This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Guns

  • Giffords to step down

    According to ABC, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords will step down from her seat in Congress following the State of the Union Address;

    “I have more work to do on my recovery and so to do what is best for Arizona I will step down this week,” Giffords, speaking clearly but slowly and haltingly, said in a video posted online Sunday. “Thank you for your prayers and for giving me time to recover.”

    Coincidently, TAH praised Giffords for her proposal to cut Congressional pay and staff expenditures a day before she was shot by Jarod Lee Loughner. We can all appreciate the fact that she didn’t follow the Jim Brady example and use her injuries and the tragedy of that day to take away our freedoms. She also voted against Nancy Pelosi for speaker in 2009.

  • 86,000 Korea War veterans return home

    Well, not exactly human veterans, but veterans, nonetheless. The Korean government is shipping 86,000 M1 Garand rifles that we left behind back to the US according to The Korea Times;

    Kim Mi-sung, an official of the force and resources management office, said the defense ministry received an approval letter from the United States on Sept. 2 last year that stated Washington agreed to allow the importation of the M1s.

    She noted that the U.S. government, however, rejected Seoul’s proposal to export some 600,000 M1 Carbines, which were also used in the Korean War, as they come with a magazine that can carry multiple rounds unlike the Garands.

    Too bad about the carbines, but they do look pretty scary with that 20-round box magazine. Maybe the Koreans can try to send them over after this next election when there’s someone running the Executive Branch with a lick of common sense.

    I don’t think I’ve ever fired the Garand, but I’ve heard nothing but good stuff about them, their performance and their accuracy. With 86,000 more on the market, maybe I’ll get my chance.

  • Emily gets her gun

    If you haven’t been paying attention, the Washington Times is running a series of articles written by Emily Miller on the trials and tribulations of becoming a gun owner in DC. The series begins with her decision to buy a gun when she confronts a large crowd of thugs in her neighborhood and realizes that she only has a Blackberry with a no-round magazine.

    Rather than me posting all of the articles (there are more than ten) in the series, just go to the first link and click the links at the bottom of the page to the next article. It’s fairly obvious to me that DC wants to smother prospective gun owners with paperwork and hoops to jump through.

    ADDED: Speaking of guns and hoops, New York Post reports that a toy store owner in NYC was fined $30,000 for stocking toy guns.

    [T]he .44-caliber fines for the orange-tipped, obvious fakes are forcing him to close for good.

    “It doesn’t make any sense,” said Khaled Mohamed, 23, manager of 99¢ Target in Flatlands, which has been ordered to pay a staggering $5,000 fine for each gun offered for sale — the maximum under the law.

    Yeah, that’s how you stop crime, put shop owners out of business.

  • Miss your M24? Remington will fix that.

    So, have you missed that sweet M24 sniper rifle that was your constant companion for all of those months while you were over there. Some days it seemed like your only friend and life hasn’t been the same since the last time you turned it over to the armorer. Well, Remington is making a few thousand available according to Army Times;

    The rifle will run you $3,500. That may seem like a big chunk of change, especially when you can buy Remington’s Model 700 XCR Tactical Long Range for $1,500. But the M24 is in a whole different league, and its asking price is about half the original cost, Shaw said.

    “The barrel is unique, the rifle is drill-tapped for the open sights. … There is just no other gun like this that we make,” he said. “Just the stock and scope would cost you $2,000. You can build or buy something that will match this capability, but it will cost you $6,000. And it won’t be an M24.”

    Remington will take orders beginning in mid-January

    I owned the Model 700 at one time and it was the best deer rifle I ever owned, but I guess 3500 bucks is just a tad outside my price range for something to kill large edible rats.

  • F&F supervisors promoted

    ROS sends a link to the LA Times which announces the promotion of three Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives supervisors of the famous Fast & Furious operation which successfully armed Mexican drug cartel thugs with more than two thousand guns from US gun dealers.

    All three have been heavily criticized for pushing the program forward even as it became apparent that it was out of control. At least 2,000 guns were lost and many turned up at crime scenes in Mexico and two at the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Arizona.

    Ya know, where I work, they don’t generally promote people who make decisions that are contrary to the laws of our country and do injury to the safety and security of the American people. So, when people like this who are found to be involved with what are generally considered to be lapses of good judgement, are promoted, a casual observer an probably assume that this was the desired outcome of the operation. I’m just sayin’…

  • Today’s feel good story

    Old Trooper sends a link to a feel good article about an 82-year-old who dispatched an intruder to his house in the early morning hours;

    The 82-year-old homeowner woke up at 6 a.m. after hearing someone at his backdoor, the report said. He armed himself with a .45 automatic and fired a single shot through the door, the report said. The suspected burglar was hit in the abdomen and likely died minutes later.

    The suspect was described as a white male in a ski mask who was carrying a hammer and screwdriver at the time of the shooting. Police have tentatively identified the suspect as the man wanted for other burglaries in the neighborhood, the report said.

    The local police chief went on to say that the homeowner did what the law enforcement and legal system couldn’t accomplish – put the dude out of business. I’d advise people who think that robbing old guys is a potential career path – all of us old guys don’t fart around with puny .380 (9mm Kurz) or 9mm handguns that punch little holes. We learned to shoot with .45s and that’s what we’re comfortable with. A quarter ounce of lead traveling at 930 feet per second doesn’t leave you standing long enough for the second round.

  • All guns are always loaded

    Associated Press reports that a SEAL was trying to impress a woman he’d just brought home from a bar and shot himself;

    San Diego police were called on Thursday after the accident. Police say [Petty Officer 3rd Class Gene “Geno” Clayont, Jr.] had gone to a bar and brought a woman back to his apartment and was showing her guns when he put a pistol to his head, believing it was unloaded, and pulled the trigger.

    So, ladies, is that what I’m doing wrong? Are you impressed and more likely to give me the good stuff if I disregard everything I know about gun safety?

    Yes, it’s a tragedy, but a self-inflicted tragedy. You have to wonder what was going through his mind. Besides the obvious, of course.

  • Mounties always get their scary-lookin’ gun

    TT sends us a link from north of our border, from the same people who infected us with Bryan Adams’ music. How would you like to get a letter like this from your government;

    “This notice is to inform you that the firearm registration certificates indicated below have been revoked,” says the letter, obtained by Postmedia News. “You have 30 days to deliver your firearms to a peace officer, firearms officer . . . or to otherwise lawfully dispose of them.”

    Apparently, this latest round of seizure of previously legal guns is going after a .22 caliber rifle that looks particularly scary to the Canadian government;

    Yeah, but gun registration is just so we can keep track of guns, don’t worry about it.