The Truth About Guns

The rise of the rugged, reliable zero-to-low power variable rifle scope in the last decade has been a fantastic development. Scopes like the Burris MTAC, Leupold VX-R Patrol and Bushnell SMRS can meet your aiming needs from sitting-room distances out to 300 yards and beyond. From CQB to DMR to hog and coyote hunting, they bridge the gap between red dot sights and magnifying optics. But most of them bridge that gap verrry sloooowly. And that’s where a good scope throw lever comes in . . .

Scope magnification-adjustment rings tend to be stiff and sluggish to turn, and in general this is a good thing. A quick, loose ring might be a snap to adjust in the field, but that ring has to be extremely well sealed to keep mois

Five women were attending the meeting of a home prayer group at a duplex apartment in Marion, Ohio last Thursday when the heavens opened up above them. Technically it was the ceiling that opened up above them, when the upstairs neighbor (not our very own Nick Leghorn, above) negligently fired a load of buckshot through his floor . . .

Following our esteemed Vice President’s advice, 59 year-old Terry Thacker keeps a double-barrel shotgun for home protection. According to police and marionstar.com, Thacker’s ‘Old Reliable’ was loaded with buckshot as he manipulated it in his second-floor duplex apartment.

The blast tore through his floor and into the apartment below, striking two of the congregants including an elderly women. Maybe the Big Guy Upstairs (not Thacker) was looking after the victims after all, because t

Is there some unoccupied space in your gun safe? Do you need a good plinker to use when training new shooters? Fear not. Our friends at Florida Gun Supply are giving away a brand spanking new Walther P22. All you have to do to enter is click the image above or make the jump to log in through Facebook or using your email address. Finding ammo, though, is up to you.

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Most bad guys don’t want a gunfight. If they see a gun on your hip they will either shoot you before you figure out what’s happening (yes, there is that) or avoid you altogether. If there are two or more people open carrying the odds of a criminal attack decrease exponentially. OK, that’s a scientific term for a wild-ass guess. Life is a crap shoot (so to speak). Open carry isn’t exactly common practice. How do the bad guys know if someone is or isn’t likely to be carrying concealed (unless they live in a gun-free paradise)? And what if it’s a drive-by shooting like t

The AR-15 platform has indeed gotten a bit stale. Everyone and their illegitimate cousin twice removed makes a version of the gun these days, and for most manufacturers all they actually do is grab a barrel from one supplier, a receiver from another, slap their branding on it and call the thing “new.” And for most consumers, that’s good enough. But Adams Arms has gone a few steps further. Not only have they completely re-designed the gas system to use a piston instead of direct impingement, but they go to the trouble of making their own parts — barrels included. While that’s all very impressive, as always the proof is in how well the gun actually runs. And even on that end, the company does things, well, differently . . .

Having reviewed few guns i

Idaho educators are up in arms about legislation that would allow [legal] guns on campus. Meanwhile, women continue to be raped, assaulted and murdered, both on and off campus. (Men too.) But mostly off-campus, such as the woman who was gang-raped near UC Santa Barbara. An assault

German gun maker Walther is the subject of a breathless story at dw.de that details charges made by something called the Outcry Campaign (Stoppt den Waffenhandel!). The anti-arms trade org – their goal is to enshrine the prohibition of arms exports in the German Constitution – points out that Colombia’s state-owned arms seller, Indumil, features Walther handguns stamped “Made in Germany” despite the South American country being a “conflict” zone. And while Walther claims they don’t know how their guns got into Indumil’s inventory, Outcry’s Jürgen Grässlin isn’t buying

“I love guns. Grew up with ‘em. As a former police officer with 12 years in the U.S. military, I know how to use them, too – use them well. I plan to buy more – a bunch more. In fact, who’s to say I don’t already have a veritable arsenal? Point is, it ain’t Big Brother Barack’s nor any other candy-keistered-liberal-cream-puff’s bloody business whether I do or not. See, the left’s totalitarian brand of “gun control” has nothing to do with controlling guns – or bad guys. Rather, it has everything to do with controlling – disarming – the law-abiding masses. It’s not about protecting the innocents. It’s about rendering the innocents defenseless.” Matt Barber, Civil War’s A-Brewin’ [via westernjournalism.com]

The situation in Ukraine continues to deteriorate, and the only good thing coming out of that whole situation is that we get to gawk at the Russian hardware on display. There are a large number of soldiers currently around Russia’s Black Sea base in Crimea, strangely wearing no identifying patches. But one person on Reddit (/u/NihilNovae_Su) has sifted through the images from various news sites and identified the top-of-the-line brand new Russian-built firearms they’re toting. Make the jump for some more pictures (re-printed with permission) . . .

We’ve posted this advice many times before: after a defensive gun use (DGU) don’t say anything to the police. OK, you can say “My life was in danger” and “I will be happy to provide a statement after I speak with my lawyer. I want to speak to my lawyer.” And that’s it. We usually come at this topic from the police entrapment point-of-view. In other words, the post-DGU po-po will pretend to be your friends to elicit information, ostensibly to help understand your righteous shoot. But it’s entirely possible – indeed probable – that they’re gathering information to use against you in a court of law. You must assume so. And here’s another way of looking at it: everything you know about your DGU is wrong. And we know that because the cops know it, too, now . . .

RF’s been lusting after the Model 89 from Big Horn Armory for some time. In fact, he waited three-and-a-half years for his S&W 500-firing firearm. So long, in fact, that el jefe forgot who made the rifle [Ed: that's my excuse and I'm sticking with it.] Again, this soft-shooting beast is the product of Big Horn Armory, not his other favorite slow-poke custom lever gun maker Grizzly Custom Guns. RF’s also been eyeing a wheelgun in the same flavor for protection from bears (oh my) but something tells me he’ll give up on that one as soon as he puts a few horse-choking rounds through one. Anyway, his dream lever gun finally arrived in the mail a few days ago – for the third time. Friday he brought it to Best of the West to

Emily Walton is a political activist. The Boise State University grad’s been campaigning to prevent Americans from exercising their natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms on Idaho college campuses. Ms. Walton recently testified in front of the House Committee considering the bill (testimony text after the jump). Her argument: nobody wants it. Yes, well, what about this from arbiteronline.com: “There are 367 registered sex offenders living within a three mile radius of Boise State’s campus, according to the Central Sex Offender Registry of  Idaho. This currently includes 19 students enrolled at Boise State who are

He was vilified for his intolerance of Americans and his abhorrence of the Second Amendment. His ratings sank lower and lower until he was shown the door.  He was the subject of a petition signed by over 100,000 people asking for his deportation from the United States. He was reportedly abusive to his staff and crew. Yet, in spite of these achievements – or perhaps because of them – a commenter at

Is there some unoccupied space in your gun safe? Do you need a good plinker to use when training new shooters? Fear not. Our friends at Florida Gun Supply are giving away a brand spanking new Walther P22. All you have to do to enter is click the image above or make the jump to log in through Facebook or using your email address. Finding ammo, though, is up to you.

Well, why not? I can’t think of one place where I shouldn’t be able to exercise my natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms. Schools? Abso-damn-lutely. Disarming law-abiding citizens who could protect our most precious asset is the height of insanity. Bars? Why wouldn’t you want to carry in a bar (unless you were planning on or had a tendency towards becoming inebriated). Football stadiums and concert venues? D’uh. Airplanes? Your problem being…? Prisons? OK, maybe prisons, where firearms retention could be a serious issue and there are plenty of armed guards nearby. And sure, private businesses that wish to exclude armed customers. Otherwise I’m all for guns everywhere, open carry too. You? [h/t JA]

Not for nothing, TTAG warned of bloodshed when Connecticut legislators first mooted the post-Newtown gun control legislation that Governor Dannel Malloy eventually signed into law. With the stroke of a pen, Malloy turned tens, if not hundreds of thousands of previously lawful gun owners into felons – unless they registered their “assault rifles” and “high-capacity magazines” with the state, destroyed them or sold them out of state. As Reverend Wright opined in one of his America-last rants, the chickens are coming home to roost. That said, they ain’t home yet. Meanwhile, gun rights advocates are steeling themselves – and their followers – for that fateful day. They’re looking for signs indica

“I feel pretty confident in telling you that there is broad consensus . . . that we do not want weapons in or anywhere around our congregations. If you do post the (no guns allowed) signs, then the message you’re sending to everyone is, ‘Gee, I wonder if anyone is carrying a gun.’ In some ways, by making people aware of the possibility, you actually raise anxiety.” – Bishop Wayne Miller, Concealed carry law tests whether guns, God mix [via suntimes.com]

“I don’t think this has anything to do with the second amendment rights when you have the right to carry a weapon off your property. An automobile is not a part of your home. It’s a part of the public property when you get out on it.” That’s from Bobby Timmons (right above), Executive Director of the Alabama Sheriff’s Association, speaking out against a bill that would allow the carry of loaded handguns in vehicles without needing a concealed carry permit. This bill follows on the heels of one passed last year that allows unloaded handguns to be carried in cars without a permit. There are no restrictions on loaded long guns. The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Scott Beason (left above), says that the castle doctrine should extend to your car, and that t

This day has been a long time coming. Illinois is the last state in the union to recognize the right of its citizens to keep and bear arms. And rather than face a judicial mandate that would have made the Land of Lincoln a no-permit, shall-issue 2A heaven, legislators instead conjured a permitting process that’s about as painful and tedious as possible. Even so, around 46,000 people have applied and been approved for a concealed carry permit so far. And now word comes that the first 5,000 concealed carry licenses have arrived in the mailboxes of applicants . . .

At 12:46 PM local time on Saturday, the first post of someone unwrapping his concealed carry license appeared on an Illinois-based forum. From what the local papers are report

No, that’s not one of Paul Allen’s futuristic blasters. HatsanUSA’s new AT-P1 will shoot pellets up to .25 caliber from its 10-round detachable magazine. And at speeds as high as 870 fps, whatever you hit will know it’s been hit. Press release after the jump . . .

The new AT-P1 from HatsanUSA Inc. provides shooters with a hard-hitting and affordable alternative for honing their shooting skills, as pellets are both inexpensive and readily available.

The AT-P1’s pre-charged pneumatic (PCP) power system uses a 50cc air cylinder with 200 bar fill (3000PSI) to propel high-density lead pellets to velocities as high as 87