The Truth About Guns

Took me a while to figure out what ICON 1000 was selling, exactly, but here ya go: “One thousand is the empirical number that forms the boundary between boy and man. The displacement threshold between novice and expert. One thousand has always been the goal. The finest leathers, textiles, & armor have gone into every item in the ICON 1000 collection. Every detail has been critiqued and examined. Every style has endured countless miles of testing and refinement. The end result is the finest collection of motorcycle riding apparel we’ve ever created. We sincerely hope you will enjoy wearing the ICON 1000 gear as much as we’ve enjoyed making it.” Yeah but what about the guns? I mean they should be way cooler than that, right? Suggestions?

“The coverage of gun control and gun issues is really the last vestige of group-approved bigotry. It’s the one place where you can make fun of an identifiable group of people, you can do caricatures of them as being stupid.” – Gun Talk host Tom Gresham, ‘Gun radio’ is up in arms [at politico.com]

“A gunman who opened fire at a New Jersey mall Monday night later holed up in a back room and shot himself in the head,” CNN reports. “No one else was injured in the mall shooting . . . ‘We know that his intent was either suicide or to do something that would cause police to shoot him, which we call ‘suicide by cop,’ Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli told CNN’s New Day . . . Richard Shoop, 20, was known by local law enforcement. He had a history of drug use and abuse, Molinelli said. ‘He at least thought that he was reaching a point where there was no recourse but to take his own life,’ M

There’s been a report of shots fired at the Westfield Garden State Plaza Mall in Paramus, NJ. According to CNN, an employee heard “6-7 shots” around 9:20 p.m.

Writing…

A Virginia reminder: Election day is tomorrow, and it’s crunch time for Ken Cuccinelli (left above) and Mark Obenshain (right above). Clinton bag man Terry McAuliffe has outspent Cuccinelli (thanks to Bloomberg) by 10:1. As a result, he still holds a slim margin in the polls. Projected turnouts are as low as 30 percent, and the campaigns have 40 percent as the goal, so with numbers that low, every vote makes a big impact. With both sides concentrating heavily on health care in the last couple weeks, the gubernatorial election is seen by some to be a referendum on Obamacare, and as such could have influence well into the 2014 elections. Make your vote count, if not for you, then for the momentum it could give to the rest of us.

If it wasn’t there already, add Geissele Automatics to your good-guy list.

Press release from Arizona Game and Fish Department:

Non-lead ammunition supply issues across the nation are prompting the Arizona Game and Fish Department to remind hunters in the California condor’s core range that they can still help reduce the amount of lead available to the birds by removing gut piles from the field. Hunters in Arizona’s condor range that remove their gut piles (lead ammunition only) are eligible to be entered into a raffle that offers prizes including a trip on the Grand Canyon Railroad with a 2-night stay at the canyon, Cabela’s gift cards, Navajo tribal lands deer tag, Navajo rugs, Grand

TTAG’s been publishing material critical of police on a regular basis—when they deserve it. Which, it must be said, they often do. To substantiate that claim, Ralph has been directing readers to the CATO Institute’s National Police Misconduct Recap for some time. So I contacted CATO (note: not the Green Hornet’s majordomo) and asked for permission to republish that information. Granted. The thing of it is . . .

the majority of the recap is not firearms-related per se. For example, the list includes a link to a story about Tempe, AZ officer Jessica Dever-Jakuz [above] who resigned after facing a charge of hindering prosecution. As I said, nothing gun related save the fact that she’s a police officer who carries a gun. In a state with Constitutional Carry, no less.

“What’s that?” the third-grader asked, pointing to the Kydex holster poking out from under my apron. I kneeled down next to the table so we were eye to eye and could talk privately. “It’s my gun holster,” I said, covering it discreetly as I spoke. “But it’s empty. We’re not allowed to carry guns in the school.” “We don’t need one here though, right?” he half-asked, half-stated. “We’re safe here, right?” I nodded my head. What else was I supposed to do? Tell him the crowded lunchroom is a potential free fire zone? That the nearest good guy with a gun is God knows where? Of course not. It’s not his job to vigila

Except she isn’t in distress. She’s wearing blue jeans. Oh wait. The egg. The egg is the damsel in distress. Except the egg isn’t wearing a dress either. But the egg clearly was in distress because SPOILER ALERT she committed suicide. Oh well. You gotta crack a few jokes to make a Kirsten Joy Weiss intro paragraph. Or something like that. [Click here to see more KJW trick shots at her website. Omelette you go now.]

Tyler’s ranch is a geographical oddity: every single time I go there, it gets more beautiful. It was a weekend much like this one that finally convinced me to move to Texas, and the frequency with which scenes like this one happen keeps me happily planted in my adoptive state. There’s something magical about spending all day in the wilderness, enjoying the beauty of nature, then shooting some guns and eating fresh free-range meat. And I feel like this one picture captured that feeling pretty well. But there’s one more picture that sums up the weekend’s activities . . .

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Thanks to the indispensable twitchy.com, we get to savor a shot of former Colorado Senate President John Morse’s former office door being expunged of any evidence that he’d ever darkened it. As you’re probably aware, Centennial State gunnies are trying to make it three in a row by removing Edie “You’re Better Off Being Raped Than Having a Gun” Hudak, another proud member of Colorado’s Bloomberg-supported civilian disarmament caucus. If the recall is successful, not only will Hudak’s removal send yet another un

Optimized for 12 o’clock mounting on rifles with top rails, ROSCH Works SL1′s 250+ lumen lighthead was designed “in collaboration with LED lighting industry legend Gene Malkoff,” Wait. The LED lighting industry has a legendary designer? Yes, wherever LED industry folks gather—whether it’s a dingy hotel bar near a poorly lit conference center or a small cubicle with lumen-appropriate task lighting—the name Malkoff is uttered with quasi-religious reverence. At some point someone intones the sacred words: ”I Love God, My Family, and My Country. It is my Belief that Traditional Family Values and Honest Work are the Pathway to Happiness.” Where was I?

In their ongoing efforts to attract younger, hipper Gun Culture 2.0ers, the National Rifle Association is adding another voice to their growing stable of non-traditional commentators. Their latest add is garage guy Austin Weiss. Austin’s noticed that there’s a population out there who like them some guns, but don’t want to be seen as liking them publicly. By joining other NRA commentators like Coilion Noir, Natalie Foster and Billie Johnson, Weiss apparently wants to do something about that. Anything that normalizes firearms in the eyes of the public and brings more people out of the pro-gun closet is a good thing, right?

Hanover Fist writes:

My wife and I walk with our three-year-old daughter to the local dog park to run around and play with the dogs. The park is divided between large and small dogs and we tend to stay in the small dog area so she doesn’t get bowled over by an over enthusiastic Rottie or Great Dane. However I know that any size dog is capable of attacking and I always carry when we go to “play with the puppies”. I carry my usual choices for two-legged threats when at the dog park, a Taurus TCP with CorBon hollow points, or a M&P 9c with 124 grain +P Gold Dots (depends on the weather…Texas heat). What are your thoughts on a dog-centric carry load? Am I making the right choice?

After last Friday’s shooting at Los Angeles International Airport, Senator Diane Feinstein renewed her call for an assault weapons ban. And the sun came up in the East. More worrying: Texas Congressman Michael McCaul called for a greater role for the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA). On CNN’s State of the Union the Chairman of Homeland Security Committee danced around the idea of arming TSA Agents. And while you’re thinking “what could possibly go wrong?” think about this: McCaul pimped for a greater role of the TSA’s VIPR teams (Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response) ”to make sure American people are safe and the traveling public are safe when they go to our airports.” Uh-oh . . .

A reader writes:

Dear Robert:

I saw your November 2, 2013 item “Guns & Ammo Supports Gun Control” on the internet. My first reaction was, “Yes, but why did it take him so long to recognize the truth?” We in the ammunition and firearms industry have provided the necessary help for the enemies of freedom to accomplish things that they never could have accomplished on their own. How many patriots know that the 1968 Gun Control Act was initiated, drafted and supported by the American firearms industry (SAAMI) as a mis-guided protectionist scheme? [Click here for documentation.] How many patriots know . . .

 that the 1994 Assault Weapons and Extended Magazine bans were initiated and supported by the National Shooting Sport

The leadership of Freedom Group has generally been considered a detriment to the quality and ingenuity of its constituent companies, from the bungled relocation of Marlin’s production lines (I’ve still yet to see them produce an acceptable quality lever gun since the change) to the firing of Kevin Brittingham from Advanced Armament. More than a few of us at TTAG have been looking forward to the day when these entities would once more be free from the oppressive yoke of Freedom Group control and allowed to flourish on their own. If the rumors I’m hearing are accurate, sometime this week a big step toward that end will take place . . .

Knowledgeable, trusted sources have indicated to me that Remington (well, more likely a group of Remington managers) is about to announce the purchase Freedom Group from Cerberus Capital Management. Like a slav

“Although I favor open carry, I do wholeheartedly support constitutional carry, openly or concealed. When one carries on the authority of a license or other permit, one has accepted a privilege in lieu of exercising a right. When carrying openly, I am exercising my right to keep and bear arms. When I carry concealed without a license, I am exercising my right to keep and bear arms. When I carry concealed under the auspices of a license, I am exercising a privilege extended to me by government; not exercising a right. Put another way, when I engage in act

In 1994, when Arizona started its shall issue concealed carry weapon (CCW) program, there was considerable interest in how many and what types of homicides would result from the new law. I started teaching classes for the Arizona CCW permit when it went into effect and I immediately noticed that my students were well above average in attitude, responsibility, and civility.  They always pitched in to assist in setting up where necessary, and their personal checks have always been good. When the first crime statistics became available, I eagerly digested the information. One person with a CCW permit had committed a homicide, although not with a concealed weapon. It was a domestic situation and the perpetrator was a retired police officer. The question arose, how often do police officers commit homicides compared to concealed carry permit holders? Of the two, which is more common? . . .

The dedicated civilian disarmers at the Violence Policy Center (V

Arizona - -(Ammoland.com)- It has become common for liberal fascists to proclaim that “only the Supreme Court” can interpret the Constitution. Nothing could be further from the truth. Every legislator, every elected politician, every police officer and person in the military takes an oath to uphold the Constitution and defend it against all enemies, foreign and domestic. They do not take an oath to follow orders given by the Supreme Court. It is a myth that only the Supreme Court can interpret the Constitution . . .

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