HOUSTON – A would-be robber is shot to death by a tire store owner in north Houston, and officers are searching for three suspects who got away.
The shooting took place after 8 p.m. Wednesday at the 11100 block of Bauman Road.
Police say four men tried to stage a robbery at the El Mante Tire Shop at the 11000 block of Bauman Road at approximately 8:30 p.m. Wednesday. The store owner, who has a license to carry a concealed handgun, drew his weapon and started shooting.
One robbery suspect died in the shop, but three others escaped in a black Mercury Mountaineer with chrome rims. Read more
VALLEY STREAM (WPIX) – A Nassau County jewelry store owner was shot in the torso as he faced three would-be robbers and, amazingly, was able to detain one suspect until police arrived.
At 7:11 p.m., three suspects — a woman and two men — attempted to rob Papandrew Jewelers, located at 11 Sunrise Highway at Franklin Avenue in Valley Stream.
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One man, Edward Hamilton, 24, of Brooklyn, produced a handgun and the store owner retrieved his own gun from behind a display case, according to police.
The two exchanged gunfire when Hamilton jumped over the display case. The store owner sustained a gunshot in the torso.
Hamilton and Gloria Cortes, 20, of Brooklyn, who was posing as a customer, fled the store. The injured store owner was remarkably able to roll onto the third robber — Bryan Kenner, 28, of South Ozone Park, and hold him until police arrived at the scene.
At 8:53 p.m., Lynbrook detectives found Cortes at a parking lot on Rockaway Avenue and West Jamaica Avenue in Valley Stream.
Bureau of Special Operations Officers were able to located and arrest Hamilton at his home at 10:25 p.m. Hamilton was acting as the group's lookout. Read more
The red fiberglass stock on the author’s SKS is actually heavier than most wood stocks.
I used to feel lonely — but no more. I used to feel left out — but no more.
I have finally broken down and bought an SKS.
Owning an SKS isn’t anything to be particularly proud of, even though I’m probably the last person in my shooting circle to buy one. It’s a guilty pleasure, like filling your mouth with Kraft EasyCheese straight from the can. Yet in these increasingly bleak economic times, when filling your truck’s gas tank seems like an orgy of financial excess, the Samozaryadniy Karabin sistemi Simonova 1945g (Simonov’s Self-Loading Carbine, Model of 1945) looks like a pretty darn good deal.
Don’t get me wrong. If a major American manufacturer put something on the market tomorrow resembling your typical surplus SKS, outraged, pitchfork-wielding sportsmen would probably riot and hound them from their corporate offices in a mob scene straight out of Frankenstein. Yet try as I might to look down my nose at the SKS, I find it difficult to find too much fault with a $250 centerfire rifle that so far has burned up nearly 1,000 rounds of 124-grain FMJ without a single hiccup or burp. It’s no Weatherby, that’s for sure, but then again I’m not Warren Buffett.
As of this writing, you can walk into nearly any large gunshop and find at least one SKS hiding somewhere in the racks. In northern Wisconsin and Michigan, the SKS has earned a reputation as the ultimate poor-man’s deer rifle, just as sporterized Arisakas did during the early 1950s. As a deer load, the 7.62×39 Soviet cartridge isn’t entirely without merit, but if I knew a 10-pointer were going to walk out in front of me in the next five minutes, I’d rather be holding a Marlin .30-30 or .35 Remington than an SKS. That 200 or so extra foot-pounds of energy could make a big difference. Still, I wouldn’t hesitate to shoot at a deer at 75 yards or so with a good SKS and a decent softpoint.
For those who came in late, the SKS was designed by Soviet weapons designer Sergei Gavrilovich Simonov (1894 – 1986). Simonov’s first noteworthy design was the AVS-36 (Avtomaticheskaya Vintovka Simonova 1936, or Simonov’s Semi-Automatic Rifle, Model of 1936). This was a 10-pound selective-fire battle rifle that held a 20-round detachable magazine. Chambered in 7.62×54, it was the Soviet Union’s answer to our own BAR. The AVS-36 didn’t quite work as planned.
The big 7.62×54 round resulted in nearly uncontrollable full-auto fire and tended to batter the rifle’s action mercilessly. After consistently negative reviews, the AVS-36 was yanked from production in 1938 — which must have been somewhat of an embarrassment for all concerned since the gun had made its first public appearance only a few months earlier in the annual May Day Parade in Red Square.
Bloodied but unbowed, Simonov went back to his drawing board and by 1945 had slimmed down the AVS-36 into the gun we know today as the SKS. The semi-auto SKS fired a miniaturized version of the 7.62×54 round, the 7.62×39, and as such was one of the first guns chambered for what would become one of the most widely-used cartridges in the world.
Oddly, considering how many SKS carbines are floating around these days, the SKS had a relatively short service life in the Red Army. The superior AK-47 was introduced in 1947, only two years after the SKS, and by 1955 its selective-fire capability and greater magazine capacity had pretty much spelled the end of the SKS as far as the commies were concerned.
My so-ugly-it’s-beautiful 1966 Chicom SKS, complete with red fiberglass stock.
Well, not quite. The Soviet’s “client states” eagerly snapped up the SKS design, often giving it a different model name and building it in their own national factories. Aside from nomenclature, however, they’re all the good old SKS under the skin. Some of the nations that adopted the SKS include Albania, China, East Germany, Romania, Poland, North Korea, Vietnam, and Yugoslavia. (Quite a rogue’s gallery.) Some of these, such as the Yugo 59/56, are common; some, like the Vietnamese Type 1, are virtually unknown, even in well-rounded collections.
The SKS has a history all its own, of course, and if you’re interested in it I recommend a book such as Phillip Peterson’s Standard Catalog of Military Firearms. My interest in the SKS is strictly as a shooter, although there are signs that the SKS is beginning to be collected by fanciers of Cold War small arms.
My little SKS is a Chinese Type 56 made in 1966 at everyone’s favorite Chinese arms factory, the picturesquely-named “Factory 26” in Jianshe. It’s pretty much a stock SKS with the notable exception of its red fiberglass stock.
I have read that these stocks are found on Type 56s intended for export to humid areas where moth and dust and mildew doth corrupt. However, I’ve found no independent documentation for this, so I must chalk up the ugly stock as just one of those things that I can worry about, or just ignore. I think I’ll ignore it.
Based on some extended range time with this particular SKS, I can report that it’s a handy, pointy little plinker. I have little use for its folding triangle bayonet, but it might be just the thing for a late-afternoon wienie roast. (In fact, I could just about fit an Oscar Mayer in the oiler trap in the buttstock.) Its recoil is surprisingly light, which is partly attributable to the gun’s 8.5-pound. weight and partly to the fact that it fits me so well. Of course, I make my living modeling for the “Before” photos in those “Before/After” weight-loss ads you see in the tabloids, so it might not fit you as well as it does me.
My SKS also has one of the simplest, most inventive front sights I’ve ever found on a carbine. It’s a post screwed into a boss near the muzzle, and to adjust it for elevation you simply turn it up a few or down a few turns with the front sight tool. The whole gizmo is protected by a hood, so it’s not likely to get bumped out of position. Of course, the rear sight is adjustable for elevation way past any range I’m likely to be shooting. Just to be clever, I touched up the front sight with some orange modeling paint, which sets it off quite nicely. If you need to adjust for windage, however, you’re pretty much out of luck, which is perhaps why Sergei Gavrilovich Simonov gave us 10 shots.
To load the SKS, you retract the bolt and insert the cartridges one by one down into the magazine well, or charge the fixed mag all at once with a 10-round stripper clip. (I prefer the stripper clip if for no other reason than I once had a Roth-Steyr Model 1907 slam shut on my pinkie while I was loading it one-at-a-time.) When the magazine is loaded, you give the bolt a firm tug to the rear and let it slam forward. That’s all there is to it.
There are a few things to keep in mind about the SKS. The first is the safety, a flange-like lever mounted near the rear of the triggerguard on the right side. Flipped up and forward, toward the magazine, is SAFE. Flipped down and back, toward the butt, is FIRE. I have trouble remembering my own ZIP code these days, so I marked the FIRE position on my SKS with a thin stripe of red paint.
Another thing to remember about the SKS is its reputation for being prone to slam-fires. (I had this happen once on a MAS 49/56, and it’s not an experience I’d care to repeat.) The earliest Soviet SKSs had a two-piece, spring-loaded firing pin that was later dropped in favor of a floating one-piece design. I have read that if one of these one-piece firing pins gets frozen in place by cosmoline or other crud, it can cause a slam-fire. For this reason I’m careful to clean the bolt face and chamber of my SKS after every shooting session and to douse the pin with a good shot of anti-seize lubricant. I’m also careful to keep the muzzle pointed into the dirt when chambering that first round.
A third point to keep in mind is that the SKS has a fixed 10-round magazine, which may or may not be legal for hunting in your state. It’s a simple matter to fashion a magazine block from a piece of hardwood and fill the bottom of the magazine with it, limiting it to however many shots you desire, but, once again, doing so might not meet with approval in your state.
I can’t personally recommend the kits that supposedly convert your fixed-magazine SKS into a removable-magazine model, but I have heard little good about them. Norinco did import a few factory-modified SKS-type rifles with removable magazines called the Models D and M, and these reportedly function more or less as advertised. They’re also generally priced at between $400 and $500 in Excellent condition these days, and in my opinion that’s a bit too salty for the privilege of using AK-47 magazines in an SKS.
I can see three uses for the SKS: hunting (where legal); home defense (with suitable ammunition); and plinking. So far I’ve been able to shoot a few 3-inch offhand groups with my SKS at 50 yards, and if I were to take it hunting I’d limit myself to that distance or just a bit farther out. For home defense it’s perhaps a bit much — a bit too penetrating — but it’s been reported that quite a few shop-owners saved their stores from looters during the 1992 Los Angeles riots just by having an SKS handy.
For plinking, however, the SKS is hard to beat. It’s well-balanced, handy, and easy to load, and in most respects it’s the equal of my Ruger Mini-Thirty, which I consider the benchmark for a carbine of this type. All in all I’m rather tickled with my SKS. I just wish the bug had bitten me sooner.
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Inside This Issue
• Fifteen tips for gun maintenance from Dave Morelli.
• Change is the only constant in Editor Kevin Michalowski's world. Click here to read his “Editor's Shot” column.
• NRA Update: A Talk With a Field Rep
• Blast from the Past: The old .38 S&W single action
The Guncrafter 50 GI Glock Conversion for the Glock Model 21 45 ACP.
Done correctly, modern handguns offer a perfect combination of polymer and steel. They bring together thoughtful ergonomics, ideal features and craftsmanship. But do you need a big gun or a little one? I guess that depends on the circumstances and what you want to accomplish.
So which gun do you need: A .380 that disappears when concealed or a .50 GI that will punch holes in just about anything you decide to shoot? How do you choose? I say buy both for some very good reasons.
The first rule of a handgun is that it must fire every time you pull the trigger. Accuracy is negotiable. Reliability is not. When you get both accuracy and reliability, you have a handgun to brag about. Both of the guns highlighted here have earned their bragging rights.
We’ll start with the big gun because, in America, people love big things.
Guncrafter’s Glock Conversion Kit 50 GI
The .50 GI pushes the 300-grain bullet at 725 fps. The 275-grain at 875 fps and opens up to more than an inch in diameter. Ouch, that’s gonna leave a mark.
First off, the idea of Glock conversion is not new. Several firms are making kits to take the Austrian pistol down to .22 caliber for low-cost plinking. But Guncrafter Industries went the other direction, taking the Glock 21 up from the .45 ACP to the whopping .50 GI. That’s right, this is a big-bore auto pistol with a half-inch hole in the front of the barrel. And unlike the X-Frame S&W monsters, the Guncrafter’s sidearm is one you can control and carry with relative ease.
The deal is simple: Field strip the Glock. Put the new slide and barrel assembly on the frame, insert a new magazine containing .50 GI rounds and you are in business. It all takes less than a minute and you go from a big, honkin’ self-defense pistol to an even bigger honkin’ pistol that will take care of just about any critter found from sea to shining sea.
Whether you use the gun for self-defense or hunting you will not have to worry about performance. You might not want to carry the gun as your primary firearm on a grizzly bear hunt, but it would make a fine backup pistol in bear country. And I’m guessing the big bullets will encourage even the toughest wild hog to take a lengthy dirt nap.
Made from top quality stainless steel forgings, the conversion includes a complete top end: slide, recoil spring, barrel, etc. and a magazine for your Glock Model 20 or 21. The magazine offers a 9+1 capacity with the extended base or an 8+1 capacity with a standard base, all for a retail price of $595. Quite the bargain.
The .50 GI round was designed as a self-defense round, so it’s made to hit hard but still be controllable. Pushing a 300-grain bullet at 725 feet per second gives you a power factor of 210! There is also a 275-grain round that moves out at 875 fps and both these rounds have a recoil impulse similar to a .45 ACP or 10mm round.
In range testing there was universal surprise among those who pulled the trigger. No abuse. No injured or aching wrists. Just good firm recoil in a platform that is familiar and completely controllable. Accuracy was great and reliability was perfect.
Factory-loaded ammo is available from Guncrafter Industries, as are reloading dies and components. I found no downside when looking over the Guncrafter’s conversion. And if you really want to go the whole nine yards, start with your Glock 20 or 21, get the Guncrafter Industries .50 GI conversion kit and then buy a .22LR conversion kit from Advantage Arms. One gun; all sorts of possibilities.
The Little Gun – Kahr Arms 380
The Kahr Arms 380 sports a 2.5-inch barrel and an overall length of just 4.9 inches, but this little gun certainly does its job out to 7 yards.
Massad Ayoob calls pistols this size “mouse guns.” I consider Mas a good friend but I don’t think he’d want me shooting at him with a mouse gun and I sure wouldn’t want him shooting at me with one. The point is this: The best gun to have in a gunfight is the gun you have with you when the gunfight starts. So, if carrying a small gun means you’ll carry a gun all the time, get a small gun and get a good one. The Kahr Arms P380 is a good one; one of the best, in fact.
Unlike other pocket-sized .380 pistols, the Kahr has all the features you’d find on a full-sized gun, including a slide-lock lever and a last-round hold open feature. The operating system is a modified Browning style.
There is no link beneath the barrel, but rather a kidney-shaped hole in the lug beneath the chamber. This allows the barrel to unlock and tilt as it would on a full-sized Browning-style pistol. The trigger offers a long but smooth, double-action pull that also cocks the striker. Pull weight is about 7 pounds. There is no magazine disconnect, nor any external manual safeties. Weighing in at just 9.9 ounces, this pistol is easy to conceal and even easier to draw.
Of course you can’t expect match-grade accuracy from a pistol with a 2.5-inch barrel and an overall length of just 4.9 inches, but this little gun certainly does its job out to 7 yards. The sights, a short white rear post and white dot on the front allow you to quickly “dot the i” and fire. If you have the front sight on target, you will get hits.
Fit and finish is great like all Kahr pistols. If there is one drawback, it would be that the small size of the gun in my big hands makes it feel as though it is “riding high” in the grip. But that’s just a feeling; the gun is very controllable, even if you are burning through the entire six-round magazine in short order. Granted; the .380 round is not a one-shot fight-stopper, but this little deep cover pistol is nearly perfect for its intended purpose.
Conclusion
Large or small, either of these platforms will give you what you need…once you decide what that is. Do you want a thunderous .50 caliber projectile or a pocket gun that will provide discrete protection when something bigger might be difficult to conceal? The choice is yours and you won’t go wrong by choosing either of these guns.
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The 338 Xtreme was Xtremely pleasant to shoot. The crisp trigger released right at 2 pounds with little felt recoil on the shoulder. For a light rifle, 16 pounds, it was a surprise.
Morelli puts the new .338 Xtreme tactical rifle to the test; it's a shooter loaded with smart features.
I think the big to small syndrome is coming back. In the old days the lack of velocity that could be produced with black powder was offset by a big slug. Later in the smokeless age it seemed the race was on to make a smaller pill move faster to gain the energy desired and flatter trajectory.
Now in the big bore division, the .50 family of cartridges are being necked down to increase performance. The .416 Barrett was a shortened, necked-down .50 case and now the .338’s are becoming the hot new idea. The .338 Lapua is a popular cartridge for the long-range crowd and now these shooters have a new case to work with. The .338 Xtreme from Xtreme Machining.
The .338 Xtreme is a modified .505 Gibbs case making it stronger than the original and necking it to fit the 266-grain machined tellurium copper .338 bullet. The shoulder is 35 degrees, length is 3.040”, and the head diameter is .640.” The case is a bit larger than the .338 Lapua but not quite a .50. The ballistic coefficient of this pill is .825. These cartridges are loaded by International Cartridge Corporation in Reynoldsville, PA, and brass and bullets will be available soon for the reloader. The ballistics are impressive. See the chart for comparisons to the other long-range cartridges.
The 338 Xtreme next to a 308 Winchester. The cartridge is made from a modified .505 Gibbs case. The bullets are machined out of a copper alloy.
The 266-grain bullet starts cooking out of the muzzle at 3200 fps. Its 6048 muzzle energy is retained to 2641 at 1000 yards and at 2000 yards is still 1000 foot pounds. It retains more than double the energy of the .338 Lapua. They maintain that the rifle and cartridge will maintain sub-MOA accuracy at 2000 yards. I don’t have the equipment or range to test a rifle out to 2000 yards but one MOA at 2000 yards is 20 inches. In theory, if it shoots a minute at 100 yards it is capable of 20 at 2000. This puts a lot of responsibility on the shooter’s ability.
The new cartridge needed a launching pad and Xtreme Machining’s new M100/M100F is perfect for this round. The overall weight of this rifle is 16 pounds with a length of 49.9 inches. The nice thing about the M100 is the folding stock. The folded length is 39.2 inches. I really liked the folding option. I don’t know if a guy would want to shoot it from this folded position, and I didn’t give it a try, but getting it in and out of the truck and packing it around was easier with the stock folded.
I was skeptical of its weight for issues of shooting comfort, but was pleasantly surprised in that the recoil was Xtremely manageable.
The rifle comes in a single-shot configuration or with a removable box magazine. I tested the box magazine model and it held seven rounds. It is a bolt-action repeater and the machining is precise and well fitted. The rifle has a fully adjustable stock for length and cheek weld and a pistol grip. The stock is from McRee Precision Modular Stocks.
Perfect fit is important for these big guns. They are capable of such long-range shots, slight imperfections in fit could cause accuracy problems. The recoil management is dependant on proper fit also. The forearm is totally aluminum and the cut rifled 416 stainless barrel is generously floated. It is 26 inches and fluted for weight and cooling. There is also an optional 30-inch barrel. The muzzle of the rifle is threaded for Xtreme Machining’s 42-port muzzle brake or a suppressor, if needed.
I was really impressed with the trigger. It is a two-stage trigger and, as with these two-stagers, there was some take up. They come adjusted from 2 to 2.5 pounds. It was crisp and broke cleanly after take up.
I topped the rifle with one of Leupold’s 8-25x50mm LR/T scopes. Having a rifle that will shoot the distances this one is designed to shoot requires quality optics. You can’t hit what you can’t see, and crystal-clear optics with exceptional light gathering ability is necessary. The rifle came with 30mm Nite-Force rings. These are quality rings. I prefer twist lock type rings for precision rifles because they are solid and give windage adjustment in the base. Leupold’s STD mounting system is one of my favorites because of the stability and there is 20 MOA machined in for long-range adjustments.
I mounted the Leupold scope and I was off to the first shooting session to get it sighted in. I unscrewed the muzzle brake and bore sighted the scope to the rifle and at 100 yards it was nearly right on. The recommended sight-in for this cartridge for long-range shooting is 500 yards but I wasn’t going to be able to shoot at the rifle’s full potential anyway so I zeroed it at 100.
The 42 port muzzle brake did its job making the gun pleasant to shoot. A little concussion was felt on my face but not excessive by any means.
I was interested in what kind of group it was going to shoot and how flat it was going to be at the closer distances. Also, with these big rifles, I was curious how comfortable it was going to be to shoot. Utility is also of interest to shooters and I like to pack it around a little to get an idea of how easy it will be to get into service in a police or military mission.
Granted, I don’t run any professional missions these days, but if there is a part of the rifle’s anatomy that will be a problem to the tactician, I will usually notice it in daily use. Like I noted in the description, the folding stock is an asset to the rifle’s utility. It fits in smaller spaces and would take up less room in a SWAT operator’s vehicle. The shorter folded length along with the lighter weight, compared to a .50, would be an advantage to get into a hide quickly and undetected.
The rifle is pleasant to shoot. Recoil is barely noticeable and I could feel the concussion from the blast more than the push on the shoulder. The muzzle brake disperses the report in all directions and not directly back to the shooter so the concussion can be felt but is not a problem. I could shoot this gun all day without excessive fatigue.
Within five shots I had the group close enough to center for this test. I shot a one-minute five-shot group with three shots almost in the same hole. Considering I only shot the gun 10 times I was happy with the group. I only had 10 more rounds after I sighted it in so I shot it at longer distances to see how flat it was.
With the gun sighted at 100 yards I engaged 10-inch targets without taking the cross hair off of the target. I just aimed a little high of center. I took a couple shots each at 300, 400, and 500. At 600 yards I would start to correct the drop with the scope turrets. Using my Sierra ballistic program I calculated a ballistic table and figured the drop to shoot the last rounds at 1000 yards. The elevation came in correctly and the four shots were spread out about 18 inches. I am not calling this a group, but I thought it was a good starting place for a tactician to work from.
The .338 Xtreme is a definite bridge between the .338 Lapua and the .50 BMG-based cases. It gives the tactician and long-range shooter another cartridge option to better fit the tool to the mission. Check out the cartridge and gun made for it at www.xtrememachining.biz or call (814) 345-6290.
This article appeared in the December 7, 2009 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.
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MARRERO, La. (AP) – Col. John Fortunato says the man was reported shot in the chest around 8 p.m. Saturday. He was taken to University Hospital where he was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.
Fortunato says investigators learned that the man was 1 of 3 male suspects who tried to rob the couple as they were walking from their driveway to their home.
Fortunato says the male robbery victim was also armed and shot the perpetrator. The other two suspects fled on foot. Read more
The PLCAA is the 2005 federal law passed by Congress in response to the flood of reckless lawsuits brought by the Brady Center on behalf of anti-gun mayors seeking to hold members of the firearms industry liable for the criminal or unlawful misuse of their products.
This is now the third time this year the Supreme Court has denied a challenge to the PLCAA backed by the Brady Center. In March 2009, the Brady Center was also involved in the appeals of Lawson v. Beretta and City of New York v. Beretta, both of which the Supreme Court refused to hear. Monday's Supreme Court decision in the Adames case is another stinging setback to the Brady Center's failed anti-gun political agenda to destroy the individual right of Americans to keep and bear arms — a right the Supreme Court declared last year in Heller was protected by the Second Amendment.
The Adames lawsuit was filed by the Brady Center on behalf of a family seeking to hold Beretta responsible for the tragic shooting death of their son, caused solely by the criminal acts of a teenage boy who gained unauthorized access to his father's unsecured service pistol. The case was originally dismissed by a Chicago trial court, subsequently reinstated in part by the Illinois Court of Appeals, and then ultimately found to be barred under the PLCAA by the Illinois Supreme Court. By its decision yesterday, the Supreme Court found it unnecessary to consider the Illinois Supreme Court's well-reasoned decision that held the PLCAA was both constitutional and clearly applicable to this lawsuit.
Representing Beretta in the case was Craig Livingston of the Livingston Law Firm, who after being notified of the Supreme Court's rejection of the appeal remarked, “And so ends a long legal battle — from the trial court in Chicago, through the Illinois appellate courts, and all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court — which served only to confirm what has been known since May 5, 2001, namely that this tragic shooting death was caused not by any defect in a Cook County Corrections Officer's Beretta pistol, but rather by its reckless misuse on that fateful day by his teenage son.”
Lawrence G. Keane, senior vice president and general counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the trade association for the firearms industry, applauded yesterday's Supreme Court rejection of the Brady Center's appeal, stating, “Frivolous and unsupported lawsuits such as Adames that attempt to force manufacturers of firearms to pay for the crimes of others over whom they have no control are precisely what the PLCAA is designed to stop.”
What hunting remains (resident game birds, deer, and bighorn sheep) would be restricted.” That petition blamed hunters for the declining population of the desert tortoise, a threatened species under the state's Endangered Species Act.
The NRA noted that, “The petition contains the flimsiest of evidence that hunting in the Preserve is the cause or even a contributing factor of the decline in the tortoise population….The objective of the petition is not to protect and enhance the tortoise population; rather it is an attempt by this coalition of anti-hunting organizations to permanently ban hunting from the Mojave National Preserve. BD was behind the ban imposed on the use of lead ammunition for hunting big game within the range of the California condor. Earlier this year, CBD attempted unsuccessfully to extend that ban to all game species.”
The NRA called on hunters to urge the Fish and Game Commission to deny the petition.
Address correspondence to:
John Carlson, Jr., Executive Director California Fish and Game Commission 1416 Ninth Street, Room 1320 Sacramento, CA 95814
Last month Warden filed a complaint against the Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and the city itself in U.S. District Court, alleging the city's gun ban defies his constitutional right to bear arms.
The complaint cited an executive order Nickels issued in June, directing all departments to review then-present rules “to determine the extent to which departments could prohibit firearms on city property.”
Nickels last month banned guns on city facilities where children are likely to frequent. The places on the ban list include parks, playgrounds, community and environmental learning centers, sports fields and courts, swimming beaches, pools, water play areas, skate parks and golf courses.
“The purported interested, to protect children from gun violence, has no substance and no objective facts behind it,” Warden writes in his motion.
Warden mentions a study cited by the defendants in support of the gun ban. The study by the University of Pennsylvania found “people with a gun were 4.5 more likely to be shot in an assault than those not possessing guns,” the motion said.
However, Warden argues “their sample of persons shot by a gun while carrying a gun was composed mostly of drug dealers, others with criminal records, cab drivers, and women being stalked … Is anyone enlightened by the stunningly obvious claim that armed drug dealers are more likely to be shot by guns than your average person?”
Warden, 44, protested the city's new gun ban by walking into the Southwest Community Center in West Seattle while carrying his gun at high noon on a Saturday last month.
He had forewarned parks officials of his intent and, as a result, was asked to leave immediately after entering the center. Warden complied.
In requesting the injunction, Warden wrote, “If Plaintiff went to the Southwest Community Center with his pistol tomorrow, there is no reason to suspect that the rule would be enforced.”
Warden added that such deprivation of constitutional rights is “inherently irreparable” since “damages cannot be compensable in money.” Read more
Louis Butler is so radical, he was twice rejected by the people of Wisconsin (which is, by the way, one of the most liberal states in our union).
When Louis Butler first ran for the Wisconsin Supreme Court — the voters rejected him by a 2-1 margin. When he was appointed to that court by Democrat Governor Jim Doyle and then stood for retention by the voters, they again rejected him. This was the first time a member of the Wisconsin Supreme Court was rejected by the voters in more than 40 years.
More importantly, Louis Butler opposes the rights of gun owners. The right to bear arms in the Wisconsin Constitution expressly notes that this right is for personal security and “any other lawful purpose.” But in State v. Fischer, Judge Butler was the deciding vote in 2006 to hold that a Wisconsin statute barring carrying a concealed weapon for any purpose, at any time, including in a vehicle, does not violate this right to personal security that the voters of Wisconsin chose to expressly protect in their state constitution.
So he ignored the state constitution in order to impose his anti-gun views on the people of Wisconsin.
After the landmark U.S. Supreme Court Heller case upholding Second Amendment gun rights in 2008, Louis Butler spoke at an Obama for President fundraiser and specifically mentioned “gun control” as an issue that potential Obama appointees would impact.
“Gun control,” Butler said, “may ultimately be decided, and the new appointees can tip the very balance of the court. [The] background, personal beliefs and policy decisions of the justices selected will influence how they will vote on the difficult cases before them.”
There you have it. He is a radical activist who wants to move the courts — and our country — in a new direction. We've already had enough “hope and change” for a lifetime. We don't need another federal judge who will use his radical “personal beliefs” to reshape our society.
ACTION: Please contact your U.S. Senators and urge them to OPPOSE the nomination of Judge Louis Butler as U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Wisconsin. Butler was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, and could now be voted on by the full Senate at any time.
Please OPPOSE the nomination of Louis Butler as U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Wisconsin.
When Louis Butler first ran for the Wisconsin Supreme Court — the voters rejected him by a 2-1 margin. When he was appointed to that court by Democrat Governor Jim Doyle and then stood for retention by the voters, they again rejected him. This was the first time a member of the Wisconsin Supreme Court was rejected by the voters in more than 40 years.
More importantly, Louis Butler opposes the rights of gun owners. In State v. Fischer, Judge Butler expressly ignored the right to bear arms provision in the Wisconsin Constitution. And after the landmark U.S. Supreme Court Heller case upholding Second Amendment gun rights in 2008, Louis Butler spoke at an Obama for President fundraiser and specifically mentioned “gun control” as an issue that potential Obama appointees would impact.
“Gun control,” Butler said, “may ultimately be decided, and the new appointees can tip the very balance of the court. [The] background, personal beliefs and policy decisions of the justices selected will influence how they will vote on the difficult cases before them.”
Again, I urge you to OPPOSE this nomination. Gun Owners of America will be scoring this nomination and will let me know how you vote on this radical judge.
The first day back in the office after a long hunting trip is always a bust. I am invariably tired, worn out, unfocused and stuck dealing with emails, phone calls and nothing that is ever productive. That’s how my day started, just back from an Alaska brown bear hunt, but while I was sorting through all the offers to enhance my male parts and to sell me gold, a new email popped up with good news.
The Winchester Model 94 rifle is back.
Sort of.
Winchester announced today (October 21, 2009) that they are reintroducing the Model 94 with two high-end, high-dollar limited-edition rifles that will commemorate Oliver F. Winchester’s 200th birthday.
The Model 94 was originally called the “Model 1894.” This lever action rifle was a John Browning design and was important for a couple of reasons. First is because it introduced smokeless powder to the civilian world. The military was first to use smokeless powder with the .30-40 Krag in 1892. The Krag was also the first “small bore” military cartridge.
It didn’t hang around long, as the .30-03 replaced it in 1903 as a military cartridge. That was replaced by the updated version called the .30-06 (well actually, it was named “Cartridge, Caliber .30, Model of 1906”) three years later. But the Krag was significant as it introduced smokeless powder and small diameter bullets to the United States.
The new Winchester Model 94 is quite fancy. It's no longer a commoner's gun.
It was inevitable that the civilian world would follow suit and the Model 1894 Winchester was the rifle that introduced this new concept in cartridges and propellants to civilians. When it first shipped in early 1895, the Winchester Model 1894 rifle was chambered in two new, “cutting edge,” high-velocity, small-bore, smokeless powder cartridges, the .30 WCF or, as we came to know it, the .30-30 Winchester; and the .25-35 WCF, known best as the .25-35 Winchester. These were the first two smokeless powder cartridges ever offered to the civilian market in America, and they ushered in an unprecedented era in American rifle cartridges.
In less than a generation we witnessed the birth of some of our greatest hunting cartridges ever, cartridges that continue to be at the top of the popularity heap even today. While these two Winchester cartridges were the portal that transitioned American hunters from big-bore, low-velocity, black powder cartridges to the high velocity, small bore cartridges that continue to dominate our hunting rifle choices today; the Winchester Model 1894 rifle was the delivery system. For that alone this rifle will remain one of the most important ever in American firearms history.
The second reason the Model 94 is so important and historic and why it was such a tragedy when Winchester folded its tent and stopped production in January of 2006, is because with more than six million sold, the Model 94 is the most popular rifle in history.
It is common knowledge among gun guys that the .30-30 Winchester is even today one of the most popular cartridges in terms of sales numbers, and it was claimed without challenge for decades that the .30-30 killed more deer than any other cartridge in history.
That’s certainly not because of any magic ballistic powers the .30-30 contains. The truth is, it’s antiquated and underpowered by today’s standards. But, it continues to be in the top two or three of big game cartridges sold for one simple reason, the Winchester Model 94.
This was the perfect marriage. The rifle sold the cartridge, not the other way around, as with some other popular introductions. The Winchester Model 94 carbine is a slick handling, good feeling rifle that everybody loves. It was priced just right for the working man and it was durable and reliable. But, best of all, it simply felt right in your hand as you carried it. It probably didn’t hurt that for much of the rifle’s life America’s heroes were cowboys. Generations watched the Winchester lever action rifles deal with the bad guys in movies and television shows. It was the gun our heroes used and so it was the gun we used.
The .30-30 proved to be the best performer of the two new cartridges and quickly surged ahead in sales. The name also rolled off the tongue much better than .25-35 Winchester and so it was much cooler to say. Laugh if you must, but the marketing people will tell you that is an important aspect to success. But, without the Model 94 rifle the .30-30 Winchester would have been dumped on the junk heap of obsolescence years ago. Sure it is popular in other rifles, such as the Marlin 336, but without the Model 94 the .30-30 would never have lasted long enough to become popular in the Marlin.
Now it’s back.
But not in the classic Model 94 spirit. These rifles are fancy looking and priced for kings, not commoners. The limited edition Model 1894 Custom Grade rifle has a suggested retail of $1,959. The Model 1894 High Grade rifle’s suggested retail is $1,469. I expect they will sell out production quickly, but these new rifles are not in the true spirit of what made the 94 historic.
The return of the Model 1894 is a wonderful thing, but it didn’t become the most popular rifle in history by selling high grade walnut and embellished engraving. This is the working man’s gun and these two are not in a working man’s budget. In fact, I would be shocked if any of these new rifles ever shoot a white tail.
Will the plain, vanilla Model 94 return? The word I have from a Winchester representative is yes. But, he couldn’t say when or for what price. It’s also going to be made in Japan by Miroku. They make high quality firearms, but will the American cowboy (and we gun guys are all a little bit “cowboy”) accept a rifle made in Japan?
My guess is it will depend on the price. If they bring back the Model 94 rifle that became famous, that is a simple, functional, well made carbine for a reasonable price, we won’t care where it’s made and will buy it again. But, if the falling dollar leaves it priced too high, I predict the Model 94 is in for a rough time and will be fighting for survival.
This may be the rebirth of an American legend. Let’s hope it can survive.
As the National Rifle Association (NRA) noted, “The Committee voted unanimously to approve A4304, clarifying the original language by exempting the transfer of handguns among licensed retail dealers, registered wholesale dealers and registered manufacturers; or transfers of handguns from any person to a licensed retail dealer or a registered wholesale dealer
or registered manufacturer. As it stands now, the current law exempts sales between licensed gun dealers but not purchases by licensed dealers from firearm distributors or manufacturers which under New Jersey law are classified differently.”
The NRA alert continued, A4304 will now move to the full Assembly and is scheduled for a vote on Monday, December 7th. It is important that you contact your legislator and respectfully urge them to support A4304.
The spectacle on the Senate floor — in connection with the anti-gun ObamaCare bill — is disgusting. The Senate is debating socialized health care right now, and some Republicans may be ready to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
This alert is long, but it is necessarily so. Here's the situation as it stands right now on the Senate floor:
* Harry Reid is pushing a $3 trillion bill with over $500 billion in new deficits. But he is trying to conceal the deficits with accounting fraud on a scale which would put anyone else in prison for the rest of his life.
* Reid's bill would restructure the American economy in a way that has not been seen at any time during our lifetimes — but is being shoved down the throats of the American people before they can even comprehend the magnitude of the problem.
* Harry Reid took six weeks to write his legislation behind closed doors, but is trying to force the Senate to pass the bill in no time at all. FYI, the Constitution envisions an important role for the U.S. Senate in crafting legislation, but nowhere mentions Reid's “secret” meetings to coerce and bribe senators.
“Okay, okay” you say. The fact that Harry Reid comes across as a lying politician is not news. But there is another problem: Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has adopted a losing strategy that will, unfortunately, help speed up the passage of Harry Reid's anti-gun health care bill.
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The Senate can do little without every senator agreeing to do it — or at least not objecting to its being done. Hence, you hear about “unanimous consent requests.” This means that every senator agrees to considering a particular amendment or, at least, to voting on it at a particular time.
The thing about these requests is this: They almost always make it easier for the bill to pass.
Hence, we are at the point where WE SHOULD STOP ALL UNANIMOUS CONSENT AGREEMENTS TO FURTHER REID'S HEALTH CARE FREIGHT TRAIN. And a single senator can do this by simply saying: “I object.”
But instead, Mitch McConnell has already started allowing amendments to be offered which will let the Senate Democrats “clean up” the bill … just enough to get it passed by the Senate.
We need to stop this sort of deal making. We need to stop these requests which grease the skids for Harry Reid's freight train. And, in particular, we don't want to clean up this diabolical monstrosity. We want to kill it.
So our message? Kill the bill. Kill the bill. Kill the bill.
AND NO MORE UNANIOMOUS CONSENT AGREEMENTS TO FACILITATE THAT BILL'S PASSAGE.
We don't want Mitch McConnell to try to make himself look good by pretending to be a “non-obstructionist.” We want Senate Republicans to move heaven and earth to protect Americans from Harry Reid's scheme of bribery, fraud and dirty politics.
ACTION: Contact your two U.S. Senators. Tell them to object to any further Unanimous Consent agreements to further the ObamaCare freight train.
You can use the Gun Owners Legislative Action Center at https://www.gunowners.org/activism.htm to send a pre-written message to your Senators — the appropriate e-mail will automatically be sent to your Senator, based on whether he is a Republican or Democrat.
—– Pre-written letter for Republican Senators —–
Dear Senator:
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has agreed to Unanimous Consent agreements which allow for amendments to be offered to ObamaCare — a strategy that will, unfortunately, have the effect of providing Democrats just enough votes to “clean up” this anti-gun bill and get it passed.
We need to stop this sort of request which helps grease the skids for Harry Reid's freight train.
And, in particular, I don't want to see this diabolical monstrosity cleaned up in a way that makes the bill just “good enough” to get 60 votes. This bill would restructure the American economy in a way that has not been seen at any time during our lifetime. I want to see this bill killed outright.
So my message? Kill the bill. Kill the bill. Kill the bill. NO MORE UNANIOMOUS CONSENT AGREEMENTS TO FACILITATE THAT BILL'S PASSAGE.
I don't want Mitch McConnell to try to make Republicans look good by pretending to be “non-obstructionist.” I want Senate Republicans to move heaven and earth to protect Americans from Harry Reid's socialist scheme.
Sincerely,
—– Pre-written letter for Democrat Senators —–
Dear Senator:
The spectacle on the Senate floor — in connection with ObamaCare — is disgusting:
* Harry Reid is pushing a $3 trillion bill with over $500 billion in new deficits. But he is trying to conceal the deficits with accounting fraud on a scale which would put anyone else in prison for the rest of his life.
* Reid's bill would restructure the American economy in a way that has not been seen at any time during our lifetimes — but is being shoved down the throats of the American people before they can even comprehend the magnitude of the problem.
* Harry Reid took six weeks to write his legislation behind closed doors, but is trying to force the Senate to pass the bill in no time at all. FYI, the Constitution envisions an important role for the U.S. Senate in crafting legislation, but nowhere mentions Reid's “secret” meetings to coerce and bribe senators.
At Colorado State University in Fort Collins, public safety experts and the president's cabinet support a gun ban.
Before the decision is made, however, the school wants to hear what students think.
Wednesday night, the student governing body voted 21-3 in support of keeping CSU a conceal-and-carry campus. Five student senators were absent or did not vote.
The student leaders will now submit their resolution to the CSU president for consideration.
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Author of the bill, CSU Junior Cooper Anderson said, “We wrote this bill because we felt that a student should have the right to self defense on campus. We don't believe that crime stops at a campus' borders.”
CSU spokesperson Brad Bohlander says the Public Safety Team and the president's cabinet are united against the issue.
“More availability and more access to weapons on a highly populated college campus can potentially lead to more negative incidents,” Bohlander told 9NEWS.
Besides Utah, where universities aren't allowed to ban guns, CSU is one of only a handful of universities across the country allowing concealed weapons.
CSU has never had a violent gun incident on campus. Read more
It was George Carlin who coined the phrase “Blood Intelligence Quotient: That's the point at which you decide not to do something that might make you bleed.” Because folks like us take things a bit more seriously, we tend to use terms like situational awareness, approach considerations and maintaining a tactical advantage. But in truth those are all parts of the Blood Intelligence Quotient. You are and always should be thinking about ways to make sure you don't bleed. Remember a couple blog entries back I asked, “What's more important in a gunfight; shooting the bad guy or not getting shot by the bad guy?” I stand by my desire to not get shot. Doing so mean that I can effectively shoot back. Well the same is true for a hands on situation.Here's the scenario: After logical discussion has broken down it becomes clear that it's time to put Billy Beergoggles in the back of a patrol car… the Tazer didn't work because the prongs got stuck in his mullet or something like that and now you are going to have to put your hands on him. Hopefully you saw the signs of a potential escalation beforehand and called for back up and hopefully it arrived. But either way the next decision you need to make is how to approach Billy. Sometimes you don't get a lot of time to make this decision, but you need to give it some thought anyway. Consider the direction of your approach. The direction you expect the subject to go if everything goes right and what your first move is going to be. After that, the situation becomes completely dynamic and even as you move to defend yourself and control the subject, you need to be thinking about where you are and how you might escape if need be.Remember, there is no shame in making a short-term tactical retreat if you need to. The goal is to maintain that tactical advantage ant that means if you need to let go, create some space and go for a different weapon. Do it.Keep thinking tactically. Do it all the time. Then when you have to do it under stress, you'll be able to.
Looking to go armed, but are stuck in the weeds as to what to arm yourself with? Here are 20 excellent concealed carry gun options that will keep you on the defensive.
HOUSTON – A would-be robber is shot to death by a tire store owner in north Houston, and officers are searching for three suspects who got away.
