gun control/sports

Sorry Colin

Posted on by Caleb

I am a sports fan, and as such I listen to sports talk radio, usually ESPN radio. Here in Indianastan, our local ESPN affiliate is AM 1070 The Fan. The 1pm-3pm block is when they air The Herd with Colin Cowherd, which is one of my favorite sports radio shows.

Unfortunately, yesterday I was listening to the show around 1:30, and I had the misfortune of listening to some serious topic drift.  Colin was talking about a story from New York where a stuffed moose head had injured a restaurant patron, and quite expectedly the conversation drifted into hunting/trophy mounting and related topics.  All well and good until the point where all of a sudden, they’re talking about gun control.  I kid you not, Colin then up and says “New York’s murder rate has fallen because Mayor Bloomberg is tough on guns”.  That’s when I started yelling at my radio.

Now, I don’t have the national audience that ESPN Radio has, I don’t have the pull that Colin Cowherd has…but I do have something that they don’t, which is the facts.  I’m not actually mad at Colin, because he doesn’t know any better.  He wasn’t making his statement out of malice, but rather out of ignorance.  Unfortunately, he’s bought into the PR spin put on by the Bloomberg Machine about “effective gun laws”.  For the sake of argument, let’s take a look at how “effective” New York’s gun laws really are.

In 2009 year to date, New York City with it’s incredibly restrictive gun laws marked their fewest murders ever, coming in at 461 homicides so far.  Wow, that seems great, right?  On the surface, it is – although you can’t really attribute it to gun laws, because at the same time, New York has instituted much more effective and pro-active policing policies, put more cops on the streets, and generally been “tougher” on crime.  Additionally, crime numbers nationwide have been generally in decline, which just makes New York part of the larger overal trend.

The final nail in the coffin of “the gun laws are working” is you have to look at NYC’s total violent crime figures.  Sure, murders are on the decline, but violent crime in New York is still among the highest in the nation, albiet lagging behind Washington, DC.

Of course, all of my readers knew this already.  The point I’m trying to make is that if you’re a sports broadcaster, Colin Cowherd of ESPN, you should probably stick to sports, and leave the gun politics to the professionals.  You’re just out of your depth when the conversation isn’t about a game.

revolvers/USPSA

Dear USPSA

Posted on by Caleb

I would love to see some changes made to USPSA formats for 2010.  While there are many things I’d like to see changed, there is none greater than fixing the revolver division.

Right now, there is no reason whatsoever to limit Revolver division to 6 rounds in the gun.  What I’d like to see would be a simple rule change that would make Revolver division mirror Single Stack in terms of ammo capacity.  In Single Stack, if you’re shooting Major power factor, you’re limited to a maximum of 8 rounds in the magazine, but if you’re shooting Minor PF you can have up to 10 rounds in the mag.  For Revolver division, you could change the rule so that if you’re shooting Major PF, you’re limited to 6 round revolvers, such as the S&W 610 or 625, but if you shoot Minor PF, you could be allowed to use 7 and 8 shot revolvers such as the S&W 627 (8-shot) or the Taurus 66 (7-shot, cut for moonclips of course).

I think that making this kind of divisional change would really enhance the competition in the Revolver division, as the strategy of Minor vs. Major would enter in, as well as how to best count your rounds before your reload.

I’d like to see a similar change for IDPA, but I’m not quite as sure how we’d go about enacting it, since they break moonclip and speedloader revolvers into two different divisions.  Thoughts on that are welcome in the comments.

Things that are rad

New season of Shooting Gallery!

Posted on by Caleb

Tonight is going to be a pretty awesome night, actually.  If you get the Outdoor Life Channel, their “Wednesday Night at the Range” lineup is really kicking itself into gear tonight with the first episode of Season 10 of Shooting Gallery, as well as the premier of SWAT TV, which is hosted by our friend Rob Pincus.  I’m really excited about both of these shows, actually.  Season 10 of Shooting Gallery promises to bring all the stuff you’ve come to enjoy about Shooting Gallery, as well as new guests, new topics, and of course guns, guns, GUNS!

So if you get the Outdoor Channel, make sure to set your DVRs, get out your VHS, and check out Wednesday Night at the Range.  It’s not just Shooting Gallery or SWAT TV, but a whole lineup of great shows including The Best Defense, Cowboys, and ShootingUSA.

Uncategorized

Gun Nuts last night: 2009 Recap

Posted on by Caleb

A little bit of pedantry prior to last night’s show recap: we are not starting a new decade in 2010.  The new decade starts in 2011.  Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, on to the show recap!  If you missed the show, you can of course listen to the archived version here.  It started strong and stayed strong, as Breda and I revisted our favorite shows of 2009, including such great shows as the interview with Rob Pincus, the show with Larry Correia, or both of the shows with Julie Golob.  There were so many great moments in 2009 that it’s hard to narrow it down to just one or two that were our favorites.  To listen to Breda and I list our best and worst shows of ’09, click here for the episode or click for the .mp3 copy.

After talking about shows, we opened up the lines for some great callers to talk about our best and worst moments in politics from 2009, which surprisingly is almost over.  It just seems like yesterday that we crowned our Emperor God-King Obama, and I’ve still yet to receive my magical unicorn with saddlebags full of fresh cash.  The callers were great, as everyone had a different take on what has been bad and good about 2009 in the realm of politics.  While many things have been just wretched, we’ve also made some great gains in the 2nd Amendment front, as we continue to watch the Brady Campaign spiral into utter irrelevancy.

As usual, the show is available for download on iTunes as well, just click the handy button: 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 and you can download the entire archive! We have been so privileged and blessed to be able to bring this show to you each week. After putting our first full year under our belts, I can’t wait to see what 2010 is going to bring us in terms of new shows, new guests, and some old friends. For everyone that’s taken time to tune in, thank you so much. We’ll see you on Tuesday nights in 2010 at 9pm Eastern time! Tell a friend!

self defense

Not a bad idea

Posted on by Caleb

My older brother is looking to purchase his first defensive handgun.  While he seems hell bent on ignoring my advice of “just buy a Glock 19 and a bunch of mags”, one of the things that I do recommend for people like my brother is a good “quick access” gun safe.  See, my brother has kids – kids that are at that age where they’re just like little velociraptors.  They’re learning to open doors, and systematically attacking the fences to test for weaknesses.  Needless to say, you need a place to lock those guns up.

Now, in order to keep the FTC happy, I should tell you that I’ve never received a dime from GunVault, the people whose safe I recommend.  I just think it’s a good, solid design with the right features at a reasonable price point.  The nice thing about the “quick access” safes is that if they’re coupled with a good alarm system, it’s not really that much slower than opening up a drawer to get at your HD handgun.

I do believe that if you have kids in the house you need to secure your firearms in some way or another, especially if you keep a gun for home defense.  GunVault isn’t the only company that makes a quick access safe, so do your homework and shop around.  Maybe the solution for you isn’t a safe, but rather to store the gun with the magazine out.  While I’m generally opposed to storing home defense guns in such a way that they don’t go “bang” right away, there is a time in a child’s life where they’re not old enough to understand firearms safety yet, but have the velociraptor-esque skills to manipulate a firearm.

Uncategorized

Gander Mountain updates online gun sales

Posted on by Caleb

Back in June, I noted that Gander Mountain now allows you to purchase firearms online by letting you go to their online firearms site and order whatever guns are available.  At the time, guns ordered via Gander Mtn had to be shipped to your closest Gander Mountain store, which presented a problem for shooters looking to take advantage of the deal who didn’t have a Goose Hill close enough to them.

That’s changed now, as Gander Mountain will now ship a firearm ordered from Gander Online to your friendly neighborhood FFL dealer!  From their website:

You may reside in a state where there is no Gander Mountain store. If so, there’s no need to worry. The second way to receive an online-purchased firearm is to use a local Federal Firearms Licensed Dealer, known as an FFL dealer. The local FFL dealer receives the firearm; you complete the needed government paper work to satisfy all Federal, State, and local laws concerning the transfer of firearms with that local dealer; and they transfer the firearm into your possession.

Gander Mountain can help you find a local FFL dealer willing to provide this firearm transfer service. Simply call our Sales Associates at 1-888-5GANDER (1-888-542-6337), and they will gladly assist you. Please be aware that these dealers, at their discretion, may charge a transfer fee. If you already have a local dealer that you have previously used for firearms transfers, we will be happy to utilize them. Please work with our Sales Associates to get them set up in our system. After the selected FFL dealer receives your firearm, you will be notified that the firearm has arrived.

The one downside to this is that Gander Mountain doesn’t always have the best prices on guns – you can often find better deals on some guns at your local gun shop. Where this turns into a great service (and why I support it wholeheartedly) is because it gives you access to more guns than your local dealer may have in stock. With services like this, or Davidson’s Gallery of Guns Genie, it allows the end users, the shooters, to have much more direct access over the guns we buy. Instead of going to the store and hoping that they have the particular tactiblaster that you’re looking for, you can hop online, order the gun, and have it shipped to Gander Mountain or your local FFL dealer. What could be better?

gun control

MAIG's gun ban blueprint

Posted on by Caleb

Mayors Against Illegal Guns has always claimed that they’re not for banning guns, right?  Thanks to Sebastian and Chuck Michel of CalGuns, we can see out in the open what a lie that is.  Here’s a copy of MAIG’s blueprint for ruining the lives of law abiding gun owners.  Like Sebastian says, this is exactly why we should take MAIG very seriously.  Unlike the Brady Campaign, MAIG is smart, well funded, and very savvy on how to manipulate current gun laws in the country to their advantage.

Click the link at Sebastian’s, and see for yourself what MAIG is up.  Then find out if your mayor is a member of MAIG, and if they are ask them why exactly they’re supporting a group that seeks to infringe upon the rights of law abiding citizens to keep and bear arms.

Uncategorized

Gun Nuts tonight: End of the year!

Posted on by Caleb

That’s right, tonight’s Gun Nuts Radio is our last show of 2009 (but not the last show of the decade, that would be in December of 2010).  It’s going to be a lot of fun, as I’ve imposed a two-drink minimum on myself and Breda prior to the show’s beginning, so as we go and review our best moments, our Christmas hauls, crotch-bombs, and other awesome topics, we’ll also be just a wee bit looser than normal.

But we don’t want to hog all the fun tonight at 9pm Eastern time at www.blogtalkradio.com/gunnuts, we want you to join us by calling in at 347-539-5436!  Shows like this are all about the callers, so please join us tonight to tell us what your favorite moments from Gun Nuts Radio in 2009 were.  We’d love to hear from you about your favorite parts of the show.

We’re also going to take a look forward at 2010; we’re going to have more industry guest, bigger shows, awesome promos, and we’ve finally nailed down a date for the HAVA Charity Auction, which will allow listeners from Gun Nuts to bid on top of the line products from Crimson Trace, Leupold, DPMS, Ruger, and many more to support an excellent charity organization!

Join us live tonight at 9pm Eastern Time at www.blogtalkradio.com/gunnuts – this is where the fun is going to be!

ammo/self defense

Gear Queer

Posted on by Caleb

You know, that title is going to bring some weird google searches…but I digress.  Tam asks if you’ve ever seen someone flash their gear belt at a restaurant.  So the question is, have you ever seen someone’s spare mag carrier in a setting other than the range or a match?

Like Tam, I’ll confess to not carrying spare ammo as often as I should – when I’m carrying a full size pistol, I usually am also carrying the famous Jetfire pocket gun instead of a spare mag.  If something happens to gun number one (or when it runs out of ammo after six shots) I’m not going to try and fumble a speedloader into it, I’m just going for the pocket rocket as a backup.

To the original question though, I have never in my life seen someone’s ammo carriers in a restaurant, unless they were open carrying, in which case I’ve also seen their pistol as well.  The whole “people want to flash their gear at restaurants” line doesn’t really hold water with me, as I’ve been to a lot of restaurants and have yet to see someone expose their bat-belt at the table.