Archive for the ‘Guns’ Category

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“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 140

Monday, August 17th, 2020

A while back, I summarized a DEFCON presentation on gun safe insecurity. I thought it might be fun today to post some demos, by way of the LockPickingLawyer channel on the ‘Tube.

First up, the “SnapSafe’s TrekLite TSA Gun Lockbox”, a case designed for airline transport of firearms. To summarize the video, this case is so bad that, if it worked as designed, it would actually be illegal to use. But because the design is so awful, it probably actually is technically legal. Still not secure, but technically legal.

Next up, the “Vaultek LifePod Gun Safe”, a waterproof gun safe endorsed by a prominent gun guy. You may remember Vaultek from almost three years ago, when it turned out their Bluetooth enabled product wasn’t secure. Turns out that the LifePod has a problem as well: the type of problem that you can exploit with a fork.

“Don’t read the comments.” But in fairness, Vaultek did respond in the comments and state that they are offering a fix for this problem.

You know what irony is, though? Irony is like 10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife. Okay, that’s not really ironic, that’s just stupid. But it sets up this: the Stack-On RFID Gun Safe.

But what if you don’t have a fork? Or a spoon? What if you just have a broken milk carton an orange juice bottle?

Coat hanger?

And now we know why the Knights Who Say “Ni!” wanted a shrubbery:

Posted in DEFCON, Guns, Locks | 1 Comment »

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 133

Monday, August 10th, 2020

Another area of crafts that I’m interested in is good quality woodworking. This is another place where I feel like it would take years of constant practice to be able to turn out something attractive and useful. But at the same time, there’s a whole lot of woodworking books out there: you can probably find plans and ideas for anything you want to build. And if you start out following the plans religiously, and only when you get good, start improvising, well maybe the ROI isn’t so bad after all.

I’m fascinated when I sit down, turn on PBS, and find something like “The New Yankee Workshop” on. For me, this is something like Bob Ross is for other people. (Except I don’t get stoned while watching it.)

It also seems like you can do some nice stuff with some basic hand tools. And a router. And maybe a table saw. And perhaps a lathe. And maybe…

(As a side note, that’s one of the reasons why I’m excited about TJIC’s book: because he’s going to talk about the tools he finds useful. And having seen pictures of some of his woodwork, I think this is a good starting point.)

One thing I keep thinking I’d like to build (when I get good enough) is a shooter’s box (or “range box”). Every now and again, I see nice ones at the gun shows, but they’re not for sale. I have a used (and slightly battered) range box made mostly out of plastic in with the gun stuff, and it is nice enough. But it gets back to the idea of using something you built yourself and that’s adjusted to your own needs, not something mass produced you bought from a store. Plus the wood ones just look better.

If you’re not familiar with the shooter’s box, well, that’s today’s theme.

This guy built a box for camera gear, but it is the same general principle:

Someday…

Posted in Geek, Guns, History | Comments Closed

Obit watch: August 7, 2020.

Friday, August 7th, 2020

Dr. William Aprill, noted trainer, has passed away. FotB Karl has a very nice tribute to him up at his blog. LawDog has another nice tribute up at his place.

Brent Scowcroft, national security advisor to President Ford and President Bush Sr.

Posted in Guns, Law, Obits | 2 Comments »

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 128

Wednesday, August 5th, 2020

I’ve done a lot of plane stuff the past couple of days, so I wanted to break with that theme and do something different.

I haven’t run across any good car stuff yet. There are a lot of train videos coming up: many of them seem to be POV videos of guys hopping freight trains, and they all have the problem of being long.

Likewise, there are a lot of police video channels on the ‘Tube. It seems that various people have figured out that getting hold of body cam footage under local public records laws and posting it on YouTube is a good way to get views. Unfortunately, while I enjoy watching stupid people get theirs (especially stupid cop impersonators who are dumb enough to wear body cameras while impersonating a police officer) many of those also have the disadvantage of being long, long, long.

Here’s one that is about coffee break sized, though, that I’m putting up because it isn’t just Florida Man (“Florida Man, Florida Man…”) but also Florida Lunatic.

Bonus video: I’m being self-indulgent with this one, obviously. But when was the last time I was self-indulgent?

(That was a rhetorical question. Don’t answer that.)

Legendary shooter Jerry Miculek shows off his K-frame .22 revolvers, talks about his friendship with the equally legendary Roy Jinks, and takes some shots at 240 yards with an 85-year old K-22.

(By the way, you can still get Smith and Wesson history letters, but the current price is $100. It’s $90 if you belong to either the Smith and Wesson Historical Foundation or the Smith and Wesson Collector’s Association, or $75 if you belong to both organizations.)

Posted in Cops, Guns, History, Law | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 112

Monday, July 20th, 2020

I’ve written previously about my interest in holsters and gunleather.

From time to time, more so recently, I find myself thinking about trying to make some of my own holsters. I did some leatherwork in school “shop” classes (for values of “leatherwork” that include “putting together a purchased kit from Tandy”). And you can still get several books on making holsters through Amazon.

Part of it is the appeal of carrying and using something that you made yourself, that’s customized to your needs and wants. I wouldn’t plan on going into competition with anyone: I’d be doing these as projects for myself. I figure it’d take me five to ten years (depending on how many holsters I made) to get to the point where I’d be happy with someone else using something I made, and probably another five to ten years after that before I became comfortable asking for money.

And it doesn’t seem like leatherwork takes a lot of space. Except maybe when you start purchasing machinery for stitching.

All I need to do is find the time. As the late John D. MacDonald once said, “A man will think a lot of stupid things when he can’t sleep at night.”

From Adams Leatherworks (a good Texas company), making a pancake holster with thumb break for a Commander sized 1911. Interestingly, they also sell patterns. I love the origin story on their “about” page: these sound like interesting people who maybe deserve some of my money the next time I want a custom holster.

Bonus video #1: “Making a Leather Cowboy Action Fast Draw Holster and Belt”. This guy actually sort of vaguely reminds me of one of my cow-orkers. (Not because he makes holsters: the two just bear a general resemblance.)

Bonus video #2: from Agar France, making a 1880’s Mexican Loop holster.

Posted in 1911, Guns, Holsters | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 110

Saturday, July 18th, 2020

Ted Gundy served honorably in WWII. He was a designated sniper, and fought in the Battle of the Bulge.

Back in 2009, he wrote to the folks at the Shooting USA channel, wondering how modern snipers are able to make shots at 1,000 yards or more.

This led to the Shooting USA folks arranging for him to visit Fort Benning. The Army gave him honored treatment…

…including letting him take some shots with the Army’s best marksmen.

I can’t find the original “Impossible Shots” version on the ‘Tube, but this is a tribute produced in 2015 after Mr. Gundy passed (he was 90).

Awful lot of dust blowing in from Africa these days, you know?

Bonus video #1: Spitfires taking off for a flyover in honor of Dame Vera Lynn.

Bonus video #2: the flyover itself, from Sky News.

Posted in Guns, History, Planes | Comments Closed

Quick follow up.

Friday, July 10th, 2020

Lawrence linked to a follow up story from Bearing Arms about a weird case I wrote about back in February: an ex-stunt woman formerly from Bee Cave and her husband drove to Ohio to shoot her ex-husband, and instead were shot by the ex.

Spoiler: the grand jury no-billed the ex-husband and his current wife.

Posted in Guns, Law | Comments Closed

Just for giggles.

Wednesday, July 1st, 2020

The Saturday Night Live channel on YouTube has posted “Midday with Jennifer Hicks”. This is the “interviews with Bond villains” sketch that contains the frequently quoted (in my circles) line, “I question the wisdom of having a self-destruct button at all.”

(See also, especially number 9, number 9, number 9…)

This surfaced on Twitter, and I have not seen it before. I wouldn’t say I can’t stop laughing, but it does make me giggle.

I wasn’t a regular “Magnum” watcher when it was on the air, but I sometimes think I should go back and watch from the beginning. (In addition to doing the same with “Blue Bloods”.)

Oddly, though, I have a weird allergic reaction to “Quigley Down Under”, and I don’t know why: that movie should push my buttons, and I’d kind of like to have an (accurate) reproduction of the movie gun.

Posted in Guns, Movies, TV | Comments Closed

I heartily endorse this event or product. (#20 and #21 in a series)

Tuesday, June 16th, 2020

I’ve backed the Kickstarter for Escape the City: a How-To Homesteading Guide by Travis J I Corcoran.

For those unfamiliar with Mr. Corcoran, he’s won two Prometheus awards (back to back) for his SF books, The Powers of the Earth and Causes of Separation.

Unlike those books, this is not fiction: this is a how-to/things I wish I had known/lessons learned book from someone who abandoned suburban life, moved to a farm in the country, and maintains an active coding career while raising his own food and living as close to a self-sustained lifestyle as he can get.

I have personal reasons for backing this book. But even if you don’t plan on moving to a farm, there’s almost certainly something in it that will justify the $20 you spend on the e-book: stuff about meat and meat processing, recipes, workshops and workshop tools…well, there’s a table of contents on the Kickstarter page.

Mr. Corcoran probably doesn’t need my help, though I’m happy to provide it: we’ve had friendly correspondence in the past. The Kickstarter is already at $25,000+ out of an initial $2,000 goal. But I’d like to make sure that everyone who can get any sort of benefit from it has a chance to kick in and get early access.

====

Noted: The National African American Gun Association. I didn’t know about this (though it’s been around for five years) until SayUncle mentioned it. Now that I do know about it, I’m delighted and fully support the organization, just like I support the Pink Pistols/Operation Blazing Sword.

Posted in Books, Endorsements, Guns | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 75

Saturday, June 13th, 2020

This seems like a good day to post some more military themed stuff, so here you go:

“Know Your Enemy: German Equipment”.

The film attempts to educate soldiers, tankers and other combatants about the material resources and equipment of the German Wehrmacht, and discusses how to defeat tanks and other weapons with small arms and anti-personnel weapons.

Bonus: I was trying to figure out if I had posted this before. It looks like I haven’t, but I did post about someone else’s link to it nine years ago. At that level of time and indirection, I think I can get away with it this time.

“Stop That Tank”, a Disney produced 1942 training film about the Boys anti-tank rifle.

Posted in Guns, History | Comments Closed

Random gun crankery, some filler.

Tuesday, June 9th, 2020

Here’s an interesting essay I’ve been meaning to bookmark for a while, and finally got around to.

“Chesterton: Patron Saint of Handgunners” by Patrick Toner, from “Crisis” magazine.

The jumping off point is a Chesterton quote, talking about his preparations for his honeymoon:

It is alleged against me, and with perfect truth, that I stopped on the way to drink a glass of milk in one shop and to buy a revolver with cartridges in another. Some have seen these as singular wedding-presents for a bridegroom to give to himself, and if the bride had known less of him, I suppose she might have fancied that he was a suicide or a murderer or, worst of all, a teetotaller.

Mr. Toner uses this to discuss the idea that defense of one’s self or those one loves is an obligation. More to the point, it is an obligation one has to assume on their own, rather than delegating to other people.

If a thing is worth doing, Chesterton tells us, it’s worth doing badly. (What’s Wrong With the World, 175) Defending one’s wife is worth doing, and hence worth doing badly. But more, it must be done principally by oneself. “These things, we want a man to do for himself, even if he does them badly.” (Orthodoxy, 250) Chesterton’s examples are things like writing one’s own love letters or blowing one’s own nose, but the incident of the revolver shows that he would include the husband’s duty to protect his wife. It’s simply not a job that should be subcontracted out. Of course, we band together in communities that provide mutual support and defense, and the forces of law and order can do their best to provide the safest conditions possible, in general. Our laws and policies and so forth can and should serve to keep the pirates at bay to a great extent. (Whether they, in fact, accomplish this, or whether our policies create criminals like moisture creates mold is an extraneous question.) None of this runs contrary to my point. We ask for doctors, researchers and public health officials to try to create as high a general level of health as possible—but that doesn’t mean we ask them to wipe our noses for us.

He goes on to propose that Chesterton be named the patron saint of handgunners, though he doesn’t shy away from the two major problems with this idea:

  • Chesterton wasn’t a saint at the time. He was under consideration, but the latest information I’ve found indicates that the effort has been abandoned.
  • There already is a patron saint of handgunners. Sort of. It’s complicated.

Slightly more seriously, this month’s essay by Tiger McKee in “American Handgunner”, “3 Questions To Stay Alive“, is worthy of your consideration. I think this is especially relevant if you are a new gun owner, but I’d argue that even experienced ones could benefit from asking these three questions. I’ve asked some of those questions myself in the past. I particularly like his “kitchen fire/building fire” analogy.

What are you willing to risk your life for? Only you can answer this question. But, I recommend asking it in advance. Remember, fighting is problem-solving at high speed. The more questions you can answer in advance the more efficiently you arrive at a solution.

I think we’ve all heard the Creepy Joe quote about how police officers should be trained to just shoot people in the leg. Everyone who is a person of the gun (and a lot of people who are not) should realize this is obviously bolshie bushwa. (If you don’t understand why: try hitting a small target like a leg under extreme cognitive and physical stress. This is why police officers are trained to shoot “center of mass” aka “the biggest part of the body”.)

I’ve had this video in the back of my head for a while now, and I thought I’d post it as another reason why “shoot ’em in the leg” isn’t such a good idea. This is from Iran: the suspect in this video allegedly robbed a bank.

As best as I can tell, the police officer shoots the suspect in the leg at about the 30 second mark. Two points:

1. The suspect is still conscious and capable of putting up a fight for another 45 seconds or so after he was shot. How much damage do you think someone can do with a knife in 45 seconds?

2. The suspect bled out and died. Shooting someone in the leg does not mean “not lethal”. If you hit an artery, the person you shot can bleed to death before the ambulance gets there.

Posted in Bookmarks, Guns, Religion | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 70

Monday, June 8th, 2020

I’m hoping to be able to post some more firearms related stuff over the next week, including (if I can get my stuff together and am lucky) two gun porn entries.

In the meantime:

“A Federal Case”. A very 1970s promo film about the production of ammo by the Federal Cartridge Corporation.

Bonus video #1: the good folks at Starline Brass make cartridge cases, including cases for a lot of obscure ammo. As I recall, they even produced .356 TSW brass, though I can’t find it on their website at the moment.

Here’s a behind the scenes tour of their brass manufacturing. It has the advantage of less 1970s music.

And they have a YouTube channel, though it doesn’t look like they’ve uploaded anything since 2016.

Bonus video #2: You know who else has a YouTube channel? Norma. You know who updates their channel more often? Norma. You know who else uploaded a factory tour?

One of the things Mike the Musicologist and I keep talking about doing is taking some time off and driving to Nebraska to visit the SAC Museum. From Ashland, Google Maps says it is only about two hours to Grand Island and the Hornady plant, which is something else we’d like to see (and tour, if they’ll let us in).

One of these days, when all this stuff is over and we’ve got time and money. Until then, this will have to do.

Posted in Guns, History | Comments Closed

More hoplobibliophilia.

Monday, June 8th, 2020

How do you know when you’ve got a problem with bibliophilia?

One clue is when you start buying bibliographies.

(more…)

Posted in Books, Guns, Hoplobibilophilia | Comments Closed

Noted 2.

Thursday, May 28th, 2020

Something else I like, from Rod Dreher: “Ode to the Roof Koreans“.

Posted in Guns | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 58

Wednesday, May 27th, 2020

Thanks to all the folks who stopped by and left comments on my Memorial Day post. Thanks also to Borepatch for the linky love.

There are some videos on YouTube about Father Capodanno, but I have not been able to watch any of them yet, and I don’t want to put them up without watching them first. So here’s a couple of things I thought were odd or diverting.

Many of my readers are probably familiar with the idea of ASMR videos. I wasn’t aware that there was such a thing as ASMR gun cleaning videos.

(I have another reason for posting this video. But I’ll go into that at some point in the future.)

Bonus: More hot metal! “Modern Steel Making”, from the United States Steel Corporation in glorious Technicolor!

Posted in Guns, History | Comments Closed

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