The Truth About Guns

“For some reason or another, I just can’t buy into guns in school. I’m not sure that’s the best way to (take care) of the situation.” – Gainesville Georgia school board member Willie Mitchell quoted in Gainesville board votes to put guns in schools [via gainsvilletimes.com]

Hear something, say something? According to the New York Post, panic is in no short supply in and around New York City lately, with many local residents calling 911 in a panic to report shots fired. Sirens wail, squad cars roll, only to find out that the “bad guy shooting up the place” is nothing but a film set. Although (simulated) gunfire is the most common cause of alarm, occasionally EMS crews get to play, too. During a recent shoot for “Nurse Jackie,” seven residents called 911 to report a horrible car wreck, which turned out to be a mock accident with an overturned car. Local precincts are supposed be…

(and usually are) notified when there will be filming in their area, but according to their source, you still have to respond when people call, and you still “have to go into the situation thinking that it is real.”

Florida has a

From Canada’s National Firearm Association daily media report [h/t Steve S.]:

December 17, 2013
Airdrie, Alberta

Mr. Ian McPhail, Q.C., Interim Chair
Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP
National Intake Office
P.O. Box 88689,
Surrey, BC  VEW 0X1

Dear Mr. McPhail:

RE:  HIGH RIVER – LONG-GUN REGISTRY RECORDS USED IN FIREARMS SEIZURES!

Reference is being made to our four previous letters sent to you outlining the many issues and concerns that need to be examined during your investigation of the RCMP’s break-in and unwarranted search of more than 1,900 homes in High River and the seizure of hundreds of firearms and hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition . . .

I want to thank you for sending your investigator, Robert Falla, to Calgary to interview me last week.  It was very reassuring to know the depth of your

[h/t DrVino - clicking on image will take you to the NSFW source]

There is an interesting case in Wisconsin in which a concealed carry weapon license (CCW) holder has been charged with “negligent operation or handling of a dangerous weapon.” From jsonline: ”According to the criminal complaint, Marvin W. Jackson, 34, was shopping in the Burlington Coat Factory at 3700 Durand Ave. After he took of his jacket and laid it on a rack while he tried on another, his female companion picked up Jackson’s jacket and laid it over her arm because he had forgotten it on a rack earlier. But as she did, Jacson’s silver .38 caliber two-shot derringer fell out, hit the ground and fired a shot that pierced three sweatshirts before lodging in the metal display rack. The couple quickly left the store.” Just one problem . . .

Jackson was not handling or operating the derringer when the negligent discharge o

Do you know why the Ruger LCR has one of the best if not the best trigger of any snubbie on planet Earth (Smith weenies need not comment)? “Its double-action-only trigger pull is uniquely engineered with a patented Ruger® friction reducing cam fire control system. The trigger pull force on the LCR® builds gradually and peaks later in the trigger stroke, resulting in a trigger pull that feels much lighter than it actually is. This results in more controllable double-action shooting, even among those who find traditional double-action-only triggers difficult to operate.” Roger that. Hammer time! Now you can savor the LCR’s Israeli supermodel’s inner thigh-smooth trigger pull AND shoot the snubbie single-action. [Press release after the jump.] Quite why you’d want a hammer on a gun that was born for deep concealment and CQB—sav

To say that RF isn’t technologically savvy is like saying an orangutan is slightly deficient when it comes to high energy physics. They’re both well meaning and eager to learn (especially if bananas/Israeli supermodels are the reward) but sometimes you just need to take the wheel and get a project to the finish line yourself. Which explains why, almost a year after we bought the SSL certificate for The Truth About Guns, you can finally use it (https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com). A few things are a little wonky, like the font not being exactly right, but we’ll iron those out ASAP. You don’t need to use the encrypted version of the site, the regular version will work just fine, but the option is there for those who want to keep their TTAG readership and commenting secure and on the down low.

Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop recently “consulted” with Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America on his procurement process for his city’s police. Fulop devised a questionnaire for prospective suppliers asking about their position on various gun control measures (e.g., “universal background checks” and “assault weapon” sales). Appearing on the NRA’s Cam & Co., NRA Board member Scott Bach criticized the move and noted that Fulop sh

TTAG reader BR writes:

There is a school of thought that says that if a man is too dangerous to be allowed to have a gun, he is too dangerous to be free. I have not previously subscribed to this school of thought. There are few black and white things in life so surely there must be shades of grey as far as how dangerous somebody is. If the state has the power to lock you up, then they should also have the power to let you out of the cage with some limits on what you can or can’t do/possess. If a person commits a violent felony, you lock em up for a period of years, then let them out with restrictions on their ability to own firearms. The theory being, they paid their time, if they re-offend they won’t shoot somebody. This should theoretically lower the risk of letting the offender back out to an acceptable level. Theoretically . . .

There’s only one way to become a better shooter: you need to pull the trigger. A lot. And while some of that needs to be live fire, more and more people are recommending that the majority of your trigger pulling should be done in the comfort of your own home with an unloaded firearm. Dry fire practice is the quickest way to acclimate yourself to a new firearm or improve your skills, and it’s dirt cheap as well. But while it’s nice to point your gun in the general direction of a notional target and squeeze that trigger, it would be even better if there was some way to know when you actually hit the target. Enter the AIMTech Systems Laser Training System . . .

As I was gearing up for my season shooting with the FNH USA pro team, I needed to get acclimated to the FNS-9 handgun in a hurry. It was very different from my usual P226, and mastering it t

One open carry guy goes postal, killing himself and a cop’s daughter, and the whole movement becomes The Enemy Within. To the point where salon.com declares Gun activists have a new craze — and it’s more dangerous than you think. They must have misplaced their spears (exclamation marks). I wonder if we could condemn the entire anti-gun movement by the example of Karl Pierson, the Arapahoe High School shooter who supported gun control. Or Chris Dorner, the cop killer who also supported gun control. Anyway, to be fair . . .

Matt Valentine doesn’t lead his dietribe [sic] with open carry practitioner Robert Pratt’s murder-suicide. It’s buried in an article boasting with more psychobabble than a Dr. Phil-a-thon, all of which is designed to prove that open carry is

“The Security Industry Association (SIA) presented Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., with its award for Legislator of the Year in 2013 for her tireless dedication to school safety,” their presser proclaims. “SIA recognized Boxer as its 2013 Legislator of the Year for her efforts to enact the School Safety Enhancements Act of 2013 (S. 146) which [provides] schools with more resources to install classroom locks, lighting, fencing and reinforced doors, as well as to help them conduct security assessments and provide security training for students and staff.” S

“This seems analogous to a corporate takeover, where a large company sees the advantage of acquiring the social media and brand of a target company, but their agendas are the same. In this case, their anti-Second Amendment agendas won’t change.” – civil rights attorney Chuck Michel, High-profile gun control groups join forces [at usatoday.com]

A Republican showdown is brewing in the state of Texas, where you can never be pro-gun enough, but it’s also a gun-rights organization showdown, as well. Senator John Cornyn is running for re-election, and is backed by the NRA. He has several challengers in the primary, but the most prominent of them is Representative Steve Stockman, who is backed by the GOA. The NRA describes Cornyn as “a consistent and passionate champion of our Second Amendment rights,” while the GOA says Stockman is the better candidate because he doesn’t just vote pro-gun, but has actively introduced legislation designed to take back some of the rights on which gun control laws have infringed. Looks like you Texans have some homework to do.

The Miami-Dade County Public School District will

Washington, D.C. has some of the nation’s most prohibitive gun laws. The District’s civilian disarmament code is so strict, and its application so Byzantine, that law-abiding citizens must wade through months of bureaucratic sewage and pay many hundreds of dollars before they’re allowed to exercise their right to bear arms in self-defense. Washington Times journalist Emily Miller has basically made a career of lampooning DC’s obscene gun regulations, but she’s actually one of the lucky few who made it through the administrative gauntlet. As a result, there are no civilian CCW permits and barely 40,000 legally-owned firearms among the entire District’s population of just over 630,000. And 103 people have been murdered so far in 2013, for a murder rate of 16.3 per 100,000. Meanwhile, out on the left coast . . .

A recent gun turn-in event at a church in Dallas shows how effective private purchasers can be at neutralizing the “guns are bad” meme.  From the story:

“Now there’s 15 less chances there’s a tragedy, and we’re glad for that,” said the Rev. Bruce Buchanan, an associate pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Dallas, which has The Stewpot ministry.

This is the usual theme of gun turn-in programs. Guns are bad and should be destroyed. However, as is happening al

TTAG reader A 1337 writes:

It’s rare that a video game gets guns right. Often times we are shown mags being loaded without rounds and LMG’s that need to be reloaded when you can still see rounds on the belt. This WW2 shooter, however, comes damn close to getting things right. I stumbled upon this game a few months ago, and I thought your resident gamers might enjoy it. However, if a picture is worth a thousand words, and if a video is a few thousand pictures, I thought you might be best served by a short video than a long email. Its only about a minute long, just enough for you to get the gist of it. I should mention . . .

that I was playing against mostly AI-controlled bots. That’s the reason they are kinda, um, not tactically proficient (lets face it they are pretty dumb). However against a team of players this game gets a bit brutal, with its one-shot-with-a-rifle-kills-most gameplay.

Anyway, I thought other people on th

At the start of my journey into concealed carry-hood I worried about my reaction to a life-threatening situation. Would I know what to do if I had to clear leather (this was during was my pre-Kydex period)? When, exactly, should life-threatening push come to ballistic shove? And what would I do come The Moment Of Truth™? Hundreds of training hours later I’ve reached an important conclusion: I haven’t a clue. I know what I should do but I’m not 100 percent sure I’d do it. How could I be? But one thing is for certain: I will not be caught sitting on the X. You know, frozen to the spot. Whatever happens I will do someth