Guns, guns, guns

In the wake of recent mass shootings there are a lot of people talking about guns. The murder of children in Newtown has exposed our raw emotions and anti-gun people are a lot more honest about their goals and their fears right now. People talk about repealing the 2nd Amendment, confiscating guns and other pretty drastic measures.

I agree with the anti-gun crowd in one respect: if there were no guns, there would be fewer deaths by murder. But that's like saying if there were fewer cars there would be less death in accidents. Cars are necessary, we have to do our best to make them as safe as possible, and make our use of them as safe as possible. It's exactly the same with guns.

I want to address a few aspects of this argument. Part one is the idea that there is no good reason for citizens to own guns and that the 2nd Amendment should be repealed or that it wasn't intended to guarantee an individual right to arms. Part two will be the idea that anyone with a gun is dangerous. I also want to talk about the AR-15 specifically.

I don't love guns. I was brought up around guns and we used them for hunting. I never developed a love for hunting and I don't pursue it as an adult. But it was a great education in gun ownership and is a great way to get a sense for what people had to do to survive before meat was readily available under cellophane in the grocery store.

What I learned about guns was that they are just a tool. There is no magic in a gun and there is no evil either. It's just a means to an end. Twenty-five years in the Army and I still feel the same way. I don't go to the range for entertainment, I go for work. Even firing my civilian guns is practice rather than fun.

Not to say I don't enjoy it, I do. But it's more the satisfaction from accomplishing something rather than an adrenaline rush or amusement park type fun. To each their own though. Many people shoot for fun and I see nothing wrong with that. Some people bungee jump, some go to wine tastings, some go to the range.

I also see the gun, especially the semi-auto, as amazing engineering. It's as fascinating to me as a mechanical watch, which I've posted about in the past.

All of that being said, again, I don't love my guns, but I wouldn't want to be without them. I don't love the hammer in my toolbox either, but I wouldn't want to be without it either.

I strongly believe that the gun has done more good in the world than bad. I'm not going to list a bunch of examples, although I think I could. But go back to before guns and I wouldn't have wanted to live in that world. In that world serfdom and slavery were common. The strongest made the rules and the weak had no say. The common man was concerned with day-to-day survival. He worked the fields or a trade and counted on the benevolence of his rulers to guarantee his safety and property rights.

Justice was at the whim of the rulers, if they were just and fair then good. If not, well too bad. Maybe you get together with your neighbors and take your pitchforks and axes and maybe a sword or two and go demand justice. Of course you are going to lose because the rulers have trained soldiers whose only job in life has been to learn how to use the sword or lance or whatever the weapon of the era happens to be. Angry farmers or merchants don't really stand a chance against trained soldiers when the weapons demand years of training to become skilled at using.

This was the situation for roughly 5000 years of history. From the ancient Egyptians to the Greeks to the Romans to the Byzantine Empire and the rulers of China and Japan, right through to the Kings of Europe. Might makes right. A ruler or government who could afford to keep an army of well-fed, trained and disciplined men, and could equip them with quality weapons of the day could run roughshod over the people and the people, unless they could turn the army to their side, could do little about it. Hollywood makes movies about the very few exeptions to this rule, "Braveheart" is a good example. And remember how he ended up.

The gun changed this equation. You don't need to spend years of training to learn to use it. You don't have an advantage if you are well-fed and stronger than the next person. Often a cheap one works as well as the state-of-the-art one.

There is no better example of what I'm talking about than the American Revolution. We felt we were not getting justice from our rulers. So we declared our independence and we had to fight for it. Without the gun our rebel forefathers would have stood little chance against the British Army. But we had guns and we won our freedom.

To imagine that the men who wrote the Bill of Rights were not keenly aware of the role of the gun in the winning of our freedom is ludicrous. People argue that they only meant militia members should keep guns, but at the time of the Revolution, the militia was everyone. So go ahead and stick to that point, I guess, but it's saying the same thing: everyone should be armed.

The more important point, to me, is that guns = freedom. This equation has not changed in the last few hundred years. Where the people are not armed, they live in fear and have no freedom. Ask the villagers in Uganda, whose children are stolen and forced to become slave soldiers in Kony's army, if they would like to have a gun in each house.

It doesn't matter how far we've evolved, how civilized we've become or how much we trust our current government. I have no paranoid fantasy about the U.S. government coming for me in the night. I do not fear the government because we have a strong constitution that guarantees my individual rights. These rights work together to guarantee my freedom, none of them is more important than another.

It's wonderful that England, Australia and Canada banned guns. Go there if you want to live in that culture. They are participating in an experiment, in my opinion. It will probably be fine in my lifetime, and even my kid's lifetimes. But remember, within living memory a European country enslaved and murdered millions of it's own people, various Asian countries have done the same thing, with North Korea still under brutal dictatorship. And, of course, don't forget the Kony thing. We haven't evolved so much.

Governments change, circumstances change, we don't know what the world will be like in 100 years any more than we could have predicted the internet back in 1910. Come what may, Americans will be free, not because the government guarantees it, but because we, the people, guarantee it.

Protecting the individual right to keep and bear arms has nothing to do with "gun culture" or paranoia, it's not about hunting or self-defense either. It's simply our heritage, it's American culture. It's what makes America what it is: a free country.

I'll write Part two when I get a chance.

Maybe the world did end.

President Ronald Reagan said:

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”

The truth of these words is becoming more and more apparent. I think he was off a little bit though, it appears to be taking three generations to destroy. We should all find any member of the "Greatest Generation" and ask their forgiveness for what we have done with their gifts. They sacrificed and struggled and handed us a legacy of freedom and prosperity that no people had ever seen in the history of the world. And in my lifetime we've managed to not only roll back the freedom they fought for, but change our national character in such a way that I can't see us now being able to do what they did. 

Can you see our politicians approving a D-day type invasion? Can you imagine the 20-year-old hipster making your latte at the coffee shop charging a beach? The less-than one percent of Americans who currently serve wouldn't be enough to carry that load, as strong as they are. 

No, over our three generations, the Baby Boomers, Gen X and the Millennials, our national character has changed, and not for the better.  

The Boomers started off wonderfully. This generation of Americans were born into a world of mass communication and relative prosperity. (This was when the concept of "adolescence" was created. Previous generations had no time for teenage rebellion, if they wanted to eat.) They did not have to struggle simply to survive, they had the ability to look around and see the injustice around them and demand changes. 

The Boomers deserve praise for the Civil Rights movement and more equality between the sexes. And for paying attention to the problems of poverty and drug abuse. Not every program was successful, but they were trying. I think our current problems begin with the Boomers though. I think they learned early on that the Government (big G) could change the laws and solve problems and they got stuck in that mind-set, that any problem we have can be fixed with a Government program or a change to a law.

The Boomers latched on to the idea that life can be made fair. Why should we allow anyone to suffer? We who are so rich, should be able to take care of those in need. This is a noble thought, and the root of all evil too. Life can't be made fair, as long as people have free will and the ability to make their own choices. Ah, well, there's the problem then...

I'm not going to go into why life can't be made fair. If you don't see it, you are a Utopian and can't be helped by me on my little blog. Go and study some philosophy, read up on human nature, and most especially, world history. 

Back to our generational problem then. The Boomers decided that Government is the answer. (Whatever the problem may be.) What we have to eliminate are the poor choices made by the ignorant masses. Cars killing people? Mandate seat belts. Drugs a problem? War on drugs. Welfare. Food stamps. OSHA. ATF. On and on until the Government is so entwined in our lives that you literally can't dig a hole in your yard in most places without involving the Government. 

This isn't to say Government has no role. Reasonable regulation and a limited safety net for those who can't take care of themselves, plus the traditional enforcement of property rights and national defense are proper roles for the government. But "reasonable" and "limited" went out the window a long time ago. 

We have a Department of Education that grows and grows, but the results for the kids get worse as the spending gets higher. 

Here's where the next generation comes in. You'd think my generation would look at the results and put the brakes on. But no. We grew up in near total peace and wanting for almost nothing. The result was a generation of slackers. We didn't pay attention because we didn't have to. Really up to this point everything was going pretty well anyway. There were enough Greatest Generation types around to put the brakes on for us. My generation just opted out. We didn't protest anything at school, we didn't get involved in any causes. 

What changed? The Greatest Generation is mostly gone from politics. The Boomers are running the show now. That reality check is gone. And the Millennials are just too young, inexperienced and are too indoctrinated by a willing media and Hollywood to know what they are throwing away.

I suggest everyone pause for a moment and mark this time in your memory. One day I believe my grandchildren or great-grandchildren will ask me what it was like to be free, and why we threw it away. This is the time I think we will look to as the real beginning of the end. When we voted for lives dominated by Government and when we began voting away our fundamental rights. 

My answer to them will be that we came to believe that we could eliminate suffering, misfortune, poverty, addiction, bullying, theft, murder and evil with the right set of laws. That we could mandate good choices and eliminate inequality if the Government was just given enough power. 

That our national character changed. That we started as a nation of individuals with the ability to make choices and knowing that we have to live with the consequences of those choices. That we became sheep willing to limit ourselves to a Government approved menu of choices in the hope that the possibility of failure or suffering will have been eliminated. 

That we decided Americans can no longer be trusted with the same rights and freedoms that our founders guaranteed us in the Constitution. 

This is the year we choose our new path. Maybe the world did end in 2012, not with destruction but with cries from the people be be "protected".

Just an observation on current politics

I wish liberals would be more consistent. I realize that conservatives aren't always consistent either, but at the very least most conservatives have a baseline of core beliefs. Liberals are slippery. They don't seem to have a baseline, or adhere to basic principles that guide them.

For example, a Republican President is responsible for gas prices, economic ups and downs, oil spills, hurricanes and scandals in the military. A Democrat President is subject to the whims of congress and almost everything is out of his control and therefore, he can't be held responsible for anything that happens while he is in office.

A conservative sees these viewpoints as contradictory, a liberal will argue both of these points in the same breath. I suppose it's easier to feel like you are winning your point when you can change your baseline assumptions that way.

Liberals seem to think that, even though the current administration was unable to influence the economy in any meaningful way, that more of the same policies will somehow work in the future. Although I'm sure we won't be able to hold them accountable for those policies if they fail again.

So what is the basic assumption? Are the President's policies pointless because they are always overtaken by circumstances beyond his control? Or are they vitally important because they determine the course of our country? The answer appears to be: sometimes the former and sometimes the latter. Depending on who the President is and what point you are trying to make.

I think the real answer is that it depends on the President. A strong leader takes circumstances into account and moves his agenda forward as much as he can, a weak leader is overwhelmed by circumstances.

But as far as baseline assumptions go, I think a core conservative belief is that the government has a limited ability to make everyone's life fair and wonderful. A President really is not responsible for gas prices or the direction of the economy as a whole. He can move the country and the economy in a basic direction though. And it matters what policies he endorses because people who make decisions look to him for leadership. (There's that word again.)

Contrast this with the liberal belief that the government can eliminate inequality if they can just make enough smart laws and regulations. I find it so odd that believe so adamantly in the power of the government to make people's lives better can't seem to take responsibility when that power makes people's lives worse.

So, to me, the difference in core beliefs is this: conservatives believe in only the amount of government necessary to ensure health and safety, enforcement of property rights and fundamental laws and a basic safety net for those who truly can't take care of themselves. Liberals believe that the government can "fine tune" laws and regulations to the degree that they can eliminate, for lack of a better word, unhappiness.

I'd like to see the Republicans start an ad campaign where they interview business people who are effected by all these little regulations. Like the hardware store that can't keep coffee and doughnuts out for their customers because of a regulation that says they have to have a full kitchen. Or someone who is holding off on hiring because of the tax or healthcare laws. Just show the effects of all the government interference.

New bike!

So a month ago I bought a new bike. A Yamaha Super Tenere. It's a 1200cc "Adventure" bike. It gets that fun title because it's designed to go off road occasionally. It's a big bike, and it's heavy so it's not meant to do the job of a dirt bike, or even an enduro bike. It's purpose is to just be ready for anything!
I used to ride from our house in a suburb of Denver out into the mountains and the fun then came from taking the curves fairly quickly, leaning over and hanging off the bike. I still think that's fun, actually! But I've also had a fair few close calls with disaster, which dulled my taste for speed a bit. My goals for riding have changed a bit as well. I want to get a little farther out there, take some longer rides and see more country. I decided to go with a different style of bike from the "cafe racer" that I usually prefer.

I thought that I would like to be able to take some of the dirt roads that I always passed by in the mountains in the past. I also wanted to be able to ride 500 miles in a day if that's what it took to get where I wanted to go.

So, the Tenere.
So today I decided to go for a ride. Just a normal Saturday afternoon ride to someplace where I could get a cup of coffee and home again. My wife had to work so she took off on her Buell and I took off on the Tenere.

My destination was Mt. Charleston, a 7000+ foot high mountain about 45 minutes outside of Las Vegas. We had reconed this mountain with the dogs in the truck last week so I knew I could get coffee at the restaurant at the end of the road there. That's a good enough reason for a ride any day.

The road up to the mountain can be done as a loop: out highway 95 to the turn off for Mt. Charleston, around the loop and back to highway 95 a bit farther out of town. I decided to do the loop "backwards" and start at the far end and loop back around to the closer end to town.

Now I've had this bike for all of three and a half weeks. I haven't really been anywhere or done anything on it yet. I've been trying to get through the break in miles, and of course we packed up and moved from Arizona up here to Vegas during this time. And all the dirt riding I've done was about 100 meters down a gravel road. I will hit 1000 miles before I make my first payment though, and that makes me happy, lol.

This ride was just a perfect illustration of what I bought this bike for: to be a jack-of-all-trades. I hauled ass down the highway at 80 mph in relaxed comfort, I took off down a dirt road on a whim and scoped out some beautiful backcountry, and I leaned it over in some (admittedly mild) mountain curves. All on the same bike, on the same day. It just blows my mind that a single bike can be this versatile.

So I haven't ridden a dirt bike since I was 12. And I wasn't ever really good at it, even though I remember starting at about age 8. I remember crashing a lot. So I've been a little hesitant about getting out there and trying this big, heavy bike on gravel roads. I wanted to make sure I had some of the basic tools and gear. I got a tire plug kit and an electric air compressor. I wired up the bike with a fused plug for the compressor. I put a few basic tools together too.

I left my leather jacket at home and got one of those textile jackets with lots of pockets like all the good adventure riders wear. Plus jeans and cowboy boots and I'm ready! lol. My Ariat boots actually worked really well, although they lack any traction at all (or protection.) They supported my whole foot on the pegs, no flex. I bought a pair of Gaerne Pro Tech boots, but they are too big, so they stayed at home. I should get some overpants, but I probably won't. Maybe I'll throw my Afghanistan knee pads in my bag for future rides.  But I had a lot of pockets!

My bike is similarly unprotected. Bone stock. At some point I will invest in a skid plate and some crash bars to protect the sides of the bike when (not if) I drop it in the gravel.

I wasn't really planning on going down the dirt road, but it seemed so perfect. The sign said there was a campground four miles that way. So I decided, why not? I figured it would be a pretty well taken care of dirt road. It pretty much was.



I learned a lot of little lessons on this ride. I stopped after about 5 minutes to let air out of my tires, take my ear plugs out and shut off the music I was listening to on my helmet speakers. Lesson one was that I couldn't hear what was going on with my bike with the music and ear plugs. I kind of felt like I was sliding once or twice, but I couldn't hear it. Same with spinning my rear tire.

I let 10 lbs of air out of each tire, so I was at 24 psi front and 28 psi rear. I really felt a difference after that. I thought about going further down but I need to research that to see how far is safe to go. These are not knobby dirt tires either. They are basically street tires with deeper grooves.

Next lesson: keep saying relax, relax, relax, relax... Over and over. I'm definitely not used to my bike bucking and jumping under me, it's going to take a while to rewire my brain to accept that these things are normal and acceptable.

So I'm relaxed and going with the flow, and then DEATH GRIP OH MY GOD,  relax, relax, relax, DEATH GRIP OH SH*T, relax, relax, relax...

Pretty much like that the whole time. Also, before I turned off onto the dirt road I was getting kind of chilly and thinking about putting on my jacket liner (with even more pockets!) A few minutes on the gravel and I was sweating like a pig. Mind you, my max speed by this point was about 20 mph.

But I had a huge grin on my face the whole time.



Next lesson was pretty much the same as on the street: when in doubt - throttle up! It took me a long time to get comfortable with the idea that when you think you're going to blow a curve you lean more and give it some gas. So when I got in trouble today and I thought I was going to lose control in the gravel, I just gave it some gas and straightened myself out. I didn't think about it, I just did it by force of habit. Got through three parts where I thought I was going to lose it in loose gravel.

I learned that uphill is more fun than downhill. Or at least, less scary. I really need to work on slowing down and stopping on downhills. I'd prefer not to stop at all going downhill, but there were other vehicles coming up. So I played around with my back brake only and found that lacking on steeper slopes. I've always made it a point to avoid using my front brake on dirt and gravel, but I don't see that as an option. I'm going to need some pointers on this technique from someone with more experience.

This uphill section was scarier than it looks in this picture.



You need to plan your moves carefully when you are thinking of stopping. At first it didn't occur to me that the ground is uneven when you are off the pavement. I stopped once where the ground was lower where my feet were than where both my tires were, lol. And then I put myself in a position where I had to try to go backwards uphill. Not cool.



I think the most important lesson I learned today was the value of balance. As long as I felt balanced I never felt out of control or in over my head. I kept slow and steady and crept through most of the road cautiously. I'm sure I would drive a more experienced rider crazy going so slow, lol. But I don't care. The single best biker saying IMO is: "Ride your own ride."

Finally, I made it.



After I rode back out I stopped to air my tires back up with my handy air compressor. Then I rode up and got my coffee. It was horrible. And awesome of course, like all coffee in the middle of the ride.

I can tell this is going to be a lot of fun.