Archive for the ‘Guns’ Category

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Holy…goat? Maybe. Kind of. Sort of.

Sunday, January 22nd, 2012

The German Sport Guns folks are putting out some interesting stuff. I’ve been tempted for a while to pick up one of their .22LR MP-5 clones (Mike the Musicologist has been pushing me to do so as well); they’re nice looking guns, I think they’d be a lot of fun to shoot, and I often see them at the gun show for reasonable prices. But I can’t find any practical use for them (other than “they’d be fun to shoot”) and I’ve got enough .22LR guns already, thankyouverymuch.

I do also kind of like the idea of an AK-47 clone in .22LR, but it has less appeal to me than the MP-5 clones. I’d rather have a full-on AK-47. (And that is on my list, just haven’t gotten around to it yet.)

New at the SHOT show, we’ve got the Mexican drug dealer line of guns from GSG: gold-plated AK and MP-5 clones. Yeah. Not on the list, but lord love GSG for trying.

On the other hand, American Tactical Imports (GSG’s US importer) is also going to be importing GSG’s .22LR version of the StG 44. This could be interesting; .22LR is a lot easier to find than 7.92×33mm Kurz, and I do have a certain interest in the StG 44 after reading Pale Horse Coming (in which the Audie Murphy clone uses one to great effect against a guard tower).

Also, if I’m going to be honest with myself, the wooden crate “handmade by a Amish community in New York state” pushes a button, too.

(Hattip: The Firearm Blog on both of these.)

Edited to add: Something occurs to me. You know what ATI/GSG could probably rake in the cash with? A Thompson clone in .22LR, complete with drum magazine. Especially if they sold it (and the drum) at a price that doesn’t make you think it is made out of compressed unicorn tears and ambergris.

However, I’d be willing to bet that the current owners of Auto-Ordnance might not take too kindly to that without some sort of licensing deal. Which I think actually raises an interesting legal question; to what extent is the physical look and design of a firearm protected by law? GSG was, after all, sued by H&K (“you suck and we hate you”) for trade dress infringement, but how long does trade dress protection last? Forever? The Thompson is, after all, an 84 year old gun…

Posted in Clippings, Guns, Law | Comments Closed

Rumor control.

Friday, January 20th, 2012

Before I left work today, my great and good friend Commvault Bryan told me about the latest “urban legend” he’d heard. He was kind enough to email a PDF discussing it; I’m not sure that posting the PDF is okay, but pretty much the same thing can be found on the TexasBowhunter.com forum.

Summarizing, the “urban legend” is that “gang members” are going around to shooting ranges, gun stores, gun shows, and other places where gun owners congregate. Once there, the gang members are marking the cars of gun owners, following their vehicles until they get someplace “safe” (for the gang members), and then breaking in and stealing their guns.

I have not previously heard of this happening, and I’m a little dubious. I could see this being a viable strategy if you were looking for long guns and watching for folks lugging cases; handguns are likely to go with the average gun owner out of the car, so that seems less likely to work.

The PDF and article mention “27 high end shotguns” being stolen from a sporting clays event. I’m not dismissing out of hand that this really happened, but:

  1. If I’m a gang member, I’m not looking for $6,000 Perrazi trap guns. Granted, 00 buck from one of those will still kill you dead, but if I had my druthers, I’d be looking for modern sporting rifles, not skeet guns. (And for those of you saying, “Well, you could sell or pawn the shotguns”, I have a feeling that the circle of people interested in those is a) limited, and 2) likely to know they’re looking at a stolen gun as soon as they pick it up and check the serial number.)
  2. Given the marking they show on the tire, I’m a little dubious that gang members would be able to pick up your vehicle and follow it. It just seems awfully small to keep track of.
  3. I suspect the traffic in the parking lot of most gun shows and ranges is high enough that someone tagging vehicles in this fashion would be noticed, and very probably stopped at gunpoint and held for police.

I’m not ruling this out completely, but it triggers my Snopes sense. Does anyone have any more information or verification on this?

In the meantime, a healthy dose of situational awareness never hurts. (I think Colonel Cooper said that once; if he didn’t, he should have.)

Posted in Clippings, Guns | 3 Comments »

A show of support.

Thursday, January 19th, 2012

Today is the first anniversary of l’affair TJIC.

“Brad in MA” apparently originated the idea of commemorating this date by going out on and purchasing something Second Amendment related, which we think is excellent. Our great and good friend Borepatch elaborated on this idea some more by suggesting folks patronize TJIC’s company, Smartflix, which rents learning DVDs. We also heartily endorse this idea; Smartflix has an amazing selection of firearms related DVDs for rent.

On this day, I encourage you to consider both options. As for myself, I’ve already set up a Smartflix account, specifically as a response to the illegal and unconstitutional actions of the Arlington, MA police, and look forward to a long and pleasant relationship with the company.

I also wanted to make passing note of this tweet by TJIC about the firing of Boston PD officer David Williams for beating a suspect. As the article notes, Williams was previously fired in 1998, and rehired after winning an appeal in 2005.

As it happens, I am currently reading Dick Lehr’s book The Fence: A Police Cover-up Along Boston’s Racial Divide about the previous case involving Williams. In brief, Williams and a group of other BPD officers beat a black man who they thought was a criminal suspect senseless; then, when it turned out he was actually a fellow BPD officer in plainclothes, more or less successfully covered up their actions. The one BPD officer who was actually convicted of a crime was later found to be telling the truth (that he hadn’t seen the beating) and had his conviction overturned.

I’m not far enough into The Fence to feel confident recommending it, but the story of Michael Cox is appalling and deserves to be better known.

Posted in Books, Clippings, Cops, Guns, Law, Politics | Comments Closed

The Journalist’s Guide to Firearms Identification.

Tuesday, January 17th, 2012

There was a bit of a kerfluffle last week. A group of “intruders with assault rifles” robbed a Walmart in the Houston area.

Television station KPRC reported that the assault rifles were AK-47s.

Today, the HouChron is reporting that they caught the alleged robbers. (Actually, the girlfriend of one of them turned them in.) And…

She said the three had a large amount of cash and a long-barrel weapon, which she said they called an “SKS,” records state. According to online information, the SKS is a widely sold copy of the Russian AK-47 assault rifle.

Yeah. Not so much.

(Hattip.)

Posted in Clippings, Guns | Comments Closed

Holy Cow. (Part 3)

Tuesday, January 17th, 2012

Rumor has it that these run for $50,000, so we’re talking lottery territory here. Plus there’s the cost of feeding it .45-70 ammo.

But I want one anyway.

As Sebastian notes, this isn’t technically a machine gun so NFA doesn’t apply. And it would be an awesome weapon for certain stages of Lovecraft action shooting.

(Hattip: The Firearm Blog, by way of Sebastian. I do love the comment there: “I think [Colt’s] marketing strategy is to put a monkey in charge.”)

Edited to add: I can’t directly link to the “Gatling” westerns on Amazon, but here’s the “Jack Slade” page which includes those books.

Posted in Books, Clippings, Guns | 2 Comments »

DEFCON 19 update.

Monday, January 16th, 2012

I have not been able to watch it yet (Vimeo is blocked at work) but video of Deviant Ollam’s “Safe to Armed in Seconds: A Study of Epic Fails of Popular Gun Safes” presentation from DEFCON 19 is up.

You can find the video (along with comments from various folks, including Ollam) at the Everyday, No Days Off blog.

Posted in DEFCON 19, Guns | Comments Closed

It is better to light one small candle than to curse the darkness.

Sunday, January 8th, 2012

(Click to embiggen.)

But it is much better not having to curse the darkness, or be afraid of it, because you have the tools to defend yourself and those you love.

(Smith & Wesson Model 36. Uncle Mike’s Sidekick holster. Safariland speedloader. Federal 110 grain JHP. Spyderco Civilian. Principles Of Personal Defense by Jeff Cooper.)

I’m no Oleg Volk, but I’m actually pretty happy with the way that photo came out. I didn’t use the flash; just the ambient light from the candles, and the normal background light from inside my apartment. This was a relatively long exposure: iPhoto says 1 second at f4.2, using the D40X, the 18-55 mm kit lens that I got with it, and a Dolica AX620B100 tripod. I used iPhoto to crop this photo, but other than that it hasn’t been digitally manipulated in any way.

(Explanation of what’s behind this photo can be found over at Weer’d Beard’s place.)

Posted in Guns, Photography, Politics | Comments Closed

Starbucks control.

Wednesday, January 4th, 2012

Choosy arsonists choose Starbucks Frappucino bottles for their firebombs.

“They are excellent for what you need, because it is a weak-sided bottle with a screw-on cap,” Mr. Barry said. “It is small enough to be concealed in your pocket and it fits in your hand, so you can throw it almost like a Nerf football. It’s a small projectile you can get a good grip on and you can toss it.”

(See also: this thread on gasoline violence over at Weer’d’s place.)

Posted in Clippings, Guns, Politics | 1 Comment »

A small rant.

Monday, January 2nd, 2012

If you apply for a concealed handgun license in the great state of Texas, you can do most of the work online. You still have to take a class, and you still have to submit certain things (certificate of class completion, fingerprints, photo) offline for understandable reasons, but most of the process can be done online.

So why in the name of all that is holy is it impossible for me to do a DBA search and file for an assumed name online? No, I’ve got to take time off work and go down to the county office. Or apparently, I can pay someone $99 to do this for me. No, I can’t even mail this s–t in.

(My amazing psychic powers tell me that Lawrence is going to come back with a one word answer: “Money.”)

You folks in other states: can you file DBAs online, or do you have to physically trek down to some county office?

(Ha. I clicked on a link I found at another site: “The Official Website of The Commonwealth of Massachusetts: Forming a Business, Step-by-Step”. Yeah, that would be a 404 error. Is this what we call “ironic”?)

Posted in Guns, Politics | Comments Closed

New Year’s Resolutions 2012.

Saturday, December 31st, 2011
  1. More range trips.
  2. More range trips with the younger set.
  3. Shoot more matches. I’d like to do a Steel Challenge match using the .22LR guns I have; another USPSA match would be fun, too.
  4. Go to a Project Appleseed shoot. They were doing shoots in Smithville late in 2011; that would have been an easy drive, but I couldn’t make their schedule work with my academic schedule. I’m hoping for another shoot somewhere close this year.
  5. Take at least one of the younger set with me to Project Appleseed (subject to parental permission).
  6. Get some nice gun leather. I’d like to get a good gun belt to start with. After that, I’m thinking something that will fit the Single Six and possibly the New Frontier: I wonder if I can use the same leather for both. (Galco has a holster for the Single Six, but does not list one for the New Frontier.) I’d also like to get a holster that will fit my S&W Model 29 and Model 25, which I think should be feasible; they’re both 6″ N-frame guns. As for sources, there was a guy in Wimberly but he’s apparently closed. I think there’s another guy in Lockhart, but I need to check on that. And I really want to order a 1911 holster from Dragon Leatherworks, too. I’ve heard Dennis on Vicious Circle, and he seems like a really nice guy. Plus every single review I’ve read of his work has been more than positive; try “ecstatic”.
  7. Do more research on gun leather before I buy anything. For example, when Skeeter Skelton talks about the “classic Tom Threepersons design“, it sounds cool. But what exactly does that mean, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of that over something like the “Austin” holster? (You know what I really need? “Gun Leather De-Mystified”. Or maybe “Gun Leather for the Complete Idiot”.)
  8. Get good optics on the Bushmaster and the M&P15-22.
  9. Get more magazines (including a drum) for the Thompson. If I can find a deal on vintage Thompson magazines, I do have a Dremel tool…
  10. Build out that AR lower that’s sitting in the gun cabinet.
  11. Figure out a way to discretely keep the Marlin 336 in my car during the work day. Tinted windows combined with a case, maybe?
  12. Either get one of the Ruger Scout Rifles (if I can find a deal), or do something about building one of the other .308 bolt actions out into a scout rifle.

Posted in Guns | 1 Comment »

A grand day out.

Friday, December 30th, 2011

If you’ve got a week off, and you live in a relatively free state, why not schedule a range day?

And if you’re doing that, why not bring the middle nephew:

especially since he got a pair of Say Uncle endorsed active muffs for Christmas?

(I wanted to bring the two older boys, too, but for logistical and other reasons I wasn’t able to make that work.)

So we went out to Best of the West in Liberty Hill. I had not shot there before (though I’d been there once for LaRue’s Range Day). I was actually pretty happy with the range; everyone we dealt with was polite and friendly, and we managed to get an entire 50 yard bay to ourselves. (I only felt like we needed 50 yards, since all I brought with me was .22LR stuff for the novice shooter.)

(more…)

Posted in Clothing, Guns, Shirts, Winchester | 6 Comments »

One. Million. Dollars.

Thursday, December 29th, 2011

That’s what the District of Columbia owes Richard Heller and his attorneys, including Alan Gura, in legal fees over District of Columbia v. Heller.

Actually, the figure is $1,137,072.27. The Honorable Mr. Gura and the other members of the legal team were asking for $3.1 million, while the city was arguing for $840,000.

Posted in Clippings, Guns, Law | 1 Comment »

Administrative note.

Tuesday, December 27th, 2011

I’m taking this entire week off of work, and using the time either to do stuff I’ve been wanting to do, hang out with family, or both. (If the weather holds up, we may try for a range trip this week.)

In the meantime, blogging is sort of on the back burner. There will be a TMQ Watch this week, but it may not go up until later this evening.

Side note: Apparently, I have been designated the “coolest uncle ever” on Facebook (I am unable to verify this for myself, since I don’t do Facebook) because I got this one:

one of these:

for Christmas. (At least, I think it was one of those: it was an H&K folder that McBride’s had on sale, cheap, but I didn’t make a note of the exact model. I know it was one that had the tanto point. If he still has the box, I’ll get the exact model later.)

Posted in Admin, Christmas, Guns | Comments Closed

Appalling.

Monday, December 19th, 2011

I sent an earlier version of this story to my great and good friend Weer’d Beard for his “Gun” Death files, but something in today’s NYT coverage moves me to post.

But there was no way Ms. Gillespie, 73, could have been prepared for what happened.

No, actually, there was a way that Ms. Gillespie could have been prepared for what happened, but the city of New York denied her the tools she would have needed for effective self-defense against Jerome Isaac.

(Fair question: would the muzzle flash from, say, a KelTec .380 have ignited the fumes? Not sure, and I suspect it depends a lot on what type of fuel he was using. The NYT describes him as “reeking of gasoline”, but I’m not sure if that’s an accurate description or a colloquialism. In any case, I like Ms. Gillespie’s chances with a gun much better than the no chance she had without one.)

Posted in Clippings, Guns | Comments Closed

Grind that axe, NYT.

Tuesday, December 13th, 2011

Stipulated: the death of a police officer doing the right thing is tragic.

But there’s some odd stuff going on in the NYT coverage. For example,

His death at the barrel of a semi-automatic Ruger pistol, the same kind of gun used in the 1993 shootings on the Long Island Rail Road and the sort of firearm that continues to vex the city,

“the sort of firearm that continues to vex the city”? Are there a lot of folks getting shot with semi-automatic Ruger pistols? Would it somehow have been better if the officer had been shot with a Smith and Wesson revolver? And doesn’t NYC have strict gun control laws?

One of them is believed to have stashed his revolver — an unloaded black Smith and Wesson that was jammed — in a dirty microwave oven in the kitchen, where officers found it later.

I realize I’m probably expecting a little much from the NYT, but I’d like more details on how this unloaded revolver was “jammed”.

And:

The police identified the gunman as Lamont Pride, 27, a felon who served a prison term in North Carolina and was wanted by the authorities there for a shooting in August. He was arrested on a drug charge in Brooklyn in November but released.

Isn’t that interesting? I expect we’ll be hearing more about it in the next few days.

Posted in Clippings, Cops, Guns, Law, Politics | Comments Closed

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