The Great Crusade

Thanks to all the Veterans on Day D

There was ammo on these shelves

There was ammo on these shelves
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By Drew Zahn
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

Reports from across the country confirm that gun owners seeking to stock up on ammunition are facing the same list of problems: shortages, back orders, elevated prices and a long line of people staring at empty shelves where boxes of bullets used to be.

"Just about everywhere I've been, it's sold out," Darren Lauzon told KMGH-TV in Denver after he failed to find ammunition for his new .45 pistol. "Wal-Mart, Sportsman's, wherever."

"Folks have been experiencing shortages all over the country," a spokesman for the National Rifle Association told the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat in California. "Since the election there has been a great increase in firearms sales as well. Background checks are up, enrollment in training and safety classes is up, concealed weapons permits are up, gun sales are up – and ammo manufacturers can't keep up with demand."

Gun shops and retailers agree: the press for ammunition is emptying their shelves quicker than the manufacturers can restock them.

"We're probably selling ammunition right now at a 200 percent increase over normal sales," said Richard Taylor, manager at the Firing Line in Aurora, Colo.

"We've probably got over 4,000 cases of ammunition on back order currently. But we just don't know when we're going to receive that," Taylor told KMGH. "Y2K was just like a little blip on the radar screen compared to this. I mean, it's just phenomenal."

A Wal-Mart salesman told Ross Kaminsky of Human Events, "We used to get shipments almost every day. Now we only know we'll have it when we see it. I get at least a half-dozen calls a day asking for ammunition, especially for handguns, and when it arrives, the customers buy everything."

The shortages are creating multiple complications for both gun owners and sellers.

KSNW-TV in Wichita reports the cost of ammunition in many Kansas stores has risen between $5 to $15 more per box over the last six months, and even still, many retailers are limiting the amount of ammunition customers can buy.

"It is a bad problem," Bill Vinduska with Bullseye Firearms told the station, "because we really would rather be able to supply our customers their needs; and not being able to do that is really a problem."

"When you're turning down two or three thousand, four thousand dollars a day in sales because you just can't get the product, that's significant," said Burnie Stokes from Panhandle Gunslingers to KFDA-TV in Amarillo, Texas.

Jere Jordan, general manager Midsouth Shooters Supply in Clarksville, Tenn., a company that specializes in mail-order sales of ammunition and reloading supplies, told the Associated Press that his company has sold out of ammunition commonly used in semiautomatic pistols and popular military rifles.

And even though Midsouth is taking orders for supplies used by hobbyists to handload cartridges, Jordan has no idea when they'll be filled.

"The wait? We're not even guessing on the wait anymore," Jordan said. "It's exceeding 60 days."

Who's to blame for shortages?

According to Lawrence Keane, senior vice president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade organization representing both manufacturers and retailers, the shortages pinching store owners aren't the fault of their suppliers.

"We have heard from all across the country that there is a tremendous shortage of ammunition," Keane told the AP. "We've heard this from the manufacturers, that their customers are calling them trying to get supplies for inventory, and that the manufacturers are going full-bore, pardon the pun."

The shortages, for the most part, stem from a widespread surge in customer demand for ammunition, a surge many link to the election of Barack Obama and the belief, perpetuated in part by the National Rifle Association, that the new president favors limiting the right to bear arms codified in the Second Amendment.

"Sen. Obama's statements and support for restricting access to firearms, raising taxes on guns and ammunition and voting against the use of firearms for self-defense in the home are a matter of public record," declares Chris W. Cox, chairman of the NRA's Political Victory Fund. "Barack Obama would be the most anti-gun president in our nation's history."

"After the election," Midsouth's Jordan told the AP, "where you have a change of parties to a more liberal side, I would say I guess the conservatives want to protect what they feel might be taken away from them, either through a tax, or an all-out ban."

"Everybody's just worried about the new government coming in and trying to ban guns and make everything more difficult to obtain," NRA member Kevin Bishop told KMGH. "Well, the way [Obama] has been acting, there may be a little truth to the rumor."

Rich Wyatt, owner of a firearms shop and training facility outside of Denver, told Human Events' Kaminsky that even "old ladies and young people and liberals" have been buying ammunition from him.

Wyatt's position seems to be that the new president sparked the ammunition buying frenzy with careless words from the campaign trail, such as when he said small town folks in Pennsylvania "cling to guns or religion" during hard economic times.

"Barack Obama is right about one thing," Wyatt said. "We are clinging to God and our guns, and I defy him to try to take either one from us."

Why some officials get elected in West Virginia

Bob Hope learns why some officials get elected in West Virginia despite their voting records.

The Rattle Snake as a Symbol of Liberty

The rattlesnake was the favorite animal emblem of the Americans even before the Revolution. In 1751 Benjamin Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette carried a bitter article protesting the British practice of sending convicts to America. The author suggested that the colonists return the favor by shipping "a cargo of rattlesnakes, which could be distributed in St. James Park, Spring Garden, and other places of pleasure, and particularly in the nobleman's gardens." Three years later the same paper printed the picture of a snake as a commentary on the Albany Congress. To remind the delegates of the danger of disunity, the serpent was shown cut to pieces. Each segment is marked with the name of a colony, and the motto "Join or Die" below. Other newspapers took up the snake theme.

By 1774 the segments of the snake had grown together, and the motto had been changed to read: "United Now Alive and Free Firm on this Basis Liberty Shall Stand and Thus Supported Ever Bless Our Land Till Time Becomes Eternity"

Other authors felt the rattlesnake was a good example of America's virtues. They argued that it is unique to America; individually its rattles produce no sound, but united they can be heard by all; and while it does not attack unless provoked, it is deadly to step upon one.

The Gadsden Flag: The American Revolutionary period was a time of intense but controlled individualism - when self-directing responsible individuals again and again decided for themselves what they should do, and did it- without needing anyone else to give them an assignment or supervise them in carrying it out.

Such a person was the patriot Colonel Christopher Gadsden of South Carolina. He had seen and liked a bright yellow banner with a hissing, coiled rattlesnake rising up in the center, and beneath the serpent the same words that appeared on the Striped Rattlesnake Flag - Don't Tread On Me. Colonel Gadsden made a copy of this flag and submitted the design to the Provincial Congress in South Carolina. Commodore Esek Hopkins, commander of the new Continental fleet, carried a similar flag in February, 1776, when his ships put to sea for the first time.

Hopkins captured large stores of British cannon and military supplies in the Bahamas. His cruise marked the salt-water baptism of the American Navy, and it saw the first landing of the Corps of Marines, on whose drums the Gadsden symbol was painted.

The 1st Navy Jack: One of the first flags flown by our Navy may have been an adaptation of the "Rebellious Stripes" created at the time of the Stamp Act Congress. It featured thirteen red and white stripes. Stretched across them was the rippling form of a rattlesnake, and the words, "DON'T TREAD ON ME"- a striking indication of the colonists' courage and fierce desire for independence.

The flag we know today as the first Navy Jack (sometimes known as the "Culpepper Flag") is believed to have flown aboard the Alfred, flagship of the newly commissioned Continental fleet, in January, 1776. American ships used this flag, or one of its variations, throughout the Revolutionary War. This powerful American symbol was used by the Continental Navy in 1776 and is being used again by the U.S. Navy in the War on Terrorism.

Courtesy USflag.org

A great friend to the WVGOP moves on

Many of you may not personally know Gary Abernathy, but he is good friend.

Gary has always worked hard for the Republican Party and his Republican Gazette has pushed many stories the left would rather have not come to light. Gary also helped many Republican candidates even when they could not afford his services. Gary is a great Republican and a great friend and he will be missed in West Virginia. I wish all the luck on his new adventure whatever that may be.

The Slow Death of Old Journalism

I spent Memorial Day weekend in Atlanta and saw something shocking.

One of the great urban newspapers of the nation, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution had completely transformed itself. The once stately masthead with respectable headline font had now degraded into lowercase Times New Roman. Its size had shrunk into weekend same guide territory. This newspaper, once one of the premier dailies of the South, now looked much less respectable than our local and regional papers. It carried about as much news, too.

There is something to be said about a newspaper's audience and market. The New York Times and Washington Post struggle while the Washington Times and Wall Street Journal have avoided some of the same problems. It seems that conservatives tend to like actually holding a newspaper in their hand, turning the pages to read the news, in larger numbers than liberals. Our nation's capital actually supports two conservative dailies ( the Washington Examiner also seems to be doing well.)

The problems associated with newspapers lie in the fact that they continue to rely heavily upon their reporting of current events. By the time a major city newspaper has published and delivered, most people have either seen the news on television or read about it on the internet. Small town papers have always operated on tight budgets, but will probably survive because who else will report on doings in Cumberland, Moorefield, or Keyser? Who else will publish the picture of the Kelley and Church Award winners so that their parents can buy fifty copies apiece? The Mineral Daily News Tribune has a much more encouraging future than the Boston Globe.

Big city papers need to redefine their niche by focusing more in depth. The internet and TV will never be able to give its audience the kind of information and detail that print journalism offers. In the 1980s many papers moved away from such stories towards flashy colors and more concise writing to mimic the success of USA Today. Papers following this model give precisely the same quality journalism as the internet, but much more slowly. Also the hysterical liberalism adopted by many editorial boards seems to only sell in Charleston, West Virginia. Try moderating to the level of the market.

It's time for print journalism to remember that they are capitalists and act accordingly. It would be a real shame to see some of these old publications die off.

Home Owners Association goes overboard

Real Americans Thank and Honor Our Veterans

Last Friday I got the opportunity to see a ceremony that few people ever take the chance to see, a United States Army Ranger graduation.

My wife's cousin took his place as a Ranger last Friday and we couldn't be more proud. The stories he told about his training and school were probably just the tip of the iceberg. These guys experience pain, deprivation, and extremes that few of us could ever imagine. They do it to test themselves and out of love of their country. Praising them only makes many of them feel a little awkward. They see it as their job. Regardless, I am glad I got the chance to tell him how proud we all are of him.

We Americans never can thank these people often enough. Our cousin is one of the Army's newest Rangers and his wife serves in the 82nd Airborne. At some point he will serve as the tip of the spear, probably in Afghanistan. Only more danger and stress awaits. He won't get rich, but he will serve his country and know that he earned the right to be considered among the best of the best.

Last Monday the country took a day off. In our new era of warfare the enemy may fight the tip of the spear, but they also target the shaft, the hand that throws it, and even its place of manufacture. All of our veterans, living and past, deserve a prayer and a thank you, not just twice a year but every time they come to mind.

Last Monday I also remembered two veterans who passed. One grandfather served in New Guinea in the Army Air Force. The other served in the oft bloodied 36th Division that saw some of the toughest fighting in Europe. I never met him. All I have of him is a cigar box full of captured photographs and an old knife. I thought of a good friend of our family who landed at Normandy and has told a lot of colorful tales of fighting across Europe. You can often tell the guys who saw the worst; their stories are always humorous, never bloody. I remembered my stepfather who served in Vietnam.

Thank God for our veterans living and dead. Thank God for the sacrifices they made and continue to make every day. And thank the veterans. If you see one in uniform and you for whatever reason do not thank him or her personally, say a little prayer for the serviceman and the family that love him.

Carbine Williams

Oh the magic of TiVo.

A month ago I recorded on TMC an obscure film called Carbine Williams. This movie, said Robert Osborne, did not appeal to moviegoers but may have been Jimmy Stewart's best performance. It tells the story of David Marshall "Marsh" Williams of North Carolina. Williams was an impatient young man with an aptitude for machinery. Unfortunately he put that talent to work building stills during Prohibition. During a federal raid a firefight broke out, an agent was killed, and the court sentenced Williams to thirty years in state prison.

While in prison, Williams bucked the system and earned a trip to the chain gang. After serving out his punishment he went to a prison farm where he started working in the machine shop. While there, he secretly constructed a new kind of gun. When the warden discovered the weapon, he was so amazed at the advances made that he approved of a demonstration. Present was a representative of Winchester. Because it worked, Williams earned a pardon and a job with that firm. The gun's reduced weight and superior firing capability made it the "grandfather" of the M1 used by soldiers in World War II.

The hero of the film was a gun maker, described as a "rugged individualist." His hard work and persistence paid off for him and also helped our soldiers better combat our most dangerous enemies.

This kind of movie is why I would much rather watch TMC than pay to see a recently made film. American values dominate this movie, values that left leaning liberals would rather we forget.

Blast from the Past: Sufferin' Till Suffrage