Category: Guns

Good Arguments on the Assault Weapons Issue

Chris Cox has an article in FrontPage Magazine that outlines the issue well:

Many fully-automatic firearms can fire 10 rounds in a second, which theoretically would work out to 600 rounds per minute, but they cannot be reloaded fast enough to achieve anything near that rate in reality. But we are not talking about fully-automatic firearms—we’re talking about semi-automatics, and the difference between them need not be explained here.

I think that’s a good way to frame that issue.  Machine guns aren’t these scary objects that spew death and hellfire from their barrels, but that’s not what we’re talking about either.  This changes the subject, without throwing machine guns under the bus.  Is NRA deliberately being more careful about this?  I hope so.

NRA members who own AR-15s and other so-called “assault weapons,” you are not alone. There are nearly two million AR-15s in our country, the same number of M1s, the same number of M1 Carbines, and many more Mini-14s, semi-automatic shotguns, pump-action shotguns, and all the other guns the anti-gunner want to call “assault weapon.” Countless millions of American own handguns that use magazines of over 10 rounds.

I would say that passes the Heller “common use” test pretty soundly.

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Clinton Throws Helmke a Bone

Bill Clinton mentioned how nice it would be if we could just pass another Assault Weapons Ban:

Nobody wants to repeal the Second Amendment, and nobody wants to keep you out of the deer woods, but wouldn’t it be nice if your children didn’t have to worry about being mowed down by an assault weapon when they turn the corner?

Except statistically that’s not even a worry, compared to say, having to worry about your kid being killed by a drunk behind the wheel.  Yet we do not ban alcohol and cars.  Bill Clinton is still trying to sell people on the notion that the Second Amendment is about duck hunting, and speaks of a new communitarian vision of the 21st century.  There is a party that’s stuck in the 20th century, but it’s not the Republicans, they are mostly stuck on stupid.  Both political parties have work to do if they want to recover the approval of the American People.

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Working Together

This is not an example of how to do it:

Michael Guzman, a senior at Texas State University and president of the grassroots gun group called “Students for Concealed Carry on Campus,” is worried that the two issues will be “muddled” together by the media once the respective bills are filed, causing confusion among lawmakers and regular Texans.

Plus, there appears to be another element causing tension between the members of SCCC and the Virginia-based group OpenCarry.org — one of competing interests.

“If these open carry guys get enough attention with the introduction of their bill, it’s going to knock off our bill,” Guzman said. “Our biggest obstacle is another gun rights group. It’s ridiculous that two gun rights groups are going to be canceling each other out.”

Guzman’s concern is a legitimate one, but that’s not something that’s a good idea to go expressing to the media.  If they understand that gun groups are divided on the issue, you can expect a divide and conquer approach from our opponents, which is a pretty effective tactic.  To some degree, it’s much harder to hide these kinds of priority disagreements now than it has been in the past, but I think we ought to try to keep it relegated to the back waters of Al Gore’s Internets (like this place).

I think changing both laws would be a good thing for Texas, but there might only be room for one pro-gun bill this year.  I won’t toss my 2 cents in as to which it should be.  That’s for Texans to figure out.

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Permits Up, Business Booming

In Missouri, we have another standard “gun sales are up” piece, but the local gun shop managed to get a great profile out of the piece in the process.  Based on the photos and the profile, it looks like Target Masters in Columbia is a great place to do business.

In Georgia, there are more reports on increased demand for carry licenses:

Across Georgia, there’s been a dramatic surge in applications for firearm permits, and no sign that the trend is slowing. Statewide, 121,219 applications were submitted in 2008, up 79.2 percent from 67,640 in 2007, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. …

In Cobb County, where Ely and Brown filed their applications, the increase in applications was even more dramatic than it was statewide. Records show permit applications were up in the county by 139.6 percent for 2008, from 3,660 to 8,770.

It caught the eye of Cobb County Probate Judge Keli Wolk on Jan. 2 of this year, her first day in office. By 2 p.m. that day, 71 people had submitted permit applications, Wolk said.

“There are quite a few people in our license area filling out applications at most any time of the day,” she said.

Officials in other counties report a palpable rush. “We literally sometimes have to get deputies to direct our lines,” said Lorraine Stafford, who processes permit applications in Gwinnett County.

Permit applications were up 85.7 percent in Gwinnett, from 3,952 in 2007 to 7,340 in 2008. In the first 15 days of January, another 500 applicants walked through the door, Stafford said.

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Screwed by H&K Damaged Brass

I spent some time at the three gun match Saturday scrounging brass off the range between relays.  Got a whole crapload of .223 off the ground, but was happy to find someone was shooting .308, which I could use to make up a load so I could finally try the FAL I bought from TD.  I was happy, until I saw what condition it was in:

I was puzzled by what kind of rifle would do this kind of damage to brass. Surely there was something wrong with this guy’s gun. Did the chamber actually have those stripes in it? In the name of John Moses Browning, what kid of crazy gun designer would create a rifle that tortures brass so?

After doing a bit of research, I discovered that this striping was likely caused by the fluted chamber of an HK91 rifle.  The idea of fluting the chamber is to allow some gas to flow around the cartridge to ease in extraction.  Apparently early versions of the G3 rifles were ripping the heads off the casing during extraction, so this was the solution to that problem. You can see that in a cutout of the G3 chamber here.  The roller delayed blowback design of the G3 is just very hard on brass, from both the fluting, and violent extraction. Consensus on cases fired from G3s and its relatives seems to be that they shouldn’t be reloaded.  The big dents definitely seals the deal. Into the scrap brass bucket they will go.

H&K — Because you suck, and we hate you, especially if you’re a filthy brass scrounging reloader.

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Three Gun Saturday

This month’s Practical Rifle match at Langhorne Rod and Gun Club was a three gun match.  We had about 40 shooters. Match was cut up into 5 stages.  First stage was at 50 yards.   Three magazines loaded with 10 round each.  Fire one standing, transition to kneeling and fire one, transition to prone and fire one, back to kneeling, and back to standing, repeating until you exhaust all your magazines.  Doesn’t sound too bad, but it gets your pulse rate up.  Lost 9 on the IDPA target — needed to aim higher and I would have only pulled one or two, but I was shooting lower than I would have figured.  Next stage was 25 yards, to 15 yards, to 7.  All done standing.  Ten shots each with rifle, then transition to pistol at 7 yards and engage head of target.  Got too punchy and pulled three of my shots low.  Didn’t do too bad overall.  Next stage was the car:

Car Stage

This stage stressed rapid target acquisition, and had one IDPA swinger, which was tough to hit.  Started out with pistol, then transitioned to rifle.

Rifle Part of Car Stage

Then onto the shotgun. I had to run home to get the shotgun and more 9mm over break, because they didn’t publish the match requirements on the web site like they say they do. Stage one was four shots on steel, but with one catch. Running the shotgun prone, you could only use one hand, and had to single load each round. I had a pump, so I completed the stage with some difficulty. Stage five was also a shotgun stage, which was essentially 7 propped up clays which had to be shot on the run at 21 feet.

I was happy that I got a whole nice bag of brass from scavenging the range after everyone was done shooting, but I’m also happy for this:

Third Prize

Third place! Shoot off was the same as the first stage at a pie plate at 50 yards. First one finished calls a cease fire. I didn’t shoot as well as I could have, so I figured I didn’t place, but we had to break the tie for second because we both had 10 hits, but he had more on the center portion than I did, so he got second, and I got third. Came two hits away from first. Maybe next time!

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ATF Inspecting C&R FFLs?

This is a rather odd report about ATF inspecting type ’03 FFLs.  Odd because the ATF is not supposed to just show up at a Type 03 licenses premises unannounced, they are supposed to make an appointment if they want to inspect your bound book.  They are entitled to look at your A&D book, and inspect the guns you have in your inventory.  This can be done at your premises, or at an ATF office.  Type 03 premises are typically residences, and are not required by federal regulations to have normal business hours.

Inspections are conducted by ATF compliance regulators.  They are not conducted by ATF agents.  If you’re a C&R licensee, and an ATF agent shows up at your door, you should treat that agent as you would any law enforcement officer who takes an interest in you.  Be polite, find out what his business is with you, but don’t say anything without talking to a lawyer.  If he does not have a warrant, do not allow him into your home.  If he does have a warrant, your next call needs to be to an attorney.

I hope this report doesn’t indicate that ATF is starting to harass C&Rs.  Mine expires next year, and if that’s the case it won’t be getting renewed.

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Protesting the Military in San Diego

sandiegorotcA group calling themselves Project on Youth and Non-Military Opportunities (YANO) has their collective panties in a bunch over the JROTC program in San Diego schools.  Apparently they are offended about lessons in safe and responsible gun handling.  You can see the image that offends them so much to the right.

Even better than their inability to distinguish street violence from military training in a safe and controlled environment is the fact that their “Related Information” section features a link to the Onion.  Unfortunately, the Education Not Arms organizers do not appear to be satirists.

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