“As many as 50 people were injured Saturday afternoon after a car plowed into parade-goers in Damascus, Virginia,” cnn.com reports. “Of those injured, at least five or six were ‘trauma victims,’ the dispatcher said. The accident occurred during the Hiker’s Parade at the annual Trail Days festival, which honors the famed Appalachian Trail, in the town near the Virginia-Tennessee border. Dalton Thomson told CNN affiliate WCYB that he was pushed out of the way of the oncoming car by a hiker. ‘We all looked back. There were hikers on top, hikers under the car,’ said the boy. ‘It was unreal. Nothing could be as scary as that.’” Not even a New Orleans gangbanger firing into the crowd? [h/t Torben]

“Andrea Rebello lived with her twin sister in an off-campus house in Uniondale, New York. A male suspect wearing a black ski mask forced his way into the residence, which the sisters shared with two other students,” cnn.com reports. “At some point during the night, the twins’ female roommate was able to leave the home and call police . . . When police arrived, there was an exchange of gunfire that left Andrea and the suspect dead. Police say the source of the gunfire that killed Rebello is still under investigation.” Sure, the bad guy shot a hostage before the cops ventilated him. Anyway, Ms. Rebello’s death is a reminder to us all that it’s best to take care of your own self-defense before the police arrive. Firearms are good that way. Home carry people. Home carry.

Plenty of people are peeved with the new stance card processor Square has recently taken, booting merchants who sell guns and ammo. Ryan Finn let it be known — in no uncertain terms — that he can think of only one real use for the little plastic rectangles now. But never fear, merchants, there are still options out there. Montana-based Frontline Processing is only too happy to have your swipes, whether it’s for something as dear as an FNH Ballista or as small as a package of PMC parabellum. And if you need any more incentive to check them out, they’re recently let it be known they now have a relationship with the NRA . . .

FRONTLINE PROCESSING is pleased to announce its relationship with the NRA.  Frontline and its employees are staunch supporters of our Second Amendment rights and its constitutional significance to the United States of America…We believe that we have the “right” to keep and bear arms, supporting the natural rights of self-defense, resistance to oppression, and the civic duty to act in concert in defense of the state.

FRONTLINE PROCESSING has been pioneering merchant services solutions since 1997. Frontline is a nationwide provider of credit card processing and electronic payment services enabling merchants to process transactions in a secure, real-time environment 24 hours a day. Frontline, a PCI DSS Level 1 Certified Provider, provides a suite of services enabling merchants to accept all major credit and debit cards, Gift Cards, and ACH check drafts for payment. Montana’s only locally owned and operated merchant services provider based in Bozeman.  For more information, please visit www.frontlineprocessing.com or Toll Free 1-866-651-3068.

The last time a teenager lived under my roof I discovered a simple technique for maintaining discipline (i.e. maintaining my own sanity). If my step-daughter asked me why she couldn’t do this, that or the really expensive, time-consuming other thing (without any adult supervision in the evening on a school night) I’d simply say “I don’t do why questions.” And then I’d STFU. Oh how I wish one of these open carry advocates would have implemented this conversational strategy while the other stayed schtum. And then both of them had stayed schtum. All this pointless schmoozing! No, it’s not debating. It’s Second Amendment checkers for dummies. “If you let me look at your AR I’ll show you mine.” Sure thing officer. Right after you show me your dick. And now you know why I don’t open carry. Much.

During the post-Newtown push for civilian disarmament, the NRA’s hewn to its anti-”gun violence” mantra: lock up the bad guys (and leave us alone). To say the gun control lobby is’t on board with the idea would be like saying Amit Friedman’s a bit of a babe. Get tough on criminals (not guns)? That’s so seventies Republican. Yes, well, I’d like to see some stats on how many people convicted of shooting someone had a criminal record at the time. Statistically speaking, I bet it’s all of them. Meanwhile, we have anecdotal evidence suggesting that longer jail sentences would reduce “gun crime.” The New Orleans Mother’s Day parade shooter was out on bond for a firearms offense. And there’s this not-so-unpredictable tale . . .

Click here to read the rest at The Truth About Knives—because the story’s got a knife in it, you love knives and we need to generate traffic for TTAG’s sister site.

California’s Kamala Harris, the best-looking attorney general in the nation, has signed a letter mandating micro stamping technology for all new semiautomatic handguns being sold in the Golden State. [Read the letter here.] Any new model handgun must have a microstamped serial number somewhere on the gun’s frame and a firing pin that stamps a unique number onto the cartridge before (or as) it ignites the primer. I immediately reached out to Brandon Combs of the Firearms Policy Coalition to confirm. Confirmed. Brandon has assured me that the Roster of Handguns Certified for Sale is being challenged in court as a whole. Meanwhile for those Golden State gun buyers this means . . .

Californians who surmount the paperwork and scrutiny required to purchase a handgun can still buy any of the handguns on the current Roster of Handguns Certified for Sale. But that’s about it. As of today, all new models which manufacturers want to introduce for sale in California will need to follow the new guidelines. They’ve got to be capable of microstamping.

There’s not a single handgun manufactured in the United States that microstamps a cartridge. Not one. Why should there be? The technology is both expensive and useless (the firing pin can be replaced or sanded down in seconds) and consumers may well balk at the idea. So gun makers looking to introduce new models into California are going to have to design and build handguns that microstamp or . . . nothing.

Chance are they’ll walk away. Even without this microstamping misegos, gunmakers are dropping California compliant models. The state’s registry of acceptable gats has declined by half since its introduction, from 2400 models to 1279 today. SIG SAUER “lost” 17 models in the month of March alone.

There may come a time when California gun shops may have only a dozen or so new handgun models for sale. Or, perhaps, none. Think that’s an exaggeration? California still has no less than 46 civilian disarmament bills floating around in the Sacramento legislature. It’s a slave state for sure.

Get your minds out of the gutter! “Rise” here has nothing to do with peripatetic pistoleros experiencing terry cloth-clad titillation. It means “increasingly popular.” As in it’s increasingly popular to pack heat in a bathrobe. I know what you’re thinking: why not pack a pistol in your sweatpants pocket? Setting aside questions about being perceived as pleased to see someone, quickly and efficiently removing a firearm from a sweatpants pocket in an emergency is about as easy as convincing your ex to give up her alimony check for Lent. Sure, readers like our svelte Ryan Finn can can slob-carry in sweats with a Remora holster. But OFWGs are SOL with that rig . . .

Provided you’ve got a stout enough robe [not shown above for obvious technical reasons], a light enough gun, a Wild Bill’s Concealment Pocket Packer and the AC cranked up in the summer, a tactical bathrobe is a year-round solution to the problem of chilling-out at home while exercising your human, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms.

Driving a white car risks immediate suspension of your Man Card. White bathrobes are different. ‘Cause I say so. If you want something a little more macho, or tend to get sloppy with your Welch’s grape juice, the terrycloth bathrobe industry offers a wide range of color choices. Loads of vendors offer the garment in camo—in case tactics demand you exit your trailer.

Clearly, the tactical bathrobe is in its nascent stage. It needs work. I’m looking to convince a clothier to produce a “proper” tactical bathrobe in black (‘natch) with pockets for spare ammo, a knife, flashlight and maybe even a plate carrier front and back. Any other ideas?

“Witnesses and the husband told police the group had been drinking in the garage of the couple’s home at 10024 Elliot St. when 22-year-old Anastasia Adair, a new gun enthusiast, went upstairs to a bedroom get her recently purchased assault rifle at about 10:40 p.m.” Even if you didn’t clock the category in which this post is filed, I’d bet you know where this one’s going. “Anastasia [Adair] was walking back down the stairs into the garage when she reached out to hand the rifle to her husband, Shane Adair, a tattoo artist who was below her on the stairs . . .

The gun fired, striking her in the head, two witnesses and the husband, told police.” Yes, the gun fired. Nothing to do with her finger (or anyone else’s) on the trigger. It just went off.

Preventable? Loaded gun, safety off, pointed in the wrong direction, finger on the trigger. I’m thinking yes (as writ). Tragic? Certainly. Messy? So messy. But here’s the funny (peculiar) thing:

Shane Adair told police he’s not sure if he touched the gun as this wife reached out to hand it to him, Federal Heights Police Lt. Gary Toldness said. The gun fired a second time as the wounded woman fell forward on the stairs and her husband caught her in his arms, but that shot didn’t hit anyone, police said.

Time for those three little letters that say so much: WTF? I suppose it’s not impossible, right? The gun was clearly out for blood. And even if you admit the possibility that Mrs. Adair somehow shot herself in the head the first time are we to believe that she kept shooting even after her cranium was severely compromised?

I think I’ll leave that one to a jury.

Racism much? Or should that be harassment much? It’s hard to tell. The mainstream media hasn’t reported on the raid on P. Diddy’s Maybach. tmz.com tells us ”Diddy had just been dropped off at the Soho House … an ultra-exclusive, private club in West Hollywood. Diddy’s bodyguard and another person drove Diddy’s $500,000 Maybach away from Soho, but they didn’t get far. We’re told someone called 911 and said someone inside the Maybach had a gun. At least 9 squad cars roared to the scene. Cops pulled their guns and ordered the occupants of the Maybach out of the car and made them lie prone on the ground, until they discovered there weren’t any guns. The street was closed down temporarily until deputies gave the all-clear.” perezhilton.com calls it a “vicious prank.” I call it a lawsuit waiting to happen (at best) or a police state take down (at worst).

With all this hand-wringing about the DOJ secretly seizing the Associated Press’ phone records, the fact that the AP isn’t exactly pro-2A hasn’t escape our attention. To wit [via kgw.com]: ”Police say a carjacking suspect armed with a knife was caught and held by witnesses in Portland after he threatened a man who happened to have a gun.” Wait! What’s this in my pocket? A gun! OK Buddy, you can drop that knife now. “Police say the man who had been driving a stolen car, carjacked a truck Sunday in the parking lot of a Clackamas County motel . . . He stopped at a Portland restaurant parking lot and threatened a man with a knife. But the victim had a gun. The suspect dropped the knife and tried to run, but was held by witnesses until police arrived.”

“I hope you enjoy preaching to the choir,” TTAG reader JLR wrote underneath our post on Maryland’s new gun laws, “because this constant ‘slave state’ nonsense convinces absolutely no one.” Although we’ve touched on this issue before I’ve gotta weigh in again. And here’s the thing: I agree with JLR. Well almost. Given the way the world wide web works there’s bound to be a few souls for whom the term “slave state” was an overhead lightbulb moment. It was for me . . .

When I first encountered the term applied to gun control-heavy states the words crystalized my thoughts about civilian disarmament. They signalled that some state governments (e.g., New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts, California, Rhode Island and maybe even Colorado) had reached an important and reprehensible waypoint in the arc between personal freedom and government control.

“Slave states” may seem like needless hyperbole to some, but it was political Mennen Skin Bracer to me. But hey, that’s me. And this is the website that I founded. When I started TTAG I thought I’d invite all sides of the “gun debate” into an online exploration of gun rights X 3. Only it turns out it’s not a debate. It’s a fight for the survival of individual liberty.

No matter how we “soften” the language deployed on these pages, TTAG is unlikely to “convince” a large number of people that they’re up against it. But TTAG can provide an hourly updates for gun owners who already have this view, and those who are gradually coming to it. So they can examine the current state of play and their options going forward and feel a sense of solidarity. Hangin’ with their homies.

Bottom line: TTAG is preaching to the choir. Our editorial is skewed heavily towards readers who want operational knowledge of gun control advocates’ strategy and tactics, successes and failures. Readers who realize that gun control “progressives” want to make citizens completely subservient to the government. That there are slave masters who hold sway in some [mostly northern] states. Slave states.

Back in April, Dan asked you to name the best gun to take out a robot. After watching this video of Boston Dynamics’ PETMAN robot doing the Rocky thing, I began thinking about robocops on a more, uh, human level. If a bad guy/armed insurrectionist facing PETMAN PO-PO knows that the LEO in front of him isn’t flesh and blood, if taking one out isn’t felony murder, why not shoot to kill? In that sense, wouldn’t PETMAN PO-PO encourage and escalate violence? Your thoughts sci-fi fans, ’cause it looks like the future is now. Ish. Since the video autoplays, make the jump to see the PETMAN in all it’s ambulatory glory.

Actually, the lawmen don’t confine that sentiment to the good governor. It seems safe to say they feel an equal amount of love for the Centennial State’s rights abrogating legislature, too. And they’re expressing those sentiments in the only way left to them — by suing the bastards in federal court. “The sheriffs, in a complaint filed today in federal court in Denver, said the ammunition law bans most magazines of any size in an attempt to prohibit those that can be converted to hold more than 15 rounds. They also alleged that compliance with the background checks will be practically impossible.” Joining the 54 sheriffs challenging HB1224 (mag cap) and HB1229 (background checks) are individuals and orgs as diverse as the Colorado Farm Bureau, the NRA the NSSF and Magpul. And the plaintiffs appear to he in good hands with lead attorney Dave Kopel of the Independence Institute. The first battle with likely be a motion for a preliminary injunction against the laws. Watch this space.

“Making a crude single-shot pistol on a $1,500 printer is far more cumbersome than buying a factory-made multi-shot gun, for a fraction of the price, out of the newspaper classifieds. What really has people upset about Wilson’s plastic pistol is the absence of permission inherent in the project. The idea that people might own something as dangerous and personally empowering as a firearm without society’s permission is what has always given gun-control advocates the fantods. That’s really what we talk about when we talk about guns: the power of the individual in relation to the collective, and the extent to which each of us needs to live by the permission of the rest. That argument is going nowhere, in all senses of the word.” – Dan Baum in On Gun Control and the Great American Debate Over Individualism [via Harper's]

The TV report on the negligent discharge (if that’s what it is) doesn’t mince words: “One of the boys in the back seat pulled the trigger.” The web version [via abclocal.go.com] does: “Detectives say so far, it appears that the gun accidentally fired as it was in the hands of one of the teens sitting in the back seat. Reese was in the front seat.” Good thing it didn’t intentionally fire; more of the teens might have been killed.

Wooohooo! We have another actual prize again for this week’s winner, this time courtesy of Chris Bushnell at SouvenirPatch.com . . .

The funniest, most creative caption posted in the comments before midnight Sunday will receive the assortment of Souvenir Patch’s gunniest products, pictured below. And don’t worry if you can’t sew, these things will iron on .

But if you can’t manage to dream up anything clever enough to win our little contest, that’s OK too. Chris has offered TTAG readers a 15% discount on anything they purchase. All you have to do is use the coupon code PATCHUSA at checkout. Good luck. We’ll announce the winner on Monday.

“A town at the heart of the usually sedate Home Counties is being patrolled day and night by armed police trying to stop feuding gangs killing each other,” dailymail.co.uk reports. “In the past four months there have been nine shootings in Luton linked to trouble between youths on the Marsh Farm and Lewsey Farm estates . . . Armed officers are now patrolling both estates and using stop and search powers in an attempt to find weapons.” So much for the unarmed British Bobby, civil rights and the right to keep and bear arms in the Land of Hope and Glory. Make the jump for the latest police state fashion . . .

It looks like every Democrat politician that has seen the latest James Bond movie thinks that biometric security on handguns is something that A) actually works, and B) is a good idea to mandate for every single firearm. In their orange sky fantasy world, where the movies are for real, this is a great idea. I, however, think that requiring biometric security on firearms is proof that John Tierney lacks basic critical thinking skills . . .

Here’s the story from The Hill:

The idea is to produce guns that can only be used by the gun’s owners. Rep. John Tierney (D-Mass.) cited the latest James Bond movie, “Skyfall,” as inspiration for the bill.

“In the most recent James Bond film, Bond escapes death when his handgun, which is equipped with technology that recognizes him as its owner, becomes inoperable when it gets into the wrong hands,” Tierney’s office said in a statement introducing the bill. “This technology, however, isn’t just for the movies — it’s a reality.”

Tierney said his Personalized Handgun Safety Act, H.R. 2005, would help prevent accidental deaths, like the case in New Jersey last month when a six-year old accidentally shot and killed a four-year-old child.

“Accidents like this are not as rare as we want to believe, and they are preventable. Whether a gun owner or not, a NRA member or not, we should be able to agree on gun safety measures that will make our families and communities safer. This technology needs to be put into action.”

Under his bill, guns made in the United States would have to be built with this technology two years after the bill becomes law. Older guns being sold by a business or individual would have to be retrofitted with this technology after three years.

There are only three issues I see with this. First, the technology is still many years away from being “perfected.” Second, assuming it works and is available, it will get people killed. And third, even if it were working, and wasn’t dangerous, it would be massively expensive and a huge burden to American gun owners and gun manufacturers.

As for the technology being available, it really isn’t. While Tierney would have you think that fingerprint scanning pistol grips are already widely used and available in other countries, the reality is that the current state of the art is nowhere near that level of sophistication. The guns Tierney is referring to as being “available” are the models we’ve already seen that require the owner to either wear a wristwatch with an RFID tag in it or be implanted with a chip that the gun reads.

As for the actual biometric readers, are we talking about the same fingerprint scanners that I’ve fooled by photocopying my finger and swiping it across the scanner? Because those seem less than secure. And I’m sure that every single person’s finger will be in the exact same position when they grip the gun. That’s why they only make one size grip, right? Oh, wait…

Which brings me to point number two. This technology isn’t reliable, as it stands now. It adds another level of complexity to a firearm that someone will depend on in an emergency to save their life from an attacker.

What if the batteries in your gun or your RFID wristwatch died and you didn’t notice? Will the murderer running towards you stop and wait for you to find a spare LR41 battery in your pocket and replace it? A large percentage of people who buy guns take them to the range once and then store them somewhere in their house, never thinking to perform basic maintenance, let alone check batteries. Yet when an intruder crashes through their window in the middle of the night, they expect the gun to work. With this kind of technology, it won’t.

Also, remember that we’re talking about a general population that can barely program their VCR. Back when we had VCRs. And Congressman Tierney wants to introduce more advanced technology into firearms that people will depend on to protect their lives.

What about the internal mechanics of the gun? Firearms are complicated pieces of machinery. It’s taken centuries to perfect the current state of the art in terms of reliability. But even now, things still break. And Congressman Tierney wants to mandate that another untested, possibly unreliable bit technology be layered on top. That adds an additional point of failure to the gun, one that can’t be fixed in the heat of the moment with a simple tap-rack.

The Congressman seems to think that guns are used solely for recreation and hunting. What he forgets is that guns are often the only thing keeping families safe, especially in rural areas of the United States where police response times can be upwards of an hour. There’s a reason guns don’t currently have this technology, and reliability is the reason.

Smith & Wesson tried to introduce a similar — though much simpler — gizmo in their guns not too long ago when they added an internal lock to their firearms. They said it was to make the gun safer, prevent access by unauthorized people, yada yada yada. But in reality, all it did was make the gun malfunction when it was needed most. In short, they tried this already and failed. Miserably.

So let’s assume a breakthrough is made and this electronic personalized gun stuff actually works. And is reliable. What happens if this bill passes? Well first, every firearms manufacturer in the United States will be forced to stop production and completely change the design of their firearms.

In current firearms designs, there’s no wiggle room. They’ve slimmed down the guns as much as possible to keep them concealable and easy to hold. By mandating that some whiz-bang biometrics be inserted into each one, they’re requiring that the size of the guns be changed. Which means every single production facility will need to re-tool for a brand new design. That will cost millions of dollars and take months to complete. And three guesses where all that expense is going to end up. You guessed it — gun owners will be footing the bill.

Not only will we be forced to pay higher prices for the new tech, we’ll also be forced to pay for the price of the mandated manufacturing changes. Uncle Sam isn’t going to foot the bill for gun companies to change their “evil anti-biometric” ways. It will all be passed onto the customer.

What that means is this essentially becomes another way to increase the price of a firearm. That will make it harder or impossible for the poor to avail themselves of the right to keep and bear arms. A lot of the people who need the ability to defend themselves the most won’t be able to afford it. Guns will be reserved for the elites in society.

It also appears to be a bid to restrict concealed carry. These pieces of technology require additional room in the gun, and carry guns are already stripped down as much as possible for conceal ability. If the guns become too big disappear under your shirt, fewer people will carry them. It’s going after the practice without repealing the laws themselves.

Congressman Tierney says that this law is feasible, that it wouldn’t put undue restrictions or hardships on gun owners, and that the technology is safe and reliable. He’s wrong on all counts.

This comment from the article just about sums up this bill:

Tierney’s idea is so stupid it’s almost cute, kind of like a monkey trying to do algebra. While we’re on it, maybe we can also outlaw killer bowler hats.

In the video above, I present TTAG’s vision-challenged shooters with a solution to the problem of not being able to see both your sights (close-in) and the target (far away) in focus at the same time. The video also addresses the challenge of red-green color blindness, which affects depth perception, and can be cured with an X-chrome contact lens. Oh, and I forgot to mention that “proper” shooting glasses should have side coverage. Anyway, not only is this solution confusing, it’s extremely expensive. Just so you know.

Now that Martin O’Malley and the Maryland Legislature have enacted a gun controller’s wish list of measures sure to drastically lower the Old Line State’s crime rate, attention turns to Accokeek and Beretta USA. The centuries old gun company seems to have had their response all ready to go. Here’s the release they’ve posted on their web site . . .

The firearm companies owned by Beretta Holding in Maryland—Beretta U.S.A. Corp., Benelli U.S.A. Corporation and Stoeger Industries, Inc.—have all been deeply concerned about Governor Martin O’Malley’s effort this year to impose broad new restrictions on the rights of Maryland citizens to buy firearms, as well as on the types of firearms and firearm magazines they can acquire. The Companies have submitted comments before the Maryland legislature and to the press condemning these efforts and stating that the Governor’s anti-gun activity is causing them to evaluate whether they want to remain in this State.

Notwithstanding some media reports to the contrary, those efforts have had some beneficial effects.

Through the Companies’ legislative efforts and with assistance led by Delegate Joe Vallario and others provisions were stripped out of the final Bill that would have required an immediate move of certain operations out of Maryland. The parts of the legislation that remained, though – and that were not deleted notwithstanding the Beretta Holding companies efforts to do so -remain offensive not only to our companies as firearm manufacturers, importers and distributors and as investors in jobs, taxes and income within the State of Maryland, but also to those of us who, as Maryland citizens, will now be encumbered with obstacles to our exercise of our Constitutional rights, such as a requirement we now be fingerprinted like a criminal before we can buy a handgun, without providing a commensurate benefit in reducing crime.

The resulting law that passed is not acceptable, even with the improvements we were able to obtain.  In short, the law that finally passed went from being atrocious to simply being bad.

The question now facing the Beretta Holding companies in Maryland is this:  What effect will the passage of this law–and the efforts ofMarylandgovernment officials to support its passage–have on our willingness to remain in this State?

In that respect we are mindful of two objectives:  We will not let passage of this legislation prevent us from providing on-time delivery of our products to our U.S. Armed Forces and other important customers.  We also will not go forward in a way that compounds the insult made to ourMarylandemployees by their Governor and by the legislators who supported his efforts.

Prior to introduction of this legislation the three Beretta Holding companies located inMarylandwere experiencing growth in revenues and jobs and had begun expansion plans in factory and other operations.  The idea now of investing additional funds inMarylandand thus rewarding a Government that has insulted our customers and our products is offensive to us so we will take steps to evaluate such investments in other States.  At the same time, we will continue our current necessary operations withinMarylandand we are thankful for and welcome the continued support of our employees as we do so.

Needless to say, Ralph is going to make some clever remark about temperature. Someone else is going to criticize TTAG for trivializing Americans’ human, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms by being sexist. OK, we done? Maggie Reese is all that and a bag of chips (as the Brits say). Tori Nonaka is now 18-years-old and modeling and none the worse for wear. Michelle Viscusi isn’t hard to look at. Jessie Duff is equally easy on the eyes. Did I miss someone? Gentlemen, start your engines. Then tell me which female shooter gets your motor runnin’—in the nicest possible, most respectful and pro-2A way possible.

Maryland main man Martin O’Malley made it official yesterday, joining some of his fellow east coast Democrat governors, in what the Washington Post describes as a “major victory.” What’s the big win? Making the now laughably-named Free State one of the most difficult in which an individual can exercise his RKBA. In addition to banning virtually all semi-auto rifles and mags that hold more than ten rounds, “under Maryland’s law, those seeking to buy any gun other than a hunting rifle or shotgun will need to first obtain a license, a process that will include submitting fingerprints, passing classroom and firing-range training, and undergoing more extensive background checks.” The NRA has pledged a lawsuit and supporters of the new restrictions vow to launch a PR campaign to raise public support. After the fact. And in Maryland, that apparently works.

Ruh roh. Time to slam the door shut. Another horse has just exited the equine boarding facility. Reader Travis writes that, “the ‘Shuty’, named after the ‘Luty’ submachine gun design, uses a reinforced, printed AR 15 lower and a Luty inspired upper, to make a 9mm semi-auto pistol. It is designed to use a Glock or similar barrel. They may also switch to a metal bolt. So it’s not fully printed, but still.” Seems the viral aspect of gun printing has, well, gone viral. Here’s what someone calling himself shadowfall posted this at the defcad.org site . . .

I finished this design the other day and gave a copy to #defcad. You should join us in the chatroom if you aren’t already there.

This is a fully semi-auto 9mm upper designed for the ar-15 lower. I borrowed many of the concepts from Philip A. Luty’s “Expedient Homemade Firearms, The 9mm SMG”. Mr. Luty is no longer with us but I recommend anyone that is able to purchase his book off amazon for $12 http://www.amazon.com/Expedient-Homemade-Firearms-The-Submachine/dp/0873649834/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368782832&sr=8-1&keywords=expedient+homemade+firearms. The proceeds help his family and assist in keeping the sitehttp://thehomegunsmith.com/ online. If you cannot afford his book, volume 2 is available online for free.

The Shuty will work with the Defense Distributed v5 Lower and all renders are based on that. If it is placed on a standard ar lower, it will stick out a bit on the sides. A glock barrel or similar is required as plastic will not have the required tensile strength to withstand the chamber pressures. The bolt is in beta and may change in the next few days as I am still working on a decision for the final firing pin. If you plan on printing this design, I recommend doing that last.

Bolt BOM:
2x m3x40 bolts
2x m3 nuts (nylock preferred)
1x m3x20 bolt (for ejector)
1x m3x50 bolt (charging handle)

v1 source files: http://sendfiles.org/sJoYv
Please share/torrent these files since sendfiles has a link limit of 7 days.

Someone somewhere once said that God’s not picky about whom He choose to do His work. Not that you’d know it. Society sanctifies successful rabble rousers, leaving no room for foibles or contradictory information (Martin Luther King applied for a concealed carry permit, Mahatma Gandi was anti-disarmament). So now we have Marine and anti-war activist Adam Kokesh leading an armed march into gun-free D.C. [Full statement after the jump.] Kokesh’s civil disobedience demo is attracting willing gun rights guys and, of course, the media. Who so don’t “get” the United States Constitution. Check this reaction Kokesh’s crusade from washingtonpost.com . . .

Law enforcement officers who are sworn to serve and protect the public are “criminals”? The gun laws passed by the duly elected representatives of the people of the District are “unjust” because Kokesh disagrees with them? This sure is one slippery slope to anarchy if that loopy mindset were to take hold. Unfortunately, he has plenty of company on his absolute gun rights grassy knoll.

Kokesh’s Open Carry March on Washington is an extremely dangerous development—for the armed protestors involved, the police (and their credibility), the gun rights movement and the gun control movement. But then so was the American Revolution. Just sayin’. You in?

OFFICIAL STATEMENT [via adamvstheman.com]

On the morning of July 4, 2013, Independence Day, we will muster at the National Cemetery & at noon we will step off to march across the Memorial Bridge, down Independence Avenue, around the Capitol, the Supreme Court, & the White House, then down Constitution Avenue to peacefully return to Virginia across the Memorial Bridge. This is an act of civil disobedience, not a permitted event. We will march with rifles loaded & slung across our backs to put the government on notice that we will not be intimidated & cower in submission to tyranny. We are marching to mark the high water mark of government & to turn the tide. This will be a non-violent event, unless the government chooses to make it violent. Should we meet physical resistance, we will peacefully turn back, having shown that free people are not welcome in Washington, & return with the resolve that the politicians, bureaucrats, & enforcers of the federal government will not be welcome in the land of the free. “When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.” – Thomas Jefferson. Does the government fear the people? If not, something is wrong, and we aim to change it.

It is time to marshall forces and grow our numbers. Please share this page and invite all your friends. There are only two ways this goes down. 1) Obama issues an order to the DC Chief of Police who has pledged to violate the Constitution and we execute our plan with a police escort. 2) We are not allowed to enter the District and will halt the formation well before the line at which point, with the whole world watching, we will declare the federal government illegitimate, and peacefully disperse. I much prefer option one, and the more people we have on board, the more likely it is to happen. So share this page and spread the word! It looks like we’re on track to clear 10k RSVPs well before the target of June 1. The more people think about this idea, the more they realize their fears are motivations, and their uneasiness turns to resolve. But let’s not stop at 10k. Let’s get 100k signed up so that Obama himself cannot ignore us! Who knows, maybe by Independence Day, we’ll have a million people standing with us to declare that the federal government has no authority over free people when free people are not allowed in the nation’s capitol!

This event is civil disobedience because we will be violating and/or attempting to violate various regulations that have been used to curtail freedom of speech and freedom of self-defense, however, this is in response to the DC Police refusing to follow the law of the Constitution. They have been in violation of court order and the law by continuing to enforce statures that have been ruled unconstitutional. This is one in a long train of abuses, but a government that cannot be trusted to follow its own rules cannot be trusted, and we cannot allow this lawlessness to continue. We must stop this criminal government!

You are welcome and highly encouraged to attend unarmed as a supporter, or armed with a recording device. Please RSVP in the affirmative (“Going”) if you plan to attend as a witness. If there are any active duty military or law enforcement who would like to honor their oath to the Constitution by supporting this march, please contact: adam@adamvstheman.com. We especially invite law enforcement officers to stand with us armed however they feel is appropriate.

All who attend this march armed will be asked to stand and move in a military formation in order to maintain unity and safety. You will be expected to be dressed professionally, and there will be an inspection. As organizer, AVTM reserves the right to reject anyone from the formation at any time for any reason. There will be no use of recording devices by anyone once they have joined the ranks. If you’d like to film or photograph, please do so from outside the formation so there is no potential for confusion with hand motions. If you are not ACTIVE law enforcement, you will be asked to leave if you have any firearms other than a single rifle or shotgun slung across your back with the muzzle pointed down. Aside from adjusting the sling, you will not touch your weapon at any time during this event.

There’s a remote chance that there will be violence as there has been from government before, and I think it should be clear that if anyone involved in this event is approached respectfully by agents of the state, they will submit to arrest without resisting. We are truly saying in the SUBTLEST way possible that we would rather die on our feet than live on our knees.

There will be coordination with all relevant law enforcement agencies prior to the event.

Thanks to all the donations that have come in, we will soon be able to hire someone to help organize and coordinate logistics. Please stand by for more on this by June 1.

This is not about me or any one person. This is about an idea whose time has come and therefor cannot be stopped by any amount of force or violence. If anything happens to me between now and Independence Day, this event and the movement behind it will continue. I am happy to face death in standing up for liberty, but I have done everything possible to ensure my death would be of little consequence by inspiring everyone to be their own leader.

Click here to join the conversation.

“A man (not pictured above) accidentally shot himself in the leg while he was bowling after the gun in his pocket went off…. Police believe the bowling ball hit his pocket and let off the gun while he was taking a shot.” While it’s hard to be sure, one witness described the gun as a revolver. The thing is, it’s virtually impossible to “let off” a revolver with just a bump from a 12 lb. Brunswick. We’d lay even money that the un-named keggler’s keys, a pocket knife or some other miscellaneous tool was sharing pocket space with his J-frame. Thankfully, dailymail.co.uk report that his injuries aren’t considered to be life threatening. There’s no word, though, how the incident may affect his league standings. Safety tip: for God’s sake, use a pocket holster (to protect the trigger) and keep everything else out of your pocket. Kaythanksbye.

I know I’m not the only nerd out there hoping to be able to buy a TrackingPoint system for less than the price of my car sometime soon. And the more we hear about the Venture X project (Remington and TrackingPoint’s bid to make a less expensive TP rifle) the more excited my nerd-self gets. Make the jump for the latest proposed button layout — it looks like they’re planning on having the “tag” button be located somewhere other than the frame of the firearm . . .

As if Our Nation’s Capitol doesn’t already place enough roadblocks in the way of the right to keep and bear arms, “a D.C. Councilwoman has introduced legislation that could make the District the nation’s first jurisdiction to require gun owners to buy liability insurance.” Given that the freedom to own and carry the weapon of your choice is a natural, fundamental, and inalienable human, individual, civil and Constitutional right — subject neither to the democratic process nor to arguments grounded in social utility, I’m not sure an insurance requirement is really Constitutional. But just for the sake of argument, let’s say that it is. How are you going to figure the cost? Allow me . . .

Basic coverage on my car runs about $45/month and I drive it an average of two hours every day, so that’s $0.75 per hour of operation. I’m willing to pony up $0.75 a year to cover a gun that I might shoot (outside of practice) once every 50 years.

But I’m sure people will think that’s a ludicrously low number, so how about another calculation: According to famous anti-gun researchers Drs. Philip Cook and Jens Ludwig, in 2000 “gun violence” cost the US about $100 Billion a year. So if you divide that by 100 million gun owners they should pay $1,000 a year.

Oh, but what about the benefit side of this cost-benefit analysis? According to a study published in 1997 by those same researchers, Drs. Cook and Ludwig, there are about 1.46 million defensive gun uses a year. If even 1 in 100 of those DGUs saves a life, then that’s 14,600 lives saved by guns each year and I would imagine a proportionate number of injuries are prevented as well.

According to the CDC in 2000 there were 10,801 gun-related homicides which, according to Jens and Phil, cost $100 Billion (yeah, I’m ignoring injuries because, again, they’ll be roughly proportional) for a total of about $9.25 million per life. But guns in the hands of the law-abiding saved 3,799 more lives than those lost to criminals.

Which means that there’s a net benefit to owning a firearm. So let’s see…carry the six…I guess that means that, in order to reflect the ‘cost’ to society of gun ownership, the Gun Control Industrial Complex owes each of us $351.73 a year. I don’t know about you, but I prefer cash.

“At NRA, we believe in true grassroots. We don’t think that volunteers are ‘customers.’ These people are our friends. I’ve been in their homes, I’ve met their children, I’ve sat at their kitchen table, I’ve met their grandchildren. In addition, we on staff do all the things that we ask volunteers to do. We walk neighborhoods and pass out literature, we get on the phones, we raise money, we volunteer for campaigns. We consider ourselves peers with our volunteers.” – NRA Volunteer organizer quoted in Five Reasons the NRA Won the Recent Gun Control Debate That Have Nothing to Do with Politics [via forbes.com]

It’s often said that New Jersey is the most corrupt state in the United States. While it has some stiff competition from the Land of Lincoln, it should be pointed out that corruption doesn’t just refer to politicians and bureaucrats accepting bribes, political patronage and kickbacks. A government is also corrupt when it muzzles the people who [supposedly] give them the power to make and enforce laws. As is the case here, where IBEW union employee and Garden State Senator Donald Norcross ejects a citizen testifying against civilian disarmament. No props to the State troopers who did Donnie’s bidding. Twice. I know there are good people in New Jersey, some of them gun owners. God—and the U.S. Supreme Court—help them. For I fear nothing else will.

There’s a reason that equipment divisions exist in 3-gun matches, and that’s to keep everyone competing at the same level. Pitting someone with a pump action shotgun and a 7-round 1911 against another shooter with a Saiga 12 and 33-round Glock 17 isn’t a fair comparison. Divisions keep people from being able to ‘buy’ their way to a championship, and make the competitions about shooters’ skills rather than who can buy the best muzzle brake. And at a national level competition, with professionally-sponsored shooters, you expect that a fair amount of attention would be paid to making sure that equipment is properly configured for your division. But for one shooter, a failure to properly read the rules recently kicked off a rather large controversy and might lead to a change in how rules are enforced at USPSA multigun events . . .

Let me preface this by saying that the shooter in question (Barry Dueck) is, by all accounts, a great guy. And from what I’ve been able to gather, there was no malicious intent at any point on his part. It looks like an honest mistake, and one that he has already made right. But it’s still a good idea to take a look at what happened, and how it might be avoided in the future.

Barry came in second place to Erik Lund (of Team FNH USA fame) at the Texas Multigun Championships in the Heavy Metal Optics division a few weeks ago. At that match, which features .308 caliber rifles, shooters were allowed one optical sight on their rifles. Normally the “heavy metal” division is restricted to iron sights only, making both recoil and target acquisition much harder. But since the Texas guys don’t follow USPSA rules, they can change the divisions however they like.

The following weekend was the 2013 USPSA Multigun Nationals in Las Vegas, Nevada. That competition used a different ruleset, one in which no optics were allowed on a heavy metal limited division rifle. Red dots were okay for the standard limited division (5.56 rifles), but not for the heavy metal shooters. Yet when Barry pulled his rifle out of his case, it still had an Aimpoint red dot mounted.

This is where reports of the incident become a little sketchy. One guy at Brian Enos’ forum says that Barry was made aware of the issue (his firearms not being within spec for the division) before the end of the match, but didn’t alter his equipment to comply and didn’t report himself. Whether that happened or not, at the end of the day when the scores were posted, Barry had won his division using an illegal firearm (in terms of the competition, that is, not the kind of illegal weapons that can land you in prison).

After a match is finished, competitors have a one hour period to challenge their scores and bring questions to the attention to the match staff. This is something that has bitten me in the past, finding things out only after the challenge period had ended. That’s a problem because once the challenge period ends, the scores are declared final. As in, not subject to change. Over.

So when it was revealed to the match director that Barry’s equipment was not in compliance with USPSA rules, the period for challenges had ended and the match staff said it was too late to change the scores. At that point, Barry accepted the win and picked a up a prize from the prize table.

The normal process when a competitor shoots with non-compliant equipment is to kick them into the “open” division and let them continue competing against everyone else. But since the challenge period had ended, there was nothing at that point that could be done.

There has been a ton of discussion online about ways to keep this from happening again, ranging from mandating equipment checks at the beginning of a match to allowing an exception to the 1-hour rule to alter match results. But at the end of the day, Barry himself decided to make things right. Here’s the post from his Facebook page:

Barry Dueck, winner in the Heavy Metal Limited division of the USPSA MultiGun Nationals has DQ’d himself from the match after discovering that he inadvertently shot the match with a non-compliant optic. Below is a copy of the message sent by Barry to Phil Strader, President of the USPSA several days ago.

“Phil, please invalidate my score in Heavy Metal Limited from Nationals. I Put my gear together specifically to fully comply with what I read in the rules online a couple weeks before the match. After reviewing the rules since returning from the match, my rifle did not comply due to a 1x non-magnified optic. I was confident that I had read the rules correctly but I was incorrect. I will send the Trophy and the prize from the match to Jeff Gross who with my score invalidated won the match. Thank you, Barry Dueck”

USPSA officials have responded acknowledging the difficulty of this situation. Rules where reviewed in to see if Barry’s scores could be transferred to the Open Division but since the match was completed this was not possible.

This is an unfortunate incident but not without merit. We can all use a reminder to check and double check our information, and when we find that we screwed up, own it, make it right and move on.

There are still all sorts of juicy rumors flying around, but since this story isn’t about shaming a shooter – someone about whom I can’t find a single bad comment anywhere on the internet – I won’t get into them here. Instead, let’s look at how this happened and how it can be avoided.

The biggest pain in 3-gun shooting is that every match seems to have its own ground rules, and reading the rulebook each and every time can be tedious. But if you’re competing for prizes, it’s something that you probably should do. Personally, I like to double check the rulebook the day before the match to make sure that I haven’t left something on my gun that will get me in trouble.

Another issue is that, whenever you see something happening at a match that you think is unsafe or against the rules, you need to let someone know. The only thing that keeps competition shooting so safe is strict adherence to the rules of the sport, so any infraction should be reported to the match staff. If there is an problem, it can be handled promptly and settled then, once and for all. If it’s a false alarm, no harm done.

In general, always err on the side of caution. For both competitors, and for match staff. And when in doubt, ask someone.

Long-time TTAG readers will recall my piece on the original Liberator pistol and the decision on the part of the Allies to not drop it into Occupied France. It wasn’t the first time a supposedly enlightened society has put political power and expediency ahead the safety of its citizens, and as any current resident of Chicago can tell you, it was far from the last . . .

Now we have another “Liberator” pistol, this one designed to be made using a 3-D printer and a nail. The United States of 2013 is not the France of 1943. We have nearly 300 million firearms in private hands. It’s probably much easier for the average man on the street to buy a gun than it would be for him to buy, assemble, and operate a 3-D printer of the required quality. For that reason alone, we can safely assume that the various fantasies being assembled around the Liberator idea by fanatics on both sides of the gun-control won’t come true any time soon. But that doesn’t mean the Liberator isn’t important. To the contrary. It’s the most important firearm of the twenty-first century.

While it’s easy to imagine a future in which 3-D printed pistols provide the oppressed citizens of hoplophobic metropolises an undetectable last means of self-defense against both an increasingly bold criminal element and the militarized police which symbiotically rely on that criminal element to justify their skyrocketing pay and vanishing civilian oversight, it will be quite some time before the reality catches up to the imagination. Right now, the typical candidate for Liberator ownership is somebody who is smart enough to obtain and operate an industrial 3-D printer (or commission Shapeways to make the parts) but who is dumb enough to willingly use a plastic pistol instead of a metal one. In other words, the customer base is firearms-rights advocates.

Nobody else is going to be interested. After all, we live in a country where even the Federal Government itself is occasionally in the business of deliberately selling firearms illegally to criminals. There are millions of guns available to someone who isn’t interested in abiding by our spellbindingly diverse body of firearms regulations, and pretty much all of them are better than the ones you can make yourself out of plastic. The Bloods and Crips won’t be giving up their Tec-9s, or even their Hi-Points, to sport Liberators in gang-appropriate colors out on the corner.

To some degree, the Liberator hysteria is a product of coastal-elite willful ignorance, the mentality that can encompass the 3-D printer and its capability but can’t quite understand the concept of a “machine shop” or the idea that such a thing might exist anywhere outside China. Surely the relative lack of furor over the eighty-percent receiver is due to the fact that the average Manhattanite assistant professor considers a drill press to be only slightly less mythical and magical than Ovid’s Minotaur. I mean, the idea of actually making something out of metal with a drill verges on the fantastical — but using a Mac Pro to carefully split up a Liberator CAD file across three separate commercial 3-D printers, snapping the resulting parts together without difficulty, and then using the resulting contraption to viciously, albeit briefly, shoot up a local school? Perfectly reasonable.

Insofar as it directly serves the cause of American freedom to continue letting Katie Couric think you need a River-Rouge-sized factory to make a Sten gun, let’s not talk any more about that. Instead, let’s discuss what’s really interesting about the Liberator: the fact that it makes the connection between the First and Second Amendments plain as day and clear as crystal to everybody who thinks as Ms. Couric does.

The Liberator is, first and foremost, an idea. It’s a plan. A document. It’s political speech; what’s more political in the America of 2013 than a firearm? But feed that political speech into a machine, and it becomes a weapon. A gun. A Saturday Night Special. Possibly even an assault weapon, if Senator Feinstein gets word of it. The first single-shot assault weapon in history. Speech becomes a weapon. A computer file becomes a gun. Just like that.

Our enlightened leaders know such a thing must not be permitted. But how to prevent it? They could simply ban 3-D printing; there are other reasons to do so, it’s a destabilizing technology, it threatens the market for everything from tools to toys. It would be a tricky bit of legislation to draft, however, and the first politician to break ranks and to promise a 3-D printer in every living room would be unstoppable.

They’ll make the Liberator itself illegal, whether or not it has the requisite detectable metal plate installed, with some ponderous piece of legislation that somehow also includes the Desert Eagle, but last time I checked crystal meth was extremely illegal, more dangerous and difficult to make than the Liberator, and it was easier to find than Elizabeth Warren’s Native American roots. Nope, that’s not going to be enough.

The solution to the Liberator “problem” is this: you make the possession of a firearm CAD build file a federal felony and then you use the government’s considerable resources to find out who has it. You throw aside any pretense of respecting either the First or the Second Amendments and you make the punishment for having that particular series of bytes on your computer so Draconian that the thought of being caught with it is enough to make your average libertarian voluntarily pull an Aaron Swartz. The nerds out there will pull all sorts of trickery with the file — masking it, hiding it in images, encrypting it, printing it out on T-shirts and posters — so you write the law in such a fashion as to make possession of any computer file sufficient justification to unleash Hell. You give the ATF and FBI unlimited, arbitrary power to enforce the legislation. It’s the perfect gift to accessorize their tanks and their stormtrooper outfits and their HK PDWs.

Make no mistake, even in the current political climate, doing what I’ve suggested above would be difficult, possibly even impossible. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t individuals thinking about it. Hoping for it. Trying to make it a reality. And those individuals were elected freely by the American people, and most of them will be re-elected or replaced by individuals ideologically indistinguishable from them.

It’s scary. Scary enough to make you think about printing out a plastic single-shot pistol and setting it aside for a day you hope will never come. Isn’t it?

While I was working on my review of J. Dewey’s .338 Lapua Magnum Bore Guide and Cleaning Tools, I had a couple of back and forth exchanges with Ken, who as near as I can figure, is Dewey’s PR, Marketing, Web Programming and general do-everything guy.  As we were talking, we got around to the subject of their field cleaning kits. While Dewey is definitely well known as a maker of fine gun cleaning tools for the shop, the fact is their field cleaning tools are also well-respected by folks who know a thing or two about shooting . . .

It’s no secret that the folks here at TTAG like the J. Dewey line of products. Ryan Finn heaped praise on their Complete AR cleaning kit a year or so ago. I sure liked what I saw of the .338 Lapua Magnum kit and based on the comments for both of those reviews, our readers are fans of J. Dewey products, too. Ken suggested that I take a look at their line of pull-through field kits and give them some feedback. Well, I bet Ken is sorry he asked, ‘cause I made a whole lot of work for him.

You see, my problem is that while perusing the list, I just couldn’t settle on one kit. I own a range of guns from pistols to rifles in various calibers, sizes, and configurations and every one of the field kits on offer were very specific to certain types of firearms. You could buy one that would cover .22 – .30 rifles, a different one for AR-15s, another for black powder and shotgun, one for .308, one for 6.8mm, one for M14/M1A rifles, etc.

My problem, as I explained to Ken, was that when I head to the range it’s usually with a mix of pistols, rifles, and shotguns. I never know what ranges are going to be available until I get there, so I bring a selection of guns along. I could certainly order multiple cleaning kits, but aside from the extra cost, they’d come with a fair amount of redundancy. For example, I really only need one pull-through cable (well one for .22 and one for .30) to handle most of the rifles and pistols I own. But if I bought four or five kits, I’d be paying for stuff I don’t need.

My suggestion to Ken was to consider doing for the pull through cleaning kits what J. Dewey does for their fixed rod kits – provide the bare essentials and let the customer add tools and accessories to customize the kit to their needs. Frankly, I figured that what Ken would do would be to throw a selection of tools in a case and ship it to me and I’d do an overall review of the pull-through field kits without focusing on any specific one. N’uh uh.

Instead, Ken told me that he loved the idea of a customizable field kit and to give him a week or so to get it coded. That was on a Friday. On Monday morning there was an email in my inbox from Ken letting me know he had one ready for me to look at. Well, much to my delight, Ken had pretty much done exactly what he and I had talked about. The kit began with the base pull-through rod and the customer could then choose exactly the added tools that were needed to create the ideal custom cleaning kit for their personal assortment of guns.

A bit of tweaking was done as I ran through a couple of test builds – Ken identified incompatible components and made the necessary corrections to the product page. There was also the minor matter of a $2,300 chamber brush. I told Ken that while I’m sure it’s a  helluva nice brush, I’d probably try to source one a bit cheaper somewhere else. That decimal problem was quickly fixed and now J. Dewey now has the new product page ready to go for your ordering pleasure.

For some people, the ability to clean your rifle in the field is simply not all that important. Folks like that are back home every night and can clean their guns in the comfort of their home. Other folks simply don’t clean that religiously at all, only hitting a gun every second or third outing. On the other hand, if you are out on a multi-day hunting trip or are a military operator patrolling far from base, you’re going to want to be able to maintain your guns in the field. A hunter wants to make sure that when the critical opportunity arises, his gun will function. As for the operator, a malfunction can mean the difference between life and death.

Many of us, though, need to re-think our priorities. Even if you have the luxury of being able to clean at home, there’s something to be said for getting the heavy stuff off while in the field. There are plenty of times that I’ve arrived home, tossed the guns in the safe and promptly forgotten to clean them. Doing a reasonably quick and efficient job in the field is always a good idea, especially if you’re shooting in poor conditions that might include wind-blown sand, dust, rain or snow.  You’ll also want to clean your gun ASAP if shooting corrosive ammo.

I’ve used field cleaning kits before and own one from that other company that ships their kits in round containers. The selection of tools is competent, but when compared to the Dewey stuff, you can see why professional soldiers use Dewey gear.

The first thing you notice is the cleaning cable itself. It has two ends – a patch holder and a socket for another tool. It also makes a departure from other cable cleaning kits you may have used before — you’ll notice that there is no T-handle. Instead, the Dewey cable features a ball that’s permanently attached to the cable and used to pull the cable through the bore.

This design has two consequences. First, there’s no handle to lose. One of the problems with other cable cleaning kits is that if you lose the handle, the cable all but useless, since it’s very difficult to pull through the barrel. The Dewey design eliminates that.

The second consequence is that it makes multiple brush or cleaning patch passes a bit more cumbersome. The cable must be fed down the barrel from the muzzle end, then the patch slipped in or the brush screwed on (depending on which operation you are doing). Then you pull the whole assembly pulled back through the barrel. If you want to make a second or third pass, you have to unscrew and repeat.

Initially, I thought that was a hassle, but after giving it some time and a little more thought, I can see the advantages. With a good gun, you wouldn’t want to run a cleaning brush up and down the bore anyway. Even if you were doing this at home with a rod, the proper way is to push the brush through from breech to muzzle, remove the brush, pull the rod out, re-attach the brush and repeat. You always want abrasive things to be moving in the direction of the bullet.

Also, I’ve lost a T-handle before and trying to use the cable in the field without one is a real PITA. The Dewey method makes that bit of incompetence on my part hard to repeat.  By eliminating the T-handle altogether, Dewey is able to permanently attach a cleaning patch loop to one end of the cable. After all, this is likely to be the tool that you’re going to use most often in the field. Sure, you may use a bush to remove the gunk, but you use a cleaning patch to apply that initial solvent or CLP, remove the dirty stuff once the brush had done its work, apply a light coat of protectant, and run ammonia down the barrel if you have shot corrosive ammo.

One other nice thing when you compare the Dewey cable to some of the competitors is that it takes standard patches. Anyone who owns an Otis kit knows that you need special patches with slots cut in them in several locations. Then you have to be an origami expert to get the damn patch folded correctly. And, of course, you have to order the special patches from Otis (not cheap) and if you need them last minute, you’re SOL.

Where the J. Dewey Customizable Field Cleaning Kit further distinguishes itself from the competition is the variety of tools that it can be configured with. You, rather than some drone in Product Development, determine which tools to include. If you want something for an AR-15 and an M1 Garand, you order exactly those with no overlap. I wanted to configure a kit that would handle a variety of guns that range from pistols in various calibers, .22 rifles, .30 rifles, AR-15, AR-10, M1A, and an M1 Garand. My kit came with the following components:

• 36” Nylon Coated Pull Though Cable for .30
• 30” Nylon Coated Pull Though Cable for .22
• Pick
• Brass Scraper
• Round Handle Chamber Rod with Two Extension Rods
• .22 Obstruction Remover
• .30 Obstruction Remover
• 4.5” Utility Brush
• .22 Patch Loop
• AR-15 Link Cleaning Pin
• Tubes of Shooter’s Choice Bore Solvent, CLP, and Grease
• Silicone Wiping Cloth
• Chamber Brushes for AR-10, AR-15 .308, and .338
• Ratcheting Chamber brushed for the M14/M1A, and M1 Garand
• Bore Brushes for .22, .38/9mm, .40, .45, .30, and .338
• Cleaning Patches for .22-.27, .27-.35, and .35-.45

Much of the contents of the kit aren’t going to be surprising to most people. The ratcheting chamber brushes for the M1A and M1 Garand are things you might not normally find in a field kit, but can be very useful if you plan to do a lot of shooting of either of these guns in nasty conditions. The AR-15 link cleaning pin is a very innovative part that Ryan talked about in his review of the Dewey AR-15 cleaning kit.

Basically, it holds the upper and lower halves of the AR-15 open so they can easily cleaned. The folks at Dewey mainly saw this tool having use at the work bench, but having tried to clean an AR-15 in the field, I know hard it is when you’re trying to hold the rifle with one hand, work the cleaning tools with the other and wishing you had a third hand to keep the upper from flopping down onto the lower. Sure, you can always disconnect the upper entirely, but this little gizmo eliminated the need for that entirely.

My kit shipped in two zippered bags plus a smaller bag for the cables. Most of the second bag was taken up by the patches. Obviously, I would only need a handful of each size when going into the field, so I can probably get everything I need into one pouch.

In a perfect world, Dewey would have cool cases that have a place for every tool. Otis does this with their kits – the tools are embedded in foam rubber and everything looks neat and tidy – or at least it does for the first couple of months before the foam rubber gives way slightly and you unzip your case to find a pile of tools at the bottom.

The problem of course is that when you offer a custom tool selection, you really can’t design special pouches for every possible combination of tools. The pouches Dewey provides work and really, at the end of the day, that’s what you really want from your tools.

Nothing is totally perfect and that holds true for this kit, too. Having the flexibility to configure a custom kit is going to cost you a little more. If all you need is a kit for a specific rifle, you’d be better served picking up one of Dewey’s pre-configured kits.

As a point of comparison, I took the components in the AR-15 pre-configured kit and built a custom kit with the same pieces. The price on the custom kit was a about $9 higher for the same components. I discussed this with the folks at Dewey and they pointed out something I hadn’t considered; the pre-built kits are easy to grab off the shelf, toss into a box, and ship to the customer. A custom kit, though, requires an employee to pick all of the components ordered and assemble them into a kit. This takes extra labor, thus the added cost.

That said, if you need a kit to clean your AR-15 and your .30 cal, ordering one custom kit with the various parts is going to be cheaper than ordering two basic kits. And you’ll have just what you need which, after all, is the whole point of the custom kit.

As with previous tool kits we’ve reviewed here, it’s clear that these are designed by people who know what they are doing. They’re shooters themselves and are selling products they personally use. The tools are all high quality including bronze brushes with brass cores to protect the bore, Shooter’s Choice cleaning products and innovative designs like that AR-15 link cleaning pin and those thoughtfully designed cables. Serious shooters will likely find their way to J. Dewey sooner or later and if, like me, you have an eclectic collection of firearms and want one kit to clean them all, the J. Dewey Customizable Field Cleaning Kit is the way to go.

Price: Varies depending on contents of the kit – $30 and up

Ratings (out of five stars):

Design: * * * * *
You design the kit based upon what you need, so how can it be less than perfect? Innovative tools such as the AR-15 link cleaning pin enhance the value.

Construction * * * * *
Good, solid materials make for sturdy tools. Dewey doesn’t use cheap steel or other metals that could damage your rifle barrel – only the best here.

Value * * *
This is really the only ding I can find in an otherwise well-thought out product.  If you only need a small tool collection, ordering a pre-configured kit is the way to go.  However, if you want to configure a kit with a wide variety of tools, the custom option will save you money. A progressive discount would be nice, too.

Overall * * * *
The Customizable Field Cleaning Kit is a great solution to the field cleaning problem.  One kit that you build to handle the specific firearms you own with no unnecessary costs for overlapping components. The J. Dewey guys know their stuff and their cleaning kits show it. Add a progressive discount and you are looking at five stars.

Depending on the state, possession of a fully-automatic knife can get you into a whole heap of trouble. Is this a problem? Although I’m not a knife fighter by nature (or experience) I reckon a switchblade doesn’t offer a significant tactical advantage over a slick inertia-based opening system—in the hands of a practiced owner. That said, I carry a gun. My blade is a back-up safety system. So if I’m going that way I’m gonna need to go there fast. The magical appearance of a sharp blade with a significant snick makes for a nice bit of security theater, perhaps even intimidation. Hmmm. Automatic knife, folding knife. Why choose?

Click here to read the rest at The Truth About Knives

As we predicted, the man arrested for the New Orleans’ Mother’s Day parade shooting was a gang banger with a record. In fact, Akein Scott was out on $15k bond for a weapons charge when he opened fire on the crowd. Or, more likely, someone in the crowd. While the civilian disarmament industrial complex initially seized on the shooting to promote their agenda, they backed off when they realized it was a black-on-black crime, perpetuated by a hardened criminal, who’d been enabled by a lax legal system, overseen by a black Democrat. For them, the fact that Akein Scott should have been locked-up isn’t the key variable. Oh no. Check out this comment by DRZM underneath the CBS post . . .

I work with delinquent youth and young adults like Akein Scott every day and also conduct research on violence. This is a growing social epidemic that we need to organize collectively to solve. Many (but not all) of these kids are raised in violent homes or neighborhoods surrounded by poverty, drugs, and antisocial role models, with little hope or sense of how to really make something positive of their lives. They start affiliating with other delinquent peers and gangs, and get way more exposure to aggressive and violent media (videos, game, music) from a very early age than they get exposure to prosocial messages.

Some of them have untreated individual problems that make them more vulnerable, like ADHD and learning disabilities. But most of them probably start with healthy brains that are gradually broken by their environments. Gun access is part of the problem. I realize most legal gun owners would never commit this kind of act. At the same time, I wish the growing number of youth who are at risk for violence — both those who are easy to identify like this one based on their history, and those who are not — had ZERO gun access AND better mental health care AND better access to healthy role models and social messages from an early age. Until we tackle ALL of these problems, we and our children are increasingly potential targets.

Gun laws that assured ZERO access to guns for bad guys would severely infringe if not eliminate law-abiding Americans’ human, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms, and thus increase crime. This thought doesn’t occur to DRZM or his fellow gun control advocates.

But it’s a nice package of proposals. Let’s start with locking-up bad guys who use guns and see how that goes. M’kay?

TTAG reader DA writes:

You ran a post in March on the Omaha, NE mayor’s bid to ban “assault” weapons here. Well, the Omaha mayoral election was this past Tuesday, and I’m happy to report that Mayor Jim Suttle, the anti-gun Democrat, was soundly SPANKED by City Councilwoman Jean Stothert [above], a conservative Republican. She will be Omaha’s first woman mayor when she takes office on 10 June. In truth, the gun control (and assault weapons) issue was never really an issue during this election. However, Suttle made it an issue when he inexplicably ran ads that emphasized the subject very early in the campaign . . .

This was seen by many people as indicative of his tone deafness on the issues, as banning assault weapons, and gun control in general, just has not been a “top of mind” issue in Omaha. Why the Mayor chose to raise the issue so prominently in his campaign mystified many people, but also helped solidify the perception that he’s clueless and out of touch… which he is.

Stothert won the election the old-fashioned way: she earned it. She ran a flawless campaign, and flat out-worked her opponent on the ground. She had the widest voter appeal, she ran against the public employee unions and their long-standing exploitation of taxpayers, and she took full advantage of the many hapless political stumbles Suttle had made during his first term. In short, she flat kicked his ass.

The happy result: A friend to law-abiding gun owners will be in the Omaha mayor’s office for at least the next four years.

I broke from the normal Schnauzerlaufen this morning. I continued walking along the river bank onto a road blocked off to cars. The pavement’s obscured from everyone but rowers (galley slaves with little desire to scan the shore). A brace of dog walkers approached, oblivious to me, their dog [not shown] and the rapist/mugger/psycho killer from the nearby mental hospital lurking in the bushes. For all they know. Which left me wondering: are people who carry a gun more situationally aware because they’re packing or are they packing because they’re more situationally aware? I’m going with the latter. I reckon the Armed Intelligentsia are naturally inclined to carry. Then again, nothing re-wires a human more effectively than pain, fear and, especially, trauma. One bad scare (or worse) and those ladies would leave condition white. Would they carry afterwards? Probably not. So . . . nature. Your thoughts?

The first thing Dan and I said when we heard that multiple police officers were injured during the infamous shootout with the brothers Tsarnaev: “friendly fire.” OK, we didn’t exactly call it that. But there was no doubt in either or our minds that cops shot each other. The chances that Tamerlan Tsarnaev wounded the po-po with one handgun were lower than Liz Hurley’s neckline. And now the truth comes out about the incident. Well, some of it. Here are the bullet points from “two police sources” quoted by cnn.com . . .

– Police fired nearly 300 rounds of ammunition within five to 10 minutes as they confronted the suspects — 100 more than initially reported. And that included one round that nearly killed Massachusetts Transit Police Officer Richard Donohue. (Others bullets struck the Tsarnaev brothers, seriously injuring Dzhokhar and contributing to the death of Tamerlan.)

– Tamerlan was the only brother armed with a handgun. The only other weapons they had were the homemade explosives that police say the brothers tossed out of the hijacked vehicle, including a few that detonated.

– Police accidentally fired on an unoccupied black SUV during the mayhem. “In the chaos, an officer or trooper (or some combination of personnel) mistook it for one of the two suspect vehicles,” David Procopio of the Massachusetts State Police told CNN.

Now you could say fog of war, exigent circumstances, etc. But I’m not gonna. Not until I see the official police report on the shootout. Which could be never.

“That shoot review, which is ongoing, will include examination of any potential friendly fire incidents,” [Massachusetts State Police spoeksman [David] Procopio said. While Donohue was the only officer seriously injured in the Watertown shooting, another officer was also grazed by a bullet.”

As far as we know.

San Francisco 49ers linebacker Patrick Willis has animal lovers and gun haters all aflutter. According to bleacherreport.com, he announced to all the world that his property is now down one reptile thanks to some quick work with a pellet rifle. Clearly, in the view of a number of commenters at his MyFace page, Mr. Willis lacks any semblance of humanity for so heartlessly killing what looks to be a 4-5 foot snake he found coiled on his patio. As someone named Auntie Clymax screeched, ”So he’s proud of killing a harmless gopher snake. Yay! That just tells me he’s probably a big, cowardly pussy who beats women as well.” Q.E.D. The Niners list Patrick at a beefy 6’1″, 240 lbs., so he can probably handle himself quite nicely when it comes to on-line hostility. As for the snake, nice shootin’ there, Pat.

Remember that late 70′s bumper sticker “Question Authority”? Although TTAG’s internal mission statement is “Speed, Surprise and Violence of Action” all of our contributors are encouraged to approach any gun-related story with a grain of salt the size of the Darwin, Minnesota twine ball. When it comes to negligent firearm discharges involving cops, school officials, politicians or anyone else in a position of authority, we reserve the right to call bullshit. As I’m doing here. “Aurora police are investigating an accidental shooting that happened in the parking lot of Rangeview High School and left one student injured Monday,” thedenverchannel.com reports. “About an hour after school let out for the day, the student was getting a ride home from a school employee who also works a second job as an armed security officer . . .

The employee was trying to put his gun into the glove box of the car when the weapon fired, hitting the student in the leg.

The man drove the student to a nearby hospital, arriving around 4:30 p.m., police said. The student was rushed into surgery with what police described as a “significant injury” to his leg.

The student is expected to survive.

Police said the driver works at the school but is not a teacher, and he and the student know each other, police said. It is unclear if any charges will be filed against the employee.

Sure, nothing wrong with that story. Simple case of a weapon firing all on its own during an attempt to safely stow it. No showing off. No threats. No inappropriate behavior on anyone’s part—save the gun itself and the journalist who somehow forgot to note the name of the part-time armed security officer.

Despite the gun control advocates’ continued collective pants browning over the idea that they may have permanently lost the ability to control anyone’s access to firearms, more and more of Cody Wilson’s children are springing up across the world. Forbes has even devoted an article to some of the better examples. One of the main themes of the piece is that while the gun itself is indeed being printed as-is, more interesting developments are happening as people are improving on the Defense Distributed design and sharing them. One guy is even making a metal barrel insert to let the .38 gun shoot .22LR , something much more practical and less prone to splitting the barrel. And that’s just the start . . .

Travis Lerol, a 30-year-old former military software engineer in Glen Burnie, Maryland, printed his Liberator (shown at right) within days of its appearing online. Unlike the original printed gun, he says he’s altered his to have a rifled barrel, a move designed to avoid the National Firearms Act, which regulates improvised and altered weapons and has a provision covering “smooth-bored” pistols. He’s also built another version of the barrel for .22 ammunition that uses a metal insert for reinforcement, instead of the entirely-plastic barrel for .380 rounds used in Defense Distributed’s original. And he’s cast versions of the Liberator’s barrel in epoxy that take .380 and .45 ammunition, a design he argues will be more durable than the pure ABS plastic Defense Distributed tested.

“When the Liberator came out, I was pretty curious and also surprised that the barrel hadn’t exploded when they fired it,” says Lerol. “I want to progress it from the entry level it’s at now to something more advanced, and then put that information back up to share.”

When the Liberator was first introduced, the reaction from the mainstream media was that the gun (as is) was useless and dangerous. They claimed that it was irrelevant, that it didn’t really matter. They argued that since that iteration was flawed, 3D printed guns were thus proven to be impossible. That was the fairy tale they told to make themselves believe that control was still possible.

As always, the internet has proven the establishment wrong.

“If you can handle a gun with dignity and respect for its power, it says a lot to your kid. When you go deeper, however, disturbing questions come to the surface about guns in the home and their violent purposes. Are you killing an animal because you are hungry and plan to eat it, or for sport, simply to watch it die? If you own guns at home, are you willing to tell your children that guns at home are likely to be used in suicides? (You probably won’t; I doubt I would have the courage to say that.) When you feel rage, what do your kids see? When you say you need a gun for protection, what do your kids learn from that? When you say no to gun toys and violent play, do your kids understand why?” – Lee Schneider in What Fathers Can Tell Their Children About Guns [via huffingtonpost.com]

Unfortunately, we don’t have embattled Attorney General Eric Holder’s threat to gun rights on tape. The news arrives via NPR interviewer Carrie Johnson. [Click here to listen.] During her chin wag with the man [still] under a Contempt of Congress act for his refusal to surrender documents relating to Operation Fast and Furious (the ATF’s gun running scheme that put over 2000 weapons into the hands of vicious Mexican drug thugs), Johnson summarizes the AG’s decision to bring back gun control legislation and “use smaller regulatory power to make regulatory changes in the meantime.” Holder’s goal (which is on tape): “moving the needle in the way in which people want: make guns less accessible to people who should not have them.” Which is, as we know from Holder’s previous remarks above, everyone.

By LC Judas

As a law enforcement officer I find that most laws have a purpose and a place. But whatever my opinion of a law may be, I have a duty to uphold those laws without question. That means laws on the books are enforced and carry corresponding charges and penalties. But a lot of people aren’t aware of the latest the flavor of the month charge that’s being used to bring gun control to more and more people: Weapons Under Disability . . .

Typically, a Weapons Under Disability charge is added onto other charges related to crimes in which guns were possessed by a prohibited person. Basically, if you are a felon, on parole, have other disqualifying factors in your past that keep you from owning a gun, such as being declared mentally incompetent or subject to an active 0rder of protection (restraining order) granted by a court, if you are caught with a firearm you can be charged with Weapons Under Disability in addition to whatever other hijinks you may have been involved in when you’re caught.

Does this list sound familiar? It should. It’s the same list of prohibiting factors on a Form 4473. That’s that long form you fill out and sign whenever you go to a gun store to buy a firearm. There is a small difference, though. Don’t worry, though. Weapons Under Disability doesn’t apply if you don’t have the weapon yet. So you can’t be charged if your 4473 application is declined. It only applies after you have the gun and commit another infraction of some kind. But, looking at the way WUD is being applied, you can also see that adding new laws to prohibit ownership would make this additional felony charge a nice cherry on top of a pile of other charges.

One example that worries me is if some sort of registration is eventually mandated. They can evaluate you on whether or not you can own a firearm every time you register one in the name of “universal background checks.” Regardless how regular the occurrence of registering and asking for permission to own your property occurs, it comes with one big hook. If, since you last bought a firearm, you’re caught in any of the new “stronger” gun laws designed to prohibit gun ownership…you’ll get yourself a felony charge.

How so, you ask? Simple. Even though requiring self incrimination is prohibited by an amendment to the United States Constitution, you essentially ask someone else if you are fit to register property you want to own. Let’s say you’re found unfit and they only confiscate the single weapon in question. Any other firearms you may own make you guilty of – you guessed it – Weapons Under Disability. A felony.

The charge was originally added to the books discourage gun crime. But nine times out of ten, whatever aggravated assault, robbery, murder or other serious felony is committed is more serious and carries a much stiffer penalty. The amount of time you’ll do for weapons possession is relatively small compared to 15 to life for manslaughter. Unless, of course, you’re an average Joe who may have taken Zoloft in the past and just wanted a nightstand gun.

Now, with the goal of “protecting the children”, we are stacking the deck against people who are trying to do just that. If you want stiffer punishment for “gun crime,” you’re going to start increasing the penalties for Weapons Under Disability and laws like it because “criminals shouldn’t have guns and be able to hurt people”. I use quotes because these are the things you hear in the media from people clamoring for action. These are people who don’t understand crime or the law, but think they can legislate away predators with strokes of a pen and by screaming “it’s just common sense”.

If I sound frustrated, I am. If gun control, as envisioned by liberals who think Congress is failing to protect us, actually existed as they want it to, it would place every police officer in the position of having to enforce the law on people who are otherwise upstanding citizens. I haven’t run an official poll, but I sincerely doubt my stopping by to raid your gun safe with my friends, using force, would be welcomed. I would venture enough people would take the forcible entry of my colleagues into their homes with search warrants for relatively weak felony charges would lead to potentially fatal altercations.

Weapons Under Disability was originally devised to nail small-time criminals because lesser crimes didn’t stick enough to provide deterrence. I’m not saying the charge serves no purpose. Most shoplifters don’t risk aggravated robbery by sticking a snub nose in their pocket with the rest of their ill-gotten gains. But making an add-on charge into essentially an unenforceable law is ridiculous.

‘Disability’ is simply a word. Its definitions can be amended and contorted to include just about anyone. I’d like to think that I’m not the only one this bothers, but disagreeing has somehow become the opposite of “common sense.” Who would’ve guessed?

“I think guns should shoot out chocolate bullets,” Myles Nelson. a 7-year-old second-grader at Milwaukee’s Downtown Montessori Academy wrote to Vice President Joe “Double Barrel” Biden. “Then no one will get killed and no one will be sad.” Vice President Biden wrote back [as above]: ”I really like your idea. If we had guns that shot chocolate not only would our country be safer, it would be happier. People love chocolate. You are a good boy.” Click here to see the young lad read his meshuggah missive. Or not. Meanwhile, TTAG’s contacted the YouTube guy who weaponized gummy bears.

They closeted him
where he likes to keep his guns.
And they chose poorly.

As an EMT, there are a couple things that I always carry on shift. One is a Benchmade Triage knife, another is a Littman stethoscope (because using the same one that’s been in everyone else’s ears is just disgusting), and the last item is a Surefire E2D LED Defender flashlight. Sure there’s a flashlight sitting in a charger behind the front right (AKA my) seat anyway, but it’s massive and weighs a ton. My Defender, with its variable output, allows me to either light up the scene of a car accident or check a patient’s pupils with a single flashlight. That versatility has also earned it a spot as an every day carry item, giving me a non-lethal option when dealing with bad guys (i.e., blinding them). Now Surefire has come out with a new version, the Ultra, that’s twice as powerful as the old one for the same price. Make the jump for the presser . . .

The E2D LED Defender Ultra is a compact, dual-output self-defense flashlight that boasts an impressive 500 lumens of white light on its high setting–enough to temporarily overwhelm the dark-adapted vision of an aggressor. This blinding, tactical-level light, shaped by a TIR lens that creates a beam with plenty of reach and enough surround light for peripheral vision, is always just a click away in high-stress situations, thanks to ergonomic tactical tailcap switching. The E2D LED Defender Ultra’s virtually indestructible LED also produces five useful lumens of light output for general use and tasks where 500 lumens of light may be overkill. To enhance its self-defense capabilities, the flashlight features SureFire’s crenellated Strike Bezel® and a scalloped tailcap, both of which pack a wallop should 500 lumens of blinding light not be enough to convince an attacker to walk away. You get all this self-defense capability in a lightweight but strong Mil-Spec-anodized aluminum body just over 5 1/2 inches long.

Features and Benefits:

• Virtually indestructible dual-output LED produces two useful outputs: 500 & 5 lumens

• Total Internal Reflection (TIR) lens produces tightly focused beam with reach and enough surround light to accommodate peripheral vision

• Crenellated Strike Bezel® and scalloped tailcap provide enhanced self defense Capabilities

• High-strength aerospace aluminum body, Mil-Spec hard-anodized for extreme durability

• Ergonomic tactical tailcap switching for instant access to max output in high-stress situations

• Includes high-energy 123A lithium batteries with 10-year shelf life

It’s easy to understand why the huffingtonpost.com can’t abide the idea of children shooting guns. It’s dangerous! (Or not so much.) More to the point, if children didn’t grow up shooting guns there’s less chance they’d become gun owners. Fewer Americans would own guns. Everyone would be safer. Staying with this mindset, anything or anyone that promotes children shooting guns is EVIL. Hence This Is What Happens When The Gun Industry Sees Kids As Customers. Spoiler alert! Manufacturers build guns for kids and promote them. Kids shoot [these and other] guns. They grow up to be gun owners. And? Besides, as long as an adult provides supervision and gun safety is observed, what’s wrong with kids shooting guns? As MKS Prez Charles Brown reminded TTAG, “It’s not illegal to go and have fun with your kids.” Yet. Strangely, the HuffPo’s post contains no mention of videogames . . .

“The news, for the past month, like so many others, has been filled with guns,” Arkadi Gerney writes over at newyorker.com. “There was the gun that the Tsarnaev brothers used in Cambridge, where they killed a cop—perhaps in an effort to get his gun. There were guns used elsewhere, too. In Akron, Ohio, four people were murdered, execution-style, in a basement of an apartment complex. The next weekend—” Yada, yada, yada. Take it from a gun blogger: there’s always gun news. To say that a particular time period is “filled with guns” is both true, misleading and revealing. After all . . .

Tens of millions of American gun owners spent the last month doing a whole bunch of non-gun stuff—working, playing, raising kids, paying the bills, going to church, doing the horizontal mambo, etc.—without shooting themselves or anyone else. But Gerney, the ex-head of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns (2006 – 2011), lives in a different world than you and me.

According to his blog post, Arkadi Gerney‘s journey into the heart of disarmament darkness began when he was eight, after his father died of colon cancer. Two years later, Gerney’s mother suffered a cataclysmic accident.

During this time, my mother got to know many doctors, among them an orthopedist named Peter Rizzo. He and my mother started dating in September, 1986. Peter was a father of three college-aged children. His first marriage ended in an annulment. He was a devout Catholic and, like my mother, he enjoyed enjoying—food, drink, and conversation. He was a kind, generous man with a great breadth and depth of friendships. And I hated him.

I hated him for the obvious reasons. I’d lost my father. I’d almost lost my mother. I wanted all my mother’s love and I feared that too much of it might be diverted to this man. I can clearly remember moments at night, trying to fall asleep under a big poster of Don Mattingly, when I wished Peter dead.

A few times that fall, I pleaded with my mother: Promise not to marry him, at least not for a year. But they were in love. By February, they had plans to marry—and then came the gun.

Notice that Gerney foreshadows the tragedy to follow by ascribing it to a physical object. He is, literally, objectifying what happens next.

Peter was the chairman of the medical board of the New York City Fire Department’s pension fund. He and two other doctors were responsible for assessing disability claims. On February 5, 1987, he was at a pension-board meeting when Peter McNamee, a retired firefighter with a deferred claim, came to the meeting with a gun.

Peter McNamee shot Peter in the head with a sawed-off .22-calibre rifle. Peter was rushed to St. Vincent’s Hospital, where he died the next day. There was a funeral at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, with the full F.D.N.Y. treatment. Hundreds of firefighters. Bagpipes. Fire trucks. If you remember all those funerals after 9/11, you know what it looked like.

In the days and weeks that followed his death, my mother told me many times that she loved me and that it wasn’t my fault. My mother was fifty when Peter was murdered. She never remarried. She never even dated again.

Why would Gerney’s mother tell her son that her fiance’s murder wasn’t his fault? Of course it wasn’t his fault. As the father of a [nearly] ten-year-old, having parented three other children through that age, I’m thinking Gerney isn’t being honest.

The “I blamed myself” interpretation is most likely something Gerney picked-up in therapy. Given the intro to the story and the MAIG man’s line of work, I reckon Gerney doesn’t blame himself for the shooting. He blames the gun.

And how. Gerney’s anti-gun jihad is based entirely on the idea that fewer guns equals less crime. Less tragedy. Less heartbreak and sorrow. Which means no guns equals no tragedy. No heartbreak. No sorrow.

The idea that more guns equals less crime is beyond Gerney’s ken. It would force him to consider the possibility that his aspiring step-father—whom his mother worshipped—bore responsibility for his own defense, or lack thereof.

I believe people are genetically wired to see the world in a particular way. Gerney is one of those “black and white” kinda people. Just as his not-step-father was a “pure” victim, anyone who supports the right to keep and bear arms is a bad guy.

When you see the world in binary terms, you don’t mind getting your hands dirty. Why not? Greater good and all that.

In 2009, I led a gun-show investigation of illegal sales at gun shows, which involved so-called private sellers—people who maintain that they only occasionally sell guns. Under current federal law, these unlicensed private sellers can sell guns with no questions asked. Our 2009 investigation found that nineteen of thirty private sellers would sell guns even to buyers who said they “probably couldn’t pass a background check”—which would indicate to the seller that buyer was likely a felon or other prohibited buyer. (Closing this “private sale” loophole was the subject of the bill the Senate rejected in April.)

See what he did there? “Probably couldn’t pass a check.” Entrapment much? Not to mention the fact that Gerney’s infamous “investigation” was illegal (Gerney was an out-of-state buyer).

There’s both zealotry and irony here. By his own admission, Gerney didn’t tell the truth about his background when applying for his position with the Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

I never told anyone I worked with in Mayor Bloomberg’s office about the 1987 shooting of Peter Rizzo. It wasn’t a secret, exactly. People who’ve known me well for a long time know about it (though perhaps not the part about me wishing him dead).

I could have told the man who would become my boss, John Feinblatt, when I interviewed for the job. John is Mayor Bloomberg’s chief policy adviser and the original architect of the gun initiative. But bringing up the shooting when I interviewed didn’t seem right. I thought it would be cheap—exploitive, even.

And, honestly, I was interested in the job because it was an opportunity to play the lead role in helping to build a new national initiative, almost regardless of what that issue was. What happened to Peter Rizzo didn’t play a big role in my choice to do the job (or if it did, I didn’t quite realize it at the time).

That’s some screwed-up logic: the shooting that triggered my desire to promote civilian disarmament wasn’t important when I started working for America’s wealthiest gun grabber, and if it was I didn’t think so at the time. But it is now. I think.

I think it’s safe to say that Gerney’s inner life is a maelstrom of unexamined conflict and repressed emotions. But that’s what you get whenever you scratch the surface of a person who wants to deny someone else their natural, human, civil and Constitutional right to armed self-defense.

Zack did a full review of the Raven Concealment Vanguard 2 for his Glock 19 back in October. He an appendix carry devotee, and figures this deep concealment option is pretty much the bee’s knees. Now that Raven’s expanded the V2 line to include M&Ps, he’s busted out the video camera for an update. So pop some popcorn and hit play.

Leave it to Donny Deutsch to distill the entire mindset of the Gun Control Industrial Complex into a simple phrase. “Technology equals terrorism.” The thrust of those pushing for more Second Amendment restrictions, and Democrats in general, is, after all, control. They want the .gov to have a say in every aspect of our lives, from telling us where to go to school (fighting school voucher programs), to what to think (Department of Education, standardized testing) and even what size soda you can purchase (thanks Mayor Mike!). But the result of technological advancement is, more often that not, a weakening of centralized oversight. It allows an individual, in the privacy of their own home, to create their own news website, publish videos expressing their opinions, or print objects without the government being able to see what they’re doing. The specter of that kind of freedom, with a lack of government dominion über alles, drives the Donny Deutsches insane. And I love it.