The Truth About Guns

It doesn’t look too mall ninja-esque, but Benchmade’s new 484 folder has all the right moves for an EDC for CCW knife. It’s bombproof-strong and fully ambidextrous. And it’s not so big or scary-looking as to frighten the muggles. If anything, it might be just a little too sweet to haul around every day and risk it falling out of your back pocket. Jump over to The Truth About Knives for the deets . . .

I responded to an email blast and attended an organizational meeting of the St. Louis area Friends of the NRA group last week. They’re getting ready to put on their annual rubber chicken dinner and fundraiser on April 5. Proceeds fund the NRA Foundation’s grants to kids’ shooting and safety programs, high school rifle teams, Boy Scout troops, range improvements and general support of the shooting sports. All good causes aimed at getting more shooters out there having fun, pulling triggers and promoting the next generation of gun owners. Missouri, as you might expect, is fairly fertile ground for the NRA. Friends chapters hold 26 dinners across the state (and 1100 na

If you’ve gotten over the XD-S trigger recall – and I’m not telling you you should — Springfield has a new version of their tiny single-stack concealed carry pistols that you (just) might enjoy shooting enough to actually practice with. The secret ingredient for improved accuracy and ergonomics? Added size and weight. Imagine that . . .

The latest Croatian sensation wears a 4-inch barrel, instead of the 3.3-inch tube of its predecessor. This adds a smidge more velocity, but more importantly it adds muzzle weight and sight radius for better handling and accuracy. This XD-S may be wafer-thin, but it’s got the same barrel length and sight radius as the benchmark Glock 19.

Will this added

Constitution State Republicans are jockeying for position ahead of Connecticut’s gubernatorial election. As tens of thousands of previously law-abiding – now felonious  - gun owners are up in arms, gun control is something of a headline issue. At a debate on Sunday (covered by our friends at courant.com), State Senate Republican Leader John McKinney defended his 2013 decision to support a package of civilian disarmament laws that included a ban on the sale of standard capacity ammunition magazines and modern spo

“Connecticut has a gun problem,” Hartford, Connecticut’s courant.com declares. Roger that. “Guns defined in state law as assault weapons can no longer be bought or sold in Connecticut. Such guns already held can be legally possessed if registered. But owning an unregistered assault weapon is a Class D felony. Felonies cannot go unenforced.” Wait. What? Is the Courant calling for Governor Malloy to start a civil war? Because that’s what will happen if the State Police start confiscating no

Smith & Wesson is bringing back the well-loved, if not outrageously over-engineered, Model 66 ‘Combat Magnum’ for 2014. The original Model 66 has been out of production for nine years, which apparently has whetted shooters’ appetites enough to justify a new production run . . .

Essentially a stainless iteration of the .357 Magnum Model 19, the K-Frame 66 was in steady production from 1970 until 2005. Smith enthusiasts believe the Model 19/66 trigger to be lighter and smoother than the later Model 686 trigger, because the latter revolver’s oversized cylinder simply requires too much effort to spin in the frame. I’ve always considered the 19/66 to be a more attractive gun than the (still handsome) 586/686 because of its slightly more rounded lines and recessed cylinder heads.

“I think concealed carry permits should be handed out subjectively with an objective standard. We’re a crowded place. … The last thing I need is people that aren’t trained on firearms who may not be in the right frame of mind from being so scared or having a cocktail or two. I would much rather they rely on us.” - San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr quoted in Want a concealed gun in California? Head north [via sfgate.com]

Is it me or has Kyle slipped out of ironic self-parody into something roughly akin to real gun reviews? Gunblast without the beard, with a slow motion camera and some cheap targets. I thought the whole point of the FPS schtick was that the faux Russian wasn’t your average YouTube gun guy. That he was “reviewing” guns purely in terms of their ability to create ballistic mayhem. The destruction and the explosions were the point of the exercise, not whether or not the guns were well-made or reliable. In Russia well-made shoots you. Like that. The fact that the Kyle pulls a Wizard of Oz on the burning car in the background tells me he’s lost his lust for life. Hey FPS. Screw Twitter. Hit me up for your Elvis Comeback Special. I love you, bro.

Anyone remember Chariots of the Gods? The runaway bestseller suggested that Earth had been visited by “ancient astronauts” (astronauts who visited Earth a while back, not old aliens, although who knows how you date an ancient astronaut and what color roses they prefer). Danish author and hotelier Eric von Däniken theorized – heavily – that aliens had blessed humanity with advanced technology. Chariots attributed various “mysteries” (e.g., the Egyptian pyramids, Stonehenge and Easter Island’s Maoi) to these strange visitors from another planet. The theory sparked the imaginations of millions. Unfortunately for the author . . .

Swiss authorities weren’t as impressed with Mr. von Däniken’s ho

When was the last airsoft review we posted here at TTAG? Probably about never, which is probably when we’ll run the next one too. But in the interests of sheer ballistic goofiness, I thought I’d pass along this short video showing how to spray airsoft pellets all over the bloody place and have it cost you hardly any money. Except for the pellets. You’re gonna need a lot of those . . .

This soda-bottle ordnance is the perfect complement to your (void where prohibited by law) soda-bottle dry ice grenade. I’m not sure why he calls it a bullpup, except that the ‘breech’ of the barrel is behind what functions as a trigger mechanism. I don’t actually plan on trying this for myself, but I’d probably wrap the thing in duct-tape if I did, to cut down the plastic-bottle shrapnel if there were a barrel obstruction and the thing decided to go poof instead of ‘ppffffttt.’

And remember, in NYC y

At Ammoland.com Rick Ektor writes:

As a Firearm Safety and Personal Protection Instructor in Detroit, I often find it useful to read and analyze published defensive gun use (DGU) stories and to share my findings with students enrolled in my Concealed Pistol License (CPL) Class. As such, yesterday I saw the posted video of the Chicago off-duty law enforcement officer, who defended himself against three assailants, to be full of “teachable moments” for my students . . .

I always stress to my students to always be prepared. At any time or place, they can suddenly be under attack from a violent predator without a moment’s notice. It is precisely for this possibility, that they chose to be lawfully armed – to protect themselves. Accordingly, it is imperative that they be ready for an a

When the current ammo drought began, the gunblogosphere got its collective knickers in a twist re: Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ammo purchases. The General Accounting Office (GAO ) recently released a report which reveals that the DHS bought 84.4 million rounds for its 70k firearms-carrying employees (the most of any federal agency) in 2013. “From fiscal years 2008 to 2013, DHS purchased an average of 109 million rounds for training, qualification and operational needs, according to DHS data. DHS’s ammunition purchases of the 6-year period equates to an average of 1,200 rounds per firearm-carrying agent or officer per year.” Sounds about right to me, if not a little on the low side. You?

Here’s an interesting press release from the San Diego County Sheriff Department. The Sheriff, William Gore, is up for re-election in a few months. The release is decidedly ambiguous as to the Ninth Circuit’s recent decision, but having worked in bureaucracies, that’s to be expected. No one wants to be seen as making a decision, or telegraphing future policy until there has been time to consider all the possibilities . . .

The chairwoman of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors says she’s just fine with the Ninth Circuit decision. From the LA Times:

Dianne Jacob, chairwoman of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, said her initial reaction was positive.”I have no problem with law-abiding citizens carrying concealed weapons in the name of self-defense,” Jacob said.

It’s clear that Sheriff Gore is anticipating a large run-up in CCW applicati

Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy is looking for a way around the uncomfortable fact that Connecticut gun owners have, to a large extent, lifted a collective middle finger at the state’s post-Newtown firearms registration scheme. Desperately looking for a way to paper over the fact that tens of thousands of gun-owning Nutmeggers let the December 31 deadline pass without so much as a thought of compliance, the Malloy administration has concocted a new strategy for at least processing the late registration documents they received. As ctnewsjunkie.com reports, the governor’s minions are adopting an Obama-like approach to the law: “Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration has concluded it can process without additional legislation some of the late

“Explaining her potential move to Texas, Cervenka says, ‘I have tons of close friends in Austin, I love the music, I always have a magical time there.” She continues, “The other reason I’m moving, if the creek don’t rise, is that when I moved to California in 1976, Jerry Brown was governor. It was barefoot hippie girls, Hell’s Angels on the Sunset Strip, East L.A. lowriders, the ocean and nature. It was this fabulous incredible place about freedom. Now when I think about California, I think of a liberal oppressive police state and regulations and taxes and fees. I’d rather go someplace and have my own little place out on the edge of town. I’m a country girl at heart. It makes me happy when I see people in Texas open-carrying. It makes me feel safe. I’m not even a gun owner, but I’d like to see a gun rack in every pickup truck, like my boyfriend had when I was fifteen years old in Florida. An armed society is a polite society.&

The Wyoming Attorney General’s Office, acting as counsel for Wyoming and 18 other states, filed an amicus brief on Wednesday asking the U.S. Supreme Court to grant a hearing in the case of Drake v. Jerejian, a New Jersey case which has at issue “(1) Whether the Second Amendment secures a right to carry handguns outside the home for self-defense; and (2) whether state officials violate the Second Amendment by requiring that individuals wishing to exercise their right to carry a handgun for self-defense first prove a “justifiable need” for doing so.” The Wyoming brief says that the 19 states are concerned . . .

that if the appeals court ruling stands, it could threaten their less restrictive concealed carry

Hot on the heels of signing a bill allowing concealed carry in South Carolina bars and restaurants, Governor Nikki Haley has come out in favor of dropping the permitting process altogether. The idea is to restore the right to carry arms without government permission. According to thestate.com, ”Nikki Haley said Tuesday that she backs a proposal that would make it legal for most South Carolinians to carry guns – concealed or in the open – without a permit or the training that the state currently requires.” . . .

Constitutional carry is currently the law in five states and is being considered in several others. No problems ha

“A Florida jury found Michael Dunn guilty on four of the five charges in a case in which he was accused of shooting a teenager to death over loud music, but they could not come to a decision on the murder charge and a mistrial was declared on that count.” Dunn was found guilty of three counts of attempted second degree murder and one count of firing a gun into a car, according to ABC News. Dunn shot and killed Jordan Davis in November of 2012 after asking four teens to turn down the music in their car. He claimed he opened fire when one of the teens got out of the car and he saw a shotgun. No firearm was found, however. Perhaps the fact that he left the scene after the shooting, drove home and ordered a pizza rather than calling 911 played a part in the ju

Over at Ammoland.com, our man Fredy Riehl writes:

In an ongoing twitter tweet battle between the New Jersey State Senate President, Steve Sweeney and members / supporters of the New Jersey Second Amendment Society over New Jersey’s unconstitutional and archaic gun laws, the Democratic Senate President stated “I will never support carrying a concealed weapon”. Sweeney’s full statement [after the jump] cuts right to the heart of the problems with New Jersey’s existing concealed carry law . . .

As some would claim, NJ has a law on the books allowing Concealed Carry, but the facts are that it is conditioned on something called “Justifiable Need”  an imposs