The Truth About Guns

By Aaron James

Thanksgiving Day was always fun for me growing up. Unlike most of my friends, though, my Thanksgiving always consisted of spending the morning deer hunting with my dad, and his dad, my Poppa (not pictured above). We would hunt until about 11 am, then head back to grandma and Poppa’s house where a festive meal would await. The Thanksgiving meal would be a time of reflection, sometimes about the morning hunt, but more times than not, just a celebration of life . . .

Poppa held a special place in my heart, as did the Grandfathers of most 7 year old boys. He was a man’s man. Ten feet tall and bullet proof to me, both then and now. Superman could not carry water for my Poppa. He was, in every sense of the word, my hero. In his vegetable garden, at the barn, in church, but especially the deer camp, I had been his shadow since before I can recall. And Thanksgiving Day, 1993, was no exception, and soon it would prove to be the T

Esquire owes its existence to English foppery: a perfectly dreadful combination of elitism and, uh, give me a moment would you? Shotguns (and hunting and hunting dogs and hunting clothes) are as important to the English upper class’s self-image as bumping uglies with servants is to their genetic health. So it’s no surprise that Esquire scribe Lt. Col. Robert Bateman’s five-point plan to “fix” the Second Amendment—in the sense that one fixes a dog—starts by exempting double-barrel breech-loading shotguns. “Hunting with these is valid,” he asserts, aping aristocrats who believe that an accident of birth is all the justification one needs for any firmly held opinion. Bateman’s list also exempts police from any of his gun control plat

Desperate situations are kind of like Frank Zappa. Not because they vomit onstage, but because they tend to inspire all kinds of brilliant, slightly dangerous and often downright disturbing spectacles. A LiveLeak video shows two wire-stocked AKs being used in a way that even Mikhail Timofeyovich probably never imagined.

This looks pretty freaky, but these guys had the sense to at least drop the magazines and keep their hands off the trigger. They also avoided getting shocked, and their dead truck was up and running before they even had time to say don’t try this at home.

“Game officials were not surprised this happened so quickly after the sheep were released in the Catalinas. Until a viable bighorn population is established there, any mountain lion that eats a sheep will be killed, ‘in an attempt to re-establish the natural order of things.’” Bighorns and mountain lions die [via azstarnet.com]

I don’t normally do the “new product press release” thing here, but the Chamber-View looked somewhat interesting to me. One of the ranges I shoot at regularly has RSOs that can be real hardasses about downing/clearing rifles on cold range. For only ten bucks, this seems like it might help avoid confusion. It’s big enough to not be “fiddly” like a lot of chamber flags and the orange color will help keep it from getting lost. Press release and regularly scheduled non-commercial Digest after the jump. . .

MERRIMACK, NH – Chamber-View®, innovators behind the highly visual firearms safety products, is pleased to announce the introduction of the AR Type Chamber-View® safety block, available in November for purchase throug

I’m all about training as you mean to fight. I’m completely on board with the “beware of the man with one gun” philosophy. I’m as dumb as you wanna be when it comes to the Keep It Simple Stupid. So I train with my GLOCK 19. A lot. And I concentrate on the basics: move and shoot, shoot and move, clear the gun, reload, hit the damn target (and variations thereof). I have every confidence that I will do something useful in a defensive gun use, should I be able to unholster my firearm at the appropriate moment. But I don’t always carry my GLOCK 19. This OWB OFWG sometimes carries a

The common cry of the gun control advocate is that “most Americans support stricter gun control,” but as a CNN poll released today shows that just isn’t the case. In the aftermath of the Newtown shooting the opinion polls spiked to 58% in favor of more gun control, but in the following months the numbers rapidly dropped and have continued to plummet. By April, it was down to 53% in favor. And now, according to CNN, those numbers are down to 49%. When you drill down a bit into the numbers, things look even better . . .

31% of those asked responded that they strongly support more gun control. 32% respond that they strongly oppose more gun control. Those in the middle are relatively evenly split on the issue, and 1% didn’t offer an opinion. So, in reality, only 31% of Americans reall

As if the hypocrisy of the Gun Control Industrial Complex wasn’t already on full display after the Moms Demand Action crowd announced their intentions to use the anniversary of the Newtown shooting to push for the infringement of Americans’ enumerated civil rights, word comes today that Barack Obama’s political action committee Organizing For America is trying to drum up some “grassroots” gun control advocacy events for that day, too. Their website makes the same, tired (now debunked) claims about “overwhelming support” for increased gun control that we’ve heard regurgitated time and again, almost as if they’re trying to hypnotize their members into believing it despite all the polling to t

Pocket 9s are all the rage right now. They have been since pocket .380s relinquished the title in a steel cage death match back in April of 2012. But as always, the question is just how effective they really are. Having identified the best .380 load in the personal defense firmament, ShootingTheBull410′s jumping feet first into his stockpiles of parabellum to find out what rounds perform best from the new breed of pocket pistols. (Just please, don’t call them “Tiny Nineys”…) Check out the first video in his new Ammo Quest series. In this installment, he puts Hornady Critical Duty through the testing crucible.

Ammunition is expensive, and a good part of that cost is the brass required to make the case. It’s the reason why the cheap bulk ammo providers (like Wolf and Brown Bear) use steel instead, and the reason that Hornady decided to use steel for their cheap match grade ammo line. But some people don’t like the thought of steel in their chamber, and the metal is difficult to work with. PCP Ammunition (not to be confused with the drug of the same name) is finally beta testing their line of polymer cased ammunition with a small group of volunteers to validate that their stuff works before putting it on sale. Needless to say, we’ve been promised a box or two of the stuff as soon as it’s ready. For the info on how to volunteer to test some ammo, make the jump for the company’s presser.

PCP Ammunition Company set to release limited production of .308 polymer cased ammunition.

Register at the link below for special invitation only purchasing opportunit

Bart and Melissa Ardis of Oakdale, California, had a practiced plan in place should a perp penetrate their perimeter (sorry, that just happened). Read the story at the The Modesto Bee for the full play-by-play of their recent set-to. The short version is that it ended with Melissa yelling at the intruder, “Don’t you dare bleed all over my (expletive) couch!” Don’t you just love to see a plan come together successfully? Great to see some positive editorializing from a newspaper as well. Jeff Jardine, columnist for the Bee, wrapped up the story with, “…they exercised their Second Amendment rights to bear arms and protect their home. They stuck to their plan. They defended themselves in their home, and the only person who got hu

Reader Dennis T. writes:

I got my CCW a few months ago, and I have been carrying just about every day where I am legally allowed too. I live in Oklahoma and the ‘no guns’ signs here do NOT carry force of law. My friend got is CCW over a year ago, but he told me that he has NEVER carried at all. I don’t disagree as it is his choice, but when we go to places such as restaurants or the mall he says that I should not carry and “follow the rules” and that since I am carrying in a place that is “off-limits” he says that I give gun owners a “bad name” by doing so. I should note that I am a college student so I do not carry to school or into post offices or other federal buildings. The off limits places I mentioned refer to private businesses. Do you think legally carrying gun owners who carry into “off-limits” places gives gun owners everywhere a bad name?

video platformvideo management

NRA Champion rifle shooter and resident trick shot artist performance shooter Kirsten Joy Weiss knows how to shoot a shotgun. She knows how to shoot a semi-automatic shotgun. She knows how to shoot a Russian semi-automatic shotgun. As you will see when she uploads her SAIGA-12 trick shot vids. I mean, accuracy demonstrations. This segment was filmed at Best of the West after Lone Star Arms’ box-fresh modded SAIGA-12 suffered a few stovepipes. Owner Mike Rogers stepped in for some instrux; he thought KJW wasn’t giving the gun a stable enough platform to cycle properly. Not true! As we all discovered later, when Mike pulled the gun apart and discovered the malf’s source [to be revealed in Dan's upcoming review.] I saved this bit of video because it’s great advice, anyway. That’s my story and I’m sticki

DrVino wrote Senator Feinstein to voice his opposition to gun control. Ms. Feinstein wrote back. I republish her entirely predictable response here to remind The People of the Gun that politicians pay lip service to that which they would destroy: Americans’ natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms. Like rust, the antis’ commitment to gun control never sleeps.

Dear XXXXXX:

Thank you for contacting me to share your opposition to gun control. I respect your opinion on this issue, and I welcome the opportunity to provide my perspective.

I support an individual’s Second Amendment right to own a gun. I recognize that there are many law-abiding gun owners who use guns in a safe manner for activities such as hunting, sport, or self-defense.

Nonetheless . . .

the problem

“Given the impending deadline, the complexity of the back story and the eagerness of so many lawmakers to claim a few modest achievements before the end of the year, the Second Amendment crowd looks likely to prevail in the argument by ceding to the small bill. And if that happens, it will mark an undefeated streak for gun rights advocates in a year that was supposed to be the most challenging for them in decades.” – David Hawkings, Big Gun Ban Vote Will Mean Much Less Than It Seems [at rollcall.com]

The comment period for ATF Proposed Rule 41P ends Monday, December 9th, but there’s still time to make your voice heard if you have not already. The American Silencer Association, a group of silencer manufacturers that have banded together to make their voices heard, has made up some sample letter templates that you can download, modify to match your circumstances, and send in. Note that they have two different sample templates, one for folks who already have a legal entity (trust, corp, etc)…

and one for those who do not. The link above contains both the sample letters and the information on how to submit them. Some people are of the opinion that the proposed changes may make the CLEO in their jurisdiction more likely to be willing to sign, but there are indications that may not be true, including some CLEOs who have

“According to police, the incident happened Wednesday, when another student alerted police that George Miller [above] had a gun in his class at the school’s Life Sciences building,” commercialappeal.com reports. “After Miller stepped outside the class, police patted him down and found the gun, which was loaded with a full magazine. Police also found two other magazines, also fully loaded, in a bag he was carrying.” And so, thanks to an alert fellow student, the University of Memphis was saved from the nightmare of a potential school shooter! Or, more likely, an armed American minding his own

Nick and I continually bemoan the apparent ‘stagnovation’ in the domestic firearms market, where a gun can be sold as “Completely Redesigned For 2014!” simply because the upcoming version will have interchangeable backstraps. But there’s reason to hope it’s not just hype: a record 370 firearms patents were issued in just the last year. This is a 35-year high, and more than twice the average of 169 patents per year since 1977. Our firearms inventors are working away in their machine shops and keeping their patent lawyers’ time-shares paid up, but where’s the next Saint John The Browning? And where’s my caseless 4.73mm carbine? . . .

Some of these patents seem a bit silly, like