A new gun range in Oklahoma City slated to open this spring is aiming to be quite a bit different than anything else in the state. Wilshire Gun will be a state of the art facility that plans to have 24 firearm lanes, 10 archery lanes, a simulation room, classrooms, and a VIP lounge. But what’s raising eyebrows is the plans to have a cafe that will serve both food and alcohol. There are a few other ranges across the country that have a similar offering, but they’re still pretty rare. Co-owner Jeff Swanson said they’re working with some of those other ranges, who have never had a problem, to make sure Wilshire does it right. The goal is to make sure people shoot, then drink, not the reverse. The main aspect of the system to ensure that . . .
is that anyone who orders a drink has their driver’s license scanned, and that red flags them from entering the ranges as either a spectator or a shooter for the remainder of that day. The City Planning Commission voted 7-2 to allow the plan to go forward, and it will go before the Oklahoma City Council on May 27th. Here’s hoping the politicians are able to think rationally about this, because I’m a fan of letting adults act like adults.
Some rat bastard robbed a youth sports club in Crossville, TN last Sunday night, nabbing more than $3,000 in equipment and cash in the late night break-in. The goblins ransacked a safe (which looks more like a locker to me) at the Fairfield Glade Sportsman’s Club that contained 8 rifles, including a custom, one-of-a-kind rifle that was supposed to be auctioned off to raise funds for the youth shooting club. Also taken was a case of shotgun shells and a bank bag containing about $500 in cash. Cumberland County Sheriffs have already made a couple of arrests and recovered some of the ammunition, but the guns, including the presentation piece, are still in the wind. If you’re in eastern Tennessee and know anyone who suddenly ended up with an American flag-patterned shotgun by Ballistic Specialties, you might want to let someone know.
Remember the huge backlog of background check requests in Maryland last year, and how some dealers were actually following state law, which requires the releasing of purchased firearms after a week regardless of whether the background check was done or not? That backlog at one point reached over 60,000, and only last week was finally completely cleared. As it turns out, more than 300 people that are legally banned from owning guns obtained them last year during the rush. A total of 51,812 guns were released without a check in total, and of those, 364 should not have been released. (That’s a 0.7% error rate, for those who don’t want to do the math.) Maryland State Police say a team of undercover troopers has now recovered all but four of them. Of the 354 people who bought guns they were barred from opening, only nine have been referred to prosecutors as knowingly illegal sales. “They’re just not seeing that clear intent to be fraudulent,” said State Police spokesman Greg Shipley.
Apparently some firefighters in Hanover, Virginia don’t watch Mythbusters. The Richmond Times-Dispatch has a brief story that firefighters were battling a fully involved house fire in Mechanicsville on Friday when “hundreds of rounds” of ammunition inside the house started to pop off from the heat. According to Hanover Fire & EMS Battalion Chief William Jones, firefighters fled the house when the ammunition went off. No one was injured by the ammunition cooking off. I’m not going to second guess them too hard, though, because firemen routinely don’t hesitate to run into situations in which they have no idea what they’re going to encounter, so discretion seems to be the wise choice, especially when the structure is already fully involved.
MattV2099 brings us his “World’s Best Gun Fails.” Even if you don’t enjoy his “Guns & Food” schtick, it’s still pretty funny to see when he screws up and accidentally covers himself in paint, or tomato juice, or honey, or soda, or… y’know, you think he’d eventually learn how to do this stuff without wearing his work.
Doing an entire bit into the wrong camera was pretty funny, too.
On this week’s episode of Guns I’ve Never Heard Of, hickok45 takes us on an extended tour of the Sphinx SDP 9mm pistol, made in Switzerland and imported by KRISS.
That two-tone 3000 model sure is handsome. And $3,000. That price probably accounts for the handsome.