As promised, two recently added vintage books…
Archive for the ‘Guns’ Category
Yet another batch of hoplobibilophilia.
Friday, November 18th, 2022A fresh, steaming batch of hoplobibilophilia.
Friday, November 4th, 2022I’m still a little behind documenting recent acquisitions, but I should be caught up in a week or two. Just in time for a new batch.
I thought I’d document some books I bought new. Not ABE purchases: those will be the next post.
After the jump…
Very brief update.
Thursday, November 3rd, 2022Brief random gun crankery.
Thursday, November 3rd, 2022If I had a million dollars…
…I’d put in a bid on this. It does push two of my hot buttons:
- Smith and Wessons.
- Theodore Roosevelt.
But that might not be enough: the estimate is $800,000 – $1,400,000. That’s a lot of money, but still less than a vintage warbird or car. And it would be cheaper to maintain…
(I don’t know if you can get factory loaded .38 Long Colt ammo. Starline does offer brass, so you could load your own, but they currently list it as “backordered”.)
I think I actually saw this gun earlier this year, but I did not handle it. Nor did I ask to. Further, deponent sayeth not.
You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! (#98 in a series)
Wednesday, November 2nd, 2022Good news, everyone!
Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith resigned Monday morning.
You may remember that former Sheriff Smith was indicted by a civil grand jury last December on corruption charges. You may also remember that those corruption charges (mostly) involved her issuing concealed carry permits to large campaign contributors.
What you may not know (and I missed it too) is that the corruption trial is going on right now, and the jury is actively deliberating whether she should be removed from office. Obviously, the fact that she’s resigned sort of takes the air out of the jury deliberations.
Which seemed to be part of her evil plan:
Except it didn’t work:
…
…
Markoff and Ruby also sparred over the collateral consequences of not allowing a verdict to be reached. Fineman and Markoff mentioned pension implications and eligibility to hold office in the future.
That touched on another ambiguity by the hybrid standing of the trial. A 2013 law penalizes a public official’s pension benefits if they are found guilty of a felony corruption crime, and bars them from holding public office again. Both Fineman and Markoff discussed how the law might apply because some of the current trial counts allege criminal elements.
…
A guilty verdict on any of the counts would prompt the court to expel Smith from office two months before her previously planned retirement, at the end of her sixth term in January. Her resignation undercut the trial, now in its final stages, by effectively removing its stakes and throwing into question whether the jury should be allowed to reach a verdict.
Both legal observers and Smith’s critics suspected that was a strategic move for her legacy, since an aborted trial means she can’t be formally cast in the public record as a corrupt public official thrown out of office for wrongdoing.
It isn’t clear to me: if she resigns and then is found not guilty, can she run again for the same office in the next election? If she is found guilty, is she barred from running for that office again? For any office in California?
As noted above, there’s not a lot of precedent for this. It does seem, based on the article quoted above, that it is very likely she will be found guilty of at least one charge:
(Hattip: Mike the Musicologist.)
More gun books!
Monday, October 24th, 2022Another batch of books is icumen in, so time for some more documentation. I’m happy about this first one, as it fills a much needed void in my collection.
Smith and Wesson Hand Guns, Roy C. McHenry and Walter F. Roper. Standard Publications, 1945. As far as I can tell, this is a first printing. Riling 2527.
This was the first book that attempted to comprehensively cover S&W history (up through about 1944), and remains an important work for collectors.
I can’t find a flaw in this. I’d call it “fine”. Bought for just under $60 from a eBay vendor.
My Ropers, let me show them to you:
These are all (as far as I can tell) firsts of all three books Walter Roper wrote or co-wrote. They’re not quite three of a perfect pair, as the Experiments has a bit of wear. But I’ve still never found another first in the wild in a better state.
(Previously on Pistol and Revolver Shooting. Previously on Experiments of a Handgunner.)
After the jump, another small curiosity…
Hoplobibliophilia, finishing the catch-up (for now).
Friday, October 7th, 2022What was that some jerk said about “you know you have a problem when you start buying bibliographies“?
About that…
Gun book post tomorrow.
Thursday, October 6th, 2022Just ran out of time today to get it up. I’m sure some of my readers will be happy I’m skipping a day, but I have a really nice one I want to document…
Pop culture programming note.
Thursday, October 6th, 2022I usually don’t do this, but I’m making an exception today. I know that there are some readers of this blog (including one prominent blogger) who are “Perry Mason” fans.
Tomorrow morning’s re-run on MeTV is “The Case of the Prudent Prosecutor“, which is my personal favorite from the run.
Why?
- The episode is set at a hunting and fishing club. “Perry Mason” is pretty good about guns in general (for reasons) and it is nice to see gun usage (not just hunting, but defensive carry) treated as perfectly normal and reasonable.
- The plot of the episode boils down to: a friend of Hamilton Burger is charged with murder, and Burger asks Perry to defend him. Which is a twist…
- …but it’s a good twist. This is one of the episodes that attempts to humanize Hamilton, and more or less succeeds. There’s a nice scene between Hamilton and Perry, where Hamilton explains why the accused is so important to him. It’s a good character moment: I wish the writers had been a little more consistent about Burger through the rest of the series.
If you happen to be in a position to watch this episode, and haven’t, I encourage you to do so.
And yet another dose of hoplobibliophilia.
Tuesday, October 4th, 2022A while back, great and good FotB (and official trainer to WCD) Karl Rehn introduced me to the work of the Snub Gun Study Group. From there, I learned about Stephen A. Camp.
Random acts of hoplobibliophilia.
Sunday, October 2nd, 2022I did manage to make it to the post office yesterday, and picked up some packages that had been waiting for me. All of which contained gun books.
So, continuing our ongoing epic…
Hoplobibliophilia, act 3.
Friday, September 30th, 2022When Mike the Musicologist and I were running around over the weekend, we swung by the Half-Price Books in Cedar Park. And I found a couple of interesting things for $7.99 (plus tax) each…