The owner of a gun store (not shown) in the Parkdale Mall in Beaumont, Texas was arrested last week on charges of disturbing the peace after he was seen walking through the mall toward his store, Golden Triangle Tactical, with an AR-15 slung barrel down over his shoulder. Open carry of long guns is legal in the state of Texas. Police stopped him on December 28th after receiving calls from shoppers who said they were “very afraid” and “terrified” at seeing the weapon. He was not arrested at that time, but the weapon was confiscated. A warrant for his arrest was issued later that week, and he turned himself in on the misdemeanor charge Friday morning. The gun will remain in police custody until the case is settled.
Fox News reports that gun control groups spent $14.1 million on TV ads compared to just $1.9 million for gun rights groups, with most of the larger figure ($12 million) coming from Bloomberg and MAIG, and had this quote from Tim Graham of the Media Research Center: “The media assumed their ‘news’ blitz and an anti-gun ad blitz would carry the day. They couldn’t imagine grass-roots groups like the NRA would beat AstroTurf billionaires like Bloomberg. Money matters, but the gun controllers keep learning that the passion in ‘Flyover Country’ for the constitutional right to bear arms burns up the phone lines and melts down the e-mail servers.” Damn right.
With Democratic legislators in Colorado feeling burned by the reaction to their gun control legislation, civilian disarmament supporters are taking their efforts straight to the voters. A group of gun control supporters have received permission to start gathering signatures for a voter ballot measure to ban concealed weapons on public college campuses. Colorado is one of only two states (with Utah) that allow concealed weapons on public college campuses. Folks on both sides of the issue are confident that the voters will see things their way, so we’ll just have to wait and see.
A year after the passage of the NY SAFE Act, Division of Criminal Justice Services data showed 1,291 charges under the new gun law, of which 1,155 were for felony firearm possession, formerly just a misdemeanor. 1,041 of those cases were from New York City. Separate from those, 17,751 people were charged last year with misdemeanor weapon possession, with nearly 90% of that number coming out of New York City. Clearly, their policies are working.
If you want your own personal silencer, but don’t want to go through the hassle of dealing with the ATF, you don’t need a solvent trap or some other shadetree engineering solution. Just use a squash. That’s what a man in Charleston, South Carolina did recently. Security camera footage shows him firing two shots at the building from a gun with a squash on the end of it, then throwing a cinder block through the window and making off with the lottery ticket case. I never thought about it, and I’m certainly not going to try it, but I can’t imagine a squash would have any real effect on the sound of the gunshot. Especially not the second shot. [H/T: ENDO] [Due to the content of this story, I want to give a shout out to NSA Agent Mary Costa. Mary will be monitoring this thread for the next 24 hours. Mary enjoys hiking, cooking and tennis. She likes long walks on the beach at night and is looking for that special someone to share her BDSM dungeon with. Everyone wave to Mary!]
In a happy coincidence, we get two helicopter videos today. First was Kirsten’s Moving Target Challenge, and now it’s Richard Ryan with a Dillon Minigun mounted in a Huey. Fullscreen and hi-res it. If it takes a minute to buffer, it’s worth the wait. The slow-mo shots of that Huey just a couple dozen feet off the ground are spectacular.
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Where’s the mag for the SCAR 17?
There are already polymer magazines for that. Check out Molon Labe Industries.
They even have 25-rounders, as well as 5, 10, 15, and 20 rounders.
You’re welcome.
I ain’t payin’ a $200 tax for no squash. No how, no way. A rutabaga? Maybe. But not a squash.
Ralph, I’m your man. I’m putting in an early garden this year and I’ll lay out some space for your choice of root vegetable. Just let me know what you are looking for. Personally, I think someone should try using beets as a silencer. Maybe on some old, long barreled Makarov. Hell, maybe even on an AK. Russians have been using beets for everything for centuries… You never know.
Don’t even think about doing anything for Ralph involving food unless and until he gives up the recipe to his cornbread sage stuffing.
Done. I got your back on that one.
Vegetable-based Accessories: Once as a consolation for a very bad day we were invited to eat dinner at the relatively fine restaurant MACV ran in Quang Tri. Among our hosts was an SAS guy. As we were leaving he felt we deserved yet more, so he told us “if you ever need a suppressor and you don’t have one, a potato will suffice.” So there’s some tradition involved. As we lifted off from their helipad it occurred to me that I should quickly have asked “baked or raw?” So would one of you with a backyard private range perhaps find the answer for me?
I assume raw is the answer. It wouldn”t have been much of a tip if a recipe was required. I do have faith, though, that a large raw baking potato with good moisture content will work better than a rutabaga or squash.
I’ve tried the raw potato trick. The result was a total mess, and a loud one at that.
A two liter plastic soda bottle works better.
Closed up tight with a mostly hollow and stringy center I’d go with the squash. Maybe a butternut or acorn cause its got that nice big bell bottom to get onto a rifle. I swear I don’t have a backyard range nor potatoes and squashes I’ve grown this year, and would never try anything like this, Mary. Pinkie swear. But if a, ahem, neighbor tries this lil experiment, I’ll offer feedback.
That aside about NSA Agent Mary Costa is ripped word for word from a comment on an article about the Rolling Stone Boston Bomber cover, from July 17th 2013.
It obvious bore repeating, as it is hilarious.
Aha! I knew I copied it down from somewhere, but I couldn’t remember where. I actually thought I snagged it from arfcom somewhere. I was reading that blog heavily at the time, because their coverage of the Zimmerman trial was outstanding. I knew it was good when I read it, and that it’d come in handy someday.
Ask him why the screwed up my Dec 2012 P-mag order so frequently I cancelled in disgust. I’ll NEVER do business with these guys.
Also, their website does suck.
hola Mary. Me llamo Dirk Diggler. dar me un beso.
you know maria like its when you say porfa 🙂
Huh, wonder how this one made it by the censors…..
And here I thought only CIA employed Dommes. Heah Mary do you know Tyler?
“have received permission to start gathering signatures”
The fact that their petition is about gun control aside, does it bother anyone else that you need permission to send out a petition in the first place?
Good article (here). The issue is probably too complicated with confounding variables to draw conclusions from statistics alone.
But when there’s someone breaking in your house, would you rather have a phone or a phone + a gun? I don’t tell other people they need to play the odds a certain way with their life, I’d appreciate if they’d let me run my own numbers.
^ This.
Society is for all intents and purposes infinitely complex. And the variables that affect crime rates are almost infinitely complex. The only way anyone can claim that statistics prove something is if they are omniscient (all knowing — in other words God himself). Last time I checked, no one was omniscient.
While statistics give us a clear sense of what is happening, they can only tell us what causes something to happen in an exceedingly simple environment and society is NOT exceedingly simple. Anyone who tells you otherwise is proud and arrogant.
In the end every citizen has the Natural right to honestly procure and possess any personal property that he/she desires, period. That right is not subject to anyone’s approval, period. We need to stop arguing with the gun grabbers about “data”, “needs”, or “consensus”. Simply state your rights and stand behind them.
I own one of these and mine works fine. I am adding the laser at this time. I saw one of these in Turkey where the Army and Police use it. I tried the KSG and it works and is more compact then the UTAS. The KSG is heavy which could have some advantages…if you want to use it as a club. The UTAS has a higher percentage of polymer (non-metallic) elements. This gun has some delightful ergonomic advantages besides the higher capacity. In confined space or limited line of sight situations, it is faster to acquire a target. The drum designs I have tried have one glaring problem…the drum hangs up on things like brush and obstacles especially while you are moving and focused on the objective you are targeting. I agree with Skeeter and Dave. I consider this and the KSG as “speciality application” weapons. It is not a “Swiss Army Knife”. I own several shotguns. They each have application specific advantages.
http://static1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100624001723/dragcave/images/7/7f/I-am-monitoring-this-thread.jpg
Hi Mary, I’m Mojo-its-only-kinky-the-first-time-Ronin.
Kinky, you use the feathers. Perverted, you use the whole chicken.
I see a lot of people bashing brownells, but I can’t say I have ever had any problems go unresolved with them. The only two minor issues I have had were my December 2012 PMAG order took like 7 months to get, but that wasn’t really their fault. The market just got so overwhelmed at that time that it was going to happen no matter who I went with. The other issue I have had was one time their checkout cracked out on me and didn’t take off the shipping charge like it indicated. I sent them an email and within 24 hours they had credited back that amount to my card. All in all, I am happy with them.
How can they say Airsoft guns are illegal when they sell it all over the boardwalk in Atlantic City without license needed? On top of that, I just recently bought two Airsoft guns and no license were required from me when I purchased them.
I don’t get it.
Recoil absorbers have been out there for a while.
I believe Mako makes an adapter for AKs that is recoil absorbant and an ar stock that is also absorbant you can add as well not to mention knoxx and mesa tactical.
Why modify the gun when you can just switch out the stock?
Besides, semiautos are less punchy with recoil due to the gass system in the first place.
Sorry, don’t see the point.
I always thought the government could not seize your property without compensation. I guess the US Constitution no longer applies in “The Constitution State “. I do know the state police were buried with last minute mail ins. They got over 5000 certified letters the last day of registration . The form was messed up,it said to prove you purchased this weapon prior to 4/8/13,submit either/or a copy of bill of sale or a notarized statement saying you purchased it prior. I sent the copy,the state sent it back saying it HAS to be notarized. I spent 40 minutes in line 1-3-14 ( the day after my father died) to get an explanation. They said the form was wrong, it has to be notarized. I had it done and they had no problems with that after I proved I sent it in before the time.
Hi Mary!!
One of the things I appreciate about your reviews is that they’re real reviews. You take equipment from the factory and are willing to pan something if it’s bad.
I can’t wait to get one of these for my 22/45.
Love my Redfields. Quality optics that I feel comfortable with on my go to weapons.
This may be a stupid question from a Brit but what was the Guy open-carrying a rifle in Texas arrested for if its both permitted by your Constitution and legal in Texas, what would the charge be? I know Ive made this point before and your all probably getting bored with it, but what is the point of a formal Constitution incorporating your rights and responsibilities and defining the relationship between citizens and the state if those public servants who have sworn to uphold that Constitution ignore it? When will efforts to undermine and subvert any element of your Constitution become an individual individual criminal offense, with those individuals found guilty getting serious jail time?
The article said the charge was “disturbing the peace,” presumably because it put people all in a tizzy: ‘… shoppers who said they were “very afraid” and “terrified” at seeing the weapon’.
I’m guessing that they are saying he intended to cause a ruckus. It is legal to open carry a rifle in Texas, but the law isn’t as open and shut as that. You cannot brandish the rifle, and you can’t carry it in a way that a reasonable person would be afraid. I think the police are saying that a reasonable person in a shopping mall would be afraid to see a rifle being carried, even slung over the shoulder, because it is not a normal place to be carrying a rifle.
They are probably going to argue that open carry is intended to facilitate hunting and a more rural environment is the expected place to carry a rifle.
I would compare this to the ruling by the Supreme Court of Texas that it is unconstitutional to forbid women to be topless since men can be topless. This was done before the conservatives spent a lot of money to oust almost the entire court and install conservative justices, but last I saw it was still valid law.
Anyway, women can go about topless in Texas legally, so long as they are not doing so for prurient interests. That is, if they want to be topless in an appropriate place like the beach or a lake, they are fine. But if they are topless for the purpose of soliciting sexual responses then they’re in trouble. So, if a woman were to go topless at night on a street filled with bars she would have a hard time convincing a jury that she was not trying to be sexy.
Likewise, it may be hard to convince a jury that carrying a rifle in a crowded mall in Beaumont was not going to to cause alarm to reasonable people.
It will be interesting how this comes out. I can see it going either way.
Great answer, thanks.
Why is it that the women who do go topless for prurient reasons are so often women that nobody really wants to go topless for any reason?
Frack the NRA. They received $10 million from midwayusa round up alone. Seriously they do not have interest…just want the money.
Well, he’s half right.
He spends the entire post making an effective argument against those that would claim the “militia” part of the 2A to hold supremacy, that is, those who would say that it applies to those in the military or organized militia. But then, with that quote at the very end of the piece, he still indicates a fundamental misunderstanding.
Oh well, I’ve never heard of him or thefederalist.com until today, so I don’t figure his influence will be too greatly felt.
Dan Payne’s writings can best be described in Merriam-Websters Dictionary:
Full Definition of IDIOCY
1, usually offensive : extreme mental retardation
2, something notably stupid or foolish
Uhg, yet another carbine length gas system AR15.
I purchased the Shield 9mm as my new CCW before the holidays so Ive had plenty of time to get a true feel for it. Ive got to say I am definitely not disappointed in my selection. Out of the box it was a very good choice but placing an Apex trigger kit along with some new HiViz sites on this gun make it great. I started off at the 15yd range and it was deadly accurate with a very smooth trigger pull and a tight pattern at speed. I moved to the 20-25yd target and it was still right on. Of course I took a little more time in-between rounds. After a whole lot of rounds during my time off it has had no problems. As far as comfort in carrying, I just put it in a Remora holster in the middle of my back and barely know its there. Great gun for a CCW!
With the popularity of games like Fallout and shows like The Walking Dead, I can see the strategy behind the ads. It’s a vision of a future that none of us want to see, but many of us feel is very possible.
You know what kind of ad I’d like to see? I’d like to see everyday men and women using a gun for ordinary purposes. Take the fringe element out of it completely.
Start with a man waking up his son early in the morning, still dark out. He then safety-checks two shotguns and loads them into the SUV as they head out duck hunting. Now the two of them sitting in a blind, wearing proper eye and ear protection, the father points something out to his son who raises his gun and fires. We can see the look of excitement on the boy’s face, and the look of pride on his father’s. Fade to black. Remington.
A man and his girlfriend are out at the local gun range, both wearing proper eye and ear protection, she is holding a sub-compact semiautomatic handgun and looking a bit apprehensive. He gently walks her through the process. “Align the sites with the target and slowly squeeze the trigger.” She finally fires and we hear the distinctive plink of a steel plate. A huge smile spreads across her face and she looks to him and says “Did you see that? I hit it!”
Transition to another range where a competitive shooter is lighting up a course with her performance tuned 1911. She finishes her run, and holsters her weapon. She looks toward the time keeper, who calls out her time. She celebrates as those around her applaud.
Move to a night time scene on the side of a busy city street. A sedan is parked, with a couple of police patrol cars behind it. Two or three officers are there having a discussion, semiautomatic handguns displayed prominently on their hips.
Finally, a couple lie sleeping in their bedroom, when a large crash is heard. The man looks to his wife, fear apparent on her face. He reaches into his bedside stand and produces a revolver. Fade to black. Smith & Wesson.
thanks Robert
Ask this clown if the first amendment has reasonable restrictions or not. Or if it should. And who should come up with the reasonable restrictions.
The Ring Wraiths got an upgrade!
They hate us because we hate those that would disarm/neuter the general population. We can’t beat them in the polls, headlines or common-sense debates because they refuse to be honest or logical. Solution: take somebody new to the gun range. Be informative, patient and encouraging. Every person you turn dispels the myth, and some will even join our ranks. I’m hoping to introduce a Brit/Am in the next few weeks.
Kinda makes you wonder what’s lurking in forgotten corners of armories all over this country, don’t it?