What is Mounted Shooting? Just as it says, take a look
Click over to the Star-Telegram site for some great pictures also.
And who is doing this crazy but incredibly fun looking sport?
He said lever-action rifles would be used in the event, which includes a variety of classes with male, female and senior (over 50) divisions.
“There are over 10,000 contestants registered in the CMSA today,” he said, estimating that 1,500 are from Texas. “It attracts every kind of person, from truck drivers to heart surgeons to attorneys to preachers to grandmas. There’s a place in this organization for anybody who wants to have fun.”
Fun it is but it is also safe.
Competitors speed around a course in the arena while shooting balloons attached to 4-foot poles marking the path. That may sound like a dangerous sport to watch, but Males said you can leave your flak jacket at home.
“All the riders use Colt .45s, and the [blank] ammunition is loaded with black powder. The hot embers are what pops the balloons,” Males said. “They are safe. No projectiles come out.”
I realize this sport has been around for 17 years but this is the first time it has been part of the Stock Show and the Stock Show is HUGE around here. 930,000 people visit the stock show; that number doesn’t include the vendors, the competitors, the contestants — just the people who pay money to get into the show.
And now for the first time there is a mounted shooting competition at the show; some how I don’t think it will be the last.
GARLAND, Texas – Two teenaged girls are facing capital murder charges following the stabbing death of a man at a Garland motel.
According to Garland Police public information officer Joe Harn, 17-year-old Tatina Daniels and 18-year-old Teresa Price were “partying” Monday night in a motel room with the victim, 40-year-old Jesse Morales, Jr.
Good thing those “kids” couldn’t get a firearm wasn’t it? 17 and 18 years old; neither eligible by law to purchase a handgun but that sure didn’t stop this violent crime.
That is because of doing something useful, the anti rights cultists want to focus on the tool but not all tools, just firearms.
Police didn’t specify what happened at the Kingsley Inn and Suites on W. Kingsley Road, but say the party involved drugs, alcohol and sex.
18 and under can not legally buy alcohol.
Drugs, the kind usually associated with alcohol and murder, aren’t legal at all.
Isn’t it statutory rape to have sex with a minor?
What type of environment did these two girls grow up in where they think it is acceptable to party with a man twice their ages? To do drugs in some motel room?
Antis don’t want to answer those questions because they are difficult. The questions lead to having to deal with permissive parenting, relaxation of moral standards, the drug culture, the role of religion in society, etc.
Nope the antis want to try the same thing over and over and over again; each time expecting different results.
During 2000–2002, the Task Force on Community Preventive Services (the Task Force), an independent non federal task force, conducted a systematic review of scientific evidence regarding the effectiveness of firearms laws in preventing violence, including violent crimes, suicide, and unintentional injury. The following laws were evaluated: bans on specified firearms or ammunition, restrictions on firearm acquisition, waiting periods for firearm acquisition, firearm registration and licensing of firearm owners, “shall issue” concealed weapon carry laws, child access prevention laws, zero tolerance laws for firearms in schools, and combinations of firearms laws. The Task Force found insufficient evidence to determine the effectiveness of any of the firearms laws or combinations of laws reviewed on violent outcomes. (Note that insufficient evidence to determine effectiveness should not be interpreted as evidence of ineffectiveness.)
Folks, I don’t know what happened in that motel room but we know that focusing on “gun violence” or “gun deaths” won’t make a difference.
First up is an annual tradition that is not only a great fund raiser but one of the best deals in town.
March 3rd is my old Boy Scout Troop’s Pancake Supper.
That’s right supper – as in all you can eat Pancakes, Bacon, Sausage along with coffee, milk and juice.
And it is just $5 per person — Five Dollars.
It’s held at the Knights of Columbus Hall on Cooper Street in the evening — the church crowd gets there around 5 but it runs until 8 p.m.
This is the primary fund raiser for the boys in the troop. They get a portion of each ticket sold, prizes based on the number of tickets sold and the troop gets the rest.
It is used to fund the outdoors activities; especially summer camp and the every-other-year backpacking trip. Some boys earn enough in ticket sales that the parents don’t have to pay for either or both activities in the summer. The prizes are a mix of fun non-scouting stuff and needed camping supplies.
This is a great way to support a fine bunch of folks.
I hope to see many locals there.
Then on April 21st the Club will hold its Annual Youth Day event.
This is a fun filled, really long and busy day (both for adults and kids) held at the club every year to introduce kids into the shooting sports.
Club members provide an opportunity for the kids to shoot
Skeet
Trap
Black powder Muskets
Black powder rifles
Metal silhouettes
Rimfire Bench Rest
Archery
Target age for the kids is 11 years and up. Please contact me if you want to attend or especially if you have a group of kids that want to attend. The more the merrier as long as there are enough adults to supervise the kids when they aren’t shooting.
The Club provides lunch; usually hamburgers and/or hot dogs, chips and desert. Last two years the Club President/President Elect has brought the fixings for sno cones. The local volunteer fire department brings out a truck or two and tries to dampen the kids enthusiasm by spraying them down. Doesn’t work, just seems to pump up the kids for some reason.
If anyone knows of a local group that wants to participate (church, big brothers/bigsisters, etc) please pass on my contact information — 3boxesofbsATgmailDOTcom.
Just a public service announcement for the locals, we now return to our normal blogging programing.
It wasn’t until I read through it a second time (hey, it’s still early. Give me a break, I need more caffeine.) that I caught some scary implications.
In the Video
Dallas Police Chief David Brown makes I paraphrased as “We would like you to be this kind of complex…but if you aren’t willing, our attorneys are waiting to proceed with legal prosecution”.
Thinking about that statement for a minute — if the city determines a private property is a hazard; you have two choices — do what they say or be forced to do what they say.
Beside him, Mayor Mike Rawlings gave details: Arbor Vista had seven aggravated assaults in 2010, one in 2011. Burglaries dropped from 16 to four, rapes from one to zero — even as occupancy, according to managers, has risen about one-third since before the evictions.
Bad.
But without knowing how many units, how many crimes are typical of other apartments; it really is difficult to tell just how bad.
I can hear many people saying “Bob, crime is a problem. Police should take steps” and I agree.
According to Lt. Ashford, police officers will work for several months with problem properties to make them safer, but sometimes the owners don’t cooperate. “We go the extra mile to try to get compliance with the property owner, but if they choose not to comply, the City Attorney’s Office can choose to take litigation against that property owner.”
Think carefully about what you just read. Police officers “try to get compliance”. Where is the due process in that ?
Check out what appears to a PowerPoint presentation from the Dallas Police Department.
Minimum criteria: 3 or more incidents of abatable crime in a 12 month period.
That is enough to get the police telling the property owner how to run his/her/its property. Only after significant pressure is applied and the owner balks does the Police department even go to the City Attorney. More pressure from the City Attorney’s office and only if the owner balks again, is a court case filed.
Where is the protection against governmental over-reach, against street corner tyranny for the property owner(s)?
How about the tenants?
Targeting Dallas’ worst apartments, the crime-reduction program required rigorous property inspections, background checks on prospective tenants and other rules.
But the new owner and managers of Arbor Vista Apartment Homes went even further. They built playgrounds, replaced the rotting wooden retaining wall and evicted nearly half the tenants — shutting down several drug houses.
and
With the help of Dallas police, the new management cleared out four drug houses and two suspected drug houses, apartment manager Melissa Bryant said. Apartment managers worked with Dallas police to introduce courtesy patrols, evict felons living on property and add extra security features.
I lived in apartment complexes for 17 years. I never lived in a complex, no matter the size, that didn’t have at least 3 abatable crimes in a 12 month period.
That low criteria means the City – through the Dallas Police Department – can pick and choose who to force to comply. While it is possible the new managers decided to evict nearly half of their tenants on their own, isn’t it feasible there was a little pressure applied?
And did you catch the part of “suspected” drug houses? Now the burden of proof is even lower. Have a problem in the complex where you live and the city simply gets the property to kick a tenant out — no due process required.
Falling into this rabbit hole is eye opening.
Looking for more information on the issue. I found this little tidbit.
In 2005, substantial revisions were made to the Dallas City Code to implement a comprehensive administrative process for handling civil code violations. The system was modeled after successful systems in cities such as Detroit, Chicago, and Seattle. Prior to that time, the City only had the option of writing criminal citations, which were prosecuted in municipal court. The heavy backlog led to cases taking one to two years to come to resolution. The heightened procedural requirements and burdens of proof in a criminal proceeding also created difficulties. For example, the defendant had to be identified by an eyewitness in every case. Cases could be easily dismissed if the code inspector who wrote the citation was unable to appear at the hearing to identify the defendant property owner. Administrative Enforcement Now, the vast majority of common violations contained in Chapters 7A, 18, and 27 of the Dallas City Code are known as “property codes” on which civil citations can be issued. These violations are then prosecuted in an administrative proceeding called the “Hearing Officers Court.”23 For example, litter, weed, structural deficiency, and multi-tenant requirement violations can all be issued civil citations. Civil prosecution eases the burdens of proof, and the administrative forum allows for quicker movement of violations through the system. About 2000 civil citations are processed through the administrative system each month. Per city ordinance, the hearing date cannot be earlier than 31 days after a citation is issued. Cases take 31-40 days on average to come to the hearing officer’s court. Most cases in the administrative process are resolved at the hearing because the citation creates a rebuttable presumption of violation, which means the owner must prove otherwise or the City automatically wins its case. The City asks for a finding of “liable” and for the full penalty to be assessed. The hearing officer then enters a finding of “liable” or “not liable,” and also has the discretion to reduce the fine amount from the maximum available penalties. The property owner has a right to file an appeal within 30 days in the municipal court.
Again and again we see where the government ‘eases the burdens of proof’ and reduces the protection a citizen has.
The civil citation means that the property owner is guilty until proven innocent — talk about turning justice on its head!
I’m all for reducing crime but look at what these types of programs are doing to the legal system. They are stripping people of their historical protections against governmental over-reach. We have tenants being evicted for being felons — guess felons don’t have a right to rent. We people ‘suspected’ of doing drugs being evicted. We have property owners guilty based on the word of one person and they have to prove they aren’t guilty.
Due process? There is a veneer of due process somewhere in there but it is thin, might thin.
First a little background and a reason why we shouldn’t require a background check on private sales.
My Step-Father has been having a difficult time financially after my Mom passed away. We, some of the family, have been doing what we can but we aren’t exactly rolling in the dough so it is has been difficult.
One of the things my Step-Father did was sell my brother a firearm. Dave (step dad) had been an armed security guard for a long time. The firearm he carried was a Beretta 92FS; a really well maintained firearm.
My brother Randy purchased it from Dave, both to have a firearm in the home and to help out.
Now, Dave knows the type of person Randy is. Knows that while Randy was a little rowdy in his youth; Randy has really settled down. As in, owns or owned several businesses, works hard, turned into a caring parent/grandfather type settled down.
Nothing in Randy’s past would have kept him from passing a background check; but why should there be an added expense in this type of purchase?
We already have laws against felons in possession, straw purchases, etc; so how does eliminating private sales stop criminals from getting firearms? It doesn’t.
It just adds to the costs — and takes away financial support from people like my Step-Father.
Now to the Range report.
Randy is a semi-new shooter. Dad taught Randy how to shoot with an old single shot .22; in fact Randy still has that .22 rifle, but hasn’t shot anything in 25 years. Discussed the 4 Rules of Firearm safety before we loaded up and covered range rules on the way out there.
We met at Bunker BS and took my car out to the Range. Discussed the 4 Rules of Firearm safety before we loaded up and covered range rules on the way out there. It was a chilly morning and except for a family of 3 (yeah, shooting is a family sport) on Range A with us and a guy sighting in a rifle on the 100 yard range; most of the activity was on the skeet field for the monthly shoot.
Started Randy off with the Browning Buckmark. This is a fun gun to shoot and Randy did well. He kept most shots on an 8 inch target at 7 yards. We discussed his stance (slightly bladed) and grip (not enough tension, almost tea cup style) and immediately he noticed an improvement.
After a few magazines, it was time for him to try the Beretta. Discussed the features, difference between Double Action and Single Action, the safety, etc and he went to town. Again, a little time adjusting to the sights & learning the difference in the types of sights; he was keeping most everything on the 8 inch target – still at 7 yards.
After a bit, Randy wanted to try my Taurus PT-145. The difference, as he said, was vast. The Beretta is a full size steel frame with a 5 inch barrel; the PT-145 is a compact, polymer frame with a .325 inch barrel. Still within a couple of rounds he was putting them near the center of the target.
And once again, the shooting community shows its generosity also. The Range Officer for the day was Gary; someone fast becoming a friend. Gary was function testing his Taurus TCP 380 and let us put rounds through it. For a mouse gun, the recoil wasn’t bad; Randy was again amazed at the difference in felt recoil.
I spent my time well.
I took some time to start with the Ruger GP-100; man I need more ammunition so I can shoot this gun more often. Working with the double action really helped me later with the other guns.
Sent some rounds downrange through the Taurus; I can still hit the target but I still need lots of improvement. Guess I need to get out to the range more often then 3 or 4 times a year.
The Sig Sauer SP2022 wasn’t forgotten either. I am getting more comfortable with transitioning between types of sights and my accuracy (at least at 7 yards) was better this time.
Randy also ran some rounds through the SP2022 and noted the difference between the Beretta and the SP2022. The weight reduction with the polymer frame really increases felt recoil.
Took the camera and decided not to take any pictures this time — it was a fun day shooting with my brother.
Hopefully soon I will be able to post a true new shooter report. Randy’s son and his girlfriend are wanting me to keep my promise to take them to the range. Then I need to take Randy’s wife, some of my daughter’s friends — oh boy, I need to buy more ammo Such a problem to have.
Easy, unearned praise may not help students, research shows
For decades, the prevailing wisdom in education was that high self-esteem would lead to high achievement. The theory led to an avalanche of daily affirmations, award ceremonies and attendance certificates — but few, if any, academic gains.
Have to give them credit for honesty. Not the folks in education but the writer. Notice how it is phrased “the prevailing wisdom in education”, that is a very limited circle that believed the “high self-esteem would lead to high achievement” marlarkey.
A growing body of research over three decades shows that easy, unearned praise does not help students but instead interferes with significant learning opportunities. As schools ratchet up academic standards for all students, new buzzwords are persistence, risk taking and resilience — each implying more sweat and strain than fuzzy, warm feelings.
“We used to think we could hand children self-esteem on a platter,” Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck said. “That has backfired.”
Dweck’s studies, embraced in Montgomery schools and elsewhere, have found that praising children for intelligence — “You’re so clever!” — also backfires. In study after study, children rewarded for being smart become more likely to shy away from hard assignments that might tarnish their star reputations.
Took them 30 years to realize what many people have been saying all along. The people in the education field are nothing if not stubborn.
Instead, children praised for trying hard or taking risks tend to enjoy challenges and find greater success. Children also perform better in the long term when they believe that their intellect is not a birthright but something that grows and develops as they learn.
Brain imaging has also shown this to be true.
*It is going to take a strong entry to displace this from contention. I reserve the right to re-open the contest because after all, it is an election year.
GRAPEVINE,Texas – A plane left the gate at DFW Airport with a gun on board before transportation officials alerted the pilot about the problem, FOX 4 has learned.
By the time the woman took her bag and walked away, a TSA agent scanning the D-30 checkpoint noticed the .38-caliber handgun.
Good thing it was some harried lady eligible for AARP and not Al-Qaeda, eh.
The Rent-a-cops wannabes working the checkpoint let the lady walk away — with the firearm — before their synapses finally fired enough for them to recognize a GUN !!
In-frikkin-credible. We have to all but strip down to our skivvies and these jokers can’t realize that they are there to STOP people with GUNS from GETTING ON PLANES.
At least 90 minutes elapsed before she was in custody, Magana said.
The plane, American Airlines flight 2385 to Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport, returned to the gate before it got on the runway.
That is right. She not only got on a plane but the plane pulled away from the terminal before anyone figured out where she was.
Had this been an actual terrorist attack, there was more then enough time for the firearm to completely disappear. Handed off to one of the thousands of other passengers walking around the terminal.
TSA spokesman Luis Casanova told FOX 4 that no review of procedures was needed and that standard operating procedures were followed. No harm came to anyone, he said.
Hey Captain Clueless !!! You might want to actually think before you open your mouth.
Thanks for letting everyone in the world know how big of a joke your “Standard Operating Procedures” actually are.
If this doesn’t show the complete and utter failure of gun control laws, I have no idea what does.
It is against the law to bring a firearm into the secured area of an airport for a ‘regular’ person. We have what should be the strictest screening procedure in the world to prevent it from happening — and it failed.
One passenger on board Kenney’s flight to Houston told News 8 the search for her was unnerving.
Michael McCullough said police boarded the plane at least two times, with a photograph, trying to ID Kenney, but she was not spotted. The passenger said the plane was cleared, but then turned around just before takeoff.
At that point, McCullough said, all women were asked to leave the plane with their belongings; that is when Kenney was found.
Twice – with Picture in Hand – the Keystone Kops failed to find her?
Gee, ya think if she had been a terrorist she might have been tipped off and been able to do something deadly?
Such a problem to have.
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