Dave’s Ramblings

Forwarded from WCCA email:

Dear fellow gun owner:

This year’s fight for concealed carry will be every bit as tough as last
year’s. But it’s still winnable.

What would help enormously is if we could raise funds to advertise in newspapers in targeted legislative districts around the state.

To that end, Tim Morton and the Wolf River Artisans’ Guild have generously donated their time and efforts to craft a beautiful package of two custom handguns, a custom knife, custom holsters and a custom presentation case.

You can win this package, and help in our efforts to sway the opinions of citizens in key legislative districts, by entering the raffle being run by the Wolf River Artisans’ Guild.

The Wolf River Artisans’ Guild, just like the Wisconsin Concealed Carry Association, is all-volunteer and non-profit. All profits from the raffle will go toward helping pass the Personal Protection Act.

In-progress photos of the raffle prizes are being updated on the Wolf River Artisans’ Guild site at each step of the process. The link to their website is below, as is a description by Tim Morton of the package.

We’ve all been frustrated by newspaper editorials that distort the facts about concealed carry. With your purchase of even one raffle ticket, we can fight the media on their own turf.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has already fired its opening shot in the concealed carry fight with the usual “blood in the streets” editorial. Isn’t it about time we started preparing ourselves to fire back?

Please consider the purchase of even just one ticket to help in this effort.
Also, please forward this email to every gun owner you know.

And good luck in the raffle!

Thanks,
The Wisconsin Concealed Carry Association

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Fantastic! Now you have an opportunity to help your Wisconsin Concealed Carry Association with a small donation and in the process have a chance to win one of the most wonderful packages you’ll ever see.

Wolf River Artisans’ Guild is putting together a concealed-carry packageespecially for the WCCA. If you open your wallets wide enough, the WCCA will be able to run newspaper ads in support of the Personal Protection Act. That would be terrific - and so is the package!

The package consists of two handguns, a tactical knife, three holsters, a belt and a presentation case for all.

The first handgun is a Springfield Armory “Champion” - a stainless steel .45 semi-auto pistol that is a 1911-A1 with a 4″ barrel. It has already been to the gunsmith for a complete tune-up and trigger brought to 4 lbs. pull. It’s now on its way to the engraver for a tasteful yet bodacious treatment. The
grips will be of silver and fully engraved. The holster will be Haugen’s “Enforcer” in Python.

The second handgun is a Ruger SP101 - a stainless steel compact handful of .357 magnum. It is presently at the engraver’s having a tasteful yet bodacious treatment. The grips are the standard recoil-absorbing rubber;
however, the inlays in the grips will be silver and fully engraved. The
holster will be Haugen’s “Defender” also in Python.

The tactical knife is a button-lock with safety release; AUS8 stainless that has been heat/cryo-treated; satin finished; 8″ overall, 4 1/2″ closed. The knife is being built at Merlin Blades and will then go to the engraver for
the finishing touches (you know… bodacious). Its holster will also be from Haugen and in Python.

All this will be housed in a presentation case in exotic wood with stainless fittings. The lid will lift to expose the handguns and knife in their own leather-lined depressions. The first drawer will house the leather goods,
and the bottom drawer will contain cleaning and polishing gear.

This is a single package and winner takes all. The drawing will be at the Wolf River facilities on Labor Day - Sept. 5, 2005. Tickets are a $20 donation each. Every bit of profit goes directly to the Wisconsin Concealed
Carry Association. All state and federal firearms laws must be adhered to. You need not be present to win. Total package value is $5,500.

All information about the package and ordering can be found on the Wolf River Artisans’ Guild website: http://www.WolfRiverGuild.org

Good luck, and support concealed carry!

Wisconsin residents support a plan to legalize wild cat hunting, according to voting results released Tuesday.

A total of 6,830 voted yes and 5,201 voted no, according to results released by the Department of Natural Resources.

Full Associated Press Article.

No way is this going to get through the state legislature and into law. Even being a WI resident and an avid hunter AND a cat owner, this is just plain stupid. I spoke with several people who voted and they all thought it was some sort of joke, granted they were very misinformed.

This is just another one of those distractions to get people’s attention away from other more serious issues, like how they are shoving more taxes and ‘user fees’ down your throat. Like hunting/fishing licenses are going to be raised $12 each! Now do you still want to hunt cats?

Being a staunch supporter of concealed carry (and supporting efforts to get it into law here in WI)

I just stumbled upon this little gem in Minnesota, looks like someone screwed up;

APPEALS COURT UPHOLDS RULING THAT CONCEAL AND CARRY LAW WAS UNCONSTITUTIONAL

On April 12, 2005, the Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld the District Court ruling that the 2003 Concealed Carry law was unconstitutional.

Last summer, Ramsey County Judge John Finley ruled that the conceal and carry gun permit law was unconstitutional because the process used to pass it violated the Minnesota State Constitution’s single subject rule.

The appellate court agreed that the handgun permit law was not germane to the DNR technical bill to which it was attached.

(read more)

Today are the spring elections for Wisconsin, I’d the biggest thing on the ballot is Wisconsin DPI Superintendent Candidates, Elizabeth (Libbey) Burmaster is presently holding the chair (won in 2001), she is being challenged by Gregg Underheim. I’ve listened to several interviews from both candidates on WPR over the last month.

Personally I think it’s time for a change, Underheim not only being a Republican but from listening to his views on moving more technology into the classrooms and leveraging the ability to bring the classrooms home to children in more rural areas giving the more gifted kids who don’t have access to the advanced classes and such that are available to those in the big cities is great. Being a very rural resident with a daughter who is extremely bright and talented, who will be beginning high school next year makes this an even bigger issue for us. Even given these projects and programs could be a couple of years from reality and may not directly benefit her, at least the groundwork will be laid for others.

Can you tell education is a big topic in our household? It’d sure be nice to have at least one of children be interested in attending some sort of higher education beyond the K-12.

There are a variety of other Referendums on the ballot as well, most for the Madison area school districts, so get out there and make your voice heard, do not let the teachers’ union, WEAC, and others make all the choices for you and your kids/grandkids, we can make a difference, one person at a time.

For more info on the ballot issues take look at this page for details.

Back during the all the hooplah on the television, radio, papers, bumper stickers, you name it and it had Bush or Kerry written on it. Now I have a hell of a commute to work each day (90ish miles one way) so that means a get a lot of windshield time, an actual benefit is that I do not have a cd/mp3 player in my truck yet, no real reason just haven’t gotten around to it yet, so instead I get a lot of listening done, 95% of it being WPR/NPR. With pretty good reason, content that really means stuff! One candidate from so obscure party or another, they try to give everyone on any ballot time to speak their piece, some are come off as total nut jobs, others as more liberal, or extremists, whatever, to the point, this fella actually had an idea that I still think should really be looked at, it really makes sense!

Fire the IRS, institute a reasonable National Sales Tax. Before you line me up for the funny farm, think about this. Figure out how much in Federal taxes you pay every year, either direct of from the withholdings the government is earning interest on for you each paycheck. Now instead of this large chunk missing from your paycheck each time, instead you pay it in smaller pieces on the durable goods you purchase, when you purchase them. Take a ballpark figure of 12%, yeah seems like a lot, but you have that extra cash in your wallet since Uncle Sam doesn’t have it yet.

A little math and you’d come up with a fair and equitable percentage that is real. Where would the benefit come in… first saves billions in running the IRS, a couple dozen computers would replace 90% of the ‘people’ and require a couple buildings. instant cost savings. Now take the drug dealers and those with large unreported incomes, and those flippin’ lawyers charging $200/hour but reporting losses every other year, do they buy stuff? You bet your ass they do, and lots of it too! Bear in mind this should only apply to ‘durable’ goods, not food items. This lifts the burden off those who earn less hence the spend a higher percentage on food then those soccer moms driving $30K SUV’s, or the dope dealer and his $80K Hummer he paid cash for.

If you’ve read through this whole thing and actually take a minute to think about it…. It would not only make sense, but it’d work too! Hell, it might even put a few bucks back into Social Security and stuff for me when I retire in 20 years.

Comments?