Category: Guns

Belated Birthday

I seemed to have missed out on the fact that 7-7-07 was an important anniversary in firearms history.  It makes the 60th birthday of the AK-47:

7/7/2007 9:35:24 AM Almost a household name and the largest selling automatic rifle in the world, the AK 47 assault rifle is 60 years old and getting younger. The world’s deadliest automatic rifle sought after by guerrillas and several armies in the world is named after its designer Mikhail Kalashnikov and is estimated to have sold in excess of 100 million in the last 60 years. The Russian army took up the AK 47 in 1947, however, the automatic is now copied and fakes available in many countries. Kalashnikov says he is not to be blamed for all the bloodshed his invention has spread but rather accuses politicians who are unable to resolve problems without the use of arms. However, Kalashnikov said he was saddened by the unfortunate popularity of the weapon amongst gangsters. Kalashnikov was part of celebrations in Moscow to commemorate the 60th year of the AK 47.

You have to scroll down to the bottom.

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Romney’s Son Gets Grilled on 2nd Amendment

Mitt Romney’s son apparently got asked a tough question last week:

“Your dad recently joined the NRA, didn’t he?” Mac McWilliams asked during the Sangamon County Republican organization’s breakfast.Romney’s son said yes, his father had joined the NRA earlier this year.

“Well then, has his position changed on banning assault weapons?  Because I found that as governor of Massachusetts, he signed a ban into law in 2004,” McWilliams said.

Now, to be clear, the 2004 law Romney signed wasn’t exactly a new ban on assault weapons, it was preserving some definitions in the federal ban that kept certain rifles exempted (Bitter knows more about the specifics than I do).  But you’d expect Romney would have his staffers and son prepared to deal with questions like this.   Nope:

When asked about the ban, Romney’s Illinois campaign chairman State Sen. Dan Rutherford intervened and reminded the audience of his own support of the Second Amendment.

“I wasn’t sure what Rutherford’s views had to do with Romney’s position, but I knew that question time was over,” McWilliams said.

Doesn’t sound like he got his answer.  Romney is a rank political opportunist, and you’d think he’d at least have his folks drilled on how to spin his record to appease gun owners.  Mitt Romney is presenting himself, at least to me, as the Republican version of John Kerry.  Or maybe John Edwards.  Kerry really is a lifelong hunter, unlike Mitt.

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Something’s Wrong With This Picture

From the Star Ledger:

A routine traffic stop for a noise violation led to the arrest of a sus pected drug dealer who had a loaded AK-47 assault rifle on the back seat of his car, Jersey City police said.

How could that be? They are illegal in New Jersey. Long ago, Jim Florio rid New Jersey of AK-47s once and for all. Of course, this isn’t news, except then they say this:

A search of the vehicle turned up the loaded assault rifle as well as 52 rounds of .22-caliber ammuni tion and a bag of cocaine, police reports said.

An AK-47 doesn’t take anything close to .22 caliber ammunition. Or wasn’t an assault rifle? Maybe it was a tube fed .22 that holds more than 15 rounds? Who knows. This is the media. The details don’t matter. Neither does getting the facts straight.

UPDATE: Here’s more details from The Jersey Journal:

Sternes was taken out of the car without incident, and then a search of the vehicle turned up the loaded assault rifle as well as 52 rounds of .22 caliber ammunition and a bag of cocaine, reports said.

Further investigation turned up a .22 caliber revolver stashed behind a garbage bin at the Holland Gardens public housing complex. Police believe it was a “community gun” used by Sternes and others to commit street crimes, and are trying to determine if the weapon is linked to criminal activity, reports said.

Sternes spent three years in prison after a 2002 conviction on drug charges, state Department of Corrections records show.

“This incident not only underscores the reality that routine police stops rarely are just routine any longer, but the availability of dangerous weapons has reached epidemic proportions,” Mayor Jerramiah Healy said in a statement. “I mean, an AK-47 on the streets, it’s ridiculous.”

Epidemic proportions?  But… but… but… they are illegal.  Either way, I doubt that it’s anything close to an epidemic.  If a routine seizure is enough to make the news, that would seem to indicate that finding assault weapons in a traffic stop is rare.  Had it been a pistol, no one would care.  That kind of thing happens all the time.

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More Ammo Supply?

Looks like General Dynamics just won a $44 million dollar small arms ammunition contract.  I’m hoping this means they will be able to add production capacity, and can help keep the price of 5.56x45mm NATO down to a reasonable level.  Lately, I’m trying not to shoot so much of it because of the price, and I hate that.

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How to Spot a Hidden Handgun

Conservative Scalawag links to a guide written for the NYPD on [how to spot a concealed pistol]*.   Take a look.  I have to admit, about keeping the hand close to the shirt, and not swinging the other arm, I do that.  I have to keep the shirt from blowing open.   I do that even when I’m not carrying, just out of habit.  The rest of the things they mention can be solved by using a quality holster.   Studies have shown that bad guys almost universally don’t carry in holsters; just stuffing it in their waistband.   I don’t get this.  Why don’t criminals use a holster?

* Dead link removed

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Typical Philadelphia

Dave Hardy tells us about a new program in Philadelphia.   Waive your fourth amendment rights to let police search for guns, and don’t get charged.

What’s wrong with this program?  Well, it’s not a crime to possess a firearm in Pennsylvania unless you’ve been convicted of a list of enumerated state and federal offenses, or you’re a juvenile.   If gun crime, which everyone admits is generally committed by multiple offenders, is a real problem in the City of Philadelphia, wouldn’t it make more sense to forget about the gun, and get the person who shouldn’t have one off the streets instead?   In the city’s flawed thinking, it is the gun that must be hauled off, and the criminal, well, they can stay on the streets so they can buy another gun, and keep committing crimes.

But we need one-gun-a-month because our gun laws aren’t working.  The city politicians are aptly demonstrating exactly why they aren’t working: they aren’t being enforced.

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The NRA Range Does Indeed Rock

Got back from the NRA range.  It is quite impressive.   I like being able to shoot at 50 yards indoor.  I love the electronic controls that let you put the target out with accuracy down to the foot as well.  They allow you to shoot from holster, and the tables move out the way to accommodate sitting or prone positions.

I wasn’t shooting too well, but I found out at least that my SKS works.  That is, after I figured out why the action wouldn’t cycle to load the next round.  The knob on the front of the gas block has to go sideways.  I’m guessing for grenade launching, you don’t want the gases escaping, so the knob can turn off the gas system.   The SKS shoots great though once I got into it.

I did a little practice for the e-postal match.  Only did a paltry 28 out of 91 with the Glock, and 46 out of 91 with the Mk.III.  Still need work.  The good news is I don’t suck as much as one handed shooting as I remember, at least with the Glock.

The only downside to the NRA range is that it’s crowded.  I don’t shoot as well when I’m surrounded by distractions.  The guy next to me had his M1 Garand malfunction and started doing double and triple shots.  I’m getting too spoiled shooting on my private club range, where I usually have it to myself.  But the NRA has much much better facilities than anywhere else I’ve been.  I will definitely have to come back.

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Virginia Restaurant Law

One thing I hate about carrying in Virginia is the stupid restaurant ban.  You can’t carry into any place that’s licensed to serve alcohol while concealing your weapon, even if you don’t intend to order a drink.  If you want, you can go all VCDL and unconceal it, but I’m pretty sure that would get me kicked out of a lot of the restaurants in Alexandria.

Contrast to Pennsylvania where you can carry into restaurants and bars.  You can even belly up to the bar and order a beer while carrying.  Not that I recommend carrying while intoxicated, but the law makes the presumption that people are going to be reasonable; I like that.

So how about it Virginia?   Can we get rid of this crap?   Probably not, because the meme will be “The NRA and VCDL want drunks to carry.” which is crap, but that’ll be the meme.   There’s also the fools at the other NRA, the National Restaurant Association, who will come out against it.  So perhaps we can at least restructure the law here.   How about off limits violations are a summary offense rather than the current penalty, which I believe is carrying without a license?   Or go the Missouri route, and make violation no penalty at all, but getting caught more than once puts your license at risk.   To me, these all seem to be reasonable alternatives if you can’t outright eliminate the restaurant ban.

Virginia’s carry laws are pretty good except for the restaurant thing.   Certainly better than a lot of other southern states, who have overly restrictive off-limits places.  Tennessee, for instance, bans carry in all parks and National and State Forests, which seems highly silly.  Or Georgia, which has a general public gathering exception.  Or the various southern states which prohibit carry into polling places.  Come on guys, you can’t let a bunch of damned Yankees beat you on this one ;)

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Understand the Law

I feel bad for this woman from Tennnesse who was arrested in Chicago for carrrying a gun with a TN license, being apparently unaware that Chicago’s laws were any different. I think the Chicago DA did the right thing in charging her with three misdemeanor counts rather than a felony count; this isn’t someone to throw the book at.

Still, I have to wonder, even if you were under the delusion that your Tennessee permit were valid in Chicago, why would you put your gun toting purse on an x-ray belt? I wouldn’t even do that back home in Pennsylvania, even if it was a place I had a legal right to be armed. Oh yeah, and if I, um, carried my gun in a purse.

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