The Truth About Guns

B. Todd Jones is the Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives [And Really Big Fires]. In this PBS interview, Byron talks about implementing a new “business model” for the ATF—a worrying bit of jargon for a Marine who never spent a day of his life running a business. Jones promises to focus his Agency on “the trigger-pullers and traffickers around the country who are creating havoc in our community.” Trigger-pullers? Not criminals? Another trendy but concerning choice of words. Byron then redefines criminal violence as . . .

“slow-motion mass shootings.” Oh dear. That’s the term gun control advocates use to agitate for civilian disarmament. I wonder who’s Byron hanging out with these days? Or maybe he’s just in synch with those who would deny Americans their natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms.

After kvetching about a lack of agents (again), Byron says he’s determined to tackle the “f

I’m a bit of a nut when it comes to big guns. Why? Because guns. Also because they’re a lot of fun to shoot. Well, it’s a lot of fun to see what happens to what you shoot. Thanks to Uncle Sam’s regle du jeu, I won’t be seeing this SAW in my gun safe anytime soon. As a fantasy check, I put it to you: if you could, if you had the money and buying one wasn’t machine gun impossible, would you add a FN MINIMI light machine gun to your collection? Here’s the press release . . .

Belgium-based small arms manufacturer FN Herstal unveils the next generation FN MINIMI light machine gun in both 5.56mm and 7.62mm calibers during the MILIPOL exhibition in Paris, November 19 – 22 2013.

The modifications introduced on the FN MINIMI Mk3 result from feedback provided by users engaged in current operating theatres. Indeed, the demands of users have evolved over the past 10 to 15 years due to changes in

By Aaron James

Thanksgiving Day was always fun for me growing up. Unlike most of my friends, though, my Thanksgiving always consisted of spending the morning deer hunting with my dad, and his dad, my Poppa (not pictured above). We would hunt until about 11 am, then head back to grandma and Poppa’s house where a festive meal would await. The Thanksgiving meal would be a time of reflection, sometimes about the morning hunt, but more times than not, just a celebration of life . . .

Poppa held a special place in my heart, as did the Grandfathers of most 7 year old boys. He was a man’s man. Ten feet tall and bullet proof to me, both then and now. Superman could not carry water for my Poppa. He was, in every sense of the word, my hero. In his vegetable garden, at the barn, in church, but especially the deer camp, I had been his shadow since before I can recall. And Thanksgiving Day, 1993, was no exception, and soon it would prove to be the T

Esquire owes its existence to English foppery: a perfectly dreadful combination of elitism and, uh, give me a moment would you? Shotguns (and hunting and hunting dogs and hunting clothes) are as important to the English upper class’s self-image as bumping uglies with servants is to their genetic health. So it’s no surprise that Esquire scribe Lt. Col. Robert Bateman’s five-point plan to “fix” the Second Amendment—in the sense that one fixes a dog—starts by exempting double-barrel breech-loading shotguns. “Hunting with these is valid,” he asserts, aping aristocrats who believe that an accident of birth is all the justification one needs for any firmly held opinion. Bateman’s list also exempts police from any of his gun control plat

Desperate situations are kind of like Frank Zappa. Not because they vomit onstage, but because they tend to inspire all kinds of brilliant, slightly dangerous and often downright disturbing spectacles. A LiveLeak video shows two wire-stocked AKs being used in a way that even Mikhail Timofeyovich probably never imagined.

This looks pretty freaky, but these guys had the sense to at least drop the magazines and keep their hands off the trigger. They also avoided getting shocked, and their dead truck was up and running before they even had time to say don’t try this at home.

“Game officials were not surprised this happened so quickly after the sheep were released in the Catalinas. Until a viable bighorn population is established there, any mountain lion that eats a sheep will be killed, ‘in an attempt to re-establish the natural order of things.’” Bighorns and mountain lions die [via azstarnet.com]

I don’t normally do the “new product press release” thing here, but the Chamber-View looked somewhat interesting to me. One of the ranges I shoot at regularly has RSOs that can be real hardasses about downing/clearing rifles on cold range. For only ten bucks, this seems like it might help avoid confusion. It’s big enough to not be “fiddly” like a lot of chamber flags and the orange color will help keep it from getting lost. Press release and regularly scheduled non-commercial Digest after the jump. . .

MERRIMACK, NH – Chamber-View®, innovators behind the highly visual firearms safety products, is pleased to announce the introduction of the AR Type Chamber-View® safety block, available in November for purchase throug

I’m all about training as you mean to fight. I’m completely on board with the “beware of the man with one gun” philosophy. I’m as dumb as you wanna be when it comes to the Keep It Simple Stupid. So I train with my GLOCK 19. A lot. And I concentrate on the basics: move and shoot, shoot and move, clear the gun, reload, hit the damn target (and variations thereof). I have every confidence that I will do something useful in a defensive gun use, should I be able to unholster my firearm at the appropriate moment. But I don’t always carry my GLOCK 19. This OWB OFWG sometimes carries a

The common cry of the gun control advocate is that “most Americans support stricter gun control,” but as a CNN poll released today shows that just isn’t the case. In the aftermath of the Newtown shooting the opinion polls spiked to 58% in favor of more gun control, but in the following months the numbers rapidly dropped and have continued to plummet. By April, it was down to 53% in favor. And now, according to CNN, those numbers are down to 49%. When you drill down a bit into the numbers, things look even better . . .

31% of those asked responded that they strongly support more gun control. 32% respond that they strongly oppose more gun control. Those in the middle are relatively evenly split on the issue, and 1% didn’t offer an opinion. So, in reality, only 31% of Americans reall

As if the hypocrisy of the Gun Control Industrial Complex wasn’t already on full display after the Moms Demand Action crowd announced their intentions to use the anniversary of the Newtown shooting to push for the infringement of Americans’ enumerated civil rights, word comes today that Barack Obama’s political action committee Organizing For America is trying to drum up some “grassroots” gun control advocacy events for that day, too. Their website makes the same, tired (now debunked) claims about “overwhelming support” for increased gun control that we’ve heard regurgitated time and again, almost as if they’re trying to hypnotize their members into believing it despite all the polling to t

Pocket 9s are all the rage right now. They have been since pocket .380s relinquished the title in a steel cage death match back in April of 2012. But as always, the question is just how effective they really are. Having identified the best .380 load in the personal defense firmament, ShootingTheBull410′s jumping feet first into his stockpiles of parabellum to find out what rounds perform best from the new breed of pocket pistols. (Just please, don’t call them “Tiny Nineys”…) Check out the first video in his new Ammo Quest series. In this installment, he puts Hornady Critical Duty through the testing crucible.