editorial

The Amazon Drones and gun nuts

Posted on by Caleb

Apparently, the survalist/prepper/threeper/SNBI/idiot section of the gunternet is losing their mind over the currently imaginary Amazon drones, because Big Brother/Illuminati or whatever. Then there are the people making jokes about how they’re going to shoot the drones down and take the packages, because apparently it’s funny to make jokes about destroying private property and stealing people’s stuff. Okay then.

We shall start this post by addressing the second group first: stop joking about shooting down Amazon drones, assholes. Seriously, think about what you’re saying for just half a second. What you’re saying is that you’d vandalize someone else’s property and steal someone else’s stuff because why, it’s fun? Way to play exactly into the negative stereotype of trigger happy white trash that the Brady Campaign wants to portray you as. Seriously, if you’re joking about shooting down Amazon drones and stealing their packages, you’re being an assclown and you should stop.

Annual Threeper convention
Annual Threeper convention

Now to address the group pictured above at their annual convention, the Threepers/SNBI guys. What exactly is so scary about Amazon using little flying robots to deliver packagages? How is that less scary than a stranger in a truck full of god knows what just showing up at your front door? Honestly, listen to yourselves. This is why no one takes you seriously.

Finally, I’d like to address Amazon. Most of us gun nuts like you guys just fine. I’m sorry that some people are jerks. I for one would totally love to have a little flying robot drop off packages of coffee or Safariland Speedloaders to my front door. That would be totally cool, and would be part of the whole “living in the future” thing that I’ve rather come to enjoy. Please make this happen. Also, if you could work on the flying cars and the hoverboards I was promised, that would be rad.

editorial

Gun Movie Throwdown Round 1

Posted on by Caleb

Editor’s Note: I bet you thought we’d forgotten about this.

Here we go with the first round of the Gun Movie Throwdown! In today’s action, the 1 seeds from across each bracket will be taking on the number 8 seeds. Here we go with the matchups, first out of the gate is the War/Military bracket.

War/Military
Saving Private Ryan (1) vs. Full Metal Jacket (8)

When Saving Private Ryan came out, it changed the game for war movies. It had gritty, realistic action to the point that actual combat vets of Normandy decried the film as too realistic. The guns are great, with M1 Garands pinging their way across France in search of a lost member of the Airborne.

Full Metal Jacket is largely revered for the first half of the movie – the boot camp scenes with Gunnery Sergeant Hartman training the boots, culminating in the weird, disjointed bathroom murder suicide. The film then shifts gears to Vietnam, and just bogs down. Despite featuring a young Hero of Canton wielding an M60, the second half of the film ins’t any good.

In no surprise, Saving Private Ryan takes this one in a walk-over. It’s a better movie, it has better gunhandling, cooler guns, and is a more convincing and interesting portrayal of combat.

Our next brack is Period/Western, with Zulu in the Number 1 seed taking on scrappy underdog Quigley Down Under.

Period/Western
Zulu (1) vs. Quigley Down Under (8)

Zulu is regarded as one of the greatest movies of all time. Depicting the Battle of Rourke’s Drift, where 150 British soldiers defended their position against an onslaught of Zulu warriors. The movie has great guns if you’re a fan of the weapons of British Empire, but does run a little long, clocking in at 2 hours and 20 minutes. That’s a long time, and unless you’re a fan of the era, the movie can drag a bit.

Our scrappy underdog is Quigley Down Under, starring Tom Selleck, his mustache, a beautiful Sharps rifle, and Alan Rickman as the villain. If you ever meet a gun person who doesn’t like this movie, you should probably just kick them in the junk and walk away. The only downside to this movie is it was made during the inexplicable period of American history where we allowed Laura San Giacomo to be famous. Her annoying character adds nothing to the film, and everyone agrees that the best scenes in the movie are the ones without her. Still, it’s one of the great gun movies, and westerns of all time.

In a massive upset, Quigley Down Under defeats Zulu because Magnum, P.I. shoots Professor Snape in the chest.

Our next bracket is Action/Sci-Fi.

Action/Sci-Fi
Terminator 2 (1) vs. Last Man Standing (8)

Terminator 2 is considered one of the greatest sci-fi movies of all time. It was a massive commercial success, and the some of the catch-phrases are still with us today, albeit primarily used ironically by hipster scum. The guns of T2 are mostly mundane, but the 1887 Winchester shotgun, sawed-off with a big loop for swing cocking could carry the film on its own. There’s also a great assortment of 1911s, the classic Beretta, and some sweet mini-gun action as well.

Last Man Standing is a Bruce Willis action vehicle, which is a straight rip of Clint Eastwood’s Fistful of Dollars. Of course, Fistful of Dollars is basically a rip-off of Yojimbo, but that’s not the point. Last Man Standing is about as straightforward Hollywood shoot ’em up as possible, with some great action sequences of Bruce Willis dual-wielding 1911s. There are a ton of great period guns from the 1930s, Colt Official Polices and Hand Ejectors galore.

In the end, Last Man Standing is a fun action piece, but it’s not good enough to beat T2. Terminator 2 wins in a close decision.

Thriller/Drama
Heat (1) vs. Dirty Harry (8)

For this one, no long explanation is needed. Dirty Harry wins in an upset for one simple, shining reason. “I know what you’re thinking, punk. You’re thinking “did he fire six shots or only five?” Now to tell you the truth I forgot myself in all this excitement. But being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world and will blow you head clean off, you’ve gotta ask yourself a question: “Do I feel lucky?” Well, do ya, punk?”

Dirty Harry wins because Clint Eastwood and a .44 Magnum is better than all the yelling Al Pacino in the world.

Here are the brackets going into next week, with the 2-7 matchups.

War/Military

1. Saving Private Ryan
2. Black Hawk Down
3. The Dirty Dozen
4. Enemy at the Gates
5. Red Dawn (original)
6. Act of Valor
7. The Wild Geese
8. Full Metal Jacket

Western/Period

1. Zulu
2. Last of the Mohicans
3. Shane
4. Open Range
5. A Fistful of Dollars
6. 3:10 to Yuma (Christian Bale)
7. The Wild Bunch
8. Quigley Down Under

Action/Sci-Fi

1. Terminator 2
2. The Expendables
3. Bad Boys 2
4. Die Hard
5. The Matrix
6. Tremors
7. Lethal Weapon
8. Last Man Standing

Thriller/Drama

1. Heat
2. Collateral
3. The Kingdom
4. Ronin
5. Hard Boiled
6. Way of the Gun
7. The Professional
8. Dirty Harry

shenanigans

Epic Tactical Derp

Posted on by Caleb

I posted this video yesterday on my fan page, but it’s so amazing I wanted to repost it today for my readers. I present to you, Marshal Training Academy.

My favorite bits from the video are the gangsta-style retention shooting and when the guy jams a loaded gun down the front of his pants. However, the very best moment in the video is when the three dudes all riverdance their slides back into batter in a beautiful sequence. Next stop, Broadway!

But seriously people, just use the slide release. It’s right there.

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self defense

Criminal Case Study – Bad Guys Have Experience

Posted on by Tim

Continuing to try and learn all we can from the unfortunate experience of Justin Schneiders as discussed in his interview with Ballistic Radio, let’s look at something else this reveals about the nature of the bad guys who are most likely to put us into the position of pulling the trigger: Namely, experience.

The man who tried to murder Justin wasn’t a noob. As Justin mentioned in the interview, the guy ended up in Justin’s path because a commissary worker in the prison where the guy was serving a sentence on previous convictions set Justin and his friends up as targets. He already had a significant rap sheet. Justin, like most honest people out there, had very little experience with the criminal element. The implications of this bad guy’s experience advantage over an honest, decent man like Justin are massive. The bad guy approaches Justin and his friends and as soon as he’s close immediately whips out a gun. In his Ballistic Radio interview, Justin actually mentions that at first he thought it was a joke because some of his friends were pranksters.

In any study of warfare you repeatedly encounter the advantages that speed and violence of action carry with them. From Julius Ceasar marching against Pompey’s disarrayed forces to the Wermacht rolling through a Europe that was unprepared for the speed and brutality of the assault, military commanders have learned that a forceful, fast, concentrated attack against an unsuspecting enemy will often leave the enemy in total disarray and allow a smaller and weaker force to completely route a much larger and better supplied force. Your typical street criminal probably hasn’t spent much time studying Basque guerilla tactics against the forces of Charlamagne at Roncevaux Pass, but one need not have Patton’s schooling in ancient warfare to learn the advantages of speed and violence of action.

The Knockout Game has been bubbling up in the news lately, but contrary to what the Manhattanites on the news may think it’s not a new phenomenon. Punching some unsuspecting person’s lights out on the street for giggles has been around for a long time. Generally it doesn’t take very long for your average lifestyle criminal to realize that his chances of success are greatly increased if he can get close, act fast, and get violent before his intended victim has a chance to figure out what’s going on. He picks that up early in life and early in his working career as a criminal or by hanging out with the kind of guys who perpetrate acts of violence like the knockout game.

The worst offenders in our society, the sort of individuals the honest law abiding person is most likely to have to actually shoot, is a career criminal. Just like the man who tried to murder Justin, they have a pretty extensive rap sheet and that’s only the crimes they were actually convicted of. One of the dirty little secrets of our criminal justice system is that bad guys only get hassled by the police on a relatively small percentage of their criminal acts. In Ohio recently the Attorney General Mike DeWine commissioned a study finding, among other things, that solid charges against bad guys often never reach a courtroom for disposition. Ask any police officer who works the street about this and they can explain it pretty easily. To convict someone you need evidence, and often evidence is in short supply or it’s weak. Even if the evidence is there, getting someone to plead to a lesser charge that’s a sure bet will often appear more attractive to a prosecutor’s office than risking the uncertainties of a trial. Our criminal justice system runs primarily on confessions and plea bargains, which can see gun charges with mandatory federal sentences waived and serious crimes like aggravated assault or attempted murder negotiated down to lower convictions that don’t carry as much time. The end result is that guys like the one who tried to murder Justin get more chances to get out of jail and invariably attack someone else.

The same Ohio study found that less than 1% of Ohio’s population had been convicted of three violent felonies, but that small group of people (significantly less than 1% of the population) was responsible for more than a third of all violent crime convictions. Note those are just the convictions and don’t factor in reduced charges or crimes that were never solved due to lack of evidence, and it only accounts for the bad guys who caught three felony convictions. If we dropped it down to one previous violent felony conviction I’d wager we could account for probably two thirds of the violent crimes in Ohio if not significantly more. Other studies have found similar results, indicating that a very small percentage of criminal actors are responsible for a sizeable majority of violent crimes. Even in the United Kingdom research has shown that the sizeable majority of criminal acts are perpetrated by repeat offenders.

What does that mean to the average law abiding citizen? Simply this: If there’s a dude pointing a gun at you, it’s a fair bet that you aren’t his first victim. He has more experience with violence than you do, and as a serial transgressor against society’s rules he knows very well how to use those rules against you. You’ve been raised all your life to be polite and not judge people based on appearance. He knows this. That’s why he’s not going to approach you like a rabid junkyard dog from 50 yards away. He’s going to look normal or at least normal enough that your civilized brain which has been taught a bunch of claptrap about not judging others is going to overrule that primeval instinct in your brain that gives you a vague sense of discomfort and nervousness as he approaches. He knows you’ll probably be indecisive enough to let him get close, and once he’s close that’s when he’s going to stick the gun in your face.

In his interview with Ballistic Radio, Justin noted that the bad guy had obvious experience. He moved efficiently and effectively and kept himself in position to keep an eye on everyone at the same time. The bad guy planned the attack, sprung the trap without hesitation, and efficiently managed his victims to get them out of public view and to keep them in a position of disadvantage.

Since the bad guy is probably going to have a significant experience advantage, we’d better seek out training that helps us minimize that gap.

Uncategorized

Condition White

Posted on by Shelley

This morning, I went to get coffee, and I was most definitely in what the uber-tactical world would call “condition white.” I was also just in condition white, quite literally. It’s been snowing all night and on into the morning here in Sioux Falls, SD. Even after almost a year here in South Dakota I’m not used to how to deal with the different weather, and that includes keeping myself alert when snow is blowing directly into my face.Continue reading →

shooting

Outshooting your gun

Posted on by Caleb

Here’s a phrase I’ve never understood: “I can outshoot my gun.” To me, that phrase means that you can shoot as good or better groups than the gun is capable of producing mechanically with all shooter variables eliminated. Or maybe it means that Gun X shoots 4 inch groups mechanically, but you can shoot 2 inch groups freestyle with Gun Y. I’m not really sure. I’ve always went with the first definition, which is why it doesn’t make sense.

25 yard group no rest

I can shoot pretty decent groups; but I’ve never been able to shoot a better group freestyle than I can shoot from a proper sandbag rest or from a mechanical rest like a Ransom. I just can’t, and as such I don’t think I’d ever be able to say that I can “outshoot my gun.” Now, I can shoot some guns far more accurately than others; no matter how hard I tried I could never get better than 4 inch groups out of my M&P40 Pro Series. But my Gen4 Glock 21 would shoot 2.5 inches all day long. Does that mean I could outshoot the M&P40?

The truth is, I don’t have a good answer to these questions, because I don’t understand the phrase to begin with. Some guns are more accurate than others. Some guns are more shootable than others. Some guns hit that sweet butter-zone of accurate and shootable, and when put in the hands of a good shooter can produce some really amazing groups. My Sig P226 Elite SAO or my Ruger Security Six come to mind in that category.

So what does “outshooting your gun” mean to you?

gun stuff

A Gun Girl plays “Arm Candy”

Posted on by Gabby

20131204-112005.jpgIt’s holiday party season again and earlier this week I played “arm candy” at my boyfriend’s office gathering. He works at a large manufacturing plant deep in the north Georgia mountains, so it seemed likely that my New York City girl ways would fit right in. Well, maybe I should have had a back up plan, but I figured that if all else failed, I’d probably have firearms appreciation in common with this crowd.
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