self defense

Indianapolis Armed Citizen update

Posted on by Caleb

According to the IMPD, the shooting yesterday of an armed robber by a grocery store employee “appears to be justified”.

In further news that will no doubt surprise all of our loyal readers, the robber shot by the armed store employee was a model, upstanding citizen.

Barreto [the dead badguy – ed] has been in and out of jail for years. An Eyewitness News investigation shows his first arrest happened when he was only 14 years old. His arrests since then include armed robbery, auto theft and drug possession. Based on what happened at the supermarket Sunday, police now suspect him in other crimes.

Apparently, the gun was kept in the store for the store for the employees to use in case of emergency; the employee who shot the robber dropped him with a single shot.  Nice shooting.

1911

Gun Porn – Comic book style

Posted on by Caleb

My new gun, the King of Raceguns, looks pretty cool.  So cool that I spent a good chunk of the morning making it look like a panel from a comic book.  This is actually harder than clicking the “comic book” filter in Photoshop, because to get exactly the look I’m going for there are a few other steps involved.  Here are the final results.  Click all images for full size.

Cool.

1911

The King of Raceguns

Posted on by Caleb

In the mid to late 1980’s, if you were shooting IPSC at a high level, there was exactly one gun to have, which was a compensated .38 Super with adjustable sights.  Back in the day, Wilson Combat was turning out some of the best of the best of these guns – there was a time period when Wilson guns were used to win pretty much every major championship.  Robbie Leatham, Brian Enos, Jerry Barnhart, and a host of top level shooters used custom built Wilson guns to win a whole stack of titles.  In fact, one of the Wilson guns, the Accu-Comp LE, the L stood for Leatham and the E for Enos.

That’s why, when I was browsing Gunbroker the other day and breaking the 10th Commandment, I saw an auction for a pretty customized .38 Super.  I looked over it, and then noticed that the picture of the barrel said “Wilson .38 Super.”  Then I noticed other details.  The front of the triggerguard was checkered.  The top of the slide was lightly checkered.  The back of the slide was lined to match the Wichita sights on the gun.  Oh yeah, and the compensator was the Wilson dual port .38 Super compensator.  I would have paid the asking price of $550 for a non-customized .38 Super from Auto-Ordnance (the original manufacturer of the gun), so I immediately snatched this gun up.  Yesterday, my Christmas present showed up, smelling of old metal and oil.

It’s been shot, obviously, but the condition of it makes it appear to have spent the last several years sitting in a safe gathering dust, which is a shame.  This is a gun that demands to be taken to the range and used to murder bowling pins.  The grip is aggressively checkered, and I need to replace the grips on it, as the previous owner saw fit to cut a chunk out of the left grip panel to get his (presumably) larger than mine thumbs onto the magazine release that much faster.

The gun is in need of a good cleaning and oiling, some parts need to be scrubbed, but it shoots, and my gunsmith gave it a clean bill of health.  This gun looks great, and sits well in the hand – I need to get some .38 Super ammo and take it out.

Uncategorized

Knock it off

Posted on by Caleb

By now, I’m sure everyone online has heard about the HS Precision/Lon Horiuchi incident.  People are rightfully castigating H-S Precision over their non-apology, and some people are even taking it so far as to boycott Remington, one of HS Precision’s largest customers (which I don’t agree with).

However, today was the 2nd time this week that I’ve seen some guy on the internet talk about how we should also boycott FN Herstal, because their rifles use HS Precision stocks.  That would be all well and good except for the part where it’s completely wrong.  It took me all of 30 seconds to click over to their website, and then click on links to all of their bolt action rifles.  FN catalogs three different bolt action rifles, and here’s what I found.

Special Police Rifles: come standard with McMillan tactical rifle stocks

Precision Shooting Rifles: The action is bedded in a McMillan fiberglass stock to help maintain a reliable zero

FN Patrol Bolt Rifle: The specially designed FN/Hogue stock

That information is right there, on their website.  You know, where anyone could find it within about 30 seconds, just like I did.

I am fine with people calling for boycotts of companies that are customers of HS Precision, because even if I don’t agree with boycotting Remington, it’s your right.  However, I’m not fine with people calling for boycotts of companies that don’t have anything to do with HS Precision; and the last thing I want is for some guy to start an internet rumor which could tarnish or otherwise damage a company like FN Herstal, which has been nothing but a friend to gun owners.

Uncategorized

A Gun Nuts Christmas

Posted on by Caleb

Tonight’s Gun Nuts Radio promises to be a fun one.  At 9pm Eastern, we’re going to have our first ever Christmas Special.  Sure, we’ll be talking about gifts for the gun nut in your life, but we’re also going to share some of our favorite Christmas memories and holiday stories with you.

As always, the lines will be open to call in and share your Christmas story with us – the live call in number is (347) 539-5436; the show goes live tonight at 9pm Eastern time!  We’d love to have you join us tonight for “A Very Special Gun Nuts Christmas”.

self defense

Meanwhile, in reality-land

Posted on by Caleb

While our mayor is thinking about more gun control, an armed citizen uses his firearm to defend his life and the lives of others during an attempted robbery at a grocery store.

Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Sgt. Matthew Mount said the robber, brandishing a handgun, corralled all the customers into one part of the store. When the robber pointed the gun at a woman and her child, an employee shot him. The man was taken to Wishard Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

I will follow this story pretty closely for any updates and further information; however initially it sounds like it was a good shoot under Indiana state law, which specifies that deadly force can be used to protect your life or the lives of others.  Here’s the relevant state statute:

A person is justified in using reasonable force against another person to protect the person or a third person from what the person reasonably believes to be the imminent use of unlawful force. However, a person:

(1) is justified in using deadly force; and

(2) does not have a duty to retreat;

if the person reasonably believes that that force is necessary to prevent serious bodily injury to the person or a third person or the commission of a forcible felony. No person in this state shall be placed in legal jeopardy of any kind whatsoever for protecting the person or a third person by reasonable means necessary.

I would say that when an armed robber has cornered you and a group of people, and is now pointing his gun at a person, that’s grounds to “reasonbly believe” that force “is necessary”.

gun control

Garbage In, Garbage Out

Posted on by Caleb

I’m sure you’ve heard that phrase – it’s pretty common, and means “if you start with bad data, your end result will be bad as well.”  Our local paper, the Indy Star decides to take the garbage in-garbage out approach by using Mayors Against Illegal Gun’s already debunked study to ask for more gun control in Indiana.  Thankfully for you, the writer of said op-ed was kind enough to condense their arguments to five key “more gun control requests”, which I’ve copied, translated from PSH-speak, and refuted.  My comments in italics.

Background checks at gun shows. – We have this.  Federally licensed dealers are required by law to run a background check whenever they transfer a gun.  And the last time I went to the Indy 1500, I didn’t see an army of private sellers trading Uzis, so you know, maybe a little research is in order next time.

Purchase permits. – So I guess the fact that I passed a federal background check to buy my gun wasn’t enough?  Or that to transport my gun from my house to the shooting range I had to pass a local, a state, and then another federal background check?  I guess when you ask for “purchase permits”, what you really mean is “the ability to keep those scary minorities from owning guns.”

Reporting of lost or stolen guns. – Yes, by all means, let’s make it crime to not report the theft of your property to the police.  That way, if my house is burgled while I’m on vacation, and I don’t report it in 24 hours, I’m an instant felon, even though I didn’t know about it!  THIS PLAN IS FOOLPROOF.

Allowance for local control.  – Yeah, because who needs that silly “state preemption law” anyway.  It’d be way easier on the law abiding citizens of this state of our cities were a messy patchwork of varying gun control laws.  It would neat to be perfectly legal in Hamilton County, then drive to Marion County to see a show and be breaking the law! We could make a game of it – call it “Guess the Gun Law”.

State inspections of gun shops. – Because gun shops being subject to federal inspections which audit down to individual letters of words isn’t enough scrutiny, we need another way to ramrod those pesky merchants of death out of business!

It’s nice to see that the Indy Star editorial board hasn’t bothered to actually think though these issues.  It makes my job of pointing out the facts and truth behind their arguments that much easier when all they’re doing is repeating the same old, same old.

self defense

Practice

Posted on by Caleb

Practice does not make you perfect.  Practice makes you better.  Bowling Pins, steel plates, IDPA, USPSA – if you carry a gun for self-defense, find a venue that forces you to shoot that gun, to reload that gun, to clear jams on that gun (if it’s not “perfect”); and to do it all under pressure.

It’s called “Stress Inoculation“, and it works.