The Truth About Guns

“The slaughter of the dwindling elephant herds in Africa grows worse by the year,” the New York Times opines, “as organized criminals get rich from selling elephant tusks in lucrative black markets around the world, where a pound of ivory can fetch $1,500. African elephants, whose numbers have been reduced in less than a century from several million to an estimated 500,000, are being killed at a rate of 30,000 to 35,000 a year.” I know! Let’s ban ivory! ‘Cause it’s not banned enough. “Last week, the Interior Department’s Fish and Wildlife Service announced that it will ban the trade in elephant ivory within the United States by prohibiting all imports and — with very narrow exemptions — exports and resales by auction houses and other dealers.” That sentence doesn&

“Nobody needs a 15-round ammunition magazine unless they are a domestic terrorist or a gangster.” - Bryan Miller, Executive Director of Heeding God’s Call [via washingtontimes.com]

About a month ago, I told you about an opinion issued by Virginia’s then-Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli which said that trusts were unable to register machine guns in Virginia as is required by state law. Shortly thereafter, Delegate David LaRock introduced legislation (HB 1266) to clear this oversight. Now the Virgina State Police has weighed in. According to attorney John Pierce, the VSP has no issue with the ownership of machine guns in VA. VSP’s practice was to have one of the trustees register machine guns owned by the trust in their own name (as trustee) when submitting the state registration form. This allowed the t

Dear Governor Malloy:

I’d like to address you regarding the crisis currently taking place in Connecticut with gun registration. But before I do, let me preface my statements contained herein, with my deepest condolences and sympathy to the victims and families of the Sandy Hook tragedy. First, let us remember what led to the shooting . . .

Adam Lanza STOLE his mothers LEGALLY OWNED guns to commit this heinous act. Bearing that in mind, the great state of Connecticut in their infinite wisdom felt more gun control laws were needed, despite the fact that Connecticut already had some of the strictest gun control in the nation already in place when Sandy Hook occurred.

So what did your state come up with

“Imagine this. You are having a dispute with a neighbor over noise late at night. You have asked him politely to keep it down and your politeness got you nowhere. You have filed complaints with the town, but nothing has come of them. Finally, you decide to go to the town council and voice your concern.” So begins delawareonline.com‘s editorial Gun laws, common sense are strangers. I’m thinking I wouldn’t be going to the town council to complain about Mr. Noisy neighbor. I’d be going to the police. While taking some extra security precautions: heightened situational awareness, a gun on my hip, that sort

Smart guns are a solution looking for a problem. Oh sure, the antis have an answer for that one. Smart guns will protect children from negligent discharges! They’ll choke off the supply of [functional] guns from lawful gun owners to bad guys. I’m not going to argue the point, other than to say children are clever and bad guys are cleverer. The antis’ love of smart gun technology proves, once again, that they live in a world of their own imagination, where “the iPhone of guns” never fails (bloody hands anyone?) and a bad guy who can’t fire the gun he stole from you gives up and runs away. So let’s go with this: if smart guns are such a smart idea, the antis can buy them. Millions of American gun owners reckon a firearm without an electronic safety is like a fish without a bicycle. It gets on swimmingly, as is. As for guns’ inherent dangers, duh.

Dear Mr. Farago,

Thank you for sharing your concern stemming from our participation in last summer’s Aspen Ideas Festival.

For background, each sponsor of the Festival is offered the chance to underwrite one evening as a part of overall sponsorship benefits. The evening that PepsiCo put our name on was an event in which journalist Andrea Mitchell interviewed Gabrielle Giffords and Mark Kelly about their lives since Ms. Gifford’s shooting. Other than to have our logo and name attached to that particular evening session, we have no relationship to Ms. Giffords or to her organization, Americans for Responsible Soluti

The following was sent in my reader OneIfByLand:

Robert, your post the other day about you being a former gun-control advocate got me to thinking about my childhood and growing up in a rural community. I was fortunate to grow up in a household where my father was a gun-rights supporter. He use to take me and my brothers shooting from a very young age. He understood that young boys in particular would be curious about firearms, and always made it a point to let us know that whenever we wanted to see any of his firearms, all we had to do was ask and he would take the time to stop what he was doing to show us, let us ask questions, hold and learn about any of his firearms while under his direct supervision. These were the days when . . .

firearms security was not as much of a focus, and many of his rifles and even handguns were not stored in a safe (although he always stored them unloaded with ammunition stored in a separate location) – even wit

Actually, that headline is a tad misleading. The spread of Mexico’s “autodefensas” is not due to the citizen militia’s physical proximity to each another. Rather it’s down to synchronous suffering: tens of thousands of Mexicans living under the constant threat of torture, rape, mutilation, extortion and murder who armed themselves and rose up against the cartels and their police and military enablers. We’ve reported on the “vigilantes” progress in Michoacan, where a sudden and predictable influx of federal troops has created an fragile peace in the beleaguered territory. We now have word of a similar situation developing to Michoacan’s north, in Guerrero. The

I teach a lot of newbies how to shoot a gun. So should you. Taking a noob to the gun range is the best – if not the only – way to “convert” an anti. Once they get to grips, literally, with the idea that guns aren’t inherently dangerous, they can begin to understand why their fellow Americans cherish their natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms. Of course, gun are dangerous. What would be the point if they weren’t? And they’re most dangerous in the hands of a newbie. To defend yourself against getting shot by an anti – the most ironic fate I can imagine – you need to avoid confusing them. And I’m here to say four safety rules is three too many . . .

In the video above, Hipster Chick (HC) struggles to remember the four gun safety rules she supposedly learned the previous week. “The gun is always loaded,” she begins. She remembers the i

A couple weeks ago I wrote a post titled You Gotta Know When to Fold ‘Em. It referenced Kenny Rogers’ famous song, The Gambler, in which he teaches a fellow train rider a valuable life lesson about knowing when to push through, and knowing when to let go.  As a competitive shooter (not an operator), I suggested there are some times when things aren’t going right at the range, that it’s better just to pack up and go home.  Comments ranged from supportive to critical, as I would expect.  One particular comment criticized my mental game and my ability to work through adversity.  Well, sir, whoever you are…this post is for you.

This weekend was the 3-Gun Nation Pro Series qualifier match at the US Shooting Academy in Tulsa, OK. Unfortunately, a number of shooters were affected by the winter storm that socked in half of the east coast. In what became some of the

The looks on the airline agents’ faces were priceless. “You can’t be serious,” they mumbled as I hefted the gun case onto the scale at the check-in desk. It was an understandable reaction, since they had just printed my boarding pass to London’s Heathrow Airport and now they were watching me try to hand them something they knew would never be allowed. And yet, somehow I wasn’t insane. Let me back up here a second . . .

I needed a vacation. Last year was an insane flurry of activity, with my time split between writing for TTAG, practicing and shooting with Team FNH USA, my day job and studying to finally take my CCNA exam. There was barely time for sleep, let alone getting any rest and relaxation. And even when I found some time to go home for a bit, I kept w

Airports can be minefields for CCW holders. State laws vary widely even in ‘free’ states, and the blue-gloved TSA fondlers are always waiting at the end of the security queue. Georgia is a state which specifically allows CCW in the non-secured portion of its airports, and for many Georgians this blessing has proven to be decidedly mixed . . .

Atlanta-Hartsfield International Airport leads the nation in firearms seizures, with 111 guns being illegally brought through the security checkpoint in 2013. This number is way higher than the runners-up: Miami had only 24, and LAX had only 19.

The weight of a gun on your hip and a license in your wallet quickly becomes second-nature to most CCW holders, and it’s not hard to (temporarily) forget you’re still carrying when you’re rushing to catch a plane. Even lawmakers forget sometimes: former Georgia house speaker Terry Coleman was arrested last year aft

When conversation turns to the subject of Gaston’s creations, it seems that most people fall into one of two categories. The first are those who think that Jesus Christ (or your personal religious deity of choice) himself/herself/itself came down from heaven/paradise/whatever and bestowed the GLOCK design upon Gaston himself the way Moses received the ten commandments at Mt. Sinai. It’s handgun perfection. The best gun for every person in every situation and it’s disciples wonder why anyone would want anything else. The second category of people acknowledge that the GLOCK is a good gun, but won’t ever buy one because of all the assclowns in category one. I always fell firmly in the latter group . . .

All kid

by John Boch

With the passage of the new Firearm Concealed Carry Act, Illinois “qualified examiners” — physicians, clinical psychologists, school  administrators, law enforcement official and others  – are now required to report individuals who they believe pose a “clear and present danger” to themselves or others. And reportable behavior does not have to involve firearms. Under the FCCA, these “mandated reporters” are to notify the state within 24 hours of anyone who communicates a serious threat of physical violence against a reasonably identifiable victim. Or anyone who poses a

Telling the truth isn’t always easy, and it isn’t always cheap. Sniper’s Hide is one of the authoritative blogs and forums for long-range shooting and precision marksmanship. But the Hide has found itself on the receiving end of a federal defamation lawsuit because of a critical forum post and YouTube video. Click the screen cap above to view it for yourself. It’s a less-than-flattering, but very matter-of-fact, detailed exploration of the ‘workmanship’ that went into a Tactical Rifles customized Remington 700 . . . 

The video was originally posted on the Hide’s forum back in 2012, publicity that the TR wizards a

“It’s fair to say that there are other countries working on this technology. That’s safe to say. But I would also say that a lot of what makes this successful came from the way in which we consolidated all of the complexity into something that can be operated by (a single sailor).” – Capt. Mike Ziv, US Navy ready to deploy laser systems this summer; rail guns aren’t far behind [at foxnews.com]

In the wake of the accidental shooting of a 9-year-old by his 14-year-old brother last Friday, Boston is planning to start a gun buy-up program. The new initiative was announced Saturday by Mayor Marty Walsh (above), who took office last month, and joined MAIG last week. “It’s a short-term solution. We need help from the community, we need help from these people to let us know where these guns are, who has these guns, so we can get them off the street,” said Walsh. “We also know that buy-ups . . .

let us look like we’re doing something productive, and are great press.” OK, he didn’t say that last part, but despite all the fanfare,

New York Governor Cuomo’s response to the news of Remington’s “expansion” into Huntsville, Alabama: deafening silence. No surprise there. Big Green’s move south hits Cuomo on two key fronts: his administration’s middle-of-the-night suppression of residents’ gun rights and the ongoing, not-to-say unstoppable exodus of manufacturing from the Empire State. Which are now linked. Not that New York Republicans are making hay while the sun doesn’t shine. They’re keeping their mouths shut too, afraid that speaking-up for gun rights will queer their chances of reelection. Meanwhile, more news from Alabama that gunmakers are doing just fine, thank you very much. Check this from a Steyr Arms email blast . . .

Finally after months of hard labor, organizing, and moving, Steyr Arms has purchased and moved into its new 33,000 square foot facility in Bessemer, Alabama. The new facility almost d