One of my friends here in Vernal rides a fairly unique machine.  A Z750S.  It’s not the biggest, or the fastest of machines.  It’s not the coolest either. But it does just about everything.  It is fast.  It seems to handle well.  And it cruises just fine.  That’s what I like about it…. Versatility.

This one is M’s.

When I still had my Magna, I was allowed to put the kickstand up on it.  The bike was fun and ran well.  It reminded me of a Cafe Racer in it’s configuration.  No wind protection and fairly aggressive riding position, especially compared my Magna.  I liked it.  It didn’t help me at all to avoid a Sports Bike bug.  Kind of underpowered below 6,000 RPM, but once you get into the powerband… it’s all there.

Now, M’s machine has been modified.  He’s moved his pegs, changed things around, and has improved wind protection by installing a Vetter Windjammer.  It looks strange, I’ll have to say.  And he will be the first to say so himself.  But it works.

This photo was taken in Rangely Colorado.  An hour’s drive from Vernal… but we made it a lot quicker.  The Z750S, dubbed “The Enterprise” due to the bikes overall shape with the Vetter, had no problem cruising at 120 mph even on less than perfect rural roads.  A testament to the Z750S suspension.

Continue reading Monday’s Motorcycle: Kawasaki Z750S →

The story on The Blaze about gun violence as a social healthcare issue is extremely naive.

(The Blaze/AP) — Is a gun like a virus, tobacco or alcohol?  According to “public health experts,“ who in the wake of recent mass shootings are calling for a fresh look at gun violence as a ”social disease,” it is.

What we need, they say, is a “public health approach” to the problem.

Dr. Garen Wintemute of University of California, Davis claims it is no longer enough to tackle gun violence by focusing solely on the people doing the shooting.  Dr. Stephen Hargarten, who treated victims of the Sikh temple shootings at the emergency department he heads in Milwaukee, feels the same way.

“What I’m struggling with is, is this the new social norm?” he asked, before asserting: “This is what we’re going to have to live with if we have more personal access to firearms.”

He continued: “We have a public health issue to discuss. Do we wait for the next outbreak or is there something we can do to prevent it?”

About 260 million to 300 million firearms are owned by civilians in the United States; about one-third of American homes have one.  Last year, 55 percent of Americans said gun laws should either remain the same or become more lenient.

There are some very serious issues with this man’s thinking.  If we are going to look at it like a Disease, we need to look at the Vectors.  What is causing this to spread?  Because it does indeed seem like these shooting sprees are happening more often.   If we are not allowed to look at the Shooter/Lunatic/Criminal as the source of the issue, then let’s look at this issue like we’ve examined other “Social Diseases” such as Smoking.  It’s not fault of Tobacco, it’s just a leaf.  And a firearm is nothing more than a tool.  So again, social, not the object.  Okay, with Cigarettes, the social vector was damn near every movie and tv show and advertising showed us that it was Cool to Smoke and Cool People Smoked, so if you wanted to be cool… you smoked.   So they started limiting smoking in Films and such.  That was a Social response.  But that’s not happening with Gun Violence.  In fact, just the opposite is happening.
When someone goes nuts and starts a shooting spree, the more public and dramatic the better.  The news agencies cover the story in every direction and angle and we see the shooter’s face damn near everywhere.  We know their names, where they lived, and we give them what they want… Fame.   If we want to limit exposure and the glorification of committing a shooting spree… we need to turn our backs on the Shooters.  Don’t make the shooters famous.  Don’t say their names.  Don’t show their pictures.  Report the story, fine, but don’t go about it to make the criminal a pop-star.  They need to be forgotten.

Access to firearms is not a correlation to gun violence.  Where I live – we have probably the highest per capita of gun ownership as any place in the nation.  I live outside of a small town.  We have a number of gun stores.  2 of the top ten of gun stores in the state, with the one I’m working at… last time I looked, we were 4th in the state.  We’re also 3 hours from Population.  One estimation is that we have on average 18 firearms per home.   We have a lot of guns out here.  Shooting sprees have not happened here.  Shooting sprees don’t happen at gun shows either.  Having guns doesn’t mean we’re going to have blood in the streets.

Another Social Issue that we have that allows these shooting sprees to propagate is the fallacy of “Gun Free Zones”.    Most of these shootings happen in Gun Free Zones.  Where good honest Victims are unable to defend themselves.  At the Theater in Colorado.  At the cafeteria in Ft. Hood.  At the campus of Virginia Tech.  The lack of guns in these gun free zones was a contributing factor here.  Notice in each that the shootings only stopped when the guys with the guns showed up.

Guns Save Lives.  Like Parachutes, Helmets, and Seatbelts.  If we are going to cure this social issue… we need to make it cool to for people to Carry and get Training.

Training is the key here.   Just like all other social issues – Education is the Solution.  Learn to use your guns and have them with you.  Have one on you.

Please for the love of all that is holy… Stop using cheap Styrofoam in your packaging.  Use better quality stuff.  Remington uses some, but it’s denser and generally problem free.

Here’s a Winchester.

This was a Shotgun and the area where the barrel’s gas ring was chewed the foam up during shipping.  This caused little foam bits to be all over the gun.  Not too bad but I hate cleaning brand new guns after just opening up a box.  Even when a little bit comes apart… it quickly becomes a mess.

Here’s a Stoeger.

This was just ridiculous.  That stuff was freaking everywhere and it had collected some static so it stuck to everything and fought being wiped off.  It took some time to get it cleaned out.  But for weeks after we would still pull foam bits out from inside parts.  External, Internal… just a train wreck.

Not gives a customer confidence in a product they have just purchased, when we open the box up and it looks like that.    There has got to be a better way.  Eh?