This is pathetic. Poor Africans killing elephants because they need the money and the meat. Poachers turned gamekeepers hunting (and killing) poachers because the gamekeepers need the money. Wildlife officials turning a blind eye—and an open wallet—to the trade. International prohibitions that achieve sweet FA. And an elephant population that continues to plummet. Wikipedia reports that 23 sub-Saharan African countries have legalized trophy hunting. It’s time for Kenya to abandon their ban on trophy hunting and get with the program. Legalized hunting would distribute money and meat more effectively to those who need it, continue to feather the nests of corrupt officials (it is what it is) and protect the elephants from over-predation.
Unfortunately, getting rid of the politicians who wrote these bills is only half the problem. You must now amend or write new legislation to make their efforts mute (worthless). You must also stop these midnight sessions where laws are passed behind the peoples back!
I have some great photos of a couple of herds in Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe. A couple of weeks ago, some poachers poisoned the water holes with cyanide to kill the elephants for their ivory.
Now most of the elephants are dead. Rangers were following the buzzards to find the elephants and get the ivory before the poachers. Word from friends down there is that the poison destroyed the entire ecosystem. Every animal that drank from the water hole is dead.
Guess they aren’t using guns anymore, cause poachers get shot on sight.
Speaking as one who appreciates the grace, beauty, and workmanship of vintage musical instruments, and enjoys repairing, restoring, and replicating them, I also object to the legally mandated destruction of ivory confiscated from poachers. It’s there. It exists. The creatures it came from are already dead. Why not allow this lovely material to be used? White plastic is NOT an acceptable substitute for ivory nuts, saddles, and binding when restoring a nineteenth century New York Martin.
I would have no interest in shooting one myself, but I lived in rural Michigan and the entire economy revolves around money earned from hunters from Oct 1st- November 30th. I can only imagine what could be gained by such a poor area with year round income from hunters.
When I was a kids my grandparents had a bolt action, pump, pellet rifle… I couldn’t tell you how old it was, but it was made of heavy wood and metal that real guns aren’t even made of today.
The first time I put my hands on that rifle the addiction took hold of me… I was so little I couldn’t hardly even work the action or pump it, but I spent the summers in the back woods of their farm shooting that rifle and playing with the old timer pocket knife I got for my 6th birthday.
Today, the gov’t would probably throw me in a home for wayward boys and put me on anti psychotic meds for playing with guns by myself and carrying a pocket knife and they’d put my grandparents under the jail.
Guns and knives were a way of life and right of passage for me growing up.
Anyone who is for hunting a near endangered species of such intelligence such as the elephant has no conscious. I despise those that travel to exotic places just to kill exotic animals. My uncle has done this most his life and during family stuff like xmas I taunt him with a contest of us hunting each other, he declines every year being his game needs to be easy too shoot. He also quit bringing pictures of his travels after I ripped up the last bunch some years ago.
I’m pro-hunting, just not for animals that serve no purpose to hunt. Africans have been starving forever, and now that this amazing yet brutal continent is so overpopulated and more poor, there could be endless amounts of elephants, which there are not, and still it wouldn’t be enough to feed them.
I wish every hunter of exotic game to meet a fate they so well deserve.
Damn! Nigga went full retard at a family gathering. Some folks don’t have enough class to live in a trailer park.
TIL, Nick worked for DHS.
Some of the best data that helps de-bunk gun control arguments comes from the government itself, such as the DOJ Special Report, Firearm Violence 1993-2011, released this past May. Interestingly, if you try to access that report today, http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/fv9311.pdf, see what you get. Another curtailment of service we’re told is due to the shutdown that also happens to be mighty convenient for an administration intent on pushing a gun-control agenda.
Has any domesticated animal ever gone extinct?
The reason that there’s no Republican party in Rhode Island is that the GOP there is highly elitist, but its natural base of conservative voters are what they call “Swamp Yankees” — in other words, hicks.
On top of that, the GOP’s leading financer, a Newport heiress, died a few years ago. So now the GOP has no base and no top.
“We live in a world where people are not bound by the law, and it takes more than law to stop them.”
We have always lived in such a world. Always. If you believe in the Bible, lawbreaking goes back to Adam. Moses got righteously indignant when his peeps broke several of the Ten Commandments on the very day that he received them. For those who are less Biblically inclined, I’ll wager that the very day when a man invented the first law, there was another man breaking it.
That’s why we have guns, no?
Thanks for not doing some strange trendy stance in your video like the guy did in the picture. I was about to cry.
Looks like fun. Lucky dog.
For your list of four iconic firearms, using the definition you’ve set forth, I’d say the Thompson probably tops that list, especially if you show a picture of one to John Q Public that includes the drum magazine. But the list would have to include the Colt Single Action Army, which has to be close to the most iconic gun of all time, no?
The lever-action Winchester rifle (or heck, the Henry). All you have to do is say “Winchester” and everyone knows what you mean — the straight stock, the unmistakable profile of the lever, the slim forend — a firearm that was perfect for its time and purpose, it’s the iconic image of the American West.
“For the ammunition, Tommy gun chose used the .45 ACP cartridge. The U.S. Army had recently chosen John Browning’s Model 1911 handgun as the replacement for their Single Action Army models,”
First sentence might want to get edited a little; reads like a Russian trying to talk to an American in English. Second, the M1911 didn’t directly replace the Colt SAA; the M1911 was designed to replace the Colt M1892 .38 revolver. The Colt M1892 wasn’t the most effective tool against Moro rebels, so some SAAs were brought back. However, the M1911 was designed to replace both. Kind of like how the Makarov replaced the Tokarev and the M1895 Nagant. It wasn’t simply SAA one day and M1911 the next.
I am glad you are now open to the idea that guns are not bad. I wish those who hate guns so much took Dr. Piazza’s from Front Sight offer to take them out and teach them what it feels like to shoot a machine gun and the proper use of weapons.
ST I am happy for you the US Air Force allowed you to shoot an AR-15 so you could see what a great weapon it is. No I am not trying to say the AR is the one and only weapon to own. I am saying I really love shooting my AR.
I found I was having so much fun with guns that I studied to be a gunsmith on my days off. Yes I too carry a concealed weapon and have a federal firearms license (FFL).
Super gun and a delight to shoot! When I was moonlighting at Hunter’s Lodge back in the late 1950s, we were selling lightly DEWATed 1928A1s for $79.95. Unfortunately, my monthly pay as a PFC was $72.
I would add the m1/m2 carbine to the list the 1911 and possibly the m1 and the 03 springfield.
That one gave me a good chuckle. “If not handled expertly?” Plutonium is extremely dangerous if not handled with expertise. The basics of gun safety, on the other hand, are not much more complicated than a PEZ dispenser. Ammo goes in here, you pull this thing, it comes out here at this end. If guns were “extremely dangerous” when handled by non-experts, we wouldn’t allow soldiers or police near them.
That scoped 9mm carbine is the perfect Jackalope rig.
Needs a folding collapsible stock and high cap mags then I will get one.
That stock is so ugly in my opinion. They should have went with something standard that existing AR stocks could be installed on.
This design (and thumb holes in general) have and always will be… bizarre looking. My first mod would be to chop that stock up and do something else with the design.
Giving away my age here, but I went to grade school in Baltimore in the 50’s. D.C. is very close, and we did regular field trips down there. I was maybe 10 years old. We went to the FBI building and they took us to the indoor shooting range. One of the highlights of my young life. So guess what they were shooting? TOMMY GUNS!! The agent giving the tour even shot one off his chin and hit the target to show us how little recoil there was. I had almost forgotten about this until I read this article. And can you imagine anything like this happening on a school tour these days???? Guns actually being fired!!!! Nick, thanks for bringing back those memories.
Write a review sometime on my first shotgun. A J.C. Higgins (Sears brand) 16 gauge bolt action! Pretty good deer gun, actually.
Bit of a box in the middle, but we get used to anything (except the AMC Pacer).
That mid section makes it look heavy, anyone know the Lbs?
Ruger, can’t find
Keltec, same
CX4, Too expensive
High Point, No Way
This one, Maybe if none of the above problems
Wear red — dull crimson; it’ll be absorbed rather than reflect, even more completely than with black.
Neener.
As far as I am aware, the creators of south park are libertarian not liberal. I have a feeling they will poke fun at both sides of the trayvon/zimmerman issue. They usually do that. I really hope they don’t take a blatant Trayvon side.