Thank god for good trigger control, on behalf of the guy that got knocked over.  At 15 seconds he muzzle sweeps his entire team before he gets up and joins them.

It was pretty awesome when just as the SUV was driving away to yank the wall off, a lady opened the door, only to have it slam shut and hit the ground with the entire wall a second later.

Thanks to JP for the video!

At the Academy Awards (Oscars) last night, The Hurt Locker took home the following 6 awards:

• Best Picture
• Directing
• Film Editing
• Sound Editing
• Sound Mixing
• Writing (Original Screenplay)

I didn’t want to set aside 15 hours of my time yesterday to watch it, but judging by the winners list, The Hurt Locker really swept the show.

I have not seen the movie yet, but I plan on watching it very soon.  I avoided it up until now because I heard from a lot of people that it was annoyingly inaccurate.  I seem to enjoy other inaccurate movies anyway, so I’m not sure why I chose to listen to people and avoid this one up until now.

There are a few different versions of the movie poster.  I found the one I inserted in this article especially chilling.

Any of you guys that have seen this movie, have an opinion on it?

Freedom Firearms in Battle Creek, MI have an awesome new mailbox:

Fabricated by Steve’s Welding here in Battle Creek Michigan. He said the project took about 4 months in his spare time. It’s all steel and wood. there is 4 feet of concrete in the ground and an internal post through the grip frame. The hammer is checkered, and the back of the grip is evenly ribbed.

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Getting kicked and pushed around to simulate actual conditions?

Also, that would be so irritating having someone fire blanks (I’m assuming they are blanks) off right near your head.

If you were actually getting treated that way in real life, I think it would be safe to say that it would be from the enemy (not your own guys), and you would be disarmed.

Anyone have more info on training like this?  Is it widely practiced?

Thanks to JP for the video!

I was thinking some more about that recent ATF airsoft seizure and came up with the following…

For your information, per provisions of the Gun Control Act (GCA) of 1968, 18 U.S.C. Chapter 44, an unlicensed individual may make a “firearm” as defined in the GCA for his own personal use, but not for sale or distribution.

The GCA, 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(3), defines the term “firearm” to include the following:

… (A) any weapon (including a starter gun) which will or is designed to or may be readily converted to expel a projectile by the action of an explosive: (B) the frame or receiver of any such weapon; (C) any firearm muffler or silencer; or (D) any destructive device. Such term does not include an antique firearm.

Source – ATF.gov

Another paragraph of interest…

Individuals manufacturing sporting-type firearms for their own use need not hold Federal Firearms Licenses (FFLs). However, we suggest that the manufacturer at least identify the firearm with a serial number as a safeguard in the event that the firearm is lost or stolen. Also, the firearm should be identified as required in 27 CFR 478.92 if it is sold or otherwise lawfully transferred in the future.

Source – ATF.gov

So… According to the ATF’s citations of the Gun Control Act and U.S. Code, you can make your own firearm and you do not need a FFL.

The ATF does not specify what material you have to use, and it does not put any restriction on making a firearm out of an object that previously had another use.  Hell, if you wanted to make a firearm out of a toaster, from what I understand you definitely could.

By that rationale, if you buy an airsoft gun that “Needs Machining” to complete its transformation to fit an AR-15 lower parts kit, is it not only considered a firearm once you complete it?

If you cannot drop a lower parts kit in those airsoft receivers without any machining then I think that is a VERY good argument that they are not firearms, and should never have been confiscated.

You’ve seen it in movies such as:

Taxi Driver:

Desperado:

Alien Resurrection:

And many more…

I should have known that people would build their own!

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I guess Batman must have special New York City (Gotham City) weapon privileges because he is a celebrity.

Lots More pictures of Batman with various guns over at Silver Age Comics

Also If you haven’t seen The Dark Knight by now.. you’re slackin.  Buy it HERE for Cheap

Cirque Du Spetsnaz or “Systema” as they like to call it.

Here is my proposed logo:

Pistol Acrobatics:

Rifle Acrobatics:

If you are seriously ever in a 360° battle zone, id suggest finding cover ASAP. Spinning around on the ground only works in movies.

Muzzle Sweeping Las Vegas by storm in 2011!

Hat Tip: Raph84 for finding the videos

With some obviously fabricated information, and it was accepted:

Clicked Submit and…

Makes you wonder if there any checks and balances in place to ultimately discard my signature? What’s to stop some Brady goons from signing their own petition with made up names, or even more cleverly using address information out of the phone book or readily available online.  With minimal web programming skills a program could easily scrape the internet for valid addresses and automatically submit them to their little web application.  At the very minimum I find it surprising there was no zip code validation in the form;  55555 isn’t even an Arkansas zip.

I am now even less impressed by the 28,000 28,001 signatures they claim.

UPDATE: CREDO action, the company that is handling the Starbucks petition actually has zip code validation on their own site where people can sign the petition ( http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/starbucks_guns/ ).  There still isn’t any other validation.

James from HellInAHandBasket points out an awesome article in the Associated Press about today’s challenge to Chicago’s 28 year old handgun ban:

CHICAGO – A couple worries that burglars who tried to break in when the wife was home alone will return. A retiree fears the drug dealers and junkies just outside his window will attempt — again — to steal what he spent a lifetime earning. And a businessman wants to protect himself as he could when he was a police officer.

On Tuesday, the four will take their seats inside the U.S. Supreme Court as their attorneys argue a lawsuit that bears their names: David and Colleen Lawson, Otis McDonald and Adam Orlov.

The four plaintiffs are not stereotypical gun rights advocates. They don’t represent the agenda of any national group or organize rallies. Instead they represent average Chicagoans — the kind of people that opponents of the city’s ban say should be allowed to protect themselves from gun violence.

Full Story – HERE

CNN Showing both sides of the story here:

Full CNN article – HERE

I applaud the kindness of Diane Latiker with her “Kids off the Block” program, I think that is great that those kids have a place to go to escape gun violence.  She supports the handgun ban because she “would rather something be in place then nothing be in place”.  I’d be willing to bet that all those 200+ people that are represented in her memorial did not did at the hands of law abiding citizens.  This is one of those criminals do not care about the law type things, where it’s easy to see that banning handguns in Chicago does not make them any harder for criminals to get.  It is the regular person that needs to protect themselves from the criminals.

Although I don’t live in Chicago, I anxiously await the outcome of McDonald v. Chicago (08-1521).

A repeal of the ban would be a huge Second Amendment victory.

Looks like that might actually work!  If I had a Wii i’d definitely try it.

Source AR15.com – HERE

Hat Tip: SayUncle

FRANKFORT, Kentucky –Northern Kentucky University has been awarded $10,660 from the state Law Enforcement Protection Program (LEPP) to purchase patrol rifles, Gov. Steve Beshear announced Thursday.

Hmmm… Coincidentally the ATF had $10000 worth of “easily convertible” airsoft m4’s fall into their lap.   Agency to agency transfer anyone?

Also, awesome use of “Patrol Rifles”…. It’s refreshing to not see them demonized as “Assault rifle” killing machines.  I guess it has always been this way though; In the hands of police they are “tools”, but in the hands of citizens the same view largely isn’t held by the general public.

Under the LEPP, administered by the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security (KOHS), appropriate agencies can seek financial help for certain defensive items essential in the course of their duties.

“These funds will help ensure that our law enforcement will not be out-gunned and increase security on campus,” state Sen. Katie Kratz Stine, of Southgate, said.

Damn, I’ve only been out of University a couple of years now, but it must be getting pretty rough.  All jokes aside, if this keeps the students safe from psychos then I’m all for it.  I still think allowing students to carry on campus would be a zero cost better alternative though. $10660 isn’t going to buy that many patrol rifles, especially since they will all likely be fitted with some fairly pricey optics.  I say this because I can’t see open sights being a good choice for a possible shootout around hoards of innocent students running in every direction.

In conjunction with the Kentucky State Police (KSP), KOHS derives income from sales of confiscated weapons.

Oh that’s nice! *sarcasm*   I thought confiscated weapons were either destroyed or else given back to the original owner (if they were found to be stolen).  Or does this policy vary by state and department?  My first thought is that confiscating weapons to fund department purchases doesn’t seem very ethical.

Source: KYPost – HERE

Hat Tip: SayUncle

I find I go through PeopleOfWalmart for a couple minutes every few months.  Was doing some browsing there today and came across this:

Sometimes you have to go deep undercover. How do you think the queen of all homemakers Martha Stewart got caught?

Location: Texas

ENHANCE…

This off duty Texas police officer is rocking what appears to be the full set of Bianchi basket weave Leather.  I am making the assumption she is an off duty police officer because as some of you may or may not know, open carry of handguns is highly restricted in Texas, meaning that unless you are are law enforcement, no dice.

What’s Awesome:

• Her choice of sidearm is a Glock
• She is a open carrying
• She is a woman exercising her rights

What could use work:

• I’m not feeling the outfit as a whole
• Open carry rig not even attached to pants through any belt loops
• Slippers in WalMart? NASTY!.. I Hope she takes those off before she enters her home

It’s nice to see the comments on PeopleOfWalmart are actually quite positive towards open carry.  Most of the other comments on this picture are just down right hilarious!

Here are some of my favorite funny comments:

• She’s obviously not a member of the fashion police. (EAGLE EYE)
• I guess the answer to the question, “does this outfit make me look fat,” is a most definite “no!” (KINGREG)
• She should have gone with a powder blue holster, black is way too formal for sweats. (DEMIDAN)

Source: People of Walmart – HERE

A lady was telling her neighbor that she saw a man driving a pick-up truck down the interstate, and a dog was hanging onto the tailgate for dear life!

She said if the pick-up truck driver hadn’t been going so fast in the other direction, she would have tried to stop him.

A few weeks later, her neighbor saw this truck at the local Bass Pro Shop.

The pick-up truck driver is a local TEXAS taxidermist with a great sense of humor!

Taxidermists are a twisted lot anyway!

And it is not a dog in the first place; it is a Coyote.

Can you imagine how many people tried to stop this guy?

Source AR15.com – HERE

Ever since the military and law enforcement started using m16’s and m4’s produced by Colt, the company developed an elitist status because they chose largely to turn their nose up at civilian market.

Now they seem to want a piece of the market, with the new AR6720.

The fact the pricing for the Colt 6720 is being based on serial number just goes to show that you can’t shake old habits. I don’t know if the tiered pricing was decided by Colt or by Clyde Armory (the exclusive retailer of the 6720).  The serial number in itself obviously only has extrinsic value… meaning no one really cares what it is, unless you can find someone pretentious enough that “NEEDS” a certain serial number that you possess.  Unless of course for this model, Colt doesn’t clean or calibrate their machines after the first parts are made.  I guess that would make the later ones less valuable? heheh

Here is how the pricing goes…

• The least expensive guns are serial # 400 and up – $1200
• Most expensive serial # 11 – $3000

#1 – #10 are apparently “spoken for”

I’ll admit $1200 isn’t TOO terrible…  like Solomon at SNAFU! mentioned though, it is still quite a bit higher than similar offerings from Bushmaster, Rock River Arms, Armalite etc…

I don’t ever like telling people what to do with their money, but in my opinion if you even pay $50 more for a #300 to #399 serial you’re making a big mistake. No matter what, you are better off buying a different brand name AR-15 such as the ones mentioned above, and spending the left over money on ammo or a red dot optic.

Clyde Armory for purchase info on the guns – HERE

I didn’t report on this story when it first surfaced because I thought it was stupid, and would go away quickly.  But It didn’t.

TACOMA, Wash. – U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seized a shipment of 30 machine guns that arrived in an ocean container at the Tacoma Seaport last October.

Officials say the shipment of M-4 automatic rifles, manifested only as “Toys and Parts,” was valued at nearly $10,000 and was shipped from a manufacturer in Taiwan.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms found that the rifles were tooled to shoot plastic balls, but replacement of internal components with original machine gun components would render the rifles capable of firing live ammunition.

“These rifles could have had far-reaching and potentially devastating ramifications if they had gotten into the hands of individuals who wanted to do harm in the American population,” said Customs and Border Protection Area Port Director, Rolando Suliveras, Jr. “This was a good interception by our officers.”

The guns will be destroyed.

Source – King5 News

Here is a news story on the incident:

Special agent Kelven Crenshaw has a bit of trouble with the magazine at 1:18   I guess they only teach the operation of the m4 platform in “extra” special agent school.

Interesting info from the company who got their guns seized, AirsoftOutletNW:

Now we at Airsoft Outlet Northwest, being the rational individuals we are, went out and had a gunsmith check the true compatibility of these replicas and found the following information:

• The WE TTI M4’s lack any sort of functional gas tube which is integral to an AR15’s operation
• The upper receiver of an AR15 fits onto the lower of the WE TTI M4
• The stock trigger pack in the WE TTI cannot strike the firing pin of a AR15 bolt
• The body of the WE TTI lower is several mils thinner than an AR15 lower, and shims would be needed for any AR trigger pack to work
• The trigger pack of an AR15 appears to be able to fit onto the lower receiver of a WE TTI M4, one of the AR15 trigger pack retaining pins is impossible to insert without major modification, and the hammer isn’t operable with the WE TTI lower.

The full article, Airsoft: An Industry Without Standard, is actually a really good read if you have the time, regardless of whether or not you are into airsoft.

The only real issue I would say may exist, is if you could put a REAL upper on an airsoft lowers and have it fire, either fully automatic or semi automatic.  The lower receiver of a M4/M-16/AR-15 is not subjected to any extreme pressures when a round is fired, so as long as the material the airsoft replica was made out of is semi rigid, it would likely hold up for a while at least.  That said, I highly doubt that any of the airsoft lowers would be able to accept a REAL upper, and fire without any modification.  Although the whole airsoft industry thrives on authenticity, it is not in their best interest to get attention like this, which is why I doubt the parts are exactly 1:1 interchangeable.

Basically, if the ATF claims these airsoft guns can be easily converted into real guns, they should just demonstrate the conversion, and put a couple of magazines through it.  There needs to be some accountability and burden of proof placed on these government organizations.

I was doing some cleaning today and I opened all my plastic Glock boxes and took a look inside…

Those of you (in most states) that have bought a new Glock might recognize the following picture as the envelope and casings from 2 spent rounds that are included:

Their are some states that require the two casings to be retained by law enforcement and entered into a database as a way to fingerprint your gun.  I talked about the failure of one of these ballistic identification systems in in New York in a prior article (HERE).

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For generations, rifle models first used by soldiers have become profitable sellers in the domestic market. The 1903 bolt-action Springfield adopted by the U.S. Army in World War I begat the wooden-stock rifle carried by generations of deer hunters. The higher-capacity Garand issued to troops in World War II also spawned versions used to hunt big game.

Full Article at BusinessWeek – HERE

Hat Tip: SnowflakesInHell

It’s always good to see the AR-15 get some coverage that isn’t negative!

You gotta love the transitions from standing to prone, and the awesome forward and lateral rolls.   This whole video reminds me of Ice Capades.

The tags in the video suggest that its Russian Spetsnaz (Russian Special Forces) training.  Those guys definitely have some interesting methods, to say the least.

One thing I found very odd was the opening scene when the shooter has their finger on the trigger during the magazine change.  Then proceeds to rack the slide with their finger still on the trigger.

Hopefully if we keep on top of them, they will take due diligence seriously and start getting their facts and terminology correct on a regular basis.