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Gun Digest the Magazine September 14, 2009

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Gun Digest is the source for firearms news, pricing and guns for sale. Readers benefit from in-depth editorial expert advice, show reviews and practical how-to instructions. Subscriptions are the First Amendment way to stand up for your Second Amendment rights. Click here to begin your subscription to Gun Digest.

Inside This Issue

• Rich Grassi revisits the reproduction government models of Colt.

• Dave Morelli shows how to improve your cowboy action speed with a few simple steps.

• Editor Kevin Michalowski gets the debate going in his “Editor's Shot” column. Click here to read it.

• Rifles: Whitney Rifles

• Shotguns: Tristar

• Handguns: American Derringer

• On Handguns: Taurus Judge

• Weapons and Tactics: The Legendary M-14

• Spent Casings: Practical Accuracy

• Towsley on Target: Anti-Gun Airlines

• NRA Awards Sholarships

• Plenty of New Gear for Shooters

Click here to load up on a subscription.

Making Open Carry Safer

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The Safariland 0701 retention holster prevents the gun from being "snatched"
The Safariland 0701 retention holster prevents the gun from being “snatched,” a serious consideration when open carrying.

A number of jurisdictions allow law-abiding private citizens to carry loaded handguns, exposed, in public. This chapter will focus on two specific elements of open carry, which have been called into discussion by those in the gun owners’ rights movement who think carrying concealed is a better idea.

Those two particular elements are discretion, and handgun security against snatch attempts. By discretion, we mean a method of carry that, while exposing the gun, does not call attention to it. You don’t want to “frighten the horses.” You don’t necessarily want any criminal in sight to realize that if he blindsides you with an ambush from behind, your firearm is his for the taking. Unless you’re a show-off screaming silently for attention, you want as few people as possible to notice the exposed handgun.

Handgun security against snatch attempts is something cops came to terms with long ago. Any officer will tell you, “In any conflict where someone is within arm’s reach of you, they have a gun within their arm’s reach: your gun.”  Since open carry allows a present or potential antagonist to see that you do have that gun, you want it to be held in something that will not yield it up to the first clutching hand.

Discreet Appearance

I learned early that “protective coloring” extends to the visibly armed citizen as surely as it does to the beasts of the forests, the denizens of the sea, and the fowl of the air. For polar bears, protective coloration is “white on white.” The reflective surfaces of metal are such that a chrome-plated, pearl-handled gun may actually be more conspicuous against a white shirt with white slacks. However, a matte black gun and holster almost disappear against black clothing.

Some years ago, in North Carolina, I arrived to teach a deadly force class and was told that, cop or not – even though I was officially on police business and teaching in a police academy setting – I could not carry concealed as an out-of-state policeman unless I was extraditing a felon. I asked about non-resident carry permits or permit reciprocity: no dice. I asked if there were any avenues at all. “Sure,” said one indigenous cop, “just carry it exposed in the holster. We have ‘open carry’ here.”

I do not care for the “frighten the horses” effect of open carry. However, I also do not care to be unarmed and, therefore, all but helpless against the armed. Suddenly, open carry was looking more attractive. In fact, I took to it like a duck to water. (Well, maybe like a reluctant duck that didn’t like water very much.)

The handgun I was carrying that week was a blue steel Colt Python 357 Magnum revolver, with black Pachmayr grips. I wore it most of the time in an inside-the-waistband holster I had designed for Mitch Rosen, the Ayoob Rear Guard (ARG). Even with most of the mass of the weapon obscured from view by the inside-the-waistband design, the weapon was clearly visible against the royal blue trainers’ shirt generally worn by my school’s staff.

While on that trip, I had to do a film for a trial that showed how rapidly a certain suspect could have disarmed and shot the officer who had been forced to kill him to keep that from happening. On the day of the filming, I happened to be wearing a black polo shirt and black BDU pants. A photographer was taking stills while the cinematographer was shooting the video.

Later, in court, I had occasion to closely examine not only the videotape, but also the giant blow-ups of the stills that were introduced as evidence. A couple of people in the courtroom told me that they’d hadn’t realized that I was armed, even though the big 41-framed revolver was toward the cameras and in plain sight. I asked a few other folks, showing them the pictures, and most when subsequently asked hadn’t noticed that I was wearing the big six-gun.

Hmmm…interesting.

Black clothing helps make a black pistol less obvious.
Black clothing helps make a black pistol less obvious.

I thereafter made it a point to bring black or very dark gray gun, holster, shirts, and trousers whenever it looked as if I would have to “open carry.”  The gorgeous, high polish Royal Blue of the Python had not reflected enough to show up in the pictures or the video, but that was only because the ARG holster hadn’t exposed much of its sideplate. Later experience with flat black Glock pistols, and a Kimber with a flat gray/black finish that resembles Parkerizing, showed me that these finishes blended beautifully with black holsters and belts, and black clothing.

The holstered guns were still in plain sight. They could be spotted by someone looking for them. But they did not draw the eye.

One evening I found myself stopping on the way home from the range at a supermarket that must have had a hundred people in it. I was open-carrying the dark Kimber 45 cocked and locked in a black basketweave Gordon Davis thumb-break holster on a matching Bianchi dress gun belt, with black polo and black BDUs. The old “one of a hundred people will notice” prediction absolutely came true. The only person who showed indication of having spotted the big military auto pistol was a little girl, and that was probably because she was only a couple of feet away from me in the aisle, and her height put her at eye level to the gun.

I saw the little tyke’s eyes widen in alarm, and watched as she urgently grabbed her dad’s sleeve and began tugging. When he looked down, she wordlessly but vigorously pointed at the 45. I had made a point to wear my police badge clipped in front of the scabbard, and her dad spotted it at the same time he saw the pistol.

“Aw, it’s OK, honey,” I heard him tell her gently. “He’s a po-lice.”

So far, so good. There are some dads out there who might be macho enough to feel a need to impress their kids if those kids were alarmed by what the father perceived as an ostentatious display of a deadly weapon. In this case, there was no problem. And the lesson is, black gun in black holster against black clothing draws very little attention from those who aren’t at eye level with the handgun.

As noted earlier, an inside the-waistband holster buries much of the gun in the lower body’s clothing. The gun is still exposed per se, and therefore still openly carried. In a jurisdiction where the given person is legal to carry openly but not concealed, that’s an important distinction to bear in mind.

In theory, one could resort to genuine camouflage. Several manufacturers have produced pistols and revolvers with camouflage finishes, including recognized patterns such as Woodland. I’ve often wondered about getting one of those, and a matching camo set of belt and fabric holster, and wearing it outside pants and shirt in the same camo pattern. Would it conceal as well as black on black on black on black?  Probably. Maybe better.

I haven’t tried it yet. The reason is, while a camouflage thing is going with the black on black, the color black is not considered camouflage per se. A regular camouflage pattern most certainly would be. One definition of “camouflage” is “concealment.”  If a camo gun was openly carried in a camo holster against camo clothing, all matching, could a creative anti-gun prosecutor convince a grand jury to indict for concealed carry, if the latter was against the law in that time and place? Almost certainly.

Now, whether that case would be decided against the armed citizen at trial would be something else again. It would make a fascinating test case. Since my mother did not raise me to be a test case, I’ve never undertaken the experiment to find out. If y’all want to do so, feel free, and let me know in care of the publisher how it worked for you. However, neither the publisher nor I will take any responsibility for what happens. And, yes, my tongue is slightly in my cheek as I write this…

This article and its Part II (below) of this article excerpt on Open Carry from the Gun Digest Book of Concealed Carry.

Click here to read part two, Making Open Carry Safer, Part II.

Hands On! CProducts AR Mags Perform When Needed

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No End In Sight: The Ammunition Shortage Continues

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“Nobody has ever seen this kind of demand before,” said Lawrence Keane, senior vice president and general counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation Inc., (NSSF) which represents the largest ammo suppliers in the country. “Right now, the plants are operating full-bore to get the product on the shelf.”

NSSF estimated, “that there will be about 2 billion more American-made bullets produced this year over 2008's 7.5 billion. But customers wouldn't know it by the empty spaces on gun store shelves.”

Representatives of Remington Arms, Alliant Techsystems Inc. (corporate parent of Federal Ammunition and other brands) and Winchester Ammunition all told the Times their companies had stepped up production significantly. However, “All three companies declined to say just how much more ammunition they are producing this year.”

Not surprisingly, ammo prices are also very high.  Cheaper Than Dirt, an online and catalog sporting goods dealer, was selling .380 handgun ammo for around $12 per box.  Today?  About $50 a box.

“Ammunition is like gasoline— it's a commodity,” Cheaper Than Dirt’s chief executive Michael Tenny, told the Times.  “When supply is hard to get ahold of, prices go up. That's where we are now.”

Burglar Fatally Shot Entering Closed Business

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JACKSON, MS (WLBT) – Law officers are investigating the latest fatal shooting in the capital city.

Shortly before five J.P.D. officers responded to Gipson Discount Foods on 1434 Highway 80 West near Terry Road.

There, they found a man dead from a gunshot wound to the chest at the rear of the grocery store.

J.P.D. Assistant Chief Lee Vance says the unidentified man was breaking in when an employee who lives in the building heard the noises.

According to investigators, the thief was armed with a large caliber hand gun and a knife.

The employee opened fire with a shotgun.

“We do know that this appears to be a justified shooting. This individual was in the process of breaking into this building. He was an armed suspect, and he was shot while he was trying to break into the building,” said Vance. Read more

Source: wlbt.com

Concealed Carry Permit Holder Shoots Pitbull

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Albert Gosiak (pronounced like go-shack) said he walked out of his East Vancouver house just for a minute Saturday morning. That's when he met two pit bulls in his walkway.

Gosiak said the dogs were aggressive and he was trapped. He said he acted in self defense when he shot one of the pit bulls.

“It was just a snap judgment,” Gosiak said. “What do I do, fumble around? They were right there … I gotta do something now, so I pulled out my gun and shot them.”

A Clark County Animal Control officer was able to capture the other pit bull. That pit bull, a female, is now at the Humane Society for Southwest Washington.

Employees there tell KATU News that they believe they have found the dogs' owners. No word as to how the dogs got out, or whether the owners will face such dog-related charges as “running at large” or “vicious behavior.” Read more

Source: katu.com

Media’s False Reports About Guns Uncovered

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In Portsmouth, N.H., a man carrying a gun, William Kostric, joined an Aug. 11 health care protest. This was blocks away and hours before Mr. Obama's town-hall meeting in that city. Mr. Kostric was given permission to be on church property where the protest occurred and was not at the place the president visited. What most of the coverage left out was that Mr. Kostric didn't carry his gun only for the protest; he legally carries a gun with him all the time for protection.

While the media regularly used terms such as “hotheads” to mischaracterize the situation, the coverage ignored that union members who opposed the protest had attacked Mr. Kostric and a friend, kicking, pushing and spitting on them. Despite violence against him by Mr. Obama's supporters, Mr. Kostric did not draw his gun or threaten anyone.

On the CBS Evening News, Katie Couric asked, “Are we really still debating health care when a man brings a handgun to a church where the president is speaking?” Deliberately or not, she got the facts wrong. As we know, Mr. Kostric did bring a gun to the church, but the president was not there and never was scheduled to speak there. Mr. Obama spoke at a separate event at a local high school at a different time. Not letting facts get in the way of her hysterical story line, Ms. Couric linked Mr. Kostric's gun to “fear and frankly ignorance drown[ing] out the serious debate that needs to take place about an issue that affects the lives of millions of people.”

In another case in Arizona, a black man staged an event with a local radio host and carried a semiautomatic rifle a few blocks away from another Obama town-hall meeting. According to the radio station, the staged event was “partially motivated to do so because of the controversy surrounding William Kostric.” This occurrence was not an example of an outraged gun-toting Obama protester, but a stunt to garner attention for a shock jock. Of course, this inconvenient truth was ignored by most news outlets.

MSNBC misrepresented the facts to try to back up a bogus claim about racism being behind opposition to Mr. Obama's agenda. On Donny Deutsch's Aug. 18 show about the Arizona town-hall meeting, the producers aired a clip of the anonymous black man carrying the so-called assault rifle — but the network edited the tape so the man's race was obscured. Truth be damned, MSNBC anchor Contessa Brewer said, “There are questions whether this has a racial overtone. I mean, here you have a man of color in the presidency and white people showing up with guns strapped to their waists.” Another commentator on the same show worried about the “anger about a black person being president.” The supposed result: “You know we see these hate groups rising up.” Read more

Source: washingtontimes.com

Armed Dog-Walker Stops Charging Grizzly

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For Soldotna fishing guide Greg Brush, the rare and precious finally arrived — a summer day off between king and silver salmon seasons.

It was Aug. 2, a little after 11 a.m., when he headed down Dirks Lake Road, a quarter-mile from his home, taking three dogs for some exercise in preparation for hunting season. Brush talked to his animals as they walked past homes on one- to five-acre lots.

The slightest noise — a twig snapping — prompted Brush to glance over his shoulder. Less than 20 yards away, a brown bear was charging, “ears back, head low and motorin' full speed.

“Came with zero warning,” Brush said. “No woof, no popping of the teeth, no standing up, nothing like what you think.”

Brush said he wears a pistol on his walks because bears have chased his dogs in the past.

He drew a Ruger .454 Casull revolver. There was no time to aim, barely time to squeeze the trigger. He's not sure whether he got off two shots or three, but one proved fatal.

“Total luck shot,” he said.

“It doesn't get any closer. He slid by me on his chin when I shot him,” Brush said. “I was backpedaling as fast as I could. I wasn't even aiming. I tripped over my own feet as I pulled the trigger.”

He estimated that the animal weighed 900-plus pounds, and was 15 to 20 years old. It had grass packed in its molars and little fat on its bones.

“It was starving to death and saw an opportunity,” Brush said. Read more

Source: adn.com

 

Outrageous: Robber Sues Store Worker Who Shot Him

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The lawsuit, filed by Scott Thomas Zielinski from his cell in a Michigan prison, was assigned to Macomb County Circuit Judge David Viviano.

John Acho, owner of the store and one of the people sued, said his customers are mad that an armed robber is allowed to file a lawsuit after he threatened the store’s employees with a knife.

Zielinski is seeking in excess of $125,000 for injuries sustained when he was shot escaping from the owners of the store. They went after him because he held two of the employees at knifepoint and threatened to kill them, police said.

“He comes into my store wearing a mask and armed with a knife, threatens to kill my employees and steals cigarettes and $793 in cash,” said Acho. “And he is suing us because we ruined his life and he is going through pain and suffering.”

Zielinski, 22, was convicted of the November 2007 robbery. In a plea bargain, he was sentenced May 20, 2008, to eight to 22 years in prison for unarmed, instead of armed, robbery. Read more

Source: theoaklandpress.com


 

Unnecessary Tragedy: Gun Collector Murdered

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Terry Bratcher (right) and Keith Allen (left) are charged in the home invasion and murder of Carl Kuhn, 82, of unincorporated Bartlett. (DuPage County Sheriff's Office)
Terry Bratcher (right) and Keith Allen (left) are charged in the home invasion and murder of Carl Kuhn, 82, of unincorporated Bartlett. (DuPage County Sheriff's Office)

Two men who went to the home of an 82-year-old northwest suburban firearms collector Friday to steal some guns wound up killing the man, according to DuPage County authorities.

Terry S. Bratcher, 43, of the 3N500 block of Route 59 in West Chicago, and Keith L. Allen, 21, of the 10000 block of South LaSalle in Chicago, have been arrested and charged with first degree murder and home invasion with a firearm, according to the DuPage County Sheriff's office.

Sheriff's police responded to a call at 9 p.m. Friday of a man unconscious and not breathing in a home on the 29W400 block of Schick Road in an unincorporated area near Barlett.

They found Carl W. Kuhn unresponsive on the second floor of the home, where he was pronounced dead.

On Friday, Bratcher and Allen devised a plan to burglarize Kuhn’s home and steal firearms, according to a release from the DuPage County State's Attorney's office. Kuhn, according to the sheriff's release, was known as an avid firearms collector.

Bratcher allegedly went into the home first and then called Allen to join him. They allegedly forced Kuhn to an upstairs bedroom and smothered him to death, then burglarized the home, the release said. Read more

Source: wbbm780.com



Senator Ted Kennedy: A Legacy of Gun Control

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Ted Kennedy: A Legacy of Gun ControlAfter four decades in the U.S. Senate, Ted Kennedy’s life ended, as all lives do, in death.  In his time in the Senate, he sponsored or pushed to make law virtually every piece of anti-gun legislation possible.

Anti-gunners have already started to seize upon his death and demand that various pieces of anti-gun, anti-freedom legislation be passed to “honor Ted Kennedy.”  I expect a major anti-gun legislative push as soon as Congress re-convenes in September.

Gun owners must not fall victim to a nostalgia surrounding a celebrity’s death that glosses over the harm done to the values we hold dear, and that our opponents ghoulishly seize upon to promote their agenda.

We must guard against the normal tendency to overdose on compassion when our enemies die; to search for the silver lining around a cloud of acid rain.  He was no friend to gun owners, the Constitution or American Liberty.

Ted Kennedy’s anti-gun, anti-freedom legacy may live on. But we have the opportunity to control just how much his specter haunts us from the grave. Read more

Source: nationalgunrights.org

Why You Need a Concealed Carry Class

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Attending a concealed carry class can dramatically change your outlook on armed defense — not to mention give you vital insights into criminal behavior.
Attending a concealed carry class can dramatically change your outlook on armed defense — not to mention give you vital insights into criminal behavior.

The headline read, “Unnecessary Tragedy: Gun Collector Murdered.”

I have uploaded a lot of reasons for law-abiding citizens to be armed at all times to gundigest.com. But this article was different.

The story spelled out how an 82-year-old gun collector was led at gunpoint into his upstairs bedroom and smothered to death by two thugs. After snuffing out his life, the murderers went about stealing their victim’s lifetime gun collection.

The tragedy taught a grim lesson: Being a gun owner isn’t enough. You need the gun on you, and you need to be prepared to use it.

Do You Really Need a CCW Class?

Personal Protection Academy students qualify on the indoor range and get expert “hands on” instruction to improve stance, grip and trigger control.
Personal Protection Academy students qualify on the indoor range and get expert “hands on” instruction to improve stance, grip and trigger control.

Attending a concealed carry class can dramatically change your outlook on armed defense — not to mention give you vital insights into criminal behavior. You’ll learn how to shoot and train to thwart an attack directed at you or your family. But the shooting is only part of the training. In my case, I was amazed at how much I didn’t know.

The staff of Gun Digest and a few select guests recently attended a one-day self-defense handgun class taught by Michael and Jennifer Bender of the Wisconsin-based Personal Protection Academy. I was left with a renewed appreciation for just how serious this arm-bearing responsibility truly is.

Bender — a Certified Permit to Carry Pistol Instructor with the Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification and an NRA Distinguished Expert Marksman (Handgun) — is one intense dude. Some people you never want to mess with. Bender is one of those people.

I’ve been shooting handguns for many years. And while I thought I knew everything there was to know about firearm safety, I was wrong. The basic rules of firearm safety from the hunter education safety courses of my youth —which served me well in the hunting field — were fine starting points, but things get serious in the world of tactical handgun.

Differences in safe revolver handling, for instance, vary dramatically from those of semi-automatics. The details seem at first minute; but the results could be life-changing if you fail to learn them.

Do you know why you should always clear your auto-loader three times? Or how long you should wait if you experience a hang-fire? A good instructor can teach you handling techniques to deal with these contingencies — tips that could prevent a future negligent discharge.

A Sobering Reality Check

Bender outlined the speed armed attackers can unleash their violence upon their intended victims (hint: it’s a matter of seconds, on average), driving home the need to have a gun within easy reach, on your person.

But simply carrying the gun isn’t enough: You learn about the human reaction — that is, stress — one experiences when facing a lethal force situation. Stance, grip, target acquisition, holster and firearm/ammunition choices are all made ahead of time — cemented into place with serious training — such that the adrenaline rush you will experience in the moment of truth doesn’t render you incapable of functioning when you lose basic fine motor skills.

Perhaps most striking are the raw statistics Bender pointed out. For example, you learn where an attack is most likely to occur, what the average distance is between attacker and “victim” and how many shots are typically fired in defensive gun uses (DGUs). All of these facts help when adopting a training regimen, gun and gear, and when preparing mentally.

Dual Threat from Perpetrators and Prosecutors

Too many gun owners think self-defensive uses of firearms are a straightforward affair: Kill the attacker. Become a hero. Go home.

Such a notion is pure fantasy. As a long-time reader of Gun Digest author Massad Ayoob, I was well aware that the legal maneuvers of criminal prosecutors and the anti-gun media might be just as dangerous to your freedom as a perp with intent.


best-concealed-handgun-new-pistols-guide
Concealed Carry Guns: Semi-Auto Pistols for Self-Defense
This 54-page download covers all the newest and most advanced semi-auto pistols for concealed carry that are available on the market today, as reviewed in the Gun Digest annual book. It also includes a 44-page autoloader pistol catalog featuring concealed carry handguns from all the major manufacturers with photos, specs and MSRPs. For those with a CCW permit it’s truly the ultimate shopping guide for finding the best concealed carry pistols for you.

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There really are two battles one must prepare for (arguably three if you consider the personal emotional toll shootings have on survivors): the battles on the street and in court.

Experienced tacticians understand they must know what conditions a prosecutor will later exploit. The events leading up to a shooting are just as important as those that occur during and after. Can you articulate to a jury that you spent every possible effort to meet these conditions?

A good instructor will make these considerations a central part of the curriculum and drive them home with strong words.

Consider a post-shooting scenario: Your attempts to avoid a confrontation with evil have failed, and your gun training has paid off — your shots found their mark. The bad guy is on the ground. A crowd is gathering. Now what?

Despite the shock that is beginning to set in, you now need to keep your wits about you and consider some questions. How much should you tell the police when they arrive on the scene? If you’re still holding your gun, will the police mistake you for the shooter? Will you be arrested and what rights should you assert? Should you call the police first? Should you call your attorney?

Michael Bender demonstrates proper stance and operation of a semi-automatic handgun.
Michael Bender demonstrates proper stance and operation of a semi-automatic handgun.

Bender answered all of these questions and more. He gave practical advice that was easy to remember — and even this was by design. In fact, it has to be easy to remember. That’s because in the excitement involved in a shooting, your ability to handle the aftermath of a violent encounter has to be as second nature as your ability to draw and fire your handgun accurately.

Under stress, you will do what you trained to do.  If you don’t train, you’ll likely freeze; if you train wrong, you’ll act wrong. If you act wrong, by-standers are wounded, crippled or killed and you will likely be killed. And even if you do survive, not knowing any different you could make one well-meaning yet utterly fatal statement to the police that an anti-gun prosecutor could use to put you away for the rest of your days.

Conclusion

Whether you carry a self-defense handgun openly or concealed, you owe it to yourself and those around you to take the time to get properly trained. A concealed carry handgun class represents the best opportunity to tap into the expert tactical knowledge historically taught only to peace officers. If you do, be prepared to be shocked at what you don’t know. If you don’t take this advice, don’t be surprised if you under-perform when faced with a violent criminal—or a savvy prosecutor.

To learn more about the Personal Protection Academy, Click here.


Defend Yourself by Rob Pincus

Defend Yourself

Defend Yourself by Rob Pincus is the most complete and practical guide to home defense available today. Drawing from experience helping law enforcement, military, private security and people just like you understand how to protect themselves or others, Rob Pincus presents detailed information about planning for, training for and, ultimately, defending yourself and your family from a violent predator inside your home

A Must Read: “Firearm Curiosa” by Lewis Winant

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1955 Firearm Curiosa
The dust jacket of the 1955 Bonanza edition, the one most familiar to collectors.

Some of my books are sentimental favorites, volumes I cut my teeth on when I was a kid: Pistols: A Modern Encyclopedia by Henry Stebbins. A History of the Colt Revolver by Haven and Belden. The Gun and Its Development by Greener. But of all my gun books, the one that brings a smile to my face more quickly than any other is Firearms Curiosa by Lewis Winant. Though out of print, this book is an affordable classic, well worth the time it takes to track down a copy.

If you've ever read my columns, you're aware that I'm fascinated by oddball firearms. Perhaps you are, too. If so, Winant's Firearms Curiosa is a must-have.

Lewis Winant was one of those gentlemen collectors who flourished during what we might call the Golden Age of Gun Collecting. This period ran roughly from 1946 and 1960, when many firearms that had been “liberated” from European and Asian collections began filtering out into the American consumer market. As fellow Gun Digest Magazine columnist Phillip Peterson can tell you, hundreds of thousands of collectible firearms made the long trek across the Atlantic after World War II, and they weren't all Lugers and P-38s. It was a time when men like Robert Abels, Herb Glass, Joseph Kindig, Jr., George R. Numrich, Jr., and James Serven really came into their own.

Gun collecting had existed as a hobby before World War II (the greatest of these organizations, the Ohio Gun Collectors Association, was founded in 1937), but it was the second world war that pumped new life into the hobby, both in the form of vintage guns as well as gun-conscious hobbyists, many of whom had just returned from service abroad.

As far as we know, Lewis Winant's first book was Pepperbox Firearms, the first American book-length treatment of the subject. It was published in 1952 by Greenberg Publishing of New York City (not to be confused with today's Greenberg Publishing Company, which specializes in literature about toy trains). I have read this book, though I don't currently own a copy of it, and as I recall it contains everything you might care to know about pepperboxes, and likely a good deal more than you'd care to know.

Bonanza Books of New York published Firearms Curiosa in 1955, and it remains the best-known of Winant's books. The book was simultaneously published in a limited first edition of 1,000 hand-numbered copies by Greenberg, and the blurb copy of the dust jacket of my copy (copy #902) gives little doubt that it's the kind of book that appeals to me: “[This book deals with] pistols in knives and canes; pistols in flashlights, purses, ploughs, whips, bicycle handlebars, stirrups, keys, pipes, belts, sundials, and other contrivances. In addition, there are other types classified as oddities, such as squeezers, knuckledusters, alarm and trap.

Firearms Curiosa cover
The dust jacket of the 1955 Greenberg limited edition bears this illustration of an automatic dog-mounted fowling piece.

There are combination weapons, turret, chain and harmonica pistols, guns using superposed loads and other variations from the norm. These remarkable firearms come from more than fifty collections. Some of the most interesting rarities have never before been illustrated in any publication, and their existence is unknown to most collectors.”

You've just got to love the illustration on the dust jacket of my copy of Firearms Curiosa. It shows an actual patent application archived in the Smithsonian Institution. The patent is titled “NEW AND INGENIOUS READY-ACTING DOG-TAIL AND GUN-BARREL ATTACHMENT FOR SPORTING PURPOSES,” and the picture shows a fowling piece that is attached to the back of a pointer and automatically fires when the dog goes on point. That's my kind of gun! That's my kind of book!

Winant's choice of cover illustration for this edition is whimsical, but the book's content isn't. The contents, in order, are Combination Weapons; Miniature Firearms; Two-Barrel Revolvers; Two-Cylinder Revolvers; Squeezers and Knuckledusters; Alarm and Trap Guns; Knife Pistols and Cane Guns; Other Disguised Guns; Superposed Loads; Turret and Chain Guns; and Miscellaneous.

Winant writes in a casual, extremely readable style that's neither stuffy nor overly professorial. More than 300 black and white photos augment the text, which deals not only with one-of-a-kind museum pieces but with mass-produced items such as the WWII-vintage Liberator single-shot .45 made by GM's Guide Lamp division.

I eat this stuff up. I doubt that I'd ever have a use for an armored vest with 19 pistol barrels sticking out of it, a 24-shot revolver, or a pistol that's actually a functional tobacco pipe (hmmmmm. . .) — but if I did, I'd know where to find out about it: in the 281 pages of this little book.

Firearms Curiosa has been reprinted numerous times, and a quick search of Amazon (www.amazon.com), AuctionArms (www.auctionarms.com), Gunbroker (www.gunbroker.com), or Ray Riling Arms Books (www.rayrilingarmsbooks.com) will certainly fetch you a copy in your price range. On Amazon, I found the 1996 Odysseus Editions reprint for as little as $10 a copy, while on the Ray Riling site I found, for $100, what has to be the rarest of the rare: an autographed, inscribed copy of the Arco first edition published in London in 1956. All editions of Firearms Curiosa that I have seen are hardcovers; I doubt that a paperback edition was ever printed.

In 1959, Lewis Winant hit the big time, as far as publishing is concerned, with his classic Early Percussion Firearms: A History of Early Percussion Firearms Ignition —  from Forsyth to Winchester .44/40. (I hope Winant got paid separately for the title; it must have been a day's work in itself.) This book was published by the high-profile firm of William Morrow and is now available in used-original and reprint form from some of the above-mentioned merchants from between $10 and $75.

The Antique and Collectible Firearms and Militaria Headquarters at www.oldguns.net has this to say about Firearms Curiosa: “This is a great book for the collector who is tired of looking at ads for greasy surplus rifles and beginning to wonder if there was something really interesting in the gun field to justify another trip to a museum, or gun show, or auction or website. Really cool stuff!” (If you've never visited oldguns.net, my advice is: do. It's worth it.)

I might note that if you're ever passing through northern Indiana, you might want to pay a visit to the LaPorte County Historical Society Museum (www.laportecountyhistory.org). This museum houses the William A. Jones Collection of Antique Weapons, which contains nearly 1,000 of just the sort of guns that Winant deals with in Firearms Curiosa. For $5 you can see volley guns, trap guns, squeezer pistols, pepperboxes, cane guns, and many other freaky firearms that'll make you look twice and shake your head.

If you do a lot of bathroom reading, hunt down a copy of Firearms Curiosa. You might never come out.


Recommended Gun Digest Resources:

Gun Digest 2011. Click hereGun Digest 2011, The World's Greatest Gun Book, 65th Edition

Gun Digest 1944-2009 3-DVD Set

Massad Ayoob's Greatest Handguns of the World

Shop more at gundigeststore.com

There was no brandishing going on in New Hampshire or Arizona

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That is illegal and isn't being done.  Brandishing is defined as “to shake or wave (as a weapon) menacingly”, (originally a sword, or brand in the Old English).  The law in all the states I checked specifically forbid menacing with a weapon, whether you have a concealed carry permit or not.

The charge is generally called brandishing a weapon or they could be charged with felony menacing.  None of the demonstrators was arrested for any misconduct. They were not brandishing anything.

It is hard for the pioneers of any movement.  It is hard to recover rights that have been covered over with layers of Political Correctness and years of exaggerated accusations by the anti-gun left.  These men were legally exercising what has become an obscure right, and the left has been trying to distort their actions and vilify them so that others will be dissuaded from doing the same thing.

For example, Bonnie Erbe writing at US News and World Report imply's that anyone openly carrying a gun is a crazy waiting to go off on a mass killing spree, saying the danger to society was “tantamount to allowing children to play with live hand grenades.” The Sun in England ran a headline: A MAN with a 9mm pistol waits for Barack Obama to appear at a meeting – after cops said they could not arrest him.

After mentioning that Obama has gotten many death threats, they mentioned in the fourth paragraph that the man caused no trouble to anyone.  On Time's website Joseph Petro says “They're intimidating people like it's a western saloon..”

No crimes were committed, no harm was done.   These men peaceably assembled for redress of grievance and carried weapons.  Those are covered by Amendment 1 and Amendment 2 to the United States Constitution.

Let's hold the national press and the blogoshere to task to report accurately on the news of the day, and not impute criminal intent or make up actions that cast a negative light on people who carry guns simply because they are legally carrying them. Read more

Source: examiner.com

 

High-Profile Gun Rights Case Inches Toward Supreme Court

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The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is likely to decide whether the Second Amendment's guarantee of a right to “keep and bear arms” restricts only the federal government — the current state of affairs — or whether it can be used to strike down intrusive state and local laws too.

A three-judge panel ruled that the Second Amendment does apply to the states. But now a larger Ninth Circuit panel will rehear the case, a procedure reserved only for issues of exceptional importance, which means the earlier decision could be upheld or overruled.

Two other circuits have said the Second Amendment does not apply to the states, a legal term known as “incorporation.” If the Ninth Circuit's en banc panel continues to disagree with its peers, the Supreme Court almost certainly would step in.

The Ninth Circuit case involves Russell and Sallie Nordyke, who run a gun show business that would like to rent Alameda County's fairgrounds (the county includes Oakland and is across the bay from San Francisco). After being blocked, they sued. The author of the ordinance in question, then-county supervisor Mary King, actually claimed such shows are nothing but “a place for people to display guns for worship as deities for the collectors who treat them as icons of patriotism.”

The hearing is set for 10 a.m. PT in the federal courthouse at 95 Seventh Street in San Francisco.

A few other items:

California Update: I wrote an article three months ago about a lawsuit filed by the Second Amendment Foundation and the Calguns Foundation saying routine denials of concealed carry permits violate the Second Amendment's right to bear arms. Oral arguments on a preliminary motion in that case are scheduled for the same day — September 24 — at 2 p.m. in Sacramento.

In a brief filed on Monday, Sacramento (one of the counties sued) says it wants more time to question the gun owners who filed the case to verify that they're in a position to sue. “Defendants seek to depose the individual plaintiffs on these issues to determine the basis of their alleged ‘undisputed facts,' what process each plaintiff has engaged in to the end of obtaining a carry concealed permit in Sacramento County,” it says.

Some Guns Are More Equal Than Others: Nobody has been hurt by the protesters who have legally carried guns to events where the president has been speaking, and I know of no evidence that they were even close enough to see the man.

Nevertheless, Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbia's non-voting Democratic rep in the U.S. House of Representatives, wants mandatory “gun-free zones around the president, his cabinet and other top federal officials,” according to a report by the local Fox affiliate. Similarly, the Brady Campaign told CBS News that guns have no place at such an event.

It's Official: Congratulations to the Calguns Foundation for being awarded non-profit status by the IRS. Gene Hoffman, chairman of the Calguns Foundation, told me on Monday evening that the group is now officially a 501(c)(3) non-profit; previously, the non-profit status had been pending.

Montana Update: You may remember that a Montana state law seeks to challenge the federal government on the manufacture and sale of guns made entirely within the state. It takes effect on October 1. As soon that happens, according to Montana Shooting Sports Association president Gary Marbut, gun-rights types will have a lawsuit ready to file to prevent federal prosecution of local would-be gunsmiths.

“We have some strong arguments to make, including some that have never been argued before about the (U.S. Constitution's) Commerce Clause and the Tenth Amendment, as far as I know,” Marbut told me on Monday.

Paging The Ninth Circuit: I just noticed yet another case in which a judge has declined to extend the Second Amendment to state or local laws. The case is called Slough v. Telb and arose out of a gun seizure in Ohio.

U.S. District Judge David Katz ruled on August 14: “The United States Supreme Court has never held that the Second Amendment is enforceable against the states by incorporation into the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Courts in other circuits have held that Second Amendment rights are not enforceable against the states under (civil rights laws). As the weight of authority holds that the individual right to bear arms may not be enforceable against the states, the constitutional right to do so is anything but clearly established.” Read more

Source: cbsnews.com

 

Missoula Gun Rights Group VS Feds over Montana Firearms Freedom Act

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The Montana Shooting Sports Association, headquartered in Missoula, and the Second Amendment Foundation, of Bellevue, Wash., announced Monday they intend to file suit on Oct. 1 to prevent federal gun control laws from being enforced in Montana for guns made and used within the state's boundaries.

“If a gun is made in Montana and stays in Montana, it isn't engaging in interstate commerce,” said Alan Gottlieb, of the Second Amendment Foundation. “The federal government really should bug out.”

At issue is the Montana Firearms Freedom Act, which passed the 2009 Legislature and was signed into law by Gov. Brian Schweitzer. That law states that guns, ammunition and certain gun parts manufactured and used in Montana are not subject to federal gun laws.

The law goes into effect Oct. 1. Several other states are considering identical legislation, although so far only Tennessee has passed a similar measure.

Currently, individuals and businesses that sell or manufacture most guns must have a federal license.

Missoula resident Gary Marbut, president of the Montana Shooting Sports Association, said that licensure is about control.

“Whenever there is licensure, there is control. That's the purpose of licensure,” he said. “We don't think the source of those items that are essential to our Second Amendment freedoms should be controlled by the federal government.”

Scot Thomasson, a spokesman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, declined to comment for this story.

However, the agency sent letters to all federal gun license holders in the state last month. That letter stated that the Montana Firearms Freedom Act did not nullify federal gun regulations.

“All provisions of the Gun Control Act and the National Firearms Act and their corresponding regulations continue to apply,” according to the letter, which was signed by Carson Carroll, assistant director of the ATF in Washington, D.C. “These, as well as other federal requirements and prohibitions, continue to apply whether or not the firearms or ammunition has crossed state lines.”

That the guns and ammo not be used outside Montana is important, Gottlieb said. So far, the federal government has justified federal control over guns by citing the “interstate commerce clause,” which states that the federal government can regulate commerce between the states.

But if a gun will not be leaving Montana, there is no “interstate commerce” and the federal government has no standing to enforce its laws, Gottlieb said.

Marbut said he'll planning to file suit in Montana federal court the day the law goes into effect. He said he's received letters from Montanans interested in making their own guns, but who aren't sure the new law will protect them from federal prison time.

Those people, Marbut said, are the “test case.” He's anticipating the suit will seek to prevent the ATF from enforcing federal laws. Marbut said he didn't want any Montanans to have to go to federal prison in order to test the legal arguments behind the Firearms Freedom Act.

In the meantime, he said, please don't make a gun.

“We are continuing to highly recommend to Montana people that nobody make one of these Montana devices until we can clarify these legal issues in court,” he said. “We don't want some Montana citizens to face potential federal prison time.”

The law states that the gun must be machined in Montana; people couldn't simply assemble a gun here from parts they bought out of state.

Marbut said gun laws ought to be made and enforced by the states.

“We would prefer that if there's going to be regulation (of guns) that it done at the state level in a way that is consistent with our people and our culture in Montana,” he said. “We don't need the kinds of regulation that New Jersey may need or that California may need.” Read more

Source: missoulian.com

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