Friday, April 5, 2013

Better SAFE Than Sorry?

What is it they say - "better safe than sorry"? I guess in some respects that is true so long as it does not say better SAFE than sorry, meaning safe as in the NY SAFE Act. All, I think, that the NY SAFE Act accomplishes is to make law abiding gun owners less safe than they had been, before it became law, and thus it gives false hope to the blissfully ignorant who support the act.

Being on the safe side though, and staying there, is where I prefer to be within the limitation of my principles. I do not intend to willingly give up liberty, at least not without an effort to retain it, for the false hopes of safety and security offered by the Nanny State. Nor do I ever intend to be brainwashed into believing that the state, by taking away or restricting my liberty to bear arms, will keep me safe under the guise of things like the NY SAFE Act.

Nonetheless, I have decided to stay on the SAFE side. Working under that mindset and under the law, the NY SAFE Act to be specific, I have prepared to remain better safe than sorry for the time being. Toward that end, I have acquired a few things to keep it on the SAFE side. All of these things were bought within the past six weeks, most of it within the past two weeks; although, I will admit one item was not ordered in that time frame. That one was on back-order since December 2012 but I paid for it this week, once it had shipped.


What you see in the photograph are:

Thirty (30) TAPCO USA, INTRAFUSE 10rd AK-47 Magazines - Black (ordered and bought this week)

Ten (10) Beretta 92F 10 round factory magazines (ordered this week)

Two (2) Glock 26 10 round factory magazines (ordered last week)

640 rounds of TulAmmo 7.62x39mm FMJ ammunition (ordered in December but paid for this week)

200 rounds of Golden Tiger 7.62x39mm FMJBT ammunition (ordered in late February)

200 rounds of Prvi Partizan 5.56x45, 55 grain, FMJ ammo (ordered in late February)

1 of 2 boxes of silica gel desiccant for my ammo locker.

Note that one purchase is not pictured. That is:

100 rounds of PMC .308, 147 grain, FMJBT ammunition (ordered in late February)


That is certainly unusual buying activity for me. I'd buy ammo about once a month or so on average. I really had no need to buy any of this gun gear except for the fact that the NY SAFE Act was passed. I had no need for more ammo, no need for new mags, no need to spend that money on these things now, until NY State created that need by passage of the SAFE Act. I am sure the firearms companies appreciate the business NY has pushed their way even though they do not appreciate how NY forced that business on them.

As for me buying them when I really could not afford them, that too was forced upon me if I wanted to remain safe. You see, the thing was that there has been an inordinate amount of influences leading to firearms, ammunition and magazine shortages. For instance all of the huge ammo purchases by federal departments, Obama being reelected, the school shooting in CT, then the NY SAFE Act passed in the dark of night putting deadlines into effect as to when New Yorkers could make online ammo purchases and up until when they could purchase 10 round magazines (anything bigger was banned upon passage of the bill) and what type of firearms they could own, then threats of new anti-gun federal legislation and or executive orders, then other states passing tough anti-gun legislation, all during which time frame there has been an ammo buying frenzy by the citizenry. So tell me, what was a gun-guy to do, at least in NY, other than try to stay SAFE than sorry?

I bought all that ammo, at too high prices, but nowhere nearly as high as the prices were at some dealers. I was happy to get 100 rounds of .308 (first purchase among all these) and then 200 rounds each of the 7.62x39mm and the 5.56x45mm. I was happy as anyone in the USA to find ammo at prices that, while being too high,  were much less than three or four times the price of what it had been selling for a couple of months ago and it was already overpriced then. I was amazed that the Sportsmansguide sent me an item, 640 rounds of 7.62x39mm ammo, that I had ordered back in December - that is I was amazed and quite happy too. I had forgotten all about that order.

As a New Yorker, in the initial weeks of the NY SAFE Act, I was faced with the reality that if I did not acquire 10 round magazines for my son and my AKs soon, we would never be able to get them again since we only had until the 15th of this month to legally do so and everyone was out. After that, we would only be allowed to buy 7 round or smaller mags. We would be able to grandfather in any 10 round mags we had but we did not have any. As soon as I saw 10 round AK mags available, I registered on that dealer's site and checked off 10, then 20, then 30, then 40 and finally went back down to 30 and ordered them. My Beretta 92 series pistols would soon be paperweights and nothing more if I could not find 10 round mags for them before the state imposed purchase deadline, and the 7 round magazine size limit. No one was going to make a 7 round mag for most 9mm pistols or most any other pistols, so when I saw those 10 mags available, I jumped on 10 of them. Why not more? I had ordered other things that already had me too deep in the hole, like all that ammo and we have a lot of debt building on our plastic because of our daughter's wedding getting closer.

Those Beretta mags were the last things I ordered that were firearms related. Now it has come to pass that the whole 7 round magazine restriction has been suspended indefinitely. That means we can still by 10 round mags, in NY, after the 15th of this month. Arsehat politicians did keep the provision in the law that says we only load them with 7 rounds even though they hold 10. Too bad that the law was not changed (or that I did not find out about the change) before I purchased all those mags. Had I realized that 10 round would still be available because the deadline was done away by virtue of the 7 round mag provision having been suspended, I would have held off awhile. As it is now, I have to hope they give me more hours at work than the fewer I had been hoping for recently.

Hell, I just remembered, we still need to get some 10 round mags for Brendan's ARs but I suppose that will have to wait until I hit the lottery.

Now, all I can think is: "I owe, I owe, it's off to work I go." Oh no, there is one other thing I now think: While I am NY SAFE ACT compliant, the SAFE Act does not lend itself at all to being better safe than sorry. The armed citizenry is the only thing that ultimately assures our safety.

All the best,
Glenn B

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