The Truth About Guns

Ares Armor CEO Dimitrios Karras posted an update on Facebook: “The ATF did execute a search warrant against all of our buildings today. None of our employees have been detained or arrested. We will be open for business tomorrow. We will be back up and shipping out orders on Monday. We wholeheartedly believe that they are WRONG in their actions and we will be relentlessly pursuing remedy through the courts. Quote from an ATF Agent during the raid ‘searching is fun! paper work sucks.’ Maybe the ATF thinks the Constitution is part of that paper work that sucks… Despicable behavior on their part. This is just the beginning! Thank you all for the support!” Yes, well, how many people will be ordering “untraceable” 80% AR-15 lowers from Ares now, given the ATF troll through Ar

By Matthew J. Bergstrom, Esq.

Despite its location in South Africa, another high profile shooting offers lessons for US gun owners. International Athlete, Oscar Pistorius, stands accused of murdering his girlfriend on Valentine’s Day 2013, and now we’ve had the opportunity to see his case presented in a South African courtroom this week. Pistorius, known as the “the Blade Runner—the fastest man with no legs,” claims he thought he was shooting an intruder in self-defense inside a bathroom in his home . . .

The trial has met expectations for dramatic moments after a year of anticipation and speculation driven by the media. Pictures have circulated of Pistorius vomiting in open court during a witness’ testimony detailing the mortal gun shot wounds suffered by Reeva Steenkamp. Prosecutors also introduced physical

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TTAG reader Karlan in Austin, TX writes:

Some friends and I went to the free MACC [Mexican American Cultural Center] show last night. I wasn’t sure of my right to carry; it was city property, but they were serving liquor. So I decided to “play it safe” and leave my gun home. After the show ended I separated from my friends to grab a bus home (approx 11:40 pm). While walking on the lakefront path between MACC and Congress Street I see two individuals sitting to the side. Two other people had just walked past them. They were waiting for me, alone . . .

One crosses into the path like he is holding a phone conversation, I immediately know something fishy is up and walk on the hill on the pa

I’m cribbing this question from the good folks usacarry.com. Responses to their HMAIE enquiry ranged from “Everything from ‘if you’re not drowning or on fire, you can’t have too much ammo’ to a slightly more normal ‘thinking 1,000 rounds per gun or per cal owned then buy a box shoot a box’ to a recent moron saying ‘So you’re advocating that everyone reading this article should continue to hoard and buy everything in sight, furthering the shortage that is a direct result of the behavior you advocate for?’ My take: unless you’re preparing for an extended ammo drought you only need enough ammo to maintain a reserve (vs. yo

By Tom in Oregon

As a disclosure, I was a full-time police officer during my first defensive gun use, so I was allowed to carry concealed as long as I had ID with me. I have been retired for a bit over two years now. The problem during this particular time was that I was working undercover and had been for some time. I had a fake ID, and was told to not carry anything police-related. I was allowed to carry a gun, but if I got arrested for it, I’d need to make a phone call for some splainin’ to do. Besides working for my own department, I was frequently on loan to other departments as I had a fresh face, and could walk the walk . . .

One fall day, I had left the house dressed in grubbies as usual. My undercover car was a 74 Monte Carlo beater. I took the two kids to the baby sitter across town and realized I had left somethi

“If you’re a single issue voter, and you just want someone to give you a full capacity assault rifle magazine, God bless you, you can go vote for somebody else. I’m not your guy.” – California GOP gubernatorial primary candidate Neel Kashkari in Tim Donnelly’s gun history marked by controversy, tragedy [at sacbee.com]

Yet another very old gun club in New England is being hassled by the folks who live around it, most of whom have moved there within the last decade and now complain about the noise and “safety concerns.” The Spurwink Rod & Gun Club has been in the same place on Sawyer Road for nearly 60 years, but is now having to deal with a new ordinance, passed unanimously by the city council, that will require shooting ranges (note the plural) to be licensed and develop safety procedures (with accompanying audits) and have a site plan in place that covers future expansion and mitigation to the surrounding community. There will also be noise standards and requirements that all shots be contained within in the range. The plural is noted because although ordinances cannot be targeted against specific businesses . . .

Reader AI writes:

I have the opposite opinion as the reader who wrote in accusing TTAG of “saber rattling” regarding a potential gun confiscation in Connecticut. It is a confiscation drive, after all, even though the “collection” phase hasn’t yet begun. As we all try to understand where the fine line is, and put off the potential for conflict, it is easy to forget the intentions of the Connecticut law. That some would resist was known and embraced by the anti-gun forces who sponsored the law. That innocent citizens would be turned into felons at the stroke of midnight on December 31 was fantasized about by those who see gun owners as inherently evil, untrustworthy people. And as we all know, those aren’t just fringe groups, but include the very people who take a supposedly legally binding oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United

Reader Benny writes:

I recently took a friend of mine to get his first gun. Ever. To me, its a pretty big deal when you buy your first firearm as it’s basically you deciding to protect yourself and your loved ones with the best tools available. A little background first. My friend Dre works with me at FedEx and he just became a driver. He was told that he was going to be working and driving overnight and he would be leaving his 6-month old son and his girlfriend at the apartment by themselves . . .

Naturally, he didn’t want to leave their safety to fate so he called me one day.

“Hey Benny, I need your expertise, bro.” 
We’ve known each other for a while now and it was no secret by any means that I knew a few things about guns. As soon as he said that, I knew exactly what he meant.

“Sweet dude, you’ve called the right man! What are you looking for?”

“I need somet

At a town meeting, Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy addressed a lengthy question about the Constitution State’s post-Newtown civilian disarmament legislation. Malloy sums up the challenges to the law by telling an unhappy American gun owner “you lost” (4:48). The applause greeting his summation reflects the gulf between pro-gun control voters and the tens of thousands of gun owners who’ve refused to register their firearms and, thus, become, Class D felons. Whatever you think of Malloy’s justification for “strengthening” Connecticut’s gun laws – and “not much” just begins to cover it – the Governor isn’t backing up or backing off. With the letter threatening “charges” against non-compliant gun owners, the conflict grows more ominous by the day.

Despite being granted a restraining order, the ATF has apparently raided San Diego area firearms parts seller Ares Armor anyway. Ares sells 80% lowers which the ATF has classified as “firearms.” The ATF has been pressuring Ares to turn over their sales records or lose them in a raid. Given the threats, earlier this week Ares moved for and was granted a restraining order against such a raid. But the above YouTube video appears to show ATF agents rummaging through Ares, apparently confiscating inventory and, you’d have to assume, their computers and customers records. This video is the only evidence we’ve been able to find of a r

We haven’t really been covering it in depth, but Barack Obama announced a new candidate for Surgeon General a while back and every day it seems we learn something new about him. Dr.  Vivek H. Murthy seems like a suitable candidate, until you realize that the good doctor believes that extremely strict gun control is a matter of public health and was planning to use his position to advocate for that. The revelations sparked outrage from gun rights groups, and word comes today from the New York Times that the outcry of gun rights advocates seems to have been loud enough to pull the plug on the nomination.

From the New York Times . . .

Sgt. Patrick Hayes

It seems there is always a news story about some active shooter somewhere. This make gun owners cringe. The media plays up such events to give the gun grabbers a platform to push their agenda. These are, in fact, rare events. The streets of “gun controlled” Chicago are far more dangerous. The problem we have is while we can predict urban violence, there is no way to predict where and when a mass shooting will occur. It could happen anywhere at any time. What do we do when it happens?  . . .

Police Officers spend countless hours training for these scenarios. We train to charge in, engage, and stop the threat. We have our side arms, shotguns, patrol rifles, precision rifles and distraction devices to perform that task.

The biggest problem is time. We have to respond to the incident. Unless an officer is already on scene, that could take seconds to severa

When we published the Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Emergency Protection’s letter to gun owners (above) whose registration documents had missed the state-imposed December 31, 2013 deadline, some poo-poo’d. They claimed it was a Photoshop phony, concocted to enflame the situation. Shameless link bait intended to drive up traffic. Calls to various state sources yielded varying stories about its authenticity. But now comes confirmation from nbcconnecticut.com that the letters

The open carry of firearms has been a subject of considerable debate in Utah recently. Some people have been arrested for openly carrying holstered firearms despite the fact that open carry is legal in Utah. The charge has been, as it frequently was until recently in Wisconsin, “disorderly conduct” . . .

Disorderly conduct tends to be a catchall charge that’s used to crack down on conduct that is not illegal, but that the police disapprove of. Being arrested in and of itself can be a significant punishment. The Wisconsin AG eventually ruled that openly carrying a firearm is not disorderly conduct by itself. That after police departments paid out

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The guys at Cold Steel aren’t exactly your bog standard knife manufacturers. From their prolific videos of slicing the crap out of dead animals to their apparent love of pirate costumes and old guns (see? gun related!) they certainly made quite a splash at IWA in Germany. And not only were they sharp dressed men, but they had something new to show off.

Their newest offering is the Magnum Warcraft Tanto, a $409.99 investment in stabbyness. The t

“While I live in a very nice, quite, wealthy neighborhood with a responsible police department, the decisions that are made for my own protection between the time a crime is being committed, when the cops are called, and when they arrive is up to me. My means of equalizing an unsafe situation? That would be a .40 caliber Springfield XDM semi-automatic handgun given to me by a former Blackwater firearms instructor.” – Trish Williams in Firearms, an Equalizer for Women [at dailysurge.com]