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Exploring the ethics, morality, business, politics, culture, technology, practice, strategy, dangers and fun of guns
Updated: 1 week 2 days ago

Nevada School Shooting – Why Do We Have to Keep Learning the Same Lessons?

Tue, 10/22/2013 - 20:00

The details on the Nevada School Shooting yesterday have started to emerge. Unfortunately, the story is all too familiar. A 13-year-old showed up at school with his parent’s gun and opened fire on fellow students wounding two of them. A teacher, Michael Landsberry, who is a former Marine and served two tours in Afghanistan (but who was unarmed) attempted to intervene and was killed for his trouble. The adolescent shooter then turned the gun on himself. Unfortunately for the gun control community, this event lacked some of their favorite elements; no “assault weapon”, no children killed (yet, other than the shooter who saved the state some tax dollars by dousing his own lights) and it remains to be seen whether or not a “large capacity clip” was used . . .

The murderer (yes, let’s use the proper word here) was described

FL Woman Arrested For Squirt Gun “Assault”

Tue, 10/22/2013 - 19:00

Giovanna Borge told Port St. Lucie police that her boyfriend “said something to her she did not like.” tcpalm.com takes it from there. “Borge said she then grabbed a water pistol, squirting her boyfriend with water. The boyfriend, she said, then dumped a container of water on her and hit her with a pillow. She wound up in the tub in the bathroom after ‘mutual shoving.’ Meanwhile, the boyfriend said Borge started screaming at him and squirted him with the water gun after which the two made mad passionate love.” Just kidding. Domestic violence is a serious business even when it involves pillows and a squirt gun. An

Just Arrived: Winchester Long Beard XR Turkey Loads

Tue, 10/22/2013 - 18:00

Well look what the big brown truck just dropped off. Winchester announced their new LongBeard XR shotgun food a few weeks back, just in time for turkey season. It’s biggest claim to fame is that thing in the photo. No, that’s not a #6 Jell-O mold. That’s Winchy’s new Shot-Lok brainstorm that encapsulates the pellets in a nice, tight little package. They say it keeps the shot from deforming when the gun goes bang, resulting in tighter groups. In fact, they claim twice the pellets in a 10″ circle out to 60 yards. Just one problem . . .

 

They kindly sent me three boxes, one each of numbers 4, 5 and 6 in standard 12 ga

BREAKING: NV School Shooter Got Gun From Home

Tue, 10/22/2013 - 17:17

“The 12-year-old student who opened fire on a Nevada middle school campus, wounding two classmates and killing a teacher before he turned the gun on himself, got the weapon from his home,” ktar.com reports. “Washoe County School District police said they are still working to determine how the boy obtained the 9mm semi-automatic Ruger handgun used in the Monday morning spree at Sparks Middle School. The boy’s parents are cooperating with authorities and could face charges in the case, police said.” Once again, as in the Sandy Hook Spree killing, gun control advocates are waving the bloody shirt and bemoaning “easy access” to guns rather than, say, calling for an education campaign for parents on safe gun storage and/or recognizing signs of men

Incendiary Image of the Day: German Guns, German Beer Edition

Tue, 10/22/2013 - 17:00

Heckler & Koch pistols and German beer. What’s wrong with that? Nothing unless you drink the beer and shoot the pistols. And maybe not even then, depending on the amount of beer and your weight and alcohol tolerance and safety protocols and who am I kidding? There’s no way a gun blog can recommend, condone or promote drinking and shooting. You’d think the same rule would apply to Heckler & Koch. But, as we all know, the Germans have a different sense of humor than the rest of us. H&K fanboy Marc Santos provided the pic posted on the gunmaker’s Facebook page. And there it is. So . . . das ist ein witzyah?  FWIW, it’s

Ammo Test: DRT .380 Frangible 85-Grain

Tue, 10/22/2013 - 16:00

By Barry Green

I’m obsessed with terminal ballistics and personal protection through armed self defense. Thanks to my day job as a producer for Fiercely Independent Films I’ve got access to some fun toys. Put it all together and you get a YouTube channel (ShootingTheBull410) on ammo testing. One of the most recent tests is for Dynamic Research Technologies’ “penetrating frangible” .380 ammo. . . .

This is a totally different type of cartridge; there’s no solid lead slug at all. The “bullet” is made of compressed powder that’s intended to disintegrate into a fine dust when hitting the target.  DRT makes some rather aggressive claims for their ammo, both on their website and in a 19-minute interview

Housekeeping: Should We Delete Comments that Flame Gun Control Advocates?

Tue, 10/22/2013 - 15:00

 

Check this from The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence’s blog [bolded text de-bolded]: “Robert Farago, a pro-gun blogger at ‘The Truth About Guns,’ has also been on a crusade against MDA because of their focus on domestic violence, writing a series of angry posts on 

Sniper Teams Guard Keene, NH Pumpkin Festival

Tue, 10/22/2013 - 14:00

Keene, New Hampshire is small New England town nestled in the southwestern part of the state near to the Vermont border.  There is no interstate highway access and the population is only about 23,000 people. It also would seem to be a breeding ground for dangerous terrorist behavior. We were first alerted to the high risk faced by Keene last year when the city decided to accept Homeland security money to purchase their very own Lenco Bearcat. While one might wonder why a town that’s had only two murders since 1999 thinks it needs a battlefield grade armored assault vehicle, you’d be foolish to let your guard down. Obviously, the peaceful small New England town facade is just a clever ruse employed by the evil terrorists to hide their agenda until they are ready to strike . . .

Some might think that I’m being overly paranoid here. But clearly, it’s a good thing I’m here to p

Soon-to-Be-Obscure Object of Desire: A-10 Thunderbolt

Tue, 10/22/2013 - 13:00

The Fairchild A-10 Thunderbolt was designed for close air support of ground troops and . . . that’s it. It’s slow, it’s ugly (they call it the ‘warthog’) and it’s a devastatingly effective way to silence enemy ground forces. To that end the jet’s nose is equipped with General Electric Aircraft Armament Subsystem A/A49E-6: a 30mm Gatling gun mechanism, double-ended linkless ammunition feed, storage assembly and a hydraulic drive system. Shooting some 3,900 rounds of armor shredding depleted uranium a minute, the mini-gun’s characteristic brrraaapppp sound means that someone somewhere is in a heap of trouble. The plane itself is also in peril; the Air Force is looking to cut all their A-10s from the fleet. Meanwhile, this flying gun’s getting it done.

Gun Control: Why Haven’t We Thrown the Bums Out?

Tue, 10/22/2013 - 12:00

TTAG reader David Wagner writes:

There was no shooting for me this weekend, as my wife – inspired by one of those many home improvement shows decided it was imperative that we clean and throw-away all the garbage we have stored away in the garage these many years. Now mind you most of the throw-aways were the result of her “hoarders” mentality, but that is clearly beside the point. However, as a result of this process, I did find a box containing many old gun magazines from back in the day. Attached is a pdf I created from a scan of one of articles in one of those old magazines [click here to download]. An October 1994 edition of Soldier of Fortune magazine . . .

Asymmetric Warrior Gun Review: D.R. Long Range Concepts LRPR-II

Tue, 10/22/2013 - 11:00

Chief Instructor – LRPR-II

During the most recent Long Range Precision Rifle Course –II (LRPR) – The ASW308 rifle was used by students (JW& IM) throughout the entire LRPR II course 11-13 Oct 2013.  The student and his spotter were the “Class Top Shot” Graduates of the Course. IM also serves as an Assistant Instructor at D.R. LRC. JW had very little difficulty adjusting the chassis to his body makeup. Using the tool-less length of pull & cheek piece adjustments, he quickly made this rifle his own for the wee

Ruger 10/22 Customization Contest Reaches Final Ten

Tue, 10/22/2013 - 10:00

As we reported, Ruger’s running a contest to create an out-of-the-box modded 10/22 50th anniversary model. The judges have chosen the final five. The gun above is . . . tasteful? Still, props to Bill from Montana for going all American Graffiti on the finish while resisting the urge to do anything else at all. In fact he disses his fellow entrants by asserting that the anniversary rifle shouldn’t be “some strange conglomeration of aftermarket parts.” Yes, well, let’s see what his competition has to say about that . . .

New York SAFE Act Lunacy Revealed. Again. Still.

Tue, 10/22/2013 - 09:00

According to New York’s SAFE Act, Empire State residents who are not shooting at a gun range may only load their legal, registered handgun with seven bullets. Why? So that they (or someone) have to reload during a spree killing, giving defenders a chance—however momentary—to intervene. Well, not them. Spree killers. Obvs. People who are not known to obey gun laws. So what’s the point, really? . . .

A desire for politicians to prove to gullible constituents that they “did something” to curb “gun violence” after the Sandy Hook slaughter? Civilian disarmament? Yes and yes. No matter what the motivation the end result of this fascist Kabuki theater is clear enough: otherwise law-a

Quote of the Day: Will Wonders Never Cease Edition

Tue, 10/22/2013 - 08:00

“Everything’s been running pretty smoothly. I have to admit I was a bit apprehensive.” – San Antonio Police Chief William McManus,  Gun Sentiments and Guns on Display at Alamo Rally [at nytimes.com]

BREAKING: CA Court of Appeals: 2A Doesn’t Apply to AK Platform Rifles

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 21:51

California’s 4th District (Division 1) Court of Appeal just held that the Second Amendment does not apply to semi-automatic firearms like “AK” platform rifles. Click here to read the decision. “We construe Heller as standing for the proposition that the right secured by the Second Amendment is ‘not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose’ (Heller, supra, 554 U.S. at p. 626), but is instead the right to possess and carry weapons typically possessed by law-abiding citizens f

Daily Digest: Divine Intervention Edition

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 21:00


Indiana pastor Carl Sanders walked into a Dollar General in Evansville Friday night to find a masked man holding an unknown object wrapped in plastic and demanding money from the clerk. When the man turned toward Rev. Sanders and ordered him to the ground, Sanders pulled his own (actual) gun and ordered the would-be robber to the ground. The

CT Memorandum of Lies Defends Disarmament. Help Us Pull it to Pieces!

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 20:00

Connecticut Governor Dannel P. Malloy has filed a Memorandum of Law asking the U.S. District Court to dismiss legal action against Bill 1160: ”An Act Concerning Gun Violence Prevention and Children’s Safety.” The memo argues that “the challenged Act does not implicate or burden Plaintiffs’ Second Amendment rights, does not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and is not unconstitutionally vague in violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.” The opening paragraph is a thinly veiled tissue of lies . . .

Deaths and injuries caused by firearms in the United States each year are epidemic.

There are over 31,000 firearm-relat

New from Advanced Ballistic Concepts: Multiple Impact Bullet

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 19:00

You remember my APB asking for the loan of an Austin-area Remington 870. I can now reveal my hidden agenda: I need an 870 to test Advanced Ballistics Concepts’ Multiple Impact Bullet. As you can see above, the round require its own choke tube—if you want to improve the performance of your smooth barrel shotgun. ABC offers three chokes tubes that cover 95 percent of all existing scatterguns. But this is the one they sent us. Thanks to our readers’ generosity we’ll soon be testing 12-gauge Multiple Impact Bullet ammo on, well, isn’t it obvious? Our new friend and ammo-testing contributor ShootingtheBull410 will also provide more scientific evaluation. And then we’re going to celebrate with a Remington 870 Schützenfest! But before all that a little history . . .

I first ran i

Medium is Extremely Anti-Gun

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 18:00

 

Medium is the brainchild of Twitter founder and billionaire-to-be Evan Williams. I think it’s supposed to be a blend of Twitter, Reddit and a blog. Or maybe Pinterest, Digg and Tumblr. It’s impossible to say right now. At the moment, only a small group of invitees can create content. “What we’re doing is ordering things by our best guess of the relative quality/interestingness of the different items,” Ev avers, “according to the people who have seen them.” Medium contains a section called

TTAG Exclusive: Kirsten Joy Weiss Shoots Upside Down

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 17:00

Kirsten Joy Weiss doesn’t know the name of the Pilates pose from which she shot the balloon in the video above. “All I know is that my Pilates instructor told me to do it, and before he could say ‘slowly’ I was in it,” Kirsten texted me. “Freaked him out cuz he can’t do it. I’m terrible at some other stuff though.” Having grilled Ms. Weiss on her expertise on a range of activities I can report that she sucks at hypnotizing race car drivers. But only because she hasn’t learned how. Nor am I going to teach her, lest TTAG’s resident sharp shooter “convince” a hot shoe to let her fire her gun from a NASCAR racer at full chat. On second thought . . .

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