Archive for December 2007
A shoulder thing that goes up
Here’s an oldie but a goodie that I noted last spring over at MO:
H.R. 1022: Assault Weapons Ban and Law Enforcement Protection Act of 2007, sponsored by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) and introduced in February, includes this:
Barrel Shroud – The term ‘barrel shroud’ means a shroud that is attached to, or partially or completely encircles, the barrel of a firearm so that the shroud protects the user of the firearm from heat generated by the barrel, but does not include a slide that encloses the barrel, and does not include an extension of the stock along the bottom of the barrel which does not encircle or substantially encircle the barrel.
Here’s the Congresspedia entry on HR. 1022.
And H.R. 1859: Anti-Large Capacity Ammunition Feeding Device Act of 2007, also sponsored by McCarthy, seems to have gone exactly nowhere since it was introduced in April.
Call for freedom to carry at college in Texas
Campuses push for right to carry handguns
I hadn’t heard one peep about this in the Lone Star State:
Allison Castle, a spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Perry, said the governor would support legislation allowing those with a license to carry a gun on campus.
“Anyone who has gone through the process of getting a license and has had a thorough background check should be allowed to carry a gun anywhere,” Castle said. “In terms of legislation, a lawmaker would have to initiate that. But the governor has left no doubt where he stands on the issue.”
Seems that Texas would be a great place to push this through. Use the stereotypical reputation of the state against opponents of students’ right to carry. If (when) the classrooms don’t run red with blood, just say “If it’s not wild West shootouts every day in Texas, just think how safe every other state will be!”
Via John Lott.
Police kill suspect in fatal shooting of Mich. man in Tennessee
WOOD-TV has the story:
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A man suspected of killing a Michigan man and wounding a manager at a restaurant following a dispute over his bill was shot and killed by police a day later.
David Michael Rudd, 25, was shot several times on Sunday night in a parking lot behind another Knoxville restaurant after he repeatedly refused to put down two weapons he was carrying, police spokesman Darrell DeBusk said. No officers were injured.
Police believe Rudd is the man who fired shots from a .40-caliber handgun into a Hooters restaurant early Saturday morning after a dispute with a cashier over his bar tab, Lt. Kenny Miller said on Sunday.
The Michigan connection:
Stacey Sherman, 35, of Applegate, Mich., was killed by a gunshot as he was leaving the restaurant. Police don’t believe the man from Sanilac County in Michigan’s Thumb region was involved in the dispute.
Rudd apparently had a “long criminal background.” Makes one wonder if he was legal to carry doesn’t it?
Clarification on the M4′s poor showing
Over at Murdoc Online: M4 failure discrepancy explained…sort of
The M4 fared far more badly in the most recent dust chamber tests (see graph here) than it did last summer. The Army tries to explain the gap.
USA Today Poll on 2A
Got an email letting me know about a USA Today Quick Question online survey about the Second Amendment. The question:
Does the Second Amendment give individuals the right to bear arms?
I don’t generally think much about this sort of survey, as it turns into a matter of one side trying to get everyone to click over and the other side doing the same. The result usually isn’t terribly meaningful.
In this case, 97% of over 185,000 voters currently chose “YES”. Now, it’s possible that 97% of Americans truly do believe that the 2nd Amendment is about individual rights, but I find that difficult to believe. It’s more likely that the only effort to get word out about the poll has been by pro-gun types. At this point, even if any anti-gun types thought about trying to mobilize online clickers, they’d likely look at the current results and not even bother.
And I sure don’t expect to see the USA Today to run a story that even mentions, let alone gives any credence to, a survey of theirs that shows 97% support for the idea that the 2A is about individual rights.
I don’t mean to dissuade anyone from clicking over and voting. Not at all. In fact, I voted myself since I was already there. I’m just not expecting it to mean much of anything.
Finally, the wording of the poll is a bit odd. The Bill of Rights is more about spelling out inalienable rights that are protected by the government, not about “giving” anyone any rights. The idea is that the rights have already been given to everyone, they’re “inalienable,” after all, and the Bill of Rights lists them to prevent the government from encroaching upon them or limiting them.
Hello Kitty AR-15
A couple of week ago I pointed out the Hello Kitty AK.
Now Steve Johnson points out the Hello Kitty AR. California legal, no less.
Getting tough in Tennessee?
Say Uncle covers a “Crooks With Guns” law that takes effect January 1st in Tennessee. It contains minimum sentencing requirements with no chance of parole for people convicted of “dangerous felonies” while in possession of a gun. He’s concerned that the law will cause more harm than good:
You see, I’d hate to see someone get ten years for selling orchids. In celebration, I’ll make sure that the last time I go tear off mattress labels while armed will be on 12/31/2007.
And he has more here.
It’s being sold, of course, as a “get tough on crime” initiative.
Nathan Moore notes a potential problem in the way the law is written:
Possessing a firearm in the commission, attempt to commit or escape from a non-dangerous “offense” (note, not felony) is a Class E felony. A Class E felony entails a one (1) to two (2) year sentence for a Range I offender. So, in essence, if you possess a firearm while committing the least serious misdemeanor, you could suffer a felony conviction (think Driving on a Suspended License because of unpaid tickets, or Criminal Trespass, both Class C Misdemeanors – and the way it is written, possessing a valid concealed carry permit wouldn’t matter a lick).
Kleinheider asks about mail fraud committed while in possession of a gun.
I think it would be tough to find many legal gun owners who don’t favor getting “tough” on criminal who use guns to commit crimes. But this law seems to take any sort of ability to pass judgment away from the judge, and the mere possession of the gun (legal or otherwise) will ratchet things up automatically whether warranted or not.
This is the sort of thing that leads to “zero tolerance” expulsions from school of kids who bring plastic knives to cut their school lunch with. When “knife = automatic expulsion” and “plastic knife = knife”, no one can exercise any discretion.
SIG 556
With all the excitement following the poor showing by the M4 versus three piston-powered challengers in Army testing, it’s worth looking at some other piston ARs out there. There are a lot of them, and more are on the way.
For those of you who missed it, here are the results of the US Army’s recent “sandstorm test” pitting the M4 carbine against the Heckler & Koch HK416, the FN USA Mk16 SCAR-L, and the Heckler & Koch XM8:
As you can see, the Colt’s M4 was the clear loser. Colt has two piston models ready to go, and most manufacturers are rushing their own models off the drawing board.
David Crane takes a look at the SIG 556 SWAT. With pictures and commentary.
Here is the standard SIG 556:
Caliber: 5.56mm NATO
Overall Length: 37.0″
Length w/ Stock Collapsed: 33.5″
Barrel Length: 16″
Rifling: 1 in 7″
Sight Radius: 21″
Forearm: Polymer SIG TriRail
Weight w/o Mag: 7.8 lbs
Operating System: Gas Operated, Rotating Bolt
Mag Capacity: 30 Rounds
MSRP: $1,299.95
Mossberg’s Just In Case Shotguns
I haven’t done a lot of shotgun blogging, so I thought this might be a good time to point out Mossberg’s Just In Case line of shotguns.
If your New Year’s resolution includes preparing that disaster survival kit you’ve been meaning to put together for the past eight years, you might want to take a look at these.
Each J.I.C. kit includes a 12-gauge Mossberg 500 shotgun with an 18.5″ barrel and pistol grip. 3″ chambers and 6-round capacity means that you will have a wide variety of ammunition to choose from and that, in post-apocalyptic scenarios, ammo that you scrounge is going to work. The weapons are enclosed in a heavy-duty, resealable bag and the container floats and is water tight to at least 40 feet.
The Home Security model (51340, pictured above) includes a waterproof Survival Kit-In-A-Can which contains the necessities to keep you going when an emergency strikes. The Mariner model (52340, below) includes a Marinecote™ metal finish for the shotgun and a multi-tool and survival knife in the kit. A Sandstorm model (53340, not pictured) features a desert camouflage finish on the shotgun.
If you’ve got a little cash from Santa burning a hole in your pocket, a survival preparedness kit is not a bad idea. You never know when disaster is going to strike, and you don’t want to be sitting in the dark wishing you had spent a little time getting ready just in case. My brother sent us a red backpack with some survival gear inside a few years back as a Christmas gift, and we’ve added a few things to it since then. It’s on a hook near the door, and we all know to grab it as we go if we have to leave in a hurry.
Firearms can be part of a plan, and Mossberg has put together a few good looking kits for those who don’t want to do the work themselves.
Images are copyright by O.F. Mossberg & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
The mythical number we hear about
Robb Allen writes about the 30,000 lies.
Pizza, hold the lead
(via CGSDB) Pizza deliveryman who shot robber had gun permit
A Domino’s pizza deliveryman who shot and killed a would-be robber in Pagedale has a valid permit to carry a weapon and appears to have acted in self-defense, according to St. Louis County police.
The driver, who works for the Domino’s franchise nearby in University City, delivered an order at 7 p.m. Thursday to a phony address in the 6500 block of Julian Avenue, where two armed men announced a robbery. The driver pulled his own pistol and fired shots, striking one of the robbers.
The man he shot was killed. The other escaped but a suspect has since been arrested. A gun, apparently belonging to one of the would-be robbers, was recovered at the scene.
The driver’s CCW permit was from Florida. Florida permits are honored by Missouri.
Here is a great list of Carry License Reciprocity State By State.
Red Dawn, a movie about gun control
Note: This column appeared in the July/August 2007 issue of Shooting Sports Retailer magazine. I chose to post it now because the NRA is looking for New Orleans residents who had their guns confiscated by the authorities after Hurricane Katrina. Also, about the time the magazine was published, a new Collector’s Edition DVD of Red Dawn was released by MGM.
Red Dawn: Scarier than you think?
Mention the 1984 film Red Dawn and you’re likely to get some extreme reactions. Some will tell you that it’s a pathetic piece of jingoistic Reagan-era patriotic propaganda while others will revere the, well, the film’s jingoistic Regan-era patriotic propaganda. While the story of a group of teenage freedom fighters fighting the good fight against evil Commie invaders was a great action flick for its time, many are surprised to learn that it’s not quite as simple, and maybe not as far-fetched, as it first appeared.
You see, the film is a metaphor. And the Soviet invaders are playing the part of…get this…the United States government.
John Milius, Red Dawn’s director and final writer, made the film as an allegory for the unease many have about the growing power of the government and the growing militarization of police forces and intelligence organizations. He knew that Big Brother (recall that this film was released in 1984) was watching, and he knew that a lot of folks were more than a bit concerned.
An early scene in the movie, shortly after Soviet paratroopers drop into a rural Colorado community and begin shooting up the place, shows the ever popular “They can have my gun when they pry it from my cold, dead fingers” bumper sticker on a pick-up truck. Lying near the truck is a handgun grasped in the cold fingers of a dead gun owner. A Soviet soldier pries the weapon loose and claims it as his own. A subtle message this is not.
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