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Man: I keep telling people how to do their jobs, but no one takes my advice.
Wally: Maybe that’s because you are so inexperienced that you don’t realize how bad your advice is. That’s ridiculous. How could I be so wrong and yet feel so confident?
Wally: I miss being young.
I decided to obtain my concealed pistol license (CPL) about six years ago. While I really never intended to carry a gun, my husband was taking the class, so I figured, why not take it, too? I could always learn more about guns, and I liked the idea of knowing I could carry one if I choose to. I wanted the training to teach me what it meant to carry and the fundamentals of how to be a responsible gun owner, and I liked the idea of personal protection, but I never thought to take it to the next level.
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My husband always carries a gun, so I didn’t feel the need to carry, myself. I saw the struggle my husband went through with finding the proper holsters, pants and shirts to carry concealed, and I just couldn’t imagine the struggle that would entail for a woman. Women are built totally differently than men are. I like my yoga pants, tight jeans and tank tops. But then I had a child, and the whole game changed. I decided it was time to start carrying a gun when I went out, especially when my husband wasn’t around.
To his dismay, I started out carrying in my purse, but I soon found that off-body carry wasn’t the best option for me for several reasons. First, toddlers always seem to want to dig around in purses—maybe it’s because of all the goodies us moms keep for our children in there. Second, if someone was going to attempt to rob me, what’s the first thing he’d probably go after? That’s right, my purse. The same purse that has my gun resting inside that’s supposed to be available for me to use to protect myself from someone who might attack me. Now the bad guy not only has my purse but also my gun, and that would be a very bad day for me indeed.
I then tried carrying inside the waistband of my pants. That didn’t work either, as I still prefer tighter clothing, so carrying was extremely uncomfortable for me. I would have to purchase a whole new wardrobe. But as much as I love buying clothes, I hated the idea of buying bigger clothes. I looked into bra holsters and outside-the-waistband holsters, tried some of my husband’s holsters and even resorted to not carrying a gun at all. It took being followed around a local grocery store by two mid-30s men to get smart about safety.
I knew the two guys were following me when they continued to go out of their way to watch my every move. And I noticed eye contact and gestures out of the corner of my eye. I could feel my anxiety and adrenaline skyrocket, and I was sick to my stomach, so I kind of panicked. Then I went through the checkout line, paid for my groceries and sprinted out into the parking lot. I locked my doors and sped out of there just as the men approached my car. I felt terrified.
While I should have called the police and found a store employee to help me, but panic overshadowed my rational thinking because I knew I didn’t have a way to effectively protect myself. No gun, no knife, no pepper spray, nothing. I felt helpless. At that moment, I knew I never wanted to feel that way again, so I gave in and decided to start buying some larger clothes in order to carry concealed inside my waistband. With proper clothing and the right holster, this proved to be the best option for me. Slowly, concealed carry became a normal part of my everyday life.
As I get older, I really don’t trust anyone. My friends think I’m kind of crazy and somewhat paranoid because I’m constantly screening and watching people when we go out. I’m also the only individual in my group of friends who has a CPL and one of the only ones who’s into guns and shooting. I’m always aware of my surroundings when I’m by myself or when I’m with my son, who’s almost five years old now. Scanning, people watching, observing cars, noting how long people are standing around and their body language, observing who’s around me when I get out of my vehicle and even paying attention to where I park at the store—all of this makes me a much safer person but also generates a bit of ridicule from friends and even family.
My son knows that both my husband and I carry guns. He saw and held my gun; he knows it’s not a toy. He’s been around guns his entire life, so he knows exactly why my husband and I carry, and he understands it’s a secret that no one else should ever know. Before he can even hold a gun in our home, he must tell us the four rules of gun safety. We raised him to respect guns and knows that they’re for protection and to keep us safe.
We promised him his first gun for his 5th birthday, and he’s beyond excited to be just like mommy and daddy. The fact that my son has been exposed to and knows so much about guns at his age brings its own challenges in today’s world. I have family and friends who act like we’re bad parents because we carry guns. People judge us daily and sometimes even ridicule us if they see a photo of Colton with a gun.
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Why Concealed Carry for Women Is Both Necessary and Important
I feel in control and have more confidence when I carry a gun. I know I have the ability to effectively protect myself and my family if a situation arises. Most close friends understand what my husband does for a living. He has his Federal Firearms License (FFL), teaches concealed pistol license classes and is a professional photographer in the firearms industry, so they just assume that at least one of us is carrying when we go out. It’s a hot topic, and it does make me a bit nervous to meet new parents during play dates or while out with new people. What if they ask what our professions are? Or what if they aren’t gun nuts like us? What if we’re judged for what we do or how we’re raising our son?
I always approach the subject openly; I want others to understand why I carry and why it’s a benefit to them, even if they don’t understand. And I cannot allow or rely on anyone else but myself to protect me and my family. The first time we met one of Colton’s friends’ parents, we were extremely nervous. What if they asked about our careers? Should I order a beer, or do they not drink? As we introduced ourselves, we noticed that the other dad was wearing an NRA cap. Yep, instant friends. I breathed a sigh of relief knowing that we all could talk about guns and my husband’s job. Hell, their son had already started shooting at their home range!
But I certainly don’t go out of my way to talk about my concealed pistol license and carrying if I don’t have to. With all of the recent child abductions, I’m even more observant of what’s going on around me, especially when I have Colton with me. I’m on especially high alert when we go out into a public play area. I literally size up anyone who looks suspicious or even remotely gives me bad vibes. I will protect my son with my life, even if that means I’m reaching for the gun on my hip.
This article is from the August-September 2019 issue of Personal Defense World magazine. Grab your copy at OutdoorGroupStore.com. For digital editions, visit Amazon.
The post Why One Mom Decided to Get Her Concealed Pistol License appeared first on Personal Defense World.
via Personal Defense World
Why One Mom Decided to Get Her Concealed Pistol License
If you’ve been following my work for any length of time, you know that I am a big fan of pushing more work in our Laravel applications to the database layer. By doing more work in the database we can often reduce the number of database queries we make, reduce the amount of memory our applications use, and reduce the amount of time required by Eloquent to process our models. This can result in some pretty significant performance wins.
One excellent way to push more work to the database is by using subqueries. Subqueries allow you to run nested queries within another database query. This can be a powerful way to retrieve ancillary model data, without making any additional database queries, when it’s not possible to do via a relationship. You can also use subqueries in order by statements, where statements, and other database clauses.
During my Laracon US 2019 talk, I made reference to a couple of query builder macros I’ve been using that make it easier to use subqueries in Laravel. I’ve since submitted three pull requests to Laravel to add these to the core framework.
Here’s an overview of each:
Pull request #29567 adds support for subqueries to both the select() and addSelect() query builder methods.
For example, let’s imagine that we have a table of flight destinations and a table of flights to destinations. The flights table contains an arrived_at column which indicates when the flight arrived at the destination.
Using the new subquery select functionality in Laravel 6.0, we can select all of the destinations and the name of the flight that most recently arrived at that destination using a single query:
return Destination::addSelect(['last_flight' => Flight::select('name') ->whereColumn('destination_id', 'destinations.id') ->orderBy('arrived_at', 'desc') ->limit(1) ])->get(); Notice how we’re using Eloquent to generate the subquery here. This makes for a nice, expressive syntax. That said, you can also do this using the query builder:
return Destination::addSelect(['last_flight' => function ($query) { $query->select('name') ->from('flights') ->whereColumn('destination_id', 'destinations.id') ->orderBy('arrived_at', 'desc') ->limit(1); }])->get(); In addition, pull request #29563 makes it possible to use subqueries in the query builder’s orderBy() method. Continuing our example above, we can use this to sort the destinations based on when the last flight arrived at that destination.
return Destination::orderByDesc( Flight::select('arrived_at') ->whereColumn('destination_id', 'destinations.id') ->orderBy('arrived_at', 'desc') ->limit(1) )->get(); As with selects, you can also use the query builder directly to create the subquery. For example, maybe you want to order users based on their last login date:
return User::orderBy(function ($query) { $query->select('created_at') ->from('logins') ->whereColumn('user_id', 'users.id') ->latest() ->limit(1); })->get(); Finally, pull request #29602 makes it possible to use subqueries within the query builder’s from() method. These are sometimes called derived tables.
For example, maybe you want to calculate the average total donations made by users in your application. However, in SQL it’s not possible to nest aggregate functions:
AVG(SUM(amount)) Instead, we can use a from subquery to calculate this:
return DB::table(function ($query) { $query->selectRaw('sum(amount) as total') ->from('donations') ->groupBy('user_id'); }, 'donations')->avg('total'); You probably won’t need to use this every day, but when you do need it, it’s indispensable.
One breaking change to be aware of if you’re using Eloquent outside of Laravel is a signature change to the table() method on the Illuminate/Database/Capsule/Manager object. It’s been changed from table($table, $connection = null) to table($table, $as = null, $connection = null).
If you’re interested in learning more about subqueries and other advanced database techniques, be sure to follow my blog, and also watch my Laracon US 2019 talk.
At Laracon I also announced a new video course I’m working on called Eloquent Performance Patterns. My goal with this course is to teach Laravel developers how to drastically improve the performance of their Laravel applications by pushing more work to the database layer, all while still using the Eloquent ORM. Be sure to join the mailing list for that if you’re interested!
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via Laravel News
Eloquent Subquery Enhancements in Laravel 6.0
Man: Let me tell you how to do your job. You need to get all the vendors in the same room and insult them until they offer you discounts.
Dilbert: That sounds super dumb.
Man: That’s what they said to Galileo old man.
Man: Hi, I’m an inexperienced employee who tells experienced employees how to do their jobs. I compensate for my lack of experience with a thing called arrogance.
Dilbert: That sounds worth-less.
Man: Oh, yeah? Then why does every company have one of me?
“Today I have some UHMW tape. It’s a very slippery plastic and so if you need things to slide across each other like you know when you’re pulling out your antique wooden drawers and they just kind of rub and stick. This tape solves that problem.”
[Cool Tools has a YouTube channel with many more tool reviews]
UHMW Tape (TapeCase 423-5 UHMW Tape Roll)
Available from Amazon
Quick example of a code I had to write recently. Task is simple – upload CSV and parse it. Also save that file and the record, which user uploaded it. Let’s take a look.
via Laravel News Links
Upload and Parse CSV with Laravel MediaLibrary and SpreadsheetReader
Philadelphia, PA – -(AmmoLand.com)- Many people try to claim that the Founding Fathers couldn’t have conceived of repeating rifles when they drafted the Second Amendment to the Bill of Rights. However, the story of Joseph Belton and his correspondence with the Continental Congress proves otherwise.
If you’d prefer to watch and learn, the video I made below details the entire event. If you’d prefer to read about it, the story unfolds below.
Belton, an inventor and gunsmith from Philadelphia, claimed to have devised a new form of flintlock musket that was capable of firing as many as sixteen consecutive shots in as little as twenty seconds. After the gun had fired its consecutive loads, it could then be reloaded individually like all other traditional firearms of that era. He first wrote to Congress about his new invention on April 11, 1777, letting them know he was available to demonstrate his invention to them at any time.
Intrigued by Belton’s claim, Congress ordered 100 examples of his “new improved gun.” They authorized him to oversee the construction of new guns, or alteration of existing guns, so that they were capable of discharging eight rounds with one loading and that he “receive a reasonable compensation for his trouble, and be allowed all just and necessary expences [sic].”
On May 7, Belton replied to Congress with his terms regarding what he felt to be “reasonable compensation.” In order to determine his fee, Belton wanted to arm 100 soldiers with his invention and demonstrate the capabilities of such armed men to a panel of four military officers – two of Congress’ choosing and two of Belton’s choosing. The officers would then determine how many men they felt Belton’s 100 men were equivalent to when carrying a standard firearm. (For example, 100 specially-armed men were equivalent to 200 regularly-armed men, or more.)
For his ability to double the manpower, Belton felt that he was entitled to £1,000 for every 100 men he armed from a given state. Belton justified his price by claiming that a state could not raise, equip, and clothe 100 men for £1,000, making his 100 men armed as though they were 200 men a bargain. (For reference, £1,000 in 1777 is the equivalent of £150,000 today. If all 13 states outfitted 100 men, Belton would receive £13,000 – or £1,900,000 today.)
Belton argued that arming 3,000 men or more with his invention created enumerable advantages beyond description on the battlefield, making his compensation “vastly reasonable.” As such, his terms were nonnegotiable. If Congress refused or attempted to haggle in any way, he would withdraw his offer completely. (For those doing the math, 3,000 men armed with Belton’s repeater would mean that he’d collect more than £4,500,000 in today’s currency.)
Belton must have realized immediately that his demands were more than outlandish because the next day, on May 8, he wrote a letter to John Hancock lowering his fee to £500 for doubling, £1,500 for tripling, £2,000 for quadrupling, and so forth.
On May 15, Congress read Belton’s letter to the body. They quickly dismissed it because of his “extraordinary allowance.” (No one saw that coming, right?) Congress considered the matter dropped and didn’t reply to Belton, likely assuming he would take their lack of reply as a refusal.
Having heard nothing from Congress for more than a month, Belton wrote them again on Saturday, June 14. This time, he claimed he could accurately hit targets with his rifle out to 100 yards, and possibly even out to 200 yards. He offered to demonstrate this feat to Congress on the following Monday at 10:00am in the State House Yard.
The same day that Belton wrote this letter, Congress was involved with something that would prove to be far more important. On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress approved the design for a national flag.
With Congress engaged in more pressing matters, Belton’s letter went unanswered for almost a month when he decided to write again.
His letter from July 10 was not nearly as polite as his previous ones. This time, he tried to rile members of the body by claiming that Great Britain regularly pays £500 for lesser services. If, he mused, the “little Island” could afford such payments, surely this “extensive continent” could do the same.
He also enclosed a letter signed by General Horatio Gates, Major General Benedict Arnold (before he became a turncoat), well-known scientist David Rittenhouse, and others, all claiming that his invention would be of “great Service, in the Defense of lives, Redoubts, Ships &c, & even in the Field,” and that they felt Belton was entitled to “a hansome [sic] reward from the Publick [sic].”
Having received the letter immediately, Congress resolved that same day to refer Belton’s petition to the Board of War, made up of five delegates. Among these five delegates were future 2nd President of the United States, John Adams; and Benjamin Harrison V, father and great-grandfather of the 9th and 23rd Presidents of the United States, respectively.
Nine days later on July 19, Congress got word from the Board of War. Much to Belton’s dismay, they dismissed his petition altogether. At this point, he must have finally gotten the hint that Congress wasn’t going to authorize such exorbitant payment for his services. The historic record turns up no more correspondence between Belton and Congress.
Despite the fact that Joseph Belton failed to convince the Continental Congress to outfit colonial soldiers with his repeating rifle, it’s still a very important story. Belton invented his gun in 1777. The Bill of Rights wasn’t ratified until 1791. That means our Founding Fathers not only knew about repeating rifles 14 years before the creation of the Second Amendment, but that they thought highly enough of the idea to pursue further development and implementation of such technology. The fact that it proved to be cost-prohibitive is moot, as it certainly could have been done if Congress and Belton had agreed upon the definition of “reasonable compensation.”
So, the next time someone tells you the Second Amendment was never designed to protect the right to own a repeating rifle, or that it was only meant to apply to flintlock firearms, sit them down and tell them the story of Joseph Belton and his repeating flintlock musket.
About Logan Metesh
Logan Metesh is a historian with a focus on firearms history and development. He runs High Caliber History LLC and has more than a decade of experience working for the Smithsonian Institution, the National Park Service, and the NRA Museums. His ability to present history and research in an engaging manner has made him a sought after consultant, writer, and museum professional. The ease with which he can recall obscure historical facts and figures makes him very good at Jeopardy!, but exceptionally bad at geometry.
The post Fact Check: The Founding Fathers *DID* Know About Repeating Rifles appeared first on AmmoLand.com.
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Fact Check: The Founding Fathers *DID* Know About Repeating Rifles
U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)– The Howard Leight Impact Sport electronic ear protection is certainly among the most commonly used ear-pro you’ll find at the shooting ranges of America today. I’ve used various versions of the Leights for more than a decade, and am more than familiar with its features and shortfalls (review here). Being popular and common in use is great, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for growth. Behold, two simple ways you can DIY improve your Howard Leight Impact Sport headsets. One is nearly free, and the other is a lot cheaper than a hearing aid.
Before we can dive in to improvements, lets identify the shortcomings that lead the Impact Sports to a middle-of-the-pack 22 dB Noise Reduction Rating (NRR).
So let’s disassemble our ear pro. First, grab the original foam ear cups and give them a pull. They’re held in with a few retaining tabs, and pop out easily.
Next, use a flathead screwdriver to pop off the plastic rim that held in the ear cups. Once off, set those (and the small foam sheet underneath) to the side.
Now you can see into the belly of the beast. The left side (as worn), which has the volume adjustment knob, has a bit more material inside, as it contains the circuit board and internal section of the volume knob. Don’t let looks deceive you though, there’s a lot more space than it seems at first glance.
So now we’re at the spot where we can make a big difference, for very little money. We need to fill up all that empty space! On this headset I used foam from an old, unused gun case. I used my screwdriver to (carefully!) squeeze as much extra foam into the case as I could.
It’s OK if some of the foam is a little loose, or if it sticks out slightly above the lip of the case. When we reassemble, the foam sheet that goes under the ear cup retaining ring will hold everything in. I’ll take a moment to mention foam isn’t the only thing you can use to fill the empty space in the case. I’ve also used silicon caulking and liquid electrical tape in conjunction with foam for good effect. I put up a video showing this process years ago. The silicone worked well, though it’s not much better (if at all) than foam, and much more permanent.
Now let’s pause. We’re not putting the stock ear cups back on, instead we’re using Sightlines gel cups from Noisefighters. The Sightlines improves the effectiveness of ear pro such as the Howard Leights in a few ways.
OK, let’s get back to reassembly. While the Gen 1 Noisefighters Sightlines gel cups simply snapped back into the retaining tabs, the Gen 2 Sightlines have a pressure sensitive, non-permanent adhesive. Peel the backing sheet off, then carefully align and press in the gel cups. Once they’re in, give them a firm press to make sure the adhesive is all the way in.
That’s it! Your DIY improvements are done. Even comparing performance at low levels of sound (same Megadeth song, same volume, same distance) the improved Howard Leight Impact Sport headset shows a noticeable sound reduction with the electronics off against the unimproved set. That improvement is greatly exacerbated at louder volumes, such as at the shooting range. Given that the difference is easily apparent to the naked ear means that we’ve improved our headsets by at least 1 decibel. Since decibels are logarithmic, not linear, the jump from 22 dB NRR to 23 (or greater) dB NRR is a significant reduction in sound pressure slamming into your eardrum.
As someone who’s dealt with significant hearing loss since my early twenties, take it from me: good ear protection is always worth the money. Get the best set you can, whether by buying it or improving a good set into a great one. There are more ways to improve ear pro than the ones I’ve listed, if you have a cool technique post it in the comments below so all shooters have the chance to benefit!
About Rex Nanorum
Rex Nanorum is an Alaskan Expatriate living in Oregon with his wife and kids. Growing up on commercial fishing vessels, he found his next adventure with the 2nd Bn, 75th Ranger Regt. After 5 tours to Afghanistan and Iraq, he adventured about the west coast becoming a commercial fisheries and salvage SCUBA diver, rated helicopter pilot instructor (CFII) and personal trainer, before becoming a gear reviewer and writer.”
The post DIY Improvements for Howard Leight Impact Sport Electronic Ear Protection appeared first on AmmoLand.com.
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DIY Improvements for Howard Leight Impact Sport Electronic Ear Protection
It’s here!
About ten months after we learned that Jon Favreau would be heading up a Star Wars series called “The Mandalorian” on Disney’s soon-to-launch streaming service Disney+, we have the first full trailer. It premiered this evening during the Disney+ panel at the D23 conference.
Bounty hunting is a complicated profession. @TheMandalorian, an original Star Wars series, starts streaming November 12, only on #DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/CTpflCJSJe
— Disney+ (@disneyplus) August 24, 2019
Everyone involved had stayed relatively hush-hush about the series until now, with only a couple of details mentioned with its announcement. We knew it takes place about five years after Return of the Jedi — so a few decades before Force Awakens. Favreau had also said that it follows “the travails of a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy” — which we later learned would be played by Pedro Pascal (perhaps best known as Oberyn Martell from Game of Thrones.)
According to the New York Times, Disney is dropping “roughly $100 million” to produce the first 10 episodes.
The Mandalorian is set to debut alongside Disney+ on November 12th, 2019.
via TechCrunch
Here’s the first trailer for the upcoming Disney+ Star Wars series, The Mandalorian