Clicky

CLOSE
Authors Posts by Editor

Editor

295 POSTS 0 COMMENTS

by -
0 418

Gun control advocates are desperate to find some way to keep us all safe by saying guns are the problem. They lobby for laws to keep guns out of our hands, and, when those fail, they try to keep us all safe from guns by creating “smartguns” which have computerized lockouts.

Now, we can argue about whether smartguns are a good idea, whether it’s to protect young children from accidental discharges (a good thing) or as some kind of supposed deterrent to keep criminals from stealing guns to use in other illegal activities. The problem with either of these lines of thought is the idea that smartguns can actually protect people by preventing a discharge.

But that is not the case. An ammoland article notes,

According to an article in Wired magazine, the $1,800 .22 LR pistol that made such a splash with gun controllers upon its debut is easily hacked. It can be activated (or deactivated) at distance from authorized users. Its locking mechanism can be defeated by holding magnets, that anyone can buy online, against the slide. And the equipment to do these things is readily available and costs less than a trip to the movies.

The hacker profiled in the article – who goes by the pseudonym Plore – told Wired, “I was confident I’d be able to break it … I didn’t think it would be so easy.”

Look, the fact of the matter is (and any hacker worth their salt will tell you), any security can be hacked, and it’s usually a lot simpler than people think. In many cases, it’s simply knowing how to trick people into giving the hacker the information that they want. In this case, it’s simply using two magnets to make the gun fire, making the “smart technology” meaningless. Here is a video about the Wired magazine story:

It simply comes down to this: gun safety still comes down to knowledge about safe usage of firearms and this only comes through knowledge, training, and firearm usage, and nothing else will work.

by -
13 507

The mainstream media is overwhelming anti-2nd Amendment. These people (who overwhelmingly live in urban areas and have likely never actually handled a firearm) keep trying to shove their anti-gun rhetoric down our collective throats even though it’s based on nothing but nonsense.

A perfect example is the recent coverage of Chicago. Of course, shooting deaths in Chicago are still ridiculously high even though they have some of the most restrictive gun control laws in the nation. The mainstream media, in this case, Aidan Quigley writing for Newsweek, goes out of the way to snub President Trump about their gun problems. Quigley quoted Chicago mayor (and former Obama White House Chief of Staff) Rahm Emanuel’s spokesman, Adam Collins, who said,

“Anytime the president wants to drop his political rhetoric and actually partner with our police officers to build on the 14 percent reduction in shootings they’ve achieved this year, we’ll be ready.”

Collins couldn’t be saying that Trump hasn’t been helpful with the Chicago gun problem, could he? Of course, when last year saw the most gun homicides in 19 years (according to CNN), it’s not hard to bring the number down some, is it?

And, yet, even with this decrease, the Chicago Tribune noted that, in the first half of 2017, over 90% of homicides in Chicago were gun related while in New York City, that number was 49%.

Could the reality simply be that all those years of corrupt politicians in Chicago, who (coincidentally?) have been anti-gunners, are really the source of the problem. Maybe it’s people like Rahm Emanuel who arrogantly think that they are the only ones who should be able to protect themselves with guns. Certainly, Chicago Guns Matter founder Rhonda Ezell thinks this is the case. She said,

The mayor walks around every day with armed security paid for by the taxpayers of Chicago, yet he doesn’t want you to go to a gun range and be efficient with the firearm you choose to have in your home for the safety of you or your loved ones.”

 She nailed that one on the head.

by -
17 591

How many times will anti-gun organizations lie about guns and gun control before the mainstream media and and other anti-gunners begin to see the truth. It’s almost as if the truth isn’t what is important to them (there’s something to thing about…).

Here is another example to elevate your blood pressure. Everytown for Gun Safety is another inappropriately named anti-gun organization (because we know that gun-free zones are the places where the worst shootings occur. Chicago, anyone?). Being funded by anti-gun former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg should be enough evidence for anyone. But let’s look deeper, shall we?

One Facebook post from Everytown said, “‘Concealed carry reciprocity’ would force states with strong gun laws to let people from states with weak gun laws carry hidden, loaded handguns in public without meeting the strong states’ standards.” The post then shows a picture of Maryland with the caption “Stops convicted stalkers from carrying loaded, hidden handguns in public” along with a picture of neighboring West Virginia with the caption “Does not.”

A writer going by “J. KB” has a very nice succinct analysis of Everytown’s deceptive post:

First of all, Maryland’s permits are may issue and has a “good and substantial reason” to carry a gun and honors no out of state permits.  West Virginia has constitutional carry, but still has to abide by federal law.  So any person convicted of domestic violence or under a restraining order is a prohibited person and can’t poses a gun, let alone carry one in public.  You wound’t know that from Everytown’s post.

Everytown’s silly post about Maryland and West Virginia is only the beginning. They’ve also posted deceptive (and inaccurate) comparisons of Georgia and South Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania, and Minnesota and Iowa. All of these posts either lied or deliberately left out information which slanted the comparison towards anti-gunners in the choice of language.

But honesty, like anti-gun organizations everywhere, is not what Everytown wants. What they want is you defenseless because they either want government to control you or because they don’t have the courage to face the reality that the world is a dangerous place and it takes good people willing to do the ugly thing sometimes to prevent bad people from doing even more horrible things. And that is one of the fundamental reasons why we carry.

by -
2 402

As you know, there are a ton of options these days when it comes to concealed carry. You can carry different calibers, different size clips, different types of pistols, and then you have preferences in size of the weapon, weight, and fit to your hand. It can be hard to narrow down your choices to just one firearm, and it would seem to be completely natural to experiment with a few different pistols.

But, maybe, you shouldn’t. Maybe you should pick one that will cover the options that you need and stick with that one firearm for your carrying needs, and there is a simple, straightforward logic to why you should do this: consistent practice makes permanent. And, if you are switching up the firearm that you are practicing with, then you aren’t being consistent. This could be a problem in a high-stress situation. Sheriff Jim Wilson gives us his thoughts on this issue:

When we practice what we’ve learned in training, it becomes a habit, hopefully a good habit. The more you practice, the more the technique, whatever it is, becomes an ingrained process. It is something that can happen without us consciously thinking about it. When your brain says, “I think we need to draw our pistol,” your body follows the command without you having to think through the various movements.

This ability is critical because, during a deadly encounter, our brain has lots of other things to be focused on […].

This is what concerns me when I hear folks talk about having concealed-carry guns in regular rotation. It’s not much of a problem when they are rotating the same kind of gun but that is usually not the case. Different types of guns have different controls.

Sheriff Wilson goes on to say that people should always carry in the same place on the same side of their body. Why? For the very same reason that you need to work with the exact same model firearm for your carrying weapon: in a high-stress situation, you won’t be able to consciously think of where your weapon in and how to use it as quickly and accurately as possible. Your body experiences an adrenaline dump and your ability to carefully think through options is severely hampered. What you have trained repeatedly is what your body will do on autopilot. It is what is in muscle memory, and it is what will be done in this kind of high stress situation.

So, for your safety and for the safety of those you are protecting, find one firearm that you are comfortable with, that does what you need to do, and practice with that weapon over and over and over again. That way, if, God forbid, you get in a fire fight, you’ll be able to do what you need to do to survive it.

by -
3 376

If you concealed carry, then you know about taking the time to think through what you are wearing (part of the point of concealed carry is that you aren’t drawing attention to the fact that you are carrying, isn’t it?). Some clothes will be easier to wear to prevent advertising that you are carrying than others.

You probably also know that you’ve had to tend to shop in gun shops or other specialty stores to find clothing specifically made for carrying, but this may be about to change. It appears that Wal-Mart is, at least, testing the waters to see if it will be profitable for them to carry clothing for gun owners (other than camouflage for hunting). Dean Weingarten writes,

WalMart is carrying a jacket specifically designed for concealed carry. Clothing designed for concealed carry has been available commercially for decades. But most of the shops marketing it were specialty oriented. WalMart may have seen the latest CPRC report. It shows the presence of 16.2 million concealed carry permit holders in the United States. The 16.2 million does not include the populations of the 14 states that do not require a permit to carry concealed pistols. Second Amendment supporters are winning the culture war. From WalMart.com:

Rothco’s Lightweight Concealed Carry Jacket has 2 inner pockets for concealed carry, one on each side, as well as 2 inner mag pockets on each side for ammo. The mirroring pockets on both the left and right, give the jacket a unique ambidextrous feature.

The jacket is a product of Rothco, and comes in Coyote Brown as well as black. The price at WalMart is $60-$78.

I have not examined the Rothco jacket. But its existence in the WalMart inventory is a powerful statement about the normalization of the exercise of Second Amendment rights.

(You can see the jacket at Wal-Mart by clicking here.)

I have to agree with Weingarten that a major retailer carrying clothing specifically for permit holders is a sign of our influence and, hopefully, this is a sign of other retailers to come who realize that 2nd Amendment rights advocates and law-abiding citizens carrying is, again, becoming a normal part of American society and culture, no matter what anti-gunners would have people believe.

by -
12 601

Sixty years ago, some high schools had shooting clubs. Guns were a part of everyday life. Kids grew up around guns.

But not anymore.

These days, many kids are likely to learn what they (think that they) know about guns from Hollywood and from music videos. Gun education has to be sought out instead of having responsible gun owners all around you to teach you the basics. One of the main reasons that gun violence is a problem in our society today is that people aren’t taught about guns or gun safety at any age. They just think that it’s as simply as pointing at someone and pulling the trigger like in a music video.

And it is that easy to do something horrible to someone else. Which means it’s also that easy to ruin your life if you do something stupid with a gun because that’s how the media taught you to use one.

So, the question is: Are you going to teach your kids (and any other kids within earshot) gun safety and, if so, starting at what age?

Well, first of all, use common sense. Keep weapons out of the reach of children. Yes, you want them accessible if you need to use it for self-protection, but keep it where those too young to understand could do something to hurt someone.

Once they are old enough to understand (and this means starting them at four and five years old or younger if the child is mature enough to grasp this), teach them the four rules from the National Rifle Association’s Eddie Eagle program. That is, if a child sees a gun, they are to stop, don’t touch, leave the area, and tell an adult. John Boch quotes a retired FBI agent about this:

“When do you teach kids about guns?  About the same time you teach them about hot stoves, electricity and fire.”

Once those children have the maturity to handle a weapon (and certainly only after some training and a period of supervised usage) should a child be able to ever have access to a gun.

Our children are precious. Protecting them is one of the reasons that we own our guns, but protecting them also means making sure that they know gun safety and that, once they are old enough and mature enough, they know how to properly use them.

by -
6 561

People own pistols for many reasons. Some people want something small to keep around the house for self-defense. Some people want something that they can keep in their car in case they need to grab it quickly. But there’s no question that, for many people, the primary reason to own a pistol is to carry it (whether open or concealed carry).

There are some pistols, though, that just aren’t practical as everyday carry weapons (even if you can find other great uses for them). One of these pistols is a Taurus Judge.

If you’re not familiar with the Judge, it’s a .410-firing pistol. It’s big for a pistol, and the weight can be uncomfortable in a holster for some folks. I will admit to finding them fun to shoot, though.

The biggest concern in my mind about using the Judge for your everyday carry is their lack of stopping power. It’s a shotgun. People often use bird shot in them. John Boch has this to say about the Judge’s stopping power,

Yes, the Judge fires a shotgun shell. I suppose that makes it a shotgun, of sorts. With precious few exceptions, .410 projectiles fired out of handguns simply don’t penetrate tissue deeply enough to quickly and efficiently stop a perp’s progress.

[Salespeople sometimes suggest multiple strikes from buckshot, discs or other projectiles are a viable alternative to adequate projectile penetration. Not so.]

Yes, a.410 slug does penetrate deeply. But it also weighs 90 grains and comes out of the Judge’s muzzle at roughly the same velocity as a .380 Auto round. Imagine a gun store trying to sell someone a .380 that holds five rounds, weighs nearly two pounds loaded and looks bigger than a four-inch version of Dirty Harry Callahan’s heater.

Then there’s the rifling. In some loads, that rifling spreads those buckshot loads all over the place. A portable “street sweeper” might appeal to those who think aiming is over-rated. However, ambulance chasing lawyers will love you if an errant pellet (or ten) injures or kills an innocent.

Yes, you can us The Judge to fire .45 Colt. But if you really like that caliber in a self-defense gun, you can get a six-shooter .45 Long Colt that’s smaller, more accurate, easier to conceal and did I mention holds six rounds instead of five?

So, what should you get for your everyday carry? The answer is going to depend on you, what you’re comfortable with, and your goals for if you have to use it. Certainly, though, a shotgun is not going to be the most practical thing for you to have on your hip at all times. Maybe you should consider something smaller which will do more damage to your target and not throw your back out of alignment as you carry it.

Having said that, though, a Judge is a fun gun to have and a fun gun to shoot. By all means, get one if you like those uses, but get something more practical for your everyday carry.

by -
20 552

I am an unrepentant advocate of the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution. I believe that Americans have the absolute right to carry firearms for their protection, and I advocate being able to carry them at any time and in any place. So, when I see news like this, it concerns me.

The news is that President Trump’s new White House Communications Director, Anthony Scaramucci, has an decidedly un-American viewpoint on firearms, based on his past statements. Now, some will suggest that I’m biased against Scaramucci because he is from New York, which, to many Americans, means that he is too buddy-buddy with anti-gunner Michael Bloomberg.

The fact of the matter is that I don’t care where he is from. What bothers me are things like a post that he made on Twitter on August 6, 2012 [hat tip to here for the source]:

We (the USA) has 5% of the world’s population but 50% of the world’s guns. Enough is enough. It is just common sense it apply more controls

Now, I have to ask, why in the world does he think that “more controls” will make any positive difference in gun violence? Chicago and Washington, D.C.’s crime rates, including gun crime, have been ridiculously high for years (certainly when he wrote that), so how can he conclude that?

(This is also a guy who gushed about liking Hillary. He Tweeted on April 16, 2012: I hope she [Hillary] runs [in 2016], she is incredibly competent[.]”)

To be fair, though, people can change their opinions on issues. For example, Scaramucci posted on Twitter on July 22, 2017 (a week ago at the time of this writing) [hat tip to here for this source]:

Full transparency: I’m deleting old tweets. Past views evolved & shouldn’t be a distraction. I serve @POTUS agenda & that’s all that matters.

I’ll admit that I respect the idea that views can evolve, though I will admit to being rather jaded about politicians in general, so I’m not sure that I completely buy it. Call me cynical.

by -
4 536
Photo: Savage Arms

I don’t know about you, but I love hardwoods. Just the look of them and the feel. There’s just something about it that does me good. When I see it on a gun, it just makes that weapon look all the more beautiful.

So, when I heard that Savage Arms has added a hardwood option to their B series rifles, I knew that I needed to take a look.

Savage Arms, which is a division of Vista Outdoor, introduced their bolt-action (B Series) line last year. Now, if you’re wondering why someone would pick a bolt-action rifle as opposed to a semi-automatic, the reasons generally point toward accuracy and precision. The lack of moving parts in a bolt-action rifle that can hang up, the gas release being used primarily for moving the shell down the barrel instead of partially being used for shell release, and the straight-forward recoil allow many shooters to keep their rifle on the target with a faster-moving bullet more consistently. This all adds up to them being more accurate with their shot.

Savage Arms B Series hardwood model, which is being shipped to retailers at this time, has walnut-stained hardwood stock. Jacki Billings gives more details:

The B Series Hardwood sports a 21-inch Sporter barrel paired with an ergonomic, walnut-stained hardwood stock. The stock features a unique checkering bringing a modern feel to the classic wood look. Chambered in 17 HMR, 22 LR and 22 WMR, the B Series Hardwood also come equipped with Savage’s adjustable AccuTrigger. The long gun is drilled and tapped to accommodate optics mounts. Additional features include adjustable iron sights and top tang safety. The rifle ships with a 10 round rotary magazine.

Savage says consumers should expect to see the B Series soon as the new rifle is currently shipping to dealers. The B Series Hardwood in 22 LR boasts a price tag of $439 while the 17 HMR and 22 WMR offers a MSRP of $459.

So, if you’re in the market for something a little outside the mainstream (but not too far) that can help you to be a more accurate shot (and has the beauty of hardwood, to boot), this may be a rifle to consider.

by -
10 579

It’s long been a talking point of the anti-gun left that gun ownership is really just a Caucasian male thing due to the “violent tendencies” of that particular group. It’s hard to argue that white males make up the majority of gun owners simply based on that fact that many women, unfortunately, tend to shy away from considering violence even for defensive purposes and that there are more Caucasians in the United States than other ethnicities.

But new statistics are challenging the anti-gunner narrative that gun ownership is a racist, sexist thing. Jenn Jacques writes,

According to the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC), the number of concealed handgun permit holders has soared to an impressive 16.3 million law-abiding citizens!

But has that turned America into the “Wild West” as liberals feared?

Not quite.

It’s also interesting that despite the media’s claim the NRA is “racist and sexist”, some of the biggest increases in permits have been with women and African-Americans.

Among the findings in the report, John R. Lott highlights the following points:

  • There are now over 16.3 million permit holders, a record 1.83 million increase in permits since last July.
  • Nationwide, 6.5% adults have a concealed handgun permit. Outside of California and New York, 8% of adults have a permit.
  • Permits for women and blacks are increasing much faster than they are for men and whites.
  • There are also significant differences in not only the number of permits issued but also who gets them when politicians have discretion in granting them.
    • Los Angeles County provides a vivid example of how women and Hispanics are given few permits when politicians decided who can defend themselves.
  • Concealed carry permit holders also continue to be stringently law-abiding.

So, to set the record straight: women and African-Americans are getting more concealed carry permits, and the data is implying (if not outright saying) that where women and minorities feel the most threatened, the government keeps them from getting the protection that they need.

Which leads any sane person to ask, who is really the racist, sexist group in the gun control debate? Answer: the anti-gunners.

Prev123...30Next Page 2 of 30

RANDOM POSTS

0 39
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a controversial organization. People generally either love them or they hate them, and, certainly, many politically conservative...

PreparedGunOwners.com is your source for self-reliance and self defense information for Armed Americans.
Get tactical info, training advice, gear and gun reviews, news and much much more.
Contact us: info@preparedgunowners.com

FEATURED

POPULAR CATEGORIES

© Copyright 2013 - your text