8 years, 8 months ago
This is interesting, and from what I see, he is advocating a sort of admixture of forward aggressive and modified Weaver. I’ll have to try it to see what I think because I lean forward more than he recommends.
8 years, 8 months ago
Vickers Tactical. Nice video. Courtesy of reddit/firearms. Eugene Stoner rules.
8 years, 8 months ago
CNBC:
Owners of Remington’s popular Model 700 rifle can now examine for themselves literally millions of pages of internal company documents that have led critics to conclude that the guns are unsafe.
The documents — more than 130,000 files in all — have been assembled in a searchable online database by the advocacy group Public Justice. The organization, which battles against secrecy in the courts, fought successfully last year to make the documents public.
“These documents show the extreme danger of court secrecy,” said Public Justice Chairman Arthur Bryant. “They prove that court secrecy kills. Literally.”
With millions sold since the design first went on the market in the 1940s, Remington claims its Model 700 is the best-selling bolt-action rifle ever made. But lawsuits have alleged that for decades the company covered up a deadly design flaw that allows the guns to fire without the trigger being pulled, resulting in dozens of deaths and hundreds of injuries. The company has denied the allegations.
The documents show Remington engineers wrestling with what they called a “very dangerous” situation as early as 1947 — before the guns went on sale. Company officials eventually decided that a design change was not worth the added cost, a conclusion they would reach again and again.
We’ve discussed this at length before. While shooters are responsible for following all of the rules of safety, firearms manufacturers are responsible for designing and producing firearms that don’t discharge a round when the trigger isn’t being pulled. It’s called “defense in depth.”
Take a look at the incredible cache of documents there. It’s staggering. As I’ve said before to firearms manufacturers, when you find problems you’d better admit them and get out in front of the problem, recall it, announce it, and fix it.
Engineers, don’t ever sacrifice your ethical integrity at the behest of corporate lawyers. You say, “But this pertains to my career and this is a very difficult decision to make, and it could affect my ability to support my family.” Yes it does, and yes it may.
That’s why it’s call ethics. It isn’t ethics when it’s easy. Been there, done that. I know what it’s like.
8 years, 9 months ago
Police say an Iowa man had stabbed two people repeatedly last month before a man pulled a gun and ordered the attacker to get on the ground.
Adam Scott Jacobsen, 28, stabbed Jeffrey Miller 24 times and Denice Bennett eight times at an apartment complex before Daniel Williams drew his firearm, according to police. “He pulled the gun and ordered him to lie on the ground,” said Cedar Falls Police Chief Jeff Olson. He said Jacobsen stayed on the ground until police got there, and that Williams holstered his gun before police arrived.
[ … ]
Authorities say the man with the gun, Daniel Williams, had a permit to carry. Police wouldn’t say whether they believed Jacobsen would have continued stabbing people without Williams’s intervention.
That last paragraph is only there in the article because some idiot reporter wanted to know if use of a gun was really, truly, absolutely, really, really necessary, or if perhaps Williams could have de-escalated the situation without even unholstering the gun. You know that’s what happened. Or some idiot reporter wants to know if perchance the situation would have ended peacefully if a gun had never been present.
In other news, a grandmother in Georgia stopped a home invasion with a gun.
Two men and a woman have been arrested after grandmother with a gun thwarted an attempted burglary at her home in Coweta County, Ga., according to deputies.
“I don’t know why they selected that house, but they picked the wrong one,” Colonel James Yarbrough from the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office said.
According to a report, Elaine Stiehl, 78, was getting ready to take a nap when she heard a noise coming from inside her home on Mount Carmel Road around 3 p.m. Friday. Stiehl loaded her gun, opened her bedroom door and saw two men standing in her hallway, the report said.
Officials said the men were in the process of stealing furs and tools from the home, but after seeing Stiehl’s gun, the men reportedly ran out of the residence and fled in a car.
“Neighbors were able to give us a description of the vehicle we pulled it over and took the subjects into custody,” Yarbrough said.
Impossible, ridiculous, absurd and preposterous. We all know that a gun is no protection from crime, and that if anyone other than a LEO uses one, it takes on a life of its own and spins wildly, shooting innocent people at random.
How could this happen?
8 years, 9 months ago
With the possible removal of silencers/suppressors from National Firearms Act control, a number of legal questions around the devices emerge.
The current mechanism for change, H.R.3799 — the Hearing Protection Act — is stuck in the U.S. House but would likely see a stronger reboot in the next Congress in 2017. If a new bill gains enough momentum to make it through Capitol Hill and onto the waiting desk of President Trump, it would leave a few things undecided if signed into law with its current language.
Today, some 42 states have legalized suppressor ownership for civilians, several within just the past few years. As the HPA simply removes the items from the purview of the NFA, the states that ban them now can continue to ban them into the future. On the other hand, states that currently allow ownership could move to restrict it should the items no longer be shackled with requirements for tax stamps, registration and extensive waiting periods caused by paperwork.
“It’s no different than the states that prohibit the sale of machine guns or even certain Title I firearms,” Adam Kraut, an attorney specializing in Second Amendment rights with the Firearms Industry Consulting Group, told Guns.com.
While on the outset this fact would seem to hurt the legislation, it largely removes much of the steam from anti-gun lawmakers hailing from states that currently ban suppressors such as California and Illinois …
Oh, I would never underestimate the ability of collectivists to control everything. Visit Guns.com and read the rest of the article, which is an interesting analysis of other questions, such as what happens to the current registry of suppressors if the law were to pass?
This is all well and good, and I hope we see progress on this front. I mainly hope that not because of the hearing protection such devices provide (since one can currently wear hearing protection when shooting), but mainly because wearing such devices inhibits proper man-machine interface. For example, do you find it rather difficult to get a good cheek weld on your rifle if you’re wearing muffs? Or another way of asking it is this. Do you find that you are modifying the way you would do things naturally because you are wearing muffs?
Again, this is all well and good. But what about my SBR? I want to see SBRs removed from the NFA list. Are you listening? I want SBRs removed from the NFA list. You didn’t hear it that time either? Okay. I WANT SBRs REMOVED FROM THE NFA LIST!!!!!
8 years, 9 months ago
There’s no question – the AR-15 doesn’t look like your daddy’s deer rifle. Of course, the Winchester Model 94 lever-action rifle your granddad used doesn’t look anything like his father’s Hawken, either.
However, we see progress all around us. The smartphone is nothing like the rotary phones I grew up with, and if my grandpa stepped in my pickup truck, he’d think it was a spaceship.
The American hunter is experiencing this same thrust into the 21st century. While it might not have the lure, feel and warmth of walnut and blued steel, performance matters over nostalgia. I’m not suggesting you trade in your old .30-30 on an AR, or regulate your bolt rifle to the closet for all eternity. What I hope you will do is consider the many factors that make the AR-15, and its bigger brother the AR-10, ideal for deer hunting.
We’re living in a brave new world and the AR is the hunting rifle of the new millennium – and here’s why.
He goes on to describe a number of things my readers already know about the AR that make it a good choice, including man-machine interface, modularity and adjustability, reliability, etc. Then there is this.
There does exist more powerful options for those who demand it. Nine of the 41 states permitting centerfire rifles for deer hunting prohibit the use of the .223 Remington. If you hunt in one of those states, the 6.8 SPC or .300 Blackout are an option, as is the new .25-45 Sharps, which duplicates the performance of the old .250 Savage. If you want to stretch your range or just think you need more power, you can step up to an AR-10 and choose a cartridge like the .243 Winchester, 6.5 Creedmoor, .308 Winchester, and in some cases even magnum cartridges.
The semi-automatic AR-15s that shoot anything but the 5.56/.223 or 300 Blackout are non-existent to my knowledge, and the AR-10s that shoot anything else can be very pricey (except for .308). Or in other words, designer cartridge black guns are very expensive – even the AR style bolt action guns.
But I do like the idea of the 300 Blackout, where I can swap out an upper receiver quickly and easily and have a larger round, slightly slower muzzle velocity, but better long range ballistics than the 5.56/.223 (while I would also assert than the 5.56/.223 is ideal for many situations that don’t suit the 300 Blackout).
So in summary I would say to the old time hunters with puzzled looks at the kids bringing out the new fangled black guns, you need to welcome them and perhaps even learn something. They are carrying on a proud tradition. To the Fudds who refuse to accept it, I would say get over it. Your opinions don’t matter.
But here is a word of caution for the AR hunters. Know you rifle, know your round, and know your limitations. Make ethical shots. Only make ethical shots.
8 years, 9 months ago
Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump — who said he has a concealed carry permit — called for the expansion of gun rights Friday, including making those permits applicable nationwide.
In a position paper published on his website Friday afternoon, Trump called for the elimination of gun and magazine bans, labeling them a “total failure.”
“Law-abiding people should be allowed to own the firearm of their choice. The government has no business dictating what types of firearms good, honest people are allowed to own,” Trump wrote.
[ … ]
Trump said in the paper he has a concealed carry permit. The permits, which are issued by states, should be valid nationwide like a driver’s license, Trump said.
“If we can do that for driving — which is a privilege, not a right — then surely we can do that for concealed carry, which is a right, not a privilege,” Trump said.
[ … ]
Trump said the current background check system needs to be overhauled because “very few criminals are stupid enough to try and pass a background check” and get their guns illegally. Trump said that criminal and mental health records also must be included in background checks.
Well, health records were a feature of my CHP, but I object because (a) this is still a government permission slip, and (b) I still claim [rightly] that mental health maladies have nothing to do with propensity to violence.
But for the time being, I’ll take what I can get. Of the possible revisions to the federal law and code on guns, I am most in favor of the following.
In that order. What would you like to see happen?
8 years, 9 months ago
These are two very instructive videos, the first one fairly well known, but the second in my opinion is much more useful (watch them both, I understand that one has to build upon the other). I encourage them to continue this series on tips.
I do have one comment on the first video. Remember that the thumb of the left hand (if you’re a right handed shooter) must be low enough on the frame that you avoid interaction with the slide. Most of us have had our thumb get caught in between the slide and the frame as the slide cycles. That’s a horrible pinch point and you have to avoid it while also stabilizing the gun mainly with the left hand. If you get caught in that pinch point, that’s a big yeooow!!
8 years, 9 months ago
The easy availability of guns did not make 6-year-old Jacob Hall safer. It helped make him dead.
We ought to remember this boy, who was fatally shot at his elementary school in Townville, S.C., just as we ought to remember the brilliantly applicable teaching of Jesus when he famously quipped, “Live by the sword, die by the sword.”
Swap in “gun” for “sword” and you have an apt description of what’s happening to us.
The mental and emotional problems of the teenager who shot Jacob last month turned lethal because a gun was available — probably in his household, which was known to keep firearms.
The 14-year-old shooter first used the weapon on his father, leaving him dead at the family home, before driving to Jacob’s school and resuming shooting. The teen injured another child and a teacher in addition to firing the fatal shot that struck an artery in Jacob’s leg.
When will our culture wake up to the reality that the guns we get to keep us safe only make society — and thus each of our lives — more dangerous?
It’s heartening to hear a growing chorus of activist voices, including those connected with churches, clamoring in protest against our insane proliferation of guns. Earlier this month, the venerable Riverside Church in New York hosted 100 clergy and lay people for a two-day “God and Guns” training. The assembled ministers weren’t trained how to use guns; they learned how to shoot down the lie that guns are the best way to protect ourselves from … guns.
“Our faith teaches us to support policies and programs that protect life, but instead Christians have been complicit for too long in allowing our country to be guided by the rhetoric of fear,” Riverside’s senior minister, the Rev. Amy Butler, said.
Because most of us watch movies, we can picture the scenario conjured by the Second Amendment enthusiasts: You and your family are menaced by a weapon-toting bad man. He is intent on robbing or killing you. But you whip out your gun and turn the table. He flees or, if he does not, you shoot him. You and your gun have saved the day.
Or maybe you come upon a mass shooting in its early stages. Thanks to your gun, you take down the evil shooter and keep the casualty count to, say, two, rather than two dozen.
Fair enough. In situations like these, guns can protect lives. The problem is, these are perfectly framed scenarios that are more the stuff of movies than real life.
This poor old 81 year old man unfortunately lived the movie just recently.
UNIONTOWN, Pa. – A home invasion suspect was fatally shot early Friday morning in Uniontown when the 81-year-old homeowner pulled out a gun, according to investigators.
Police said 46-year-old Franklin Schrout, of Smithfield, rode a bike to the house with tools to break in, then ransacked the home and assaulted the 81-year-old man.
“Once the actor came into his bedroom, the actor was demanding to know where money was. He told them he didn’t have any money or anything of value in the home,” Uniontown police Lt. Tom Kolencik said.
The 81-year-old was able to grab a .22-caliber gun during a struggle with Schrout and fired one shot, police said.
Schrout ran out of the house and the 81-year-old’s bedridden sister called 911, police said.
When police arrived at the home, they found Schrout dead outside.
The 81-year-old told police that he had never fired the gun before and that it had been sitting in his nightstand for 30 years. He also said he wished he had been stronger so that he could have fought off Schrout without having to shoot him.
“The only thing he told us was that he had to protect himself. He also lived with an elderly sister, who is bedridden, so he just kept referring to protecting her, protecting himself,” Kolencik said.
Although police said the shooting appears to have been in self-defense, the District Attorney’s Office will make a final determination.
Of course, since guns are more dangerous to the owner than a perpetrator, this report must be false. Or it could be possible that the writer at Oregon Faith Report would just rather see this poor old man and his sister perish at the hands of criminals.
As for the DA, the shooting was in his home, the perpetrator was an uninvited guest, this uninvited guest attempted to do them harm. There’s nothing to decide. Get to something you need to be doing, like shutting down violent gangs. Stop wasting your time and taxpayer money.
8 years, 9 months ago
Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. SWHC, +2.06% said Friday that it was buying survival and camping equipment maker Ulitmate Survival Technologies Inc. for $32.3 million in cash. The gun maker expects the acquisition, which will be made through its Battenfeld Technologies subsidiary, to close later this month. UST’s trailing 12-month revenue was about $24 million. “With its complete offering of survival gear, UST Brands is our first acquisition that is entirely focused on the outdoor market, which is a key part of our vision to become the leading provider of quality products for the shooting, hunting, and rugged outdoor enthusiast,” said Smith & Wesson Chief Executive James Debney.
Hey, I have a better idea, and I’ve told you about this before. Get out of that communist state you’re in and relocate South where all the other gun manufacturers are coming.
