Hitler?

 It's not just the Dems calling the Reps Hitler. It seems to have started as early as 1936. FDR unilaterally moved Thanksgiving from the (usually) fourth Thursday in November, to the fifth, which occasionally happens. He did this at the behest of some department stores, bothered by holiday shopping being spaced too closely. It didn't go over very well:

------

Political criticism followed as well. Former Kansas governor Alf Landon, FDR’s opponent in the 1936 presidential election, accused him of having forced the change on “an unprepared country with the omnipotence of a Hitler.” Other Republican governors refused to honor the changed date. Fewer than half of the states celebrated it that year.

--------------

The tradition has persisted

NICS Checks - Dec 23

 Having kept this log for 13 years, I'm out of enthusiasm for it. The big surprise, which surprised no one, would be the 2022-2023 spike when the Dems nearly took the trifecta in Washington but were unable to solidify uncontested 1 party rule.

NICS - October 23

 I don't understand why NICS checks seem to be falling off at this point with the administration solidly hostile to gun ownership, Using the catch-and-release approach to violent criminals, and indifferent to opening our borders to People with inarguably sketchy backgrounds.

What's going on here? I'm beginning to suspect my data source (FBI)

They wouldn't lie to me, would they?

You Can't Win

 In a recent competition of the best and brightest of Americas High schoolers, kids demonstrated real genius in developing products with real utility, including adding an ingredient to soap that combats Melanoma. Here's the picture of the 10 winners up on the stage with their medals:

Click to enlarge. Note that most of the winners seem to be Asian. Big surprise. 

Note also that when you're short, and get placed between the 4 tallest people in the picture, you tend to get edged toward the edge of the dias. If you're holding your hands together (never do this!) and try to step back off the cliff, the photog will press the button just as you move, making it look like you're overdue for a bathroom break. Kid #8 probably invented antigravity, but this picture will NEVER adorn his wall without some serious cropping. I wish them all the greatest success and fortune downstream, although I suspect the biggest fortune will be won by someone who figures out how to subliminally compel people to buy his brand of sneakers.

Cynical? Moi?

NICS Checks for September

 Overall numbers are down again! It's almost as though the gun owners are convinced they have enough weaponry to hold of Milleys Marauders, and the antis now believe Antifa, BLM, and newly released criminals will leave them alone or something. The projected annual total is trending down for the first time since 2002!

NICS Checks, Aug 23

Nothing new to report. No threats are being taken seriously, crime is up, prosecutions are down, sales are about as expected.

NICS Checks June 23

 The graph continues to droop. Mostly this is the summer doldrums.

XL continues to thwart me. The upper graph is annual totals. The Y axis is supposed to show the years. Last column is a projection for 2023.

NICS Checks May 23

 Again, no real surprises or panics despite Biden declaring he will ban assault weapons, etc, etc.

Colorado Education Drops The Mask

 And issues a statement openly advocating communism. 

First, here's some definitions: Capitalism is trade, purely and simply. Its only drawback is that it's impractical to trade a whole cow for a loaf of bread, so it needs a medium to make change, hence money. That's about it.

Socialism is capitalism with government meddling.  Government is an elastic term. It can include anything from an elected democracy to a hereditary monarchy, and also includes criminal mobocracies or subjugation by invading barbarians. The only difference is the amount of meddling the government does.

When government exercises total control, it's called communism. 

So here's the statement by the Colorado Education Association, written by a history teacher who, of all people, should know better.

A final version of the resolution that was passed states that "CEA believes that capitalism requires exploitation of children, public schools, land, labor, and/or resources. Capitalism is in opposition to fully addressing systemic racism (the school to prison pipeline), climate change, patriarchy, (gender and LGBTQ disparities), education inequality, and income inequality.

However, a screenshot captures an earlier draft of the resolution that included a call to replace capitalism with a "new equitable economic system." 

The screenshot of the original version of the resolutions reads "CEA believes that capitalism requires exploitation of children, public schools, land, labor, and/or resources and, therefore, the only way to fully address systemic racism (the school to prison pipeline), climate change, patriarchy (gender and LGBTQ disparities), education inequality, and income inequality is to dismantle capitalism and replace it with a new, equitable economic system."

This is what the union wants to teach your kids.  

NICS checks - March '23

 So far we're tracking last years numbers pretty closely. My projection curve (upper graph) suggests another record year for gun sales. In possibly related news, Florida is now state #26 to institute constitutional carry.

NICS Checks Feb 2023

 Early this month. No surprises yet this year.

Graph's getting crowded. I may have to do something about that.

NICS Checks Jan 23

 Here's the latest graph. XL is fighting me or I've forgotten how to do these things. Probably the latter. I'll work on fixing it. Jan check total is 2673921 so you know where to look for the single dot on the chart. Click to enlarge.

NICS Checks Dec 2022

 Winding up the year with a bang (so to speak) 

The final number for December is 3.036.531 which is second best for December. Let's face it, 2020 and 2021 are going to be hard to beat. 

NICS Checks Nov 2022

 Man, I'm really slacking off on this blog.

Anyway here's the numbers thru November, and yup, we're about where you'd expect us to be. The Donks have discovered that turning their Brownshirts loose, while it does frighten conservatives, simply inspires us to buy more guns and ammo. Now they have to figure out how to take them away from us. They got one-party rule in the last elections, but the Supremes are slapping them back at every move. Anyone care to speculate what they'll do now that they've lost the House?

Click to enlarge.

NICS Checks, Aug 2022

 Here's the numbers, and the curve is following a normal shape in spite of Slo Joes ranting and the ATF trying to define spitballs as WMDs:

Ho Hum I guess.

NICS Checks - Back To Normal?

 Thru March we're back to following the traditional curve. It's possible that the nation has calmed down a bit with 3 more states adopting constitutional carry, or it may be that monies formerly spent on guns and ammo nor are being diverted to non-perishable foodstuffs. Anyway:

NICS Checks - Starting The Year Off

 I'm rather surprised to see this. Yes, the panic buying was settling down, but this represents a bigger drop than I expected. Note in the annual overall chart that the projected total for '22 is right in line with the general trend prior to the Covid outbreak and the "mostly peaceful" demonstrations.

The starting number for Jan '22 is 2,591,588 and the pale blue X is hard to see in the monthly chart. Quite reasonable. Of course it could follow the 2020 curve into low earth orbit depending on what the animated meat loaf in D.C. decides to do. Or what the Czar of Russia or the Emperor of China or Punxsutawney Phil do. 

On the positive side a new ammo plant will soon be opening up in Texas and will be manufacturing primers in addition to finished ammo so maybe all those new gun owners and us reloaders will be able to take a trip to the range without arranging a 2nd mortgage from our bankers first. Again, it depends on the unpredictable actions of a bunch of unpredictable people.

NICS Checks - End-Of-Year

 And whaddayaknow! Looks like gun sales are back to normal after 2 years of panic buying and supply chain disruptions. 

Looks like there are 2 years in which December sales outstripped this years December, 2020 and 2015. I saw in a blog post which, of course I now cannot find, that Vista Outdoors is saying that all primers produced by their companies (Remington, Federal, CCI, Speer, will be unable to ship bulk primers until April 2022 at the earliest. All production is currently devoted to producing loaded ammo. Loaded ammo is currently in contention with Bitcoin based on what I saw last weekend. 9mm range ammo is running $.40/round, and is sold out. Available ammo is limited to the boutique DRT home defense stuff at $1/round. 

CORRECTION: Vista only controls 3 of the above listed primer manufacturers. Also I finally found the letter at Only Guns and Money blog:

From the story at The Firearm Blog:

December 21, 2021 

Dear Customer: 

Thank you for your business and for your continued support of American jobs and manufacturing. As we continue to see supply chain constraints and increases in our raw materials, we are increasing our pricing to help offset those rising costs. 

Effective 4/1/2022, CCI, Federal, Hevi–Shot, Remington, and SPEER ammunition will take the following price increases: 

• Primers – 5%
• Powder – 5%
• Handgun – 2-8%
• Rifle – 3-8%
• Shotgun – 3-12%

Additionally, due to continued demand, NO new Primer orders will be accepted until further notice. 

Unless you notify us to cancel an order, we will reprice all existing and future orders shipped on or after 4/1/2022 to the new prices. 

You will receive your finalized price list no later than March 15th, 2022. 

Thank you for your continued support of our brands and our American workforce. 

Jason R. Vanderbrink

President, Ammunition 

Fun With Headlines - Statues

 From this mornings New York Times newsletter:

A statue of Robert E. Lee that once stood in Charlottesville, Va. — and was the focus of a 2017 white nationalist rally — will be melted down for a new artwork.

I can just imagine the new artwork in the form of a whip-wielding black slave owner, driving a team of 6 white libs in man-buns and purple hair, laboring mightily to drag a large box (bale?) of ballots to a counting center. Can't see the NYT finding anything wrong with this. In fact, I challenge the NYT to front the modest sum of money required to build this on a cost plus fixed fee basis. That is all costs to the actual artisans, plus a fixed fee, say $100K, to me as the brains behind this work of art.

NICS Checks - October, back to normal?

 NICS checks have gone down yet again as it would appear that the panic buying over the 2020-21 span has somehow sated the publics desire to provide some modicum of its own security:

At this point, one would expect to see a bit of an uptick in gun sales as the Christmas buying season is upon us. Of course I could be wrong, and the rapidly increasing inflation is transferring discretionary monies from firearms to groceries. Of course if Republicans start winning elections (don't laugh, it could happen!) the lefts militias might be re-released to burn down some city centers which might inspire another surge in gun sales. Who knows?