Archive for March 2nd, 2026

Short random gun crankery.

Monday, March 2nd, 2026

The Range in South Austin is involved in an ugly legal dispute.

Grant Shaw, co-founder of The Range at Austin, says his business partner Alessandro Bosco and others are intentionally tanking the enterprise to buy it back cheap, minus debts and investors. The accusation is false, according to the company’s largest creditor, and the lawsuit is an attempt to put off what it says is “inevitable.”

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Shaw is going to court today to try to block a foreclosure sale of the 52,000-square-foot business and property along Interstate 35 in South Austin.
In a nearly 400-page court filing, he maps out the alleged “scheme” perpetrated by his former colleagues, which involves derailing an effort to refinance a longstanding debt while positioning a third-party to swoop in, foreclose and take over.
“Those are all untrue statements and desperate attempts to avoid foreclosure,” said Thomas Sansone, owner of the limited partnership TASAN, which had millions in equity in the company and Range Collection LLC, the company now tasked with collecting his debt. Sansone and both companies are named in the lawsuit.
Sansone, who is also Shaw’s former father-in-law, says the company owes him about $10 million from years of investments, capital calls and bailouts. He was described by another former investor as a “lifeline” for Shaw and the business. Sansone said he took on the bank loan when it came due years ago but hasn’t been repaid.

Fact I did not know, but find interesting:

Shaw and Bosco built another company together called SB Tactical, which produces controversial arm braces for guns. The braces can help turn a pistol into a rifle and the company fought the U.S. government to continue selling them. SB Tactical has been wildly successful and helped fuel other ventures like The Range.

I go to The Range from time to time. I’ve never shot there, and in terms of new guns, there’s very little there for me. But I do like the Collectors Firearms inside The Range.

In other news…

“Wild LI geezer built basement shooting range and staggering gun lab — just steps from Chaminade High School: DA”

Much of this story is hysterical, ignorant, or both. But this jumped out at me:

The probe launched in January 2025, after Chou was flagged as an alleged frequent online buyer of gun parts from multiple retailers — purchasing roughly 112 firearm-related components over the course of the prior year, according to prosecutors.

“Flagged”?

Sounds to me like credit card companies are reporting online purchases of firearms accessories to law enforcement. Might be something to keep in mind. Perhaps make your purchases in cash at gun shows, if you can.

I also wonder if this is just a New York thing. For some reason, I have it my head that credit card companies aren’t allowed to do this in Texas, but don’t ask me for a citation to the specific law or regulation.

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Obit watch: March 2, 2026.

Monday, March 2nd, 2026

Neil Sedaka. THR.

“I was the king of the tra-la-las and doo-be-do’s in the ’50s and ’60s,” he told Reuters in 2010. “It had to have a very catchy tune, with a catchy beat that you can dance to.”

Ed Iskenderian, “The Camfather”.

Mr. Iskenderian was best known for building or “grinding” camshafts, which are essentially an engine’s heartbeat. A camshaft consists of a rod and shaped lobes that synchronize the opening and closing of the engine’s air intake and exhaust valves. The size and shape of the lobes can be adjusted to affect power, torque, performance and fuel efficiency.

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He started his own camshaft production company, as the sole employee, in 1946. A onetime apprentice tool-and-die maker, just back from wartime service in the Army Air Forces, he found the Los Angeles hot rod scene running at full throttle and the wait for high-performance camshafts to be a frustrating five months. He bought a grinding machine from a mentor and placed it on a dirt floor in a back room of a friend’s machine shop in Culver City, Calif.
His first major project was enhancing the performance of Ford Flathead V8s, a dominant racing engine of the 1940s and early ’50s. His solution was to create “fast action” cams that opened the intake valves earlier and held them open longer during the combustion process, allowing more air and fuel to flow into the cylinders, boosting horsepower.
Within a decade, he became the leading cam authority. His cams powered numerous iconic engines, including the four Pontiac V8s that fueled Mickey Thompson’s Challenger 1 when he became the first American driver to exceed 400 miles per hour, on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah in 1960.

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The camshaft company, now in Gardena, Calif., south of Los Angeles, has expanded to 60 employees and 100,000 square feet of space. Mr. Iskenderian was considered among the first to use computers to design camshafts, though it was also said of his skill, with only mild hyperbole, that he could grind one out of a broomstick.

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Mr. Iskenderian’s boyhood during the Depression left an indelible imprint. He seldom threw anything away, friends said. The Cadillacs that he preferred for daily driving were often filled, except for a small space behind the steering wheel, with soda bottles, books, magazines, camshafts and fishing gear. More than one visitor to his office failed at first glance to see him sitting behind the mountainous pile on his desk.

For the historical record: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is burning in Hell.

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