The Cost of Freedom

The Sioux Falls show is a big one.  For what it's worth:

--The $2,000 price range for issue 1911s and A1s is bringing them out of the safes. Saw more at this show than any I can recall for years.  So-so examples are offered around $1800 very nice ones around $2,000 up to one good 1911 at $3,000.

--The actual value of an M1Carbine is anyone's guess. Today's range was $750-$1250 with no apparent correlation of maker, condition, etc. to price.

--WW2 webbing is going out of sight --pistol belts $30 and more. .45 pouches $10 plus. A humdrum-shape canteen with cup and cover at $55.

--Mossberg .22s are drawing a little collector interest at last. One two-table dealer specializes in them. 

--All the Winchester 22s from the 1930s-50s seem to be gaining a little value. 

--Otherwise we didn't notice much gun-price movement compared to early 2008. Economic problems are apparently outweighing the Obama-driven rush to buy.

--EDIT: The comment just above ignores whatever might be happening to EBR prices. We just don't pay much attention to them. 

Loopholing

It is by official decree of His Majesty's Government  both a sniper rifle and an assault weapon, fully capable of modification to accept a silencer.

Or, as the Brits called it in 1941, a "sound moderator." 

Winston's plan was to issue  the Winchester 74s to the able-bodied in coastal counties. They would lay low as the German invasion wave swept over them, then emerge in the Nazi rear -- take the image any way you want -- to wreck general havoc. Some 74s  were equipped with "No.42 straight scopes"  and the government freely admitted they should be employed by citizens for assassinating Wehrmacht  officers and "important administrative officials."

More on this noble use of one of the excellent little .22 semi-autos here. Dandy site, by the way, for  research on several civilian rifles we sent to Albion when she needed them. 

Anyway, the pretty one that got loopholed*  in Dakota Territory today joins a twin brother in the rack, and the guy who bought it says he's now damned well ready to defend liberty against any heathen hordes of left-wing gophers.

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*Decent citizens rightfully despise gratuitous verbing,  but the the blooming idiots on the left have made "loopholed" and its derivatives  both useful and graceful. 

 

Blooming idiots

I'm too old to cry, too BTDTish to be surprised. But I'm fully capable of anger when I read crap like this. Give a cop a gun and he hands you a rose and a cheap gift  card on Valentine's Day.

And everyone says  wow, what a neat thing to do, New-Age-wise.

Note to a lawmaker

Everyone should cultivate a good working relationship with at least one state legislator. If you do, you'll probably get actual answers to little notes like this:

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M****,

Can you find a spare few minutes this week to make a check for gun bills -- pro or anti -- that might be hiding in some committee chairman's drawer or otherwise on a stealthy road to last-day passage? 

With everyone focused on the economy, the gun banners might try to sneak one through.

Thanks
Jim

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Forces of Light in my state are fully engaged with the enemy which, this session, happens to be the more ambitious and self-important union bosses.  A little later the big headlines will be about how we're divvying up the Obamian New-Age Unicorn Money (about $1.9 billion in this state.) 

What with the crisis and all,  most folks are paying attention only to getting their cut of the federal loot, and that creates lots cracks where bad bills can be slipped through almost unnoticed -- often as amendments to must-pass measures. And does anyone doubt that in every state, some smart lobbyist in the pay of the antigun left is looking for ways to exploit popular inattention?  

Drop your legislator a little line this morning, eh? Even if he ignores it, it will make you feel all snug and cuddlywarm.