The Truth About Guns

It boggles the mind that marriage licenses and driver’s licenses are recognized in every state of the union, but not my concealed handgun license. You’d think that the “full faith and credit” clause would take care of that, since all 50 states now have some sort of concealed carry law on the books and the court recognizes that carrying guns is a constitutionally protected act. Senator John Cornyn, from the great state of Texas, just proposed a new bill that would eliminate that double standard and provide for universal reciprocity. I’m guessing that it’s the result of the pressure he feels from his fellow Texas Senator Ted Stevens to make him stand out in an election year, but either way I’ll take it. Press release after the jump.

WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX)

Today’s post is going to run a little long, but it’s Friday night, and in my defense, there’s really a lot of stupid out there. Leading off, yesterday’s Digest highlighted a story of a man arrested for disturbing the peace after he carried an AR-15 slung muzzle-down through the Parkdale Mall in Beaumont, Texas to his store, located inside. Today it was reported that the mall has officially posted signs prohibiting firearms at entrances, presumably the 30.06 signs that carry the weight of law in Texas. A rep from the mall’s owners wanted to make clear that the policy isn’t

I’ll give you a hint: this is only the press lounge from 2012. Bring Back The Beer!

The SHOT Show extravaganza is almost here, and all of our email accounts are buzzing with invites, plans, and travel details as we draw a deep breath before taking the plunge. As if to remind us of the enormity of the undertaking, the NSSF has put out a cool infographic which boils all of the halls, stalls and booth babes into some mind-boggling statistics. (Okay, I made up that part about the booth babes.) . . .

Click on the jumbo thumbnail below for the full infographic:

All I have to say is, yikes.

The inside of a bolt carrier is the dirtiest, hardest to reach place in your AR-15 rifle. There are so many small nooks and crannies that the only way to thoroughly clean it is using a dental pick, a box and a half of Q-tips and about an hour and a half of time. The guys behind M-Pro 7 realized that structures like these are a pain to clean, and have come out with a foaming gun cleaner to take care of that particular problem . . .

The bottle uses a push operated pump to get things moving, which differs from the Break-Free CLP foaming cleaner offering (which is in a pressurized aerosol bottle) and means that it won’t explode if you accidentally puncture it. It’s not a major concern for most people, but if you’re planning on carrying a bottle in your range kit it might be a factor you want to consider. Also different fr

[h/t DrVino - link is NSFW]

One of our sources sent us this link to the United Nations’ rundown on Mexico’s small arms imports for calendar year 2012. He cautioned us that this is hardly a definitive list. “It’s not cross referenced with export reports,” he warned. “Also remember that governments only report what they want to. Especially the more corrupt governments.” Mexico is a poster child in that regard . . .

1. Revolvers and self-loading pistols

Italy 9465

9065 Beretta 9 mm pistols
200 Beretta 0.380” pistols
200 Tanfoglio 0.380” pistols

Austria 383

323 Glock 9 mm pistols 24 Glock 0.40” pistols
31 Glock 0.3

1 email led Seattle library to drop its gun ban komonews.com‘s headline proclaims. And it’s true! A single email – just one! – turned an illegal “gun free” zone into a place where concealed carry permit holders can exercise their natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms. Tracing the story back to the source (kuow.org) we learns that the Seattle Public Library was telling porky pies about the impetus behind obeying Washington law . . .

When this case first appeared, at the height of the first exposure of the Fast and Furious scandal, it was portrayed as an example of smuggling to the Mexican cartels that was not a part of the operation. It might or might not be significant that the BATFE agent quoted in the article is William Newell, who had a significant role in Fast and Furious, and whose testimony before Congress became infamous. Now, one of the victims of the prosecution is able to tell a bit of his story . . .

Ian Garland was denied bail from the time he was arrested. His release a few weeks ago was because of falsification of evidence by either the BATFE or th

Guns are dirty, filthy objects. Physically speaking, that is — I’m not making a moral judgement here. And after a long day on the range, there’s nothing better than sitting down and thoroughly scrubbing your shootin’ irons until they’re in optimal working condition again. Just about everyone and their brother makes a cleaning product these days, and one of the newer entries into the market is Italian Gun Grease. They sent me a test kit so I can find out for myself if it works as advertised . . .

The Italian Gun Grease (hereafter referred to as IGG) guys offer a number of solvents and lubricants, from a copper solvent to a carbon solvent and several types of CLP. But for the purposes of this review we’ll be talking about the two most people will care about: the carbon solvent and t

Detroit Police Chief James Craig dropped a bomb on the smug and cozy world of gun-control advocates last week, when he said publicly what the statistics and sociologists have been saying for years: more guns equals less crime. To be specific,  law-abiding concealed carry deters crime. Chief Craig has a long way to go to win an NRA endorsement as LEO Of The Year, but this is a giant step in the right direction . . .

From our experience with New York, Chicago and other hellholes of crime and corruption, we’ve come to expect big-city police chiefs to be among the most enthusiastic infringers of the 2nd Amendment anywhere. Chief Craig started his career in Motor City in the 1970s with a dim view of private firearm ownership, but he experienced a conversion on the road to Damascus, er, Detroit, when he worked in Maine.

Concealed carry was commonplace there, and Chief Craig came to understa

High-concept, high production value video ads aren’t new. Hornady had their silly Zombie Max ammo videos a few years ago, and Ka-Bar recently joined them in undead-themed video amusement. The wordless video shown here is in a whole different category, though: the scenery is straight from the nihilistic The Road and the soundtrack is straight from Fallout 3.

In addition to their recent Rastafarian Zombie Under Siege parody, Ka-Bar also ventured into this grim Primary Weapons’ vision of the post-Collapse world (complete with mystery meat) in their No Ammo Required video.

These videos can pack some gripping entertainment into just a fe

Polymer AR-15 rifles aren’t anything new. Heck, you can print one out at home if you really have the urge. But while they may be “old hat” at this point, you can definitely see the appeal of a lightweight rifle — especially since pounds equal pain in any shooting environment. Historically they all suffer from the same set of issues, and generally they aren’t very good. But one company has just started shipping their first hybrid polymer design, a rifle promised to be as strong as an aluminum AR-15 but as light as a polymer rifle, and we here at TTAG were given the very first production rifle off the line to test out.

From whitehouse.gov [my choice for White House Champion of Change for Gun Violence Prevention, NRA Illinois lobbyist Todd Vandermyde, above]

Nominate a White House Champion of Change for Gun Violence Prevention

In mass shootings and in the everyday shootings that plague communities across the country, far too many Americans have been severely injured or lost their lives or a loved one as a result of gun violence. Over the last few years, a series of gun-related tragic events galvanized our country and led this Administration to redouble our efforts to keep guns out of the hands of potentially dangerous individuals . . .

“Mervin Brewer, 61, was picking up his wife outside of the Sears at Arrowhead Towne Center when he saw 33-year-old Shaashana Hough [above] allegedly pointing a gun at an unarmed security guard.” Allegedly. Interesting. “Brewer, believing his wife and others were in danger, opened fire, firing four rounds . . . Hough and her alleged accomplice, 35-year-old Michael Hough, fled the area on a motorcycle.” The rounds didn’t hit anyone. The perps were apprehended. And now . . . “Glendale police said Wednesday that it had recommended charging Brewer with unlawful discharge of a firearm. The charge will be reviewed by the Maricopa Cou

“The Second Amendment guarantees an individual right—subject to reasonable regulation and control, of course, but individual nonetheless.” Daniel Payne, Sorry, But Owning A Gun Is An Individual Right [via thefederalist.com]

The owner of a gun store (not shown) in the Parkdale Mall in Beaumont, Texas was arrested last week on charges of disturbing the peace after he was seen walking through the mall toward his store, Golden Triangle Tactical, with an AR-15 slung barrel down over his shoulder. Open carry of long guns is legal in the state of Texas. Police stopped him on December 28th after receiving calls from shoppers who said they were “very afraid” and “terrified” at seeing the weapon. He was not arrested at that time, but the weapon was confiscated. A warrant for his arrest was issued later that week, and he turned himself in on the misdemeanor charge Friday morning. The gun will remain in police custody until the case is settled.

Lancer and Magpul are the only two magazine manufacturers that I’ll trust to run in my guns. Magpul makes things that work, and Lancer makes things that work and look pretty at the same time. But while Magpul introduced their 7.62 NATO SR-25 magazines a long time ago, Lancer has only just gotten around to that. No word yet on pricing or what they look like, but here’s the press release . . .

Allentown, PA – January 7, 2014 – Lancer Systems LP, a leading advanced weapons and components manufacturer, today announced the launch of the new L7AWM, an advanced hybrid magazine that combines the strength of steel with the toughness of polymer to form a lightweight, reliable 7.62x51mm magazine.

The Lancer L7AWM incorporates a unique,

Continuing the trend in smaller optics, Leupold and its cheaper cousin Redfield have announced that they’re unveiling two new tiny optics for SHOT Show. The first is the next generation of their Deltapoint, which has a hard shut-off switch and offers the ability to change the battery without taking the optic off the gun. Redfield is also offering their Accelerator, a Deltapoint-esque red dot with a lot of the same features but at a lower price point. Make the jump for the pressers . . .

BEAVERTON, Ore. — With the introduction of the DeltaPoint®, Leupold® set thestandard for red dot sight technology. Now that standard has been raised with the launch of the DeltaPoint® 2.

The DeltaPoint 2 retains Leupold’s patented Motion Sensor Technology, which instantly detects any motion, activates the illumination and adjusts the brightness to the environment, but now also includes a

Brownells is celebrating their 75th anniversary. In addition to some bad-ass giveaways, the firearms parts giant is lifting the veil of secrecy around their operations. Pete Brownell has agreed to some face time with your humble scribe at the forthcoming SHOT Show. If you have questions you’d like me to ask Mr. B on your behalf, post them below. I’m interested in the changes Pete’s seen in the family biz over the years, regulation-wise. As represented by their decision to showcase these waffle-bottomed branded mags for “limited-capacity states.” Mentally? Constitutionally? I know, but I couldn’t resist. I reckon they’re a lot more contentious than the faux 30-rounders

A study was released recently in the Applied Economics Letters journal that comes to some interesting conclusions. It states that “… states with restrictions on the carrying of concealed weapons had higher gun-related murder rates than other states. It was also found that assault weapons bans did not significantly affect murder rates at the state level. These results suggest that restrictive concealed weapons laws may cause an increase in gun-related murders at the state level.” That’s from the abstract, and on the surface it sounds pretty good. But there’s an issue.

This is the same problem that we run into with gun control advocates: they mistake correlation for causation. P