The Truth About Guns

“The Glock 42 is like your sexually conservative girlfriend unconvincingly trying to talk dirty to you for the first time. Just stick to what you know, or go big and take some pole dancing classes and really impress me with a single stack 9mm.” – Collion Noire, The GLOCK 42: The GLOCK No One Asked for [via mrcolionnoir.com]

Another day, another “gun buyback.” I use quote marks because the police conducting these cash-for-guns events didn’t sell the firearms to their owners. So they’re not really buying them back. They’re buying them. No questions asked. Quite why the cops would want to create a black market for firearms—other than political expediency—is beyond me. But not beyond Sgt. Chris Yagelski, the man in charge of Michigan City, Indiana’s annual Get More Buck for Your Bang Gun Drive. “Sgt. Chris Yagelski considered the two-day drive a success,” co-sponsor heraldargus.com reports. “Among the [46] guns received were a 1936 Italian rifle and a 1955 handgun in its original box, which Yagelski said was in ‘pristine condition’ and was probably never even fired. ‘Items like that are far more valuable

Saying this may risk pushing me outside of the MSNBC target demographic, but I can’t think of a better way to spend Christmas Eve than touring the factory of a firearms importer and SOT manufacturer. Joe Grine wrangled us a Yuletide invitation to the rural headquarters of TNW Firearms, and I was in gun-guy Nirvana all day. What we saw was literally mind-boggling. This rack of 9mm takedown carbines are waiting for their lower receivers, but TNW’s Aero Survival Rifle production line was only the tip of the iceberg of what we saw yesterday . . .

The massively-fun ASR is not TNW’s only indigenous design. Their other flagship product is this switchbarrel piston-driven AR,

I think we’re going to close down the voting tonight after midnight, so if you haven’t made your preferences known please do so now. We’ll tally up the results over the weekend, and then present actual awards (you know, the physical kind, with plaques) to the winners at SHOT Show. You only get one vote, so make it count!

Can’t see the voting system? Click here!

Thanks to a relentless campaign of civilian disarmament, the chances of a Garden State gun owner carrying concealed are less than the chances that I’ll get Michal Idan to model TTAG gear. Actually, a lot less—which [partially] explains the violation of my oath not to link to Israeli supermodels. Anyway, statistically speaking, zero percent of NJ gun owners carry concealed. Which makes this poster something of a non sequitur. Also, the poster suggests that New Jersey gun owners want draw their guns in malls, which they don’t, unless they do. Still, Anthony over at gunforhireradio.com is fighting the good fight against seemingly insurmountable

CS Holsters proclaims on their website that “we make concealed carry more comfortable.” For a person who has made the switch from an “inside the waistband” holster to an “outside the waistband” holster for comfort reasons, that’s a pretty tall order for an IWB holster. Naturally we had to try one out ourselves to see if it really was as good as they claimed.

Over the last couple years, the construction of an inside the waistband holster has more or less standardized. Either you use a completely leather holster with a snap or two on the back, or you have a slab of leather with a kydex bit in the center and clips on the end. The kydex design especially is a pretty popular design and seems to meet with most people’s approval, especially given the benefits over a leather holster. Specifically, the kydex material allows you to easily draw and re-ho

This story was all over the Interwebz over Christmas. The Washington Post sent their crack team to cover the attack. “D.C. police said they had not made any arrests but suspect that the pellet gun was fired from a line of apartment buildings flanking Stevens Road.” I refrained from blogging it because A) Bacardi Reserve and B) it’s needlessly inflammatory, given lazy-eyed Fox News babe Megan Kelly’s comments about Santa’s ethnicity and our Quote of the Day guy who figured Ms. Kelly was inspiring

This year was the first time that I tried using a tripod in the field and it really opened my eyes to having stability in the field. I’ve also taken to walking and stalking a bit more now, and having a solid rest in the field helps tremendously. And when I say tripod, I really do mean a “just” a tripod. I flipped the piece on top that lets you take photos in portrait, and I’d rest my gun against that. It works well in a pinch, but it’s not perfect . . .

With the concept established, I went searching for a dedicated mechani

“Florida State University had a policy prohibiting weapons in vehicles, which it established after exercising what it thought was an applicable exemption to the state statute. That policy is now void in light of the 1st District Court of Appeal’s decision.” – Florida State University spokesman Jeanette DeDiemar, Fla. University Won’t Appeal Court Ruling on Guns [at cbs.local.com]

NRA-ILA Presser:

Charlotte, NC --(Ammoland.com)- Back in March, we reported on Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper (D) signing into law the most sweeping anti-gun legislation in the history of the Centennial State, despite overwhelming opposition to the legislation. The new law bans magazines with a capacity of greater than 15 rounds, imposes a “gun tax” for a background check when purchasing a firearm, and criminalizes the private transfer of a firearm, among other things.  The anti-gu

Springfield snatched defeat from the jaws of victory with their XDS-9. The Croatian company’s compact 9mm striker-fired handgun was the GLOCK everybody wants but Gaston’s mob don’t make. (Yet?) The XDS-9 sold like ballistic hotcakes—until Springfield recalled it. According to Springfield’s website, “One of our customers reported that his XD-S™ had fired multiple shots unexpectedly and returned this pistol to us for our inspection. Our gunsmith recreated this situation in a test pistol by modifying the components of that pistol and was able to recreate the customer’s claim. Through extensive evaluation and testing of this pistol, we developed an improved engagement among critical components of the pistol to prevent the remote possibility of this unintentional discharge.” Huh. That’s not exactly what MAC has to say on the matter. Anyway, not to

Without a doubt, the worst part of a 3-gun competition is hauling all of your crap around the range. Not only do you have to move all three guns around, but you also need to carry enough food to keep them running, all of your spare gear, a set of tools, maybe a spare sweatshirt… the weight adds up fast. And keeping all of that stuff organized is an even bigger issue. Sure there are plenty of 3-gun bags out there from Safariland and Uncle Mike’s and even Voodoo Tactical, but they’re uncomfortable and prioritize room for the guns over room for the gear. And what if you wanted to take that same bag hunting, using it to carry your stuff while hiking into the wilderness? The existing options aren’t very good. What if there was a bag that offered you more room for your gear, and that you could use not only on the range or in the hunt, but could also double as a gear bag that you could check on airplane rides? The Eberle

There’s a door in the middle of the trendy SoHo neighborhood of New York City. It bears no logos, no signs, and no company name above the frame – only the numbers for the street address. The company logo hangs nearby, but the generic design offers no information about what actually goes on inside. It’s so inconspicuous that you’d walk right past it if you didn’t know to look for it, but if you take a few seconds to notice the high security door and the multiple cameras pointed at it you might realize that there’s something worth seeing on the other side. Unbeknownst to the thousands of people that walk by it every day, this is the home of one of the biggest firearms collections in New York City and the people who know the most about them. This is the home of The Specialists . . .

New York City has an interesting problem

“There are so many American men who love their guns; so many organizations such as the NRA who enrich themselves from fanning the fears of ‘besieged’ white males and goosing up their ‘manhood’; so many industries and retail shops that make money selling firearms; and a national history of white Europeans conquering the ‘heathen Indians’ and keeping black slaves in check with plantation artilleries.” Mark Karlin, Megyn Kelly Lights the Powder Keg for a FOX Gun Guy to Shoot a Black Santa [via truth-out.org]

At the risk of alienating readers still angry about the religious furor touched off by my Random Thoughts About Fags and Gun Nuts post, I reckon that sending lead down range is an excellent way to celebrate the birth of the Christ child. Failing that, I’m sure that plenty of TTAG’s Armed Intelligentsia have taken – or will take – full advantage of the holiday break to shrug off cubicle-itis for some quality time with your firearms-fancying friends. So . . . what’dja shoot? What’dja buy? What’dja get for Christmas, gun-related?

Economics is supposed to make such clean, perfect sense. Heaven knows I spent enough time believing that back in college, studying how purely hypothetical ‘demand’ lines cross with purely speculative ‘supply’ lines to determine a perfect market price for any commodity. After keeping my eye on ammo prices for the last several years, however, I’m pretty much ready to dismiss everything that Professor Paranthap Basu taught me in Microecon 101 as total bullshit. (And don’t even get me started about airline prices) . . .

Like I said, there’s good news and bad news about ammo prices. The good news?  .45 ACP FMJ only costs twice as much as the lowliest .22 Long Rifle. The bad news? The lowliest .22 Long Rifle costs half as much as .45 ACP FMJ.

Steel-cased .45 ACP can be purchased by the metr

As a kid growing up in the pre-Perestroika ‘80s, I used to think, “The only good Commie is a dead Commie.” Today, that sounds harsher than it did then, but something about one of my state’s U.S. Congressmen and 268 others getting blown to bits by a Soviet SU-15 fighter jet – along with hundreds if not thousands of the USSR’s ICBMs aimed squarely at the US of A – rendered such ham-fisted maxims far more socially acceptable back when we all just wanted our MTV. But hey, we grow up, we become educated and experienced, and regardless of whether or not our feelings about such things change, we learn to enter into discourse in more subtle and nuanced (some would say “more civilized”) ways than youthful, jingoistic references to “dead Commies” . . .

In my case, yesterday’s news of one particul

Instead of trickling them out over several days, I’m going to do a one-day roundup of YouTube gun guys Christmas videos, and since the Digest doesn’t drop ’til late, I’m going to do them tonight instead of late tomorrow. To start us off, Jerry Miculek Deagles some tree ornaments. Sadly, he didn’t slow-mo this one, but hey, it’s Jerry, and a gun.

Next up, mattv2099 makes some holiday almond roca with a special ingredient. I’m sure you can guess what it is.

This one you may have already seen, but it’s pretty good, so it’s worth the rerun. Silencerco gets all fest