gun control/Hoosier

Indy Chamber of Commerce trying to scuttle Parking Lots bill

Posted on by Caleb

Contact your legislators and urge them to pass a clean bill – no poison amendments.  Yesterday, the Indy Chamber of Commerce distributed a propaganda flier to legislators filled with misinformation.  The real facts, not the fabricated garbage are here:

The REAL Facts:

1. Federal Court: Northern District Court of Florida upheld Florida Parking Lots for employees; denied the Florida Retail Federation

http://www.jacksonlewis.com/legalupdates/article.cfm?aid=1457

2. Federal Appellate Court: US Court of Appeals – 10th Circuit ruled against Conoco Phillips in Oklahoma’s Parking Lot bill

http://www.ca10.uscourts.gov/opinions/07/07-5166.pdf

3. U.S. Department of Labor confirmed that allowing employees to store lawful firearms in locked vehicles do not add to workplace violence or violate OSHA standards
http://www.nraila.org/media/PDFs/OSHAParkingLotLtr01162009.pdf

4. The State of Missouri does not have Parking Lots legislation, meaning that companies CAN ban firearms from their parking lots. The St. Louis plant, highlighted in the Chamber’s sensational handout, has declined to state publicly whether or not they prohibit firearms from their parking lots, but obviously the ability to do so in Missouri did not stop a murderer.
This is NOT the first time Chambers of Commerce have sold out to anti-gun activists to defeat Parking Lot legislation. They still failed.

“Supporters of the bill who favor placing gun rights above the rights of property owners rely on a questionable understanding of Second Amendment rights for legitimacy. Often the NRA and its supporters will argue that gun ownership is an inalienable right provided for by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. That is not consistent with the text of the amendment nor with the courts that have interpreted it.” –Georgia Traditional Manufacturers Association, in a memo circulated to Georgia legislators.

In an attempt to defeat the Parking Lot bill in the Florida legislature, the Florida Retail Federation hired a lobbyist who had previously been the Southeast Regional Director for the Brady Campaign and the Million Mom March.

Contact your State Legislators, Hoosiers!

handguns/Shot Show/Smith & Wesson

Smith & Wesson M&P .40 Pro Series

Posted on by Caleb

Steve from The Firearm Blog was kind enough to grab a couple of pictures of the 4.25 inch M&P Pro Series .40 from Smith & Wesson for our use here at Gun Nuts.

Click the image to make it fullsize – as you can see from the pic, the Pro Series .40 with the short slide doesn’t have a lot of cosmetic differences from it’s non Pro Series brethren in .40.  The big difference is in the stuff that you can’t see, namely the competition trigger, no magazine disconnect safety, and general radness.

From the factory, it looks like the M&P .40 Pro Series guns are going to be wearing Novak night sights for concealed carry use.  A lot of people think that the “Pro Series” guns are just competition guns – that’s not true.  The Pro Series represent guns designed for the competitive shooter, or the armed professional; which is why they include a 3 inch Model 60 with night sights, and starting in 2010 several more dedicated defensive firearms.

Click this image for a larger version – I’m actually quite amused by this picture, aside from being a good photo of the factory Novak night sights on the M&P Pro Series .40, Steve also perfectly captured what your sight picture should look like!  Notice that the front sight is crisp and clear while the rear sight is kind of blurry.  Nice photo.

Back to the guns themselves, I’m hoping to get a long slide (5 inch slide) model out of S&W for testing purposes later on in the year so we can really wring one of these guns out.  I’m also (of course) interested in the 4.25 inch Pro Series guns, both the .40 and new 9mm that they’re releasing as well.  I relate these guns to the Commander sized 1911 vs. a full sized 1911 – the longslide M&Ps have a 5 inch slide, and the “standard” guns have a 4.25 inch slide.  Now, I may be the outlier, however I’ve always preferred the Commander sized 1911s to the full size guns.  I’m curious to see if given the opportunity to shoot them side by side if I’d prefer the 4.25 inch M&P Pro series guns to the 5 inch long slide guns.

All the M&P Pro Series pistols come out of the box with no magazine disconnect safety, Novak sights (the 5 inch guns come with a fiber optic front), and a trigger pull in the area of 4 lbs.  If you’re looking for a gun to shoot Production Division (in 9mm) or Limited/Limited-10, and you don’t feel like dropping a kilobuck on a 1911, check out the M&P Pro Series.

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revolvers/Shot Show/Smith & Wesson

Thinking about SHOT SHOW

Posted on by Caleb

Seems like a big theme this year is “little guns”.  Everyone is doing a compact carry gun of various types; Taurus is dropping polymer revolvers all over the place, S&W has their new Bodyguard guns, it’s crazy.  But it’s also a good thing, because it shows that the market is paying attention to concealed carry as a legitimate revenue stream.  I remember when the LCP first came out, and there were plenty of people that were skeptical of the selling power of the little .380 – I would say that it’s proven itself pretty solidly.

Out of everything at SHOT though, I’m most interested in Smith & Wesson’s Bodyguard lineup of pistols.  S&W is taking a big step by offering a pistol with an integrated laser, and their J-frame Bodyguard is a pretty radical departure from what we’re used to seeing in defensive revolvers.  I think it’s cool, mind you – but it remains to be seen how well it’s going to sell.  People that carry J-frames tend to be a little bit more traditional, so I’m very intersted to see how well this radical departure from the traditional pistol is going to do.

Tomorrow we’ll take a harder look at the new carry revolvers from Taurus, including words I thought I’d never type: the Polymer framed Judge.