Economy of Guns

The National Shooting Sports Foundation issued today a report on the economic impact of the firearms industry.  As my favorite Meth addict/dealer/manufacturer on TV Jesse Pinkman says, "That's mad cheddar yo!". 

Indeed it is, when you see $27.8 Billion in long form ($27,846,304,300) it really is hard to fathom THAT many guns and that much ammo being sold.  But the thing that gets me is the ~ $8.6 billion increase from 2008.  That's 45%!  Fo-tay-Five!  So Barry O is roughly worth roughly $9 billion to the firearms industry and they're trying to get him voted out of office, or are they?

No, I'm not trying to start a conspiracy rumor, but one has to wonder how the folks selling arms and ammo and accessories REALLY feel about The One going for a second term?  I suppose it's up to his performance over the next couple of years.

Something I'd never thought I'd read

Mac-10 based Tactical Rifle....


I'll let that sink in....




Yeah, that's what I thought too.  WTF?  Yet there it is and this is April 7, so no April fools.  Michael Bane has a tease of what he calls a "cool little gun"  After the initial shock of a MAC-10 based Tactical Rifle subsided, I thought that it may indeed be a fun gun to shoot as there aren't a hell of a lot of .45ACP or .45anything semi-auto rifles out there.  Then again, perhaps there's a good reason for that? 

For what use would one purchase this gun for?  Plinking? Well, at $20+/box, .45ACP isn't exactly a bargain.  Home Defense?  At that length, I'd as soon have a 12guage and if I did choose a rifle, it'd probably be in .223 (which is cheaper to shoot btw) or something a little more rifle-like.

So what then?

Does a gun have to have a purpose?

I suppose not (I'm looking at you Taurus Judge).

Winter Range

Winter Range is going on as those of us in the Northern climes are still dealing with winter. Michael Bane has been all over the match with results of the Wild Bunch Match (Congrats Doc Molar & Two Sons) as well as pictures and blogging from the main match.

Some of the fun of going to a larger match is the vendors and Michael points out someone who I'd not heard of before, Joe Perkins of Outlaw Grips.  Joe was showing off the "Hand of God" grips those of you who've seen the modern remake of 3:10 to Yuma should recognize.  They make some very fine grips for Single-Action revolvers and even to inlays of Silver.  I'm kind of drooling over the bloodwood grips myself.

Get You Some

So the question of the ages has been answered, what question is that?  Why are we here?  Is there a God?  No, no, the question is "is there anything better than a M2 Browning .50cal machine gun".  You might want to get a napkin handy to wipe the drool before watching this video of the GAU-19/A .50cal General Dynamics manufactured, electrically powered Gatling Gun.

Gau 19 firing

I Just Love This Video

The thought that some crazy MFer out there decided to build a freakishly large caliber and mates it to a light rifle.  The results are hilarious.

My personal fave is the guy who gets knocked back and his glasses and muffs stay in place like a Looney Toons scene.

I'm not what you'd call a recoil junkie, I don't swagger about talking about how I like to shoot the big stuff and in fact, I don't like recoil.  But I'd love to shoot this gun, kind of a gunny extreme sport.  Maybe they could add this to the X Games?

Utterly amazing

You know, I often wonder how I'll do if the SHTF.  I can only hope to do as well as the 11 (That's ELEVEN) year old boy man in this report of a home invasion.  Seriously, there is so much we don't know, like how long the perps banged on the bedroom door and how accessible the rifle was.  But the fact that an 11 year old had the poise to remain calm enough to deliver effective shots through a door after he is shot and wounded is utterly amazing!

Kudos to you young man, you saved your mom and your own lives and sent a BG to the hospital.

I'm predicting he doesn't have much trouble in school with bullies from here on out.

H/T to Robb at Sharp As A Marble

Updates

I've just got a couple of updates.

The Indiana Senate & House passed bills that will close the hand license database from public information requests.  Thanks go to those who fought for it.  The Indystar.com's article on it mentions that this was passed over police objection.

Information that The Indianapolis Star used to discover that the state was granting gun permits to violent people -- often over the objections of police -- would be kept secret under a bill that passed the Indiana House on Tuesday.

Exactly what police are you talking about?  The rank and file officer or the political heads of departments?  In fact, I doubt you could even get a majority of police heads to say this is a bad thing.  You do notice that the article doesn't mention specifics, just that it was "often" objected to by police.  Sheesh, what good reporting there INDYSTAR.  They'll probably report that the Colts are often in the Superbowl.

More legislative WIN: The IN Senate bill 25 that prohibits employers from firing or restricting employees from having a gun locked in their vehicle passed 41-9.  Caleb has been on top of both of these bills all along and you should go read his blog to keep better up to date.

Georgia Arms update:  The Georgia Arms order from April 09 came on Friday and they mistakenly hadn't shipped everything.  I e-mailed them on Saturday and they replied back on Tuesday (closed for the weekend) and will ship the remainder or refund my money (my choice).  Overall, I can't say anything bad about them, but make certain they give you an expected delivery time for those backordered items.

April Fool

The order I placed with Georgia Arms on 4/21/2009 has shipped!

LOL

Seriously, I got a UPS shipping notification and thought what the hell?  Then I saw it was from GA and I thought, WTF did I order?  Found the confirmation, I get some .45 hollowpoints in a few days. Uh, Yeah?

Shot Show Sting

If your Shot Show checklist included "bribe an African Defense Minister", you might be in jail right now.

The FBI ran a sting to nab people trying to bribe officials to gain contracts.  One of the 22 arrested is was an executive for Smith & Wesson.  This is probably going to overshadow their release of the new .327mag J-Frame they brought to the show.

Flash, Boom, Bang

Michael Yon is pretty much the Ernie Pyle of our time.  He's been working and living among the soldiers on the front line of the War On Terror since 2003.  Funny thing is that he doesn't report via newspapers or TV, his presence is mostly online at www.michaelyon-online.com.  This week, he's reporting from Afghanistan on a counter-battery group and he's got some AWESOME night shots of cannon fire.  If you like big bore going boom and lighting things up click over to see and read.

M4A1?

Looks like the US Military will be upgrading the venerable M4 carbine with a heavier barrel and name it the M4A1.  Why?  Durability, the videos in this article depict a very extreme test of the carbine.  In one video, the lighter barrel turns red hot, droops and eventually explodes.  The second video, the carbine with a heavier barrel catches fire, but continues to operate until the gas tube ruptures.

This is really a ho-hum story, but the videos are pretty cool, so go watch them.

"Pound Sand Newspaper Lad"

OK, so I'm not so much with posting about what other bloggers say, but Tam must have the same steroid guy Mark McGuire has when she commented snarked about the Muncie Starpress.com editorial.  My favorite quote has to be

It's against the law for a child molester to own or carry guns. It's not against the law for a child molester to write newspaper editorials, however. Not that I'm implying anything, of course. But don't parents with small children have the right to know?

By the way, the editorial is about the new bill introduced in the Indiana State House Natural Resources Committee to protect the License To Carry A Handgun Database from public.  As it is now, $35 will buy you the names and addresses of all Indiana LTCH holders.  Those of us who have said license, tend to think this is a bad idea as the criminal element could put two and two together and = my home being broken into.

Also, if you're unaware, the local, ahem, newspaper has deemed it necessary for "public safety" to put this database on their website so that anyone can search it.  Albeit by street alone, no actual address is given, but they legally could if they wanted to.

Much to my delight, my local representative Peggy Welch has sponsored the aforementioned bill to close the Handgun License database and for that, she's earned another vote from me.  I had originally written both her and Vi Simpson on the matter to make my feelings known, at least one of them may have listened and that gives me the warm & fuzzies to be honest.  I like it when I can feel (even if it isn't true) that a government elected official is actually doing something that benefits me.  We hear all to often about the bad ones and there seems to be an over abundance of them right now, but there are a few that aren't.

If you live in Indiana, I urge you to contact your local congresswoman to encourage them to get this bill out of committee and pass it in due haste.  The following list is Natural Resources Committee and they'll decide if this bill gets put to vote in the full house, so if you've got a rep on this committee, obviously, we need your help.

Chairman, bob bischoff; h68@in.gov
Vice-chair, dave cheatham; h69@in.gov
Bill sponsor, peggy welch; h60@in.gov
Members:
nancy dembowski h17@in.gov
Dale grubb; h42@in.gov
Nancy michael; h44@in.gov
Phil pflum; h56@in.gov
Paul robertson; h70@in.gov
Bob cherry; h53@in.gov
Dick dodge; h51@in.gov
Tim brown; h41@in.gov
Sean eberhart; h57@in.gov
Dan leonard; h5@in.gov

Slim Is In

The newish trend in pistols seems to me to be that less is more.  Designers have figured out that pistol shooters, concealed carriers especially, don't like bulky pistols.  At least not pistols that are bulkier than need be.  The Glock SF, S&W M&P series, Ruger SR9 and now Sig is getting in on the size reduction of their pistols with the new P226 & P229 E2 pistols.  They've reduced the size of the backstrap and overall size of the grip, plus an improved texture.

This makes perfect sense to me, when I was tearing down a couple of P226s to refresh the springs for the owners, I marveled that there was so much wasted space in the frame and these pistols could have been a LOT smaller than they actually were.  Looks like Hans & Co. thought the same thing, eh?

The reduced grip will help those with smaller hands, but I think it'd guys with larger hands too, how?  Simply put, I've got ham-hands and the web between my thumb and forefinger is especially meaty.  So when I close my hand up, this area takes up a lot of space, I typically put the smallest backstrap on a pistol like the Walther P99 or S&W M&P to give that part of my hand a place to go.  That chunk they took out of the backstrap looks awfully inviting to me, this gun looks like it'd fit me like a glove.

Now I'm wondering if there'd be a way to retrofit an older P226 or P229 to this new grip?

I Pitty Tha Fool!

Yes indeed it is an A-Team movie!!!

I can't help but wonder how true to the original material they'll be?  Will there be stainless Mini 14s with folding stocks?  Bullet-proof tin in every garage?  Conveniently placed obstacles for the bad guy vehicles to flip over?

What I do know is that their will be explosions and bad acting and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Only A Mother Could Love It

Or Me.

As ugly as this new revolver from Chiappa Firearms is, I want one.  Not from any reasonable standpoint mind you, I don't know if it is built well, shoots well, is reliable or has the ergonomics of a piece of rubble, but something about the looks of this snubby really calls to me.  It's called the Rhino and you can see why, it has a profile that is reminiscent of the African beast with the horn on its nose (here the part of the horn is played by the front sight).

This latest addition to the .357 revolver family has a somewhat unique arrangement that allows the barrel to be lower to push the recoil impulse lower into the hand and the theory is that it'll have less felt recoil than a traditional revolver.  As always, when you get something, you have to give up something else.  I wonder what it is in this case?  Weight?  Reliability? Ergonomics?