The Truth About Guns
Exploring the ethics, morality, business, politics, culture, technology, practice, strategy, dangers and fun of guns
Updated: 4 weeks 1 day ago
DA Charges Unarmed Man For Shootings Committed By NYPD.
This video from CBS News was taken by a bystander in September and shows New York’s allegedly finest circling and firing at a deranged man in the middle of Times Square…while many hundreds of other
Moms Demand Action and Mayors Against Illegal Guns’ Big Budget Bloody Shirt Fest Flop
The above video is co-branded Moms Demand Action (MDA) and Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG). As we pointed out previously, MDA is fast becoming the public face of gun control in America. No surprise there. The crusade for civilian disarmament is based on emotion rather than facts, logic or reason. Moms tug on hearts. Mayors do not. By the same token, Moms don’t have big bucks and Mayor Bloomberg does. This kind of agitprop costs real money. Also worth noting: the ad doesn’t promote any specific action. Speak out now? The average gun control supporter needs a lot more motivation and direction than that. Thank God they don’t get it.
Quote of the Day: Who Knew? Edition
“We cannot continue to blame the legal gun owners for the gang violence in cities like Chicago, Decatur, Peoria, and many other cities in Illinois. Thousands of young men have become locked into a mentality that using a gun should be their first and only response to any conflict or perceived threat. This would be considered more of a thinking problem than a serious gun problem. Due to that level of thinking, the old saying ‘guns don’t kill people, people kill people’ holds true.” – Tio Hardiman, Understanding Gun Violence in Illinois [via huffingtonpost.com]
NRA Breaks Its Silence on Undetectable Firearms Act. Reauthorization Yes. Expansion No.
Press release from the IRA-ILA [via ammoland.com]:
With the expiration of the so-called Undetectable Firearms Act (UFA) rapidly approaching on December 9th, misinformation over this issue and NRA’s position on it has unfortunately reached a heightened level.
We would like to make our position clear. The NRA strongly opposes ANY expansion of the Undetectable Firearms Act, including applying the UFA to magazines, gun parts, or the development of new technologies. The NRA has been working for months to thwart expansion of the UFA by Senator Chuck Schumer and others. We will continue to aggressively fight any expansion of the UFA or any
Daily Digest: Record-Breaking Derp Edition
The headline over at bearingarms.com is Dong pinched by cops for having long gun near campus, and while that’s funny, it’s not the important part of the story. You see, a 911 call came in reporting a “man with a rifle,” a man that turned out to be William Dong. Police confronted Dong “within minutes” and arrested him, finding a couple more guns in his vehicle. He was arrested simply because someone saw the rifle, he had a valid handgun permit, and never threatened anyone. That’s still not the story. The story is (again, still) the dramatic overreaction by law enforcement. . .
For a guy who was confronted and arrested “within minutes,” dozens of officers from at least six agencies respond
Chocolate Ammo? Hopefully Not A Gag Gift.
Gun guys aren’t really that hard to shop for at Christmas, are we? Nothing says Gut Jul! like a new Ruger 10/22 Takedown under the tree, and nothing fills out a stocking as neatly as a couple of PMAGs and a hundred rounds of 5.56 ammo. But if you’re still stumped after my expert holiday gift-giving advice, you can always give your gun friends something to feed their faces instead of their rifles. Like a metal gift case full of cartridge-shaped chocolates!
NSSF Fix NICS in RI [Not Shown]
It bears repeating: the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) is an infringement on, and danger to, Americans’ natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms. This point seems to be lost on the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF). “On Thursday Nov 21st 2013, Jake McGuigan, NSSF Director, Government Relations, State Affairs, testified before the State of Rhode Island’s Joint Behavioral Health and Firearms Safety Task Force,” their presser proclaims, “which is studying that state’s lack of compliance with the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).
Irresponsible Gun Owner of the Day: Rule-Breaker Bingo Edition
The four rules of gun safety are there for a reason and are ingrained into the minds of every responsible gun owner from day one. Always assume the gun is loaded. Never point the gun at anything you’re not willing to destroy. Keep your finger off the trigger until you’re ready to fire. And always be aware of your target and what’s beyond it. A story out of Florida tells the tale of a group of friends who are now short a member because one of them decided to break all four of the rules at once . . .
You can imagine the scene. You buy a new handgun, and you want to show it off to your friends so you bring it out for a night of dry fire practice. You pass it around (making sure it’s unloaded), and then when everyone is done you put it on the table and continue with the night’s festivities. If t
No More Hunting With Lead? No Problem
Now that deer season is in full swing and AB 711 has put the kibosh on hunting with traditional ammo in California many of us are looking to alternatives. The whole lead scare was debunked here, but even still. While we can debate whether lead ammo is dangerous to you as a hunter, I think the whole ‘lead ammo kills wildlife’ argument has been looked upon as junk science. The only area where I might agree is in bird hunting, specifically in the wetlands here around San Francisco. We haven’t used lead shot in the San Francisco bay for decades, and the birds are doing just fine, I am happy to report . . .
Kirsten Weiss, Full Auto Newbie
As far as silencers and machine guns go, it’s all about the giggle. As soon as a new shooter pulls the trigger for the first time and experiences the joy of shooting a really quiet or really fast-firing firearm, the look of pure joy on their face and in their laugh is downright infectious. Kirsten Weiss had never fired a full-auto machine gun before yesterday, opting instead for single perfectly placed shots over the spray and pray mentality. But I think she’ll be hankering for another dose of the giggle switch before long.
FNS-40 Contest Entry: When CCW Training Jumps the Shark
By ST
Let me begin by first apologizing to firearm instructors who are of good repute and understand the realities of civilian concealed carry. As you’ve probably determined by that disclaimer, we’re tackling a thorny subject in this short treatise. As a new shooter myself, once I got into guns I realized quickly that a firearm is only as good as its user. To quote the late Jeff Cooper, owning a gun doesn’t make you a gunfighter any more then owning a guitar makes you a musician. Thus motivated, I researched options for training and discovered that most trainers, sadly, have jumped the shark . . .
It seems that the social norm in the gun community is that a CCW permit holder is unprepared unless they’re carrying a polymer frame pistol with a large magazine, spare mag, flashlight, weapon mounted
Obscure Object Of Desire: Magnum Research Lone Eagle
Everyone recognizes the Desert Eagle, but the single-shot Lone Eagle is Magnum Research’s other pistol. If you’re old enough to remember cruising the aisles of video rental stores, you’ve probably seen a Lone Eagle or one of it’s lookalikes on the cover of a direct-to-video action movie even if you’ve never heard of it by name. And if you’re too young for that, you probably saw it briefly in the first season of 24. What is this strange gun, and where did it go? . . .
The Lone Eagle is a single-shot pistol intended for silhouette shooting and hunting. It was chambered in a variety of centerfire rifle cartridges from the .22 Hornet through the .30-06 and up to the .358 Winchester and .444 Marlin. There was a lot more interest in handgun hunting and metallic silhouette shooting back in the 1980s and 1990s than there is now, and manufacturers were busy trying to stuff the most improbable rifle cartridges into hunting pistols. The cannon-breeched Lone Eagle was among the more exotic guns of that era.
The Lone E
Fox News: NYPD Sent 500 Confiscation Letters in November
The, uh, friendly missive that the NYPD recently sent to owners of the wrong kinds of guns has caused something of a stir. In the wake of our post, though, some doubts were raised about the letters’ authenticity. You know…Photoshop and all. Surely that can’t be real, right? Some dug around in authoritative sources like forum posts and then dismissed the whole kerfuffle as a hoax. Well, we have this to say about that. First, don’t call us Shirley. Second, foxnews.com has now confirmed the story . . .
An estimated 500 recipie
ATF Director B. Todd Jones: 5% of Gun Dealers Are Criminals
B. Todd Jones is the Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives [And Really Big Fires]. In this PBS interview, Byron talks about implementing a new “business model” for the ATF—a worrying bit of jargon for a Marine who never spent a day of his life running a business. Jones promises to focus his Agency on “the trigger-pullers and traffickers around the country who are creating havoc in our community.” Trigger-pullers? Not criminals? Another trendy but concerning choice of words. Byron then redefines criminal violence as . . .
“slow-motion mass shootings.” Oh dear. That’s the term gun control advocates use to agitate for civilian disarmament. I wonder who’s Byron hanging out with these days? Or maybe he’s just in synch with those who would deny Americans their natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms.
After kvetching about a lack of agents (again), Byron says he’s determined to tackle the “f
Question of the Day: If You Could Buy One, Would You?
I’m a bit of a nut when it comes to big guns. Why? Because guns. Also because they’re a lot of fun to shoot. Well, it’s a lot of fun to see what happens to what you shoot. Thanks to Uncle Sam’s regle du jeu, I won’t be seeing this SAW in my gun safe anytime soon. As a fantasy check, I put it to you: if you could, if you had the money and buying one wasn’t machine gun impossible, would you add a FN MINIMI light machine gun to your collection? Here’s the press release . . .
Belgium-based small arms manufacturer FN Herstal unveils the next generation FN MINIMI light machine gun in both 5.56mm and 7.62mm calibers during the MILIPOL exhibition in Paris, November 19 – 22 2013.
The modifications introduced on the FN MINIMI Mk3 result from feedback provided by users engaged in current operating theatres. Indeed, the demands of users have evolved over the past 10 to 15 years due to changes in
FNS-40 Contest Entry: Guns, Knives and Grandfathers
By Aaron James
Thanksgiving Day was always fun for me growing up. Unlike most of my friends, though, my Thanksgiving always consisted of spending the morning deer hunting with my dad, and his dad, my Poppa (not pictured above). We would hunt until about 11 am, then head back to grandma and Poppa’s house where a festive meal would await. The Thanksgiving meal would be a time of reflection, sometimes about the morning hunt, but more times than not, just a celebration of life . . .
Poppa held a special place in my heart, as did the Grandfathers of most 7 year old boys. He was a man’s man. Ten feet tall and bullet proof to me, both then and now. Superman could not carry water for my Poppa. He was, in every sense of the word, my hero. In his vegetable garden, at the barn, in church, but especially the deer camp, I had been his shadow since before I can recall. And Thanksgiving Day, 1993, was no exception, and soon it would prove to be the T
Lt. Col. Robert Bateman on Guns: Screw You
Esquire owes its existence to English foppery: a perfectly dreadful combination of elitism and, uh, give me a moment would you? Shotguns (and hunting and hunting dogs and hunting clothes) are as important to the English upper class’s self-image as bumping uglies with servants is to their genetic health. So it’s no surprise that Esquire scribe Lt. Col. Robert Bateman’s five-point plan to “fix” the Second Amendment—in the sense that one fixes a dog—starts by exempting double-barrel breech-loading shotguns. “Hunting with these is valid,” he asserts, aping aristocrats who believe that an accident of birth is all the justification one needs for any firmly held opinion. Bateman’s list also exempts police from any of his gun control plat
Two AKs And A Broken-Down Truck: What Would MacGyver Do?
Desperate situations are kind of like Frank Zappa. Not because they vomit onstage, but because they tend to inspire all kinds of brilliant, slightly dangerous and often downright disturbing spectacles. A LiveLeak video shows two wire-stocked AKs being used in a way that even Mikhail Timofeyovich probably never imagined.
This looks pretty freaky, but these guys had the sense to at least drop the magazines and keep their hands off the trigger. They also avoided getting shocked, and their dead truck was up and running before they even had time to say don’t try this at home.
Quote of the Day: I Don’t Think Natural Means What You Think It Means Edition
“Game officials were not surprised this happened so quickly after the sheep were released in the Catalinas. Until a viable bighorn population is established there, any mountain lion that eats a sheep will be killed, ‘in an attempt to re-establish the natural order of things.’” Bighorns and mountain lions die [via azstarnet.com]
Daily Digest: Anti-Gun Delusions Edition
I don’t normally do the “new product press release” thing here, but the Chamber-View looked somewhat interesting to me. One of the ranges I shoot at regularly has RSOs that can be real hardasses about downing/clearing rifles on cold range. For only ten bucks, this seems like it might help avoid confusion. It’s big enough to not be “fiddly” like a lot of chamber flags and the orange color will help keep it from getting lost. Press release and regularly scheduled non-commercial Digest after the jump. . .
MERRIMACK, NH – Chamber-View®, innovators behind the highly visual firearms safety products, is pleased to announce the introduction of the AR Type Chamber-View® safety block, available in November for purchase throug