los Angeles during those 4 days of riot and terror would have been able to defend themselves and not be murdered if not for this damn harass-the-lawful-gun-owner law passed by the Damn Democrats. Plus no doubt a bunch more would have been able to avoid being raped, robbed or mugged. But I digress. I was supposed to be telling you how much fun I had at the gunshow.
To begin with, whenever I Go To The Gunshow, this automatically means I get out of having to do any Honey-do chores around the house and yard. My wife (God Bless Her) has learned this lesson after many hard years of conditioning: don't get between Old Bill and his Gunshsow. I will mow the lawn, trim the roses, rake the lawn, edge the lawn, knock out the planter where she wants it removed to widen the walkway, vacuum the floors, and help wash the dishes, but I will not do any of these non-essential tasks while the more urgent work of Attending the Gunshow could be accomplished.
After all, Attending the Gunshow is not merely some self-indulgent recreational passtime of mine, it is Serious Business--directly necessary to the defense of our household and family from marauding burglars, drug gangs, and other bandits and Bad Guys. After 20+ years, I have finally made my wife (God Bless Her) understand this.
So it was that this fine August weekend found me at my local gunshow at the Orange County Fairgrounds; not a large show, but enough to keep me busy for an afternoon--just long enough so that by the time I get home, it's too dark to do any yardwork.
My first stop was to take a look at the lovely smoothbore cannon put together by the Civil War reenactors of the Richmond Volunteer Artillery. This is not an antique, mind, but a brand-new recreation of a Civil War cannon.
The originals are scarce and getting scarcer--a lot of them were melted down by local-politician idiots in WWII who wanted to grab a headline by contributing to the scrap-metal drive, and as a result, most of our Civil War cannons did not survive WWII. The whole tonnage of iron procured wasn't enough to to build one single light cruiser, but the tonnage of ink and paper devoted to lauding the local pols must have been enough to wipe out a forest. Anyway, the result is that genuine Civil War cannons are now worth huge amounts of money--$50-100,000 is common. So if your uncle in Pennsylvania has one out in the barn, be nice to him and ask him to will it to you, as a lawn ornament, because the value is only going up, trust me.
I've been meaning to join a Civil War artillery reenactor unit, just haven't made the time. The great fun of joining, of course, is that you meet a lot of regular guys who like to go out to the desert and fire guns and blow things up--two of my favorite passtimes. The reenactors like to fire their cannon at targets like white rocks and junked cars; the junked cars are best, because they have wheels and if you're careful, you can tow them away after a day's shooting without even having to put them on a flatbed trailer; and of course, it's a kick the stares you get from the folks you pass on the way back home.
The old Civil War muzzle loaders are the best cannon for target shooting in the desert, because all you need for ammunition is black powder and round shot, you don't have the trouble of finding legal, non-explosive ammunition the way you do for a modern cannon. Cops get awful nervous about people driving around with live ammunition for a modern cannon, especially the high-explosive rounds. You have to have all kinds of special licenses and permits, and then you have to find a place where you can fire off a cannon without endangering anybody on a firing range 3, 4, 5 miles long. And the ammo is awful expensive. All things considered, the old muzzle-loaders are your best bet.
But I do wish I could get ahold of an old towed 75mm M1897 howitzer; my Uncle Bill used to get a glow in his eye when he told me how he and his crew could put a round from one of those old guns into a truck at 5 miles, first shot; of course, Uncle Bill did exaggerate sometimes.
They had a new reenactors bunch at the show this time, some guys dedicated to preserving the traditions--well, at least the weapons and uniforms--of the Soviet Red Army of WWII; you remember, when they were--briefly and reluctantly--our allies, and hence officially Good Guys, at least for the duration. They had some excellent displays, including a whole panoply of Russian WWII small arms, including PPSH-41 Shpagin and PPS-43 Sudarev submachineguns, some Degtyarov DP-28 machine rifles, and of course Moisin and Tokarev rifles and Tokarev automatic pistols. They also had a WWII era Ford Jeep, and a bunch of guys in genuine Russian 'Great Patriotic War' uniforms.
Why a Ford Jeep? Have you forgotten that the USA supplied a huge quantity of war materiel to the Soviet Union from 1941-45? As a matter of fact, the USA supplied about 20% of all the war materiel issued to the Soviet Red Army in WWII, via our Lend-Lease program which sent all kinds of equipment into Russia by three different routes: first, overland through Iran into south-central Asia--Azerbaijan, Georgia, and thence on to the Russian armies on the fighting fronts.
Second, across the North Pacific, where, even during the height of the American-Japanese fighting in the Pacific, the Japanese allowed marked American tranports to carry supplies to the Russian base at Vladivostok for shipment to Europe via the Trans-Siberian railroad. This was in keeping with the Japanese-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Friendship that held right up until the Soviets attacked the Japanese in August, 1945. And third, the horrendous 'Murmansk Run'.
Never heard of the 'Murmansk Run'? Just shows what a lousy job our schools are doing of educating the American people to understand the world we live in. When I matriculated through the Los Angeles Unified School District in the 1960s, I had to take a history course every semester from 7th grade through 12th; today, to graduate, a student needs to take only one semester course in American History, and one semester course in World History--no wonder our voters don't know where "Georgia" is--the one whose capital is Tbilsi, not Atlanta.
Anyway, the Murmansk Run was the sea route from American and British ports through the North Atlantic into the Arctic Ocean, past Norway, past Spitsbergen, past Tromso Fjord and the German Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe, all the way to the Russian port of Murmansk. In these waters, even on a clear day with gorgeous blue skies, the temperature fell to 40-50 degrees below zero fahrenheit, and with a 30-40 mile-an-hour wind across the deck a man could be injured simply by letting his bare skin touch metal. Men crammed below decks lit fires in trash cans to try to thaw out their frozen clothes, shivered and caught pneumonia, and died befor their ship made port. And that was in addition to the Germans.
I don't know how many ships were lost in four years, how many tens of thousands of men died carrying arms to our Russian allies, but I ought to--we all ought to learn such things, and never forget them. The Russians, both under the Soviet Regime and now, were never taught these simple facts--not even during the war. Some things never change. But back to the gunshow.
I don't really like to haggle with people over prices, but that's the game at the show--at least, if you're not rich, and I'm not. I wander down the aisle, looking for something I might use someday--something I might need desperately, like a spike bayonet for my Enfield Rifle, or a tactical assault vest.
The assault vest won't be used for any assaults, just camping, but it's perfect for the role. Lots of pockets, and straps for attaching more pouches than you can count; a civilian backpack is good for carrying a lot of stuff into a base camp, but when you go out on a short day-hike or hunt you don't want to carry everything with you, so you leave the big pack in camp and just take what you need. That's when a pack vest, with all its pockets and pouches, really fills the bill.
I see a guy I know, a surplus dealer, with a pile of old roughed-up vests. He's got a sign on them: Pack Vests, $5. Now this is down from $10 at the last show, so he must really be sick of lugging these old things around; I'll get back to him later.
Then I see something I Must Have: a genuine old police Sam Brown belt with two matching (left and right-hand) holsters for a pair of 4" .38 revolvers. Now, as all you show-goers know, it's hard to find a pair of matching, identical, left-and-right-hand holsters, and when you do, they're nearly always on a western Buscadero-style rig meant for a pair of Colt Peacemakers.
I hate the Buscadero rig--it was designed in Hollywood, for looks, not in the Old West for use, and it tends to ride too low on the waist for security, wanting to bounce up and down if you run; plus, the holsters themselves cannot be adjusted fore-and-aft, so unless it was custom-made for you, it's likely not to fit just right; and finally, the holsters will flop up-and-down like a windmill in a hurricane unless you tie them down TIGHT with the leather thongs provided to go around your thighs.
These damn leather thongs are uncomfortable as hell if you tie 'em tight enough to hold down a heavy Peacmaker, especially in hot weather, and anyway it takes three minutes to untie 'em when you take 'em off; another damn nuisance, and the reason most folks will just forget the thongs, and walk around with the holsters flopping against their thighs with every step. It's this that makes movie cowboys walk slow, not congenital hip displasia; walking slow is the only way to keep those damn holsters from flopping up and down. I hate the Buscadero.
The Sam Brown rig, on the other hand, is perfectly functional, allowing the wearer to adjust the holsters fore-and-aft to fit his style of draw, and securing the belt right on the waist where it belongs so it stays put whether you're walking, walking fast, riding in a squad car, running, or climbing over a 6' fence and jumping down on the other side. Which is why the cops like it. The holsters can hang as low as you want, or ride as high as you like, since the holsters are separate from the belt and you can pick whatever style you like, for whatever gun you carry. I love the Sam Brown rig.
Well, here was a b-e-e-a-u-t-i-ful old Sam Brown, in good shape, hardly more than broke in, no cracks or dried-out leather, with at least a good 20 years of daily wear left in it, and the fellow at the table has a tag on it that says "$20". I pretend not to see the tag so I can look it over good, then say to the fellow: "How much for this ol' thing?", a note of mild disgust creeping into my voice. He doesn't even look up: "There's a tag on it." "Oh," says I. Then, digging deep into my pocket I pull out a beat-up old billfold, and open it so he can see the contents: a couple of supermarket coupons, a credit-slip from a used-book store, and a single, crisp $10 bill. "'Fraid that's all I've got left--want it?" He glances, shrugs, and takes the $10; I buckle on the Sam Brown and stride down the aisle a happy camper.
Now, of course, the only problem is, I don't have any 4" .38 revolvers that would fit these new holsters; but that, of course, is just the point: now that I have the holsters, I simply have to find and purchase a pair of 4" .38s; otherwise, the belt and holsters will be wasted, see? I can't wait to get home and explain this to my dear, sweet, long-suffering wife, (God Bless Her).