If the other two goobers would shut up, this would have been an absolutely great video.  I could listen to Ryan teach me for hours.  The two goobers made it just a great video.

Reuters.

TOKYO, Aug 17 (Reuters) – The Russian Kalashnikov AK-47 and its derivatives have long been the assault rifle of choice for militant groups because of their rugged design, but some Taliban fighters are trading them in for captured U.S. guns as Afghanistan’s government collapses.

Video and pictures published by the Taliban on Twitter and elsewhere show fighters carrying M4 carbines and M16 rifles discarded by Afghan army units. Other images show Taliban forces capturing abandoned government vehicles.

Because it’s a better rifle.

Via David Codrea, this summary at Reason.

The Government has failed to show that there is a reasonable fit between their stated objective of promoting public safety and the 10-day permit use period imposed by HRS § 134-2(e). The 10-day permit use period for handguns does not survive intermediate scrutiny….

[As to the 5-day inspection period requirement], the Government [again] wholly fails to demonstrate how the in-person inspection and registration requirement furthers these interests. It merely states that “ensuring that the registration information is accurate, ensuring that the firearm complies with Hawaii law, and confirming the identity of the firearm can be easily accomplished simply by bringing the firearm to the registration for inspection.”

This bald statement is not enough to meet the Government’s burden. “To survive intermediate scrutiny, the defendants must show ‘reasonable inferences based on substantial evidence’ that the statutes are substantially related to the governmental interest.” Here, the Government has provided no evidence whatsoever in support of its position. The Government has provided no legislative history speaking to the legislature’s reasons for amending the statute. It has not shown that inaccurate registration was a problem affecting public safety (or even a problem at all) prior to enactment of the 2020 in-person inspection and registration requirement, nor has it provided any studies, examples from other jurisdictions, or any other type of evidence suggesting that an in-person inspection and registration requirement would ameliorate such a problem.

In absence of concrete evidence, the only support that the Government offers is conjecture. Defendant asserts that in-person inspection and registration promotes public safety by requiring that the police directly inspect the serial number on the gun itself, rather than the number as reported by the buyer and (separately) by the seller on the permit. Specifically, the Government speculates that “[s]ome people might innocently make mistakes in transcribing serial numbers or other identifying information” or may be unaware that their gun’s identifying marks or other attributes have been impermissibly altered. And, the Government hypothesizes, individuals may not be aware of these errors or inconsistencies until they bring their firearm to the police station to have it physically inspected. But this hypothetical falls short under intermediate scrutiny. To meet its burden, the Government must “present some meaningful evidence, not mere assertions, to justify its predictive judgments.”

Thus, it once again appears that the Government’s only permissible argument is that common sense shows the law is reasonably related to its interest in promoting public safety. But the notion that in-person inspection and registration promotes public safety is not a matter of common sense. First, as stated above, in the absence of any evidence to that end, it is not a common-sense conclusion that mistakes in registration were a problem prior to enactment of the  in-person inspection and registration requirement. Indeed, there is redundancy built into the registration process even without the in-person requirement—both the firearm seller and buyer must provide the serial number and other identifying information about the firearm. As Plaintiffs point out, “it strains credulity that both a firearms store and a buyer would both fail to properly transcribe numbers or realize” that the gun has been impermissibly altered.

Second, as the D.C. Circuit pointed out in Heller v. District of Columbia (D.C. Cir. 2015), requiring individuals to bring firearms into the police station for in-person inspection and registration may “more likely be a threat to public safety [because] there is a risk that the gun may be stolen en route or that the would-be registrant may be arrested or even shot by a police officer seeing a ‘man with a gun.'” While these possibilities—like the Government’s hypothetical about mistaken transcription—are no more than conjecture, they demonstrate that it is not a simple matter of common sense that in-person inspection and registration promotes public safety.

Finally, it is again worth noting that Hawaii is the only state in the country to require in-person inspection and registration of firearms. As in the case of the 10-day permit use period, if it were truly a matter of common sense that in-person inspection and registration promoted public safety—or that misidentification in the absence of in-person inspection and registration was a problem—one would expect additional states to maintain similar requirements. The Government has failed to show that the in-person inspection and registration requirement is reasonably tailored to a significant, substantial, or important government interest. HRS § 134-3(c)’s in-person inspection and registration requirement does not survive intermediate scrutiny.

Reason ends with this: “Congratulations to Alan Beck and Stephen D. Stamboulieh, who represented the challengers.”

Stephen Stamboulieh is a friend of TCJ and I would like to say congratulations.  I’ve held for a long time now that the fertile soil for gun rights – and recognition of all God-given rights for that matter – is local and state.  The rapid expansion of open and constitutional carry across America has demonstrated this axiom right.

Fox News.

‘America Reports’ host Sandra Smith announces that the Taliban are going house to house in Kabul looking for Afghan Special Forces members who fought alongside the U.S. military

Uh oh.  That’s not good news for them.

I told my wife tonight that if we had been in Kabul, I would have told her months ago to pack a few days of clothes because we’re going to the airport the next morning.  The pace of the Taliban offensive and the corollary collapse of the ANA/ANP doesn’t surprise me one bit.  It’s almost as if I predicted all of this years ago.

Yes, I’m sure I did in my book-length blogging on Afghanistan.  I did indeed.

It sounds like they need to be schooled in prepping.

If the ANA SpecOps boys haven’t already left the country via automobile or some other way long ago, they’re in deep trouble.

News and views from South Carolina.

“For the law-abiding Concealed Weapon Permit owner, today is a very significant day because they can decide whether they want to carry open or concealed,” said Kershaw County Sheriff Lee Boan.

[ … ]

As valid CWP owners choose to open carry, Sheriff Boan is making sure his officers and dispatch personnel are trained to respond.

“When you get that call that somebody’s walking down the road or parking lot or something openly carrying a firearm, that’s not a crime. That’s not a crime,” said Boan. “We’re not going to investigate something that’s not a crime.”

What?

Has he been reading TCJ?  Because that sounds like something I’ve said many times before.  Yes, I’m sure of it.  Many times.

Good on him.  Instruct your 911 operators to ask the right questions: “Is he brandishing a weapon or is it holstered?”  “Is he threatening anyone with a weapon?”  “No, we won’t send a patrol to respond.  He isn’t breaking any laws.  Open carry is legal in South Carolina.  Good bye.”

This is the best way to save time and avoid wasteful encounters.

Shooting Illustrated.

In addition to recording a series of internal and external measurements, I visually inspect every barrel that comes into my hands from end to end, inside and out. Special attention is paid to the crown, feedramps, gas port, muzzle and bore. The crown is checked under high magnification for burrs, gouges or other imperfections that can cause projectiles to leave the barrel inconsistently, diminishing potential accuracy in the process. A magnifying glass or jeweler’s loupe and a good light will go far to help you see how this critical transition from bore to muzzle face has been cut. Most barrels have some form of recessed crown that are cut at varying angles, depending on the maker and barrel type. My experience is that the degree of crown is far less important than how cleanly cut and uniform it is.

Damage to a new barrel’s crown can be caused at any point along the way between production and installation and this is certainly not unique to the AR. Crown damage on any rifled barrel should be carefully evaluated to ensure it is not going to cause problems during firing. If the barrel arrived with an already-damaged crown, I would contact its source in hopes that they will exchange it for a new one before troubling yourself to fix it.

Flawed or damaged crowns can be cleaned up through the use of either hand crowning tools or a machine lathe. If you are only dealing with a single barrel, the most cost-effective route to repair is through a gunsmith. However, if you lack a lathe but are regularly dealing with banged up crowns, investing in a good hand crowning tool will pay for itself in the long run.

After checking the crown and if the muzzle is threaded, I always “chase” the threads with a properly-sized die to ensure they are fully cut and cleaned up. Just behind those threads, the shoulder is the next area that I check. If you plan to use a sound suppressor, this shoulder should be square with the bore and threads to ensure proper suppressor alignment.

This is true for both direct-thread suppressors and those that use QD mount-style muzzle brakes and flash hiders. If your muzzle device seats on the face of the muzzle instead of the shoulder, the muzzle face will need to be checked instead. I seldom see damage in these areas, but occasionally a barrel comes from the factory with a flaw that would prevent a muzzle device from seating squarely. I use a lathe to slowly spin barrels while I check runout [with gauges] on shoulders or muzzle faces, then remedy any flaws at that time. Again, a gunsmith or machinist can perform this check in just a few minutes and even if it needs to be re-faced, it is a simple operation.

Whether or not you have this check performed, I strongly recommend that at a minimum, you use an alignment rod to verify that your suppressor and bore line up correctly before live firing the system.

Sliding back along the barrel a few inches, we should find a gas port that is drilled at top-dead-center of the barrel when mounted in a receiver. Most manufacturers drill their ports once the barrel extension has been installed so that the index pin, which nests in the upper receiver’s index notch, actually performs its namesake function. Nonetheless, once in every hundred or so barrels, I find one that has the gas port and index pin out of alignment. If the misalignment is more than a couple degrees, there is a pretty fair chance that a properly timed gas block will result in reduced/restricted gas flow, impeding operation and increasing wear of the gas block itself. Unfortunately, there aren’t any great options to repair this problem. If you lack the correct tooling to install and remove a barrel extension, this manufacturing error is best left to a gunsmith or (preferably) the manufacturer to remedy.

A simpler and far more common problem is having an undersized gas port. A decade or so ago, barrel makers tended to oversize gas ports, especially on service-grade barrels. The prevailing wisdom being that it was better to have too much gas and keep the gun running rough and dirty than too little gas preventing it from running at all. It was left up to gas block makers and gun builders to figure out how to modulate the excess gas, especially when using a sound suppressor.

The situation is nearly the opposite today, as both match and rack-grade barrels are frequently sold with ports that are either undersized or only marginally functional as-is. Therefore, gun builders oftentimes must open ports according to the configuration of the gun and its intended use. Opening a barrel’s gas port is not difficult, but knowing how far to open it is a critical part of the process. I measure every gas port that comes across my bench and cross-reference it with a database of the 1000+ barrels I have previously measured to ensure that the size is appropriate for the length, caliber, gas system, gas block type, planned suppressor use and bolt carrier/buffer system weights.

Well, he’s a better mechanic that I am, he has a world of experience, and he has tools that I don’t.

Other than that …

While the Taliban was plotting…pic.twitter.com/Jeis0BRYZy

— Dan Scavino (@DanScavino) August 16, 2021

If he had been in Afghanistan, the Taliban would have beheaded him for being such a pussy.

Report from Kabul.

Taliban fighters on Monday reportedly began collecting weapons from civilians in Kabul as the insurgent group cements its swift takeover of Afghanistan.

“We understand people kept weapons for personal safety. They can now feel safe. We are not here to harm innocent civilians,” a Taliban official told Reuters.

ISIS did it too.

“ISIS was telling everyone, ‘We’re all brothers,’ ” Abu Malik said. “They let people smoke and drink. At the checkpoints, they distributed presents to the kids. They ate with people, drank tea with people. They were very nice—they didn’t bother anyone. Then, a week or so after they arrived, they started confiscating weapons. They told us it didn’t matter if we’d been with the Awakening or the Army or the police—if we gave up our weapons, we’d be forgiven. Ten days later, they started taking people. Everything changed. They took my cousin. My brothers dug holes in the fields and hid. I was at my house when they came for me. It was afternoon. I saw two Hyundai Santa Fes pull up outside, and I ran out the back and jumped over the wall. That was the last time I saw my family.”

Guns were confiscated prior to the Armenian genocide in Turkey, prior to the Nazi reign in Germany, prior to Idi Amin’s reign of terror in Uganda, and on the list could go.

And to repeat, gun control is never about confiscation of all guns, the usual rejoinder to these instances by the left.  In fact, claiming so undermines the main point.

Gun control is always about leaving them in the hands of state-sanctioned actors and outlawing gun ownership by those not approved by the state.

At American Rifleman.

Buffalo Bore makes this round hot.

I do wish that Henry would make a Walnut furniture rifle in .454 Casull.  The alternative is an absolutely beautiful rifle by Big Horn Armory.

But their price is too steep for me.

Shooting Illustrated.

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has selected FN America’s FN509 MRD-LE as its new duty pistol. The trials included a variety of performance evaluations, including accuracy, ergonomics and a 20,000-round-count endurance qualification in which the FN 509 MRD-LE surpassed with zero malfunctions.

“Exceeding all of the requirements LAPD sought in their new duty pistol was a high-performance standard to meet,” said Chris Cole, vice president of Sales and Marketing at FN America. “With over a million rounds fired in development, the FN 509’s reputation for durability is proven here again, giving LAPD officers a superior handgun they can depend on in the most demanding policing environments.”

The double-action, 9 mm-chambered pistol features FN’s patented Low-Profile Optics-Mounting System. Adapted from the original development for the U.S. Army’s handgun trials, it provides officers added precision and sighting versatility.

“LAPD needed the ability to quickly and securely mount a variety of duty-rated micro red dots to their service pistols to improve the accuracy potential of their handguns and their officers,” said Charles “Bucky” Mills Sr., director of Law Enforcement Sales for FN America. “FN pioneered the MRD mounting technology the LAPD required, enabling precision shot placement and immediate target engagement no matter the environment.”

The pistol features a precision, hammer-forged, 4-inch barrel with recessed target crown, high-performance, conical striker and flat-faced, duty-rated trigger. The FN Low-Profile Optics-Mounting System with co-witness tritium 3-dot iron sights, delivers rapid sight acquisition and consistent shot placement. Magazine capacity is 17 cartridges.

“The Los Angeles Police Department is one of the largest and most elite law enforcement agencies in the country, with roughly 10,000 uniformed officers, and we are proud that they have chosen the FN 509 MRD-LE as their next duty pistol,” said Mark Cherpes, president and CEO of FN America.

Nice.

Except it isn’t legal for residents of California to own it.

See, that’s what I’ve been talking about.  Manufacturers are going to have to do better than that.  The first question Mr. Cherpes should have asked when the LAPD approached them is this: “Can California residents legally own this gun?”  If the answer was no, which it would have been, he should have told the LAPD to stuff it.