The Truth About Guns

Jim Golden writes:

USA --(Ammoland.com) –  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The AR-15 market is on fire. In my last post I talked about current AR-15 market trends. Long gone are the days of only ABC AR-15 choices, for ARMALITE, Bushmaster or COLT. As of autumn 2013, there are almost countless AR-15 product choices available on the market. Even still, almost daily there seem to

By Rob Aught

Sticker shock. Anyone who has ever shopped for a car knows what it is. I was somewhat surprised to find out it applies to firearm purchases as well. Fortunately, when I went to buy my first firearm someone was kind enough to warn me that just buying a gun is not the end of what you need. Buying a firearm by itself is like buying a computer without a keyboard, monitor, and mouse. Yes, you now have a computer, but it’s worthless for anything more than an expensive paperweight . . .

Now, if you’re an experienced shooter, this article may not be for you. You may have all the whizbangs and doo-dads you need and going into a store to buy a new firearm is all you have to do. This is largely for people who are new to guns and I’m going to provide a template for planning your purchase and give a specific example. I am going to focus on handguns because

At first I thought the Mom from Moms Demand Action was just being a bitch. When I asked her politely if we could talk for a moment she point blank refused. Tersely. Aggressively. She wouldn’t even tell me her name. This after spending twenty-minutes hanging around with an Al-Jezeera reporter at the back of the crowd at the Alamo gun rights rally, and another ten minutes answering questions on camera for a nationwide TV audience. Checking her pin-prick pupils and remembering her extremely stilted performance in front of the camera, I backed off . . .

When she unknowingly dropped a paper on the ground, I slowly moved forward, picked it up and handed it to her. This minor act of gallantry had the expected but nonetheless welcome effect

“The first killing occurred at 6 p.m. on Friday in the South Bronx,” nytimes.com reports. “Two friends were standing in front of 680 Tinton Avenue near the John Adams Houses when a gunman opened fire, the police said. Tyrek Singleton, 28, of the Bronx was shot in the torso and pronounced dead at Lincoln Medical Center. His 26-year-old friend, who was not immediately identified, was shot in the leg. He told investigators he did not know the gunman.” Yeah, that’s what he said . . . I wonder if anyone involved was a gang banger. I don’t wonder if gun control could have prevented this killing. Because it didn’t. On to the next . . .

“Before boarding my flight from Seattle to Boston, I had accidentally left a legal firearm in my bag. I apologize and truly regret the mistake. I was issued a citation by the TSA, whose agents couldn’t have been more thorough and professional when dealing with this. I really appreciate their efforts to keep air travel safe.”

While hundreds of people crammed into the plaza in from of the Alamo to celebrate and promote gun rights, the gun control advocacy organization “Moms Demand Action” held their own rally at a bar a mile down the road. Why did they hold it at a bar? Well…

In Texas, if a restaurant makes more then 51% of its revenue from the sale of alcohol, it is a felony to carry a concealed handgun there. Despite styling themselves as “supporters of the second amendment” (as is being reported on NPR), they disagree with that whole “keep and bear” part.

As usual, I was carrying my handgun. Concealed, of course. So in order

TTAG reader Jeff F writes:

A lot of people don’t understand where this “90 percent of Americans support expanded background checks” number came from. It’s been drawn from a Quinnipiac study. If you want to know the truth about this statistic, pay special attention to the wording in question 31, and also the never-ever-ever mentioned question 35 from the SAME study. It’s pretty funny. Here’s question 31 . . .

31. Do you favor or oppose requiring background checks for all gun buyers?” Over 90% said they favor background checks.

Notice how the question never uses the word &#8221

Rock Island Auctions sells guns. Other people’s guns. So you’d kinda expect them to recommend firearms as an investment. And so they do. But as you read this blog post remember that it’s entirely possible to lose money “investing” in guns. As my father used to say, something is worth no more or less than what someone is willing to pay for it. Minus commission, of course . . .

Ask any firearms collector if guns are a good investment and you’re bound to receive a response in the affirmative. It’s not exactly an unbiased answer, but it is still drawn from sound personal experience. Besides, wasn’t the economy’s most recent low spot in

“The most effective tool was changing the design of cars, and that’s in large part why I believe that we and do the same thing with guns. We do have to try to get people to act prudently with the gun that they have, but if we change the product, we’re going to be even more effective than trying to change the behavior of hundreds of millions of people.” – Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health professor Stephen Teret, Gun safety advocates support ‘smart’ technology to prevent accidental deaths, [at pbs.org]

A South Carolina homeowner attempted to take Joe Biden’s advice against an intruder, but it (big surprise) didn’t work too well. The guy kept coming toward him. So he reverted to the original plan, and shot at him. This had the desired effect, and the intruder took off. Cops found his car with blood in it a short while later, and then found the suspected thief himself when they received a call about a man seeking care for a shotgun wound at a nearby hospital. The would-be thief will survive, and no charges will be filed against the homeowner. . .

A mistrial was declared Friday in the case of Army Master Sgt. C. J. Grisham, who you’ll recall

Louisiana is gun country, and their affinity for firearms goes way beyond the Red Jacket reality-show phenomenon. Last November, Louisiana voters approved a strongly pro-gun amendment to the state constitution by a margin of nearly three to one. ”The right of individuals to acquire, keep, possess, transport, carry, transfer, and use arms for defense of life and liberty, and for all other legitimate purposes, is fundamental and shall not be denied or infringed, and any restriction on this right must be subjected to strict scrutiny.” The language that was enacted, though, may have gone a little farther than the voters of Louisiana intended. Now it’s up to the state’s supreme court to decide how fundamental ‘fundamental’ really is . . .

At issue is whether this fundamental right can be categorically denied to convicted felons. Glen Draughter is a convicted f

As Don Henley sang, it’s interesting when people die. That said, people die all the time, for all sorts of reasons: heart failure, cancer, medical malpractice, automobile accidents and yes “gun violence.” Let’s face it: death from gunfire is way more interesting than most other ways people kick the proverbial bucket. It’s sudden, violent and there’s always a great back story. Oh, and it’s rare. No really. Take suicide out of the mix (it’s so depressing) and firearms-related fatalities don’t even make it to the top ten in The Centers for Disease Control‘s causes of death list. So it’s no surprise that the media exploits/reports “gun violence.” The problem for The People of the Gun: we’re losing the context war . . .

Over at smith-wessonforum.com, user SmithNut’s uploaded some hi-res photos of his collection of K-38 Masterpiece and Model 14 revolvers. As for the former, SmithNut would like to keep the model’s appeal on the down-low, to keep prices down low. Yeah, well, that’s not gonna happen. “The truth has – unfortunately – started to get out, the K-38 Masterpiece is truly that - a world class Masterpiece. This model is an outstanding shooter, a great piece of S&W history, a finely crafted wo

Arizona - -(Ammoland.com)- There are two models of modern murder that are used in the debate about how to deal with crime. The assumptions about reality that the models are based on are significantly different, which results in consistently different prescriptions for public policy. The first model, which I call the “Progressive Elite” model, has these basic assumptions about criminal homicide and its causes . . .

1.  The majority of people, except for the exceptional elite, are just moments away from committing a criminal homicide.  They have poor impulse control and fly into rages which escalate into homicidal rages if a weapon happens to be present.

Brandy and I were schmoozing about topics to cover for her next video when she dropped a shocking personal anecdote: a bad guy shot and killed her cousin with her own gun. The tragedy is the literal embodiment of the antis’ argument that it’s more dangerous to have a gun than not. So I asked Ms. Vega to explain why the gun grabbers are wrong—even though her cousin paid the ultimate penalty for losing control of her firearm. The conversation morphed into a discussion of the need for training, and the legal requirements for same. Suffice it to say, life is crap shoot. It’s always better when the dice are loaded—in your favor.

Hundreds of people have gathered at the Alamo in San Antonio to voice their support for the Second Amendment, and we are on the scene. I just showed up a few minutes ago, and Robert is on his way. Rest assured that we will keep you guys informed about what’s going on, any counter protests, and what people at the event are saying. Keep refreshing this page for updates.

So much for “put your hands up” or “secure the perimeter.” Fair enough? [h/t Danny]

“Many semiautomatic rifles have detachable magazines that hold only three or four rounds. It would be more difficult to turn those into mass-killing machines than if the shooter were feeding the gun with 10-round magazines, the legal limit in California.” - George Skelton, In vetoing gun-control bill, Brown misses the mark [via latimes.com]

Dan Coonan’s emailed a statement to us regarding their new relationship with Evolve to us (and posted it to their web site). I also had a long conversation with Rebecca Bond, one of the founders of Evolve this afternoon. She’s going to follow up with a post here, too, that’s intended to do a better job of explaining what Evolve is all about than their, um, rudimentary web site. Here’s Coonan’s statement:

Most important, I am a firm supporter of our Second Amendment rights – all of them!

My goal, and the proposed goal of the relationship with EVOLVE, is to shift the single-pointed focus of gun related violence and the social/economic/political aspects that are promoting a culture of violence in this country.

Evolve is intending to bridge the gap between the extremely large number of people that are caught in the