The Truth About Guns
Exploring the ethics, morality, business, politics, culture, technology, practice, strategy, dangers and fun of guns
Updated: 19 hours 8 min ago
Washington Homeowner Stays Calm During Home Invasion By Taking a Deep Breath
Early Thursday morning, Jerahme Smith, who lives in suburban Seattle, woke up to the sounds of someone breaking into his home. I am sure the last thing the two home invaders expected was to be met by someone with a gun.
Once the attackers were inside, Smith yelled, “Get on the ground!” The trespasser reached for something, and Smith said “he decided it was his life or theirs.” That’s when he fired the fatal shot.
Lessons Learned from the Shooting of Officer Nathan Heidelberg
Last week, a jury acquitted David Wilson of murdering Midland police Officer Nathan Heidelberg. That Wilson shot and killed Officer Heidelberg was never in doubt. Officer Heidelberg hadn’t fired at Mr. Wilson. In fact, he wasn’t using any force against David Wilson at all. By all accounts, Officer Heidelberg was a good man, doing his duty.
Heidelberg’s death was an absolute tragedy, and an unnecessary one. There’s a lot we can and should learn from it.
A National Stand Your Ground Law Would Protect Against Prosecutorial Overreach
By Lee Williams
There are few laws more misunderstood than “Stand Your Ground” – especially Florida’s current version. Stand Your Ground laws have become an anti-gun fundraising issue. They’ve tried to make them synonymous with the 2012 death of Trayvon Martin – even though George Zimmerman never invoked the statute. To be clear, despite mainstream media accounts to the contrary, Zimmerman’s was never a Stand Your Ground case.
The gun-ban industry and their adherents in the media have tried to demonize the statute as a “shoot first,” “make my day,” or “license to kill” law.
Jackson: We Should Discuss ‘Gun Violence’ the Way We Used to Discuss COVID
COVID-19 has taken 800,000 American lives, and at the beginning of this pandemic, when the death toll was much lower, each death was discussed with care, reported and chronicled with a richness that brought strangers to life and gave voice to those often forgotten in nursing homes. The national mood was somber, collaborative and change-driven, largely colored by national and local reporting.
This is how we should discuss gun violence, its victims and their stories.
Gun Meme of the Day: Be There In a Jiffy Edition
When seconds count, the police are only minutes away. Thirteen minutes. Which is an improvement, apparently, in Salt Lake City where this news clip is from. The meme’s from @FromTheGunCounter over on Instagram.
Continue reading Gun Meme of the Day: Be There In a Jiffy Edition at The Truth About Guns.
Hands-On With SilencerCo’s New Harvester EVO [VIDEO]
Last week I made a quick trek to Salt Lake City, UT to see and shoot SilencerCo’s newest release, the Harvest EVO. “Evolution” is a theme and a goal for SilencerCo moving forward, and this major update to the Harvester 300, a SilencerCo mainstay since 2013, is the first glimpse into what this might mean for the product line.
A lightweight, compact silencer, the Harvest EVO is intended for hunting and precision rifle use.
Continue reading Hands-On With SilencerCo’s New Harvester EVO [VIDEO] at The Truth About Guns.
BREAKING: Fifth Circuit Panel Upholds ATF’s Bump Stock Ban
A three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court’s ruling that affirmed the ATF’s classification of bump stocks as the functional equivalent of machine guns under the National Firearms Act.
In their ruling in the case Cargill v. Garland . . .
Cargill argues that bump stocks unambiguously are not “machinegun[s]” under the above statutory definition because semiautomatic firearms equipped with bump stocks (1) do not shoot “more than one shot .
Continue reading BREAKING: Fifth Circuit Panel Upholds ATF’s Bump Stock Ban at The Truth About Guns.
The Difference Between What a Witness Saw and What Really Happened
An argument following a hit and run last month led to a shooting in Destrehan, Louisiana. Michael Woulfe allegedly sideswiped Walter Tabary’s car and then drove off. Tabary, with his wife who was in the car at the time, followed Woulfe to his home a short distance away while dialing 911.
According to the neighbor Mike Wodarczyk, the two began arguing about the accident and that’s when an argument escalated with Tabary shooting Woulfe in the gut.
Shield Sights Announces the New Larger RMSx Competition Pistol Red Dot Sight
Shield Sights, pioneer of compact red dot optics, is pleased to announce the RMSx as the new dedicated competition sight. The RMSx will replace the original RMS as the dedicated competition optic for Shield Sights.
With competitive shooting being at the core of Shield Sights foundation, the RMSx pulls from the experience of two generations of international competitive pistol shooting experience. The RMSx features a larger viewing window with a distinctive housing and parallax free and an all-new hard dip coated (HDC) polymer lens with a 5H hardness rating.
Blumenfeld: Can We Really Be Free If the Right to Keep and Bear Arms Shall Not Be Infringed?
…Holy Smoke Bullet Urns of Stockton, Alabama, has taken quite literally Shylock’s claim in Shakespeare’s 1596 Merchant of Venice: “The pound of flesh which I demand of him is deerely bought, ‘tis mine, and I will have it.”
According to the company’s cofounder, Clem Parnell, “You know I’ve thought about this for some time and I want to be cremated. Then I want my ashes put into some turkey load shotgun shells and have someone that knows how to turkey hunt use the shotgun shells with my ashes to shoot a turkey.
Gun Meme of the Day: Private Party Edition
It’s always a party at Waffle House. Meme from @ThePatioCat over on Instagram.
Continue reading Gun Meme of the Day: Private Party Edition at The Truth About Guns.
Why I’m Finally Retiring My Small Frame 5-Shot Revolver As Sole Carry Piece [GRAPHIC VIDEO]
I’ve been a fan of the five-shot compact revolver for years. They’re small, reliable and plenty potent. They don’t throw brass all over the place and they work great from a pocket or a purse, capable of creating a priceless look of surprise from a criminal predator trying to take the room temperature challenge.
While I’m typically kitted out with a capable 9mm, on some occasions I’ve run errands with little more than a .38 snubbie in a jacket or coat pocket.
Savage Announces New 110 PCS Bolt Action Pistol
Savage Arms is proud to announce the addition of the 110 PCS (Pistol Chassis System) to its line of centerfire firearms. The 110 PCS is a bolt-action pistol built around the 110’s factory blueprinted action. This new pistol provides all the features that have come to define the Model 110, but in much more compact configuration.
“The Model 110 has set the bar high for bolt-action rifles,” Jessica Treglia, Senior Brand Manager for Savage Arms.
Continue reading Savage Announces New 110 PCS Bolt Action Pistol at The Truth About Guns.
The FGC-9: Emergency Civilian Armament In Countries With Strict Gun Control
In a previous post, I briefly shared the story of the FGC-9, and its appearance in Burma’s ongoing conflict. Despite facing incredible brutality after a military coup, and living in a country that was already among the poorest on the planet, civilians have been able to construct effective weapons with which to fight back and hang on against a professional military with modern weapons from tanks to warplanes.
It’s an inspiring story that proves not only the inherent ineffectiveness of gun control, but the power and effectivness of gun rights (a natural, human right) as a bulwark against tyranny.
Pierson: Every Photo Of a Politician Holding a Gun Makes the Founders Sad
Where did America go wrong? The problem isn’t the guns. The problem is us. Our taste for gun violence is a uniquely American crisis. And I say that as someone who has lived in Switzerland, a country armed to the teeth but with zero school shootings, annually.
It is the sense of exceptionalism our nation is known for, and the reckless interpretation of those 27 words in the Second Amendment by gun lobbyists, the NRA and their supporters that have, since the late 1990s, had a devastating effect on American life.
Los Angeles Man Shoots and Kills One of Three Armed Robbers After Grabbing His Gun
Gun grabbers aren’t all bad. Not when the one doing the grabbing is the would-be victim of a robbery on the streets of Los Angles.
As the L.A. Times reports, early Saturday morning . . .
…three armed men, all in their 20s, got out of a vehicle in the 1300 block of West 35th Street, west of USC, and approached the other man and attempted to rob him, said Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson Norma Eisenman.
Gavin Newsom Says He’ll Use Texas Abortion Law as a Blueprint to Further Limit Gun Rights in California
So this happened last night. California Governor Gavin Newsom, having nothing else to do on a Saturday evening, issued the following proclamation . . .
If states can shield their laws from review by federal courts, then CA will use that authority to help protect lives.
We will work to create the ability for private citizens to sue anyone who manufactures, distributes, or sells an assault weapon or ghost gun kit or parts in CA.
Sammons: Catholics are Obliged to Defend the Right of Individuals to Own and Carry a Gun
Many Catholics are nevertheless uncomfortable with American gun culture. After all, it’s hard to imagine Jesus carrying an AR-15 slung over his shoulder, for good reason. Our Lord allowed himself to be unjustly arrested, condemned, and executed, all without any resistance—he even rebuked Peter for his use of a weapon in resistance (John 18:11).
Yet it’s a fallacy to believe that because Jesus wouldn’t have carried a weapon then we shouldn’t either.
Gun Control’s Death Throes: Burmese Rebels Use FGC-9 3D-Printed Guns to Resist Army Coup
2021 has been a particularly bad year in Burma (a.k.a. Myanmar, but that’s another story). After decades of military dictatorship, the country finally started to see some freedom and representative government during the last decade. That upswing came to an abrupt end when the military claimed election fraud and took control of the government, establishing yet another military junta.
Protests started almost immediately and are still ongoing, but protests are often met with military violence and murder.
Remington Ammunition Brings Back a Limited Run of Peters Paper Shotshells
From Remington Ammunition . . .
Remington Ammunition has announced the reintroduction of the nostalgic favorite shotshell of shooters everywhere, Peters Paper. Trap, skeet and sporting clays shooters can now experience the thrill of shooting classic paper loads with modern performance. Sold exclusively on Remington.com and available for a limited time only, shooters and collectors are encouraged to buy today.
Peters Paper shotshells promise less felt recoil and trusted functionality backed by decades of performance.