Hughes Amendment Vote Video

Charlie Rangel apparently thinks it’s a Home Depot commercial…stop hammering, Charlie!

You Guessed It… More SHOT Videos

Let’s hope that “modern improvements” does not mean “we screwed it up.”

Closeup of the LaRue PredatAR rail.

More SHOT Videos

Will update this post as they upload. More will be added in the future.

SHOT 2011 Photos/Video

A few, anyway.

Vltor lower receiver

Is that a LaRue part number on that suppressor? I believe it is…

Shot – Wednesday

LaRue Tactical is coming out with the PredatAR, in both 5.56 and 7.62. It features a standard height upper rail and a lightweight barrel. It lacks the PST of the standard OBR. The price for the 7.62 version will be $2,500.

Colt’s new 901, a modular 7.62×51 weapon, will sell for “under $10,000” according to a senior official.

The Glock beavertail will be sold separately as an accessory for the Gen 4 Glocks.

Ruger is coming out with a 22/45 that has a threaded barrel and picatinny rails on the top and bottom, as well as a Scout configuration bolt rifle.

LWRC has a new 6.8 mag, in polymer, that requires the use of a new upper and lower receiver.

Midwest Industries is coming out with a lightweight drop in quad rail for ARs.

Colt will be selling the Rail Gun in carbon steel.

HK will be selling a 9x19mm XM25 to the civilian market… Just kidding.

Elzetta has a new and pretty innovative tapeswitch.

Kimber introduced an all-steel pocket 9.

Trijicon is bringing the crosshair reticle to the TA33, along with high visibility night sights and an adjustable brightness RMR.
My feet hurt.

Taurus brought ridiculousness to a new level with the 28 gauge Raging Judge.

Smith & Wesson’s Governor is a 6 shot revolver that fires 45 ACP with moon clips as well as 45 Colt and .410.

SHOT 2011 – Tuesday Afternoon

The most exciting thing I have seen so far.

Other notable items:

– Colt’s modular .308 rifle will be available to the civilian market in June.

– Sig is reintroducing the P210, a model called the “P210 Legend.”

– Vltor is making their own lower receivers, marked Vltor, with a new (large) magazine release design, as well as a CASV (sort of) for the SCAR.

– FN has new stuff that I couldn’t photograph.

– The HK MR556 will be shipping next week.

In Print…

The February 2011 issue of Special Weapons for Military & Police has an advertisement created by me for Spike’s Tactical. Needless to say, I’m pretty excited. I think I could have used more light…but…

 

What “Common Sense Gun Law” Would Have Stopped the Attack on Gabrielle Giffords?

In the wake of the atrocity perpetrated by a deranged man in Tucson, Arizona, on Saturday, pundits, broadcasters, government officials, and pretty much everyone else with an opinion have rushed to comment on the who, what, when, why, and how of the situation – often without any evidence to back up their claims.

The new rallying cry among the left is “common sense gun laws.” For example, Colin Goddard, a victim of the Virginia Tech shooting, rails against Arizona for not having the following laws:

“No laws to protect children from adults who leave guns unlocked.

No laws to require a license with a purchase.

No laws to require mandatory reporting of stolen guns.

No laws requiring fingerprinting, or the micro-stamping of guns.

No laws limiting how many guns can be purchased every month.

No laws requiring background checks for purchasing ammunition.

No laws requiring that law enforcement have a say in who can carry concealed weapons, as Jared Loughner is accused of doing.

No assault weapons restrictions, and no restrictions, as we sadly saw, on how many rounds can be in high-capacity magazines — magazines that declare and wage war on innocents.”

None of these laws would have stopped Loughner from attacking Congresswoman Giffords and the people gathered outside that Safeway. Nor would they have stopped Seung-Hui Cho, Nidal Hassan, etc.

Are we really supposed to believe that had Jared Loughner been illegally carrying a concealed weapon, he would not have done what he did? Nidal Hassan shot Soldiers on an Army base, where concealed carry is most definitely prohibited. Cho shot students in a university, where concealed carry was prohibited.

Loughner, Cho and Hasan all passed background checks when buying their firearms, so what would have stopped them from buying ammunition if a background check was required on such purchases?

Goddard also states that it’s easy to buy a gun at a gun show – ignoring the fact that neither Cho, Hasan, nor Loughner purchased their firearms at gun shows. All of them purchased their handguns at least one month before their murderous rampages, and while they all apparently purchased multiple handguns, only one handgun was used in each shooting. It’s already a requirement for firearms dealers to report multiple purchases of handguns within a one-week period to the ATF.

Restrictions on “high capacity” magazines, as Richard Daley suggests, certainly would not have stopped Cho, who reportedly went through 17 Glock magazines when firing over 170 rounds – using “restricted capacity” magazines.

What we have still not learned – and what some would refuse to recognize – is that the abject failure of government agencies, especially in terms of communicating between agencies, plays a major role in allowing attacks, large and small, to be executed.

– Seung-Hui Cho was never forced to return to court after his failure to complete court-ordered mental health programs, and information about this was never communicated to NICS, which controls background checks on firearms sales.

– Nidal Hasan’s contacts with al-Qaeda, known to the Joint Terrorism Task Force, were never communicated to NICS.

– Jared Loughner was known to local law enforcement as having made death threats and was expelled from school after run-ins with campus police and after students and teachers said they were afraid for their safety – yet the college only moved to protect themselves, requiring him to be cleared by mental health professionals if he wished to return to school. Of course, since there was no follow up to any of this, NICS did not prevent Loughner from legally purchasing a handgun.

I am reminded of Gavin de Becker’s excellent book “The Gift of Fear.” Gavin de Becker states that when battered spouses or stalking victims seek restraining orders, they do not solve the actual problem – they only “engage and enrage” their antagonist. Well, Pima Community College’s action was the equivalent of a restraining order, and going by the posting dates and subject matter of Loughner’s YouTube videos, it seems that he was definitely “enraged” by the college’s actions. Rather than solve the problem, this may have pushed him closer to doing what he did.

I submit that, since 9/11, intergovernmental agency communications failures have been painfully clear to the American people and to elected officials. However, there has been no strong cry to fix this at any level and between any agencies. The creation of the Department of Homeland Security was supposed to improve communication, but has only resulted in a massive, inept bureaucracy that has kept us no safer than pre-9/11 security measures. As has been shown by both the Underwear Bomber and Jared Loughner, the final line of security is composed of private citizens being alert, able, and courageous enough to take action when government and “security” agencies failed.

Even after the Virginia Tech shootings, which should have been a wake up call to administrators, mental health professionals, and police officers at college campuses nationwide, local agencies are still passing the buck, saying to themselves, “This guy sounds crazy, but that could never happen here.”

It’s high time that we ignore those screeching nonsense from atop Internet soapboxes and behind City of Chicago lecterns and start investigating why and how the exact government agencies that would enforce these imaginary new gun laws continue to fail at their jobs.

Troy Industries Customer Service Update

Many months ago, I wrote about a problem I had with Troy customer service – that they wouldn’t repair a TRX Extreme handguard because I was not the original purchaser.

Well, some folks at Troy saw that earlier this month, and since the people who had handled my issue are apparently no longer working customer service, I was emailed a UPS tag and asked to return the handguard. Only a few weeks later, it was back on my doorstep, looking like new – very impressive, considering the holidays. My hat is off to Troy – for both their response to me and for improving their customer service department.

Sabre Defence Bankruptcy?

Rumors are swirling about a possible Sabre Defence bankruptcy. It’s not exactly “new news,” since they were sued by a creditor last month, but the rumors seem to have solidified into something more lately. I still hope they’re wrong – Sabre makes a pretty decent product – but if they’re true, this could be an early signal, along with the essential elimination of Bushmaster in all but name, that the AR-15 industry is entering a period of serious adjustment.

While the eventual winner may be the consumer, who will hopefully receive a higher quality product at a lower price as companies fight for sales, it’s going to, for lack of a better term, suck for the companies (and their employees) that end up consolidating and/or going out of business.