Ah, YouTube: a veritable cornucopia of questionable gun advice. Today's example is MrSurplusnut. See if you can make it all the way through without cringing.
He likes the word "scenario," and he really likes his CCW badge. By the two-minute mark, I lost count of the number of times he swept the camera with his finger on the trigger of a loaded gun.
The FBI reports that there were 500,000 NICS checks performed for gun purchases in the week before Christmas. That's a record, beating even the whole post-election rush. There were 129,166 checks this Black Friday, beating the previous record of 98,000 in 2008.
The media, few of whom are in touch with the gun culture, are postulating all sorts of reasons for the boom, but they're missing the real factors. I submit that this year's record numbers are more due to increased interest in the hobby and confidence in the economy than they are to paranoia, crime, or politics.
In 2009, …
But it did. Blaine Tyler was openly carrying his handgun in a Richmond gas station when a teenage sociopath grabbed it. Unarmed, Tyler gave chase and was fatally shot with his own gun. To make things worse, his assailant went on to kill a second person hours later.
Tyler was deliberately targeted for his weapon, something people keep telling me never happens. Well, here we have it. Perhaps better situational awareness, equipment, or training might have helped, but at the end of the day, he would not have been targeted if his weapon wasn't plainly visible.
Having the weapon exposed adds …
The Supreme Court has refused [pdf] to hear United States v. Masciandaro. That leaves Woollard v. Sheridan, which still has decent odds of making it to the calendar.
There's been some scuttlebutt that the Court would rather hear a "pure" case in which the petitioner isn't someone appealing a criminal conviction. Both the Heller and McDonald cases fit this bill, as they were brought by law-abiding citizens appealing unjust laws. In such cases, the Court can address a constitutional issue directly, without having other …
I finally got to shoot the P210 on Saturday, and Earl here volunteered to take a few rounds for the sake of experimentation. The group is a mix of 147gr Hydra-Shok, 9BPLE, and 127gr +P+ Ranger. It was shot at a measly 20' since I haven't had a chance to shoot for nearly six months, and my skills have atrophied a bit.
The gun doesn't seem to care much about bullet shape or weight, and it's very consistent. Given its heritage, I expected it to prefer hotter European ball for …
Swiss production of the SIG P210 ended quite awhile ago, but J.P. Sauer & Sohn of Eckernförde have since picked up the rights to produce the pistol. In the transition, there have been some changes, not the least of which is the fact that Sig Sauer will be importing them into the United States.
While the new model isn't cheap, it's certainly more affordable than Swiss specimens on the secondary market. As far as I can tell, it's just as well made, if not better in some respects.
Plenty of obnoxious clichés get thrown around in the gun culture, but the most annoying is, "I carry a .45 because they don't make a .46!" I'm mildly surprised when the simpletons chanting that one manage not to drool on themselves in public.
In fact, I am so weary of it that I'm going to rectify the situation. I'm going to make a .46 caliber handgun cartridge.
Now, you might say that's a bad idea. Let me tell you something. When George Washington wanted to cross the Potomac and drive the British out of New Jersey, I'm pretty sure some folks told him that was a bad idea. But he proved them wrong, didn't he? He sent them packing all the way back to California. Smelly hippies. Without him, we'd be spelling words like "color" and "flavor" with a "u." I'm telling you, that man was a great American.
What was I saying? Oh, yeah. I plan on calling the cartridge the .46 Ginormous Action Tactical. A serious load demands a serious name, and that means using the word "tactical" to the point that it loses all meaning. It also prevents confusion, since ".46 GAT" couldn't possibly be confused with any current commercial loading.
Sarge made this adorable mockery of the innumerable shooter diagnostic charts circulating on the internet. He takes what we're all thinking and sums it up in one picture.
YouTube videos and gun forums are dubious sources of knowledge at best, and they provide no real-time feedback for the shooter. A simplistic chart (which is designed to correct defects in long-distance, one-handed shooting, by the way) might help as part of a whole suite of training tools, but taken by itself, it is of little value.
Most people don't need …
You can't pick up a gun magazine without seeing advertisements for Kimber's pistols on every third page or so. They certainly look debonair in print. In the hand, they feel wonderful, what with all the judiciously sloped edges and modern touches. It's obvious that they place a great priority on the idea of the gun as art.
That's fine. There's certainly a place for that. Unfortunately, Kimber's production practices fall woefully short when it comes to the idea of the gun as a functional weapon.
OK, folks. 9mm Parabellum isn't any more accurate than 9mm Luger. It's not more reliable. It does not have more "stopping power." They are the exact same thing.
The 9mm Parabellum was designed and named by Georg Luger. Despite the fact that he never called the loading 9mm Luger, some American manufacturers referred to it as such because the pistol bearing his name became quite popular after the first World War. It made marketing easier.
Luger was not a Nazi. He died well before there was such a thing. Nor did General Patton "change the name" from Luger to Parabellum to …
Word comes that Stephen Camp passed away last night. He was a former Sargeant with the Denton, TX police. In his later years, he was a tireless 2nd Amendment advocate with both the NRA and the Texas State Rifle Association. He maintained a valuable and enjoyable site of his own, and he was known on many of the established firearms forums for his eloquence, knowledge, and patience.
He is survived by his wife Sandra, who has requested that any donations be directed to the Denton Police Officers' Association.
Well, it's official. Ruger has entered the rather crowded 1911 pistol game. Ordinarily, I'd respond to this with a yawn, but a few factors make me suspect they'll do great things with it.
Jeff Quinn wrote a nice writeup on it, and he sounds optimistic. It'll have a cast frame, which is little cause for worry since the folks at Pine Tree Castings have been proving the investment casting process to be capable of great durability for decades. A point of interest is the fact that the plunger tube is cast as part of the frame, which …