Archive for the 'Guns' Category

Glenn Reynolds links TTAG where the author is discussing daily carry of reloads.  It’s not a trivial discussion by any means, but something else caught my eye.  See these comments.

If you have to use the pistol to defend yourself, which I presume is the reason you’re carrying it, you could be placing yourself in a very ill advised position by using reloaded ammunition, particularly in light of the prevailing legal climate. There’s nothing in that equation that bodes well for you.

…

I agree with Mr. Savage. My reloads are better than a lot of factory cartridges for the same reason your mom’s apple pie beats anything you can buy at the grocery store.

…

Just beware that in the aftermath of a defensive shoot, you will get destroyed in court for using reloads. Even if you did everything else right, even if you prove the shoot was self defense, the few dollars you saved could cost you everything you own. A halfway decent prosecutor can convince a jury that you created a round that causesd undue suffering, that only a madman predispoaed to violence would.use. Legally, the best defensive ammo is what the police use, for it destroys any argument a prosecutor may present that the ammo was used for some nefarious purpose. I know, it is silly, but that is what happens in our courts.

…

Regarding the use of reloaded ammo causing extra jeopardy in court, please cite a case where this happened. Otherwise, I call BS.

Well, I’ve already dealt with this issue directly, so you missed hearing an expert weigh in.  No, not me.  Someone else.

For years, I’ve warned people that there are a couple of serious concerns with using handloaded ammunition for personal or home defense.  The big one is forensic replicability when the shooter is accused, and opposing theories of distance become a factor.

How often does this happen? One time some years ago, that question came up on an internet debate.  I looked through the ten cases I had pending at the time as an expert witness, and gunshot residue (GSR) testing to determine distance from gun muzzle to the person shot was an issue in four of them.  Forty percent is not what I’d call statistically insignificant.

[ … ]

… if you have any friends who use handloads for serious social purposes, please share. You might just save them from the sort of nightmare suffered by the defendant in New Jersey v. Daniel Bias, who was bankrupted by legal fees before the first of his three trials was over, and wound up serving hard time.  Both of his attorneys were convinced he was innocent, and told me they believed that if he had simply had factory ammo in his home defense gun, the case would probably never have even gone to trial.

So there you have it.  The commenters are advised to get around a little more.

Well, here it is.  I’m not really sure why anyone would want to shoot a SAW like that.  Fire control is important for barrel life and a number of other things, including proper functioning in times of need.  But in the interest of watching people tear things up, this is interesting.

CNS News:

A California gun store owner was reprimanded by the cops after waving an AR-15 cardboard cutout outside of his business to draw in customers, according to a report by ABC10 News in Oceanside, Calif.

Brendan Von, a Marine veteran, started waving the large, cardboard sign in front of his store, “Firearms Unknown,” last fall during Black Friday shopping. The store told CNSNews.com today that it uses the sign “on a regular basis.”

According to ABC 10, some people assumed the over-sized gun-sign was real, prompting complaints and even a visit from the local police.

A local woman told ABC 10 that she believed the sign was over the top.

“It looks like a machine gun, it is pretty aggressive,” she said. “I think he’s doing too much, but then again, they do have the freedom to do that.”

“A couple people just going by, flipping me the bird,” said Von, the store owner.  “Either scolding me or yelling some type of obscenity.”

“It kind of frustrated me that somebody would call [the police] and make a false statement like that, knowing that it is a cardboard sign that is very flimsy,” he said.

According to the ABC report, Von said the police asked him to stop or change the sign and after he refused, the police left.

The sad part about this isn’t so much the woman to whom we have to say, “Get thee to thy fainting couch.”  I would expect this from California.

The sad part is that the LEOs would actually ask him to stop.  When he refused, they had no recourse except to leave, since demanding what they did was illegal.

Then again, I confess that I’ve come to expect this from LEOs too.

How sad.

The Washington Times:

COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho (AP) – Exactly one year after it went into effect, an Idaho gun law that allows people to carry concealed firearms without a permit has had little effect on crime rates, state law enforcement officials said.

It has, however, impacted the number of Idaho concealed carry permits being issued, some firearm trainers said.

The law allows most residents age 21 or older to carry concealed guns without a permit inside cities, in bars and in most government buildings.

When the Idaho Legislature enacted its permitless firearms concealed carry law a year ago, it was not without warnings from a broad spectrum, including anti-gun groups and Idaho chiefs of police.

The warnings are still in place, but so far, adverse results haven’t materialized.

“We believe dismantling the longstanding and effective permitting system without taking additional precautionary steps will weaken public safety,” Bill Bones, Jeff Lavey and Rick Allen, chiefs of police in Ada County, wrote in a letter to the Idaho Statesman last year. “Our concealed weapons licensing system is the only way to determine the person is not a felon or dangerous person prohibited from possessing firearms.”

Coeur d’Alene Police concur that the permitless carry law has disabled at least one tool police used to check felons for firearms, but Detective Jared Reneau said the state’s latest gun law seems to have had little effect on crime rates in Coeur d’Alene.

“It hasn’t been a topic of discussion,” he said. “We haven’t noticed a significant increase.”

So far, 12 states – the number has increased from eight a year ago – have adopted permitless concealed carry firearms laws. They include Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Vermont, Wyoming, and West Virginia. A permitless carry bill was passed in Michigan’s House this month and is on the way to its Senate.

In Nez Perce County, Idaho’s most gun-friendly county where an estimated 59 percent of residents own guns – the highest rate in the state – Sheriff Joe Rodriguez said his department did not anticipate an increase in gun crimes a year ago when permitless carry became law.

“The way we look at, we live in the Northwest. Everyone has a firearm,” Rodriguez said.

His officers are trained to be alert for weapons, and permitless carry didn’t change that. It didn’t affect crime rates either, he said.

“Nothing has changed,” Rodriguez said.

He anticipated the number of residents applying for concealed carry permits would fall off, but that didn’t happen, either.

“We’re still processing a lot of concealed weapons permits,” he said.

Concealed weapons permits are required in neighboring states and Idaho’s enhanced concealed weapons permit is honored in a majority of them. That makes it a popular choice among gun owners.

Ed Santos, who operates Center Target Sports in Post Falls, which has trained 24,000 firearm owners in 12 years to obtain a concealed permit, has noticed no downward trend in its business.

Santos said some thought the number of concealed carry permits would decrease because they would no longer be needed.

“That has not been the case,” he said. “We’ve actually seen an increase.”

He attributes that to firearms owners becoming accustomed to carrying without a permit, and wanting to travel to other states with a gun in their belt. In most states, they need a concealed permit to do that.

“We really haven’t seen a negative impact,” Santos said.

Post Falls Police Chief Scott Haug, president of the Idaho Chiefs of Police Association, said the permitless carry law has not resulted in an increase in crime. It may, however, have given a green light for people inexperienced with guns to carry firearms without proper training.

One of Haug’s officers found a handgun under a tree in a park, he said, and he has seen people in Walmart with pistols hanging out of their back pockets.

“People get complacent,” he said. “They don’t understand how quickly that gun can be used against them in a matter of seconds.”

This is an amazing article.  First of all, blood isn’t running in the streets.  Second, we learn that peaceable, law abiding citizens still want to be peaceable and law abiding, meaning that for states that still require permitting and with travel freedom being at stake, permits are still valued.  Constitutional carry needs to continue sweeping the nation for God-given rights to be fully realized.  Only peaceable men follow the law.

Third, read the LEO’s warnings again.  They preached their “blood will be running in the streets” sermon before passage of the bill, it didn’t happen, and yet that has had no effect on their sermon.  Facts don’t inform their hysteria.  They never have, anywhere this has ever come up.  I’ve documented this same sort of thing with open carry in Texas, only to see them react with shock when blood didn’t run in the streets.  They’ll preach it until they have no more breath to speak.

Finally, consider that gun sitting under the tree in the park.  It must be the fault of permitless carry, huh?  So what the hell does that have to do with the rest of the article?  Do they pay people money to write this crap?

Juneau Empire:

Quick action from a Hoonah boy saved a fishing party from a charging brown bear on June 18, the Empire has learned through Alaska State Troopers and family members.

It was the first Defense of Life or Property (DLP) killing in the Hoonah area this year, according to trooper spokesperson Megan Peters.

When the attack occurred, Elliot Clark, then 11 years old, was walking through the woods near Game Creek in Port Frederick several miles south of Hoonah. The young outdoorsman was heading to a nearby fishing hole with his uncle, Craig Stoltzfus, Stoltzfus’ father, a cousin and three dogs.

Stoltzfus and Elliot Clark were armed when a brown bear came out of the woods, charging the group head on. The other members of the party were not armed.

Lucas Clark, Elliot’s father and himself a bear hunting guide, told the story in a Tuesday phone interview with the Empire. Elliot Clark declined to be interviewed at this time.

Lucas Clark was in Washington state at the time of the attack, but his account squares with that from Alaska State Troopers, who investigate DLP killings in Alaska. Stoltzfus couldn’t be reached for this story.

“There was four of them in a line … my son was third,” Clark said. “The bear came down the trail at them, fella in the front, who was his uncle, the bear was on him so quickly that he didn’t have time to take his rifle off his shoulder.”

The bear ran through the first two men, who were pushed to the side of the trail, leaving Elliot Clark in front of his unarmed cousin. The boy raised his pump action shotgun and shot the sow, hitting it with birdshot, which is often used just to scare bears off, Lucas Clark said.

“His first shot was a light load of birdshot. That first shot hit him in the shoulder and did absolutely nothing. The next shot hit him in the nose and traveled down through the neck,” Lucas Clark said.

The third shot went into the bear’s shoulder and his back, dropping it to the ground. The bear was so close when Elliot hit it with his third shot, there were powder burns on the bear’s mouth. Still alive, the bear then slid by Elliot’s feet.

“As the bear slid past him and came to a stop, he put a kill shot it him,” Lucas Clark said.

Stoltzfus finished it off with another round.

The moment could have turned out differently. Lucas Clark hadn’t gotten around to putting a sling on his son’s shotgun, leaving the 11-year-old to carry it in his hands. He credits this and a lot of shooting practice with preparing Elliot for the moment.

“He was carrying it in his hands rather than on his shoulder. That was the problem with the other ones, when the bear came at his uncle, he had his rifle on his shoulder and the bear was very close, so he couldn’t get it off in time,” Lucas Clark said.

Just the day before, Elliot still had a plug in his shotgun, meaning his gun only carried three rounds: the “topround” of birdshot and two slugs. He had taken the plug out the day before, Lucas Clark said, after calling his father to ask permission to do so.

The family had seen bear in the area for a few days, and had been carrying guns for protection.

This inspiring story leads to as many questions as it answers in the brief article.  The report hints that the first round was bird shot and the remainder of the tube magazine had slugs, but it isn’t clear.  It would be nice to know this for sure.  Also, what gauge shotgun was he carrying?  That has the appearance of a 20 rather than a 12.  If this young man is going to be traipsing around in the Alaskan bush, give him a 12 gauge, Dad.  He’s ready.

This is what I’ve heard about being in the bush in this part of the states.  The low ready position is the most prepared, and if your weapon is slung on your back you may not have time to react to the threat a bear poses.  Finally, why were the other members of the party not armed?  There is absolutely no way I would be in the Alaskan bush without being armed, preferably with a rifle or shotgun (with slugs in the tube magazine), or a large bore sidearm like a .460 S&W, .454 Casull, .44 magnum or at least .357 magnum wheel gun.

In any case, congratulations to young Mr. Clark. and kudos for your bravery.  You are a legend in the making.  For the rest of your life, men will want to buy you drinks to tell them your story again.

AJC:

After some 60 hours on the run, a pair of escaped Georgia inmates wanted for gunning down two correctional officers were caught Thursday night in Tennessee. The pair’s capture was as dramatic as their brazen escape – complete with a home invasion, a police chase, a shootout and a civilian armed with an AR-15.

[ … ]

They stumbled out of the woods and ran into a man in his yard armed with an AR-15. He held the two at gunpoint until authorities arrived.

Did you know that Patrick Hale used an AR-15 to hold the criminals?  It’s good he didn’t have to engage in a gun battle like Mr. Stephen Bayezes who had to use an AR-15 and engage in a massive gun fight with criminals to save his life and the life of his wife.

But remember boys and girls.  The controllers want you to know that no one actually needs an AR-15.  If something bad ever happens, just call 911 and wait for about fifteen minutes if you live in an urban area, longer if not.  In the mean time, just run and hide, I guess.

Business Insider:

Looking almost like an oversized pistol, the Heckler & Koch MP7 is a cross between a submachine gun and a carbine that serves around the world in the hands of law enforcement and special operations units.

In the late 1980s, NATO developed requirements for a next-generation personal defense weapon that would be more effective against body armor than current pistol-caliber PDWs.

While submachine guns based on the .45 ACP or 9mm deliver plenty of stopping power against unarmored targets, the growing availability of capable and affordable body armor meant that something new was needed.

So German gunmaker Heckler & Koch developed the MP7 to meet these NATO requirements and it has served across the world since entering full production in 2001.

Some of the most commonly-spotted submachine guns in the hands of law enforcement and other professionals are the MP5 and its successor, the UMP. These guns typify the classic submachine gun, being automatic weapons chambered for pistol cartridges.

The MP7, however, is chambered for the 4.6x30mm cartridge. The steel core 4.6x30mm was developed specifically to be a lightweight pistol-ish round delivering the penetration more like a rifle cartridge. The smaller, lighter round means that more ammunition can be carried and that it has a minimal recoil even in full-automatic shooting.

The 4.6mm cartridge was developed by HK for the MP7 and its companion sidearm, the UCP pistol. The UCP never got past the prototype stage, but the 4.6x30mm has definitely made its mark in the MP7.

The MP7, currently being produced as updated models MP7A1 and MP7A2, weighs less than 5 pounds with a loaded magazine and is only 25-inches long with its adjustable stock fully extended. The barrel is 7.1 inches long and the magazine feeds into the pistol grip, creating a compact, easy to handle package.

The action is a gas-operated short stroke piston like that of HK’s HK416 rifle and is rated at 950 rounds per minute.

From the Business Insider article, several SEAL Team 6 members, some of whom are carrying MP7s.

This is a curious article and a curious revelation.  That’s all I can say about it.  Well, not really.

I recall having had discussions with Kevin O’Brien (WeaponsMan) before he passed away, and he once remarked to me in a rather puzzled way how SpecOps was now using shorter and shorter barrels, even much less than 10″.  It’s a strange development, frankly.

In this case not only have they chosen a PDW for warfighting, they have chosen a smaller caliber than the 5.56 mm.  If you look at the data for this round, it doesn’t send bullets down range at anything close to the 5.56 mm, and seems to me to basically be a knockoff of the 5.7 X 28, which I shoot with the FN 5.7.  In fact, the technology doesn’t advance the round itself beyond the 5.7 in the least, and the weapon itself seems rather pedestrian if you don’t consider the fully automatic capability.

Regarding the high rate of fire, I don’t see it gaining the shooter any advantage since it would only be used for area suppression, and besides that, the shooter would have to carry a lot more ammunition in order to make full use of the rate of fire.

Also, selection of this weapon for continual use, or even just one specific mission, assumes that the only gun fight in which you’ll find yourself will be CQB.  I don’t think anyone can predict the future this way, and I would rather be prepared for other exigencies with selection of a weapon that can fill a number of roles like the 5.56 mm carbine.

Regarding ammunition availability, where I am there is plenty of 5.7 X 28, and I suspect that no one else within 500 miles of such a gun fight would have access to 4.6 X 30.  I simply wouldn’t want to deploy even on a single mission with an ammunition type that was unique to me.

Finally, it just seems to me based on what I’ve seen over the last several years that the U.S. Army is hell bent on singlehandedly keeping H&K in business, but just over an hour down the road from me is an FN plant with mechanics, gunsmiths and designers who could have delivered a nicer firearm to the Navy shooting 5.7 X 28, a more capable round, where the dollars would have stayed in the U.S. and the weapons would have been American-made.

I’m not impressed at this love for H&K.  Anyway, remember that H&K hates you and thinks you suck.

We’ve discussed at length the South Carolina LEO opposition to open carry legislation and the Senators’ deference to these guys.  Previously we saw that Chief Joseph Hill of the Horry County Police Department said “I don’t have any personal objections to it other than it doesn’t fit the culture of Myrtle Beach.”

To this, Josh said the following.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

The “culture?” Myrtle Beach has absolutely zero culture. It’s a disgusting shithole filled with tourist traps, trash, gross and loud foreigners, drunks, assholes, criminals, and for some reason that continues to escape me, Ohioans.

The Ohioans can have it.

Now we find out just what kind of “culture” Myrtle Beach really has.

At least seven people were injured early Sunday morning in Myrtle Beach after someone began shooting during a crowded street fight, police said.

The chaotic scene was captured and streamed on Facebook Live by a man staying at a nearby hotel.

Bubba Hinson told the Myrtle Beach Sun News that he was in town for a firefighters’ convention when he spotted a large crowd blocking traffic on the street below his room at the Holiday Sands North hotel.

“I thought they were dancing. That’s why I started filming it,” he told the newspaper. “Then, they started fighting. Then, they started shooting.”

Myrtle Beach police said in a statement that, just after midnight Sunday, a fight broke out on Ocean Boulevard, a major thoroughfare in the seaside South Carolina city.

Before officers arrived, a man in the fight pulled out a gun and shot one person, police spokesman Lt. Joey Crosby said.

An armed security guard who was already on the scene witnessed the disturbance and fired at the shooter, Crosby said. The shooter then hijacked a car and fled — but not before firing additional gunshots at people in the crowd, Crosby said.

Here is reaction to the event.

Bob Pisani: “Tell all my friends & family to stay in North Myrtle  because MB isn’t safe for families anymore.Not like it was 7/8 years ago. Went down the Boardwalk today. Bad vibes. Won’t even think of going there after sundown. Rhodes gotta go.”

Regis von Wagner: “Good idea for vacation is to stay away from Myrtle Beach. Myrtle Beach beach once was a really nice vacation destination. Today it is a dump. Maybe this will help get the word out.”

the video of the shooting that happened last night on the strip is wild. Myrtle Beach really is a crazy place.

— brian knight (@thginkb) June 18, 2017

Laura Wiggins Russell: “We came home early from our vacation Friday from Myrtle Beach because of all the junk that was going on. It was white kids, black kids and Hispanic kids doing all crowding up the streets all night long. They were loud disrespectful and had no fear of the law. The cops were extremely out numbered. During the day all these kids were running the families off the beach because of girls taking their tops off and kids being drunk. It ruined our family vacation. We will not return to Myrtle Beach.”

Kenny Rutherford: “Welcome to Murder Beach! Precisely why I haven’t been there in many years. The young thugs have taken it over and now it is not a desirable destination for myself and many others. People wonder why there is so much racial tension in the US. Here is a prime example.”

Michael S Ford: “Rhodes thinks he has a top not tourist town?…No Bro, you got a town that I very rarely visit, and I’m only five miles away…I even drive around it now.”

David Byers: “My family and I got back from our yearly vacation to MB a couple of weeks ago…While leaving a restaurant I was accosted by a man that claimed his car was broke down and wanted assistance. I got a bad vibe from the guy and noticed his car was in an area off from the street alone near some empty broken down buildings…It felt like a set up. He became upset, verbal, and crowded me, it almost turned bad. I asked him to step away which he did. Never have I had anything like that happen in MB. It has always felt like a safe place but that has changed. I will not be back to MB next year. This video confirms that decision.”

The fact that a near mass shooting happened right beside of me last night in Myrtle Beach haha Classic Senior Week

— Joshua Sayers (@jsayers54) June 18, 2017

Topless girls with your family around you, drunken people staggering around, gangs fighting and dominating the streets, and shootings.

This is alleged to be why S.C. LEOs are opposed to open carry.  Here is the thing and a quick note to S.C. LEOs.  I couldn’t care less about your problems, and I haven’t been to Myrtle Beach in so long I can’t remember the last time.

But if you think a criminal culture is justification for preventing me from openly carrying, you have it all backwards.  What do you think is going to happen with open carry – crime?  Gang fights?  Drunken kids?  You have all of that now.  Don’t come crying to me about your Myrtle Beach problems.

Myrtle beach is a shit hole that deserves to go out of business.  If you don’t want that to happen, then run the hucksters, low rent dives, criminals, unaccompanied minors, tourist traps, fat ass red necks and other low rent trash out of town.  Make it a gated community with higher rent, or do whatever you want to do.

But just don’t use this as some sort of justification for denying open carry.  It isn’t, and you know it.

Codrea:

In an honest report, armed citizens saving the day would have been the headline.

You have to go 30 paragraphs down into the story to find out the homeowners didn’t “help capture” the fugitives, they captured them. And while it’s fine and proper to credit the man and his neighbor with being brave, it was the fact that they were armed – with guns – that enabled them to successfully act on that bravery.

Yes, and there is even more to this story.

The 35-year-old father said he decided to make a run for it rather than hole up in the panic room in his home. He called 911, grabbed his daughter and headed out to his car.

As he started to pull out of the driveway, Hale noted how much closer the suspects had gotten.

“They began to take off their shirts and start waving at us as if to slow us down,” he recalled.

But he continued to back his car up and “for some reason they started to surrender and laid down on my concrete driveway.”

[ … ]

Hale said he never had to use any of his weapons and suspected the pair mistook his car for a police cruiser.

Regardless of the reason for the surrender, with what this pair had done already, I can see yet another dead man (and little girl since she would have been a witness) if he didn’t have weapons with him.

But CNN wasn’t the only stupid ones.  Here is what Georgia Tennessee Governor Nathan Deal said.

Gov. Nathan Deal released a statement, “Rest assured, justice will be served. My sincere thanks to our local, state and federal law enforcement officers who assisted in the manhunt. Because of their tireless efforts, the public is safe.”

What a goober.

WaPo:

“We need the courage to face our gun safety problem now …”

I’ve got my safety issues worked out deary.