The man accused of breaking into the home was transported to a St. Louis hospital, where he was in critical condition.
The St. Clair County Sheriff's Department was called about 7:30 a.m. Tuesday to a house in the 2300 block of State Street near East Carondelet, Capt. Steve Johnson said.
“We're still investigating,” Johnson said. “As it looks right now, a male subject broke into a residence … because his ex-girlfriend was in the residence.
“When he broke in, a male subject who was in there tried to fight him off and then defended himself by using a semiautomatic pistol and shot the person who broke into the house two times. The person who lived there immediately called 911, came outside, unloaded the gun and waited for law enforcement and EMS to arrive,” Johnson said. Read more
That invokes a phrase from a letter written by Thomas Jefferson: “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
Kostric did not immediately respond to an interview request from CBSNews.com.
Portsmouth police spokesman Lt. Frank Warchol told the Boston Globe that because Kostric was on private property — it belongs to a church near the school with the town hall meeting — he would not be arrested. “We can't do anything about it,” Warchol said. “Obviously he's on our radar screen at this time.”
Kostric was there around 11 a.m. ET, before Mr. Obama even left the White House en route for the Granite State, and there's no indication he ever laid eyes on the president. Nevertheless, around that time (11:35 a.m., to be precise) MSNBC's Carlos Watson called for Kostric to be forcibly disarmed: “I cannot imagine that there aren't enough lawyers in New Hampshire who can't file some sort of emergency injunction.” One of his guests added: “Why can't we get rid of him now?”
MSNBC's Chris Matthews invited Kostric on his show and wondered why “you're carrying a goddamned gun at a presidential event?” (Kostric's reply: He was there peacefully, guns aren't unusual in New Hampshire, and Americans lose rights unless they exercise them.)
One MSNBC.com report indicates that Kostric was approached by a detective, possibly a Secret Service agent, who told him he could be arrested within 1,000 feet of a school with a weapon under a federal law.
Some background: the 1990 Gun-Free School Zones Act said that it “shall be unlawful” to possess a firearm within 1,000 feet of an elementary or secondary school.
That law is no longer on the books. In the case of U.S. v. Lopez, decided in 1995, the U.S. Supreme Court said violated Congress' powers to regulate interstate commerce and was therefore unconstitutional. Read more
Are You in the Market for a Para Ordnance Firearm?
Know what your Para Ordnance firearms are worth with this up-to-date 12-page .PDF download from the 19th edition of Standard Catalog of Firearms.
* Completely updated
pricing for Para Ordnance firearms with new entries and photos * Sleeper Alerts: Collectible guns that are outpacing the market * Links to manufacturers’ website Learn pricing and values for these Para Ordnance firearms:
At 11:11 p.m. Thursday, police received a report of a shooting at an apartment in the 1800-block of Canter Way, police said.
Police said they found an adult man outside the apartment suffering from two gunshot wounds to the torso.
The man informed officers that the suspect was still inside the apartment.Officers entered the apartment and found Roosevelt Mitchell III, 21, dead with a gun.
The victim told them he was home with his wife and several friends when two suspects forced their way into the apartment.
The resident armed himself with a gun and both exchanged gunfire, police said. The victim was taken to Kern Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries. Read more
Village of Merton — It wasn't a whole lot of cash a thief in the night was taking from W.W. Brown Nurseries.
Still, owner Randy Brown was perturbed that someone had come into his barn on a couple of nights and left with the $3 or $4 in the metal cash box each time.
So Brown said he decided to sleep in the barn several nights on bales of hay to see if he could catch the thief.
About 10:45 Wednesday night, Brown, armed with a .22-caliber revolver, surprised the thief and fired a shot into the ground to startle the intruder. Brown said the thief then threw the cash box at him.
For a time, Brown held the 24-year-old man, later identified as Andrew M. Payne, at gunpoint while waiting for Waukesha County sheriff's deputies to arrive to arrest him at the nursery, N67-W28835 Sussex Road.
The man then scuffled with Brown and attempted to wrestle the gun away from him. The gun discharged, but no one was struck, according to a criminal complaint filed in Waukesha County Circuit Court.
Payne fled before deputies got there, Brown said.
But Brown knew who the man was.
Earlier, “I insisted he give me his wallet,” Brown said.
Sheriff's Capt. Karen Ruff said deputies used identification in the wallet to determine where the suspect lived and arrested him at his residence. Read more
He put forth his ideas in his book, “The County Sheriff, America's Last Hope.” Copies of the book may be ordered from www.sheriffmack.com or by writing to: PO Box 971, Pima, AZ 85543.
He believes fervently and instinctively that the freedom that is Americans' by right is being taken away from them and the Constitution is being gradually eroded. To counteract this trend, he has formed a group called “USA 1-911.” The name was chosen because members believe the country is in a top priority emergency situation.
He has pledged his life to the cause of freedom. He said, “I am dedicated to saving my country. This has consumed my life.”
His goal is to spread his message to every peace officer and citizen in the nation, especially the sheriffs. To reach that goal, he has appeared on TV shows, radio talk shows, on his Web site and YouTube, at Freedom Rallies and has spoken to hundreds of ordinary people gathered in small rooms across the country.
Mack, a fifth generation Arizonan, graduated from Eastern Arizona College and Brigham Young University with a degree in Latin American Studies and Sociology.
He spent 11 years with the Provo, Utah, Police Department, then moved back to Arizona to run for Graham County Sheriff in 1988. He served two terms. While in office, he graduated from the FBI Academy but did not become an agent. Read more
“You know, the NRA doesn’t spend that much money,’’ said Bloomberg during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press’’ program yesterday. “If you want to beat the NRA you have to go out and get your message out, and it costs money to do that.’’
NRA President Wayne LaPierre didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Bloomberg has already contributed about $2.9 million to “Mayors Against Illegal Guns.’’ The organization of 450 city chiefs, founded in 2006 by Bloomberg and Mayor Thomas M. Menino of Boston, lobbied to persuade the Senate to defeat a measure that would have allowed gun owners to carry concealed weapons across state lines. Read more
Note: Kevin Michalowski is the Editor of Gun Digest and Tactical Gear magazines.
If you own an AR-15 or happen to carry an M-16 or M-4 in some far-off dusty place, you also very likely have a pouch full of gadgets you use to clean and maintain that rifle. Well, now Gerber has taken all those important tools and put them together in one place in the eFECT Military Maintenance Tool.
The eFECT (Field Expedient Cleaning Tool) was developed for the distinct purpose of maintaining military style weapons. Built for the M16A/M4 it incorporates components that make field maintenance of a weapon faster and more precise.
It is compatible and interchangeable with Otis Breech-to-Muzzle components. Just unscrew the pick and you can screw in any of the Otis components. I like this because you can hook the Otis cable to the eFECT and pull the cleaning jag through the bore.
Find more gear for professionals in Tactical Gear magazine.
Download Here »
The eFECT features all locking tools including a front sight adjustment tool that rotates for use with four- or five-pin sights. There is a carbon scraper, pin punch, and flat driver. Otis brush and curved pick and the whole unit drops into a ballistic nylon ACU Molle carrying pouch.
I was confused as to how the locking levers worked, for about a minute, but that was just operator error. Pull the levers straight back away from the tool and the tool is unlocked. Any other attempt to move the levers in a different direction proves how tough the Gerber tool is.
The handle panels are polymer and each of the tools are blackened steel and they give you all you need to conduct field maintenance on your rifle. Granted, you won't be changing a gas tube or swapping out a buttstock with this tool, but like the name says, this is a field expedient cleaning tool. If you need to keep your AR style rifle running, this tool will make that job very easy.
Now for the downside. Gerber may not have anticipated just how popular this little baby really is. I've noticed that the eFECT is on backorder from most of the places that regularly sell one. MSRP is about $130, but I have seen them listed for $80 at some outlets. But expect a delay in shipping.
The contents of the package splayed about next to the mag well vise block and fire control-less receiver.
Installing a new AR-15 trigger can make a world of difference. Several companies make great aftermarket AR parts. Let's look at some.
As we all know, the AR-15 has become “America’s rifle” in more ways than one. In its latest incarnations, it continues to serve on in our armed forces. As has been shown in this column on more than one occasion, this rifle has spawned an entire host of products to improve performance, ergonomics, or just to make it look cooler.
Most owners would agree that one aspect of this firearm that needs the most improvement is the fire control system. In other words, folks want a better trigger.
While the triggers on most factory rifles work, they tend to be heavy, creepy, often gritty, and exhibit a fair amount of take-up and overtravel. The creep, long take-up, and grittiness can be ascribed to the sear engagement; the more sear engagement there is the longer it will take the trigger to “break” (take up), and poorly polished surfaces will cause the grittiness.
Overtravel is the distance the trigger moves backwards after it breaks. Trigger pull weights are almost entirely a function of the hammer spring power, which forces the hammer’s sear engagement surface against the sear. A more powerful spring will increase the trigger pull. A more powerful trigger return spring will also have some effect on the pull weight, but it’s minor compared to the effect from the hammer spring.
Like all the other systems on the gun, there are aftermarket parts — really good ones — to improve your trigger function. In fact, several manufacturers use these triggers as OEM parts in some of their product offerings. A number of two-stage systems are available, including modular units, from Jard, Jewell, Chip McCormick, Geissele, Timney, and from several of the rifle manufacturers. Single-stage trigger units are available from Jard, Chip McCormick, and JP Enterprises. (I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that the reader knows the difference between a single stage and a two-stage trigger).
The setup covered in this column is the unit from JP Enterprises. It’s the single-stage trigger kit I have the most experience with and one that is very, very good. JP offers a kit that includes only the trigger with spring, another that includes and entire fire control package with hammer, springs, disconnector, and anti-walk pins. It also offers a modular fire control unit that drops into the empty hole in a lower receiver with an adjustable selector/safety included.
One reason to write about this package is it’s often installed incorrectly — to be more precise, not correctly enough. The kits come with an extensive instruction sheet and installation CD that are more than adequate for the beginner. But I’m going to replicate this installation more concisely, touching on the “not so correct” points.
The first step in the adjustment process. The overtravel screw. Hammer would be cocked for this step but is up for illustration purposes. Note the blood red hammer spring and bright yellow trigger return spring.
Let’s Get Started
Get a magazine well vise block from Brownells and put it in your vise. The first thing to do with the parts is to separate and degrease them thoroughly, particularly the screw threads on the trigger. Clean out your lower, as there’s no sense installing a super-cool trigger and other stuff if you don’t bother to clear the housing of filth.
Put a small dab of red Loctite on two of the trigger pin screws. Screw these onto one end of each of the trigger/hammer pins. Make sure the pins will fit in your receiver; they’re slightly oversized and may be a very tight fit. (In rare cases, if the pins will not slide in or gently tap in with a plastic mallet, then the holes will have to be reamed.)
You’ll likely have to knock the very top corner tip off the safety engagement surface on the back end of the trigger in order to clear the selector as you push the trigger down into the receiver. Take the trigger, place the trigger return spring on it, and insert it into the receiver.
Here’s where it helps greatly to have two simple tools: Buy two extra firing pins and grind or cut the tips off. These make a perfect “slave pins” for installation and are inexpensive. Use them to retain the trigger and hammer in the receiver during the installation process.
Hammer Springs 101
Important point: Thanks to poor advice given on the internet, it’s become popular to make a lighter trigger pull by reversing the hammer spring on the hammer so it’s installed backwards.
This doesn’t work. Springs are designed to work in one direction. By putting the hammer spring on backward (it’s easily done), the spring force is inconsistent: The hammer will not always fall with enough force to ignite the primer because the spring isn’t building up and releasing the energy it was designed to produce.
The JP kits come with your choice of three different hammer spring strengths. Yellow is three pounds, red is 3.5 pounds, and gray is 4.5 pounds. The yellow is most often used for match or varmint setups, red for match (enhanced reliability) and duty use, and gray for duty and DCM matches.
Adjust, Adjust, Adjust
Once the trigger and hammer are installed, you can add the overtravel adjustment screw. Cock the hammer. Take the shorter of the two small headless screws, dab a bit of red Loctite on it (don’t skimp, you can always wipe off the excess), and screw it in all the way.
Place your least favorite thumb in front of the hammer to prevent the hammer from hitting the receiver. Then hold the trigger back and unscrew the screw until the hammer falls. Do this a couple of times and then go just a teeny bit farther. There should be just the tiniest bit of trigger jiggle, with no interference with the hammer once the trigger is pulled.
If you’re holding the trigger back and you hear a slight scraping noise when you rotate the hammer, you don’t have enough overtravel.
Unscrew it a tiny bit more until the scraping goes away. If there’s more than a tiny jiggle, you’ve got too much. This is why you do it a few times — to “feel” it out. It’s easier than it sounds. Just go to release and add a small bit more. If you’re one of those clowns who actually likes lots of overtravel, then by all means, turn the screw out to your heart’s content.
Now set the sear adjustment screw. With the hammer cocked and red Loctite on the remaining headless screw, turn the screw in until the hammer falls on your thumb. Back it out a bit, recock the hammer, and do it again. Repeat five more times. The bent leg of the hex wrench gives a good clock measurement for this task.
Once you’re sure you know where the trigger breaks — say, 6 o’clock from your vantage point — back the screw out one full turn. Then screw it one-quarter turn back in and stop. This will give you three quarters of a turn of sear engagement.
For safety reasons, don’t reduce this. You’ll find that this is more than adequate and is about one millionth the engagement of a standard factory trigger.
The author illustrates the correct and only reliable orientations that the hammer and trigger springs are to be installed. Also visible is the polished edge of the trigger pin hole on the trigger.
Connect the Disconnector
Now install the hammer pin. Take the disconnector and insert it into its slot on the trigger. If you’re lucky, the whole assembly will work perfectly now. For those of you not so blessed, we now need to time or “fit” the disconnector.
This is arguably the most important piece of the fire control unit. It keeps the gun from slam firing, not firing, and doubling. It happens to be very cheap and easy to replace if you screw this up, as it is also the same part that everyone uses in their semi-auto ARs.
The usual fitting issue involves the disconnector hook on the hammer. It almost always has too much engagement so the trigger won’t reset when it is released.
The solution is very simple. Take the disconnector back out and stone off the tip of the hook on the disconnector a bit at a time until the interference is just barely there. When the hammer is being cocked it should just nick the disconnector. This will give maximum disconnector engagement with the minimal amount of trigger reset.
When you stone that hook on the disconnector, it will slowly become a facet instead of a point. That’s okay, just keep that flat parallel with the trigger pin hole in the disconnector. It’s kind of like finding the North Star by following the imaginary line extending down from the rightmost two stars in the big dipper. Just extend the imaginary line through the center of the hole.
Now put the selector on safe. You can’t do it, can you? You need to take the trigger back out and slowly grind down the safety pad extending from the back of the trigger until, when cocked, the selector will engage on safe with miniscule to no trigger jiggle when safed. The selector should be able to go about halfway to safe when the unit is uncocked.
When this is done, insert the trigger pin, and top the two pins off with their final screws, each with a dab of blue Loctite. This will allow you to get them out later with minor effort, yet will keep the screws from backing out on their own.
Testing the Result
With your thumb in place, cock and fire the trigger multiple times, each time holding the trigger back until the hammer is recocked. Releasing the trigger should then release the hammer from the disconnector, allowing the trigger to fully reset.
If the hammer falls on the block when the trigger is released, then somewhere along the way you took too much material off the front of the disconnector. To remedy this, slowly remove material from the bottom of the nose — that pointy thing on the front of the disconnector — until it will properly engage. The trigger when released should come to rest precisely as the hammer is released from the disconnector.
Once you have that perfect, cock the hammer with the trigger held back to engage the disconnector. Now flick the hammer by pulling it further back and releasing it. The disconnector should catch it. If it doesn’t, try increasing the disconnector hold on the hammer by stoning the nose.
If this doesn’t work, send the whole shebang to JP to have them do it. JP has special triggers held in reserve to fit in receivers with this issue.
The trigger pull should be extremely crisp, light and have no discernable take up or creep. Remember that this is a single stage trigger and will break quickly and cleanly, and has a remarkably short reset.
You may have noticed that there is a lot “take this part out, adjust it, and put it back in” action going on here. If you’re a gunsmith, you should be used to this, and it should be no problem. If you’re not a gunsmith, do it anyway. This is a fire control unit that is designed to be adjusted to your desired settings (safety first overall) and then left alone.
Going in after the fact to change something, other than springs, pretty much involves redoing it. Do it right the first time. Be sure to watch the video. I like to see things done before I actually do them myself.
After initial safety testing, let the Loctite set overnight. Finally, the safety fit can be avoided by using JP’s adjustable selector. Just fit the trigger parts and set the safety with the set screws in the adjustable selector. It saves lots of time.
Go Shoot It
I used to think that standard triggers were not too bad. Not anymore. For the cost of a big sharp-edged free-float Picatinny handguard tube, you can refine the feel of your rifle to a far better result, and improve your accuracy with this JP trigger kit.
“The law will take effect in early January…A task force is reviewing its potential impact and will make recommendations this fall.
“Corzine and gun-control advocates argue that roughly a quarter of what they call ‘crime guns’ recovered in New Jersey come from within the state. It’s not clear how many of those came from the type of multiple purchases that Corzine wants to stop … Critics say the law would impinge on the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens in New Jersey, which already has some of the most strict gun laws in the nation.”
Said Scott Bach, president of the Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs, “Trying to reduce gun crime by rationing guns to law-abiding citizens is as absurd as trying to reduce drunk driving by rationing cars to non-drinkers.”
President Obama's call for the Senate to ratify a hemispheric small-firearms treaty dominated his last visit to Mexico, but in the four months since, both the treaty pledge and the drug violence that prompted it have dropped off the radar – a victim of Congress' full schedule and gun politics.
That means on Sunday Mr. Obama will go with an empty hand to Mexico, which blames the U.S. for many of the weapons used by drug cartels that have violently thwarted a crackdown by Mexican authorities.
And even though Mr. Obama and his administration have accepted that blame, prospects are dim for passage of the treaty, which calls on countries to license gun manufacturers and try to control illicit trafficking in firearms, ammunition and explosives.
The chief U.S. negotiator for the 1997 treaty, known by its Spanish acronym of CIFTA, says it was written specifically to avoid forcing the U.S. to change its laws, and says it does not give any other country a say over what is legal or illegal in the U.S. – and that gun-rights groups were even involved in writing parts of the treaty.
But the National Rifle Association now claims CIFTA could hurt hunters and says U.S. Second Amendment interests should not be controlled by an international treaty. Key senators such as Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat whose gun-rights credentials may be crucial to his winning re-election next year, was cool to Mr. Obama's call for ratification in April, and a spokesman said nothing has changed since. Read more
For Thweatt and his board, the decision was pure mathematics.
The school, which sits in the middle of a prairie, was too far from law enforcement for police to come in time to fend off would-be attackers. The students and staff would be safer if on-site, trained staff members were equipped to handle a crisis at a moment’s notice, they decided.
Thweatt had already installed a $100,000 state-of-the-art security system in the school. Now, arming certain unnamed school staff members by allowing them to strap a firearm under their clothing was the final flourish.
In the year since that historic decision, a gun was never brandished or fired at the school. There were no problems, Thweatt said.
However, one week after school began, police busted a methamphetamine lab set up in an abandoned house that sat 50 feet from the school property.
A deputy had peered inside and “saw something in the walls and windows and called for backup,” Thweatt said. “They made it to the abandoned house in 15 minutes. We had figured it would take 18 to 20 minutes in a typical situation.”
Had that been an armed intruder at his school, response time would have been too slow.
“We’re the first responders. We have to be,” Thweatt said. “We don’t have 5 minutes. We don’t have 10 minutes. We would have had 20 minutes of hell” if attackers had targeted the school.
Harrold students, who grew up on ranches and in the middle of the North Texas gun culture, were unperturbed by the school district’s new gun policy. Read more
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.
