Are you thinking about buying your first gun?

I got an early start handling firearms and then I worked in a gun store and a gun factory. I have been a bit of firearms enthusiast for a long time, after decades of being around firearms I have spent a lot of time answering peoples questions of about guns. I figured it only made sense to write down the questions and answers in some form so more people could share the information. I am going to try and focus on the answers where my opinions depart from the traditional or more popular answers. There is plenty of other people out there that write and teach about these subjects and I don’t want to spend too much time saying what has already been said many times over.

I would say the most common question I have been asked is “What gun should I buy?”. There is no perfect answer of course but two of the biggest problems is that there is no end to individual opinions and style/brand loyalty. If you start doing homework you find that there is also no end to the technical minutia. You could spend the rest of your days weighing the details and never really find the ‘Best’ weapon.

To best answer the question of what is the best gun to buy you have to know what you want it for. Typically most people want something for home defense,plinking at the range and something to take with camping and what not. Often a pump shotgun is the first recommendation for home defense but we will get to that later. Most of the time people want a handgun or a handgun makes more sense for their needs so I will start with that.

In times past the discussion would have gone to revolvers vs Semi Automatic pistols. [inset pictures of a revolver and a semi auto.] These days revolvers are less of a contender if for any reason that the price of revolvers has gotten rather high and so has the price of the rounds they fire. The longer I have been discussing firearms with people the more important price has become. Maybe I don’t need to say this but if you have a large budget by all means ignore my low cost bias.

Let me explain that when I talk about keeping costs down I don’t want anyone to do it at the expense of reliability. But here is why cost is important. First of all no matter what you own in the way of a firearm the only way it is of any practical use to you is if can use it well. The only way you will be able to use it well is if you are confident, comfortable and well practiced. In order to get to this place of being proficient you need to shoot quite a bit. When you add the cost of buying a firearm to the cost of buying ammunition you can be looking at a sizable sum for most of us. In general I would say you are better off buying a $500 handgun and $300 worth of ammo rather than a $700 handgun and $100 worth of ammo.

Another reason not to spend too much money on your first handgun is that you can’t really develop a taste for what you like or what suits you until you have had spent some time shooting. I would hate to see someone spend $1000 on a nice Sig Sauer or HK USP and decide they don’t really care for it. While quality handguns often go up in value it could take some time before you could come close to breaking even when you factor in the fact that it is now a used weapon, sales tax, registration fees and the loss you are likely to take on accessories.

Even though 22lr is not a traditional self defense round it still has a lot of upside especially for a new shooter. I think people should consider starting with a quality 22lr handgun because of the lower cost. Currently there are several 22lr handguns around or under $400 and while you will pay around $25-$30 for 50 rnds of 45acp, that same $25-$30 will buy you 500 rnds or more of 22lr.

This is a picture of Ruger MKI 22LR

It is much easier to learn to shoot with a 22lr as well, it is far less intimidating and that helps a new shooter focus and builds confidence in aiming and operating a weapon.
list of American Pistol Manufactures
More later

Cows, Whisky and Corn

Perhaps there is nothing new under the sun except a new audience or a new opportunity for old ideas?

So what is possible when it comes to producing Energy, Food and jobs and keeping money local?

I covered the uses and advantages of alcohol as a fuel in my previous post. So how can it all play out? Lets start with Corn, we all have some idea how much corn is grown in this country and plenty others. So lets say you take the corn or some other grain and ferment it and then distill out the alcohol for fuel. Then what you have left is mash, this mash has a lower carbohydrate content than it did before before fermentation and this actually makes it more suitable as cow food (and other animals). Cows eating distillers mash is not anything new,you can see some of the nutritional data at this link provided.
http://ohioline.osu.edu/as-fact/distillers.html
http://pubstorage.sdstate.edu/AgBio_Publications/articles/ExEx2036.pdf

So we feed the mash to the live stock as part of their diet and naturally they produce waste. One of the qualities of cow manure is that it is actually ideal for producing methane or natural gas. So once again we have an opportunity to recover fuel, but this is a fuel that we already use for heating, cooking, and in vehicles.There is even a proven technology available converts methane into electricity without combustion. link This sort of technology is a good alternative to reducing future electricity costs that can compete quite well with solar and wind.

Once the cow manure is fermented once again and the bacteria has produced the methane the manure is now ready to be used as fertilizer. So it can be used to grow more corn or some other crop.

This cycle may be more expensive or less convenient in some cases then using commercial fertilizers or large industrial production of fuel or crops but it does offer the opportunity to do all these processes on a local level keeping the money local, the regulation local and it also offers better pollution controls.

There are many sources for the ideas in this post, i will add the links in for people to do their own home work. I hope everyone keeps in mind that it is hard to find anyone that we agree with 100%, so don’t be too quick to discount everything based on minor misalignments.

Guys like David Blume have been talking about small scale alcohol production for a long time and he wrote a book that has been kind of the gold standard for a long time.
http://alcoholcanbeagas.com/

Robert Zubrin also has had a lot to say on the subject
http://energyvictory.net/

http://www.waff.com/story/20537445/company-to-create-electricity-using-methane-gas-in-dekalb-co

http://smarterfuelfuture.org/impacts/vehicles-and-small-engines?gclid=CLTl47bE8LQCFUdxQgodb3YARg

Putting Whiskey in Gasoline, E85 and beyond

This blog post is in reference to the email going around about "Warning from AAA" and the Video on Fox,(see video and email below if you didn't already get one in your inbox) I have a lot to say on the subject. I am taking the time to write all this because I hope people will know more about issues like this and have a deeper understanding of the possibilities. There is a lot here that could help our economy and the environment.

Maybe it should go without saying that if you have not modified your vehicle you should run the fuel that the manufacture recommended especially if you expect them to honor a warranty. Most vehicle can be modified to run on just about any percentage of gasoline and alcohol, but that is another story.


Your vehicle can be damaged by running Gasoline that contains more then 10% ethanol (if it is not a flexfuel vehicle or modified), As they mention in the in the video there are Flexfuel vehicle that can run on higher alcohol content (some as high as 50/50 or more).


There is a House bill to set a national standard for cars so in the future they can run on any mixture of Gasoline or Alcohol. (open fuel standards (H.R. 1687))
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Fuel_Standard_Act_of_2011


Gasoline has more chemical Energy then alcohol so most vehicle get more miles per gallon out of gasoline then alcohol and typically more miles per dollar of fuel as well. But you are still only using about 20-30% of the chemical energy in the gasoline.That being said there are some up sides to alcohol. (The most efficient engines only get about 50% efficiency from petroleum, but that is another story as well)


Pure alcohol has a higher Octane rating then Gasoline (typically around 109), so you can run much higher compression, this potentially lets you build an engine that can actually have greater efficiency then gasoline engines in spite of the fact that Gasoline has more chemical energy.


Alcohol is a single chemical, Gasoline contains hundreds of chemicals, so Alcohol can be much easier, less expensive and safer to manufacture, store and has a much, much longer shelf life. You do not need a giant refinery to make alcohol. You wont need different blends for different seasons or different states.


Alcohol is very clean burning, it does not need any emissions controls in order to meet current EPA standards, like catalytic converters and such which actually make combustion engines less efficient. (You motor heads know what I am talking about)


Ethanol is only one of several alcohols that can be used as fuel (methanol, isopropyl etc). These alcohols can be made from lots of different substances from Crops like corn, cow manure, coal, crude oil, lawn clippings etc. I personally don't want to see fuel compete with food on the open market so lets not get focused on just corn. Oddly enough even though we experienced a drought this past year, the U.S. still has a surplus of corn, just like it did the year before. You can make ethanol from other crops like fodder beats, Jerusalem artichokes, Cat tails, Switch grass and on and on.


Alcohol fire are much easier to extinguish then gasoline, if you put water on a gasoline fire you will probably cause it spread that is why fire fighter use chemical extinguishers or foam. You can put alcohol out with water so it is much safer in an accident or to handle in general. You would not need that ridiculous nozzles they put on gas cans if you lawn mower ran on alcohol, which means you would not spill it all over the place.


Alcohol burns much cooler then gasoline, there is a lot of advantages to this when building a vehicle, you don;t need a liquid cooling system which robs power and adds weight to a vehicle which of course just wastes more gasoline and money in building the vehicle like emission devices do.


The problem is trying to burn alcohol in a vehicle designed for gasoline with out modifying it, not that alcohol can't give you good MPG, because it can and you can do it with a simpler more reliable engine.


To me the most important thing is that alcohol does not require any dependence on foreign oil and it is not subject to prices on the world oil market. Alcohol can be made locally, when I say locally, I mean in your town, you don't have to buy or transport stuff all over the place. When you go fill up at the local gas station how much of your money do you think goes to a multinational oil company? How much of each dollar goes over seas? Now if you made alcohol locally your money could stay local. Right now Ethanol is trading at some where around $2 a gallon.


I think the same is true of natural gas or methane, we have an abundance of methane and we can make methane from manure, lawn clippings, garbage, agricultural waste, sewage, etc. Methane has a lot of the advantages that alcohol has and it is far more powerful as a green house gas is then CO2 so why not capture it and use it for energy? Did you ever drive by a water treatment plant, oil refinery, or garbage dump and see one of those giant flames on top of a stack burning off the methane?


Why not keep all that money we spend on imported oil and refining at home in the US, or in our home town? Right now a lot of Gasoline is refined for us in other countries because we are not allowed to build new refineries in the USA, so imagine how much money and energy is spent moving the oil and the gasoline around? Go down to the harbor and see all those enormous tankers full of fuel.


I am a big believer in making things more local, this holds true for Government, Economy, Food and Energy. If we all have good information we can change things like this to our advantage. This is great opportunity to go on an anti big government rant, but I won't.


Here is the link for those of you who want to cut straight to the Video!
VIDEO

This is the email that inspired my response.

"For those of you who do not have 2012 cars or newer please watch this video from Fox Business news-very informative. Donna
If you have cars/trucks, YOU NEED TO WATCH THIS and pass it on to all of your friends.
We ALMOST screwed up a few days ago and came close to using this fuel at a recent fillup.
LOOK CAREFULLY BEFORE YOU PUMP.
Void your warranty!!!! All from our wonderful, benevolent and protective government. If you 've got a car you need to watch this.

Watch this video from Fox Business...if your CAR IS OLDER THAN 2012 you need to AVOID THE NEW E15 GAS that is just starting to show up at gas stations. Most car companies will not honor the warranty on your car if you use this new gas"


This is a response that was forwarded to me after my initial response got forwarded.

To: AC
Thanks for forwarding that piece on alcohol for fuel. I have been researching for two years on this and everything he said is true. The primary reason we have been on gasoline still and for so long is too many politicians own oil stock....or oil company "kick-backs".

One of the best sources of methanol fuel stock for production is overwhelming us in Big Bear. Did you know that a single piece of paper contains 2 liters of hydrogen ? Methanol is the simplest on the hydrocarbon chain at CH3(OH)......notice that the primary element is hydrogen......

Want to know something really cool? Plastics....we all know that they are manufactured from oil (primarily)......the most used today are the Polyethylenes and the Polypropylenes.....more commonly all the plastics we use in food and beverage containers and packaging.....

Here's the cool part.....they can be shredded, cooked (actually distilled) in a kiln (a quality builder can build one for home use) and powered by electricity.......2.2 lbs of plastic yields 1 liter of diesel.....almost pure diesel....purer and with less problems than "McDonald's" french-fry oil.....AND.....(at Bear Valley Electric rates).....can be done for about $1.00 of electricity per GALLON of diesel produced from waste plastic.....AND....if part of the diesel is used to heat the kiln instead of electricity.....then only 20% is needed of the product.....leaving 80% of the produced diesel fuel produced for free!!!

And shredded plastic can actually be bought for about $50 / per ton.....that's enough to produce close to 250 gallons of diesel or only 200 gallons of diesel if the diesel is used to heat the kiln........let's see...I think that equates to about 25 cents / per gallon of diesel fuel.....how much would you like ??

And do you know why you don't hear about this.......???

Same reason as the alcohol fuel issue......

BTW......a small propane tank is perfect for a scaled-down version of this.........

So now you know more of what I do in my spare time.......research first.
From: TF

I was kind of surprised I got a response like this in about 12 hours, I guess there are plenty of people around who are thinking about subjects like this?

Clunkers: Taxpayers paid $24,000 per car

http://money.cnn.com/2009/10/28/autos/clunkers_analysis/index.htm

Auto sales analysts at Edmunds.com say the pricey program resulted in relatively few additional car sales.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- A total of 690,000 new vehicles were sold under the Cash for Clunkers program last summer, but only 125,000 of those were vehicles that would not have been sold anyway, according to an analysis released Wednesday by the automotive Web site Edmunds.com.

Still, auto sales contributed heavily to the economy's expansion in the third quarter, adding 1.7 percentage points to the nation's gross domestic product growth.

Is the economy really getting better?
The Cash for Clunkers program gave car buyers rebates of up to $4,500 if they traded in less fuel-efficient vehicles for new vehicles that met certain fuel economy requirements. A total of $3 billion was allotted for those rebates.

The average rebate was $4,000. But the overwhelming majority of sales would have taken place anyway at some time in the last half of 2009, according to Edmunds.com. That means the government ended up spending about $24,000 each for those 125,000 additional vehicle sales.

"It is unfortunate that Edmunds.com has had nothing but negative things to say about a wildly successful program that sold nearly 250,000 cars in its first four days alone," said Bill Adams, spokesman for the Department of Transportation. "There can be no doubt that CARS drummed up more business for car dealers at a time when they needed help the most."

In order to determine whether these sales would have happened anyway, Edmunds.com analysts looked at sales of luxury cars and other vehicles not included under the Clunkers program.

Using traditional relationships between sales volumes of those vehicles and the types of vehicles sold under Cash for Clunkers, Edmunds.com projected what sales would normally have been during the Cash for Clunkers period and in the weeks after.

Edmunds.com's estimate of the ultimate sales increase generally matches what industry experts had thought, said George Pipas, a sales analyst with Ford Motor Co (F, Fortune 500). But that misses the point, he said.

"The whole purpose of the program was to provide some kind of catalyst to kick-start the economy," he said, "and by all accounts the extra production that was added this year was a boost to the economy."

0:00 /4:57Why I fired GM's CEO
Ford was one of the biggest proponents of the Cash for Clunkers program and several Ford models were among the top sellers under the program.

While auto sales in September were hurt because auto dealership inventories were drained of products by the program, sales this month are already back on track or better, Pipas said. "I think the October sales results will show Clunkers is behind us and there's no more payback or inventories issues."

Emunds.com's projection indicates that, without Cash for Clunkers, October's sales increase would be even higher.

Health Care Reform

http://www.takecarehealth.com/welcome-to-take-care.aspx

one way to reduce health care costs.

http://www.minuteclinic.com/en/USA/CA/Los-Angeles/Clinics.aspx

There are a lot things we do not need to visit a Doctor for and may things here is no need to bill an insurance company for a well.

click away your rights?

A'dal and his Naaru redeem Bridenbrad's soul and promise him "paradise eternal".

http://www.wowwiki.com/Crusader_Bridenbrad
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=13275812518&sid=1
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=16904076640&postId=169024784421&sid=1

just a little something to squirrle away

http://www.ci.la-habra.ca.us/article.cfm?id=280

http://republican.assembly.ca.gov/enews/eletter.aspx?Id=295

R.I.P. BRAD BRIDENBECKER
On June 21st, 2007, I requested that the California State Assembly adjourn in the memory of La Habra City Manager Brad C. Bridenbecker, who passed away on Monday, June 18th after a long battle with cancer. He was just 35 years young.

Brad grew up in Orange County, attended college at Cal Poly Pomona and grad school at USC. He started with the City of La Habra back in 1994 as a part-time intern and was steadily promoted through the ranks until his appointment as City Manager on June 16, 2002.

A number of significant projects in La Habra were completed under his leadership, including: Westbridge Plaza, Costco, La Bonita Park Phases 1 and 2, and the reconstruction of La Habra Boulevard.

Brad was diagnosed with cancer shortly after being appointed City Manager and worked continuously until taking a leave of absence in April of 2006.

Brad was a bright, capable and dedicated public servant, and wholeheartedly a family man. He loved being a dad and spending time with his wife, Beth, and two daughters, Victoria and Katie.

He will be sorely missed.

A memorial service will be held at 12 noon on June 28th at Our Lady of Guadalupe. Our Lady of Guadalupe is located at 900 W. La Habra Blvd. Please call (562) 691-0533 for more information.

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/local/brea_lahabra/article_1719556.php

LA HABRA — City Council members in a closed session Monday voted to name Don Hannah the new city manager.

He replaces Brad Bridenbecker who is retiring because of health reasons.

Hannah has been working with the city as in interim administrator for about a year and Mayor Jim Gomez said he was an easy choice because he is already familiar with the city's issues.

"It's a critical time in La Habra and it's important to have a leader with integrity and experience to move the city forward for future generations," Gomez said. "By hiring Don there won't be a learning curve… and we will save money."

The city manager is responsible for overseeing the city's day-to-day activities and hiring staff.

Hannah will be on a two-year contract and his salary and benefits are still being negotiated. As the interim city manager he was making $152,500.

Hannah said he looks forward to working with staff and the council to conquer challenges the city faces such as budget issues, economic development and public safety.

"Our job is to improve the quality of life in the community," Hannah said.

Bridenbecker's salary was at $160,097 before he opted to take a leave because of his health.

After maxing out vacation and sick time, he went on medical leave. After coming off medical leave, Bridenbecker took an administrative leave. City employees then decided to pitch in and covered about four months of leave out of their own pockets, Gomez said.

"Brad is a magnificent young man who contributed a great deal to our community," Gomez said. "We're just devastated that his health hasn't improved."

Bridenbecker will be retired as soon as his paperwork goes through, Gomez said.

"If his medical condition should improve, we will welcome him back with open arms," he said. "We all love Brad and would love to have him back here working at some capacity."

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/city-bridenbecker-manager-2202372-street-espinoza?orderby=TimeStampAscending&oncommentsPage=1&showRecommendedOnly=0

The "Boy Wonder" of La Habra, former city manager Brad Bridenbecker, may have left his friends, family and colleagues too soon, but his memory will continue to live on in a new way – as Bridenbecker Way.

Bridenbecker, who died last year of cancer at the age of 35, will have his name and memory honored with a street in the new Brio housing community across the street from the Children's Museum on Euclid Street, said Jennifer Cervantes, assistant to the city manager.

Having a street named for Bridenbecker is "a fitting tribute to this man who helped move the city in many ways," said Mayor Rose Espinoza.

Bridenbecker began as a part-time intern with the city of La Habra in 1994. Beginning in 1998, he worked his way up from being assistant to the city manager, to assistant city manager to eventually city manager in June 2002.

Knowing the ins and outs of the city, being energetic and having the instinct to be a successful city manager made Bridenbecker an asset to the city, Espinoza said.

"He had the perseverance to start the momentum … and he left our city in a better place than it was," she said.

Bridenbecker was also the type of manager employers looked forward to working with, Espinoza said.

Cervantes agreed, calling him a "great boss and talented man."

Bridenbecker was diagnosed with cancer soon after being appointed city manager and took a leave of absence in April 2006.

"He was a great love, not only to the city, but to his family," Espinoza said.

There are no set plans yet to formally open the street, but Cervantes said she hopes to publicly commemorate Bridenbecker Way when the 1-acre park being constructed on the site is complete

http://www.fhs89.com/class_profile.cfm?member_id=222926

http://articles.latimes.com/2004/apr/11/local/me-lahabra11

In March, Anaheim settled a lawsuit filed by Bill Gammoh that alleged city officials unconstitutionally prevented him from opening a Taboo Gentlemen's Club there, causing him to lose profits, court documents state.

Gammoh and his attorney, Scott Wellman, are also fighting La Habra City Hall. They are scheduled to head to court in June in lawsuits filed over an adult cabaret.

Although the issues are different in each city, the common goal of city officials and many residents is to bar strip clubs near homes. Similar battles have been waged for decades by cities nationwide.

In La Habra, the city in 1995 denied Gammoh the permits to open the cabaret, which then was called the Pelican Theater, court documents say. An appellate court ordered the city to issue Gammoh the permits in 1996 and 1998.

Taboo Gentlemen's Club, as it is called in both cities, has been open in La Habra since December 1998. It is the only adult entertainment club in the city of 60,000.

According to one of Gammoh's suits against La Habra, the city then passed restrictive ordinances, including one calling for exotic dancers to remain at least two feet from patrons. That suit contends that La Habra's laws are unconstitutionally vague and seeks to have them overturned.

A second suit seeks an unspecified sum to compensate Gammoh for lost profits because of the restrictions and for what Gammoh calls police harassment of customers.

"This case never had to happen," Wellman said. "All they had to do was give Mr. Gammoh his permit in 1995 and then no one would have known [the cabaret] was there. My pet peeve in this is that they're spending tons of taxpayers' money. This is getting ridiculous."

La Habra City Manager Brad Bridenbecker said that Gammoh's allegations are false and that the city has a duty to defend its laws.

"We have a business owner that has challenged the ordinances of this city, and the city has an obligation to defend those," he said. "I don't think the ordinances have the ability to limit the businesses that open in town."

La Habra has spent about $800,000 on the court cases so far, Bridenbecker said. "We'd love to be able to spend the money in other areas," he said, "but you have to defend the ordinances on the books, and that's what we're doing."

http://rightvoices.com/2003/03/28/city-of-la-habra-responds/

Today their Public Information Office finally sent a letter in response to my questions of why the police allowed people to vandalize a memorial site and what actually constituted vandalism in their eyes. While I think re-arranging someone’s display has altered the display or single piece of work is vandalism they disagree. However I guess that’s for the law to decide . Thank you for the response Brad Bridenbecker.