The Truth About Guns
Exploring the ethics, morality, business, politics, culture, technology, practice, strategy, dangers and fun of guns
Updated: 9 hours 22 min ago
Making Merry: Over 680,000 Firearm Background Checks Performed During Black Friday Week
From the NSSF . . .
NSSF, The Firearm Industry Trade Association, revealed that the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) completed 680,671 background checks related to firearms for the week leading up to, and including, “Black Friday,” one of the busiest shopping days of the year. That figure is down slightly from 2022’s total of 711,372 for the same time period. The 2023 total is a 4.3 percent decrease from the 2022 figure.
Historical Analogues: Text, History, and Tradition From a More Civilized Time
As we’ve seen, when arguing about the text, history and tradition of gun control in America, a lot of the historical carry laws that existed in the 19th century restricted concealed carry, but allowed open carry.
As supporters of gun control struggle to justify the legality modern gun control laws under Bruen — including restrictions on concealed carry struggle to come up with historical analogues — the counterargument I’ve heard to this point is that while open carry wasn’t restricted, it was considered such a faux pas in urban areas that it was effectively banned by social custom if not law.
Dr. Strangegun or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the GLOCK
I got interested in handguns relatively late in life. My interest was driven by a desire to be ready, willing and able to defend myself and my family, in case trouble comes. Now I am, by nature, an analytical person. I tend to study, gather information, read a lot, ask a lot of questions, and only then, when I feel like I’m at least a little knowledgeable, do I make a buying decision.
Well, that’s how I see myself doing it.
While More Americans are Armed, Don’t Expect That to Affect the Parties’ Stances on Guns
By Rob Morse
Our society is changing and those changes have resulted in many of us choosing to buy a firearm. We see crime rising around us. We notice that criminals are no longer routinely caught by police or prosecuted in the courts. The response is entirely predictable.
We make decisions like considering a move to a safer location (see: California, Illinois, and New York) We decide that owning a gun for personal protection makes sense.
The Truth About Guns and Church Security
Every church should have one or more good guys with guns protecting the flock. Every synagogue. Every temple. Every mosque. Anywhere people gather to worship should have a planned and trained ballistic response ready to an imminent, credible threat of grievous bodily harm or death.
Pistol packing parishioners protect the extended religious community as well as their own friends and family. Some have done so for years — both with and without the church leadership’s knowledge.
Continue reading The Truth About Guns and Church Security at The Truth About Guns.
Jacobs: Movie Industry Still Wrestling With How to Maintain Safety on Sets With Guns After the ‘Rust’ Shooting
Scott Reeder, the head of props on “Walker,” the TV revival about a gun-toting Texas Ranger, was planning for a scene in which a woman points a revolver at a captive when a new set of orders arrived: real guns would no longer be used in the production.
It was shortly after a cinematographer had been fatally shot on the set of the film “Rust” in New Mexico, when a gun Alec Baldwin had been rehearsing with fired a live bullet.
Listen to Jeremy S. on Ava Flanell’s Gun Funny Podcast
If you don’t know Ava Flanell or her Gun Funny podcast, you should. She’s smart, funny, and has great gun-related guests. Despite that sterling track record, she somehow decided having Jeremy on the podcast to talk about TTAG and his other venture, Black Collar Arms, would be a good idea.
He was sick as a dog when they recorded this, but she wasn’t about the cut him any slack and let him cancel.
Continue reading Listen to Jeremy S. on Ava Flanell’s Gun Funny Podcast at The Truth About Guns.
Gun Review: WBP Jack 556SR: Warsaw + NATO = Perfection
I never thought I’d see the day when 5.56mm AKs made financial sense. Sure, they’ve always been a cool concept, but one that was so expensive compared to running cheap 7.62×39 ammo and cheap surplus magazines that only collectors and guys with stocks of 5.56 ammo ever bought them.
On top of that, early guns weren’t very reliable…especially compared to 7.62 guns, plus most of the options available at the time were very expensive overall, namely Arsenal and Beryl clones.
Continue reading Gun Review: WBP Jack 556SR: Warsaw + NATO = Perfection at The Truth About Guns.
Basic Malfunction Clearing Drill: Learn the Tap, Rack, Bang
If you have a semi-automatic pistol, you’ve experienced a stoppage. If you just bought your first, give it time. It will happen. It may be a failure to fire, a failure to feed, a double feed, a failure to eject, a magazine that’s not fully seated…whatever. If it can go wrong, it will and anyone who carries a semi-automatic handgun or relies on one for home defense needs to know what to do if and when it happens to you.
Gun Review: 21st TEC TEC-47 AR-10
The venerable AR-15 platform rifle can seemingly do anything and chamber any cartridge…as long as it’s intermediate. Well, mostly intermediate. AR-15s in the 7.62×39 have always been an interesting conundrum. Some work perfectly well while others will have problems from day one. Those problems include light primer strikes, weak bolts, and weird magazines. Yet, those striving to use the 7.62×39 in an AR platform design haven’t given up, and the latest to make an attempt is 21st TEC with their TEC-47.
Continue reading Gun Review: 21st TEC TEC-47 AR-10 at The Truth About Guns.
EDC Greatness: The J-Frame Revolver for Deep Cover Concealed Carry…Still
In today’s world, the semi-auto pistol reigns supreme. It seems that in a world with 11+1 micro-compacts, people today often turn their noses up at small-frame revolvers. Make no mistake, small-frame revolvers still have their place in deep cover applications. Especially in non-permissive environments for those who choose to carry anyway.
Sure, some will no doubt scoff at the idea of carrying a five-shot revolver. They have a long double-action trigger pull and a short sight radius.
I’ve Been Carrying The Full-Size M&P 10mm M2.0…Here’s How That’s Going
Last year, I posted several reviews, including full-size M&P 10mm pistol with an upgraded spring, Crossbreed’s modular purse and bellyband holster, a Blackhawk T-series open carry holster for the desert and woods, and Primary Arms’ version of the Holosun 507C-X2 with a chevron reticle.
It’s been a little over a year, so I wanted to give readers a follow-up on how going with all of that gear. Long story short — everything is doing pretty well with some minor issues that have cropped up with the Crossbreed purse board.
Blackman: The Supreme Court Will Have its Hands Full in Writing a Reversal in Rahimi
Let’s start with a premise: Rahimi was a faithful application of Bruen. Efforts to “clarify” Bruen are really an attempt to rewrite the precedent. I don’t think anyone seriously doubts this premise. Now the reason why the Court may “clarify” Bruen is because certain members of the Court don’t like the results that it yields: namely, that a dangerous person like Rahimi can possess a firearm. Again, the correctness of the Bruen precedent should be able to stand without regard to how it may be applied in future cases.
Gun Meme of the Day: Happy Thanksgiving Edition
Happy Thanksgiving, y’all!
Continue reading Gun Meme of the Day: Happy Thanksgiving Edition at The Truth About Guns.
The Guide to the History of the M16 Rifle You Never Knew You Needed
The M16 has a fascinating history in many ways. Its appearance is iconic, and has certainly become part of American culture. It is also a symbol, a microcosm, representing both American ingenuity, blunders…but also triumph.
The M16 design and development process itself was a brutal slog, resulting in a number of wrongheaded missteps, and ultimately in the tragic deaths of service members due to bureaucratic idiocy. Eventually, however, it became, in many ways, a superior rifle to the ones it replaced and led to the current service rifle of our armed forces, the M4 carbine.
Obscure Object of Desire: The Mauser HSc Super .380 Pistol
Pistol development in the early 1900s was rapid. Pistols were being spit out at a rapid rate, and it seemed that almost every other year, some new advancement would be made in the technology.
In 1900, we got the first semi-auto pistol with a slide, and by 1911, we had the M1911. That’s how fast things were moving, and by the 1930s, the semi-automatic pistol was fast becoming the choice of military and police forces across the world.
Continue reading Obscure Object of Desire: The Mauser HSc Super .380 Pistol at The Truth About Guns.
Ruger Follows Up the Marlin Dark Series with the Re-Release of the Marlin Classic Model 1894 Chambered in .357 Magnum
Hot on the heels of the re-release of the Marlin Dark Series, Ruger has just announced the re-release of one of Marlin’s all-time classics, the Model 1894 lever action chambered in .357 Magnum. Unlike the Dark Series guns, the 1894 Classic is, well, a classic. It has blued steel and an American Black Walnut stock with tasteful checkering and a rubber recoil pad.
The new Marlin 1894 sports an 18.63-inch cold hammer forged barrel, an adjustable semi-Buckhorn rear sight, and a hooded brass bead on the front.
Happy Thanksgiving From The Truth About Guns
Even in the midst of political and economic uncertainty, foreign and domestic unrest, and higher prices, there’s always plenty to be thankful for in America, each in our own way. Creating a holiday dedicated to recognizing the good fortune of living in the greatest country on Earth was President Lincoln’s greatest achievement (right behind winning the Civil War and ending slavery).
So whether you’ll be proclaiming your thankfulness at the dinner table this year for big things like good health and happiness or just for moist sage and onion stuffing and having a plentiful supply of ammo on hand, don’t forget to include our Second Amendment freedoms.
Continue reading Happy Thanksgiving From The Truth About Guns at The Truth About Guns.
NBC News Poll Reveals Gun Ownership Has Hit a New Record High in America
From the CCRKBA . . .
A new NBC poll showing more than half of American voters (52%) saying they or someone in their household owns a gun is one more affirmation of the importance of the Second Amendment, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms stated.
According to the NBC poll, this is the highest-ever percentage of voters who acknowledge being in a gun-owning household. The network has been tracking this since 1999.