Ohio Concealed Carry

I've been meaning to get certified for concealed carry for quite a while now and finally got around to it this past weekend. My dad had mentioned an interest in the course and i invited him along as well. For anyone considering a ccw permit, I highly recommend George Smetana from www.ohiocitizensfirearmstraining.com. I was attracted to the class for two reasons. The most important was that it was the only one I could find that was only one day long. It was a long day, but I'm glad I didn't have to eat up an entire weekend. Reason number two was that the range qualification was done at Gray's Armory in Cleveland, which is a damn cool old building. I wish I had brought a camera. You know those pain in the ass electric target pulleys that most ranges have these days? Every other time I use one either it gets stuck, or the jackass beside me shooting buckshot at a target 10 feet away hits my cable and knocks it off of the track. Gray's has big manual cranks that are just about foolproof unless you shoot the rope holding them up. The building itself looks like a fortress on the outside and will probably be standing long after the buildings around it fall down. I'll have to double check on the exact numbers, but I thought it was $60 for a year membership to the range. Pretty hard to beat that.

One recommendation I would make to any potential attendees is to bring a gun that you are comfortable shooting. To qualify for the permit, you are not required to bring the pistol that you plan to use for carry. I have a kel-tec P3AT that makes an excellent pocket gun and is not a bad shooter at all, but because of it's small size you can really feel the recoil. After about 20 rounds my hand goes numb. We shot about 50 rounds for the class, which would have left me awful uncomfortable by the end. I'm very glad that I opted to bring my Springfield 1911 instead, which is a very comfortable handgun to shoot.

I'm far from an expert on what makes a good or bad ccw class (I've only been to one), but I have been around firearms since I was about 6 years old, so I'm no newbie on the matter. George handled the class very professionally and I saw none of the arrogance or showing off that is present in all too many instructional courses of this nature.

The State of Ohio deems that all students in the course must attend 10 hours of classroom instruction and 2 hours of range instruction. Personally, I think that a 6 and 6 split would be more appropriate after seeing the difficulty some of the students had hitting a person sized silhouette target from 20 feet. Don't blame George for that though, blame the goofball politicians that made the rules. I was very impressed to see our faithful instructor take a guy who started out not being able to hit the cardboard at all from about 15 feet (scary that he'll be allowed to walk around armed now) and teach him how to at least keep all of his shots on the target.

The classroom portion of the course included the things that I expected. The obligatory legal information such as how to transport a firearm and when deadly force is appropriate in the eyes of the law. George broke up the monotony well by using his experience to provide some more common sense advice. My personal favorite was the quote he gave us when we were discussing the ins and outs of choosing the right gun. He said that "It's better to shoot a bear in the eye with a .22 than it is to miss a gerbil with a .44 magnum."

The range instruction involved a few minutes of practice shots so that the instructors could decide which students needed some help and which ones were proficient enough to hit a target. After everyone was confident in themselves, we began qualifying for the certification. I have no idea what score one needs to pass the course, but anyone who's spent an hour or two practicing at the range should be able to pass. We shot six rounds at 5, 10, 15 and 20 feet. We were instructed to shoot the same way at each distance.

1) Line up with the target and fire one round and stay on target.

2) After a few seconds of staying on target, we were told to fire a second round and then lower to a relaxed position.

3) From the resting position, we were told to raise our weapons back on target and fire two shots after shouting "Stop, I have a gun!" at our menacing cardboard assailants.

4) For the last two shots we were told to line up with the target and a few seconds later told to fire.

I was having fun at 5 and 10 feet, doing my best to shoot all of the shots through the same hole, which worked out pretty well. Considering the size of the hole that a round of .45ACP makes, it was not quite impressive as my dad's groupings. He did a very good job of proving the "shoot the bear in the eye" theory to be true with his Ruger Mark III.

I don't know if it was the powder in the low dollar CCI ammo I was using or a lack of ventilation, but by the time we moved out to 15 feet my eyes were full of tears and I couldn't see much more than a white blob downrange. I thought about asking for a quick break, but by then we were into almost 11 hours of training and I just wanted to get done. A 2' X 3' target is still pretty darn big at 20 feet anyhow. I ended up with a pretty good group in the "center of mass" that we were told to aim for, with the exception of one or two fliers. If nothing else, it doesn't hurt to practice shooting under stress.

All in all it was a great class and a great day out. We both had a very good time. The big reason I was interested in the license was not so that I could go toting a gun to the grocery store, but because a recent legal change made it permissible to carry in a state park. When I'm tenting out or hiking with my wife, I often worry about other campers' dogs, rabid animals, crazy doped up hippies, etc. I know that open carry is legal in most places, but try to walk around in public with a gun on your hip and see how far you get before somebody calls the authorities. It's also nice that now when I go to the range, I can put my handgun and ammo all in the same case instead of having to lock the gun up in one place and the ammo in another and find a way to drive around with it in a jeep while staying legal.

Fighting the Good Fight

I absolutely loathe spammers. Given the chance, I would stomp on the balls of every single one of them, and then lock them in a room with the litterbug from my last post and let the two have at each other. I run a website on which I have placed a bot trap (thanks to www.kloth.net for the idea and the code). Whenever I snag a nasty spam robot trolling the site, the IP address gets logged and I lookup its whois info and complain to the network's owner.

I do the same thing with spam messages that repeat themselves over and over. I know it's a losing battle, but if everyone would do this, we could combat the problem effectively. Verizon is not only the company that owns most of the IP addresses, but also the most difficult to report abuse to. Because of the fact that today's offending IPs belong to Verizon, I've decided to handle things myself this time.

Recently, I've been visited by somebody using two similar addresses on a very regular basis. Let's see what we can find out about it. This time, I decided to take matters into my own hands. First I run Nmap against one of the IP addresses.

PORT STATE SERVICE
21/tcp open ftp
25/tcp open smtp
110/tcp open pop3
3389/tcp open ms-term-serv

If you try this at home, remember something. Logging on to someone else's computer isn't legal. They have port 3389 open for Terminal Services, but that does not mean that you should try to brute force their server. I did not log on to this system, just took a look at what ports were open to learn more about it. At this point I don't know for sure if they're actually running a spam bot or if they just have a robot that doesn't pay any attention to the robots.txt standard. Just from the information above, the machine looks like it could be a computer running Windows XP which has been hijacked by a trojan that provides the means for ftp, remote access and spam spewing. Not saying that's what it is, I'm just taking a guess. It could be a legitimate server as well.

Since I've been hit by two different IP addresses in succession, I started pumping several IPs in that range into iplookup.net to find domain name information. No dice there, so I started running Nmap on the same addresses. I'm looking for websites so that I can get a domain name in order to send an email to the site's administrator, so I only look on port 80. Lucky me, I found an open port 80 on the first try on an IP address that is one bit lower than the source of the original traffic.

zeb$>nmap -P0 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx -p 80

Starting nmap 3.81 ( http://www.insecure.org/nmap ) at 2006-10-25 13:38 Eastern
Daylight Time
Interesting ports on xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:
PORT STATE SERVICE
80/tcp open http

Nmap finished: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 0.328 seconds

(Note that I am x-ing out the ip address to be nice. It's not as though you couldn't ping the url below and get it yourself anyhow.)

To make sure that the addresses were related, I ran traceroute on both the original address and the one with port 80 open. The results were the same, so it's fairly safe to assume that they have the same owner.

Navigating to the scanned IP takes you to newstrove.com . Just for kicks, I googled for "newstrove" and found a wikipedia article on the site.

Here is the article Pre-Zeb: (Click to see it large enough to read the text)


And here it is Post-Zeb: (Same deal with the clicking)


As I said above, I don't know if they're harvesting email addresses, or just using a mal-formed web robot that disregards the standards for such things. Either way, they're being bad and I love freedom of speech. I will say that newstrove.com looks like it could be a useable news source. The sight runs a bit slow though. Maybe it's because they're trolling things on the web that they shouldn't be messing with.

Litterbug?

The fact that I think this guy is a crackpot notwithstanding, I absolutely HATE dirty litterbugs. I think it might be time to go get a job to pay for the potential fines of $500 for each of the 60 signs he claims to hang every day.

Your signs are dirtying up my highways, you dirty hippie.

Microsoft == Evil

http://www.hotubuntunews.com/blog_7.shtml

I keep telling you guys that Microsoft is bad.

What's wrong with using my legally purchased software on a different computer so long as I only do it on one machine at a time?

How silly of me to forget. Microsoft wouldn't be a monopoly if they didn't make you buy the same product over and over again necessarily.

Ever heard the saying "Buy it right or buy it twice?"

How to make your sysadmin shove a floppy disk down your throat.

Since it was so popular, here's another episode of "How to make your sysadmin..." (Click here for the last episode). This is basically a compilation of things that happen to me on a day to day basis. Some of them are recent, some are things that popped up in my head while I was putting this together. If you have any ideas, leave a comment and I'll see about including them in the next round.

1) Remember, you should always wait until 5 minutes before its time for the sysadmin to go home before calling him with a problem. Encourage your co-workers to do this as well. Your faithful techie loves to learn about problems right as he's getting ready to head out the door. This is especially true on those rare days when he gets to go home on time. It's a well known fact that sysadmins don't need to sleep and have no lives outside of work, so they love to stay late.

2) As those who know me are aware, I work for a facility that serves the public. We provide computers with word processors, web browsers, etc. With that being said, if you are the public user who is borrowing someone else's computer, make sure to ask at least 476 stupid questions. A few good examples are: "How do I download the internet?" or "My computer at home uses Microsoft Office 94 as it's operating system, but I lost my disk. Can I borrow yours?" or my favorite, "I saved my resume to this floppy disk thirteen years ago, but now I can't open it. Can you help me?" As an added bonus, make sure that when you visit said public facility, you smell like a combination of shit and old cigarettes.

3) On rare occasions, a sysadmin will give you administrative access to your computer. He does this because he trusts that you are a responsible user and won't cause problems. Make sure to prove him wrong by visiting www.dirtymoviesaboutoldmenandsheep.com and click on every flashing "free porn" banner.

4) (Idea by Ryan) We like it when you ask us important questions. Especially if the answer will prevent you from breaking something. We do not like to be asked the same question seven times every day by the same person. If you can't remember, write it down.

5) I'm very sorry that you dropped your jelly donut on your keyboard and then spilled your $8 Starbucks Mucho Crappo Latte all over it. I really am. That doesn't mean that I'm going to spend an afternoon cleaning it for you.

6) That fancy flat panel monitor that I just set up for you is not a piñiata. However, if you keep poking it with your pen as you show pictures of your baby goat to everyone, I might show you how to use it as a cluebat.

7) I am a Systems Administrator, trained and experienced in the management of servers, networking and client computers. I can read packet sniffer logs and write backup scripts. Unfortunately, I cannot remove your ex wife from last year's vacation pictures and replace her with a golden retriever. I'm afraid that it's just outside of the scope of my abilities and/or list of things that I am willing to do.

8) If you lose all of your work because your computer gives you a message like "The file "InstallFreeOnlinePoker.exe" contains a virus, the system will now shut down," make sure to tell me that "it just restarted out of nowhere." There's no chance that I'm going to read any log files. No chance at all.

9) No I will not show you how to get into your spouse's email. I don't care if you think he/she is cheating on you with a horse from Chicago.

10) I already told you that I will not fix your home computer. If you leave it in front of my door with a note on it, I will assume that it is a gift and sacrifice it to the concrete gods that live two floors below, just outside my window.

What side of the fence do you fall on?

http://www.olegvolk.net/gallery/

-or-

http://www.controlarms.org/teleshop/

I'd bet my next six months worth of paychecks that if somebody broke into your home in the middle of the night, you'd suddenly think that not owning a gun is silly.

Getting Soft on Children

I caught about half of a report on the radio the other day that mentioned some group or another that claimed calling children things like "naughty" is bad for them. Keep in mind here that I'm not a parent (yet), I'm just calling this as I see it.

Everyone keeps claiming that children are doing more and more violent and illegal things that "never used to happen." At the same time, we're telling people that an open handed spank on the bottom is bad and now you can't even verbally reprimand a misbehaving child. How are they to know that they're being bad if we don't tell them?

I used to work for a school district. I recall a time when one of the students was given one week of in school suspension for telling his principal to "F@%! off." Several members of the faculty and a some parents thought that this punishment was way too harsh. For those that don't know, in school suspension involves being stuck in one classroom all day with extra work from your teachers. Students are allowed to leave for lunch breaks and bathroom breaks and that's about it. It's not as though the kid is going to fail all of his classes for five days and from what I recall, he had a record of other naughtiness (yeah, I said it) in the school.

I saw another good example at work yesterday. Two parents were in with their child of somewhere between 2 and 4 years old. While the little boy obviously had a limited vocabulary, he knew (probably from his parents) that you say "SHIT!" when you drop something. The parents' response? "Don't say that, it's bad. Very bad." That's it. Who in the audience (over the age of 15) wouldn't have been drug out into the car and taken home to be spanked or at least put in the corner?

If I had done either of those things when I was younger, I'd have expected a lot more punishment than these kids got. From what I've seen, children today are being brought up to believe that there are no consequences to their actions. I remember telling a teacher to "shut up" once and it put the whole class into mouth gaping silence. Now when disrespect is directed at a teacher, the classroom laughs.

It only takes two things. Punish your kids when they misbehave and make sure that they know why what they're doing is wrong. That's not so hard, is it? Remember folks, a swat on the butt isn't going to kill anybody.

Necessary Reading

If you are an American and treasure your rights, you need to read this.

The Language Barrier

What's wrong with this picture from www.govote.org? (I'm aware that it's not a government organization, this is only an example.)
I've got no problem with people immigrating to this country. None at all. I only ask a few things.

1. Respect our laws.
2. Respect our culture.
3. Learn our language.

That doesn't sound too unreasonable does it? The topic of this post is #3. I wouldn't move to France and expect the entire country to accommodate me. (I wouldn't move there willingly anyway.) I did a quick search to see if I could find a figure for how much we spend in tax dollars doing things like hiring translators for schools, courtrooms and the like. I couldn't find anything reliable looking, but I'm sure that the numbers are far higher than we, the taxpayers want them to be.

It's not just an issue of tax dollars. How is a person who can't fill out a form using simple terminology like "Name," "Address," and "Phone Number" going to be able to vote responsibly? It would be pretty tough to follow the issues if you can't understand what they're about. What about street signs? I haven't seen any translated yet, but things like that will be the next step.

I don't care how great our technology is at the moment, we can't communicate with each other effectively as a country if we don't speak the same language, that's all there is to it. Forcing an entire population to adapt to a small group of people is like walking into a fancy restaurant in your birthday suit and then making all of the other patrons disrobe because you feel overdressed.

Good Times

Last weekend, Mark, Ryan and a few other pals who have no URLs to link to, spent an afternoon at the a local gun show and then spent some time on the range, aka "Jeff's yard." (Major props to Jeff for letting us shoot the snot out of the hill behind his house.)

I picked up a beautiful Marlin 39A circa 1954 from an older fellow who was selling his collection because he didn't need it/use it anymore. Looking back on it, I wish I would've gotten his name so that I could let him know what a good time I've had with the gun so far. I could tell from his expression that he had a hard time parting with this fine rifle. On the off chance that you read this, sir, I promise that it is in good hands.

I have the one change to the gun that I am likely to ever make, and that was simply replacing the rear buckhorn sight with a Marble's rear sight that I can see a bit better. I will never make any kind of permanent alteration to this gun that will prevent it from being brought back to its original condition. My first time out with the gun I couldn't a darn thing, but after adding the sight, I can pretty reliably hit a 3" target at 100 feet. Did I mention that this is a 60 year old rifle of a design that's been hardly changed for 100 or so years?

To keep up with the overall tone of this blog, it's necessary to throw in a few other thoughts. Advocates for gun control should read this next bit carefully. This rifle is a piece of history. It is an heirloom that will be passed down through my family. I spent yesterday at a range near my parents' home plinking with my dad and a few guns. My "new" rifle now has two first memories associated with it. One of a day spent with friends and another spent with family. Those out there who believe that guns are nothing but tools for criminals are missing the boat for sure.

Cowardice

The recent spree of school shootings has gotten the entire country in an uproar. Blame is being thrown in every direction. Guns are always a target of blame, as are violent television and video games.

Why is it that the criminals themselves are never at placed at fault? We hear things like "They watched The Matrix too many times," or "He was molested as a child." Why doesn't anyone ever say "He was a coward who couldn't control his anger and didn't have the guts to take it out on anyone more threatening than a group of school girls?" I don't care if they were wronged sometime earlier in life. Killing innocents to make your point against someone else is a spineless peice of scum's way out.

Those commiting this crime deserve to die. Period. It is a shame that they took their own lives, I would rather see them put in prison to have a much more fitting end than that which a bullet can provide.

Comedic Truth #2

I try to keep from choosing sides, but the average democrat is so easy to rag on.