I’m a computer guy, and as such I try to find the simplest way to get from point A to point B. It’s part of building data structures, programming, and operating systems. What’s the smoothest, fastest way for me to accomplish any single thing. Programming naturally got me thinking about ammunition and how I have four different weapons each with ammunition that is not interchangeable from one to the next.

I’m wondering now … how many different calibers are too many? 8? 10? 3? For some people, it’s 2. They’ll have a .22 and a 9mm and they don’t want anything that’ll shoot otherwise and that’s that. To me, that leaves a lot of wonderful potential off the table. So many lovely guns!

See, there’s a reason I own each gun I do, apart from “just want one”. .22 Buckmark? It’s cheap, no recoil, more fun than a BB goodness. When it came time to buy the Buckmark I did it with full intention of owning that pistol for years and years and years. When I’m dead and gone, my son may be talking to his son’s about this pistol and relaying a story about how he first fired it when he was 6 years old and I took him to the range. I consider a .22lr pistol a necessity for anyone that owns more than one gun. I’ll stop short of KdT saying it’s a “household commodity” like salt or sugar, but it’s darn close in my opinion.

The .40 is my self defense round. The 7.62×54r is for big boomy fun. The 7.62×39 is because I bought an SKS for the cheap ammo, and because I wanted a project gun. That it’s able to scare the pee out of gun-grabbing nannies makes it all the sweeter.

That’s it for me. I consider it three different calibers (.22 is not a caliber just like breathing isn’t a voluntary function of your body - it’s natural and necessary and hardly by choice). .40S&W, 7.62×39 and 7.62×54r.

I don’t own a shotgun (yet). I don’t own an AR (yet) and haven’t set myself on what caliber I want to shoot out of this future AR (yet), so there’s a bit up in the air there.

If I end up getting a revolver at some point, it’ll probably be .22 or .40S&W though, because it’ll limit the different types of ammo I need to purchase.

So what’s your story - how many different types of ammo do you own and if you had a chance as you were just building your collection of firearms to do anything differently … would you have?

Should be interesting. Bedtime arrives sooner, unfortunately.

Sad.

A man mounted a bicycle shortly before 5:30 p.m. yesterday and pulled out a machine gun. He pedaled down Norris Street in Camden and opened fire, peppering the neighborhood with bullets, police sources said.

Brandon Thompson, 4, was playing on the street in front of his house. The child was struck in the head. He died instantly.

No amount of microstamping would have helped. Microstamping won’t work and only tells you what happened AFTER death.

One gun a month would not have helped. I doubt this upstanding thug had a clean record.

Federal licensing would not have helped. According to reports this 20-year-old thug had a full-auto.

Trigger lock requirements would not have helped. He was riding his bicycle with the weapon - outside of his home.

911 would not help. Remember - death happens before 911.

It’s my belief (I don’t know for certain) that this low-life most likely had a prior criminal record. The only thing that could help was to have him locked up. This being Jersey, I’m guessing he was probably arrested and let go numerous times. That’s what they do in progressive utopias.

As a parent, this just gets my blood boiling … you read stuff like this and realize that anger is an emotion that is easily infinite.

Thompson said she had called police the day before her son was killed to report that a man was in the neighborhood with a machine gun.

“I called 911 and told them,” Thompson said. “He was just riding around. It wasn’t like he was hidin’ it.

“This could have been avoided if they had done their job,” she said.

Police could not immediately verify if 911 operators took a report from Thompson.

Brandon was playing on Norris Street late yesterday afternoon when the man returned, riding a bicycle, and wielding the machine gun.

Stephanie Thompson was around the corner when she heard a series of blasts. She ran to find her son.

She rounded the corner of Norris and Sheridan. She saw Brandon running. Children were scattering everywhere.

The man on the bike took aim at Brandon and fired, she said.

The young mother ran to her son and lifted his head in her arms.

“I just held him and told him to get up,” she said. “But he wouldn’t get up. He was only 4. And he was trying to run to his mommy. I couldn’t get there in time.“

And as if that’s not enough to piss you off and ruin your day … here you go:

Camden police arrived minutes later.

Exactly. It’s a damn shame some crazed gun-nut didn’t notice this sub-human lump of fetid shit pedaling his Huffy around the neighborhood that morning. One well-placed shot from a bedroom window would’ve done the job a lot better than 911 ever could.

If hell does exist, I expect this cretin to spend every day for the rest of an eternity getting violently ass-raped by some 12-foot acid-spunk-shooting demon named, “Balthazaar the Thorn-Cocked” - and even that wouldn’t be enough.

Had a chance to hit the range for a few hours last Friday with friend and comment-maker Angus Lincoln. Now, this is the 2nd time he and I have been out shooting together and it’s just an excellent, fun time out for both of us. I brought a few friends along and nobody was hurt, threatened, or otherwise. Now that I think of it, its rather amazing that we all left the range without any bullets being buried in our heads considering how dangerous guns are! Whew.

Here is a small (did I say “small”? I meant miniscule) sampling of some of the weapons we had fun shooting …

What do we have? Well, the Kahr P40, Browning Buckmark .22 (with red dot), SKS, Mosin Nagant. That’s what I brought. Angus brought a flatbed truck full o’ goodies. On that table are also his Benelli 12ga tactical shotgun (Sweet Grandma Cephalopod, I would have little problem keeping one of those as a close friend) and a CZ 9mm that had a positively buttery trigger pull. I took aim with it at a 200-yard steel target and much to my astonishment actually came pretty close to hitting the darn thing.

Angus, standing, nailed the 200-yard steel a whole hell of a lot with a lever-action rifle he brought along (Angus, I’m sorry, I forgot the specs). He let me have a go with the lever-action and described it thusly, “It shoots like a pussycat.” He was right. Hell that thing was fun, it’s the kind of recoil I’d expect out of a pillow. Kind of a soft, fluffy, happy-like recoil. Like a care bear that shoots magnum rounds.

Personally, my best of the day was hitting 3 out of 5 shots on a steel circle about 100 yards out with Mr. Mosin. Well, shooting the hell out of a defunct motherboard and using the SKS to blast a keyboard clean in half was kinda cool too.

I’ll have more pictures soon of some of the unfortunate remains of objects we put holes through and such. Know that it was a good, safe day that was a hell of a lot of fun! You’re all invited to Siberia for the next one!

Commenter and friend Angus Lincoln and I are heading to the range tomorrow!

Looks like I need to bring stuff to shoot. I have a keyboard, a motherboard, and possibly an old metal trash can that I’d love to peg a few times with the SKS. I’ll be snapping some photos!

Okay, SayUncle has the goods.

What’s really funny here is that it’s someone with NRA connections who infiltrated an anti-gun group for years. Now, as a PRO-GUN individual, this is easy. When anti-gun folk are having a meeting, walk in and say what you would expect - as a pro-gun person - an anti-gun person to say:

1) “If we remove all guns, there will be less crime!”

2) “Nobody needs an AK-47!”

3) “The Gun Lobby needs to be taught a lesson!”

4) “Gun-nuts are compensating for mini-schlong-itis!”

And there you have it. That group of frothing anti-gun activists will warmly accept you in the ranks, for you have offered the only greeting they understand and communicated it perfectly in their own language - an agreement with the echo chamber!

Likewise, it’s near impossible for an anti-gun individual to infiltrate a pro-gun group. The reason for this is that the anti-brain has a distinct and irrefutable vision of what a pro-gun individual is like, and thus, is unable to cloak their true intentions because of their inability to merge with actual facts and ideals. For instance, if an anti-person walked into a pro-gun meeting wanting to hide their true agenda and become one of the “good ol’ boys”, they would most likely blurt out one of the following:

1) “So nice to be here with all you other murderous macho bigots!”

2) “Hey everyone! I brought a case of Pabst! Let’s go murder some negros!”

3) “What’s so unreasonable about registration, microstamping, and a ban on anything that can fire a projectile at greater than 30 feet-per-second?”

4) “I keep rocket launchers in my trunk and I married my sister just like you all!”

Since the anti-brain is incapable of processing a piece of information that is based in fact, they are biologically incapable of preventing their own true colors from being shown when placed in a stressful situation. If you’re ever at an NRA meeting and you hear any of the above statements, or someone exhibits signs of panic and stress such as profuse sweating, fidgeting, trembling, projectile vomiting or making poopy pants, calmly approach them and inform them that it’s no use - they should go back to the fantasy land from which they came.

This guy did.

Memo to idiot: Do not attempt to start your lawnmower while drunk.

See, we’re a bunch of religious, gun-toting nutjobs. Barack Truly, You Have A Dizzying Intellect Obama was right!

Look at this crap:

Among those applauding the Supreme Court’s recent 5-4 ruling seconding the Second Amendment are the good folks at Windsor Hills Baptist Church in Oklahoma City. You can find a link to the court’s ruling on the church’s web site. It follows a brief explanation of the church’s decision to give away a gun at its annual youth conference this month.

As Dave Barry often says, I wish I were making this up.

Well that certainly makes your stance clear from the get-go. Commence with the terrible jokes!

Praise the Lord and pass the automatic assault rifles. One nation, under God, locked and loaded. In Guns We Trust.

How goofy! Bring on the Brady Quote!

Rev. Rachel Smith, whose blog “God Not Guns” is a project of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, calls it gundamentalism.

GUNDAMENTALISM! Love it. Boy that’s just … wow … clever as it gets right there, isn’t it? That makes me a congregate at Our Patron of the Ammunition Downrange Explusionist!

“America’s gun culture is marked by zeal closely akin to that of religious fundamentalism. The gun-rights movement is built upon a system of belief that is both absolutist and aggressive. It has its sacred text, its creed, its icon and its ideology.”

And its adherents.

On the Windsor Hills web site, you’ll find a 30-minute video of highlights from the church’s 2007 youth conference. The video includes gun-battle scenes from “The Patriot,” Mel Gibson’s movie about the American Revolution. It includes scenes of the conference gun-shooting competition (cancelled this year) — boys firing automatic and semi-automatic assault rifles at last year’s shooting competition.

It also includes scenes of pastors preaching and dancing, once again proving that white men have no rhythm, in the pulpit or on the stage.

All this means … what exactly? Religions whackjobs enjoy dancing poorly and watching a drunk antisemitic loon? Who the hell cares about any of this, anyway? Other than your average lefty collectivist? Is a shooting competition so bad? Were they shooting at people or at targets? Was it safe?

Again … who cares?

I watched the video, expecting to see some sort of wild-eyed cult of survivalist extremists. Instead I saw men and women, boys and girls eating and playing, singing and praying. I saw the good, God-fearing people who elect our presidents, fight our wars, patrol our streets and put food on our tables.

Here’s where the author just isn’t trying. Praise the Lord and pass the automatic assault rifle? Gun rights advocates are just like these religions freakazoids? Religious fundamentalists are “absolutist and aggressive” and now they’re “good, God-fearing people”? Maybe it’s just me, I think this is a most transparent compliment meant as a sort of apathetic cloak of someone who’s clearly anti-gun and anti-religion.

Nothing wrong with that. I’m not at all religious, I just like shooting crap. A lot. Religion has nothing do to with it. I don’t “cling to guns” because I see it somehow on par with my religious belief. I cling to them because I like the feeling of cold steel against my face as I caress them alone in my basement, whispering sweet nothings into their chambers and lubing them up with gun oil like some kind of perverted masseuse who can’t keep his hands off ‘em.

Or not.

I see people who are products of our gundamentalist culture, people who drape the cross with a flag, people who believe the Second Amendment should be one of the Ten Commandments, people who seem to have more trust in guns than in God.

I think that completely misses the mark of this article. Are anti-folk really this stupid? The people at that church strike me as people who worship God, and love their guns.

I, however, trust guns more than God because if some thug makes the most unfortunate decision to break into my house with the intent to murder or rape some member of my family, sitting there and praying isn’t going to do a damn thing. Shooting the bastard will, and it would be up to me to do it, not God.