The Truth About Guns

In the video above Kay Jay Dubs demonstrates her core competency: .22 caliber rifle. Since filming this trick shot with her trusty Anschutz, Kirsten’s applied her mad marksmanship skillz to a range of firearms in a number of calibers, from TrackingPoint’s XS-2 (.300 Win Mag) to Underground Tactical’s full-auto AR (5.56) to a SAIGA 12 and a bad ass Benelli M4. Watching Kirsten grok a gun is an amazing experience. She adjusts her grip, breathing, stance and focus; locks it all in and . . . she’s gone. It’s a skill set anyone can learn but few can master, and masters make look easy. Note: it isn’t.

The limerickleader.ie tells the tale of two [unnamed] men living in Limerick, Ireland who’d spent seven years in the Army Reserve. Both men are target shooters. When the men applied for licenses for their guns—an MKE .223 semiautomatic rifle and a Heckler and Koch SL8–Chief Supt David Sheahan denied their requests. “In a letter explaining his refusal to one of the applicants in February 2012, Chief Supt Sheahan said he regarded the MKE .223 semiautomatic rifle to be ‘military in style’ and there was no requirement in target shooting competitions to have such a high-powered gun . . . It was not disputed by the state that both men were of excellent character

My daughter’s principal approached me in the hallway the other day. I’d just finished running my part of the Wednesday Book Club, but the principal knew me from lunchroom duty. That’s where I hand out napkins, open recalcitrant containers, give bathroom passes, enforce discipline and mess with their heads (in a nice way). As part of that duty I wear an apron around my waist. Despite covering my outside-the-waistband holster with a shirt, the whole rig occasionally rides up and exposes part of the Kydex shell. I always pull it down and vow to take off my empty holster before entering the school. One kid noticed it and remarked on it once. Apparently he wasn’t the only one . . .

“One of the parents asked me to talk to you,” the principal said. “She wanted to know if you carry a gun in the school.”

“No I don’t, ” I replied, a little taken aback but unapologetic. “I observe

JP Enterprises is the gold standard when it comes to competition rifles. Take a look at the gun rack at a pro series 3-gun competition and you’ll see what I mean — if a competitor isn’t using a gun made by their sponsor, there’s a 90% chance they’re shooting a JP rifle. The reason is pretty obvious, since John Paul puts a TON of time and effort into making them “perfect” rifles, and having played around with some of his designs I completely agree about their quality. So when I heard that JP was putting out a 9mm AR-15 carbine, I was all over it . . .

We here at TTAG have covered our share of 9mm carbines in the past, and in general we’ve been pretty disappointed. For example, the JR Carbine that Tyler reviewed had so much pote

An Ohio man is hospitalized and facing criminal charges after calling 911 to report that he’d been shot. He neglected to tell 911 that he’d been shot while breaking into a house, but luckily the homeowner had already called the police himself to report the shooting. This case illustrates the critical importance of being the first party to call 911 after a DGU . . .

Police say 21 year-old Randy Estrada called 911 early last Thursday morning and told Toledo police that he’d been shot in the leg while walking on the sidewalk. He didn’t mention anything about a burglary, but the police already knew. Homeowner Antione Garrett had just called 911 himself to report that he’d fired multiple shots at an intruder breaking into his home on a nearby street.

EMTs picked up Estrada and took him to the hospital while police investigated the sho

Honey-toned Lock and Load Radio host Bill Frady writes:

I have just taken the time to view the No More Silence video agitprop that is coming from Moms Demand Action and Mayors Against Illegal Guns. It’s a perfect illustration if you ask me. Legs walking toward an un protected school with a sinister duffel bag swinging. Beautiful children and pensive adults re-living the 24/7 onslaught of “news” that was the coverage of that horrible attack on Sandy Hook. Everyone totally defenseless. Legs climb stairs, bag is discarded, door swings shut, time is up . . .

Unfortunately, as long as the insanity of the gun free zone persists, history will repeat itself. We will witness anoth

“18 percent of the physicians surveyed stated that they always recommend that handguns be removed from their patients’ homes.” Periodic Survey #25 Guns and Children [via aap.org]

“After a nearly yearlong effort to sell its gun business, Cerberus Capital Management LP is close to bringing on a minority investor and lender to the weapons maker to let some of its investors sell out, a person familiar with the matter said.” As wsj.com points out, Steven A. Feinberg’s minions have been looking to punt, indeed promising to punt The Freedom Group (TFG) for almost a year, after it was revealed that Newtown spree killer Adam Lanza used a Bushmaster AR-15 for his murderous spree. Spurred on by The California State Teachers Retirement System’s decision to 

CHARLESTON, West Virginia --(Ammoland.com)- West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey today announced that West Virginia and 25 other states and one territory have filed an amicus, or friend of the court, brief with the U.S. Supreme Court opposing a federal government attempt to prosecute legal gun owners who wish to sell a weapon to another person who can legally own and purchase firearms. “Our Office is proud to lead a bipartisan group of 27 states and territories in this brief to oppose the U.S. Department of Justice’s attempt to unilaterally create a federal restriction on firearm sales between law-abiding citizens,” Attorney G

The folks at the NPR program ‘Here & Now’ do a God-awful job at covering up their desire to cram new gun control regulations down the throats of Americans. They speak in calm and even tones, but everything from their choice of phrases to their choice of guests proves that they couldn’t care less about an impartial view on the day’s news. On Friday their guest was Paul Barrett, author of the recent GLOCK history, and together they mourned the lack of “progress” on gun control in the United States following Newtown. And in trying to explain the failure of their civilian disarmament efforts, they fell back on some of the favorite (and widely disproven) groupthink of the Civilian Disarmament Industrial Complex . . .

Democrats (and liberals in general) feel that they&#

The Obama administration has whiffed on every proposed gun control measure they’ve presented so far at the federal level, and it’s starting to show. In an attempt to be seen as “doing something about gun violence,” the ATF is being pressured to enact new restrictions on some of the most law abiding citizens in the US…and make their announcement coincide with the anniversary of the Newtown shooting. In particular, the ATF is about to close down the public comment period for a proposed rule that would allow local sheriffs (or the equivalent “chief law enforcement officer” in an area) to enact a de facto ban on NFA items in their jurisdictions regardless of state and local laws. Don’t like that? You can still submit your comment at this website here, al

Mother Jones magazine’s Dave Gilson reckons the NRA’s whitewashing history at their National Firearms Museum. Specifically, he attacks the NRA’s recent tweet trumpeting the fact that their fabulous collection contains Henry Morton Stanley’s elephant gun while neglecting to mention that the African explorer was a homicidal maniac. Setting aside Twitter’s character limits. “As Stanley related in his own accounts, he repeatedly used his big guns to intimidate and kill people he encountered on his African travels. Here’s how he 

Alan Gottlieb’s Second Amendment Foundation has racked up an enviable string of legal victories, but they’re taking their next battle to the public instead of the courts. They’re promoting the first annual Guns Save Lives Day on December 15th, a day after the anniversary of the Newtown shootings. Civilian disarmament fanatics will, of course, gleefully dance in the blood of victims, holding their own lame-ass rallies and vigils on December 14th.

In advance of GSL Day, they’re asking people to call their 800 number and cast their votes. The SAF’s poll may lack a certain methodological rigor (self-selected survey participants rarely provide valid population samples) but their question is a valid one.

Do guns save live

Journalists call the technique the “inverted pyramid.” Instead of revealing the who, what, when, where and why in the first paragraph you start the story with an anecdote that draws the reader in. I hearby nominate John Diedrich and Raquel Rutledge of the [Milwaukee] Journal Sentinel into the inverted pyramid hall of fame. The story starting their investigative report on the ATF’s storefront sting program had m

I love my Remington 700 AAC-SD, but it has its limitations. The Hogue stock is grippy, but that means the barrel isn’t free floating. And the hinged floorplate magazine is nice, but I’d really prefer a box mag. Other finnicky things come to mind too, but I can just cut to the chase by saying that the new Nesika Tactical rifle in .308 (or .338 for those with too much money in their wallets) is quite possibly my idea of bolt action heaven . . .

Sturgis, SD – Nesika proudly announces a new line of precision, custom rifles – Sporter, Long Range and Tactical.

The new Nesika custom rifles feature the legendary Nesika actions and include top quality features such as Douglas air-gauged barrels, hand laid-up composite stocks and Timney TriggersTM sporting ri

“It still had people who were nice to each other, working together and no one was talking about guns. Then (the attack) happened and it became either you have guns or you don’t have guns.” – Newtown resident Carla Barzetti, A Year After Newtown, Rift Over Guns Deepens [at abcnews.go.com]

Because it’s the weekend, I’m leading off with a video. Just a quick one of 22Plinkster neatly severing a piece of swinging dental floss, with slow-mo. We loves the slow-mo, don’t we precious?

Several months back we told you about Liberty Safe’s SafElert system, a small wifi-enabled box that you could install in your safe that would notify you if your safe (any safe) is jarred, hit, pried, moved, opened, over heated, the handle is jostled or most anything else out of the ordinary, as well as sending you weekly humidity reports from inside the safe. Now from The Tactical Wire comes an announcement that Liberty Safe is doing away with the monthly monitoring fee (fo

The Firearms Coalition writes [via ammoland.com]:

Gun rights advocates around the country need to be on the lookout for an insidious new tactic being launched by Mike Bloomberg and his mercenary minions. The strategy: use the wide acceptance of the idea that the mentally ill should not have access to firearms, as a front for prohibiting a broad array of “normal” people from possessing guns or ammunition. As with most things, the devil is in the details. What is mental illness? Who is mentally ill? How mentally ill must one be to warrant revocation of a fundamental human right? Who makes that determination? Who is “normal,” and how “normal” do they have to be to own g

Dan Baum is one of those “I support the Second Amendment but—” guys. Where he differs from the other gun rights appeasers: Dan is a master wordsmith. As I said in my review of Gun Guys, A Road Trip, is “one of the best-written books about firearms enthusiasts I’ve ever read. To shun Gun Guys simply because its author fails to understand the true meaning of his subject would to be miss out on some wonderful literature.” And now you can delight and aggravate yourself in equal measure with the dramatically cheaper paperback versi