The Truth About Guns

By Tom in Oregon

As a disclosure, I was a full-time police officer during my first defensive gun use, so I was allowed to carry concealed as long as I had ID with me. I have been retired for a bit over two years now. The problem during this particular time was that I was working undercover and had been for some time. I had a fake ID, and was told to not carry anything police-related. I was allowed to carry a gun, but if I got arrested for it, I’d need to make a phone call for some splainin’ to do. Besides working for my own department, I was frequently on loan to other departments as I had a fresh face, and could walk the walk . . .

One fall day, I had left the house dressed in grubbies as usual. My undercover car was a 74 Monte Carlo beater. I took the two kids to the baby sitter across town and realized I had left somethi

“If you’re a single issue voter, and you just want someone to give you a full capacity assault rifle magazine, God bless you, you can go vote for somebody else. I’m not your guy.” – California GOP gubernatorial primary candidate Neel Kashkari in Tim Donnelly’s gun history marked by controversy, tragedy [at sacbee.com]

Yet another very old gun club in New England is being hassled by the folks who live around it, most of whom have moved there within the last decade and now complain about the noise and “safety concerns.” The Spurwink Rod & Gun Club has been in the same place on Sawyer Road for nearly 60 years, but is now having to deal with a new ordinance, passed unanimously by the city council, that will require shooting ranges (note the plural) to be licensed and develop safety procedures (with accompanying audits) and have a site plan in place that covers future expansion and mitigation to the surrounding community. There will also be noise standards and requirements that all shots be contained within in the range. The plural is noted because although ordinances cannot be targeted against specific businesses . . .

Reader AI writes:

I have the opposite opinion as the reader who wrote in accusing TTAG of “saber rattling” regarding a potential gun confiscation in Connecticut. It is a confiscation drive, after all, even though the “collection” phase hasn’t yet begun. As we all try to understand where the fine line is, and put off the potential for conflict, it is easy to forget the intentions of the Connecticut law. That some would resist was known and embraced by the anti-gun forces who sponsored the law. That innocent citizens would be turned into felons at the stroke of midnight on December 31 was fantasized about by those who see gun owners as inherently evil, untrustworthy people. And as we all know, those aren’t just fringe groups, but include the very people who take a supposedly legally binding oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United

Reader Benny writes:

I recently took a friend of mine to get his first gun. Ever. To me, its a pretty big deal when you buy your first firearm as it’s basically you deciding to protect yourself and your loved ones with the best tools available. A little background first. My friend Dre works with me at FedEx and he just became a driver. He was told that he was going to be working and driving overnight and he would be leaving his 6-month old son and his girlfriend at the apartment by themselves . . .

Naturally, he didn’t want to leave their safety to fate so he called me one day.

“Hey Benny, I need your expertise, bro.” 
We’ve known each other for a while now and it was no secret by any means that I knew a few things about guns. As soon as he said that, I knew exactly what he meant.

“Sweet dude, you’ve called the right man! What are you looking for?”

“I need somet

At a town meeting, Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy addressed a lengthy question about the Constitution State’s post-Newtown civilian disarmament legislation. Malloy sums up the challenges to the law by telling an unhappy American gun owner “you lost” (4:48). The applause greeting his summation reflects the gulf between pro-gun control voters and the tens of thousands of gun owners who’ve refused to register their firearms and, thus, become, Class D felons. Whatever you think of Malloy’s justification for “strengthening” Connecticut’s gun laws – and “not much” just begins to cover it – the Governor isn’t backing up or backing off. With the letter threatening “charges” against non-compliant gun owners, the conflict grows more ominous by the day.

Despite being granted a restraining order, the ATF has apparently raided San Diego area firearms parts seller Ares Armor anyway. Ares sells 80% lowers which the ATF has classified as “firearms.” The ATF has been pressuring Ares to turn over their sales records or lose them in a raid. Given the threats, earlier this week Ares moved for and was granted a restraining order against such a raid. But the above YouTube video appears to show ATF agents rummaging through Ares, apparently confiscating inventory and, you’d have to assume, their computers and customers records. This video is the only evidence we’ve been able to find of a r

We haven’t really been covering it in depth, but Barack Obama announced a new candidate for Surgeon General a while back and every day it seems we learn something new about him. Dr.  Vivek H. Murthy seems like a suitable candidate, until you realize that the good doctor believes that extremely strict gun control is a matter of public health and was planning to use his position to advocate for that. The revelations sparked outrage from gun rights groups, and word comes today from the New York Times that the outcry of gun rights advocates seems to have been loud enough to pull the plug on the nomination.

From the New York Times . . .

Sgt. Patrick Hayes

It seems there is always a news story about some active shooter somewhere. This make gun owners cringe. The media plays up such events to give the gun grabbers a platform to push their agenda. These are, in fact, rare events. The streets of “gun controlled” Chicago are far more dangerous. The problem we have is while we can predict urban violence, there is no way to predict where and when a mass shooting will occur. It could happen anywhere at any time. What do we do when it happens?  . . .

Police Officers spend countless hours training for these scenarios. We train to charge in, engage, and stop the threat. We have our side arms, shotguns, patrol rifles, precision rifles and distraction devices to perform that task.

The biggest problem is time. We have to respond to the incident. Unless an officer is already on scene, that could take seconds to severa

When we published the Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Emergency Protection’s letter to gun owners (above) whose registration documents had missed the state-imposed December 31, 2013 deadline, some poo-poo’d. They claimed it was a Photoshop phony, concocted to enflame the situation. Shameless link bait intended to drive up traffic. Calls to various state sources yielded varying stories about its authenticity. But now comes confirmation from nbcconnecticut.com that the letters

The open carry of firearms has been a subject of considerable debate in Utah recently. Some people have been arrested for openly carrying holstered firearms despite the fact that open carry is legal in Utah. The charge has been, as it frequently was until recently in Wisconsin, “disorderly conduct” . . .

Disorderly conduct tends to be a catchall charge that’s used to crack down on conduct that is not illegal, but that the police disapprove of. Being arrested in and of itself can be a significant punishment. The Wisconsin AG eventually ruled that openly carrying a firearm is not disorderly conduct by itself. That after police departments paid out

Send your STAND STRONG CONNECTICUT photo to guntruth@me.com. We’ll post them on our Facebook album [click here to view.] Please put STAND STRONG in the subject field of your email. You can click here to purchase a Stand Strong Connecticut t-shirt (half of profits go to Connecticut Carry).

The guys at Cold Steel aren’t exactly your bog standard knife manufacturers. From their prolific videos of slicing the crap out of dead animals to their apparent love of pirate costumes and old guns (see? gun related!) they certainly made quite a splash at IWA in Germany. And not only were they sharp dressed men, but they had something new to show off.

Their newest offering is the Magnum Warcraft Tanto, a $409.99 investment in stabbyness. The t

“While I live in a very nice, quite, wealthy neighborhood with a responsible police department, the decisions that are made for my own protection between the time a crime is being committed, when the cops are called, and when they arrive is up to me. My means of equalizing an unsafe situation? That would be a .40 caliber Springfield XDM semi-automatic handgun given to me by a former Blackwater firearms instructor.” – Trish Williams in Firearms, an Equalizer for Women [at dailysurge.com]

var p = new anv_pl_def(); p.config = {}; p.config.width = 640; p.config.height = 360; p.loadVideoExpressV3('eyJ1cGxvYWRfaWQiOiJleHByZXNzLTEzOTQ4NDYzMjcwNDYiLCJ2aWRlb190eXBlIjoiMSIsInNyY19pbWFnZV91cmwiOiJodHRwOi8vbWVkaWEuMTBuZXdzLmNvbS9waG90by8yMDE0LzAzLzExLzE2eDkvR3VuX293bmVyX2NsYWltc19oZV93YXNfaGFyYXNzZWRfYnlfQ0hQX18xNDA4MzcwMDAwXzMzNjE3MDRfdmVyMS4wXzY0MF80ODAuanBnIiwiZGVmX3RpdGxlIjoiR3VuIG93bmVyIGNsYWltcyBoZSB3YXMgaGFyYXNzZWQgYnkgQ0hQIG9mZmljZXIgZHVyaW5nIHRyYWZmaWMgc3RvcCIsInRpdGxlIjoiR3VuIG93bmVyIGNsYWltcyBoZSB3YXMgaGFyYXNzZWQgYnkgQ0hQIG9mZmljZXIgZHVyaW5nIHRyYWZmaWMgc3RvcCIsImRlZl9kZWNzcmlwdGlvbiI6IiIsInB1Ymxpc2hlZF91cmxzIjpbeyJmb3JtYXQiOiJtcDQ7IiwiZW1iZWRfdXJsIjoiaHR0cDovL21lZGlhLjEwbmV3cy5jb20vdmlkZW8vdmlkZW9fc3R1ZGlvLzIwMTQvMDMvMTEvR3VuX293bmVyX2NsYWltc19oZV93YXNfaGFyYXNzZWRfYnlfQ0hQX18xNDA4MzcubXA0IiwicHJvdG9jb2wiOiJtcDQ7IiwiY2RuX25hbWUiOiJBa2FtYWkiLCJrYnBzIjo1MDB9XSwiY2FwdGlvbnMiOlt7Imxhbmd1YWdlIjoiZW4iLCJmb3JtYXQiOiJERlhQIiwidXJsIjoiaHR0cDovL21lZGlhLjEwbmV3cy5jb20vdmlkZW8vdmlkZW9fc3R1ZGlvLzIwMTQvMDMvMTEvY2FwdGlvbnMvR3VuX293bmVyX2NsYWltc19oZV93YXNfaGFyYXNzZWRfYnlfQ0hQX18xNDA4MzcwMDAwLmRmeHAifV0sInRzX3B1Ymxpc2hlZCI6IjIwMTRfMDNfMTEifQ==|1000011|SPS');
With all the talk around here recently ab

Rifle Fires at Gun Show; Olympia Man Cited for Reckless Endangerment the chronline.com story proclaims. “A vendor (not pictured above) who attended a gun show at the Southwest Washington Fairgrounds this weekend now faces reckless endangerment charges after a rifle he purchased from another seller accidentally discharged, causing a bullet to ricochet off the concrete floor and go into a display case. Though the gun fired in a room full of people, no one was hurt, said Linda Bailey of the Chehalis Police Department.” If I were the buyer, I’d ask for my money back. And my gun rights. On bended knee.

Newtown cyclists say gun control campaign now a movement ctmirror.org‘s headline proclaims. Hello? Look at the picture. How much of a “movement” do you see? Reporter Ana Radelat forgot to mention how many people showed up. But she was quick to assert that “The National Rifle Association and other gun rights groups have exerted enormous pressure on members of Congress, threatening to back the political rivals of those who vote for gun control with the help of massive war chests. With the impasse in Congress, the gun control movement has accepted the likelihood that federal g

The most creative caption entered in the comment section by midnight Sunday will win their very own Ban Bossy! bumper sticker. Start writing!

When last we saw ShootingTheBull410 testing 9mm Federal Premium HST 124-grain ammo, he was slobbering like a rabid dog over the round’s exquisite awesomeness.  So what happens when we let him near the heftier, 147-grain version of the same stuff? More slobbering.  Check the video for a review of what looks to be a superb load for short-barrel 9mm pistols.