Off-Body Rule Number One – AKA Purse Possession

Yesterday a mother in Idaho left her purse unattended in a shopping cart beside her toddler and the boy found the firearm in a concealed pocket and shot his mother in the head. This is a tragedy which sadly could have been easily prevented. Had the purse been in the possession of the mother instead of in the cart beside the child he would not have had access to the firearm and she would probably be alive today. I believe the rule which needs to be stressed here is to never become separated from your firearm. It’s simple when you are carrying a concealed holster, the firearm is on-body, but things get more sticky when you carry off-body. Today there are many ways to do this, probably the most common is in a purse or backpack. If you are not holding the purse or backpack you have no control over the firearm and may as well not be carrying in the first place. It is difficult enough to draw a pistol from concealment off your hip, but now you will have to get into that purse or backpack to retrieve the firearm and then bring it into service. How will that ever be accomplished if your bag is sitting in a shopping cart half an aisle away?

Whenever someone carries off-body they have several things to think about, the first of which is to never become separated from your firearm. This means to always carry your purse or bag on your shoulder so it is under your control. There are several other things to consider, but today let’s just hammer home one rule, maintain constant possession of your concealed firearm!

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Founders Big Lushious

I happened to see the local bottle shop received Founder’s Big Lushious and figured I better see what was up with this chocolate raspberry stout. The 7.8% ABV beer was not at all what I was expecting, but so darn tasty I immediately wanted more. Most of the time raspberry flavor is an afterthought, but in this one it is front and center and with a sublime chocolate character and enough sweetness to keep it all tied in a nice bundle I’d like to have this one again. I could see some who may say the sweetness was a bit much, but for me it was magical. So if you happen to see a bottle, be sure to grab it. You might want to think of this as a dessert beer, but I like think of it as delicious.

 

Finger OFF the Trigger!!!

I just read where two individuals in a NC town accidentally shot themselves in the leg in two separate incidents a few days before Christmas. One guy was manipulating his safety and the other was “changing ammo.” There is one universal truth to both stories, with your finger off the trigger the firearm is not going to spontaneously go off. I suspect both of these gentlemen learned that lesson, but it boils down to the safety rules which were not followed.

• ALWAYS keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction
• ALWAYS keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire
• ALWAYS keep the firearm unloaded until ready to use

So assuming the boyz were either open carrying, or concealed they could not heed the third rule because it would need to be loaded AND ready to use. They still broke the first and second rule. How do I know? They shot their own leg so the muzzle was obviously not in a safe direction and the fact the guns went off indicates their finger was on the trigger. The rules are simple and the consequences for breaking them can be very, very painful. Treat every firearm as if it is loaded and follow the rules and you will never have an issue and please keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to shoot.

Worst PSA Ever

Earlier in December a PSA was released in which a child comes home, removes a handgun from a dresser and puts it in his backpack to take to school. At school he gives it to his teacher saying he did not feel safe with it at home. I’m not sure who had the bright idea to even make this in the first place, but the video starts with a woman sitting on the couch reading a book and next cuts to him taking the firearm from the dresser. This is wrong on so many levels and I’m not even sure how it qualifies as a PSA. If they wanted to suggest the firearm should be secured they would be correct, but the premise is a firearm in the house is evil and will somehow stop gun violence. What we have here is a nosy kid who knows exactly where mom (or sis) hid her firearm. Then our resident genius takes the firearm from the house to school. The laws being broken here by the teen are too numerous to mention.

The video is credited to Rejina Sincic who is a screenwriter and director based in San Francisco. I suspect the video was a means to bring her notoriety because no sane person would ever suggest a student taking a firearm to school is a good idea. On the bright side she did a good job with focusing, editing, and now understands how to upload a video to YouTube and disable the comment feature. Where’s the eye roll emoticon when you need one!

Brandishing = Bad Idea

By now everyone has heard about the man who pulled a firearm on a Berkeley, MO police officer and was shot by the officer in self-defense. People have been protesting the shooting and what they should be protesting is criminals with firearms. The firearm in question had a defaced serial number and there can be little doubt the man carrying it was up to no good. When you pull a gun it is a show of deadly force and at least in North Carolina the person being threatened with deadly force could legally take you out. Maybe a better protest would be brandishing a firearm, if the young man had kept the firearm in his waistband he would probably be alive today. Hopefully he would be incarcerated for carrying the firearm with a defaced serial number, but he certainly wouldn’t have been shot and killed for threatening the life of a police officer or citizen. The bottom line is brandishing a firearm without cause is a bad idea.

Personally I believe all lives of law-abiding citizens matter. You don’t have to like the laws, but you do have to abide by them until they can be changed. In this case if you want to protest something, protest threatening a police officer with deadly force.

Stone Enjoy By 12.26.14

As a Christmas present to myself I popped the top on a Stone Enjoy By IPA last night a day before expiration. This one was 9.4% ABV and a citrusy hop bomb which was actually quite tasty and delightful. I must say I saw cases of this one everywhere. I suspect Stone distributed this one everywhere it could and perhaps some places it couldn’t. The one they put out for 12.05.14 was only in California so it was nice to see a wide distribution for their last Enjoy By IPA release in 2014. If you like citrus, grapefruit and a nice bitter backbone this is one you should grab a few more bottles of before it is gone forever. If you drink it past the expiration date, I won’t tell. 😉

Merry Christmas 2014

Merry Christmas Everyone!

 

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Sierra Nevada Coffee Stout

Last night I opened a bottle of the Sierra Nevada Coffee Stout I mentioned yesterday and much like the Boomerang IPA it was tasty, but nothing special. The coffee flavor was very nice, but it was just good, not outstanding. It clocked in at 6.2% ABV and had a great coffee presence, but seemed a bit thin and lacking in body. Many of those who have commented on rating sites love it so I’m going to serve my next two bottles in a different vessel to see if that changes my perception, but last night it just didn’t trip my trigger. Many love it so I’m gonna give it a second and third chance. 😉

 

Sierra Nevada Boomerang IPA

Last night I cracked open a bottle of Sierra Nevada Boomerang IPA and I gotta say, while it was tasty, it didn’t blow my socks off. The hops were juicy and fruity, but to me it just didn’t have enough going on to keep me interested. The 6.7% ABV beer would be great for pairing with food, but if I was buying a six-pack I would be a little disappointed. This one came in their Snowpack and to be honest I only got it for the Coffee Stout. I downed all three of the Pale Ale in a World Market Friday Night Beer Glass a few nights ago and hope to hit the Coffee Stout soon.

Diacetyl and it’s causes

I grabbed a beer from the fridge last night and it was a butter bomb. I know you are thinking why would I post about it, well this came out of a six-pack and was the last bottle which had been hanging out for a while. None of the other five bottles had diacetyl, but they had been consumed month ago. Typically in ale fermentations the diacetyl is scrubbed by the yeast during fermentation. With lager yeast the temp is typically raised at the end of fermentation to allow the magic removal of diacetyl to happen. So if the fermentation does not remove the diacetyl you may have it at a perceptible level and that level will not change appreciably over time. Wild yeast can cause diacetyl, but again the level really doesn’t change over time. Because the other five bottle consumed earlier had no diacetyl and the last bottle was a butter bomb the diacetyl was formed by bacterial contamination, probably pediococcus. So if you have a beer post fermentation which has no diacetyl, but the level of diacetyl increases over time then you have a bacterial contamination which is causing the change. Diacetyl doesn’t appear out of nowhere, it is either present due to not being removed during fermentation or it is being formed by bacteria. In most cases it is not desirable in a beer and all of us perceive diacetyl at different levels, some people cannot taste it at all, but it does provide a slickness on the palate which can be felt in the mouthfeel. At any rate, diacetyl is not your friend, avoid it if possible.