The Truth About Guns
Exploring the ethics, morality, business, politics, culture, technology, practice, strategy, dangers and fun of guns
Updated: 1 week 2 days ago
SHOT Show: A Bullpup ‘GLOCK’ Rifle From META Tactical
Nope, don’t look at the grip. It’s behind that…farther…yep, right in front of the cable lock is a GLOCK pistol. The rear end of META Tactical’s APEX-Series Carbine Conversion Kit opens up like the maw of a C-5 Galaxy, allowing the insertion of your pistol with META’s 16-inch barrel installed.
A pin then goes through the trigger guard, which is connected up to the forward trigger that you’ll use to fire the weapon.
Continue reading SHOT Show: A Bullpup ‘GLOCK’ Rifle From META Tactical at The Truth About Guns.
SHOT Show: Quick-Deploy Steel Targets From Two Brands
Cla-a-a-a-ang! It’s hard to beat the instant, positive feedback of shooting at a steel target. Unfortunately, they’re generally cumbersome and slow to assemble on the range. Not a big deal for targets that live on the range, but most of us have to set up our targets at the start of a range day and break ’em back down to take them home at the end. Stake Out Targets and Hammer Targets are seeking to make that process faster, easier, and tool-free.
Continue reading SHOT Show: Quick-Deploy Steel Targets From Two Brands at The Truth About Guns.
CHICAGO JUSTICE: Armed Home Invasion Nets A Few Weeks In Prison For Perp Who Was Shot In Butt
In the Land of Lincoln, prison sentences are a lot like dog-years, only in reverse. A home invasion conviction in Chicago proves the point. Christopher Johnson, 16-time felon fresh out of prison on parole, found himself a weapon (go figure!) and committed an armed home invasion in 2019. He forced entry on an occupied apartment in a ritzy neighborhood a couple blocks from Lake Michigan.
Cops caught up with him after the (legally) armed resident shot the home invader in the butt, narrowly missing Mr.
SHOT SHOW: Palmetto State’s New Dagger Micro 9mm and Rock 57 5.7×28 Pistols
Palmetto Armory announced a couple of very compelling additions to their pistol lineup at SHOT Show. The first is the new Dagger Micro, a micro-compact version of their 9mm striker-fired pistol.
Palmetto State will offer the new 15+1 Dagger Micro in two configurations, one with standard iron sights and one with an optics cut and threaded barrel.
Note that the model shown at SHOT is a pre-production version.
Annette Evans Scares the Hell Out of the Gun Control Industry
Picture a gunslinger and Annette Evans probably does not spring to mind. She is Chinese-American, lives in the suburbs of Philadelphia and identifies herself as socially liberal—not the archetypal conservative, rural white man. Yet she owns over a dozen rifles, pistols and shotguns (“one for every occasion, like purses or shoes”) and teaches self-defence courses to women. Her race and gender put her at risk, she says. “It may be a low chance that I’ll run into someone who will kill me, but without a gun, I’ll die.”
More gun-owners, especially new ones, look like Ms Evans.
SHOT Show: EAA / Girsan MCP35 Hi-Power Pistol
SHOT Show 2022 felt a lot like the year of the Hi-Power. Or High Power, depending on who you ask. I believe the most affordable new-retro gun of the BHP variety is this bad boy, the MCP35 made by Girsan and imported by EAA.
MSRP is just $544, at least for the more classic version seen in the lead photo. Seen above is a slightly modernized MCP35 with a nice beavertail frame.
Continue reading SHOT Show: EAA / Girsan MCP35 Hi-Power Pistol at The Truth About Guns.
SHOT Show: Metal Feed Lip B&T Compatible Magazines From KCI USA
KCI USA showed off their new B&T compatible magazines at SHOT Show this year, and I swung by to get a look for myself. As great as B&T’s products are, a polymer magazine with polymer feed lips in an extremely high-end, expensive, Swiss-made gun feels slightly out of place. At least to me. KCI has added some steel back to the equation.
Molded around the magazine at the top is a steel surround with steel feed lips.
SHOT Show: Roller Delayed Blowback AR-9 From MEAN LLC
I feel lucky to have stumbled upon this at SHOT Show, because I was extremely impressed by the engineering and machining of the MEAN LLC delayed blowback mechanism and immediately attempted to sweet talk my way into a complete upper receiver loaner for review.
Three hardened ball bearings lock the bolt head into the barrel extension. By installing the bolt head one of three ways you can adjust the amount of lockup tension and delay to fine-tune the action to your gun, your ammo, and suppressed/unsuppressed use.
Continue reading SHOT Show: Roller Delayed Blowback AR-9 From MEAN LLC at The Truth About Guns.
PERSONAL DEFENSE & SAFETY: Priceless Comments From My Dashcam Confrontation Story
My recent story about what happened after a driver side-swiped my car elicited all manner of comments here at TTAG. A few of them were highly critical of how I handled the situation. While criticism sometimes stings, if we don’t learn from it, those lessons will never translate into wisdom and as such, opportunities are lost for better handling future situations.
Even better, each and every one of our TTAG visitors can learn a lot from both the stories and from comments offered by some of our sharp readers.
Fagan: New York City Can’t Arrest Its Way Back to Safety
So far, [New York City Mayor Eric] Adams has ordered more police officers to be deployed to the subways as part of a plan with the state. The joint plan includes dispatching mental health professionals into the system. But hirings have yet to begin. On Friday the state released requests for proposals for community groups to respond.
Gun violence has abated in some neighborhoods but persisted in the Bronx and parts of northern Manhattan, where earlier this month a 19-year-old woman working at Burger King in East Harlem was fatally shot during a robbery.
Continue reading Fagan: New York City Can’t Arrest Its Way Back to Safety at The Truth About Guns.
SHOT Show: An AR-15 Rifles For The Kiddos From WEE1 Tactical
Sure to get the antis’ knickers in a bunch, the new JR-15 from WEE1 Tactical is a scaled-down AR-15 chambered in .22 LR with a couple kid-focused features built in.
The JR-15 weighs under 2.5 lbs, has a unique safety that gives parents some extra control over the rifle, and has magazines available in 1-, 5-, and 10-round capacities.
When I get back from SHOT Show I’m going to request a T&E unit to take to the range with my daughters (9 and 6 y/o).
SHOT Show: EOTECH Now Making an Actual Red Dot Sight – The New EFLX Mini Reflex Sight
Lots of gun owners think EOTECH’s holographic sights are red dots. They aren’t. They’re holographic sights which are a very different animal (see this post for the details). But SHOT Show saw EOTECH announce their first actual red dot, the new EFLX Mini Reflex Sight (MRS).
It’s got a lot going for it. The new EFLX (pronounced e-flex) is built with the Leupold DeltaPoint footprint will have a 3 MOA or 6 MOA dot.
Defund, Decarcerate, and Don’t Prosecute: Four NYPD Cops Shot in the Last Four Days
From the AP . . .
A New York City police officer lay in a hospital Saturday after being critically wounded in a shooting in a Harlem apartment that left a fellow officer dead, authorities said.
The man who shot them with a stolen gun was also in critical condition, wounded by a third officer who fired at him as he tried to flee, officials said.
The two officers were shot Friday night while answering a call about an argument between a woman and her adult son.
Norway’s Worst Mass Murderer Seeks Parole From His Cushy Confinement
By Mark Lewis, AP
Convicted mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik spends his days in a spacious three-room cell, playing video games, exercising, watching TV and taking university-level courses in mathematics and business.
Halfway through a 21-year sentence and seeking early release, Breivik, 42, is being treated in a way that might seem shocking to people outside of Norway, where he killed eight in an Oslo bombing in 2011, and then stalked and gunned down 69 people, mostly teens, at a summer camp.
SHOT Show: Ultimate Ammunition and Cadex Temperature and Humidity Controlled Ammo Case
I’m not sure if this is an Ultimate Ammunition product, a Cadex product, or a co-branded venture, but I am sure it’s pretty darn cool. For those who take their extreme long range (ELR) shooting extremely seriously, precise muzzle velocities matter a whole heck of a lot.
Gunpowder and primers are temperature-sensitive, with changes in temperature causing small changes in burn rate. A 40-degree cartridge won’t fire the bullet at the same speed as a 108-degree cartridge will.
In Praise of the Dash Cam: Capturing An Angry Driver After a Collision
I’ve advocated the use of dash cams for probably six years now. A road rage incident near Springfield, Illinois one evening convinced me of the prudence and wisdom of having a visual record of events while driving. I bought one the next day and haven’t regretted it for a minute.
Since then, I’ve upgraded to a much higher resolution camera (near 4k quality with a Rove R2-4k) and been even happier. It’s a set-and-forget-until-you-need-it” system, and mine sits unobtrusively, mounted on the far side of my rear-view mirror.
SHOT Show: The KelTec P50 Rifle Conversion Kit
Last year’s virtual SHOT Show revealed the space age P50 from KelTec. If you’re not familiar with the P50, then you’re missing out. Well, you’re missing out if you like weird guns.
The P50 is this crazy, retro-futuristic 5.7x28mm pistol that uses P90 magazines. It’s a handgun, but a really, really big one.
Big handguns can be tough to wield. Short rifles are much easier. Thus, KelTec has released the P50 rifle conversion kit.
Continue reading SHOT Show: The KelTec P50 Rifle Conversion Kit at The Truth About Guns.
SHOT Show 2022: Kalashnikov USA’s Chaos
My love of shotguns extends to the mostly useless firearm category of pistol grip-only 12 gauge firearms that have become popular as of late. These firearms don’t mind getting a little silly, and Kalashnikov USA’s Chaos is a perfect example of a silly twelve-gauge firearm that meets all the criteria for a fun gun.
The name Kalashnikov USA should tune you into what we are looking at here. Kalashnikov USA makes the very handy and practical Komrad.
Continue reading SHOT Show 2022: Kalashnikov USA’s Chaos at The Truth About Guns.
Congressman Dragged for Cleaning His Gun During a Committee Meeting
Imagine you showed up for a Zoom meeting and a colleague decided that was when he needed to clean his gun. Because that’s what happened today in a Congressional roundtable on toxic exposure. We’re better than this. pic.twitter.com/ePJGKdspfY
— Lindsay Church (@lkmchurch) January 20, 2022
[North Carolina Rep. Madison] Cawthorn’s behavior would have gone unnoticed on Wednesday were it not for Lindsay Church, the cofounder of Minority Veterans of America, who also spoke during the meeting.
Ninth Circuit Panel Rules California Pandemic Gun Store Shut Downs Unconstitutional
By Don Thompson, AP
Two California counties violated the Constitution’s right to keep and bear arms when they shut down gun and ammunition stores in 2020 as nonessential businesses during the coronavirus pandemic, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.
Officials in Los Angeles and Ventura counties had separately won lower court decisions saying gun stores were not exempt from broader shutdown orders aimed at limiting the spread of the coronavirus early in the pandemic.