The Truth About Guns

I’ve dreamt of getting my private pilot’s license ever since I can remember. About two months ago, the planets finally aligned. I had the time to take the training course at a good local flight school. Now that ground school is over I need to get some hours in an actual airplane to keep moving forward. That costs money. To fund the first third my flight airtime I decided to sell off my old competition rifle. There’s just one problem: no one wants to buy it . . .

This isn’t a matter of price, parts or advertising. The gun boasts about $2,500 of top-of-the-line kit. Everything from a Noveske barrel down to a Magpul aluminum trigger guard. (I’m asking $1,750.) I listed the rifle for sal

Schultz Media Relations sent this email blast to TTAG central, of which I’ll share with you:

A Highly Detailed Private National Firearm Owner Registry Exists

March 2014- We are NOT accusing Gun Broker, LLC of anything improper nor are we implying anything improper by Gun Broker. In fact we think their business model is neat with many tens of thousands of satisfied buyers and sellers. We are NOT aware of any underhanded activities by Gun Broker including inappropriate release of any member’s personal information. Gun Broker appears strong in support of firearm ownership–that’s also good business, that’s how they earn their money. But the Internet is buzzing (when doesn’t it?) about their “refusals” and requests for more information from applicants . . .

Basic Backgrou

I spent the better part of Saturday hanging out with our man Leghorn. As I watched TTAG’s T&E guy wolf down half-a-pound of Schmidt’s barbecued brisket (moist), we talked about carry vs. home defense guns. I asked Nick why he carries a Wilson Combat Bill Wilson Carry 1911 (review here) but relies on a suppressed SIG SAUER P226 Mk25 for protecting home and hearth. Nick said he carries the 1911 because . . .

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“In the weeks since that blood-soaked first day of March, police nationwide have stepped up gun training. More armed patrols visit train stations and public squares. Experts call for quicker use of guns in emergencies.” – No Guns, Just Knives: Chilling Details of ‘China’s 9/11′ [at usatoday.com]

“An officer’s weapon accidentally fired when a fleeing auto thief’s open car door struck the officer in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood Saturday morning,” ktvu.com reports. In fact, the headline writer reckons Fleeing car thief causes accidental gun discharge by SF officer. You say accidental, I say negligent. Let’s call the whole thing slightly off. Actually, more than slightly. Check this out . . .

The incident occurred around 10:40 a.m. near the intersection of Montgomery and Broadway streets after the officer approached the driver of a parked stolen vehicle, according to San Francisco police spokesman Albie Esparza.

The importance of securing your firearms from children cannot be overstated. When an unsecured firearm leads to a gunshot injury, it’s usually because one child finds the gun and shoots another. But this disaster can unfold in many terrible ways, and a Georgia toddler recently shot his own mother when he found her loaded handgun . . .

23 year-old Joanne Winding thought she saw a prowler outside her Hinesville, GA home on March 26th. The young Army wife retrieved a handgun and loaded it, in case the prowler tried to break in. Nobody tried to break into her home, but Winding failed to secure or unload the handgun before she went back to bed. 

‘Oops’ doesn’t quite cover it.

Whether you’re talking guns, gasoline, matches or drain cleaner, nothing on Earth can ferret out trouble like an unsupervised 2 year-old boy. Winding’s toddler apparently found the loaded heater next to her bed, and promptly shot her

By LC Judas

While my previous posts on the virtues of the .40 S&W round seemed to stirred the sleeping dragon known as the “pistol caliber wars”, that wasn’t really the intent. And today it’s time to talk about what the .40 Smith & Wesson brought about by the nature of round’s existence. There is a lot to thank the .40 for and it usually gets no credit. The round’s virtues go far beyond the fact that it reliably penetrates the 12-18 inches of ballistic gelatin, as it was originally designed . . .

First, the fact that the .40 is easily one of the best upgrades to 9mm handguns there ever was is an easily overlooked and fun fact. I use the Browning Hi Power case for my example. While Smith & Wesson and GLOCK made most of the original sales of handguns chambered in .40 to law

Ruger came out with the SR-556 a couple years back now, and it was very well received. The piston-powered rifle seemed to be rugged and reliable, and when I abused one out in the desert of Arizona it worked like a charm no matter how I neglected it. But it seems that a flaw has been identified in the “varmint” heavy barreled version of the gun that could lead to the gun “going off” when you don’t want it to, and Ruger has issued a recall for all varmint variety rifles. Make the jump for the low-down from their website . . .

WHY WE ARE RECALLING THESE RIFLES
We have determined that the disconnector in the two-stage trigger system on our SR-556VT™ modern sporting rifles was not properly heat treated by a vendor and that the disconnector can wear prematurely. T

I’ll be on Kate Krueger’s Talking Guns program in a few minutes. If y’all want to listen in, click over to her website and click the “Listen Live” link. I’ll have the full audio on the TTAG podcast as soon as it’s over.

TTAG Reader Shawn writes from the Land of Lincoln:

“My concealed carry license application was denied. I can forward you the full explanation of reasons of possible denial but the short version is: I was arrested 6 years ago for domestic battery, charges were dropped. I was admitted voluntarily for a week to a psychiatric ward ten years ago. That’s it. Anyway, I’m in the process of figuring out how to appeal it. In that process, aside from contacting the Illinois State Police, I sent an email to the folks over at Illinois Carry. They in turn forwarded my info to the NRA, and I just got off the phone with a nice lady over there. They’re putting together of a list of some bullsh*t denials to see what they can do about it.” Watch this space.

Our man ShootingTheBull410 ripped RIP ammo a new one. Using proper FBI protocol, STB410 refuted the company’s claims for the round and concluded “this isn’t all that impressive.” FPSRussia’s latest video uses a different gel and has a different take. “This is a very, very deadly self-defense round,” FPS opines, once again inflicting his painfully pathetic Russian accent on unsuspecting Millenials. Even assuming Kyle doesn’t get a commission from G2 (or free ammo), even assuming the ammo maker didn’t prepare the faux Russian’s ballistic gel, FPS does his viewers an extreme disservice by pretending to know what the hell he’s talking about. Will someone please tell Kyle to please go back to simply shooting stuff with big guns?

“This paper estimates the impact of climate change on the prevalence of criminal activity in the United States. The analysis is based on a 30-year panel of monthly crime and weather data for 2997 US counties. I identify the effect of weather on monthly crime by using a semi-parametric bin estimator and controlling for state-by-month and county-by-year fixed effects. The results show that temperature has a strong positive effect on criminal behavior, with little evidence of lagged impacts. Between 2010 and 2099, climate change will cause an additional 22,000 murders, 180,000 cases of rape, 1.2 million aggravated assaults, 2.3 million simple assaults, 260,000 robberies, 1.3 million burglaries, 2.2 million cases of larceny, and 580,000 cases of vehicle theft in the United States.” - 

Some 50-75 people were evacuated from their homes late Wednesday afternoon after police received a report that “potentially dangerous devices” that looked like large caliber bullets and artillery shells were found in a recently-vacated apartment. Police set up a perimeter around the neighborhood, evacuated several dozen residents, rerouted school and municipal buses, and kept the area locked down for several hours. The munitions were eventually determined to be de-militarized, were removed by specialists, and residents were allowed to return to their homes after a few hours. The photo above came from the link above, which has more . . .

photos and a video, and another video

I have a soft place in my heart for rimfire rifles and and an extra soft spot for Ruger rimfire rifles. My first gun was a 10/22 which still keeps chugging despite the tens of thousands of rounds of poor quality ammuntion, dirt, and poor maintenance I’ve thrown at it over the years. And while it has been a great gun, there’s something to be said for having a bolt action gun in the safe. Especially for teaching new shooters the finer points of marksmanship. Enter the Ruger American Rifle in .22 LR . . .

“The incident began at about noon today when the off-duty officer was at his home with his child when he did not respond to his doorbell and a knock on the door,” chicagotribune.com. “Believing that it was a solicitor, the officer ignored the people but noticed that after not responding, a van parked in front of his home sped off, returned and parked on the side of the home . . . At that point,

A few days ago, the powers that be in Washington decided that Bitcoin will be treated like a commodity and not like a currency. That means it’ll be taxed as capital gains if you make money off it, just like stocks. But there’s one thing that the untraceable, anonymous, and very high-tech crypto-currency can buy that you can’t directly trade your shares of IBM for: guns. Specifically, TrackingPoint’s Toyota Camry-priced rifle . . .

The Biz Journal has the story:

“We’re proponents of progress, both internally in our smart rifle development and externally in the rapidly modernizing world around us,” said