Department of Defense yanks 3D printed gun specs

I'm not sure how this works or the legal ramifications of what they think they're doing, but I find this a highly interesting legal case.

Defense Distributed files are being removed from public access at the request of the U.S. Department of Defense Trade Controls.  Until further notice, the United States government claims control of the information.

I'm not sure how they think it will work.

That and it's already been downloaded 100,000 times.  As we all know, it's real easy to put the genie back in the bottle once something hits the internet.

CHL holder assists police, stops person from entering school

Over at That Guy's place.  Highly recommended read for an example of what stops bad people from entering a school.

AR-15 used for good - UNPOSSIBLE

Interesting story:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/05/01/iraq-war-vet-armed-with-rifle-thwarts-gas-station-break-in-police-say/?intcmp=HPBucket

Summary:  Someone working late night at a gas station who also happens to be an Iraq War Vet decides not to take it lying down from a couple of young thugs.  He kicks one, gets his AR and all-of-a-sudden they aren't so tough anymore.  No one is injured, but both are arrested after they scamper away.

Two amazing things about this story:

A. an AR-15 overcame it's inherent evil and was forced to be used to do something good.  I'm also surprised that the Iraq war veteran was able to figure out how to use it, even with extensive training.  After all, Joe Biden says it's so hard to figure out we should all have double-barrel shotguns and shoot through doors and off our balconies with them.

B. according to DHS veterans are potentially the enemy, but here one is doing a positive thing working hard and defending himself from criminals.

I know, go figure.

Victim takes attacker's shotgun (video)

This is pretty amazing video:

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/man-turns-tables-shotgun-wielding-attacker-141851442.html

and from the original report:

http://www.wwl.com/pages/16209701.php

While this is not the recommended course of action to take unless you know what you are doing, it's fascinating to see and sometimes fighting back makes you king of your fate.

This is a good example of why you never get in too close to someone, especially with a long firearm.  It works both ways.  If you're the good guy, stay away from the bad guy if you've got the advantage.

Still, very interesting video to watch.  We always say fight back.  Sometimes it takes some big stones to put your money where the shotgun barrel is, so to speak.  I'm glad this guy came out on top.  After watching the video, I love reading the part when the bad guys come back and try to negotiate, saying they had the victim's cell phone.  Like a typical thug, this guy beats feet like Flash when the tables turn.  I see he had all the time in the world to pick up a dropped cell phone.  :)

Don't bring paintball gun to a gunfight

http://q13fox.com/2013/04/29/dont-bring-a-paint-ball-gun-to-a-shootout/

I have to say this is interesting video.  Other than that, I can't say it any better than Chief Troumbley did in the interview.

Bulletproof Whiteboards?

I'm up in the air on this one.  By itself, we all know these are pretty much useless for sheltering in place.  It's like just having a shield in a battle with swords.  Eventually, the guy will get to you.  I can see some benefits for using it to get the heck out of dodge, but that is not the procedure for most schools.  Now, where this will be amazingly effective are the schools where teachers can be armed.  Now you're getting to a serious combination of defense and offense.  That's portable cover and you can't beat that.  I can't see how you hold them, but if there are elastic straps on the back you could use it something like a shield on your forearm.  It might break a bone, but big deal.  You can use it like a small riot shield and shoot around it with your strong hand.

The new "shoulder thing that goes up" quote

Ok, so here it is:

Rep Diana DeGette of Colorado was one of the main forces behind the recent push for gun control laws in Colorado.  She must know a bunch about firearms, since she is so passionate to ban them, right?

Absolutely wrong.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/04/03/house-democrat-confuses-her-own-gun-control-proposal/

What's the efficacy of banning these magazine clips?  I will tell you, these are ammunition, they're bullets.  So the people who have those now, they're going to shoot them," DeGette said.  "And so if you ban them in the future, the number of these high-capacity magazines is going to decrease dramatically over time, because the bullets will have been shot and there won't be any more available."

Ok, so that's just ridiculous on the face of it.  She was deservedly laughed at for that piece of brilliance.  Apparently, I need to order a heck of a lot more AR magazines because I was using them all wrong.  I had no idea they were a one-shot deal.

So, her office decided to clarify her obviously ignorant statement.

"She simply misspoke in referring to 'magazines,' when she should have referred to 'clips,' which cannot be reused because they don't have a feeding mechanism," spokeswoman Juliet Johnson said.

 Ohhhhh.

Wait, I still don't get it.  So, now these people are trying to act like they know the difference between a clip and a magazine?  It's laughable.  It would be funny if they weren't actually accomplishing their goal.

I have clips.  Lots of clips.  They have a specific purpose.  You know what else?  They sure can be reloaded if you so desire.  I've re-used my SKS clips many times.  I've also not seen very many "high-capacity clips."  Most hold, what? Eight to ten rounds for a quicker reload of a magazine?

It's a farce.  Is it over?  Not quite.  She also had this little jewel in response to an older individual that had a question regarding his ability to defend himself against a larger and aggressive attacker:

DPD (Denver PD) would be there in minutes.

You'd probably be dead anyway. 

Seriously.  Now, whether she realizes it or not.  This was the only correct thing she actually said.  Yes, the police will be there in minutes while you're being attacked.  And yes, you probably will be dead anyway.  She made his point for him as she mocked him.  I think the thing is they really don't care about public safety, they care about the control.  She accidentally exposed herself a little more than she intended.  Sadly, I don't see this being carried very far by "journalists."

Milwaukee Sheriff chastised for common sense

You can use hyperbole and point to an occasional extreme example all you want, but the fact is that he is absolutely right.  All the sheriff did here was state the facts.  He didn't tell everyone to arm up and roam the streets, he simply stated that you are your first line of defense.  People wanting to make political hay have (unsurprisingly) jumped into the mix here.  There are your typical politicians and gun control groups saying what they typically say.  In actuality, what they are saying is quite dangerous.  Law enforcement is rarely ever there in time.  Stating that he should "do his job better" makes no sense statistically.  A fantastic law enforcement response time is around 2 minutes.  The averave, or "acceptable", is probably more in the range of 4 to 5 minutes.  Add at least another 5 minutes if you live in a rural area.  A sheriff generally has a much wider area that they have to police.  It just takes time to drive somewhere.

So, let's take a very good response time of 2 minutes.  Look at your watch.  Someone has just kicked in your door.  Sit there and watch 2 minutes go by and tell me if that isn't an eternity.  Now, response time on scene, not actually involved in your crisis yet.  So, the police pull up and need to assess the situation before charging in.  Add on another minute at least.  Now you're in your bedroom with the house surrounded by the police and the bad guy trapped inside.  Now what?  What is actually irresponsible is telling citizens that they should rely on law enforcement response as their primary means of defense.  Calling 911 should be the same as an officer callingfor back-up.  That is how everyone should view that system.  Find a good defensive place, get the family there and hold your position, ready to use your firearm, while waiting for back-up to arrive.  No "Dirty Harry" about it, just a family defending their lives and home.

Feinstein's Wish List

So, here is the fun ban list.  First off, I'm thinking it has a snowball's chance in hell of passing.  However, I have perused and discussed this with my group of shooter friends.  There are many, many issues with the way this list is constructed.  I'll make it a bit of a game.  What is wrong with how they have classed many of these firearms?  I have done a little dissection in private of the weaknesses of this piece of paper.  Now, if this is indeed a page from the actual law then it is horribly sloppy.  If that's the case, I'm not going to line out the legal issues for our opponents.  I'm not closing loopholes for them.  If it's just a press release, well we shall see...

I know a lot of gun people that will have an aneurysm because of how they've "typed" some of these firearms.

But guns can't do good things

Especially when law-abiding citizens possess them.  I mean, it's just not possible.  I'm sure anti's would rather that we played "what if" and hoped that the repeat felon would just say, "oh, sorry" and leave.  Because that's what happens.

A Georgia mother protects her and her children using a .38 revolver.  Note that she hit him at close range 5 out of 6 shots and he was able to leave, get in his vehicle and end up in the hospital.  Thank goodness it gave her the time she needed to get away.  Wait, why would you ever need more than 10 rounds?  Oh yes, because bad people exist and they don't stop when you want them to stop unless you make them.

Kewl Accessorization (and meat)

I've had a Remington 870 12 Gauge for quite some time, but it has spent a lot of time in the safe.  It makes it to the range a lot because it's just lots of fun.  What it hasn't done is operate in the capacity of a home defense firearm.  "Why?" you say.  "It is one of the most venerable man-stoppers made."  Yes, I do agree.  They have their place in home defense and can be an immediate show stopper.  However, I do not employ anything for home defense in a serious capacity without one of these:

This is what was under the tree today.  I've been seriously looking for a good set-up and just haven't gone for it.  I've even had stuff in the cart on-line, but just not bought it.  It wasn't at the top of the spending list.  Mrs. 45er asked for a list, so I forwarded her the links I had favorited.  I'm liking this set up.

It is an Elzetta mount (which is constructed very well) and a Primary Arms light.  The light is nothing special, just really darn bright.  Primary Arms says 420 lumens and from the purple spots in my vision, I might agree with that.  It's just a single stage light with a click on and off tail cap.  Simple.  You can pulse it on if you want, but I really wanted a light with click-on function since this is a pump gun.  I really need a constant on function because I don't want to be trying to find the pulse switch every time I rack the slide.

It stands off a bit from the barrel, but I'm ok with that.  I didn't want to put a mount on with a rail and then another mount and then clamp the light.  That's a lot of stuff to get loose.  This is a specifically dedicated light mount and there are a heck of a lot of screws holding this on.  I will be taking it out this weekend for some testing.  Fun.

Now, on to the next bit of fun from this week.  I was wandering through a local store and saw some camo wrap on a display.  Nothing special, I thought, until I started looking at it.  It is basically like medical wrap.  Not the old Ace bandage from days past.  This is latex embedded so it sticks to itself.  It also gives a secondary advantage of making the gun you are wrapping a little more "grippy".  Here is the result on my stainless Remington 700:

For perspective, there is a picture of the same rifle at the bottom of the page.  The product is called Camo Form from a company called McNett.  It isn't cheap at $15 a roll.  One roll is supposed to wrap a rifle, mounts and scope.  I'm not a professional at this, so I didn't have a lot left for the scope.  I used what I had.

This is a pretty cool product.  It's re-usable and can just be washed in water and hung to dry.  One of the issues with my stainless rifle is it's super shiny.  Mostly that isn't an issue, but when I am stalking or sitting in the open I'm extra conscious of the potential shine there.  This will help a bit, I think (and it looks kinda cool).

Now, for something completely different:

The Elk is done!  It wasn't cheap, either, but it was worth it.  On the left there is the pencil stick (think skinny dried sausage), in the middle is jalapeno cheese summer sausage (yum) and the right is salami.  We also got regular summer sausage and jerky.  The look on my face was probably hilarious when my dad brought these in the house.  I was thinking something like the little chub of meat you get in the store, you know, about 10 inches long.  The summer sausage and salami was probably 2 feet long or better.  When you thaw one of these babies, you'd better have a dinner party planned or a platoon to feed.  Oh, and it tastes incredible.

For me, not thee

I'd like you to meet Donne Trotter.

Senator Trotter was arrested for attempting to carry a firearm onto a plane.  A class 4 felony.  That generally sucks.  What makes it worse is that Mr. Trotter is a democratic senator from Illinois that decided to vote against a bill that would allow his constituents to carry a concealed handgun.

To quote The Grinch (Jim Carrey's version)

The audacity.  The unmitigated gaul.

It never ceases to amaze me the hypocrisy of this crowd.  Totally against guns except for themselves or their armed bodyguards.

P.S. Please disregard the terminology in the article.  It was written by a "journalist" after all.

Problem solved with application of high speed lead

Seems a jerk in New Mexico thought he'd tail a woman home and do who-knows-what to some poor, defenseless woman.  Wait, did I say defenseless?

Not quite...  < ---  Clicky, clicky

...the woman says Sandoval grabbed a knife, put the knife to her chin and told her to take off her clothes.  The woman told deputies she then reached under her pillow, grabbed a loaded gun and shot him.

 I have not really been a fan of the idea of keeping your loaded gun under your pillow.  There are more secure ways to have it quickly accessible.  However, I am not going to fault someone for at least having something somewhere.  It worked for her.  The great news is that she will hopefully just need to talk to someone to help her through some of the issues from the invasion, but not anything else.

Las Vegas on Full... Auto

Well, we're back from Las Vegas (I know, who said we were going?) and the airport part was thankfully nothing to speak of.  Originally, I had a blog post planned to show all kinds of different stuff that went on while we were in Las Vegas.  The problem is it kept growing and growing and I was pretty sure it was going to turn into that slide-show that you have to watch when your aunt and uncle get back from Florida.  Instead of subjecting you all to that, I wanted to hit some highlights one at a time.  I'm going to start with the thing that I really wanted to do again in Vegas.  Fire full-auto firearms.  Instead of spending time typing up a wordy, long-winded post about all the junk we did I spent the time putting together a little video of the full-auto experience.  So, here it is, featuring Elvis because, well - it's Las Vegas.

Edit to add, if you're in Las Vegas and want an enjoyable shooting experience, this place can't be beat.  Discount Firearms has treated me very well both times I've gone there.  Dean made the experience fun and educational.  Hey, I learned a few things so even old dogs can learn.  It's a bit of a trip off the strip on foot, so definitely call them to pick you up in the shuttle and save your feet and the cab fare.

Everywhere a Sign

Only, this one is a good sign.

David over at Musings Over a Pint sent a sign my way as a nice gesture.  Kind of like a comment door prize.  Here it is...

So a thanks to David for this.  I'm going to have to find a place of honor for it around here.  I know this is going to make the trip with us next month on our big annual shooting trip.  I will try to incorporate this into our pile o' firearms picture.

Thanks, David.

Ammunition microstamping into economic ruin

New York is on a roll now.

The mind of a politician has always confounded me.  They like to wield their bureaucratic power and then act absolutely and completely puzzled when people and businesses don't just fall in line or do something "unfair" like "resist sensible gun legislation."

You see, politicians don't have to make a profit.  Governments rarely have to actually follow the budget they set forth.  It's a foreign concept to them that A. a company has a duty to their shareholders to make a profit and B. a duty to their customers to provide the product and back the ideals the consumers expect.  We all know that we as consumers expect firearms and ammunition manufacturers to not back gun legislation.  It's not especially good for their bottom line.  You can ask Smith and Wesson how that turned out for them some years back.  The politicians are already trying to cast the blame on the businesses for moving and cutting all of those jobs.  Amazing how the company would much rather not spend the money to move the business, retrain a bunch of people and reinvest in a bunch of new equipment.  We all know that they have weighed the cost of all of that versus implementing the microstamping.  Obviously, the cost of the microstamping in addition to the reputational considerations are worse than moving a whole production site out of state.  But a politician just isn't ever going to get that.

Update: The video I promised

I posted it in the original post just in case, but here it is as well.

Now, my original comments went something like this:

I don't know that I'd go charging into a situation in that way.  I also know I wouldn't shoot at a fleeing vehicle unless there was a threat to me.  People go to jail for that kind of thing, even in Texas.  It's hard to know what you would do in that situation, but I can understand the frustration of a neighborhood under siege by worthless trash destroying their hard-earned property.  My actions would have been more along the line of taking a stand (oh, and not with a handgun) at the vehicle.  If they want it back, they'll have to take it.  If they want to run off, fine, but it means I have evidence for the police and they'll be a lot easier to catch on foot.  Now, maybe this just happened too fast and there was no time for that but I just can't get behind shooting at a fleeing vehicle.

On a side-note, great statement by the police officer.  You will find that kind of attitude from a lot of the police in this part of Texas, especially from those in the Sheriffs' Departments.

Neighbor stops burglary using a gun - video

Well, I posted the wrong story and I can't find the one I just saw on the news.  I guess I'm a little to quick on the draw with this news since it's not even on tha interwebs, yet.  Will update very soon.

Update - the video with comments are in the post here.

In the meantime, it's crazy what I found while searching for this one.  Check this out:

Huh, well look here.  Another story very similar with different (and better) results.

Or, you could be unprepared and go about it this way and hope.  Not recommended.

I prefer them to end this way.

Or this one.  The "screaming like a little girl" comment made me laugh, but "led off one round into the ground" sounds suspiciously like a warning shot to me and those are generally not good.

Wow, a bunch of stories of defense in recent news.

"Our prophet said we should protect ourselves"

I actually learned something from this article.  It turns out the Sikhs generally have the right mindset when it comes to the relationship between peace, protection of the defenseless and self-protection .  I knew of Sikhism before this madman went stupid, but I honestly didn't know the Kirpan was religiously designated for self-protection and protection of others.  Some of them seem to have consumed the gun control koolaid, but the pro-carry guy quoted in this article really has the right ideas.  He truly understands what his religion expects of him.  Defense of self.  The Kirpan is but a tool and he understands there are other tools that are better suited for this need in today's world.  It is unfortunate more didn't consider this previous to the incident.  Also, notice that some still think four minutes to wait for help from the police is acceptable.  In reality, it is an eternity in a situation like that.

The Great Equalizer - Granny's Gun

I actually laughed out loud when I saw this video.  I didn't think I would.  It's pretty typical to see thugs scatter like roaches when the rounds actually start flying since they are generally a bunch of D-Bag cowards anyway picking on what they assume are defenseless victims.   Therefore, the flipping and falling didn't catch me off guard.  What made me laugh was the cartoon-esque stack up at the egress.  Now THAT is comedy gold.  Seriously, cue Yakety Sax on this video.  Also, nothing like tearing off and leaving some of your buddies behind.  With friends like these...  So, anyway, what you have here is five (you can count them  easily at the stack-up) young thugs plus a getaway driver bravely taking on an older woman.  Then, out comes the equalizer.  All of a sudden, a seriously outnumbered and overpowered lady is able to make a bunch of jerks scramble and wet their panties.  I say good for her.  I'd like to see a lot more of this and maybe a lot more range time for the citizens so they can start making more shots count.