By David E. Petzal

This is all about two infractions of the law, both marginally involving firearms, but with different outcomes.

On Jan. 8, Estelle Margolis, an 86-year-old resident of Norwalk, Connecticut, attended a Westport, Connecticut town meeting on gun control. She carried with her a Red Ryder BB Gun, wrapped in a white cloth, a package of pellets, and a box of .45 ammo. The BB gun was spotted; the police were summoned; and Ms. Margolis was arrested and charged with breach of peace, second degree. The point she wanted to make, she said, was how easy it was to buy a gun. 

Said the Westport Police: “Regardless of what her reasoning was to bring the BB gun rifle [sic] to the meeting, it was a poor decision that created alarm and concern to the public. This incident could clearly have escalated into a tragedy.”

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By Phil Bourjaily

I heard the following story at SHOT from a friend in the industry:

A man walked into a gunstore looking for 5.56 ammo for his AR. As is not uncommon these days, the store was out.

“How about that box of ammo there? I’ll take it,” said the customer, pointing to a lone box of .416 Rigby on the nearly empty shelf.

“Do you have a .416 Rigby rifle?” asked the clerk.

“Nope,” said the man, reaching for his wallet. “I’ll take it anyway.” [ Read Full Post ]

By Phil Bourjaily

Earlier this season I got to shoot a wild pheasant with a 16 gauge L.C. Smith shotgun made in 1936. That was a first for me. I have shot birds with Parkers and Foxes but never a Smith.
 
The gun in this picture traveled a long way from the factory in New York to the field in Iowa where I shot the bird with it. It belongs to Rehan Nana, who works in Pheasant Forever’s marketing department. Nana is Pakistani on his father’s side; his uncle Rohil, a hunter in Pakistan, owned the gun. The uncle sent the gun from Pakistan (who knows how it got there) to Nana’s father when he moved to Kansas City in the 1970s and began hunting pheasants and quail. [ Read Full Post ]