Archive for the 'Firearms' Category

Via David Codrea, this.

Several gun-related businesses were suddenly — and without warning — disrupted in recent weeks when Intuit stopped processing credit card payments because sales were gun-related, The Post has learned.

Some of the payments stopped didn’t even involve firearms, but simply T-shirts and coffee mugs and gun safety classes, according to small business owners.

As a result, the businesses had to scramble to track down customers to get them pay their bills after Intuit credited back to customers’ accounts the purchases — even if the T-shirt was already shipped or the class already taken, one businessman told The Post.

At Gunsite Academy, a Paulden, Ariz., company that provides marksmanship training in addition to selling guns that ship to a licensed gun shop near the customer’s home, Ken Campbell was dinged by Intuit’s action.

Campbell, a former Indiana sheriff, had just switched credit card processors this spring — to Intuit, the parent of TurboTax and Quicken software — when the trouble began, he said.

Intuit told Campbell it mistakenly believed firearm sales were being made directly to the customers.

Campbell explained the guns were shipped to a local dealer with a federal firearms license who ran the required background checks. Intuit was unmoved.

Honor Defense, a Georgia firearms maker that ships only to other dealers, had a similar experience with Intuit.

Gary Ramey, president of Honor Defense, told Gun Talk radio host Tom Gresham that Intuit “reversed charges” on his customers as well.

Honor Defense could not immediately be reached for comment.

They’re reporting only on what we discussed almost three weeks ago.  So the issue with Gunsite is a recapitulation of information already out there.  But there is no excuse for Honor Defense.

And there is no excuse for any other gun shop to learn the hard way.  This change should already have been made before Intuit dings their customers.

I’ll stipulate that this site is rather niche, I just don’t get why a gun shop wouldn’t be the first folks to check the gun blogs daily.  Are they out of touch with their customer base or the politics that determines how they will do business?

Via reader Wynn, Foxnews:

A coyote attacked a teen in the woods of Massachusetts over the weekend, Boston 25 News and other local media reported.

The incident happened in Swampscott, northeast of Boston, on Saturday night and paramedics rushed the 17-year-old victim to a hospital, according to the station. The circumstances surrounding the attack were unclear.

The Swampscott Police Department took to Facebook on Saturday evening.

“This evening in a wooded area between Burpee Rd and the upper Jackson Field, there was an incident involving a coyote bite,” authorities said.

They went on, “We urge residents to use extreme caution in any wooded area in town.”

Swampscott police said that they and environmental police searched the area but didn’t find the animal.

They also listed several precautions people can take when dealing with an approaching coyote.

“Walk with a walking stick, carry a noise maker, walk with a buddy,” they said in part.

Probably not a Coyote – probably a Coywolf.

Yea, I carry a noisemaker.  A very loud one.  And I walk with a buddy too.  His name is 230-gr .45 ACP fat boy.  He doesn’t mind it when I call him fat boy.

Say, don’t they have all of that gun control in Massachusetts anyway?

Meanwhile, TCJ correspondent Fred has joined a union and is on strike for better wages.

Via SOFREP.

The author suspect that a shirt got caught in the trigger well.

I’ve engaged in appendix carry before.  I don’t like it, having nothing to do with the danger of discharge.  I find it highly uncomfortable, and would rather [1] open carry, or [2] carry at 3:00, in that order.

On the other hand, regarding negligent discharge of the firearm (wherever it is being carried), I’ll say this.  I don’t run plastic guns (except for an FN5.7, which I will only open carry).

I run 1911s, and I love that safety.  With one motion as I achieve purchase on the grip I can swipe the safety off and be ready to go.  Round chambered, hammer back, safety on.

The thing I give up is weight.  Every choice is a compromise.

Long but worth it.

Capital Press:

A grizzly bear researcher for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is recovering from serious injuries following a bear attack in Montana, and a rancher says one or more grizzlies killed two llamas 12 days earlier elsewhere in the state.

Amber Kornak, 28, of Libby, Mont., was working alone near a stream in the Cabinet Mountains south of Libby. She was collecting grizzly hair samples from bushes for DNA testing, said Jennifer Strickland, a USFWS spokeswoman.

Kornak, a seasonal employee, was just a couple of weeks into her “dream job” when she was attacked from behind, suffering two skull fractures and severe cuts to her head, neck and back, her friend, Jenna Hemer, wrote in a GoFundMe post soliciting money for her recovery.

Kornak sprayed the bear with repellent and walked two miles to her vehicle and drove for help, Hemer wrote.

She underwent four hours of surgery at Kalispell Regional Medical Center, including removal of bone fragments from her brain and is home facing a long recovery, Hemer wrote.

“She aims to make a full recovery and get back to doing what she’s passionate about, working with grizzly bears and other wildlife,” Hemer wrote.

Strickland said Kornak was following USFWS work protocols, and that those protocols are being reviewed.

Officials speculated noise from the stream may have prevented Kornak from hearing the bear approach, the Associated Press reported.

Dillon Tabish, a Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks spokesman, said the incident is under investigation and the department will confirm the type of bear. Generally, black bears are less prone to attack humans than grizzlies.

The incident follows another attack 12 days earlier more than 100 miles southeast of Libby, when a grizzly or grizzlies broke through a fence at mid-day and killed two trained pack llamas worth about $4,500, the rancher who owned them told Capital Press. Ten other llamas were not injured, he said.

He asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals from environmental extremists.

Since the attack, he’s been locking his llamas in his barn at night and is installing electric fence to protect them and his family, he said. Their nearest neighbor is a quarter-mile away.

“We’ve had grizzlies in our yard occasionally but this was the first kill and it’s spooky to have them come in broad daylight,” he said. “We don’t go too far away from the house without bear spray. I used to carry a Ruger 454, but it gets heavy and I think spray is more effective.”

Thanks, but I’ll keep a gun with me in the bush.  I grok that a big bore gun gets heavy.  But what’s your life worth, sir?

As for the poor researcher, get a gun, dear.  And don’t go out in the bush alone.

And no, TCJ correspondent Fred didn’t send this one to me.

I guess under these circumstances a 7.62X39 will work as well as a 5.56X45.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (localmemphis.com) – – An East Memphis man is not facing charges, after Memphis Police say he opened fire on two burglars in his home.

Local 24 News learned the two men later died from their injuries.  The shooting happened around 7:00 p.m. Friday in the 1700 block of Myrna Lane, close to Overton High School.

The homeowner told Local 24’s Annette Peagler, he believes this break-in started as retaliation towards his friend.  He says one of the suspects came to the home weeks before the shooting claiming that the homeowner’s friend owed him money.

“You know you see your stuff ransacked, your puzzled and you trying to figure out what’s going on,” the homeowner said.

Memphis Police identified the suspects as 28-year-old Azell Witherspoon and 17-year-old Demond Robinson.  The homeowner, who wanted his identity hidden for safety, said he came face to face with the two men inside of his home Friday evening.

“He picks up his weapon, he turned around and pointed it at me,” the homeowner said.

He further explains the gun jammed and that’s when both suspects ran to the kitchen.

“I’m assuming they were trying to go out of my back door so as they go through there I jumped in the closet and get my AK 47,” he said.

When that homeowner came back to the front of the house, he found both suspects on his patio.

“He was shooting aiming at my play cousin, so I just let loose. Not knowing I hit both of them,” the homeowner explained.

I visited Memphis once on a job interview right after college graduation.  I decided never to go back.  Reddit has more.

One idiot comments (because Reddit is a prog-magnet) “So no other gun would have worked?”  Stupid, a handgun would not have been as accurate.

Stupid.

Pursuant to the FedGov’s rules regarding product reviews, I should mention that Luke at Craft Holsters sent me a very nice holster to review.  I’ll also mention that I had been interested in a nice leather holster for a 1911 and had even contacted another holster company who, after hearing about what I wanted, offered to discuss it with me and build a custom holster for my Dan Wesson 1911 Guardian (which is a Commander size pistol).

I don’t like Kydex holsters as readers know.  I like leather and Cordura, and have enough tactical stuff to last a very long time.  I needed something nice.

Luke worked with me to select the right one for my pistol, and it’s absolutely beautiful.  The leather is exquisite, the stitching precise, it’s a two-cant position holster, and it’s specifically molded to fit the gun.  Oh, by the way, I like having a retention strap.  I wouldn’t have a holster without a retention device.

Based on what I’ve seen I can highly recommend Craft Holsters.  I have a drawer full of mediocre holsters.  This one is a keeper.  Sort of like a neighbor said to me once concerning jeeps and 4WD trucks.  Jeep drivers have 4WD.  As a truck owner, you have a “Gentleman’s 4WD.”

This is a “Gentleman’s holster.”

Stars and Stripes:

The Army is updating procedures for use of the M4A1 automatic rifle after a soldier recorded cellphone video of his weapon firing when it shouldn’t have.

The video, recorded in late March, shows the soldier operating a rifle that has been converted from a standard M4, which can fire a maximum three-round burst, to the fully automatic M4A1, according a safety message sent to troops on Tuesday.

The soldier places his carbine’s selector switch between “semi” and “auto” and squeezes the trigger but it doesn’t fire, until the switch is moved to “auto” and immediately discharges a round, the message says.

The Army’s Tank-automotive and Armaments Command, or TACOM, first warned soldiers about the problem in March and April.

The M4A1, previously used exclusively by Special Operations troops, is now the Army’s primary individual weapon.

Inspectors were able to replicate the malfunction depicted in the soldier’s video in about 10 percent of the weapons they checked, defense industry journal Soldier Systems reported.

Testing also revealed that carbines from a different manufacturer malfunctioned when switched from “safe” to “semi-automatic,” the journal reported.

The latest safety messages concern M4s and M4A1s, as well as M16A2, A3 and A4 rifles. They order personnel to change the way they check functions on the weapons and perform immediate action drills to diagnose weapon stoppages.

Um … what?

What?

There is no reason a shooter should intentionally misplace the selector switch between modes, but then again in the stress of battle anything is possible and this failure mode is entirely plausible.

The genesis of the problem appears to be a feature of the gun not a part of the original specification, and it seems to me that this is a huge, huge problem.

They don’t need to send this problem to armorers.  They need civilian gunsmiths to tackle this and work the problems out, and that should have done that before deploying the modification.

I’m also not clear as to exactly why they need fully automatic anyway.  This gun can never be an effective area suppression weapon.  Not for long anyway.

Good grief.

At Shooting Illustrated.  You can go see for yourself, but I won’t comment except to say that the prices are totally unreasonable.

I simply won’t pay $4000+ for any handgun.  Ever.  Not even if I was wealthy.  I’d give my money away before I paid that much for a pistol, even a very good one.

I’m not sure what manufacturers are thinking (perhaps they think there’s a market for this price point, and maybe there is), but when you can get a pseudo-custom Dan Wesson for < $2000, it just isn’t worth is to buy more expensive.  And I think I’ve mentioned before that the gunsmiths at Hyatt Gun Shop would rather work on a Springfield Armory 1911 than a Kimber (so I’m told) because it’s a better pistol.

A Springfield runs for much, much less than the prices I see in this article.  Smith & Wesson also makes a very good Performance Center 1911 for much less than these prices.  I’m thinking that some of these must be custom-built guns, but even then, I’m just flabbergasted at the prices.

Although I just don’t understand what YouTube bans when, why and how, and what they don’t.