Jonnin

  you can ship all but the "gun" part (which is generally the frame?) however you like.   But then you are still stuck with the frames having to go in the car.   If it makes you feel better you could ship the pieces, sure.     Well, in my experience you have to be doing something to get your car searched.   Being from the south might do it if you were up in NY or NJ. But starting out there with a yankee license plate should not draw attention up there.   I mean I have been stopped, I dunno,  dozens of times, probably over 50 over my life, and never a car search.   Don't argue or start a bunch of bs with a cop, and they will usually let you go (with or without a ticket) without any extra nonsense.   

comparing prices on guns against the prices from before I was born ...  and I am in my 40s .... is not making your point very well.   Inflation happens... in 1960 a gallon of gas was what, 25 cents?  My dad's car had a 7 liter engine and burned more gas than a monster truck.    I agree with you mostly, but inflation affects most everything from food to homes to guns to gas and clothing and on and on....  the prices for a gun are quite reasonable, actually.  You can *easily* get a self defense pistol for under 300 bucks, and a rifle for 200.   Yea, they will be used, but they will work.

as long as you didn't pack it into your car after you shot it and followed reasonable safety procedures, I think even if you broke the "letter" of the law somehow you would probably still be fine.   The discharge in city limits thing does have exceptions... not sure if this applies though?   I think most folks, including LEOs etc, would agree you did the right thing and it would take a real idiot to press charges on that.

  No, its really that easy.   The questions are about at the 6th grade level --- regurgitate what they told you in the class, and you will get 100%.   There are NO trick questions or traps, its just "did you listen and learn".    The shooting test is also very basic, short range, you  can fire slowly,  and you don't even need 100% hits to pass.   Literally if you can hit a man-sized torso at 10 yards every time shooting slowly and carefully, you can pass it.     You won't be the only woman.  Its about 15-25% women in many classes.     I have not taken it recently BUT I often find myself in the range alongside classes and watch them shoot.   And the paper test has not increased in difficulty and probably never will.  

I would not ship my guns.  Personally, I think the shippers gouge -- forced overnight and high rates for guns -- and they are risky (label the package, where it becomes a target for theft).   I would drive them.  Ship the ammo -- you can replace that if you must.   If you have properly stored guns and NO AMMO in the car, even NY will have trouble finding a problem.   I would take the shortest cut across NY as possible and avoid NJ all together.  It should be fine. 

  A sharp knife takes a lot less brute force to cut tough items, and can also cut more accurately (see thru thin slices for example) and can do bulk work much faster (rocking blade carrot chopping) and so on.   Across the board it is just easier to use and more efficient.   You also won't tear and mash soft items (tomatoes) when trying to make a slice.   Being able to shave is not a requirement -- knives that are too sharp just get dull faster, most can't hold that edge unless you have the $500 a pop top chef stuff.   There is a happy medium -- long as it cleanly cuts the target, its fine.

some of the diamond systems peel metal off too quickly and wear the blades faster.   Some do not.   Sounds like you found a good one.   Thick blades are a major hassle to get really sharp --- in part because most of them have the wrong angle to the edge to make a razor-sharp tool.   That is partly because they were not meant to be razor sharp, and partly because they are just not the right angle.   I think it took me a month to edge a meat cleaver the wife bought...  that was a chore..

  Reagan was very anti-gun.  He is partly responsible for the CA laws and mess, and fought against modern firearms for individuals his entire career.   I have no problem with muslims having guns if they obey our laws --- same as anyone else.   If its a terrorist or an idiot, well better a gun than a bomb...

  It was almost all 1 pound bottles at about 25 bucks each.  All I can remember is bullseye and reloader XYZ bottles.  They might have had trail boss, but my memory is not good enough to say 100% for sure, sorry.  And remembering a random number is right out, no clue on the H22 -- they had something with letters and numbers on it ... :P

I hit the "grand opening" last night and had mixed feelings.   There seemed to be a LOT of things that were simply overpriced and I did not find a single "deal" anywhere.   They had $5 a box (of 50) .22 LR (thats $50 for 500... no deal).   They had a nice selection of guns but unless there was a price spike last month they all seemed to be, with one or two exceptions,  10-20% higher than normal.   Primers and powder (very limited brand selection) were reasonably priced but their box of lead cast projectiles was near DOUBLE the going rate of places like Missouri/etc.    On the bright side, all the employees were friendly and had a good handle on where items were and what they had.  There were a lot of obstructions in the place that might be OK under normal conditions but were creating traffic jams and frustrations with the opening scene crowd.    All in all its farther away with mostly higher prices (but lower sales taxes) for me, and I likely won't be going back there a lot.   Glad to see them come in for the GA folks and to increase the overall supply of gun stuff in the area, but its not worth a trip from chattanooga with a half dozen similar places closer to me.    If you need reloading supplies, they had more stock than most at least for their opening week.  That alone might make it worth something to folks here... good luck..   The one thing they had a LOT of was 9mm at $15 or 14 a box.   There were a couple of other similar ammo deals going on.  Nothing I needed unfortunately.  They must have sold out of the doorbuster 22s quickly,  I did not see any.

are you sure about that varmint? I would bet that 357 and 9mm both out of the same length barrel are pretty darn close in defensive barrel lengths of say an average of 3-5 inches.   The 357 should win hands down in a rifle or long barrel gun, but the shorter the barrel, the less the difference would be my best guess.    Were the guns you compared using the same length?  1 inch is huge on small guns...   I believe your numbers, just double checking the apples to apples factor ?

  Oh, I mostly agree.  But at the core of it, look at voter ID law arguments.   Say they did that like gun carry permits and it cost each voter about $100 - 200 or so to take a class on "civics" and get an ID card before being allowed to vote.   Tell me how well THAT would go over.   I see the gun permits and background taxes and required ownership classes and (not in tn) registration and other fees as pure taxes designed to drive people away from exercising their right.  Same as the real reason behind poll taxes was to eliminate certain voters from bothering with it.   gas taxes are aside.  Robbery, yes.  But I don't see my right to drive a car enumerated anywhere, its a privilege for those who can afford it, and always has been.   Guns, voting, speaking ... are not the same.

if they put in a poll tax, or a tax on the right to speak in public, or somehow attached fees to the other items in the bill of rights, there would be an UPROAR.   But somehow it is OK to tax** guns a dozen times over ... -there is sales tax on the gun and ammo - there is a tax for importation if imported - there is a tax to do a background check to buy it - there is a tax to get a slip of paper to carry it, in most states - there is a tax to complete the requirements for the slip of paper as well (classes and paperwork etc) in most states - there are fees and taxes associated with the industry due to explosives and handling of explosives including extra shipping fees/taxes   and that is just to name a few of the more overt forms of taxation on the right to bear arms.   I actually agree with the OP that it is a form of gun control because NONE of the other rights CAN BE taxed --- it has long been held unconstitutional to tax them.      ** related "fees" are also taxes.

You can buy a partially finished pipe block to cut to your own designs.  I had a roommate that smoked and made his own.  He just did a basic round bowl out of it,  and he got bored and used a grinder to do it (it turned out pretty good though).   I don't know where he got the partially completed block but it had the bowl and stem hole cut into a slightly rectangular block of (? briar wood ?).  

If they sold it to their own people,  and both parties were happy with it, I am happy with it.  Profit is good, that means writing fewer tickets.  They can have a bake sale too if it keeps them chasing real criminals instead of farming cash from speeders.   

its about the same.  The only "gotcha" for revolvers is that real calibers can do an inertial bullet pull inside the cylinder if the round is not crimped properly for the recoil factor.   So stuff like a 44 mag, you can yank the rounds out far enough that the cylinder will be jammed up from the bullets protruding from the end of the cylinder.  This is just annoying -- you can push them back in far enough to unload and handle the problem.   Heavier bullets need a heavier crimp for big recoil rounds.

Well, I used to carry larger guns in a pocket and my final answer on that is that you can do it, and do it effectively, with a little care in selection of your pants to get large pockets and such.   These days, though, you can find a 9mm pocket gun in a variety of flavors that will do all you need, no longer is it a choice between stuff that does not quite fit or a weaker caliber (25s, 32s, 380s etc were all one could find some years ago).   After evaluating just about every pocket pistol I could lay my hands on, I carry a sig 938 now, and the closest runner up (very, very close... )  was the shield.    Those two left just about everything else way behind for my personal prefs, whatever that means to anyone else :P

welcome to TGO! There is a consistent conversation here about knives,  and what is really amazing are a number of our members turn out hand-made work that is just outstanding.   I have little to zero interest in factory knives anymore (beyond as a tool to use as needed) but I love to look at the hand made stuff here every time.

where you stand affects the blast/concussion a lot.   Behind the shooter is good, say 45 degree arc or less behind the shooter.   Beside the shooter is very bad.   Also the lanes and such... indoors, there is not much you can do, AR in a concrete bunker is just plain rough no matter where you stand.   Outside, no roof on soft grass would be nice ... you want the sound to hit something that will absorb it, not reflect it, basically -- wood/dirt absorb, concrete reflects, etc.   If you cannot shoot the gun in a place where the environment softens the sound,  you may want to simply consider shooting something else.   Get a 9mm  "AR" setup or something.

Proceed with the burning plan...  it will stink for weeks, if you burn it, it will stink for less than a day, and as noted, if you burn them you won;t have other stuff dying from eating the rats.   If possible, of course.  

libertarians are going to be the party of freedom going forward.  As states open up to pot use (which I do not care about one way or the other, but I would see it more available for at least medical use) the party might even begin to make some headway -- a lot of stigma from their stance on pot is fading away, and they make a heck of a case for small government and freedoms. 

heh, as if they did not know what they are doing.   The liberal press reports these things incorrectly on purpose to add as much stigma against firearms as possible.   The 'slips' about full auto assault rifles are intentional.  The 'OMG lookit all dat ammo' skewing (he had over FIFTY OMG rounds of ammo on him!) is intentional.   The multiple firearm angle (HOLY #$%^B  HE had 3 guns in that car!!!!)  is intentional.   Nevermind that he was coming back from a 3 gun match and is a professional shooter --- he had THREE GUNS and LIKE MORE THAN 10 rounds of ammo!!!    It is all intentional.   Ranting about it or correcting it is like trying to teach table manners to a starving monkey.

ah, misread that it was face to face.   I would have laughed in his face, in that case...  "seriously, the race card is all you can think of?" 

I do not think even an old car would survive.  It might.   Various electrical pieces might be taken out, though, it could pop the spark plugs or fry the starter motor or whatever, its unpredictable and hard to say.   It can melt wires and such.   And might get sparks in the gas tank etc too on a really bad day.

modern games are MOSTLY designed to run on systems between 1 and 5 years old.   That means a 64 bit dual core with a generous helping of ram and a 2-3 generation old graphics card will build you an inexpensive pc that can handle *most* games on the "next to highest" graphics settings.   The highest graphics settings often have extra stupid PC taxing effects that normal humans will barely notice ( a few folks claim these things matter).  Examples include rendering 1 mile of distant terrain/actors/etc instead of 1/4 a mile.   Just like in real distances, you cant really SEE extreme details 1 mile away (in the real world or the game world).   So, in a game, drawing a mountain that is a mile away as an image "imposter" compared to rendering every leaf on every tree of that mountain saves a ton of computing effort for minimal actual difference in appearance.    Think of it as using a backdrop at a photo shoot -- done correctly, you can't tell it is fake.   My advice, then, is to buy a bare-bones system somewhere cheap and upgrade the graphics card, ram, power supply to match.  The power supply may not *have* to be upgraded but *many* of the high end (even older high end) graphics cards can strain a low end power supply and that is bad news for the longevity of the machine.   And some really low end power supplies can't even boot the system with the worst power hog cards installed.   If you have the funds, I would *highly* recommend the next level of upgrades beyond that to be a quadcore processor.  After that,  a newer generation graphics card could increase the price.     Where to buy them... varies, newegg is known as a good starting point, but shopping around gets you deals depending on who has what for sale today or tomorrow...  identify what you want to buy on a major site that has the parts (newegg again)  and then shop around for deals if you want or get it all there (remember that shopping around means paying shipping to more than one place and that can ruin the savings... saving 5 bucks then paying 10 more to ship does not work well).   Put them together:  well, putting it together is usually easy.  Its the first step of buying parts that work together that is critical.  Its easy to buy ram that does not work in your system and its really easy to get a CPU and motherboard mismatch.    The cpu/board problem is solved by getting the mentioned bare bones system -- that part will have been done for you.    So the key thing to figure out is making absolutely sure you buy the correct type of ram for your system, the rest of it should be fine so long as you don't buy like a mac graphics card for your PC or something along those lines.     Avoid the bare-bones cheapo big store computers if yuo are not an expert.  Best buy, for example sells such machines but they also come pre-loaded with spyware/malware/adware/junkware that can really bloat and chug up a computer -- it can take an expert a couple of hours to get all that crap off their systems.   Try to find a more reputable system that is ready to go (OS loaded, computer will boot upon arrival, OS price is included in the system price, etc)  but with minimal junk.  If whatever you choose is loaded with junk, I will be happy to assist you in removing at least the bulk of the garbage.   Its amazing how slow a good PC will be with all that junk on it...  so you *want* to do this on a powergaming system.