Gun Nuts Last Night: Great Gunleather!

Don’t forget to check out last night’s Gun Nuts Radio!  The fastest hour on the internet flew by while talking to Michael from The Holster Site about his excellent custom gunleather work.  Last night’s show covered some breaking political news in Indiana as well – HB 1065 and HB 1068 passed out of committee in the Indiana Senate and are headed for a full floor vote.  After Michael signed off, we had some good discussion with callers on NRA’s involvement in the McDonald case.  To hear all of last night’s show, click here!  Also available in handy .mp3 format or on Gun Nuts Host - Gun Nuts Radio: The Next Generation of Shooting | Blog Talk Radio Feed - Gun Nuts Radio: The Next Generation of Shooting | Blog Talk Radio Feed for download.

Thanks again to all of the listeners, guests, and callers, and especially Michael from The Holster Site for joining us last night!  Make sure to tune in to next week’s Gun Nuts Radio for the best in shooting sports, new gear, and gun rights info!

Sometimes you get the bear…

And sometimes you get outplayed.  If you watched the Super Bowl on Sunday, you saw a perfect example of a team getting outplayed by another team.  As much as I wanted the Colts to win, and as well as they played, the Saints came out and played with a chip on their shoulder and flat out played Indianapolis.

What does that have to do with the shooting sports?  Well, sometimes you get outplayed in our games as well.  You can go to a match, and have the best match of your life, shoot rocketfast, nail all your reloads, and generally kick ass…and still lose.  That’s the game.  But in those moments, when you’ve shot your heart out and left it all on the range and still didn’t come away with the trophy you can find your greatest opportunities for improvement.  The measure of the shooter isn’t what you do when you win, but how you examine your performance when you lose.  Honest performance assessments are the key to improving your scores on the range (well, that and practice); and while it may at times be unpleasant to look at your scores and say “I messed up” it’s better to have that moment of unpleasantness and become a better shooter than live in denial.

Gun Nuts Tonight: The Holster Site!

Tonight on Gun Nuts Radio, we’ve got a great show in the works for you.  In addition to the usual commentary on the news and outstanding political issues, we’re going to be joined by Michael from The Holster Site; he’s responsible for some of the most attractive leatherwork I’ve had the opportunity to lay my eyes on.  Michael is also a blogger who happens to be married to another excellent blogger; and I personally coulnd’t be more pleased to welcome him to the show tonight.

So tune in tonight at 9pm Eastern time on the BlogTalkRadio Network at www.blogtalkradio.com/gunnuts to get the inside scoop on customer gunleather, breaking news, and new products!

The Call of Duty Effect

Are video games creating so called “gun experts” that don’t know anything about guns?  The short answer is “yes”, but to call this “The Call of Duty Effect” or to act like it’s a new phenomenon is kind of short sighted.  This has been going on ever since Counterstrike first came out and became (for its time) the first person shooter for people to play.  I enjoyed Counterstrike.  I played it a lot.  What I never thought was that my ability to hose bullets out of a simulated MP5 and rack up head shots would translate to any sort of actual skill or knowledge with firearms.

My world crosses over quite a bit with the gaming world – I started playing Wing Commander on an IBM 386; and while I don’t play games nearly as much as I once did I still enjoy the occasional round of Counterstrike or Day of Defeat.  Two of my brothers actually work in the gaming industry as well, so there’s quite a bit of crossover there.  As games become more and more realistic in their depiction of firearms (from a graphics standpoint anyway) I do think that you’ll find an ever increasing number of “video game kids” that think their video game knowledge will translate into real world knowledge.

But here’s the thing – yeah, those kids can be annoying at times.  But instead of shunning them or casting them aside, I truly believe that we need to embrace the video game generation and their love of firearms.  You see a kid that’s interested in learning about the Bushmaster ACR, or M4 Carbines or whatever because he’s been playing Modern Warfare?  Talk to that kid.  Educate him, don’t dismiss him.  Someone come to your range with his freshly purchased semi-auto Thompson because it was awesome in a World War II game?  That kid is the future of our shooting sports, right there.  Take him to a USPSA match, because that kid needs the adrenaline from Run and Gun.

I have probably said this before, but I honestly believe that the video game generation is our future in the shooting sports.  Think about it for a minute – kids growing up playing games that involve firearms are going to have fewer mystical beliefs than those that have never been exposed to any type of firearm, digital or otherwise, so there is the potential for great teaching and recruiting opportunities.  It’s up to us to capitalize on that opportunity.

Glock Sponsors USPSA Area 6

From USPSA Press release:

SEDRO-WOOLLEY, Wash. — The 2010 pistol shooting championship season kicks off with the U.S. Practical Shooting Association’s (USPSA) Area 6 Pistol Championship and once again Georgia-based firearms maker Glock has been named the overall match sponsor. The Area 6 region includes the states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.

This marks the 4th year that Glock, whose pistols are popular with many competing in the Production and Limited-10 divisions, will be the main sponsor of the match.

“Glock has had a tremendous impact on the shooting sports and not just through its generous support of matches like ours,” said Charles Bond, USPSA Area 6 director. “Through the years GSSF, the Glock Sport Shooting Foundation, has served as the unofficial feeder program for Practical Shooting getting tens of thousands of shooters into the shooting sports and ultimately into competitions like the Area 6 Championship.”

The Area 6 Championship will take place April 16 through 18 at the South River Gun Club in Covington, Ga. Upwards of 325 shooters representing Area 6 and 20 other states are expected to attend including Team Glock members Dave Sevigny, Jessie Abbate and Randi Rogers. International shooters from Columbia and Jamaica are also expected to compete.

This match basically takes place in Glock’s backyard, and they definitely bring their “A-game” for amounts to a home game match.

Indiana Residents: Contact your State Senators

Alright guys and girls – we’ve been following the progress of two important pieces of legislation in the State of Indiana: HB 1065 and HB 1068.  These bill head in to the State Senate this week after being successfully passed out of the Indiana House two weeks ago.  Here’s a quick breakdown of what this bills support.

  • HB 1065: Parking lots and Emergency Powers – this bill would allow law abiding Indiana gun owners to store their legally owned and carried firearms in their vehicles at the parking lots of their places of employment.  It would prevent anti-gun companies from interfering with our right to protect ourselves to and and from work.  Additionally, this bill has “Emergency Powers” language, i.e. “Katrina bills” that would prevent the government from seizing legally owned firearms in a state disaster.
  • HB 1068: Gun Permit Database bill – this bill closes access to the Indiana Handgun Permit Database to Law Enforcement only; this would prevent criminals from gaining access to the database and using it as a roadmap to steal guns or to victimize houses that they knew to be unarmed.

To contact your state Senator, click on this link to find your district and your Senator.

FBI Purchases AR-15s in .40 S&W

From my buddy at the Firearm Blog; apparently the FBI has decided that hey, pistol caliber carbines are kind of a neat idea.  According to the procurement document, the FBI wants these carbines for training and as option to the 5.56 AR15 rifles that they currently issue.  The caliber makes sense as well, as the FBI’s standard issue firearms for Special Agents is usually a Glock 22 in .40 S&W.  The FBI document actually mentions “easily sourced ammo” as a reason for going with the .40 S&W AR.

The actual rifle selected is Rock River Arms LAR-40.  I personally haven’t played with this gun, but I’ve shot the RRA 9mm carbine, and it was absolutely a fine gun.  I also think that .40 makes a lot of sense as a carbine/sub-gun round as the high pressures that the round operate at and somewhat snappy recoil out of certain pistol platforms is easily mitigated by the carbine.  You could do worse than to imitate the Feds and get one of these for your HD gun.