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Good evening, bikers, Patriots and Second Amendment supporters! I am pleased to announce that my beautiful Tarheel, @RacySiciian, has partnered with me at The Grey Beard Biker! Soon, you will start seeing her posts on this blog.
I am very excited about this as Racy has strong opinions on nearly everything – and we always agree (ALMOST) on them! She will bring a fresh perspective to this site – and I am sure you will absolutely love her writings – most all of which will make you laugh your ass off!
You can find out more about her by clicking on the “About Us” menu – or by following this link: About Us.
Over the past 18 months, your friendly Grey Beard Biker™ has had five accounts suspended on @Twitter. The largest of those accounts had nearly 65K followers. I made the move to @Gab last month and could not be happier. This social platform was made to protect free speech and they host their platform on their own servers – so unlike Parler – you do not have to worry about big tech like Amazon Web Services shutting them down.
You can find me on Gab by searching Gab for @Biker4Life.
And don’t forget to follow my beautiful lady, @RacySicilian! ?
Help protect Freedom of Speech by supporting Gab. I am a Pro user – and you should be too!
Happy Tuesday, bikers, friends and Patriots! I hope you had a wonderful weekend and got to do something you enjoy doing – shooting, riding or both! I have been quite busy over the past week doing what I do during the cold months of winter in Middle Tennessee – reading, shooting, reloading and when the opportunity presents itself – riding scoots. What have you been doing to stay busy in your neck-of-the-woods?
So, I admit it! While I am a YUGE supporter of the Second Amendment – and our God Given right to protect ourselves and loved ones – I have resisted owning an AR platform rifle until 2020. I know, what the hell? Having grown up deer hunting, I have owned a small armory of rifles for years. But one thing is common with the rifles I have owned: they have always been bolt-action guns. I love the feel of sliding the bolt closed – slamming a cartridge into battery – and sending lead WAY downrange. I have shot long range rifle competitively and the simplicity of a bolt action rifle makes them very reliable and accurate. But being one of my best friends is a retired Army 5th Group special forces NONCOM, I have been immersed in AR platform rifles for years – and seen them built from the ground up.
It has been a long road for me to decide on buying an AR and once I decided to do so, I determined the criteria I would use in selecting the rifle:
It would be a carbine length rifle – or perhaps an AR pistol
It would be in .300 AAC Blackout (I know, a lot of your are .556 NATO guys/gals – but I wanted a caliber I could shoot inside the house without losing what little hearing I have left! – And for those of you who are AR-10 aficionados and prefer the hard hitting 7.62X51 cartridge – please see my previous sentence – I value what little hearing I have left and I want to be able to place quick follow up shots!)
It would have to be able to handle both hyper-sonic and subsonic ammunition
It would be can ready – as I will use a suppressor to protect my hearing
So with this criteria my custom AR-15 in .300 Blackout was born. I started with a Burris 4X scope, and found the rifle was quite accurate with hand rolled hyper-sonic ammo out to 150 yards. Using a pistol-length gas tube it also digested subsonic ammo so I started looking a combat style red-dot sights. After reading dozens of reviews, I decided on the Vortex OpticsVenom Red Dot in the 3 MOA varietal.
The Review
The Vortex Optics Venom mounted on an AR-15
Included in the box:
Venom Red Dot sight
Weaver/Picatinny mount
T-15 Torx wrench
Rain cover
Lens cloth
Mounting screws
CR1632 battery
Screwdriver (for windage/elevation adjustment and battery access cover)
Besides purchasing the Vortex sight, I also purchased their AR-15 Riser Mount which properly positions the red dot on an AR-15 – the added benefit of which is the quick release lever – making removal of the sight very quick.
One of the best selling features of this sight, over competitive red dot sights, is battery access – you do not need to remove the sight, from its base, to install a new battery. Based on the specifications Vortex Optics provides, battery replacement will not be a common chore as the CR1632 battery is claimed to last 150 hours on its brightest setting and up to 30,000 hours on its lowest setting!
Setting up the Venom Red Dot was quick and easy. I installed the battery, mounted the sight on the riser, disassembled the rifle and bore sighted the sight at 25 yards. The entire assembly and bore sighting took less than 30 minutes – including setting up my bore sight target.
Three days later I was out at the range and found my first shot on the paper, at 25 yards, after bore sighting. In fact, I was one inch high and one inch to the right. Using my sled, I quickly zeroed the sight in and moved the target out to 50 yards. This sight is very accurate for a combat style red dot as proven by my target:
24 shots at 50 yards – without the sled
Pros
Cons
Long Battery Life
No auto power up
Light weight (1.1 oz – sight only)
No “clicks” on windage and elevation adjustment
Waterproof
ArmorTek lens coating
Near ZERO parallax
High strength aluminum housing
Automatic red dot brightness (10 manual brightness levels)
Automatic shut down after 14 hours
There are way more “pros” to the Vortex Venom 3 MOA Red Dot sight than “cons”
Conclusion
If you are like me, and take your home defense seriously, get rid of the scope on your AR-15 and go to a red dot combat sight. Target acquisition is quick and a 3 MOA sight will still drive shots through a bullseye at 100 yards. The Vortex Optics Venom 3 MOA Red Dot sight is a Grey Beard Biker™️ top buy – as it is both a high quality optic and very reasonably priced.
The Vortex Venom 3 MOA Red Dot sight mounted on my AR-15The Vortex Venom mounted on the AR-15 quick release riser mountZeroing in the Vortex Venom 3 MOA Red Dot sightZeroing in the Vortex Viper 3 MOA Red Dot sight
Happy Thursday, bikers, friends and Patriots! The week is finally winding down and Friday is in clear view. Hopefully, those of you that ride are getting a chance to do so. For those of you that don’t – won’t – or can’t ride, I hope you are able to enjoy whatever it is you enjoy doing this weekend! This Grey Beard Biker is looking forward to a weekend which promises sunshine and temps in the 50s – something we have not have experienced in Middle Tennessee for quite some time.
In case you were wondering what I have been up to lately – and I am sure there are lots of you who do ? – I have been reloading lots of ammunition, talking a great deal to my North Carolina Tarheel beauty, reading news, following back Patriots on Gab and smoking some awesome cigars! Unfortunately, I haven’t enjoyed a top-shelf bourbon for over a week, as I am out and seem more inclined to sit around the house in my pajamas than go out in the nasty ass weather we’ve been having. I know, I need to get my priorities in order! ?
So, speaking of news, I ran across a New York Times editorial yesterday that literally sent a chill through my bones: How The Biden Administration Can Help Solve Our Reality Crisis, written by Kevin Roose – whoever the fuck he is. He obviously fell off the train departing for Intelligent City as it was leaving Dumbassville!
Conspiracy theories and disinformation must be treated as "the urgent threats they are," writes our tech columnist @kevinroose, or "the potential for violent unrest and civic dysfunction will only grow.” https://t.co/eoZ0PDjcLU
This express train never actually got out of Dumbassville!
Dystopian Kryptonite?
So the title I chose for this blog post may seem way the fuck out there… I get it. I actually found it hard to think of a title for this post because nothing I thought of could adequately describe the Orwellian ideas that the rapidly melting #Snowflake, Mr. Roose, is. His idea of having #CreepyUncle Joe Biden appoint a “Reality Czar” is because he is terrified of the dystopia conservatives inhabit here in the United States. And just in case some other citizens of Dumbassville read this post, and are of the same low IQ of Mr. Roose, here is the definition of dystopia:
I know all of y’all residents of Dumassville know what kryptonite is, because the assnozzle residents of the aforementioned village would never be able to understand anything more complicated than a superhero cartoon.
So, let me put this all together for you Dumbassvillians:
In other words, you are paralyzed in fear of conservative patriots who reside in dystopia. Mr. Roose’s “Reality Czar” will eradicate patriot free speech with his kryptonite so you do not have to quiver in fear any longer on a couch in your mama’s basement, while playing PacMan. Yeah, that’s about the jest of it. So, all of you residents of Dumbassville need to get a damn life, and let the old whiskery Grey Beard Biker provide you a damn lesson in commonsense: While heavy field artillery can hurt you – written words cannot. Just don’t read them. Ignore what we say and you won’t be frightened any longer. ?
So let’s look at a few of Mr. Roose’s less than enlightened ideas – based on his discussions with some “terrorism experts” who also reside in Dumbassville:
So obviously this assnozzle thinks all of us Patriots subscribe to the conspiracy theories of QAnon and believe Donald Trump would declare martial law. I am not a member of QAnon groups and I do not believe you can be a member of QAnon. But I do believe there is a huge #DeepState which QAnon believers preached of early on. Next:
So we Patriots have decided to create our own version of reality. Really? We know that certain facts are true. While COVID-19 is real, its mortality rate is no worse than that of the seasonal flu. We also know that states which opened as quickly as possible suffered no higher mortality rates than others. In fact, Mr. Roose, the governor we all know you worship, #DeathCamp Cuomo, murdered thousands of seniors by not utilizing the floating military hospital President Trump provided New York. You should be ashamed. But alas, we all know you are not. By the way, you and your minions live in the alternate universe – not us law abiding citizens. We are not part of the group of anarchists which burned down cities for the better part of year now. The violence mongers reside in your alternate reality.
Mr. Roose did not just bloviate his own thoughts or offer his own solutions. He actually spoke to Dr. Joan Donovan, a professor at Harvard. Need I say more? Harvard? Laugh my big fat biker ass off. The idiot professors at America’s ivy league schools need a YUGE dose of commonsense. They have commiserated far too long with other #Leftist #Socialists while drinking their lattes. In the real world we go to work. Raise our families. And solve problems. We do not create isolated caste systems like the one you live in.
Here it is! The Kryptonite armed Reality Czar! And then there is this:
When it comes to being ahead of the curve on burning our First Amendment right to freedom of speech, the fucking tech giants are way ahead of what any bureaucracy run by a reality czar could ever hope to accomplish. While these tech platforms stifle our free speech, they let leftists dox conservatives, gun owners and politicians who believe in the experiment our Founding Fathers launched in 1776. You see, Mr, Roose, the social media and tech companies do not care one damn bit about privacy laws if it silences conservative voices.
I have absolutely no idea what the Free Radicals Project is, but it must also be headquartered in Dumbassville. The problem with these groups, and liberal think tanks, in general, is that they all suffer from delusional fears of the truth. Yes, we all want jobs. But the very person you are calling on to create jobs is the current resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the senile old man, who with the stroke of a pen, eradicated 100s of thousands of good paying jobs – all on his first day at work. And lastly, Mr. Piccolini, there is no systemic racism in the “parallel universe” Mr. Roose says we reside in. We, unlike you and your associates, believe that all lives matter.
Conclusion
Patriots, like those who you wish to unleash your ideological reality czar on, are a moral God Fearing demographic who stand for the flag and kneel only to our God. We want to protect this experiment in a Democratic Republic which our Founding Fathers thankfully gave us over 240 years ago. We largely do not advocate violence, rather we embrace the free exchange of ideas – even yours. You will not hear us ask for a reality czar to relegate your ideas to the dustbin of stupid ideas – hiding it from people we should trust to use commonsense – which certainly is not so fucking common in the parallel universe of Dumbassville – where you reside.
The Grey Beard Biker™️ gbb@TheGreyBeardBiker.com @Biker4Life on Gab
Happy Tuesday, bikers, friends and Patriots! I hope all y’all are having a great start to the new week. Here in Middle Tennessee it was a dreary, gray, drizzly and cold weekend. I did ride a bit recently – a whopping 22 miles! And believe me, when I say, it was too cold to do much more!
A Blast to the Past! – from 22 months ago!
The picture above was from a NRA-ILA article on March 30, 2018. This was before any of the wrangling for the Democrat nomination for president of mid-2019 when we saw on full display that any of the potential nominees were, in fact, going to “come for our guns!”
On December 30, 2019 I wrote a blog post sarcastically titled, “We are not coming for your guns!” It was not written to highlight a national push for new gun grabbing legislation, but rather for the assault on the Second Amendment in Virginia. But I have also written about the Democrat’s obsession with taking our guns in a blog post on July 3, 2019, “Commonsense Gun Reforms.” Both of these articles are worth a read, if you haven’t done so already.
They Are Coming For Your Guns!
With the knowledge that there would be a Democrat in the White House (because the election was stolen) and a Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate (because the election was stolen), the assault on our Second Amendment rights began quietly on January 4, 2021. We can all thank the YUGE assnozzle, Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), for proving what I have been saying all along – “They are coming for your guns!” Ms. Jackson Lee introduced HR 127 on that day, a bill named, Sabika Sheikh Firearm Licensing and Registration Act.
This bill will inevitably go down as one of the most dangerous assaults to the Second Amendment since the founding of our country. Named for Sabika Sheikh, an exchange student from Pakistan, who was killed on May 18, 2018 at Santa Fe (TX) High School, this bill is nothing less than a full frontal assault on our Right to Keep and Bear Arms. It is interesting to note, that Sheikh was one of ten people killed in the shooting, so one wonders why Jackson Lee named the bill in her honor? My guess is that it is a move to pander to Muslims, and other foreign minorities, which is a typical tactic of #Leftists. This easily allows them to call those who oppose the bill xenophobes or racists!
So What Is In The Bill?
Simply put, this bill aims to license all firearms and ammunition a person owns. As you will see, there is no grandfathering of previously owned guns and ammunition.
Here are some key provisions of this bill:
Firearm owners have to transfer the make, model and serial number of all firearms they owned previous to the bill’s passage, to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives – who will maintain a database
Firearms owned before the bill was passed must be transmitted to BATFE within three months
New purchases will be transmitted on the purchase date
The database will be accessible by all members of the public, Federal, state and local law enforcement, all branches of the military and state and local governments (not only do they want to know where all the guns are, they want your crazy neighbors to know as well – and let’s not forget all of the criminals who would like to steal those legally licensed firearms! WHAT A FUCKING JOKE!)
Licenses to individuals will require:
The individual to be at least 21 years old
They must pass another national instant criminal background check
They must undergo a psychological evaluation to prove they are not unsuited to possess a firearm
Complete a minimum of 24 hours of firearms training which is approved by the United States Attorney General
Have purchased a liability insurance policy through the Attorney General (the ultimate red herring!)
For those that own a scary black military assault rifle ? there are additional requirements to obtain a license:
Undergo specific training for this type of firearm of at least 24 hours
Undergo a psychological examination by a licensed psychologist approved by the Attorney General
Any family members who MAY have access to the scary assault rifle will also have to undergo the same psychological examination
The licensed psychologist will also conduct background interviews of current and former spouses, and at least two other family members or associates of the individual to determine said individual’s state of emotional, mental and relational stability (WHAT THE FUCK??? ?)
This bill puts the United States Attorney General – and Department of Justice – in the insurance business! In order to be licensed the licensee will pay an annual insurance premium of $800! The bill is somewhat vague as it doesn’t specify if an individual licensee has to purchase this for each firearm or if the one fee covers the person and all of their gun collection.
What will happen if you are in violation of any of the provisions of this bill?
If you possess a firearm without a license you face a fine of between $75,000-$150,000 and/or imprisonment for not less than 15 years or more than 25 years
If you transfer a firearm to an unlicensed individual, or loan them a firearm or ammunition, you may be fined between $50,000-$75,000 and/or imprisonment for not less than 10 years or more than 15 years
If you do not have valid insurance, issued by the Attorney General, you may be fined between $50,000-$100,000 and/or imprisonment for not less than 10 year or more than 20 years
In order for any of this to be possible, Ms. Jackson Lee’s bill would strike the previous Federal provision which prohibited the establishment of a Centralized Firearms Registration System. I have written about this before, with regards to the Leftists’ desire to enact Universal Background Checks, in my blog post, “Eliminating Mass Shootings.”
Buried in Ms. Jackson Lee’s bill, under Section 3, Prohibition on Possession of Certain Ammunition, is a provision to outlaw ammunition over .50 caliber – which applies to very few individuals. But most disturbing in this section is the prohibition of magazines, or other feeding devices, which either allow for a capacity of over 10 rounds of ammunition, or can be modified to accept more than 10 rounds – except for a carve out for .22 caliber firearms.
If you possess any prohibited ammunition, that which is over .50 caliber, you may be fined between $50,000-$100,000 and/or imprisonment of not less than 10 years or more than 20 years. If you possess any large capacity magazines, or other feeding devices, you may be fined between $10,000-$25,000 and/or imprisonment of not less than one year or more than five years.
Conclusion
Ms. Jackson Lee’s proposed bill, Sabika Sheikh Firearm Licensing and Registration Act, is the largest assault on our constitution freedoms since The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 (which was signed into law by our second president, John Adams). While the proposed bill is not law, having recently been introduced, and referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary, it clearly demonstrates how out of control the next two years will be for freedom loving Patriots! The Democrat Party knows no bounds with regards to enacting their utopian Socialist ideologies on Americans! I believe that the bill, as written, has little chance of becoming law because there are many moderate #DemonRats, who live in very pro #2A states, who do not want to be defeated in the 2022 election cycle.
One glaring omission of this law, which I find oddly missing, is the confiscation, or buy-back, of their most hated firearms – those scary ass Black Assault Rifles. Other than requiring additional licensing requirements, and limiting magazine capacities, these firearms will remain legal to own. But the question remains, why doesn’t this bill prohibit them altogether? If you read deeper in the bill, it does:
First, there are plenty of reasons, all ambiguous at this time, that the Attorney General could deny you a license to own such firearms (AR-15s, AR-10s, AKs, etc.) through the more stringent psychological examinations. First, the psychologists have to be approved by the Attorney General. If the AG is extremely anti-Second Amendment, they could only approve gun-grabbing psychologists through a stringent litmus test. Second, those psychologists can search for family members, and known associates of yours, who do not like you or believe the Second Amendment only implies to the Militia, as stated in the Second Amendment, and which has been perverted in modern times to mean the National Guard of the states. For more information on the difference between the Militia of the 18th century and the Left’s obsession that the Founders really meant what is now our National Guard, read my blog post, The Second Amendment.
The one paragraph in this bill, which should scare the hell out of freedom loving Patriots is entitled “Revocation of License:”
“A license issued under this subsection to an individual who becomes prohibited by Federal or State law from possessing a firearm is hereby revoked. Such an individual shall immediately return the license, and surrender all firearms and ammunition owned or possessed by the individual, to the Attorney General.” – There it is! Confiscation!!
While I have been an advocate of hunting for many years, I believe the Second Amendment was included in the Bill of Rights to protect the citizens of this great country from the tyranny of an overarching, despotic government – not to protect our ability to possess firearms for hunting. What this bill really will do is make owning firearms punitively difficult due to licensing requirements and hefty insurance premiums – which would be paid to the Federal government. Firearms ownership will be reserved for wealthier individuals and those people who are willing to devote a huge amount of time – and effort – to going through the process of becoming “Licensed.” If you believe, like I do, that the Second Amendment is a gift from our Founding Fathers, who believed we have a God-Given right to protect ourselves, this bill, through its punitively expensive insurance requirement, would deny an entire class of law abiding individuals who are more likely to need to protect themselves: the poor. This demographic often lives in dangerous areas where thieves and thugs use illegal guns to commit their brazen crimes. In my view this is the saddest potential outcome: the disarming of people, who are law abiding, and face dangers more often than other demographics of United States citizens. People like myself, have the means to pay the premium for the Federal insurance. We will take the time to jump through all of the licensing hoops to get our licenses. Isn’t this racist on its very face? Doesn’t Ms. Jackson Lee care about the poor people in her district? I think not. She is more interested in pushing an ideological dogma with its roots tied to a socialist utopia.
Today, even in the event this abomination were to become law, it would face a huge uphill fight in the judiciary system. The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), since their decision in the District of Columbia v. Heller, has supported the Second Amendment. The SCOTUS is more conservative today, because of Donald J. Trump. We have no reason to believe they wouldn’t strike down this law. So for this reason, I believe Ms. Jackson Lee’s proposed legislation is premature. The biggest #DemonRat wet dream, one which the legislature will inevitably take up, is packing the SCOTUS with more associate justices, all of course liberal gun-hating jurists. If, by the Grace of God, we can prevent this from happening, we will secure the Second Amendment for future generations. God help us if we can’t.