It Was A Trip Back In Time

Last night the wife and I went out for an impromptu date night that turned out to be like we were dating 42 years ago. We got a later start than I hoped for because I needed to go on shift at midnight, but it all worked out. We started with dinner at a Mexican restaurant we had not been to in years called Coyote Flaco. We used to just walk in and get a table. Not any more. Even with the shitty weather last night, the lot was full and we would have had to wait a half hour for a table. Since it was just the two of us we opted to sit at the bar since they would serve us food there. My wife had a house margarita and I had non-alcoholic lemonade. I thought the food was mediocre because it was prepared plates heated in a convection oven, not fresh made. How do I know? When the plates come out screaming hot and the server warns you not to touch them, that's how. Then there's the consistency of the food which is more like re-heated leftovers than a fresh meal. Hey, as long as it doesn't make me ill I'm OK with it. How many people do you know that willingly eats an MRE after all? So, at a bar with my honey? Retro item number one.

The main event of the evening was to go bowling. But not our normal Ten-Pin.... we were going to bowl Duck Pins at the nearby Lucky Strike Lanes. Duck Pin is totally different and way more difficult then Ten-Pin using smaller balls, shorter smaller pins, different pin action, and each frame allows the bowler up to 3 balls to knock down all the pins. Unlike Candle Pin, you cannot use the deadwood (pins knocked over but lying in the pin area), you must press a foot pedal between each ball to clear fallen pins. All ten on the first ball is a STRIKE and to score the frame you add the pin falls for the next two balls. Knock all ten down in two throws is a SPARE and just the next ball's pin count is added. If a bowler throws all three balls the total pin count of the three balls goes in the frame total for a maximum of 10. When a bowler finishes, they press the "RESET" button to clear the deadwood and bring down a fresh rack of pins for the next bowler.

The amazing thing about this place is the look and decor. We had a nice chat with the owner, who told us it was built in 1967, it has always been privately (not corporate) owned and has never been renovated. It looks exactly the way bowling alleys looked when me and The Missus were dating. The carpeting, wood paneling, retro arcade machines, snack bar, etc. I wish I had taken some photos of my own, these are stock photos from the interwebby and doesn't show how retro this place is. It is not by any means run down or worn out, it is incredibly cool! The machinery was all in perfect working order. We kept score with paper and pencil!

 

 

As I wrote above, my wife and I were always Ten-Pin bowlers; open bowling for fun, bowling together on mixed leagues and separately as subs on men's and women's leagues. The problem is burned in muscle memory of throwing 12 to 16 pound balls for many years. That made the difficult game even harder. Neither of us broke 90 after bowling 2 games. But we were told that is not unusual at all. No one has ever... in the entire history of Duck Pin bowling, bowled a perfect 300 game. The highest recorded score ever is a 279. A 300 would be the equivalent of someone shooting a 18 for an 18 hole round of golf, its that difficult. The pins reaction (or lack thereof) is strange to us. It takes not much variation in how you held the ball or rolled it to have it go where you didn't want. I found I did better with a short approach and rolled the ball more with my arm than my body. In Ten-Pin I use a long stride 3 step approach ending with a slide to the foul line and hook my 16 pound ball depending on the amount of oil on the lane. This all felt totally alien to me, even though it wasn't my first time bowling Duck Pin. The owner said we could probably bowl better NOT coming on Saturday night between 7 and 10 PM like we did with the kids, distracting loud music, and light show. I think we are going to do this more often in the future to try and get better at it.

I Could Not Just Let This Go Unanswered

From my Twitter timeline until the Newtown Hoplophobes block or report me, but it will live here forever. Up first, the original post:

I despise the whole premise of phony gun "buy backs" and in some states, guys will set up right across the street from the buy back with tables and large signs offering cash for guns. They may be dealers or just private citizens. In Kommiecticut, they would definitely find a reason to arrest you for trying that even if you were a FFL dealer. So I decided to act virtually on Twitter with this response:

 

If you look at the responses to the original tweet, every single one is negative and many are downright vicious. Tough shit to them. They are nothing but a political machine that only has one purpose, infringing on The Second Amendment rights of peaceable citizens. Nothing they ever propose will ever have any effect on the criminal use of firearms. NOTHING!!

Most of the guns they receive at these fake buy backs get are from people that end up with them from an estate and they don't want them. But in a lot of cases they have no idea what they have. I have two handguns that came to me indirectly by this route that I paid $200 for both. One is a 1958 vintage Colt Woodsman, the other is a verified 1935 Smith and Wesson K-22 Outdoorsman. Together they are worth about $2500. I did not know at the time just thinking they were just shooters, in fact I do shoot them. If you have ever seen the photo-ops from these buy back events and the firearms they receive, you will pick out some pretty rare and valuable firearms that will either be destroyed or end up in some cop's personal collection.

But, But, The Infringements Will Save Lives!

Turns out, not so much.

CT Teen Shoots Himself With Unsecured Gun

I omitted the  word "accidentally" because modern firearms never just go off by themselves. They need to be loaded, cocked, and have the trigger pulled by a person. This negligent discharge took place as the safe storage laws in Kommiecticut known as Ethan's Law (so named for another uneducated teen that blew his head off with his friend's father's gun) were expanded and the new provisions took effect on October 1st.

I have said over and over; the ONLY WAY these laws could possibly work as intended, is for LEO to constantly violate 2nd, 4th, and 5th Amendment Rights by showing up at your door (hourly I guess?) to verify your firearms are properly secured. Otherwise, a firearms owner gets charged AFTER another uneducated and unauthorized user blows their brains out with their gun. But the dopey kid is still just another Darwin Award winner.

They can pass all the laws they want, I will continue to NEVER COMPLY. At night, my firearm and a spare mag are lying out in the open on my night table a foot from my head at the ready. In the morning it is unloaded and secured in the safe, and replaced with one of my EDC pistols on my person.

I am 100% positive that anyone using a firearm for self-defense going forward in Kommiecticut will be charged with these new "safe storage" laws, because the bad guy wouldn't be at room temperature if the gun storage law was obeyed.

This Will Be My Grand Exit

"X" (Twitter) is about to begin charging all accounts a fee to maintain a presence, supposedly to try and eliminate bots. Just like with anything not absolutely necessary in my life, if it ain't free, it ain't for me. Therefore, this tweet oughta be the one to get me permanently banned and I will just walk away on a high note with the tweet forever in my timeline.

Kommiecticut Pistol Permit Renewal - 2023

For many years, Kommiecticut's state legislature has been in control of the Demon-Craps, and the governor's office has swung back and forth between RINOs and Demon-Craps. It has been in Demon-Crap hands since 2011. It is a well known fact that the peaceable (I do not say *lawful, see note below) gun owners of this state are looked upon as political enemies by state government. How dare you own firearms? How dare you hold a permit? And good God Almighty.... HOW DARE YOU ENGAGE IN ARMED SELF-DEFENSE!? Don't you know children (depending on which statistics you look at, up to age 26) die from such abhorrent things?

I obtained my original pistol permit one month after my 21st birthday in 1983. I received my 9th pistol permit renewal paperwork via USPS in late June, with my permit to expire 9-15-23. Permits are issued for five years at $70. Supposedly taking 6-8 weeks to process. OK plenty of time before expiration.

My US Passport was expiring in December 2023. I rushed to do the renewal because of news reports of huge delays from the US State Department. 13 weeks for renewals, up to 4 months for a new application. I did not want to get jammed up without a current passport. I got two 2" x 2" passport photos from AAA for $9 and change. I completed all my paperwork for both renewals and mailed the permit certified and the passport priority mail on Thursday July 6th. Both were received at their respective destinations on Saturday July 8th.

Amazingly, I received my new passport at the end of July or early August. Shortly after that I received my deactivated old passport in a separate mailing. Nothing from Kommiecticut about my permit.

In the middle of week 8, my check had not yet been cashed, so I tried calling the DESPP (Department of Environmental Services & Public Protection) number provided on the form for questions or status. It plays a useless recorded announcement and dumps your call. Great. Next I contacted Jonathan Hardy via email from the CT Citizens Defense League about what to do. He is a leading civilian expert on Kommiecticut pistol permit issues. He reminded me of the 90 day "grace period" upon expiration and advised me to just sit and wait. The problem is, during the 90 day "grace period" you can still carry a firearm as normal, but due to state infringements post Sandy Hook, you cannot buy firearms or ammunition. Also, if you go past the 90 days you have to start the process all over again for a new permit, including the pistol safety course. You basically just send your renewal into a black hole and hope for the best. I formulated a plan for a lawsuit, but I would need standing to file. First thing I did was sign up for a Life Membership with The Second Amendment Foundation. They were going to be my go to for filing a lawsuit on my behalf for having my Constitutional Rights actually infringed upon, so I figured I should become a member first. Since I am slowly ditching the NRA, I wanted to do this anyway. Next, once my permit expired on the 15th, I was going to go to a firearms retailer and attempt to purchase a firearm, and once denied at the counter, would have my standing to sue having my Second Amendment Rights burdened and infringed. On September 11th I called a state trooper buddy of mine to see if he could find anything out for me. He got back to me a few minutes later and told me the SLFU (Special Licensing Firearms Unit) was getting slammed with 1500 mail-in renewals per day and that they are processing them in the order they were received. On that day, they were only up to July 13th. According to the USPS, mine was received on the 8th, yet my check was still not processed for payment. The 15th came and went with no permit. I had things to do the weekend of the 16th and 17th, so spending time at a gun shop was not in the cards, and I had to work Monday the 18th, so I had another idea.

I do not normally like pulling strings and asking favors especially from politicians. I did it one time before but only because my livelihood was on the line. That time, the state Department of Public Health had totally screwed up my EMT license renewal by no fault of mine. I was getting nowhere on my own and the expiration date was dangerously close, potentially putting me off the job. I contacted my state senator whom I knew personally to look into it for me. Holy shit! He went right to the top, contacting the state Commissioner of Public Health, who then immediately contacted me. I had my new EMT license in less than 24 hours after getting jerked around for months! That state senator has since retired, so this time I contacted my current state representative whom I also know personally. He is a Democrat... BUT, he knows who his constituents are and is a gun guy who does not tow the party line on gun laws. I emailed him at 11:19 on Monday the 18th and had a response by 12:46. I now had an official answer from a guy at the SLFU stating that my permit had been processed on September 14th and I should have it soon by mail. He said if I do not have it by the end of this week, to let him know directly. I immediately replied to all thanking them for the quick response, and that I would continue to wait for my permit. As of this morning, my check for $70 has been processed by my credit union and according to the USPS Informed Delivery, it should be in my mailbox this afternoon. If not for the responsiveness of those I contacted, I would have gone through with my planned lawsuit activities. I will let all involved know once I have my permit in hand and thank them once again for their assistance.

UPDATE 15:10 on 9-21-23: My new permit did indeed arrive in the mail about 10 minutes ago. As soon as this post goes live, I will be emailing my state representative, his administrative assistant, the guy at DESPP, and my state trooper buddy (on BCC) to let them know I received it and to thank them all once again.

*Lawful = Many of the formerly law abiding gun owners of Kommiecticut have been steadily turned into paper felons by the stroke of a pen since 1994, by simply refusing to comply with unconstitutional/intolerable acts making what was once perfectly legal into a crime. I have been proudly non-compliant since the state enacted its original "assault weapons" ban in 1994 all the way up to present day and everything in between. I refer to us as Peaceable Gun Owners, because we refuse to comply with Commie diktats but are not violent criminals. At least, until the state ever feels froggy enough to try armed confiscation, in which case they will turn our firearms into their fabled "weapons of war," and that will be all on them.