Last week, Congress chastised U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder for failing to fire anyone for creating and implementing Operation Fast and Furious. Why would he? As this series has shown, the ATF’s black bag “guns for goons” operation was part of a government-wide conspiracy. The DEA gave cash to “straw purchasers” (and laundered cash for the cartels), the FBI subverted their firearms background check system, ICE let ATF-enabled guns cross the border and so on. If Eric fired employees with knowledge of these activities, the whole house of cards could come tumbling down. “Obama Administration implicated in Mexican drug smuggling, money laundering, gun running, torture and murder.” So, as the Brits say, Mum’s the word. Only murdered U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s Mum had something to say about that . . .

Josephine Terry’s Facebook page after Holder’s testimony [above] clearly indicates her frustration and fury at the DOJ’s stonewalling on the circumstances surrounding her son’s murder by drug thugs wielding weapons enabled by the ATF. It’s been more than a year since her son was gunned down, and the AG is still saying that he’s waiting for the Inspector General’s report on Fast and Furious before taking any action.

The Terry family deserves better, as do the families of all the Mexicans murdered by cartel members using ATF-enabled weapons. (The marginalizing of the gun running op’s Mexican victims by Holder, the Oversight Committee, the Mexican government and the mainstream media is particularly disgraceful.) And yet, strangely, Mrs. Terry’s indignant post is toast. Tin hat time. It may have something to do with this [via fronterasdesk.com]:

The family of a Border Patrol agent murdered in Arizona reached an agreement with prosecutors late Tuesday to withdraw from the criminal case against the man accused of buying the weapons that may have killed the agent.

Agent Brian Terry’s family had requested to be designated crime victims in the case against Jaime Avila. The defendant is charged with buying the rifles that were found at the location where the agent was shot to death. Avila bought the weapons with the full knowledge of U.S. law enforcement in a gunwalking scandal known as Operation Fast and Furious, according to records.

The Terrys withdrew their request after prosecutors in the case agreed to work with them informally. The request would have opened the possibility of turning the smuggling case into one against the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF).

What does “work informally” mean? Is the family negotiating a huge payout in exchange for their silence and, perhaps, off-the-record admissions (standard CIA practice BTW)? Are we to assume that the DOJ coverup on Fast and Furious continues to the point where Uncle Sam will pay off all concerned, including every ATF agent involved and the Terry family? I’d consider that a safe bet.

After all, the entire investigation into F&F has focused on who was responsible for the program—not why it was created, how it was implemented and who participated. No one’s asking WTF the Obama administration relationship with Mexican narco-terrorists. So, you could say, the coverup is right on track. Yes but—

F&F is the tip of an enormous iceberg. It’s hard to imagine that someone in the alphabet soup of federal agencies that participated in extra-legal U.S. drug policy won’t step forward to reveal the truth about the Obama administration’s complicity in the deaths of thousands of Mexicans and Americans (if we’re counting the deaths related to the federally-supported illegal U.S. drug market). It’s even harder to imagine that anyone would care.

But not impossible. At some point, someone will make the calculation that it’s better to rat out their paymaster rather than rot in prison or end-up like U.S. Border Patrol Agent Terry (provided Congress or the courts find their spine and resist coercion). After all, necessity is the mother of the truth.

The creatively named Bang Bang Handle, designed by Nikita Kovalev and patterned after Makarovs. In five decorator colors to compliment any room decor after the jump.

[h/t thefirearmblog.com]

I put this gun on my hip and declare my freedom from fear, so that I can protect myself, my family and my community against those who would do us physical harm.

I put this gun on my hip and declare my independence from the government, which has no legal obligation to protect myself, my family and my community against those who would do us physical harm.

I put this gun on my hip and declare my gratitude to those who died defending my liberty, and those who defend it today.

“Virginia Tech and Columbine. Now, let’s look at the numbers: Any given middle school, high school, or college in America can expect to have exactly one homicide on its campus every 12,000 years. So how long before the UNC-Charlotte SWAT team feels the need to justify its existence by expanding its mission? I predict they’re serving drug warrants and raiding frat houses within a year.”  - theagitator.com on the University of North Carolina-Charlotte’s new SWAT team.

At least here, you don’t have to hit the mute button or change the channel if you don’t want to listen it.

K-Var may be best known as the premier American purveyor of all things Kalashnikov, but the Las Vegas-based importer is now taking orders for a special run of custom-built Zastava bolt-action rifles. For southpaws…

The right-handed Zastava .22 boltie, called the MP22R, used to be imported as the Remington Model Five. Foghorn is a man who knows his rifles, and the little Zastava is one of his favorite rifles in the whole world. The left-handed version starts at an incredible $349. The centerfire Zastavas are based on Mauser actions, with controlled round feeding and beefy full-length extractor claws. Prices run from $539 for the .223 Remington, up to $839 for a double-trigger .375 H&H or .458 Winchester Magnum.

From K-Var:

For the 11% of the US population that is left-handed, adapting to different firearms can be a tricky thing to juggle. For that 11%, K-Var is excited to introduce our limited line of Left Handed Zastava firearms.

Just like the original right handed variation, these left handed rifles come directly from the Zastava Arms factory in Serbia. Their world renowned reputation for quality has made them one of the premier firearms manufacturers for over 150 years. Each firearm features superior craftsmanship from barrel to buttstock. These left-handed, bolt-action rifles will be built so that the bolt is on the left side making it easy to use for any lefty gun enthusiast.

There will be 30 calibers/trigger/stock types to choose from.

This is a SPECIAL ORDER ITEM. In order to import these in a timely manner, we ask that you call, e-mail, or place your online order not later than 3:00 PST on February 9th and make your $100 deposit.

Please allow up to 90 days for delivery of these unique firearms.

Only 90 days to order an as-yet-unbuilt rifle from Europe? It takes Kimber longer than that to deliver an already-made handgun from New York.

If you’re interested, email sales@k-var.com or call 1-702-364-8880. And soon.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that many people who who get into pistols end up selling the first gun they buy within one year of purchasing it. Let me add a couple of caveats to that statement, though. First of all, this assumes that our new pistol aficionado has access to an easy means of selling or trading in their pistol. Secondly, it also assumes that you don’t have a friend or two who owns pistols of various types which gives you the opportunity to extensively test different models out before buying that first one.

In my case, my assertions and caveats are true.  I did not have the opportunity to try out a number of pistols extensively and do have access to a ready market to sell my used guns, which is why my so-recently beloved XDms are going on the block.

Let me step back for a minute and give you some background on myself as the new gun buyer back in March 2011 (yes, I am very much a newbie here).  Growing up, I knew that I wanted an automatic. My perceptions were initially shaped by the original Lethal Weapon movie in which Mel Gibson had a Beretta 92 and he mocked his partner’s old fashioned “wheel gun.”  The Beretta looked cool, Mel looked cool using it and I wanted one.

Flash forward a few years until I was in college and got a chance to see a Glock for the first time. This was the end of the 1980s and Glock had come on the scene pretty hard. I remember shooting a friend’s Glock and thinking, “meh.” I would not actually get around to purchasing a gun of my own until more than two decades later.

In those intervening years, I had the chance to shoot a few Glocks (as well as other guns from time to time) and thought that I was ready for a Glock of my own since they were everywhere and the universe of aftermarket Glock accessories was frankly amazing. But all that ended in March of 2011 when I accompanied my 82 year old father to a local Houston gun store to get himself his first automatic. He already owned a S&W.357 and a 12 gauge, but wanted an automatic too.

“Show us a Glock” was what I confidently told the salesman. He said that the Glock was indeed a very nice gun but suggested before committing to buying one that we compare it side by side with a Springfield Armory XD. He brought up the issue of grip angle on the Glock and I noticed this myself as did my father. We both discovered that  the angle of the grip on the Glock tends to initially point the gun too high to engage a target in front of you. Sure, if you use Glocks you quickly learn to compensate, but both my father and I preferred the angle of the XD grip and the accessory package that shipped with it was a definite plus.

My father would have bought the XD that day except that he no longer had the hand strength to rack the slide. With this in mind, the salesman suggested he look at the Beretta 92A1. He could work the slide on that one and that’s the gun that he took home that day.  We both worked with it using dummy loads, practiced breaking it down, loading and unloading it, etc.  It was a nice gun, but in my head, I was sold on what I thought was the superior XD.

When I returned home after my visit with my parents, I promptly went down to the store and bought my first gun, an XDm in .40 (okay, I was sold on the “upgrades” of the XDm platform – I am a sucker for that sort of thing). It wasn’t much more than the XD and I figured the extras were worth it for me. I went with the .40 because I felt that I wanted the extra stopping power of the more powerful .40 caliber round.

I soon learned that the difference in ammo prices made shooting the .40 a bit more expensive than I wanted over the long term, so my next purchase was an XDm in 9mm. I was happy as I knew nothing else.  That happiness was to change soon enough.

In one of the books I was reading at the time, the protagonists used the special forces H&K MK 23 in .45.  That looked like a cool gun and I did want to eventually get a .45.  At north of $2,000, the MK23 was bit out of my price range, but its smaller cousin, the USP Tactical .45 was a nice compromise as it, too had a threaded barrel so that I could one day fit a silencer (if I ever decide to go that way). Even better, the local gun shop had a used one in stock at a relatively decent price.

I really liked the H&K. As a true DA/SA pistol with an external hammer, I discovered that I very much liked having a hammer to cock for a couple of reasons. First of all, I had recently purchased a Laserlyte targeting system that projects a laser dot onto a laser-sensitive target when you pull the trigger.  It was much easier to practice with the H&K than with the XDm as the XDm required me to rack the slide after every shot whereas the H&K only needed the hammer cocked. Or I could simply pull the trigger in DA mode.

Secondly, and even more important, if I wanted to carry the gun with a round in the chamber, I had to carry the XDm “hot.” The striker was pulled back so all it required was a single action trigger pull to discharge the gun. Now, conceptually I know that striker fired guns are safe.

Many people carry XDs, Glocks, and other striker fired guns every day, but in the back of my mind, I still think that all of the built in safeties are only mechanical and mechanical things can fail (Yes, I know that I am being a bit of a wuss here, but there it is).  If there was even a chance that the striker might go forward on its own volition, I simply was not prepared to take the chance, which means that I would be consigned to carrying my XDm without a bullet locked and loaded which, in turn, meant that in an emergency, it would have to take an additional second or two to chamber a round. Not an ideal option either.

The DA/SA of the H&K allowed me to load a round in the chamber and then use the decocking lever to safely drop the hammer.  Now I could carry with a round in the chamber, but nothing was under tension waiting to release the hammer. I would simply have to contend with the heavier trigger pull for the first round, but I could live with that.

The H&K was nice, but let’s face it, even though it was smaller than the MK23, no one would ever call it a compact gun. It really was not a good choice for concealed carry.  For some reason, I got the Beretta back in my head again and a few weeks later, I became the proud owner of a 92A1, just like what my father had. As I used it, I became astounded at how good it was. I could shoot the Beretta very accurately and it had all of the features that I liked on my H&K.

Flash forward a few more months to when I took my first course at the Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH. I’m fortunate in that I live less than an hour away from this amazing training facility. The class gave me the opportunity to study the Sigs in more detail in the pro shop and it soon became clear that a Sig Sauer was in my future.

One Sig became two, then three and as of today, I have four Sigs in my stable; a P238 Equinox, a P226 Tactical Ops, a P229 Equinox, and a P239. While Sig does offer different trigger options, all of my guns with the exception of the P238 are DA/SA. The Sigs shoot like a dream, are reliable and  ridiculously easy to take down for cleaning. Furthermore, I went on to take the Sig Armorer class and now am qualified to work on my Sigs without voiding warranties.

My .40 XDm has already been sold and the 9 mm XDm is currently on the block. Once I get rid of it, all of my guns will either be DA/SA or SA only in the case of my 1911 and P238.

The moral of the story is that, had I known then what I know now, I would never have bought a striker fired gun. I’m taking a bit of a bath to unload them, but better that than to have money tied up in guns I will never use. Many people will continue to swear by their Glocks. Price-wise they are certainly a bit better than the Beretta and a lot easier on the wallet than the Sigs. But for me, the peace of mind of the DA/SA is worth the extra cost.

I caution anyone who is about to start their own gun collection to consider carefully your needs and concerns and pick the best gun for the job rather than simply buying whatever is hot today. If you can, get to a range and rent any gun you think you want to buy. And ask the range owner to show you how to take the gun down for cleaning. Doing that before before plunking down the plastic will save you a lot of regret down the road.

A good alternative to live fire ammo is dry firing which has four big disadvantages. First of all, there’s a significant difference between pulling the trigger on an empty chamber and pulling it on a loaded one. That said, if you have done everything right in terms of acquiring the sight picture and slowly squeezing the trigger such that you are vaguely surprised when the gun actually goes off, there shouldn’t be much difference in the trajectory of your “virtual” bullet and a real one.

The second issue, which is particularly annoying for owners of 1911′s, Glocks, and other single action (SA) guns is that without a live bullet to drive the slide back, you have to manually rack the slide between each shot. Granted, this gives you a lot of practice with tap and reloading drills but it can certainly get tedious pretty quickly. Unfortunately, there is no quick fix for this – you either live with it or get a pistol with Double Action (DA) capability that you can repeatedly pull the trigger on.

The third issue is somewhat related to the first problem. Assume for the moment that you think that you are doing everything right with your grip, trigger pull, etc. The problem is that a minute twist of the wrist or flick of a trigger finger is difficult to see unless you can see where an actual bullet hit the target. Did you really manage to squeeze the trigger smoothly or did you jerk it at the last minute? The only way to know for sure if you’ve been training yourself correctly is to see where your bullets land on your next trip to the range.

The final issue is one of the biggest, at least for me. Frankly, dry firing is boring as hell.  Pulling the trigger with no bang gets old. Fast.

There is, however, help for these latter two issues (and by some extension our first issue) – a laser training system. Basically, laser trainer consists of a laser emitter that either goes down the barrel or into the breech of the gun and using some technology to determine when the gun fires, flashes a brief laser pulse at the same time. The benefit of this system is that you can see where your bullet likely would have landed had you fired for real. The feedback also helps to relieve the boredom of repeatedly aiming and pulling the trigger in near silence.

Laserlyte has taken this technique one step further with their  Laserlyte Training system. This system consists of two parts – the laser unit that goes into the gun and a laser sensitive target.

To use the system, you simply load the laser module into your gun, aim it at the target and go to town. Your shots don’t automatically appear on the screen.  In order (I assume) to save on battery life, the target registers your shots but does not display them.  After you finish your string (I suggest between 5 and 10 rounds), you fire a precision shot at the lower left laser-sensitive circle marked “Display”  This activates the illumination of your shots on the target and you can see where they went.  You then fire another precision shot into the right laser-sensitive circle marked “Reset” and the target is cleared and ready to accept your next string.  Rather than trying to do a precision shot, I generally keep one of my laser sights with me and use that to activate the Display and Reset areas.  One note here:  Cheapo laser pointers don’t seem to work for this as they (presumably) don’t have the power necessary to trigger the sensors in the target.

The various laser emitters (like all those cool action figures when we were growing up) are sold separately.  Laserlyte has three major types. The LTS Universal, the LTS Pro, and the Training Cartridge.  I would probably not bother with the Universal unless you absolutely need it.  The Universal model reminds me of one of my bore sighters – a very long tube that protrudes from your pistol barrel.  The problem with this is twofold; first of all, you can forget about performing any holster drills as the tube protrudes several inches and might be difficult to get to clear the holster on your draw unless you pull quite a bit straight up before pivoting the gun forward.  Secondly, the extended length of the emitter is almost certainly going to result in the laser dot projecting off axis from the gun barrel to some small degree.  This means that the further you are from your target, the farther away the laser dot will hit from where an actual bullet would have.  The two main advantages of the LTS Universal are the fact that it is the cheapest model and that with included adapters that go up to .50, it will fit just about any handgun or rifle including .410 shotguns.

The next step up is the LTS Pro.  This one goes almost completely into the barrel, protruding about 1/4 of an inch.  This enables you to practice drawing from a holster and with the emitter so close to the end of the barrel, the difference between the laser dot projection and where an actual bullet would have hit is minimized. The LTS Pro shares the same advantage as the Universal in that it includes adapters to allow it to fit most typical calibers.  The main disadvantage of the LTS Pro is that you need to take it apart and remove the batteries after each training session otherwise the batteries will drain in a couple of days.  It is also a bit more more costly than the LTS Universal.  With both the Pro and the Universal, the use of separate snap caps is recommended to protect the striker pin.

The final leg up is the dedicated cartridge.  This is a miniature laser system built into the body of a bullet in the caliber that you wish to use.  At present, Laserlyte offers .380, 9 mm, .40, and .45 calibers.  These cartridges carry the same MSRP as the Laserlyte Pro, but as they are limited to one specific caliber, they can be the more expensive option if you have multiple calibers in your gun collection.  These cartridges do incorporate a built-in snap cap so you don’t need to use a separate one like you do with the other variations.  The only other real issue that I have with this system is that there seems to be some variability as to how long the cartridges last before starting to have problems.  While my .40 and .45 seem to be holding up well, my 9 mm now only fires the laser intermittently as it seems the snap cap which triggers the laser is getting a bit flaky.  Go online and you will see similar criticisms of the cartridge system from some people.  More R&D is necessary before I can render a final verdict, but at the moment, I can’t recommend the 9mm cartridge.

Overall, the system is pretty good and has made my dry fire practice more interesting.  Check out the company’s website for videos and other information about the product.

Why this guy attached the short booth review and promo of Ed Brown’s guns to the end of his complaint video isn’t quite clear.

We’ve all seen the pink paraphernalia everywhere. From the Pepto pink grocery bags at the store to the pink shoes, towels and even mouth guards worn by NFL players, few charities have so effectively been adopted as a worthy cause to support as has breast cancer awareness. But now the driving force behind all that pinkness, the Susan G. Komen Foundation, has taken the whole pink thing to uncharted territory.

Komen’s teamed up with Discount Gun Sales in Seattle to offer pink Walther P-22s. Pink guns have been a popular item for a while, of course, but this one isn’t just a painfully transparent way to appeal to women shooters. OK it is but a portion of the sales proceeds for these guns will go to breast cancer research.

From seattle.cbslocal.com:

The gun, a Walther P-22, is already available for purchase at $429.99.

“Discount Gun Sales is proud to team up with the Susan B. Koman [sic] Foundation to offer the Walther P-22 Hope Edition in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month,” the page reads. “A portion of each P-22 Hope Edition will be donated to the Seattle Branch of the Susan G. Komen Foundation.”

The new “Hope Edition” P-22 would seem to be tailor-made for an upcoming Brady or VPC press release decrying the association of an organization previously known for working to prolong women’s lives with an instrument of death and destruction. See what I did there? I wrote it for them.

Knock yourselves out, boys.