The Truth About Guns

Current Nebraska law grants broad powers to the governor, allowing him or her to ban the sale or transport of firearms during declared emergencies. Police and other government agents confiscated thousands of guns in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana, though some troops refused to confiscate guns. A current scandal in Canada involves the Royal Canadian Mounted Police breaking down doors to confiscate firearms in High River, Alberta after they had cordoned off

Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America released the following statements in response to the shooting at Ft. Hood today in which four people were killed (including the shooter by his own hand) and 16 were injured. A fact sheet on the 2009 mass shooting at Ft. Hood is available here . . .

“Our thoughts are with all those at Ft. Hood tonight as another tragedy unfolds among the heroes who have given their utmost for our country,” said Mark Glaze, executive director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns. “We don’t know all the details, but days like this remind us that killers with illegal guns murder 33 more people every day across America. This March mark

“The NRA members are the current incarnation of the brownshirts from Germany back in the early ’30s, late ’20s, early ’30s. Now, of course, there came the Night of the Long Knives when the brownshirts were slaughtered and dumped in the nearest ditches when the power structure finally got tired of them. So I look forward to that day.” – Radio host Mike Malloy [via newsbusters.org]

We now know the Fort Hood shooter was undergoing psychiatric treatment, and taking psych meds for his condition. Will gun control advocates try to exploit this tragedy to further their agenda? Will they try to deny veterans their natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms, arguing that any veteran who seeks psychiatric help should not be able to exercise that right? Will they then continue their crusade to suggest – as National Gun Victims Counsel’s Elliot Fineman CEO did during a recent debate – that anyone taking any medicine for anxiety or other mental health challenge should not be able to keep or bear arms? How do you counter that assault on the basic human right to self-defe

At a 10:45pm EST news conference, Lt. Gen. Mark Milley, III Corps and Fort Hood commanding general [above] revealed that Fort Hood shooter Spc. Ivan Lopez, 1st Battalion, Warrior Transition Brigade [click here for a picture] served four months in Iraq in 2011. Although Lopez was not diagnosed with PTSD he was “undergoing behavioral health and psychiatric treatment” for depression and anxiety. He was taking psych meds as part of his treatment. Lopez murdered his fellow

Spc. Ivan Lopez, 1st Battalion, Warrior Transition Brigade, ties a fly during an instructional class Nov. 3 at Fort Hood. [h/t JA] Spc. Ivan Lopez has been identified as the shooter, now dead, who opened fire at Fort Hood.

In a recorded statement to the press that was just aired, President Obama addressed today’s Ft. Hood shooting, pledging to “get to the bottom of what happened.” He saluted the service members and their families and pledged to get the base and surrounding community what it needs to deal with the situation. Saying the shooting re-opens the wounds of the earlier Hassan massacre, he knows everyone around the country is keeping those involved in their prayers and that service members need to feel safe when they’re on their home base. Strangely, he didn’t address the fact that those stationed at Ft. Hood, like almost all other domestic military bases, are required to be disarmed.

TTAG reader Scottiac reminded us of Fort Hood’s police regarding concealed carry. Click here for the base’s policy. Pay attention to #11 on page 2:

11. The Texas Concealed Handgun Law does not apply on Fort Hood. Concealed handguns are prohibited on Fort Hood.

All official firearms are unloaded and locked away in vaults.

Chairman of House Committee of Homeland Security Michael McCaul just told CNN that there are four confirmed deaths at the Fort Hood shotting, including the shooter, identified as one Ivan Lopez. No doubt the press will use his middle name as and when. Meanwhile, updates as we get them here, on Facebook and Twitter.

News is coming from the Justice Department that the shooter in this afternoon’s incident at Fort Hood killed himself. As we know from other shooting incidents like this one it is fairly typical for a “spree killer” to take their own lives as soon as they meet any form of resistance, and this case doesn’t seem to be any different. We still don’t know any additional details about the incident, but reports also indicate that there is indeed only one shooter, and at this time there are only eight reported injuries and no additional fatalities. As to why such murderers (or attempted murderers) take their own lives, there’s an article from Wired that tries to explain some of the reasons. . .

Why are some mass shooters more likely to kill themselves? If we go beyond the a

In an eery coincidence firearms trainer John Farnham sent the follow email to one of our readers yesterday warning of the potential for another mass shooting at Ft. Hood:

New threat to American military bases:

Federal authorities are frantically searching for a self-professed Islamic jihadist, Muhammad Abdullah Hassan (aka “Booker”), who has threatened to duplicate the Ft Hood Massacre of November 2009. He was recruited by the Army, but then immediately discharged due to his threats. Agents interviewed him, but then inexplicably cut him loose, a move they now sincerely regret! . . .

Military posts around the Country have been put on alert. Who is going to protect all these defenseless, unarmed members of our so-called “armed” services from gun-wielding lunatics? The solution to this situation is too obvious, so it will be, once again, ignored completely by the promotion-con

Just over a month ago I had the chance to test out and review 300 Below’s new Tactical Triad firearms cleaning and lubrication kit, but it wasn’t yet actually available for purchase. This has since changed, and you can now purchase the entire kit as well as many of the individual components on Amazon. Links, details, a follow-up on the review (including a technical note and some comments from a TTAG reader on his experience with it), and a special 10% off discount code for TTAG readers all after the jump . . .

• The Tactical Triad kit is available on Amazon here.
• 10% off coupon code, valid through April 30th at midnight Pacific Time, is:  TTAGTTAG
• If you visit 

If this had happened yesterday, we’d have thought it a tasteless April fools joke. From kcentv.com: “We have reports that there are several injuries from this shooting. There is at least one patient being transported to the hospital. We are also getting reports of victims in the Battle Simulation Center on 65th and Warehouse. The suspect is still at large. The shooter was said to be in building 33026 which is the Medical Brigade Building. Fort Hood has been put on lockdown.” You may remember from the Hassan massacre that Ft. Hood, like most military bases is a gun-free zone. Live reports at the above link. Watch this space.

AAC’s Ti-Rant and SilencerCo.’s Osprey are both 9mm suppressors, and they compete for the same audience. They have their differences and their trade-offs, but they cost about the same amount of money and they do exactly the same job. So the question then: which one is better? To answer that, the nice folks at Austin’s Silencer Shop brought out a couple of each version and we shot them side by side. To my ear, AAC’s Ti-Rant is the winner — but only by a hair. And honestly, I might prefer the Osprey’s unobstructed sight picture over a hair more noise suppression. Listen for yourself. When the audio in the video cuts over (the wind stops) that’s where I used the more accurate audio from the device near the muzzle.

By Christopher Cicchitelli

As a fervent Second Amendment supporter and the founder of a technology company, I’ve followed the ATF eForms story with great personal interest. It showed great promise at first, cutting wait times down to under 60 days…and then it imploded. Exactly what happened was a question we’ve all asked, and until reading the ATFs announcement yesterday I didn’t really have a good idea. However, in that announcement I believe the ATF tipped us off to the key that unravels the mystery . . .

First, some full disclosure: prior to starting my company, CastleOS, I worked as a contractor to a government R&D lab where, among other responsibilities, I designed integrated systems and managed servers for

Back before the big gun blogs existed, back before President Obama was elected, the AP ran a news article that showed how much the culture has been conditioned to fear firearms: ”‘I grew up at a time when people were not afraid of people with firearms,’ said (Supreme Court Justice Antonin) Scalia, noting that as a youth in New York City he was part of a rifle team at the military school he attended. ‘I used to travel on the subway from Queens to Manhattan with a rifle,’ he said. ‘Could you imagine doing that today in New York City?’” I have heard other reports of people carrying long guns openly in New York City in the 1950s, with no police being called, no schools locked down, no panic, no problems. Why was this so back then, but not now? . . .

The Sa. Vz. 58 is an excellent weapon system, but its stock configuration is admittedly a bit dated. Fortunately, there are quite a few firms that invested in modernization programs for the venerable little carbine. One of these, an Israeli firm named FAB Defense, makes Vz. 58 accessories authorized for use by the Czech military.  The Mako Group distributes FAB Defense products in the United States, and was kind enough to send me some T&E samples so I could pimp out my Vz. 58. I’ve been running the FAB Defense products through their paces for two months and can now make a full report to the Armed Intelligentsia . . .

It’s no secret that corrupt politicians are more of a factor in large urban centers than in rural communities and small towns.  The same applies to organized crime. Both are associated with urban areas. It’s much harder for significant corruption to exist when the amounts are smaller, the people involved mostly know the politicians personally and there are fewer large public works projects to play favorites with. A significant exception might be planning and zoning, where local elites tend to wield great power, have little accountability, and where significant money is at stake . . .

It’s also clear that corrupt politicians and organized crime figures hate the idea of an armed populace. When you’re stealing, cheating, and extorting people on a daily basis, some of them are bound to take exception to it. Push them far enough, and a few will inevitably decide to push back, even at the cost of their own lives. Do it long enough, and it becomes a virtual certainty.

slate.com‘s published a photo gallery called THIS IS WHAT GUN OWNERSHIP LOOKS LIKE IN AMERICA. Click here to view. Then tell us if you think the gun pics betray Slate’s anti-gun bias, your pro-gun bias or what.