gun control

We are the World

Posted on by Caleb

It’s rare that I have a moment that makes me want to join hands with my fellow gun owners and hunters and sing “We are the World” or Kumbayah; but stuff like this link from DooT really does it.

Bring heavy and intermediate sniper rifles under the control of the National Firearms Act.

That’s one of the stated goals of the Joyce Foundation, one of the anti-gun groups that funds the VPC.  If you’re not familiar with the NFA, it would mean that you’d have to pay a $200 transfer fee on top of the purchase price of any gun you buy that classifies as NFA.  Now, when the Joyce Foundation says “sniper rifles”, what they really mean is “all rifles other than .22s”.  Check out the link I pulled above for more information.

gun control

Gun Hate Crimes

Posted on by Caleb

Florida legislators have proposed a law which really to me seems as foolish as a lot of the hate crime laws.  As you may know, I feel like it’s a poor idea to make it more illegal to hit someone because he’s black/gay/whatever than it is to just hit someone because you want their wallet.  To me, both actions are wrong, because they involve violating a person; and the motive is immaterial.

In a similar line, the legislature in Florida has proposed a law to make it “illegaler” (note – Uncleism) to use an “assault weapon” in the commission of a crime.

Under the proposed bills, a person using a semiautomatic or automatic weapon for a crime would face a first-degree felony with a minimum sentence of 25 years in prison. If the crime results in a death or serious injury, the person would face a mandatory life sentence.

The bills would expand Florida’s 10-20-life law, which provides for minimum mandatory sentences of 10 years for committing a crime with a firearm and 20 years if the weapon is discharged. If that results in injury or death, the minimum penalty is 25 years, and the maximum is life.

Alright, so let’s think about that for a minute.  If you’re Johnny Stickup, and you knock over the 7-11 and kill the cashier with a cheap revolver, you might only get 25 years.  If you commit THE SAME CRIME with a cheap Lorcin semi-automatic, you automatically go to jail for life.

Now, I don’t want people to think that I’m opposed to punishing criminals, because I think that if you commit a violent crime then you deserve to get locked up or executed.  But I’m opposed to making actions more illegal based on the inanimate objects that were used during the crime.  One of the obvious (at least to me) affects of this is that it helps to reinforce the incorrect impression that “assault weapons” are somehow more dangerous than “non-assault weapons”.  My other objection to laws like this is that it cheapens human life.  Think about it; by saying that someone’s life is worth more or less prison time based entirely on the type of firearm with which they were murdered seems wrong.  “Well Mrs. Smith, your husband was killed with a revolver, so his killer will get 25 years.  It’s too bad the murderer didn’t use a Lorcin, then he would have gotten life.”  It’s almost disgusting.

For my Florida readers, please contact your legislators and express your opposition to this legislation.  It’s foolish posturing on the part of government officials in attempt to demonize an entire class of firearms.

Shot Show

SHOT Thought

Posted on by Caleb

I wanted to close out my first SHOT Show with some random musings I had, none of which were really worth their own post though.

The show is HUGE. When I was young, I walked around the circumference of Gibraltar, pretty much just to say I walked around a country. It took me less time to do that than it did to navigate the entirety of the SHOT Show.

You know how we’ve been hearing from the Joyce Foundation and other anti-gunnies that the hunting and shooting culture in America is dying out? If that’s true, than how come this year’s SHOT Show was by far the largest in the 30 year history of SHOT?

The show, held Feb. 2-5 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, comprised 715,000 square feet of exhibit space, a gain of nearly 60,000 over last year, with 1,950 exhibiting companies, up from last year’s 1,870.

With a total registered attendance of 58,769, the show eclipsed last year’s attendance record of 42,216. The show attracted 30,686 buyers, 1,725 members of the press, 25,854 exhibiting personnel and 504 guests.

Yes, we’re a dying industry and culture, which is totally demonstrated by the literally hundreds of new products and thousands of new people at the Show.

The Cold Steel booth was both awesome and hilarious.  It was awesome because it was a veritable cornucopia of edged weapons, and hilarious because they had this promotional DVD running of a bunch of employees whacking the everloving hell out of all kinds of rattan mats, cuts of meat, and rubber gloves with Cold Steel’s various products.  I did get a copy of the DVD so I can watch the whole thing.

The last thing I wanted to touch on was Bitter’s post yesterday about opening SHOT up to NRA Membership.  She’s opposed to it, and so am I, for pretty much the same reason.  To explain, I’d like to point out an example from another industry, the E3 show in the video game industry.  E3 started as media/trade only show; from it’s founding up through 2006 it just grew and grew, until it got to the point where conducting business because difficult if not impossible due to the large number of non-industry attendees at the show.  In ’07, they made the decision to change E3 to an invite only conference and scale it down to the point where people there to do business could do that.

In the gun industry, we have the NRA Convention to unveil products to the general public and NRA Members; and by leaving SHOT for business only, it ensures that the NRA Convention will be packed each year with new products and cool goodies to fondle.

Other SHOT Thoughts, politics are very much on the mind of everyone in the industry.  I got into more than a few conversations about what a Clinton-Obama presidency would do for our gun rights, and the general consensus was “very bad things”.  Like I said, I’m going to keep beating the “buy your black rifles now” drum, because I worry that we won’t be able to in the next couple of years.  There was also a lot of talk about whether or not we should vote for McCain when he gets the nomination (which he appears to be a lock for now); my thoughts on that are that he is better than Hillary/Obama, and that’s the bottom line there.

SHOT was great; can’t wait for ’09!

handguns/Shot Show

SHOT Spotlight: Boberg XR9

Posted on by Caleb

Obviously, one of the bigger stories to come out of this year’s SHOT Show is the Ruger LCP, but it wasn’t alone in the line of new compact carry guns.  Easily the most innovative new pistol I saw is the Boberg XR9, from Boberg Engineering.  Right now, the XR9 is in prototype phase, the only functioning model is the one at SHOT.  What makes the Boberg XR9 unique is the cartridge feeding system, the best way to explain is by showing you.  Check out the cross-section picture below.

Look a little different?  Something look different from your average semi-auto pistol?  If it’s not quite clear, look at the cut-away video linked here.  It took me a couple of runs to finally figure out exactly what was different about it, and then suddenly it hit me that the thing feeds from the rear.

That’s what different about the XR9; is that by using the rear-feeding mechanism and by locating the magazine under the barrel, the XR9 can shoehorn a 4 inch barrel in a package smaller than a sub-compact Glock.  For less size than a 9mm Glock, you get an extra inch of barrel and the incumbent performance of the extra inch.

Because of the feeding mechanism, the magazine also loads a little differently.  Instead of loading by putting rounds back end first into the front of the magazine, you load the XR9’s magazines by putting the rounds nose first into the back of the magazine.  So when the slide cycles, it pulls the round out of the rear of the magazine, and then forward into the barrel.

We’ve also got live video of the XR9’s action being hand cycled (Quicktime required).  I spoke with Arne Boberg, the president of Boberg Engineering about the pistol, and he said that he was looking for a way to get more performance out of a pocket pistol, and was inspired by the action on some of the heavy machine gun designs.  According to Arne, they hope to be releasing the XR9 to the market in six months.

It’s definitely an innovative design, and it bears further investigation.  I like new concepts, and I hope the XR9 is one that we end up seeing in production.  The reverse feeding mechanism does allow you to get more barrel into an extremely compact package which does allow to deliver more terminal performance from the cartridge.  Hopefully the XR9 will be one of those innovative ideas that does make it to the market.

rifles/Shot Show

SHOT Spotlight: Russian American Armory

Posted on by Caleb

I saved my coverage of the Russian American Armory Company for last, because I had to have some love for my Hoosiers.  Based out of Scottsburg, which is about an hour and a half south of me, RAAC is now the US distributor of the extremely popular line of Saiga rifles and shotguns.

Those top rifles aren’t stock Saiga’s, however.  They’re custom jobs done by Marc Krebs who is pretty much the guy to do custom work on an AK47 pattern rifle.  Obviously, they had a load of Saiga rifles and shotguns on hand, as well as the solution to one of the problems with the Saiga rifles.  Any owner of the Saiga rifles knows that you can’t get standard AK mags to work in them without some monkey-work.  Surefire Gun Mags out of Tennessee is making a line of polymer magazines for the Saiga rifles, from .308, .223, and 7.62 Ruski.  These are quality, high capacity magazines that should take a licking and keep on ticket.  They are also working on hi-caps for the Saiga shotguns, but those are still in development, but might hit some time this year.

I don’t own a Saiga, but I know a lot of folks who do and they love theirs.  With RAAC importing the rifles, and Surefire Gun Mags making quality magazines that fit without modification is an awesome development.  I’m going to keep beating this drum, but with the potential of an anti-gun presidency and Congress you need to buy a semi-automatic rifle right now.  I like the Saiga because it represents the opportunity to get a black rifle on a budget.

Shot Show

SHOT Show Day 4

Posted on by Caleb

I have to say, this has been one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. It’s my hope to continue this next year in 2009 at SHOT in Orlando. Like I said in today’s audio, I got to do a lot of things I’ve always wanted to do as well as meet some people that I’ve always wanted to meet. But don’t worry, today is not all nostalgia talk, because I still got some good content for you guys.

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I stopped by the the MSAR Inc booth in the Gold Hall to check out their bullpup rifles. It’s basically a Steyr AUG clone, but manufactured in the US, isn’t covered in tac-rails, and can be had in 6.8 Remington SPC.

As you can see from the pictures, they also make an SBR version (that’s the one the guy is holding), and a “dedicated marksman” version, although that’s not the name for it. What I didn’t get pictures of was the carbine version that accepts Glock magazines. You know I’m a big big fan of pistol caliber carbines, and being able to accept the mags from your carry pistol is a double bonus.

Extreme Shock Ammo is going to be producing a run of the 4.6x30mm ammo, which is the round that the H&K MP7 chambers. Extreme Shock quotes 2500 fps on the round, and 9+ inches of penetration in ballistic medium, as the round “literally explodes into thousands of tiny fragments”; basically think of it as micro caliber Glaser round. But don’t worry, you won’t get it because HK won’t be selling the MP7 to civilians any time soon.

Another neat stop was at Short Rifle Stock Systems Inc, a company which makes a conversion for the M14/M1A rifles to convert it into a bullpup system. According to the owner, Richard Cabral, the entire conversion from standard to bullpup takes less than fifteen minutes, and I can say that it makes the rifle much more manueverable in close quarters.

I had a fantastic time at SHOT ’08, and there’s so much stuff that I didn’t mention; including some of the booth babes. I’ll see you at the NRA Convention, SHOT ’09, and whatever SASS matches I can get to inbetween.

gun control/news

Indiana’s Gun Laws

Posted on by Caleb

According to Brian Kern, Indiana’s gun laws are too loose.  Of course, since his definition of “loose” is based off the Brady Campaign’s scorecard, it’s no wonder.

Doug Pennington, assistant director of communications for the Brady Campaign, says that the report card demonstrates the need for further legislative action on the state level.

“If the state decided to require a criminal background check on all gun purchases or issue a restriction on bulk handgun sales, then that would certainly help,” Pennington said. “Some people think that it’s politically impossible to do this, but what if it were just done at gun shows? Doing those two things alone would elevate [Indiana] considerably. In fact, they’d jump into the top 10.”

Unlicensed dealers who sell from private gun collections are not currently required to conduct background checks, Pennington explained.

Y Helo Thar, straw man.  Here’s a fun idea, why don’t we not jump into Brady’s Top 10 list?  Hoosiers don’t really like people trying to restrict their liberties, as a general rule; Indiana has the 3rd highest number of concealed carry permits per capita in the country.  But it is nice to see the Brady Campaign desperately clinging to their “Unlicensed Dealer” straw-man.

I find myself restating the facts over and over again; aside from the fact that there is no such thing as an unlicensed dealer (a contradiction in terms), Indiana doesn’t have a gun show loophole.  Yes, private parties are allowed to sell firearms to other private parties without a background check; however to state that people are going to gun shows and buying great big whacks of guns without background checks indicates that you’ve never been to a gun show.

Brian Kern writes for the Hendrick’s Country Flyer, and from his article I’m not 100% sure where he comes down on the side of the gun issue.  But since Avon is about 20 minutes from my home, I’m going to extend an open invitation to Brian Kern to come with me to the Indy 1500 Gun and Knife show held the weekend of May 30th.  I’d invite him to the show in March, but I’ll be out of town that weekend.

Brian, if you’re interested in taking me up on my offer, you can reach me at admiralahab-at-gmail-dot-com.

handguns/Shot Show

SHOT Special: Taurus

Posted on by Caleb

Anyone who pays more than a little attention here knows I’m a big, big fan of Taurus. Like I say in the audio portion, I personally own several Taurus firearms, with the plan to pick up a few more. Taurus had some pretty neat new products out at the SHOT Show, as well as one product no where to be seen. Check out the exclusive audio content for info on new products from Taurus.

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The big news is that Taurus has decided to discontinue their Gaucho line of revolvers. The Gaucho is a single action revolver, but had a transfer bar safety making is safe to carry with six rounds. Sadly, Taurus said they weren’t really selling any more, so the excellent Gaucho has gone the way of the dodo. Sorry SASS fans.

All is not lost, there is good news from Taurus, in the form of loads of new products. First, Taurus is expanding the Judge .45/.410 line of revolvers with an Ultra-Light version with a 2 3/4 chamber, and a whole new version with a 3 inch chamber.

Above is the 3 in chamber version, below is the Ultra-Light.

Taurus is also expanding their line of semi-auto pistols. In addition to the new 709 Slimeline series of pistols which are serious concealment pieces, Taurus has also added a couple of mid-sized carry guns. A while back, Beretta offered the 92 series pistols in a “compact size”, but they went away. Taurus has essentially brought them back, with the Model 917 and Model 58. The Model 917 is essentially to the PT92 as the Glock 19 is to the Glock 17, except for one niggling detail. The 917 comes from the factory with a 20 round magazine, and accepts the standard magazines from the Pt92 series as well. The Model 58 is basically a 917 slightly scaled down for the .380 ACP round, again with a 20 round magazine. I don’t know what I need a 20 shot .380 for, but I kind of want it. The biggest cosmetic difference between the two guns is that the Model 917 has an accessory rail, and the Model 58 does not.

Either of those would make excellent carry guns, in particular the .380 would be quite easy to conceal and offers minimal recoil in exchange for a serious amount of firepower. Of course, I can hear people saying right now “of course you’ll need 20 rounds, it’s a .380”. I try to stay out of caliber wars, but the .380 from that pistol would produce better terminal ballistics than a .38 Special out of a 2 inch snubbie (on average).

Now, a new revolver that I don’t quite get, but think is cool is Taurus’ new 5mm Remington Magnum revolver. What I really like is the marketing material Taurus put in their press kit for this gun:

Read the blogs and find out the pent-up demand for the re-introduction of this great little round. We are proud to team up with the new surge and demand for this great ammo by offering our high class revolver with NINE shots of this blazing 5mm bullet. Challenge yourself to handgun excellence by mounting a good scope and smiling all day in the field.

This is why I love/love Taurus. They pay attention the consumer. When the opening line of your marketing material is “Read the blogs” it becomes a lot harder for New Media’s detractors to mount a case.

The round is going to be made by Augila (who also makes the 60 grain .22 rounds I love) and sold under the name “Centurion” in the US. Their stated specs say that the 5mm magnum will put out a 30 grain pill at 2300 FPS from an 18 inch rifle barrel; no velocity data yet for the revolvers.

Also, for the guys who maybe don’t want to buy a whole new gun and cartridge combo, Taurus is also making essentially the same gun in .22 Magnum.

As well as all the products above, Taurus is releasing a new line of concealed carry revolvers in .38 Special, with a six shot cylinder. They’re also ramping up their CCW revolver line by adding the new “Magnesium” framed revolvers, which are extremely light and also have a six shot cylinder with a 2 inch barrel. No word yet on whether or not Taurus is going to offer a revolver in .327 Federal, although I certainly hope so.

Despite the loss of the Gaucho line of revolvers, 2008 is loaded with new products for Taurus. I’m certainly interesting in checking out their new Model 58 and Model 917; can’t have too many good carry guns.

Shot Show

SHOT Show day 3

Posted on by Caleb

Yesterday was my last “full” day at SHOT ’08, but I still managed to get out to the show today to grab some more content.  I’ll also have features on different guns and manufacturers throughout the rest of the week.  Today I made a stop by the Walther booth, to check out their newest .22 LR pistol, the Walther SP22.  The SP22 is Walther’s latest .22 caliber pistol; unlike the P22 however it appears to be more of a kit gun/target, instead of just a fun plinker like the P22.  Click image below for fullsize.

As you can see from their catalog page, Walther is going to offer four versions of the SP22, including a version with a target grip.  Now, what’s really cool about the SP22 is that the whole thing is modular, say you buy the base model but later decided you want a longer barrel with a rail and target grip.  You can buy all the necessary parts and convert your little plinker kit gun into a full on target gun in about 10 minutes (your mileage may vary).  Sadly, the magazines don’t interchange with the P22 or the G22 rifle, however from a casual glance it appears to be the same magazine with a different follower.  The Walther SP22 is actually pretty neat; as my P22 approaches the 10k round count, I’m thinking about adding another .22 to the stable.  Because you can never have too many .22 LR pistols.

Speaking of .22 firearms, I also stopped by the German Sports Guns booth to check out the GSG-5; which is basically a .22LR semi-automatic MP5.

The model they had on display had ever manner of tactical accessory on it, it’s got rails and lights and bipods and scopes and I hear it’s named Vera.  The can is fake, it’s a barrel shroud to make the 16 inch barrel looks a little more tacticool.  I like .22s, like I just said, you can’t have too many.  Related, German Sports Guns is planning on making an AK version as well.  The GSG-5 is pretty neat, it’s currently in production, but according to American Tactical Imports, the importer, they can’t keep ’em on the shelves.  People buy this gun because it looks cool, and quite honestly I am 100% okay with that.  The more guns that get sold, the better for the industry.

I did a lot of talking to people today, but I did make time to stop by my favorite holster maker, Galco.  I pretty much exclusively use Galco rigs for my carry guns, their holsters are durable, well made, and pleasing to the eye.

The last two holsters pictured are from Galco’s Summer Comfort series, which is an IWB design that allows you to conceal a full size revolver with, well, comfort.  Holsters often promise the moon, but since your mode of carry is so personal, I can only tell you what works for me.

Another great day at SHOT ’08, I’ve got a special piece on what Taurus is doing in 2008 as well!

gun control

Lying isn’t cool

Posted on by Caleb

Especially when there are credible eye-witnesses who prove that you’re lying.  You see, when you accuse pro-gun advocates of “bullying” but don’t have any kind of proof, you sound like you’re crying in your cheerios because no one is hopping on your bandwagon of gun control.

When supporters of the event attempted to “lie down” for three minutes, the time it takes to undergo a background check in Virginia, armed members of the NRA, the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL) and Students for Concealed Carry on Campus descended on the vigil, heckled the speakers, including those who had been shot at Virginia Tech, and tried to block participants. These armed bullies conducted a shameful display of insensitivity and intimidation.

See, now those are some serious inflammatory statements there; because you’re accusing pro-gun advocates of threatening you under the force of arms for protesting.  I guess it’s too bad that you’re a lying sack of crap.

As I approached the protest, I was taken aback by the image of all those white VCDL signs blanketing the protest, drowning out the antis’ messages.
And the antis got mad. They tried to get us kick out, but the police told them that their protest was a spectacle, which draws spectators. He pointed out that we weren’t doing anything but standing and observing, all of which is protected by the First Amendment.

The antis, fuming, walked away from the police officer to pout somewhere else.

We had one member assalted by an anti who shoved him out of the way, saying, “This is OUR protest!”

Nice people, aren’t they?

Or perhaps this from Curt, who actually was in attendance.

There were a couple of shouts from the pro-gun side during the speaking, but other than those isolated incidents, the pro-gun people were very considerate and quiet.

…

All of those guns around amongst all of those people who disagree on the issues so fundamentally (and, in the case of the anti-gunners, so rudely and with barely concealed anger), and NOT ONE PERSON was shot. NOT ONE FIREARM was brandished. The Anti-gunners were perfectly safe even when outnumbered by armed individuals by a factor of two or three to one.

Essentially, I’m calling you a liar, Ben Fordney.  I think that your accusations of “intimidation” and threats from the pro-gun folks in attendance at the rally are nothing more than grandstanding, and represent a desperate plea for people to pay attention to what was ultimately a failed protest by your group.  And to compensate for that failure, you have to make up accusations about law-abiding citizens.  It’d be funny if it wasn’t so pathetic.