Maybe October 1st Is An Auspicious Day After All

Today, October 1st, marks the start of a number of things - some good and some bad.

Of course, you'd have to be living in a cabin in Montana with no electricity, no water, and no radio/TV like the Unabomber not to know that the Federal government has "shut down" today. Obama is blaming the Republicans for being ideologues and the Republicans are blaming the Democrats and Obama for continually rejecting the budget.

Another thing that today marks is the beginning of ObamaCare. This is otherwise known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. We still don't quite know what is in even after they passed it despite what former Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.

October 1st is also the first day that we in North Carolina can carry concealed in restaurants that serve alcohol. Despite what the gun prohibitionists would have you believe, you still cannot legally drink and carry concealed. The same law will now also allow you to store your firearm in your locked vehicle if you hold a concealed carry permit while on educational property. This means that when I go to teach on Monday nights at the western-most state university in North Caroloina, so long as I store my pistol in my car vault, I'm good to go. The very thought has the Dookies upset and they are demanding that their administration proclaim to all the world that their university which has decided not to allow guns on campus is a gun-free zone.

On a final note, October 1st also marks the day that the Civilian Marksmanship's Anniston (Alabama) is opening the CMP Custom Gun Shop which will work on most USGI rifles. This program is open to anyone who has qualified to purchase rifles from the CMP.

CMP will specialize in working on the M1 Garand, M1 Carbine, 1903 and 1903A3 Springfield, the 1917 Enfield and the Krag. Other rifles like the Remington 40X, Mossberg 44 and H&R Model 12 can also be serviced if needed. CMP will NOT be working on shotguns, pistols, revolvers, M14/M1A, AR15 style rifles or other commercially-produced modern rifles.

The CMP Custom Shop can work on rifles that may have been purchased elsewhere as long as they were made by a USGI contractor. Some examples include: Springfield Armory (not Springfield Inc.), Harrington & Richardson, Winchester, International Harvester, Remington, Rock Island, Eddystone, Inland, Underwood, Rock-Ola, Quality Hardware, National Postal meter, Standard Products, IBM, Irwin-Pederson and Saginaw.

There are many NON-USGI copies of the M1 Garand, 1903 Springfield and especially the M1 Carbine that CMP will be unable to work on.

Maybe, despite all the nonsense going on and coming out of Washington, at least for those of us in the gun culture October 1st will prove to be quite an auspicious day after all.