Archive for the 'Firearms' Category

KR Training:

Did shooters using the slide mounted red dots shoot better than those using irons or lasers? No.

Many, regardless of experience level, had a hard time finding the dot on initial presentation of the pistol from ready, with the most difficulty occurring when no backup iron sights were available.

Those using the green laser (in bright daylight, much of it during summer months in Texas) had no trouble using it to shoot scores very close to what they could with iron sights.

There was not time in the testing to give participants significant training time to learn the red dot or the laser. They were allowed 10 or less dry fire presentations before testing began. Red dot advocates insist that finding the dot on presentation improves with training, and I found that to be true during summer 2016, when I put in the time to earn a Grand Master ranking in USPSA’s Carry Optics division.

It would be interesting to see this study performed with more time to practice with the red dot sights.  But I’ve heard this about green light lasers and their usefulness.

With red dots you’re searching for the dot.  With the green light laser you’re looking down a line of light.  It just seems that it would be easier to sight.  It also seems like it might be a useful thing to have for folks like me who wear glasses and may not be able to find them in the middle of the night.

Readers with experience using pistol red dots and green light lasers are welcome to weigh in with their own experiences.

The Libertarian Republic:

Georgia Rep. Barry Loudermilk said concealed-carry reciprocity should be considered for members of Congress looking to protect themselves from future acts of violence like Wednesday’s attack on lawmakers practicing for the congressional baseball game.

While the shooting– which left four injured, including House Majority Whip Steve Scalise — took place in Alexandria, Va., where individuals have the right to carry guns, members were headed to Capitol Hill following practice, which falls under the jurisdiction of Washington, D.C.’s stricter gun laws.

Loudermilk, a member if the GOP’s baseball team, said the situation could have been worse had it not been for Scalise’s security detail that went after the shooter. Leadership members are provided with security, but rank-and-file members are not — leaving many wondering how to best address security threats.

“I think we need to look at some kind of reciprocity for members here, but also we need to look at security detail if Scalise hadn’t been on our team it would have been really bad,” Loudermilk told reporters. “You know, at what point do you have a congregation of members — and we’re not any more special anybody else but we are targets — do you have a security detail with you then.”

Well, apparently you feel that you are more special than other people, and listen to me Congresscritter, everyone is a target.  Everyone.  There are no exceptions.

I’ll say the same thing for you I said over reddit/r/guns to the California LEOs who wanted to keep their service weapons because … ahem … they are more special than everyone else.

No, and a thousand times NO!  If you want reciprocity, then do it for everyone.  The California LEOs over reddit/r/guns were flabbergasted that someone could actually think the way I do.  I hope you’re flabbergasted too.  So do something about it, or continue to be a target.

Choose wisely.

Politico:

Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) included the silencer provision as part of a broader bill, the “Sportsmen Heritage and Recreational Enhancement Act,” or SHARE Act. There are several gun-related items in the package, including the silencer language. A “discussion draft” of SHARE Act will be reviewed by a House Natural Resources subcommittee on Wednesday.

An interesting reddit discussion on this can he found here, and the American Suppressor Association has a summary of the bill here.

I don’t like that suppressors will be treated as long guns, taxed, and form 4473 completed.  For God’s sake, people, this is a threaded tube with baffles.  But I’ll admit that it will make this easier to pass, there will be no waiting period, no ATF review, and suppressors will be removed from the NFA items list.  And if we believe in incrementalism, we should support this bill.

David Codrea:

Sherriff Ivey’s “common sense” approach is a welcome and refreshing change from the “Only Ones” attitudes and efforts to undermine the right to keep and bear arms that we’ve noted recently from the Fraternal Order of Police “leadership.” That “us vs. them” approach is promulgated by all too many politically-motivated police chiefs who put their personal professional exclusivity before their oaths to support the Constitution.

I applaud the Sheriff’s candor and commitment to the constitution.  Now he needs to work in Florida to repeal the concealed carry permitting process and legalize open carry.

As for the matter of “run, hide and tell,” the U.K. simply copied our very own DHS stupidity with a little modification of their own, ours being run, hide and fight.  And as for the matter of all of those dumbass corporations who forbid their employees from carrying weapons on the premises, they may be answering to a jury latter on those hundreds of employees killed on the job by an active shooter from which no one could defend because they were unarmed.  If that does happen, and it eventually will in America, may the corporation become an example by going bankrupt from the class action settlement.  I have absolutely no sympathy for such a corporation.

Via Outdoor Hub.

WSOC.com:

The North Carolina House of Representatives approved a bill Thursday that would allow people to carry concealed weapons without a permit.

The North Carolina Association of Police Chiefs is against House Bill 746, which a person can carry a concealed gun, but would allow people to carry without a permit and no formal training, which is required now.

The bill would allow citizens age 18 and older, who legally own a gun, to carry it concealed without a permit, anywhere they can carry it openly.

It now will head to the Senate.

“Most people dying are being killed with guns,” said Judy Williams, the leader of the organization Mothers Of Murdered Offspring. She is working to combat rising violent crime in Charlotte.

Williams is worried the bill, if passed, will lead to more violence.

Most people being shot are young inner city blacks who are dying due to cultural and moral problems, unrelated to whether concealed carry requires a permit to be legal.

So Ms. Williams, what makes you think that if a young gang member decides to kill someone else, he is going to hesitate and reconsider his decision because concealed carry isn’t legal for him?

As for Roy Cooper, I seriously doubt that he will sign the bill into law.  Since the county Sheriffs and city and county police are separated in function and organization, and since it is the CLEOs and their employees who get the money, and since gun purchase permitting requires CLEO signoff, there is no incentive for the police to go along with any recognition of liberties and rights.

Dean Weingarten on a recent Eighth Circuit decision:

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in August reversed that decision and ruled Officers Nathan Kaiser, Tobias Hite and Shane Jensen violated his Fourth Amendment protection from unreasonable search and seizure.

The judges took issue with the reason for the stop, saying a report of a person with a handgun isn’t enough to create a reasonable suspicion of a crime, and in Nebraska and Lincoln people can openly carry handguns.

[ … ]

Officer Kaiser relied on an incident report that did not contain information sufficient to create reasonable suspicion that Duffie had already, was, or was about to commit a crime. See United States v. Hensley, 469 U.S. 221, 227 (1985) (extending Terry to the investigation of completed crimes). Nebraska law permits individuals who are at least 18 years old to open carry handguns in public. See Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 28-1202, 28-1204 (2009). The City of Lincoln does not restrict an individual’s right to open carry except in certain locations. See Lincoln, Neb., Mun. Ordinances § 9.36.130. Moreover, the mere report of a person with a handgun is insufficient to create reasonable suspicion. See Florida v. J.L., 529 U.S. 266, 272 (2000)

I thought I found all of the articles on and instances of open carry, but I missed this one.  I’m glad that Dean wrote on this.  It adds to our collected wisdom and information concerning what the courts think of this kind of behavior by the police – at least, some courts, even if they refuse to do anything about it.

For God’s sake.  The 58-year-old black pastor is a double amputee.  He fell all over the place trying to comply with the idiot’s command.  He injured himself and under other circumstances I can see death resulting from his fall (if he had landed differently).

The only disappointing thing about this judgment is that the cops weren’t fired and put in prison.  The circumstances are not necessarily similar to but dovetail with the decision by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, where they found that the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police violated the rights of Nathaniel Black, even though Black was apparently a criminal and did indeed break the law.

Nathaniel Black was part of a group of men in Charlotte, North Carolina who local police officers suspected might be engaged in criminal activity. In particular, Officers suspected that after seeing one of the men openly carrying a firearm – which was legal in North Carolina – that there was most likely another firearm present. When police began frisking the men one by one, Mr. Black wished to leave, but was told he was not free to leave. Officers chased Mr. Black and discovered that he possessed a firearm; it was later discovered that he was a previously convicted felon. Mr. Black was charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm. Before the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, Mr. Black moved to suppress the evidence against him. His suppression motion was denied, he entered a guilty plea preserving a right to appeal the denial of the suppression motion, and he was sentenced to fifteen (15) years imprisonment. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, however, determined that the officers had improperly seized Mr. Black, suppressed the evidence against him, and vacated his sentence.

This was the right decision.  Open carry is legal in North Carolina, and without this being a “Terry Stop” – and it most certainly wasn’t – Mr. Black should not even have been detained.

If you are a CLEO or a Chief of Police reading this, listen to me well.  If open carry is legal in your state, you cannot stop someone for open carry.  I know it sounds so obvious and common-sense that this shouldn’t have to be said.  But apparently with the police it does indeed have to be pointed out – again, and again, and again.

Only an idiot doesn’t understand this, or if you understand and refuse to implement and comply, you’re just a criminal with a badge.

WRAL.com:

Raleigh, N.C. — A House committee voted Wednesday in favor of a bill that would eliminate North Carolina’s requirement that people obtain a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

House Bill 746 creates “parity” for people who are allowed to carry guns openly but suddenly find themselves on the wrong side of the law if they put on a jacket and cover up their holstered sidearms simply because they lack a concealed carry permit, said sponsor Rep.Chris Millis, R-Pender.

“This bill would allow law-abiding citizens to be able to carry concealed, regardless of obtaining the mandatory government permit, and this ability to carry concealed is only in places where it is currently allowable to openly carry a firearm,” Millis said, noting 13 other U.S. states have similar rules on the books.

Concealed carry permits are issued through a county sheriff’s office, which conducts a criminal background check and looks for records of mental illness or incapacity. The requirement has long been a sore spot with gun rights advocates, who say it gives sheriffs too much power to deny gun owners what they say is their constitutional right to carry a concealed weapon.

Grass Roots North Carolina has worked hard for this bill, and I certainly support it.  I also enjoyed meeting GRNC face to face at the recent gun show in Charlotte, and was pleased to hear that some of them read my articles.  But this bill isn’t all that it seems.

Oh to be sure, it’s potentially carry without a permit, but let me ask you a question?  Why would this be the case?

The North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association has taken no position on the bill, but said it’s pleased legislators didn’t also move to revoke permits required to buy handguns. County sheriffs are a key voice in the debate because they issue handgun permits.

The North Carolina Sheriff’s Association has taken no position on the bill.  They couldn’t care less.  It tells you why right in that single sentence.  To give you a little background, at one time the CLEO had to issue both permits to carry and permits to buy a handgun.  The permit to carry involved a lot more than permits to buy, including a comprehensive review of medical records that you must turn over to the CLEO.

They still do that, and they also still issue permits to buy handguns, but oops, what do you know, unintended consequences and all, the CLEOs need more time and more money and more personnel because that mental health screening that was previously done for CHP holders – yea, that one, well, they do it for all handgun purchases now.

So just to buy a handgun requires one and the same process as a CHP holder goes through.  Recognizing constitutional carry is a bit of a ruse and misdirect when they have just now incorporated the full CHP process into handgun purchases.  While several months ago some state senators waxed confused and apologetic over the behemoth new system they didn’t know they were creating, it’s almost as if they planned this whole thing to begin with.

Pardon me if I don’t get giddy over constitutional carry in North Carolina.  Get rid of the communist CLEO permitting system for handgun purchases and then I’ll think you’re actually doing something about liberty in North Carolina.

The Hill:

NY Daily News:

He just had to show off his gun.

Police arrested an off-duty city correction officer who brandished his gun in a Hell’s Kitchen restaurant to impress two women – then accidentally shot himself in the finger and one of his companions in her right foot, officials said Wednesday.

Correction Officer Mario Carrillo was charged with assault and reckless endangerment for the boneheaded move inside the Mamasita Bar & Grill on 10th Ave. near W. 54th St. on Tuesday night.
The 56-year-old guard, a five-year employee of the Department of Correction, had joined two women at the restaurant at about 8 p.m. and was talking about his job when he pulled out his off-duty Glock to show them how it worked, officials said.

A moment later, the pistol went off.

“It appears he may have been displaying it,” a police source said.

Well gosh.  I just hate it when that happens to me.  We always laugh, and laugh, and laugh if the wounded ones are willing to laugh about it and shrug it off.

Notice the third person the author applies in the article, as if the gun has a personality of its own and does things volitionally.  “A moment later, the pistol went off.”

Remember boys and girls.  Only authorized journalists can be considered professional writers.  And only LEOs are tactically well trained enough to handle guns.