The Truth About Guns

“In yesterday’s Senate drone hearing, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) got personal, describing a rally held outside her home earlier this year,” theverge.com reports. ‘I went to the window to peek out, and there was a drone right there looking in. Obviously the drone’s pilot was surprised, because the drone wheeled around and crashed,” she told 

Two students are injured after a couple rounds were fired at their school from outside today, that’s the story from CNN. Their condition is not currently known to the press, but they are still being listed as “injured” and not “killed” so that’s good news. The bigger story here is the incessant definition creep were seeing with the media. Any time more than two people are involved, a “murder” becomes a “mass shooting.” If it happens anywhere near a school it’s a “school shooting.” And God forbid someone has more than one firearm, because that gets re-branded as an “arsenal.” It’s a war of words, and it’s escalating. More on this story as it develops.

As everydaynodaysoff.com points out, the gun lover above is about as emo as you can get without listening to My Chemical Romance. But I share the bullet maker’s philosophical approach to firearms. For me, shooting is about mastering that sometimes infinite space between firing and not firing. The moment between the bullet laying in the gun, inert, and the moment the bullet flies out of the gun at superhuman speeds. In terms of self-defense, I’m fascinated by the leap from life before you pull the trigger to life after you pull the trigger. As for firearms themselves, I never get tired of coming to grips with the transformative power of their highly evolved, continually evolving forms. I love guns not as a lover loves a lover. I love guns as a man who savors the inc

Seeing a row full of Schmidt & Bender PM II scopes lined up with typical German military precision almost brought a tear to my eye. Be still my beating heart.  Sigh. Well, its been a busy year for S&B:  nine new scope offerings are being shown at SHOT this year. Included in this release are two new long range “compact” scopes from the PM II series of scopes: the 3 x 20 x 50 PM II Ultra Short and the 5 x 20 x 50 PM II Ultra Short. The smaller of the two, the 5 x 20, is just under 30cm long (11.7 inches)  and weighs only 870 grams (30 ounces) . . .

“The Security Industry Association (SIA) supports the inclusion of a new school safety initiative in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2014 (H.R. 3547) cleared by Congress on Thursday and poised for enactment by President Barack Obama,” an email blast from the industry lobby group proclaims. “Of the $75 million in the bill, $50 million would go toward pilot projects at schools to test technologies to improve school safety, training for school personnel and other initiatives. Another $25 million would go

There’s a family fight brewing up in New Hampshire and like many inter-family fights, this one is getting nasty. At issue is SB 244, a proposed bill in the state senate that would require people with court-determined mental illness to be added to the NICS system as ineligible to purchase a gun from a FFL.  Specifically people who fall into the one of the following categories would have their gun purchase rights suspended . . .

• Found incompetent to stand trial
• Found not guilty by reason of insanity
• Having a court-appointed guardian
• Involuntarily committed to a mental health facility.

I chose the word, “suspended” very carefully because the proposed legislation also has a proscribed and unambiguous procedure by which a person can have their name removed from NICS once their mental heal

Jeff Creamer, SIG SAUER‘s Director of Product Management, was pleased as punch to be handed TTAG’s Readers Choice Award from Chris Dumm yesterday for their SB15 pistol stabilizing brace. The popular gizmo was intended to help disabled vets, but it ended up being a smash hit with more than its original intended audience. And from the looks of things, we may be back next year to hand them a different award — for the handgun category instead of accessories.

We spotted the Ruger 10/.22 Takedown at the SHOT show two years ago, and Bill Ruger’s stepchild has certainly thrived since then. While the scarce little rimfire is certainly not lacking in awesomeness, there’s something to be said for an adjustable-length buttstock. Especially on a rifle that’s so ideally suited to younger, smaller shooters. Don’t worry: Tapco is all over it . . .

Your fore-end rail mileage may vary, but never accuse Tapco of skimping on the Picatinny. MSRP for the tactical takedown stock is $119-ish. And that’s a direct quote.

Redfield is the down-market more affordable brand for Leupold’s scopes, and they’ve been expanding the line pretty comprehensively in the last few years. Their latest addition to the family is a high magnification scope designed for benchrest and long range shooting with a 6-18x magnification range. The scope features a parallax adjustment ring, 1/4 MoA elevation and windage adjustments and a MIL reticle . . .

It’s still a second focal plane scope, which for me is frustrating, but makes sense at this price point. The scope will run you about $299.

Any gun geek should know about Poland’s history of high-quality arms manufacturing, although few of us have seen more than their Beryls, Tantals, and the collectible Radom 1911 clones. This year Beryl and Radom are displaying their BRS-99 carbines and pistols, along with several other guns (not pictured) which you and I will never see for sale. The BRS-99, however, has at least a tiny chance of making it here . . .

If you think you see a trace of UZI DNA in this design, you wouldn’t be mistaken. It’s a blowback 9mm carbine or pistol, modified from the original Polish subgun. It’s already for civilian sale in Canada (go figure) and its being imported into the US in limited numbers, but no US civilian distributor is lined up. That’s never a good sign.

Redfield contines to impress us with their lineup of working-class AR optics, including their new ‘Accelerator’ mini red-dot. This $199 (MSRP) unit will mount on carbines, shotguns and lots of handguns. But it won’t ship until May of this year. Details are few (grrr….), but a 6 MOA water-resistant micro red dot with a U.S. warranty could be a great aiming solution for those of us who need day jobs. 

One of my main complaints about the Tavor SAR was the trigger. It’s about average in terms of bullpup triggers, which means terrible when compared to a nice AR-15. Timney’s a company that makes triggers for every firearm under the sun, and they’ve just released their latest creation  –  a drop-in trigger for the Tavor SAR. To say that the difference between the stock trigger and Timney’s version is night and day is an understatement. The only quibble left is that there’s a touch more over-travel than I’d like, but the crisp, clean and light break means that all is once again right with the bull pup world. Needless to say we’ll review one of these ASAP.

“Teachers who obtain 24 hours of additional training could carry concealed handguns in schools under [legislative bill 879] introduced Tuesday in the Nebraska Legislature,” omaha.com reports. “The bill would create a ‘level II’ concealed carry permit that would require the holder to undergo training in addition to the roughly eight hours for a standard permit. The additional training would include best practices for active shooter situations, weapons retention methods and techniques related to barricading and evasion. The g

As in most of the rest of the country, trusts are commonly used in Virginia to acquire and possess NFA items such as automatic firearms, suppressors, and AOW. However, Virginia has a specific law with regard to machine guns that they must be registered with the Virginia State Police in addition to whatever ATF paperwork may be involved. That adds an unfortunate twist to a seemingly straightforward situation. According to then-Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, a trust cannot register a machine gun under Virginia’s Uniform Machine Gun Act. . .

This situation was brought to light in answer to a letter from Colonel W.S. Flaherty, Superintendent of the Virginia State Police to the AG. In the letter, Superintendent Flaherty asked, in part, “whether a trust may register a machine gun in Virginia under the Uniform Machine Gun Act (the ‘Act’).” Cuccinelli’s response (pdf), dated November

“They’re going to wish they weren’t alive after I’m done with them” movie producer Harvey Weinstein [not shown] speaking to shock jock Howard Stern, quoted in Harvey Weinstein to Take Aim at NRA in New Movie [via swampland.time.com]

As I said in my review, the Tavor SAR is the perfect rifle for the job it was designed to do. If you want a home defense gun or a rifle for CQB scenarios, there is no finer option. Apparently our readers agreed, and bestowed the first Best Rifle of the Year award on the Tavor SAR. Accepting for IWI were Michael Kassnar, IWI VP of sales and marketing (above left) and IWI’s head man Shlomi Sabag (above center). I had the pleasure of handing the hardware to them this afternoon and Michael immediately hung it on the wall of the booth. And I dare say it looks smashing.

Adams Arms is a relatively new player in the AR-15 market, but they’re already making waves. Their guns use a piston system that’s dead simple to use, and their guns come set up pretty much the way you’d want them kitted out. Now they’re adding a new competition rifle to their lineup with the COR.

The rifle comes standard with Diamondback’s new flip-up offset sight, a Hiperfire trigger (which is pretty sweet), and Magpul furnature. Not to mention the lightened bolt carrier and operating parts for a quicker cycling acti

Star Wars fans know the score: “Do. Or do not. There is no ‘try’.” So when Team Taurus shooter Jessie Duff says she’ll try to blog for TTAG on a weekly basis, and underscores the word “try,” ours is not to wonder why. Ours is to do or die. Which is NOT the ethos Ms. Duff brings to this website. Still, Jessie is one of the smartest, funniest and most attractive women on planet earth, and she shoots pretty well too. We’ll take what we can get and say boy, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Which is literally true. If you’ve got questions of ideas for Ms. Duff’s initial posts hereabouts pop them below and we’ll try to get her to read them. See what I did there?

We’ve reviewed Black Rain Ordnance’s firearms before, and they have fared very favorably. Which is to say that I loved it and dreaded the day it needed to go back. Now, BRO is introducing their Model 602, a bolt action rifle based on an action that BRO has designed from the ground up. Everything from the barrel shank to the bolt face has been designed by BRO to their specs, and there’s a ton of customizable features.

The rifles aren’t even complete yet — this is a prototype, serial number one — but they should ship sometim

Tucked away in a corner of the ground floor of the SHOT show was a small but visually impressive display by Cabot Guns. I thought I had struck gun blogger gold and immediately took some photos of the some of the most beautiful 1911s I had ever laid eyes on. Of course, when I mentioned my achievement to Nick Leghorn a few hours later, he rolled his eyes and informed me that our very own Robert ‘Tex” Farago had blogged the latest Cabot ballistic eye candy a few days earlier. Undaunted, I am posting these pics anyway, because I hate to see perfectly good images go to waste . . .