The Truth About Guns
Exploring the ethics, morality, business, politics, culture, technology, practice, strategy, dangers and fun of guns
Updated: 1 month 1 day ago
Quote of the Day: Shannon Watts is an Emotional Wreck Edition
“The gun lobby has done a good job over the last 30 years of making a vocal minority afraid people will take their guns away. As a mother, I’m afraid someone is going to take my children away, and I believe at the end of the day, that emotion will carry it.” - Shannon Watts, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America [via bbc.com]
Question of the Day: How Do YOU Convert an Anti?
Evan in RI writes: “I was talking to a left-leaning friend of mine today at our Ivy-League college when she brought up gun control and children hurting themselves with firearms they find. I suggested teaching firearms safety in Health Education, which she predictably scoffed at. So I said to her: ‘Agree or disagree: Teaching teenagers about condoms and birth control leads to teens having sex.’ ‘Of course not.’ ‘So how will teaching teenagers to handle firearms safely lead to teens shooting up schools?’ I’m taking her to the range next weekend for her own firearms safety class, ‘Just in case I have to ever touch one of those barbaric things.’ Well, one step at a time I guess.” What’s you three-step program to convert an anti-gunner to the firearms freedom side of the fence?
Gun Review: NAA Mini Revolver
In the world of production firearms, there aren’t many smaller than the offerings from North American Arms. Its Guardian series is about as petite as semi-automatic pistols come, and I believe its Mini-Revolvers may be the smallest production revolvers in the world. There really aren’t many clothing choices — at least ones you can legally get away with in public — that would prevent carrying a gun this small. As I’ve owned an NAA Mini in .22 LR for about 5 years now, I think it’s high time I officially reviewed it . . .
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How Your Local CLEO Can Screw Up Your Form 4
I had an interesting experience with my local CLEO today. They, in conjunction with a customer that had no idea what they were doing and decided to disregard all of the instructions that I gave him, created a paperwork mess of biblical proportions. For starters, it always surprises me when I hand someone a list of instructions with everything they need to do to get ATF Form 4 approved properly…and they don’t follow it. It’s pretty simple really. That’s why I love customers who are commercial airplane pilots . . .
I have a guy who stops in pretty regularly who flies for Southwest and when I hand him a checklist – he’s right at home. He reads the whole thing, he asks me a few questions and we get underway pretty quickly.
The flip side to that coin are those who have an inate distrust of their gun dealer and have to go on the intern
BREAKING: Bloomberg Launches Everytown for Gun Safety
“Michael R. Bloomberg, making his first major political investment since leaving office, plans to spend $50 million this year building a nationwide grass-roots network to motivate voters who feel strongly about curbing gun violence,” nytimes.com reports, unfamiliar with the expression “I don’t think that word means what you think it means.” Apparently Everytown will be “an organization he hopes can eventually outmuscle the National Rifle Association.” How’s that you ask? “The plans call for a restructuring of the gun control groups he funds, Mayors Against Illegal Guns and
Quote of the Day: Prof. Glenn Reynolds on the Limits of State Power
“I wonder if the primacy of individual self-defense under Heller and McDonald might not have implications for other areas of the law. At the core of Heller and McDonald is a constitutionalization of the right of self-defense. The right of individuals to protect themselves against violence is so important that it is, in many ways, beyond the power of the state to regulate. Though the state might prefer to sacrifice citizens’ lives and safety in order to limit gun ownership, such a sacrifice is not permitted. This indicates that individual citizens’ lives and autonomy are themselves, in some important aspects, beyond the power of the state to sacrifice.” – Professor Glenn Reynolds, The Second Amendment as Ordinary Constitutional Law [via
Daily Digest: Death & Taxes Edition
In case you hadn’t heard, Barry Elliot from the YouTube gun channel Iraqveteran8888 (and Moss Pawn and Gun) passed away over the weekend. IV8888 put up an announcement on their Facespace page yesterday, and I first read about it on ENDO this morning. Eric from MP&G followed it up yesterday afternoon with the 85th and final episode in their Gun Gripes series, titling it Final Farewell. Barry was one of my favorite YouTube gun guys, and like many others, I learned quite a bit over the last few years from watching him. He was a force for good in the gun co
Dr. Laura Hayes: I’m OK, You’re A Potential Spree Killer
Writing for slate.com, psychologist Laura Hayes [above] reckons mental illness isn’t such a big deal, gun violence-wise. “Violent crimes committed by people with severe mental illnesses get a lot of attention, but such attacks are relatively rare. Paolo del Vecchio of the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has said, ‘Violence by those with mental illness is so small that even if you could somehow cure it all, 95 percent of violent crime would still exist.