The Truth About Guns

CNN is reporting three dead – probably including the gunman – in a mall in Columbia Maryland this morning.  ”Howard County Police Chief Bill McMahon told reporters that the shooter apparently shot two people before shooting himself in a store on the second floor. The motive was unclear.” Do we really have to check the mall’s policy on concealed weapons? No, no we don’t. This is Maryland, after all. “A federal official briefed on the shooting told CNN preliminary information indicates the shooting may have been related to a domestic dispute.” So this probably wasn’t a random spree killer, though it’s likely to be portrayed that way since it happened in a public venue. More to come as the picture emerges.

The following was written by Karla Herdzik and is reproduced with permission. My basement is kind of a man cave. Yes, it has a washer and dryer and it’s painted pretty turquoise, but otherwise — total man cave. Across from my instruments of laundry, I keep my instruments of shooting.  My workbench has stacks of targets, wrenches, optics, target pasters, and gun cleaning supplies.  Underneath the workbench (and actually, at the bottom of the stairs) are veritable mountains of ammo.  I also stash a piece of PVC pipe so I can work on my overhead squat form, as well as a couple of kettlebells.  Seriously — total man cave, with a few small girly touches . . .

This Tracking Point promo argues that their precision-guided rifle system increases the odds of an ethical kill over long distances. You can talk about “de-skilling” hunting all you like, but it’s hard – if not impossible – to argue the point. The second bit asserts that the system encourages “pro-active” hunting. In other words, Tracking Point owners are more likely to get their asses out of the blind (or Tyler Kee’s kitchen) and go out and chase prey. Yes, well, humping that big-ass gun through the mountains may not be everyone’s idea of fun. Future, smaller iterations will make that less unlikely. Meanwhile, is this the future of hunting?

What’s the difference between ammo that’s lousy in a short-barrel 9mm carry pistol and ammo that works spectacularly in a short-barrel carry pistol?  ShootingTheBull410′s 9mm Ammo Quest shows just how it should be done. Today he turns his sights on Federal Premium 124-grain HST, and the results are, well – a bit of a spoiler – but if you play a drinking game and take a shot every time he says the word “perfect”, you’d get sloshed because I think I counted 12 times.

A Pace University student was stabbed in the head by a NYC subway beggar on Monday after the student refused to provide a ‘charitable donation.’ The attacker is in custody and the student is expected to survive. It didn’t happen in a back alley or seedy drug den, and it didn’t even happen in the middle of the night. Police say the violent mugging started out as some run-of-the-mill mid-afternoon panhandling, but the 42 year-old beggar turned violent when the 19 year-old student refused to give him money . . .

The bum jumped the kid and stabbed him in the head before wandering away. Police caught him soon after, and he’s in Ryker’s Island awaiting charges.

Any time an innocent, law-abiding person is viciously attacked on the street by a stranger, it should result in a DGU. At best the attacker will run like hell with no shots fired. At worst, the attacker will assume ambient temperature. Either way, the off

“We need to keep saying to anyone out there who has ever been assaulted, you are not alone. You will never be alone. We have your back. I’ve got your back.” —President Obama before signing a Presidential Memorandum on preventing sexual assault [via facebook.com]

I’d buy that for a dollar! Thales Australia Press Release:

Thales Australia has selected Steyr Mannlicher’s SL40 grenade launcher as its preferred choice for Thales’s new EF88 rifle currently under development for the Australian Defence Force (ADF). A new product from the Austrian company, the SL40 has been chosen by Thales after an extensive testing process. It has been designed to integrate seamlessly with all EF88 variants and can be fitted in seconds by soldiers in the field without any specialist tools, delivering tactical flexibility . . .

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (when did they stop calling it Border “Patrol?”) arrested a man on Monday afternoon headed into Mexico with “17 high-powered rifle parts,” seven “high-capacity” magazines, and about 2400 rounds of ammunition. The ammunition was packed inside the battery case of a motorized wheelchair, while the gun parts and magazines were secreted throughout the vehicle. The 17 parts were 3 lowers, 5 uppers, 4 stocks, 3 pistol grips, and 2 forearms. The man was a 52-year-old Mexican citizen and lawful permanent resident of the U.S., and was last heard telling police to “call Mr. Holder and he’ll clear this up.”

Your Lockdown of the Day™ isn’t actually a lockdown, and is brought to you from Wilson, New York. At Wilson Middle and High Schools,

It appears that some bureaucrat in the Yellowhammer State has decided to post the state’s rest stops with signs that are toxic to the Second Amendment, not to mention Alabama law. The signs say “No weapons beyond this point.” According to Skidmark at opencarry.org, rest stops aren’t on the state’s list of prohibited places for possessing weapons. Alabama’s pre-emption law was strengthened in 2013 as part of a package of Second Amendment friendly reforms . . .

“Don’t be scared of hanging out of the helicopter to get a better shot, you’ll have a harness.” the helicopter pilot over the blades whipping above us. “You mean this?” I held up a floppy black seatbelt, looking no more secure than the belts in the old Jetta I hoped to blow up. Well, here we go. I shrugged my shoulders internally, and locked into go mode . . .

There wasn’t a choice of whether I would accomplish the shot or not, there was simply shooting.

It didn’t matter that this was the second time I’d been up in a helicopter in my entire life, the first being a tour over the Grand Canyon with my mom and dad when I was just a tiny Weiss. It didn’t mat

A Suffolk, Virginia high school student has been suspended and is facing permanent expulsion after an empty magazine from a BB gun was found in his backpack at school. In another example of zero-intelligence policies gone amok, the mere possession of harmless (air)gun related accessories on a school campus is treated as though it were actually harmful or threatening . . .

From the hamptonroads.com:

On Monday, a parent contacted high school officials to say his son had seen a student with a gun in a locker room Friday afternoon. After learning of the incident, officials called police and removed the student from class, according to a letter from principal Thomas McLemore Jr.

A search of the student’s bookbag also was conducted, with