A note to all you Gun Nuts: The photo below (and three more, which you can see by clicking here) came into my inbox attached to the following caption:

"For those of you who load your own ammunition...
 
A guy came into our department the other day to ask a favor. He had a Smith & Wesson Model 629 that he wanted to dispose of after a mishap at the range. He said there was a loud bang when he tested his new load and the gun smacked him in the forehead, leaving a nice gash. When the tweety birds cleared, this is what he saw..."

Rather than comment on these photos myself, I decided they were serious enough that they deserved something intelligent said about them, so I sent them to my friend and ace pistolsmith John Blauvelt. Here's what he had to say.  --David Petzal

Begin forwarded message:
From: JC Blauvelt
Date: October 30, 2009 8:09:43 PM EST
To: Dave Petzal

Subject: BANG

Dave, Well you asked for it. I hope you find this useful. Thank you for the opportunity.

A graphic reminder of the art of home pressure testing. What I see... [ Read Full Post ]

It is for a growing number of hunters. Ironically, ever since Jim Zumbo infamously blogged that black guns have no place in hunting, their popularity among hunters has surged.

From the Twin Cities’ Pioneer Press:

"Last fall, we couldn't keep these rifles in stock," said [Joe’s Sporting Goods gunsmith Bob] Everson. . . ..

Whether Zumbo was treated fairly or not for his opinion is still debated, but what isn't disputed is the popularity of AR rifles. Big-name rifle makers like Remington and Ruger have jumped into the game of making AR rifles (named after the Armalite company that first developed them in the 1950s). . . .

Jim Rauscher, president of Joe's Sporting Goods, said bolt-action rifles are still the most popular style among his deer-hunting customers. But AR rifles appeal to certain segment of hunters. . . .

"There is the guy who still likes the four-door sedan," Rauscher said, "and there are the guys who like the large, jacked-up pickup trucks."

So how about you? Can you see yourself hunting deer with an AR? [ Read Full Post ]

In case you were living under a rock last year, in the landmark District of Columbia v. Heller case, the Supreme Court ruled that the 2nd Amendment protects an individual’s right to own a gun for private use, thus striking down the district’s handgun ban. But D.C. is a federal enclave. The question of whether the amendment protects a broad constitutional right and should therefore override state and local gun-control ordinances, such as Chicago’s handgun ban, is still up in the air—but not for long.

From the Los Angeles Times:
The Supreme Court set the stage for a historic ruling on gun rights and the 2nd Amendment by agreeing today to hear a challenge to Chicago's ban on handguns. . . .

A ruling on the issue, due by next summer, could open the door to legal challenges to various gun control measures in cities and states across the nation. . . .

Lawyers for the gun owners argued that "the right of the people to keep and bear arms" set out in the 2nd Amendment is "incorporated" into the 14th Amendment and thereby applies to states and localities.

Be sure to check out the full article, and then... [ Read Full Post ]

From The New York Times:

[Henry Repeating Arms’ newest print ad shows a man wearing] a holster with a gun on one side and a Bible on the other.

“There is nothing wrong with clinging to your guns and religion,” the headline reads, quoting Anthony Imperato, president at Henry, in a clear reference to a remark last year by Barack Obama before he was elected president. . . .

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Now that the news is all Ted, all the time (which at least is a relief from all Michael, all the time) and the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy is on his way to being Saint Teddy, we should remember that he was an implacable enemy of the Second Amendment, and that there never was an anti-gun law he did not like. Kennedy blamed guns for his brothers’ deaths. The reality is a little different.

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A little while ago Dave provided an excellent and important public service post about how to spot concealed handgun. Unfortunately, it didn’t cover every concealed carry situation, as illustrated by the case of George Vera, arrested recently in Houston for selling bootlegged CDs. Vera was frisked on the scene by arresting officers, at the city jail and again at county, yet officers never found his hidden 9mm until he confessed to possessing a weapon to guards at shower time. How did he do it? Read on.

If that wasn’t enough to make you feel slightly ill, ask yourself: if the gun was unloaded,  where did he hide the bullets? [ Read Full Post ]

William F. Buckley, who was a Yale grad, once said that he would rather be governed by the first 400 people in the Boston phone book than by the faculty of Harvard. Cambridge, it seems, is still the place where common sense goes to die. I'm referring, of course, to Professor Wlliam Henry Louis Gates, who managed to get himself arrested in his own home because he apparently mouthed off to the cops. Professor Gates was ignorant of, or chose to ignore, the very same rules that all smart gun owners should abide by.

The first rule of police work, as spelled out by Sean Connery in The Untouchables, is to ... [ Read Full Post ]

Concealed carry is very big right now, the extended right to do so having narrowly been defeated in the Senate. One of the people who came out most strongly against the bill was New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, who said that Sen. John Thune's amendment was the most misguided piece of legislation he'd ever seen. You may recall that Commissioner Kelly's department, once or twice a year, manages to pump 40 or 50 shots into an innocent citizen. (They feel just awful about it, too, until the next time.) So even if you don't go heeled, study carefully the chart in this link, and if you ever visit New York, be careful not to exhibit any of the characteristics that it shows.

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My dad started out as a poet, then put those skills to work during a stint in the ad business (as I understand it, he is either wholly or in part responsible for the alliterative Brylcream slogan: “A little dab’ll do ya.”) before he ultimately wound up a novelist.

I inherited exactly none of Dad’s poetic ability, but my older son Gordon got the full dose. He wrote the following poem, “Flight of the Pellets,” while he was in high school:

Flight of the Pellets
Tiny, like little eggs
In a slide of the bolt
Thrown into waking
In the metal womb, flying
Down the steel birth canal.
No nourishment for them, just the shove and flame and stench
Of burning gases.
Packed
Tightly
They
Fly
First flight, last flight, headed to their death
In another’s death.
Enter the berth of a heart, smash through, and destroy.
Down below, in the field of dead shriveled stalks
A tiny drop of steel rain falls to the ground.
It hits, digging its own grave
A di       in the earth.
      vot

Since “Flight of the Pellets” is one of the very few poems about shotgunning in existence, it seems only natural that we should hold... [ Read Full Post ]

From the Chattanooga Times Free Press:

Gov. Phil Bredesen vetoed legislation on Thursday allowing Tennessee’s 220,000 handgun-carry permit holders to go armed in establishments selling alcohol.

Flanked by law enforcement officials from across the state, including Chattanooga Police Chief Freeman Cooper, Gov. Bredesen declared in a news conference at the Capitol that “guns and alcohol don’t mix.”

A few select quotes:

Governor Bredeson: [Permitting someone] to carry a concealed weapon into a crowded bar at midnight on a Saturday night defies common sense. . . .”

Metro Nashville Police Chief Ronal Serpas: “I’ve witnessed shootings in bars before,” Chief Serpas said. “The presence of somebody else with a gun would not have saved anybody. These things happen in the blink of an eye. It’s not like it is on TV.”

And the NRA response:

In his veto message, Governor Bredesen talked about his concerns with mixing firearms and alcohol. But he conveniently failed to mention the absolute prohibition, with grim consequences, for any permit holder who has one sip of alcohol while carrying a firearm. He also ignored the provision which allows restaurants to prohibit carrying firearms in their establishments by simply posting a sign. . . .

House Bill... [ Read Full Post ]

There's already been a  boatload of bloviation expressed on the recent reversal of the ban on loaded firearms in our national parks, some of it sensible but most of it (predictably) bordering on  hysterics.

This column from the Huffington Post is a perfect example:
 
"In fact,  the new rule is likely to make national park visitors less safe around  wildlife. Packing heat could give some people a false sense of security and  make them more likely to approach bison, elk, moose, and grizzly bears,  rather than keep a safe distance which is better for both people and  animals."

But the most certain outcome of this congressional action is  that it will promote poaching. The National Park Service warned in its fiscal 2006 budget submission each year for the past several years ... The data  suggests that there is a significant domestic as well as international trade  for illegally taken plant and animal parts." Poaching, the agency said, "is suspected to be a factor in the decline of at least 29 species of wildlife  and could cause the extirpation of 19 species from the parks." 

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My guide in New Zealand, David Blainey, had served ten years as a soldier in that country’s “forces,” as the army is called, and would have stayed another ten had not an ankle betrayed him. He loved the service, and one afternoon he asked me what was the most important thing I had gotten out of my time in the U.S. Army.

That took some thought. I had a very easy time and spent most of it in front of a chalkboard, teaching. I learned public speaking, and the Army system of education, which is the most effective in the world, and I learned how to spit shine, and I learned that there were men who had never gone to college who were better soldiers than I would ever be. And all of that was important.

But the most important thing, I told David, was meeting men whom you would die for. There are very few of them, but they are unmistakable. In my case it was a Lieutenant Colonel who later made full Colonel, and in David’s case it was a Brigadier for whom David was a driver.

I don’t know exactly what confers this quality on an officer or an NCO. The... [ Read Full Post ]