The Truth About Guns

The M240 machine gun is a marvel of modern engineering. It will reliably lay down a massive weight of fire on the enemy. But there’s a problem: the thing weighs a ton. Lightweight compared to a M60, but still too heavy to be used to its full capability. FNH USA came up with the original lightweight M240 in their M240L or “Lima,” which used a titanium construction to make the parts lighter. But Barrett’s M240LW is what I call the Kim Kardashian solution; slice and dice until all you’re left with are the bare essentials for life. And a big butt. Superhuman shooter Jerry Miculek likes big butts (and he cannot lie).

“We can anticipate gun aficionados clamoring that ‘who wouldn’t point a gun at an unknown intruder in their home??’ — something we can all surely understand — but let’s play devil’s advocate. What if there wasn’t a gun? What if the homeowner, instead, had a stun gun, a bat; a knife? Isn’t it likely that having that gun in his hand made it too easy for him to pull the trigger (reportedly four or five times) and kill an unarmed teenage boy already making his way out of the house? Of course it is. Guns simply make death — accidental, intended, suicidal – far too easy.” Lorraine Devon Wilke, Beyond Mental Health and Gun Control Is This: Guns Make Death Too Easy [via

The photo above is evidence that the Denver PD does not mess around. That bullet hole is the aftermath of a single shot taken on Tuesday by a member of the Denver PD against a hostage taker after that man refused to release the woman he had held at gunpoint for over an hour, and then pulled her back as if to go back inside the store. That glass door is not the first thing the bullet went through, if you get my drift. He was taken to the hospital in critical condition, and died Friday night. Click the photo above for the (not-graphic) video and the rest of the story. . .

A Colorado group, Guns for Everyone, is going around Colorado attempting to bring gun safety and gun knowledge to all people regardless of their financial situation. They

I read Two Rabbis Fight For Gun Control From Pulpit — and the Heart at forward.com. I watched the accompanying bloody shirt waving extravaganza. I left a simple comment: “What part of never again don’t they understand?” And then I ran into this: ”The potential game changer for Mosbacher and his colleague would be a pledge made by New York City’s new mayor, Bill de Blasio, to require all gun suppliers selling weapons to the city’s police force to fill out the gun safety questionnaire. [ED: five survey questions listed below.] If de Blasio, whose city has the largest police department in America, follows through on the promise that organizers said they had received from him during the campaign, pressure on gun manufacturers will increase substantially.” True dat, but not in the way that writer Nathan Guttman thinks . . .

If freshly-minted Mayor Bill de Blasio forces the NYPD to satisfy the rabbis’ and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America’s demand that they add a political purity test to the po-

The Ninth Circuit Court Of Appeals has ruled that bloggers enjoy the same journalistic protections as traditional print and broadcast media when commenting on matters of public concern. Financial blogger Crystal Cox now won’t have to pay a $2.5 million jury award to an Oregon attorney and his financial services firm, whom she had accused of fraud and money-laundering. Why does this First Amendment victory for a finance blogger matter to the future of the Second Amendment? . . .

Because up until now there was no clear rule on which legal standard should apply when bloggers and other new media were sued for vague ‘presumed damages’ for defamation. Should the plaintiff have to prove merely that the blogger’s statements were factually incorrect and harmed their reputation? Or should the plaintiff have to prove that the blogger acted with negligence (no fact-checking or verification) or malice (let’s screw the

“A man accused of rape, kidnapping, and assault was out on bond when investigators say he again committed those crimes and more,” wwaytv3.com reports. All those who are surprised this nasty turn of events please raise your hand. Thought not. “Records show [Richard Teremaine] Gore damaged the straps for his GPS tracking device Monday. Investigators say he kidnapped a woman from a home in Little River, SC, either Sunday night or Monday morning by gunpoint and raped and assaulted her at his home in Ash. According to warrants it’s the same woman Gore allegedly kidnapped and rape earlier this year.” Yes, you read that right . . .

Gore assaulted the same woman twice, the last time while he was on bail for the first offense. Who saw that one coming? Hands down.

Judge Sherry Princ

It’s become de rigeur to slam GLOCK for debuting a single stack .380 before unleashing a pocket 9. The internet’s abuzz with complaints. It’s too small. It’s too big. It’s ugly. It smells funny. Yadda, yadda, yadda. When I read the gunblogosphere’s take on the GLOCK 42 I was disappointed too. I’ve wanted a GLOCK for years; they just don’t fit my small hands. The scuttlebutt would have you believe the G42 was the wrong gun at the wrong time. And then I picked one up at Media Day . . .

To start, I slipped a GLOCK G42 in my pocket. It fit just fine. Better than a Smith & Wesson J frame revolver. So well I was tempted to keep on walkin’. Extraction wasn’t an issue either. In, out, in, out, GLOCK is what it’s all about.

As you’d expect from a small calibered pistol that’s not too small, the G42 shoots beautifully. Maybe it’s due to the fa

The story is simple enough: “A family living at an East Side home [in San Antonio, Texas] were terrorized Monday morning by men who showed up at their door with shotguns,” foxsanantonio.com reports. “Police say the men knocked on the back door of the home on Montana. Someone inside the home opened the door and the men walked in holding shotguns. They stole a flatscreen television, a gaming console and some DVD’s before running away. No one was hurt. The suspects have not been found.” Your average gun grabber would say, see? If the residents had defended their pr

In the comments on Nick’s post about Franklin Armory’s new gas-operated .17 WSM AR-15, I played “Debbie Downer” on the likelihood of seeing a high capacity, double-stack magazine for the rifle. Why? Well, it’s not easy to get a rimmed cartridge to reliably feed from a box magazine in a semi-automatic firearm in the first place, let alone from a double-stack mag. End up with one rim behind the next and you’re clearing a jam. “Crashbbear” responded, “tell that to Kel Tec’s PMR 30.” Good point. There are actually two unique features in the PMR-30 mags that prevent feeding issues. Let’s have a look…

First, let me just preempt comments pointing out that other magazine-fed semi-autos chambered for rimmed cartridges exist. They do, yes

The Freedom Group is not TTAG’s BFF. We weren’t invited to Front Site to test Stage 1 (pre-production) versions of Remington’s new carry pistol, the R51. When I had a look at the R51 on the Show floor, all that agita counted for nothing. Nothing I saw at Remmy’s booth disabused me of the notion that Big Green’s fashioned a game-changing carry pistol. It’s not just the R51′s price (MSRP $389), caliber (9mm), capacity (7+1), concealability, extremely low bore axis (the Pedersen “hesitation locked” breech action reduces muzzle flip), all metal construction (reduces felt recoil), or female-friendliness (easy racking slide). It’s all of it. Not since the .32 caliber Colt 1903 has there been such a seemingly perfect combination of characteristics for everyday carry. I say s

A definite highlight of Media Day was running two mags of 5.56 full auto through the sub 6-pound Daniel Defense MK18. This excellent little rifle features a 10.3-inch cold hammer forged barrel (1-7 rh twist). The new Daniel Defense furniture on this rifle is pretty nice as well – it’s very ergonomic and features soft touch rubber overmoulding.  It feels softer and more “grippy” than the Magpul furniture I’ve been running on my AR . . .

Th

Flying back from Vegas, I found myself sitting next to someone who doesn’t own a handgun but wants to. Again. Seriously, this happens to me all the time. These newbies think that buying a gun is like finding Nemo. I mean Neo. There is The One. If they know something about guns, they fully expect GLOCK to be The One Gun To Rule Them All. Which it is, sometimes. Here’s my two-step process to guiding people to the right gun . . .

1. What do you want the gun for?

A) Concealed carry
B) Home defense
C) Target practice/range fun

If the first time buyer wants a gun for concealed carry, I recommend they pocket-carry a hammerless revolver: a 

After spending four days walking up and down the aisles at the SHOT Show, we’re happy to report that the whole zombie green thing seems to pretty much be dead. On the other hand, we did see a few manufacturers promoting guns adorned in “arctic white” stocks, and scope manufacturers such as Schmidt & Bender offering scopes finished in white. And, as Chris already posted, Tapco is producing AR furniture in white. Will this be a new trend, or is white just the color of the month? More pics of the limited edition Steyr AUG stock after the jump . . .

Quite why an image of such inescapable beauty would be derided by a commentator, I have no idea. Oh wait. I do. The image is in a gallery of gun photos published in The Land of Hope and Glory, a country so hoplophobic they call their fastest trains high speed rail service (instead of bullet trains). “Obviously only for balance I think it would be also informative to see in detail the beauty of the results of these bullets in any motion you like on the previously living targets,” toywithwords opines, his comment dripping with Ye Olde sarcasm. Hello? This is the U.K.’s right wing newspaper. Sigh. There’s naught as queer as folk. Click

“Many gearheads will remember that the 1970s-era Dodge Dart‘s claim to fame was that its motor was so durable (though not necessarily powerful) that one could shoot bullets into the engine block,” green.autoblog.com recalls. “Decades later, Toyota has taken a page out of that testing process. With some industry members and analysts questioning both the viability and

“As we have seen in the last year, grass roots support for the rights of gun owners has repeatedly trumped big-money campaigns funded by people such as former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and others who agree with Weinstein. As long as the political left and its Hollywood ATM machines keep showing their contempt for the Constitution, the NRA has little to fear from Harvey Weinstein or Meryl Streep.” – Jonathan S. Tobin, Guns, Hollywood Hypocrisy, and the NRA [at commentarymagazine.com]

An eagle-eyed reader found this little gem at rcmp-grc.gc.ca: “The Firearms Internet Investigations Support (FIIS) Unit provides a range of Internet support services, both in the firearm applicant screening process and directly to front-line police officers. The CFP FIIS gathers information from a variety of open sources and, when potentially criminal activities involving firearms are detected, the information is forwarded to the police of jurisdiction for further investigation. In 2012, the CFP FIIS unit screened 2,793 firearms licence applicants and forwarded 55 follow-up reports, regarding high-risk applicants, to CFOs. In addition, the FIIS unit generated a number of files for police investigation and identified poten

“A billboard touting assault rifles as ‘Pure American’ as baseball and apple pie is stirring up controversy,” myfoxphilly.com reports. “Thousands of cars pass by the billboard in Chicago every day alongside a giant rifle is the American flag and Second Amendment in one corner and the Christian fish and the Statue of Liberty in the other. Slide Fire, the company behind the advertisement, is promoting how its product can effectively modify an assault rifle from semi to fully automatic.” Huh? It looks to me like Slide Fire<