The Truth About Guns

“Former ATF Assistant Director Bouchard says crooks have easy access to cheap stolen guns on the street,” abc.com reported back in January. “‘If you talk to any criminal, they can find a gun within an hour or two. Cheaper guns that were stolen can be sold for $50. On the street, a typical good handgun will run you $200 to $300,’ Bouchard said.” The problem with that deal: the transaction is illegal. A bad guy can go to jail for that sort of thing. Enter the Boston Police . . .

The first week of Bosto

TTAG reader Pascal writes:

arstechnica.com offers a post on the long painful saga of Malaysian-born college professor Rahinah Ibrahim. In the words of the Judge, the trail itself was a, “Kafkaesque” legal battle. Even AFTER the Judge ordered Ibrahim to be removed from the no fly list, the DHS refused. About one thousand people are in the same situation as Ibrahim, whose saga started with an errant check placed on a form filled out by FBI agent Kevin Kelly. Aside from the successful resolution to this case, the Ibrahim’s saga is hardly atypical. The No-Fly list had grown to . . .

1.1m records with estim

“You know that gun control is no longer an issue, either pro or con, when both sides try to make you believe that something big has happened when nothing of any real importance happened at all,” huffingtonpost.com‘s “Mike the Gun Guy” opines. “I’m referring to the gun law just passed in Georgia which is awaiting Governor Nathan Deal’s expected signature, a law described by the New York Times as one of ‘breathtaking sweep’ and by the 

As we reported, the ATF seems to be singling out the activities of Austin’s Silencer Shop as one of the culprits for their e-Forms website being… well… terrible. We posted the email earlier this afternoon where they outline a new reboot schedule that takes the system offline for nearly half the day, and now we have confirmation of an additional attachment that was apparently sent only to SOT/FFL holders and not to Form 1 registered users (like me). One request to the ATF: please try to avoid sending out announcements on April 1? Make the jump for the full text of the letter.

URGENT NOTICE TO: All Registered ATF eForms users

As you are aware for several w

By Parson Turnbull

There’s been a lot of discussion among members of the Armed Intelligentsia lately about how Connecticut’s finest might proceed if they decide to confiscate unregistered guns from the state’s 100,000 or more newly-minted felons. The level of concern is evidenced by daily long comment threads, speculative posts by people who are not members of law enforcement, and even a couple of contributed opinions from the LEO community. The rational consensus seems to be that if the gun-grab order were given, cops would pinch a registration scofflaw at the grocery store, at work, on the road…anyplace other than his or her home where a Ruby Ridge-style tragedy might ensue. Here I propose the alternative–that LEOs might not in fact be that rational if and when the time comes . . .

You may have read or at least heard about Malcolm Gladwell’s 

Good afternoon:

You are in receipt of this email because you are a registered user of ATF eForms.  Please review the attached Urgent Notice relating to an important issue we are experiencing with the eForms system . . .

Reminder:

In an attempt to improve the performance of eForms we are restarting the eForms system everyday at the following times (Eastern time).  During each restart eForms will be unavailable for 1 hour.

Restart times:
4:00 AM
9:00 AM
NOON
4:00 PM
11:00 PM

If you have any questions concerning the attached notice please contact Lee Alston-Williams at lee.alston-williams@atf.gov.

Sincerely,

Lenora (Lee) Alston-Williams
Industry Liasion Analyst – IT
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, & Explosives

YouTube gun guy The Yankee Marshall puts out an awful lot of content. Some of it is awful. But most of his material offers what gun control advocates pretend to offer: common sense. This video, in particular, makes me proud to be on the same side of the Second Amendment fence as the bearded one. TYM tells it like it is: firearms training is not the key to armed self-defense. A gun is. Ninety-nine-point-nine percent of gun buyers can figure it out: bullets face forward, aim, squeeze the trigger. Don’t shoot the wrong person. Don’t leave the gun lying around. Everything else? Bonus. In fact, kudos to TYM for having the guts to say that training-mania helps the anti-gunners (by making guns seems more dangerous than they are) and almost saying that training is more dangerous than not training. That would have really riled ‘em up.

Scenario: Every morning, you take your favorite little Pomeranian, Mr. Scruffles, for a walk around your posh neighborhood in Lakeway, Texas. Both you and he enjoy your daily constitutional. You get a chance to show off your manly physique and so does Mr. Scruffles. Sadly, Dr. Excelsior’s Doberman likes neither you nor Mr. Scruffles and you fear his bite much more than his his bark. To make matters worse, you have a “thing” for Dr. Excelsior. I mean, she’s rich, cute, and damn…that Mercedes. You don’t want to stop her Doberman permanently, you just want to keep bite marks off your body for when you two spend the day at Hippy Hollow So a on-lethal weapons it is

Tampa’s tbo.com offers a post-mortem analysis of the Florida legislature’s failure to “allow people without concealed weapon permits to carry guns during forced evacuations prompted by emergencies, such as hurricanes.” The piece provides insight into the NRA’s behind-the-scenes lobbying (a.k.a., arm-twisting) and Governor Rick Scott’s suspected role in torpedoing the bill. Second Amendment absolutists will shake their heads and assert that no one should have to have a permit to carry a gun at any time ever. Which raises an important question: why would you want to limit Americans’ carry rights during an emergency? Here’s the “argument” that [allegedly] killed the bill . . .<

The Texas Multigun Championship is coming up next week. It was the first match I shot with Team FNH USA last year, and it’s the first big match on my calendar for this season. But as the date gets closer, I find myself vacillating on a rather important decision – which division to shoot in . . .

3-gun uses divisions to keep things fair. Within a given division there’s a set list of standards that your equipment needs to meet, and at the end of the day the awards are issued within those divisions only — there’s no “overall” winner. It keeps the competition fair, no matter what you want to shoot.

Tac Optics is the most popular division. Last year there were over 220 competitors in that division alone, and most of the sponsored shooters chose to compete in that division as well. I came in about the middle of the pack, a

I have to admit, the production values on SilencerCo’s April Fools’ prank this year are pretty good. They “announced” the Wizard Staff, a .22lr silencer that appears to be about four feet long and comes with an “eternal” warranty and has a list price of “22 thousand silver shekels.” While it’s true that the only way to increase the efficiency of a can is to increase either the diameter or the length, I get the feeling that this is just a hair excessive. Anyway, nicely done SilencerCo. And make sure you watch until the end!

Walking with Kirsten Joy Weiss is an abject lesson in what it’s like to not be invisible. So when a conventioneer approached us at the SHOT Show and said “You’re Kirsten Joy Weiss aren’t you?” I wasn’t particularly surprised. But his specialty subject certainly piqued my interest: “cryogenics.” My only knowledge of the field: Walt Disney’s cryogenically frozen head is stored in a freezer underneath The Pirates of the Caribbean ride. (An urban myth, apparently.) Prescott Paulin of

In a move that’s being seen as an attempt to get his 2016 presidential campaign back on the rails, Chris Christie announced this morning that he will be using his gubernatorial powers to begin dismantling some of the firearms laws in New Jersey. The state has inched closer to the top of the pile of “gun unfriendly” locations since Illinois’ laws have been slowly whittled away by court rulings, but the new rules might change all that. Christie’s main focus seems to be on streamlining the system for obtaining handgun licenses, which those in New Jersey are required to obtain for every handgun they purchase. He has also announced that he will be instructing the law enforcement agencies in the state to begin operating on a “shall issue” basis for all new concealed carry permits . . .

Over the last few

“Consistently demonstrating how to handle conflict with patience and compassion will counter the myth we all see on TV and in movies, the myth that the best solution is force. Until then, I’ll continue to try to curb the arsenal growing in our toy room, starting with this Barbie doll my son twisted around to look like a revolver.” – Andrew Andestic in Guns, Boys and Steel: Should We Put Pretend Weapons in Our Childrens’ Hands? [at huffingtonpost.com]

A construction crew in Redmond, Oregon unearthed a pile of World War II-era ammunition on Thursday, and police called in the Air Force to dispose of it. The linked small-arms cartridges may have been related to a large military exercise that took place in the area from July to October 1943, when elements of the 91st, 96th, and 104th Infantry divisions ranged over seven counties in central Oregon. Those units then deployed around the globe to Italy, the Far East, and France and Germany. The article refers to the ammunition as “unstable,” but I’m pretty sure that at this point the only way it’d be unstable is if you tripped over it and fell down. Read on . . .

Instead of a Lockdown of the Day™, a good story. Some ammunition

Of the four rules of gun safety, “be aware of your target and what’s behind it” is the one most people can’t recall. If they can remember it, they usually focus on the bit that reminds shooters that bullets can travel a long, long way beyond the target before they come to rest. (A .22 can travel a mile before ending its flight.) But the admonition to “be aware of your target” is equally important. We recently reported on a shooter killed by a ricochet off a steel target. [Click here for info on steel target safety.] As these bright sparks learned, targets made of other materials also fight back. Always stay a safe distance from your target and wear eyes and ears. Otherwise, even a tiny fragment from your target can come back and blind you. You have been warned.

At 2:37 into the trailer for the forthcoming James Brown biopic Get On Up, the Hardest Working Man in Show Biz discharges a pump action shotgun into the ceiling. Not being a student of Soul Brother Number One, I don’t recall any such incident. Legally speaking, Mr. Please Please Please shouldn’t have had any trigger time with a firearm; when he was 16-years-old, The Godfather of Soul was convicted of armed robbery and served three years in juvie. In 1988, The Minister of the New New Super Heavy Funk was convicted of carrying an unlicensed pistol, which he’d used to shoot-up his wife’s car. No doubt Get On Up will show firearms-related scenes from Mr. Dynamite’s life. A role model for musical genius, but not much else, methinks.

By CTSheepdog

Greetings from The Constitution State, though at times over the past year I have questioned whether that proud name is valid any longer. For those who live outside Connecticut, you may think challenges to our state’s residents’ natural, individual, US and state Constitutional rights to keep and bear arms are something that only popped up in the wake of the tragedy in Newtown in late 2012. However, serious restrictionist gun control goes back over 20 years, the most visible example – an “assault weapon” ban – put into place in 1994 . . .

That law, and much of the state’s restrictionist legislation has been promoted and lobbied for by Connecticut Against Gun Violence or CAGV. While representing itself as seeking “common sense” gun violence reduction, CAGV’s efforts invariably have more impact on law-abiding gun owners than on suicides or illegal gun use – causes that are responsible for over 95% of all

Press release:

The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) and the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers’ Institute (SAAMI) have filed a motion for a preliminary injunction on behalf of their members against the State of California in Fresno Superior Court to prevent enforcement of the state’s microstamping law. [Click here to read the motion.] The state statute enacted in 2007, but not made effective until May 2013, requires that all semiautomatic handguns sold in the state not already on the California approved handgun roster incorporate unp

In a brilliant bit of Second Amendment promotion, members of Wisconsin Carry went door to door in a rough area of Milwaukee, offering free training required to obtain a Wisconsin concealed carry license. The south side of town doesn’t have the reputation due to its high crime rate. The city has 10 percent of the state’s residents and 60 percent of Wisconsin’s murders . . .

Wisconsin Carry has been providing free classes so people can obtain the Wisconsin permit since 2009. The Wisconsin shall-issue concealed carry law went into effect in November of 2011. The Badger State