The Truth About Guns
Exploring the ethics, morality, business, politics, culture, technology, practice, strategy, dangers and fun of guns
Updated: 1 week 1 day ago
Retiring NYC Police Commissioner Wants 6 Taxpayer-Funded Full-Time Bodyguards
“Outgoing Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly wants to take half a dozen detectives to protect him and his family after he leaves the NYPD, DNAinfo New York has learned. “Citing the fact that he will remain a ‘high profile target’ after he leaves office, Kelly informed insiders at Police Headquarters that he will request the contingent of detectives — each will remain on the city payroll making about $120,000 a year — to shepherd him around town and protect him and his family during their tr
Quote of the Day: You Can Run But You Can’t Hide Edition
“As Americans, we have a long history with firearms. We also have a government built on compromise, so here is the compromise I propose: Ban assault rifles and handguns for everyone except police and military personnel. These weapons are made to kill humans and should be strictly limited. At the same time, allow responsible citizens to own rifles and shotguns. Rifles are for hunting big-game animals, shotguns are for hunting birds; non-automatic versions of these weapons should be available for those with an interest in hunting or target shooting.” - Nick Symmonds, Guns in America: Time for Change [via runnersworld.com]
2 Shot at Houston House Party. And?
“A sheriff’s office says a man and a woman are dead and at least 22 other people have been injured following gunfire at a large house party in a suburb near Houston,” foxnews.com reports. “Texas’ Harris County Sheriff Office issued a statement early Sunday that two suspects are being sought after shots erupted between 11 p.m. Saturday and midnight in the suburb of Cypress. The statement says more than 100 people, mostly young adults, were at the house and many fled in panic from the gunfire, with injuries ranging from minor to critical.” Gang bangers. Whatcha gonna do? The reason we’re posting this? The headline from kveo.com: Mass shooting at Houston party, 22 hurt, 2 dead. Talk about parroting and enabling gun control advocates . . .
Ralph: There are Three Kinds of Gun Control Advocates
Hoplophobes are afraid of guns as if firearms had a mind of their own. Hoplophobes are ignorant and we’d like to teach them, but they (mostly) do not want to learn. They are happy in their ignorance. They are only dangerous because they vote . . .
Anticulturalists hate gun culture and wish it to be destroyed. The guns are secondary. We are their target, and they’d hate us even if we were disarmed. The hatred of us is palpable. Listen to their language. They use phrases like “gun nuts” and far worse to deride our culture. They would exterminate us if they could get away with it, but they can’t. Most of the anti-gun crowd are anticulturalists fighting this culture war. It’s p
MA FBI Agents Charged with Failure to Secure a Large Capacity Firearm. Or Not.
“A $20,000 [taxpayer-funded] reward is being handed out to an unnamed Bay State resident who helped [unnamed] cops track down two FBI rifles allegedly stolen by a 16-year-old from Lawrence [from unnamed FBI agents],” bostonherald.com reports. “The two weapons, one an M16-A1 rifle, the other a sniper rifle, were stolen between Wednesday night and Thursday morning. During a press conference announcing the arrest of a 16-year-old for the theft, Andover Police Commander Charles Heseltine would not say how the FBI SWAT vehicle was broken into, but he said other cars nearby were also burglarized and those cars we
Incendiary Image Of The Day: Fire Extinguisher Gun
Finally, some gun-safety warnings we can all pay attention to! Duracoat did up this low-priced Mossberg Maverick over-under with a custom ‘Fire Extinguisher’ coating for the guys at Student Of The Gun. Make the jump for more incendiary/extinguishing fun…
Why didn’t they Duracoat the flashlight too? Probably because they were saving their last can of orange whoop-ass for the left side of the buttstock, that’s why.
Magpul Misogyny. Or Not.
Since the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (CSGV) labeled me a misogynist (and an insurrectionist) I’ve been extremely careful not to express anything but respect and admiration for strong, intelligent, sensitive, capable, caring, sensual women. Wait. Did I take that too far? Is calling a women sensual sexist? I’m so confused! Anyway, as for women who don’t answer to that description I think I’ll find one I hate and buy her a house. Hey, it’s my comfort zone. Meanwhile, isn’t this horrible? Bad Magpul! Bad! Oh wait. Is that a woman taking the pictures? That makes it OK, right? I’m so confused!
Why New York Times’ Columnist Joe Nocera Thinks It’s OK to Infringe on Your RKBA, And What You Can Do About It
New York Times columnist Joe Nocera jumped on Guns & Ammo-gate lickety-split. Duh. Joe is the Gray Lady’s leading proponent of civilian disarmament, through his context-less Gun Report “feature” and regular editorials. Joe starts this morning’s anti-gun piece When a Gun Advocate Dissents with a simple statement: “It’s not as if Dick Metcalf was some kind of gun control fanatic.” You see what he did there? With one sentence Nocera paints gun rights advocates as intolerant fanatics. The rest of the polemic follows entirely predictable lines, especially this bit . . .
When peop
Quote of the Day: Guns.com Backs Metcalf: Regulations are Not Infringements
“Why people are so butt-hurt by Metcalf’s editorial is puzzling to me. The gun owners I pal around with are the smartest, most thoughtful and responsible people I know. To have a significant faction of the community wig out over a column that makes a rather obvious and well-known point is shocking to me. Where are their heads at? . . . one cannot make a convincing argument that he’s wrong about placing limits on the Second Amendment. Truth be told, there are regulations that are not considered to be infringements.” - S.H. Blannelberry [not shown] Did Dick Metcalf deserve to be fired over Guns & Ammo column on 2A limitations? [via <
Daily Digest: Stupid Human Tricks Edition
Despite all of the miracles of modern medicine, there’s still no cure for stupid. And given the whole ObamaCare fustercluck, the prospect of new advances in the area seem remote at this point. Which only points up the benefits of the occasional dash of chlorine dripped into the gene pool. A Waterbury, Connecticut man is dead and his good friend and roommate has been charged with accidentally shooting him. According to police, the two men were taking turns firing blanks - at each other - with a Ruger .22 in the living room of their apartment when, somehow, live ammunition made its way into the mix. “I feel more guilty than anything I could think of,” Shawn French said. Somehow I think his guilty feeling is cold comfort for his friend’s family . . .
Gun Control Advocacy Forum Rules: Disagree and Be Banned
There’s many reasons why I don’t like the people behind the gun control movement, even on a personal level. But one of the biggest reasons is that they don’t accept any criticism or opposition to their position. Their beliefs are the right and true ones, and any argument to the contrary is regarded as a personal betrayal and instantly banished. In order to try and understand the other side and see if they ever make a good point (hint: still waiting), I’m a member of many gun control advocacy forums — just lurking in the background, watching. One, a would-be subreddit forum, /r/guncontrol, failed to get off the ground. Since it didn’t get any followers and crashed, I don’t mind broadcasting the fact that I was watching. But its
TTAG Exclusive: World’s First 3D Printed [Metal] Gun Fires 500 Rounds
Full review with takedown and multiple rounds fired on Monday. Suffice it to say, the guys at Solid Concepts ran 500 rounds through the gun today and left Red’s range with the same number of holes, fingers and toes with which they entered. As well as a fully functional (if a bit cranky here and there) 1911.
Distraught VA Man SWATed to Death In His Own Home
In an ideal world, police de-escalate situations. They use their authority and firepower to prevent and stop violence, not create it. Which is why the militarization of America’s police is so dangerous to life and liberty. The arrival of a camo-clad SWAT team in a Lenco Bearcat at the scene of a domestic disturbance, for example, is not calculated to calm nerves and let cooler heads prevail. It’s designed to overwhelm and intimidate the “perpetrator” and “suspect.” You know: shock and awe. So what happens when the American citizen in question says “screw this I’m staying in my house”? I think you know where this is going, even if the Virginia SWAT team didn’t. Or did they? Check this out from policestateusa.com . . .
The situation began on August 29th aro
Michael Moore: Americans (Not Canadians) are Gun-Crazed Killers
The anti-gun documentary Bowling for Columbine was a huge hit—in its small little way. The documentary cost $4 million. It grossed nearly $60m. More than that (so to speak and if such a thing is possible) BFC earned director Michael Moore an Oscar, making him the darling of Hollywood’s liberal elite. And now Moore’s shot his mouth off (so to speak and if only) on the LAX shooting. At LAX airport. What’s interesting about this clip: TMZ producer Harvey Levin argues that the type of gun doesn’t matter. One of his minions argues that it does, due to the “assault rifle’s” capacity (vs. a shotgun). Harvey’s got nothing, which goes to show the importance of firearms education. As for Moore, I’d love to debate that.
CNN To Campaign To Stop Gun Violence: We Never Booked TTAG Farago
The Campaign to Stop Gun Violence (CSVG) and CNN host Jake Tapper got into a Twitter war on whether or not your humble scribe was booked on The Lead to discuss the Metcalf imbroglio. [Click here for the full exchange.] I’m wondering if Tapper was under pressure to cancel my appearance (given that I’m a “insurrectionist & misogynist”) and now denies the interview was ever planned. That doesn’t make much sense but the only other explanation is that Mr. Tapper and his staff had a failure to communicate. From our end the truth of the matter is pretty simple . . .
Truth be told, CNN producer Elizabeth Chmurak and I exchanged seven emails in all. We also had two rather congenial phone calls. Here
Metcalf Responds To Guns & Ammo Firing
The Outdoor Wire has printed a response form now former G&A technical editor Dick Metcalf to his firing. In short, Dick’s upset. And he fears for both the First and Second Amendments. And all of you and your “voices from cyberspace” are to blame. Have at it:
When the present controversy erupted a week ago, I was asked by Guns & Ammo/InterMedia management to write the following “clarification and elaboration” on the December Backstop column for use on the G&A website. I did so, but the decision was made to wait and see how the situation developed. I was also asked to hold off on making any comments in any other forum, and no other response appeared in any G&A/IMO forum at all. Then, after Paul Erhardt’s column appeared in the Shooting Wire yesterday (http://www.shootingwire.com/features/228219), IMO was contacted by two major firearms industry manufacturers, stating that they would do no further business with IMO if it continued with its present personnel structure. Within hours, Jim Bequette resigned as Editor of Guns & Ammo, and my relationship with all I
Higher Education Lesson of the Day: Armed Self Defense is Not an Option
What happens when a concealed carry license holder wards off a robbery attempt in Spokane, Washington, by displaying a legally owned firearm in his own apartment? He gets a big atta-boy from the local PD. But if he’s a student and rents that off-campus apartment from Gonzaga University, the gets his guns confiscated in a midnight raid. And he will, in all likelihood, be expelled. That appears to be the most likely outcome of a University Disciplinary Board hearing today to determine the academic fates of Erik Fagan and Dan McIntosh . . .
After the robbery attempt, the two seniors dutifully reported the incident to the local constabulary as well as campus police. As relayed by gonzagabulletin.com,