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
Gun Review: Czech Vzor 58
The Czechoslovakian Sa Vz. 58 assault rifle has to rank high as one of the least understood and most underappreciated military rifles of the twentieth century. Case in point: for many years I thought that it was simply a copy of the AK-47. But I’m not alone: I’ve even seen it described in books as being an “AK.” However, outward appearances aside, they only thing the Vz. 58 has in common with an AK-47 is the round it shoots: the M43 (7.62 x 39mm). In fact, internally this rifle has more in common with Walther P38s, Beretta 92s, Brens, and Glocks than it does with an AK-47. Over the past couple years, I had the opportunity to test two civilian-legal adaptations of the original Czech design: the D-Techniks Vz. 58 “Sporter”, and a Century Arms International Inc. parts kit build called the “Vz. 2008.” . . .
New from Recover Tactical: CC3 1911 Grip And Rail
Some classic warbirds, like the original CZ75 and the venerable 1911, were just designed too soon to understand the need to clip lights, lasers, can openers and iPods to them. Recover Tactical has just released this Israeli grip/rail adapter which can teach your old warhorse a few new tricks. But only if you don’t mind the decidedly tech/tactical look of this wraparound Total 1911 Makeover accessory . . .
The CC3 was designed by Tamir Porat, the brains behind the IWI Tavor. The all-polymer unit is available in Black, OD and Desert Sand colors, and installs with standard tools in just a few minutes. And it’s only $50, which is far less costly than even the cheapest gunsmith rail installation. Since it only has to hold lights and lasers (or bottle openers for Darwin Award contestants) it will probably do its job ju
The Truth About TTAG: 2014 Q1
The time has come once again to justify to advertisers, gun companies, and the mainstream media why we (TTAG) matter. All those three constituencies care about is how many eyeballs we can bring to the table, so the better we do, the more we (potentially) get. The more advertising dollars, the more guns to review, the more invites to gun control debates and so forth. Other websites (we’re too classy to name names, but you can figure out they are) go to great pains to keep their traffic stats a state secret. We don’t roll that way. So let’s take a stroll through the stats from this past quarter and see how TTAG is doing . . .
While we usually get a nice traffic bump from the SHOT Show, the January time frame also seems to coincide with other events that bump up the number of viewers in and of themselves. One year it was a gun tattoo. The last year it was aftermath of Newtown and the NY SAFE Act passing in the dead
Quote of the Day: I’ll Have Fries With That Edition
“It’s a bit strange to me that you think you need to carry a gun when you’re having a cheeseburger.” – Chef Sean Brock in Want Guns With That? Chefs Find Politics Hotter Than Kitchen [at nytimes.com]
Daily Digest: I Don’t Do April Fool’s Jokes Edition
Early last year, a British-born photographer named Charles Ommanney traveled around the U.S. photographing Americans with their guns, on an assignment for the German magazine Stern. Instead of photographing the subjects at a firing range or at an NRA meeting, he wanted to capture them in their homes. He was seeking a sense of “normalcy” and trying avoid the “predictable NRA-bashing” that is often common in such projects. He was surprised at how easy it was to get people to let him take their picture, saying if he tried to do that in England they’d look at him like he was a lunatic. But for the Americans it was in no way abnormal . . .
because for these folks, their guns are a “perfectly normal extension of their lives.” Slate has a
Letter to the Editor Reveals Antis’ Weak Flank
“Suppose I’m legally carrying a concealed gun at a business when armed robbers show up,” Jan Miller postulates in her letter to latimes.com. “Fearing for my life, I just want to get out of the store, but the front door is the only way out. Let’s assume I can’t tell who is whom by how they’re dressed.” OK, that’s the set-up. TTAG’s Armed Intelligentsia is sure to have some tactical advice for Ms. Miller’s thought experiment. Find cover or concealment, draw your weapon and wait to see what develops. Never fire on a drawn gun – unless you have to. Bottom line: it’s better to have a gun in that situation than not in case the armed robbers decide to kill everyone. Ms. Miller doesn’t see it that way . . .
How will I k
Boston Cops Create Black Market for Stolen Guns
“Former ATF Assistant Director Bouchard says crooks have easy access to cheap stolen guns on the street,” abc.com reported back in January. “‘If you talk to any criminal, they can find a gun within an hour or two. Cheaper guns that were stolen can be sold for $50. On the street, a typical good handgun will run you $200 to $300,’ Bouchard said.” The problem with that deal: the transaction is illegal. A bad guy can go to jail for that sort of thing. Enter the Boston Police . . .
The first week of Bosto
Why Americans on the DHS’ “No-Fly” List Should be Able to Buy Guns
TTAG reader Pascal writes:
arstechnica.com offers a post on the long painful saga of Malaysian-born college professor Rahinah Ibrahim. In the words of the Judge, the trail itself was a, “Kafkaesque” legal battle. Even AFTER the Judge ordered Ibrahim to be removed from the no fly list, the DHS refused. About one thousand people are in the same situation as Ibrahim, whose saga started with an errant check placed on a form filled out by FBI agent Kevin Kelly. Aside from the successful resolution to this case, the Ibrahim’s saga is hardly atypical. The No-Fly list had grown to . . .
1.1m records with estim
HuffPo Writer Highlights Defect in Georgia’s “Guns Everywhere” Law
“You know that gun control is no longer an issue, either pro or con, when both sides try to make you believe that something big has happened when nothing of any real importance happened at all,” huffingtonpost.com‘s “Mike the Gun Guy” opines. “I’m referring to the gun law just passed in Georgia which is awaiting Governor Nathan Deal’s expected signature, a law described by the New York Times as one of ‘breathtaking sweep’ and by the
UPDATE: ATF Issues Cease And Desist on Batch Uploads
As we reported, the ATF seems to be singling out the activities of Austin’s Silencer Shop as one of the culprits for their e-Forms website being… well… terrible. We posted the email earlier this afternoon where they outline a new reboot schedule that takes the system offline for nearly half the day, and now we have confirmation of an additional attachment that was apparently sent only to SOT/FFL holders and not to Form 1 registered users (like me). One request to the ATF: please try to avoid sending out announcements on April 1? Make the jump for the full text of the letter.
URGENT NOTICE TO: All Registered ATF eForms users
As you are aware for several w
Could Connecticut Gun Laws Spark Another Waco?
By Parson Turnbull
There’s been a lot of discussion among members of the Armed Intelligentsia lately about how Connecticut’s finest might proceed if they decide to confiscate unregistered guns from the state’s 100,000 or more newly-minted felons. The level of concern is evidenced by daily long comment threads, speculative posts by people who are not members of law enforcement, and even a couple of contributed opinions from the LEO community. The rational consensus seems to be that if the gun-grab order were given, cops would pinch a registration scofflaw at the grocery store, at work, on the road…anyplace other than his or her home where a Ruby Ridge-style tragedy might ensue. Here I propose the alternative–that LEOs might not in fact be that rational if and when the time comes . . .
You may have read or at least heard about Malcolm Gladwell’s
BREAKING: ATF eForms Broken. Again. Still. More.
Good afternoon:
You are in receipt of this email because you are a registered user of ATF eForms. Please review the attached Urgent Notice relating to an important issue we are experiencing with the eForms system . . .
Reminder:
In an attempt to improve the performance of eForms we are restarting the eForms system everyday at the following times (Eastern time). During each restart eForms will be unavailable for 1 hour.
Restart times:
4:00 AM
9:00 AM
NOON
4:00 PM
11:00 PM
If you have any questions concerning the attached notice please contact Lee Alston-Williams at lee.alston-williams@atf.gov.
Sincerely,
Lenora (Lee) Alston-Williams
Industry Liasion Analyst – IT
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, & Explosives
Gun Hero of the Day: Yankee Marshall
YouTube gun guy The Yankee Marshall puts out an awful lot of content. Some of it is awful. But most of his material offers what gun control advocates pretend to offer: common sense. This video, in particular, makes me proud to be on the same side of the Second Amendment fence as the bearded one. TYM tells it like it is: firearms training is not the key to armed self-defense. A gun is. Ninety-nine-point-nine percent of gun buyers can figure it out: bullets face forward, aim, squeeze the trigger. Don’t shoot the wrong person. Don’t leave the gun lying around. Everything else? Bonus. In fact, kudos to TYM for having the guts to say that training-mania helps the anti-gunners (by making guns seems more dangerous than they are) and almost saying that training is more dangerous than not training. That would have really riled ‘em up.
Which Gun Would You Grab: Non-Lethal Addition
Scenario: Every morning, you take your favorite little Pomeranian, Mr. Scruffles, for a walk around your posh neighborhood in Lakeway, Texas. Both you and he enjoy your daily constitutional. You get a chance to show off your manly physique and so does Mr. Scruffles. Sadly, Dr. Excelsior’s Doberman likes neither you nor Mr. Scruffles and you fear his bite much more than his his bark. To make matters worse, you have a “thing” for Dr. Excelsior. I mean, she’s rich, cute, and damn…that Mercedes. You don’t want to stop her Doberman permanently, you just want to keep bite marks off your body for when you two spend the day at Hippy Hollow So a on-lethal weapons it is
What Florida’s Failure to Pass Emergency Carry Permit Suspension Bill Reveals About Gun Control Advocates’ Mindset
Tampa’s tbo.com offers a post-mortem analysis of the Florida legislature’s failure to “allow people without concealed weapon permits to carry guns during forced evacuations prompted by emergencies, such as hurricanes.” The piece provides insight into the NRA’s behind-the-scenes lobbying (a.k.a., arm-twisting) and Governor Rick Scott’s suspected role in torpedoing the bill. Second Amendment absolutists will shake their heads and assert that no one should have to have a permit to carry a gun at any time ever. Which raises an important question: why would you want to limit Americans’ carry rights during an emergency? Here’s the “argument” that [allegedly] killed the bill . . .<
Question of the Day: What Division Would You Choose?
The Texas Multigun Championship is coming up next week. It was the first match I shot with Team FNH USA last year, and it’s the first big match on my calendar for this season. But as the date gets closer, I find myself vacillating on a rather important decision – which division to shoot in . . .
3-gun uses divisions to keep things fair. Within a given division there’s a set list of standards that your equipment needs to meet, and at the end of the day the awards are issued within those divisions only — there’s no “overall” winner. It keeps the competition fair, no matter what you want to shoot.
Tac Optics is the most popular division. Last year there were over 220 competitors in that division alone, and most of the sponsored shooters chose to compete in that division as well. I came in about the middle of the pack, a
April Fools: SilencerCo Launches the “Wizard Staff”
I have to admit, the production values on SilencerCo’s April Fools’ prank this year are pretty good. They “announced” the Wizard Staff, a .22lr silencer that appears to be about four feet long and comes with an “eternal” warranty and has a list price of “22 thousand silver shekels.” While it’s true that the only way to increase the efficiency of a can is to increase either the diameter or the length, I get the feeling that this is just a hair excessive. Anyway, nicely done SilencerCo. And make sure you watch until the end!
TTAG to Test Cryogenic Rifle Barrels on Underground Tactical Build
Walking with Kirsten Joy Weiss is an abject lesson in what it’s like to not be invisible. So when a conventioneer approached us at the SHOT Show and said “You’re Kirsten Joy Weiss aren’t you?” I wasn’t particularly surprised. But his specialty subject certainly piqued my interest: “cryogenics.” My only knowledge of the field: Walt Disney’s cryogenically frozen head is stored in a freezer underneath The Pirates of the Caribbean ride. (An urban myth, apparently.) Prescott Paulin of
BREAKING: Chris Christie Makes New Jersey “Shall Issue”
In a move that’s being seen as an attempt to get his 2016 presidential campaign back on the rails, Chris Christie announced this morning that he will be using his gubernatorial powers to begin dismantling some of the firearms laws in New Jersey. The state has inched closer to the top of the pile of “gun unfriendly” locations since Illinois’ laws have been slowly whittled away by court rulings, but the new rules might change all that. Christie’s main focus seems to be on streamlining the system for obtaining handgun licenses, which those in New Jersey are required to obtain for every handgun they purchase. He has also announced that he will be instructing the law enforcement agencies in the state to begin operating on a “shall issue” basis for all new concealed carry permits . . .
Over the last few
Quote of the Day: Good Luck With That Edition
“Consistently demonstrating how to handle conflict with patience and compassion will counter the myth we all see on TV and in movies, the myth that the best solution is force. Until then, I’ll continue to try to curb the arsenal growing in our toy room, starting with this Barbie doll my son twisted around to look like a revolver.” – Andrew Andestic in Guns, Boys and Steel: Should We Put Pretend Weapons in Our Childrens’ Hands? [at huffingtonpost.com]