Know what your Benelli firearms are worth with this up-to-date 8-page .PDF download from the Standard Catalog of Firearms.
* Completely updated pricing for Benelli firearms with new entries and photos * Value Trackers: Real-life auction results * Sleeper Alerts: Collectible guns that are outpacing the market * Links to manufacturers’ website
Learn pricing and value on these Benelli firearms:
Know what your High Standard firearms are worth with this up-to-date 22-page .PDF download from the Standard Catalog of Firearms.
* Completely updated pricing for High Standard firearms with new entries and photos * Value Trackers: Real-life auction results * Sleeper Alerts: Collectible guns that are outpacing the market * Links to manufacturers’ website
Learn pricing and values for these High Standard firearms:
Know what your Beretta firearms are worth with this up-to-date 37-page .PDF download from the Standard Catalog of Firearms.
* Completely updated pricing for Beretta firearms with new entries and photos * Value Trackers: Real-life auction results * Sleeper Alerts: Collectible guns that are outpacing the market * Links to manufacturers’ website
Learn pricing and values for these Beretta firearms:
They tell us that collections say a lot about the collector.
For example when my son was 5 we discovered his “booger collection” hidden behind his dresser. That said he was a small boy with little money to spend on collections. It also told us that, like most little boys, he was into gross things and had no idea about hygiene. That’s why we as parents are charged with teaching our kids about the important things in life. Today that “little boy” is a full-grown man and he collects guns. Which I hold as proof that I taught him well.
Sociologists have used “collections” as archeological clues to the personalities of the owners for years. But, someone looking at my gun buying and trading over the past 40-plus years would have a much harder time figuring out much about me. It is without a doubt “collecting” but also without an easily identifiable central theme. That’s because I like all guns. If it shoots, I like it, and I probably have had a representative of the species in my “collection” at some time over the years.
All the centerfire rifles will testify to the fact that I love big game hunting. They might also tell the sociologists trying to figure this out that I like to experiment, as I have bought far too many different cartridge chamberings than necessary just to hunt. In fact, I egotistically challenged an ammo maker a while back that over the years I have owned a rifle to shoot any cartridge he loaded. He quickly named several cartridges that I never possessed. I not only had to eat crow, but I quickly had to modify my collection to correct the deficit.
See how this works?
Heck, I have added guns to my collection just because I bought some ammo. For example I found a big bag of .30 Remington ammo in a gun shop years ago, which, because the price was right, I had to buy. I didn’t have a rifle, so I had to go out and buy one to use the ammo. Any gun guy understands the logic.
I like bird hunting and have a bit of a passion for double barrel shotguns. I can’t afford the double guns I want, but have learned to live with those I have. My old Lefever has been with me for 40 years, while my Fox Sterlingworth is newer to my collection and I have had it only a decade. Most true double gun collectors would scoff at them both.
The phases that I pass through result in a lot of guns coming and going. For awhile I was big into handgun hunting, so I had a “collection” of big-bore revolver and single-shot handguns.
When I got into handgun competition there were sub-categories. In my bulls-eye shooting days I bought guns like the Smith & Wesson Model 41. Then, when I shot IHMSA, it was TC Contenders and Ruger Super Blackhawk revolvers. During my PPC phase I bought K-frame S&W revolvers. With IPSC it was 1911 handguns.
When I took up Cowboy Action Shooting my “collection” sprouted multitudes of lever-action rifles and single-action handguns; as well as several new double-barreled shotguns and Winchester 1897 pump-action shotguns. It might appear like I was a fan of the late 1800s guns, but mostly I was searching for guns that would help me win.
A few years ago I discovered “black guns” and my collection of AR type rifles expanded. That led to three-gun competition, which meant I also had to come up with some high-capacity, semi-auto shotguns and handguns. The first one you pick is never the right one, so that led to more. One is traded or sold to finance the next. There is no end to the scrounging, trading and finagling a competitor will do to afford a gun that might help him win a cheap, plastic trophy.
I have over the years tried dozens of self-defense handguns, ranging from the Kel-Tec .32 ACP semi-auto through several 1911 .45 ACP carry guns. I experimented with the “revolver vs. semi-auto” thing as well as checking out all the popular cartridges. This has, of course, resulted in a lot of handguns passing through my “collection.”
Friends and family make collecting all the more fun.
My muzzleloading “phase” has been in full bloom for about thirty years and I have tried everything from flintlock rifles as long as I am tall to modern in-line “magnum” hunting rifles with high-dollar scopes. That includes of course several ML shotguns and handguns.
When I was writing my gunsmithing book I discovered that one of the best escapes and stress relievers is to rebuild and refinish old, beat up guns. So, there have been several in my collection that came to me as rejects. Most of them had been beaten down by life and were battered, scarred and unloved. I bought them because nobody else would. I took them in and gave them a new lease on life. After a “makeover” they were again viable hunting guns, which was a big boost to their self esteem. In truth they still are not worth much, but collecting is not just about money.
I love to prowl around in gun shops and gun shows, but that can be dangerous if I have money or a credit card in my pocket and has led to several new guns over the years. I have always liked the Remington pump-action centerfire rifles and use the newer 760 and 7600 models for deer hunting. But, I found the older guns are interesting and affordable. Once you buy one, you need more, so I wound up writing checks for several Model 14, Model 141 and Model 25 pump-action guns in obsolete cartridges just so I could “give them a try.”
I can’t afford to collect the “collector’s guns” like some guys. I know gun guys with enough money to pay off my mortgage invested in just a few guns. That’s not for me; I am more of a quantity-oriented guy. So I buy the guns nobody else wants. It has resulted in some interesting finds, like a Winchester Model 1907 .351 Self Loader or a little Winchester Model 53 carbine in .25-20. But I have also picked up some oddballs like a Montgomery Ward rifle that is clearly a Winchester Model 70, a Savage Super Sporter in .30-30, or a Russian 1895 7.63X38R revolver. Collectively I paid about as much for all of them as a single monthly mortgage payment.
Sometimes I buy a gun because I feel sorry for it. I bought a Model 200K Mossberg pump action shotgun that the boys here at Camp Towsley say is the ugliest gun ever to spend a night in the vault. This thing has a clubby, full-length wooden stock and is pumped with a plastic shoe that rides underneath. It did look like a lonely, cross-eyed, fat girl sitting alone at the dance and I just couldn’t let it stay in that gunshop, so I wrote a check and gave it a loving home.
Over the years, in my collection, and for no good reason, you might find a Japanese Taisho 14 Nambu pistol and an Arisaka rifle in 6.5 Jap and a Savage Model 1915 .32 ACP pistol. Also an interesting little Belgien (their spelling) BAR PISTOL, double-barrel handgun. This flat-sided gun has a folding trigger and a small button on top that activates a lever. The lever also has the rear sight at its pivot point. You fire the two shots, push the button and rotate the cylinder, by hand, 180 degrees and fire two more. A rod unscrews from the bottom of the grip and is used to push out the spent cartridges. How cool is that gun?
I think you probably are getting the picture. I collect guns. That means all guns. I could never focus on a single group or a specific model. The world of guns is far too broad, diverse and interesting for that. I would simply be bored to death.
Standard Catalog of Military Firearms, 5th Edition, The Collector's Price and Reference Guide
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Don't base your next purchase or sale on a best guess, get your historical, identifiable and pricing details from the premiere guide to military firearms.
A heated debate has started in the U.S. Senate over her opposition to the right to keep and bear arms. This issue, which has decided the fate of presidential elections, could also decide her nomination. Gun owners, and especially the members of the National Rifle Association, must aggressively oppose Judge Sotomayor’s confirmation to the Supreme Court.
On June 24, senators began speaking on the floor of the Senate expressing grave concerns over Judge Sotomayor’s Second Amendment record. Senator Jeff Sessions R-AL, the Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, pointed out that although her record on the issue is “fairly scant,” she has twice stated that the Second Amendment is not a fundamental right.
Senator Sessions also noted that in Second Amendment and other constitutional cases, Sotomayor’s analysis of important constitutional issues has been lacking suggesting “a troubling tendency to avoid or casually dismiss difficult Constitutional issues of exceptional importance.” Sotomayor’s view on the Second Amendment clearly reflects an extreme anti-gun philosophy, and some Democrat senators from pro-gun states are justifiably nervous.
Last year, the Supreme Court held in Heller that the Second Amendment guarantees the right of individual Americans to keep and bear firearms. But that ruling was a fiercely-contested, 5-4 split decision. Justice Kennedy joined the four conservatives on the Court to make the majority, with the four liberal justices writing passionate dissents about how the Second Amendment does not apply to private citizens. Read more
The program, called “Don't Lie for the Other Guy,” was developed to raise public awareness that it is a serious crime to purchase a firearm for someone who cannot legally do so or for someone who does not otherwise want his or her name associated with the purchase. The campaign, which is also designed to educate firearms retailers on how to better detect and deter potential straw purchases, was slated to visit the Valley last year, but due to inclement weather the launch was postponed.
This campaign, which has been enhanced to better focus on firearm purchasers, drives home the message that anyone attempting an illegal firearm purchase faces a stiff federal penalty: Buy a gun for someone who can't and buy yourself 10 years in jail.
Special Agent in Charge Dewey Webb of the ATF Houston Field Division said, “The straw purchase of firearms is the first step in illegal firearms trafficking and the first step towards a prison cell. If you illegally purchase a firearm as part of a straw purchase scheme, you are just as responsible as the person who uses that firearm in a crime. ATF will strictly enforce the federal firearms laws to stop and prevent guns from getting into the hands of criminals.”
Residents and visitors to the Rio Grande Valley will hear the campaign's strong message via radio and television public service announcements (PSA) over the next month.
NSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel
Lawrence G. Keane said, “This program has been welcomed by firearms retailers as a valuable educational tool to better enable them to spot would-be straw purchasers and prevent illegal straw purchases. Our goal in reaching out to the public is to warn them that they would be committing a serious crime by attempting to purchase a firearm for someone who cannot legally possess one. We applaud and appreciate the support of the ATF for joining with members of our industry in this cooperative effort.” Read more
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has scheduled a Wednesday vote on a State Department nominee who supports gun control on a global scale.
While advocates of the Second Amendment have come to expect that appointees of President Barack Obama would be hostile to the rights of gun owners, the president's nominee for legal advisor to the State Department reaches a whole new level of anti-gun extremism.
Harold Hongju Koh, who served at the State Department under the Clinton administration, is a self-described “trans-nationalist” who believes that our laws — and our Constitution — should be brought into conformity with international agreements.
“If you want to be in the global environment, you have to play by the global rules,” Koh told a Cleveland audience.
Koh's positions treat our constitutional law as if it were a mere local ordinance on the greater world stage. This is of particular concern to gun owners at a time when the U.S. Congress is under pressure from President Obama to ratify an international gun control treaty with countries in the western hemisphere. That treaty, known by its Spanish acronym CIFTA, would likely serve as a forerunner to a more extensive United Nations initiative, the “Program of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in all its Aspects.”
The Bush administration, under the leadership of UN Ambassador John Bolton, rejected the small arms treaty. Bolton plainly told the world that the United States will not accept a gun control document that violates our Constitutional right to bear arms. Harold Koh commented that Bolton was being “needlessly provocative.”
In a paper entitled “A world drowning in guns,” Koh maintains that a civil society cannot exist with broad gun ownership: “Guns kill civil society,” he said. Read more
Deputies arrived on the scene just before 4 a.m. Friday on the 300 block of Magnolia Street just off of Ronald Regan Boulevard.
A woman woke up when she heard someone trying to kick in the door of her home. Seminole County Sheriff's deputies say that's when her husband went to the door and shot twice at Donald Salaam. Salaam, 21, was hit once in the chest.
The trouble with the .40 Smith & Wesson cartridge in the Glock pistols has been well documented and has been discussed ad nauseum on the Internet forums. Here's how to fix the Glock .40 S&W bulge.
What causes the problem known as “Glock .40 S&W bulge” is that part of the chamber is unsupported and when firing, the pressure allows the case to expand and bulge. There are multiple reports of ruptured cases resulting in damage to the guns and shooters. This is, apparently, mostly a problem with handloads. The theory is that if the case is bulged the first time it is fired and that bulged area is oriented in the unsupported section again when the handload is fired, it can rupture.
All I can add to the argument is that I have owned a Glock Model 22 in .40 S&W for 15 years and have fired thousands of rounds. The guy hanging around my daughter for the past several years, Brendan Burns, has a Model 23 and he has probably shot three times the ammo through his as I have mine. Granted most have been factory loads, but in Camp Towsley no gun is ever exclusive to factory ammo and more than a few handloads have been through both guns. We have never had a problem. Not one, zero, nada. But, the technical side of me understands that this is not a particularly good design and the potential for a problem is clear and present.
Ammo is in short supply these days, but I am not going to let this Obama-induced scare keep me from the sport I love most. One way or the other, I am going to shoot and hoarding ammo serves little to aid that goal. With the current ammo shortage and escalating prices, my factory ammo reserves are depleted so we are shooting a lot more handloads, and handloads are where the Glock problems rear their ugly heads most often.
The trouble is that a conventional resizing die does not completely remove the “Glock Bulge” from the case. This introduces two problems; one is the obvious potential for a case failure. The other is that a misshapen case is a jam waiting to happen. Which brings me to the reason for this column. Redding Reloading Equipment has a new tool called the G-Rx die set. I was lucky enough to be one of the first to see this tool and it’s been on my reloading bench for several months.
The die screws into your reloading press and the “pusher rod” replaces the shell holder. To use it, simply place a lubricated .40 S&W case on the pusher rod and pull the handle on the press. This starts the case into the die in a tapered section that aligns it, then the pusher rod pushes the case through the die, forcing it back into size and shape before the case pops out the top of the die. A collection bottle that fits on top is optional.
Now every .40 S&W case we are loading is pushed through this die first. Problem solved.
Even if you don’t shoot a Glock, this tool is still a very good idea. If you collect or buy range brass you have no way of knowing if it was fired in a Glock. The Redding G-Rx die restores the brass to ensure that it will function well in any pistol.
Check it out at: Redding Reloading Equipment 792 Ridge Road Lansing, NY 14882 (607) 753-3331 www.redding-reloading.com
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
• Editor Kevin Michalowski has a bit of Range Day Therapy in his “Editor's Shot” column. Click here to read it.
• NRA Show recap from Phoenix
• All about tactical barrels
• Rifles: Steyr
• Shotguns: L.C. Smith
•Handguns: Smith & Wesson
• Performance handloading: Where do you get your gear?
• Towsley on Target features way to fix the “Glock Bulge”
Finished sniper rifle. This Remington Action has been barreled and stocked into a tack driver. I started with a Remington 700 youth model to get the action and refashioned the action face, the lug surfaces in the action and on the bolt and hand lapped the contact surfaces to near 100 percent contact. I also replaced the factory trigger with a Timney and adjusted it to a crisp 3-pound release.
A nice, tight action will make your precision rifle shoot like a dream. Retired SWAT sniper and gunsmith Dave Morelli explains how.
The heart of any precision rifle is the action. It is made up of receiver, bolt, firing pin, trigger, recoil lug, and magazine.
The more precisely the action is assembled, the better the rifle will perform. Although there is a great deal of interest in the semi-auto precision rifle, I will cover the bolt-action here. I have tested many of the semi-auto sniping systems available and found them to be very accurate and more than adequate, but the bolt-action is still the preferred choice for the precision rifle.
The action can also be narrowed down from here to American-made or European. Again, I will restrict this information to the popular American-made actions although there are many high quality European choices available. I think the most popular American action is by far the Remington 700. It is one of my favorites because its design makes it more lathe friendly to machine. Many of the precision rifle manufacturers base their products on this action and Remington has a fine line of precision rifles ready to scope and use. Robar, McMillan, AWC, and H.S. Precision, produce some excellent precision rifles machined to extremely tight tolerances for incredible accuracy.
Winchester also is well known for producing a great action. The legendary pre-64 action with the large-claw extractor would be too much of a collector’s piece to rebuild into a precision rifle but post-64 models or one of the new large-claw extractor models would make a great action on which to base a rifle. Even though Carlos Hathcock confirmed 93 kills with the Winchester Action, Winchester doesn’t market a sniper rifle. I wouldn’t rule it out though.
I had an old Winchester rifle I bought new in the early 1980s that wouldn’t have much of a stock left if I notched it for every coyote it ironed out. I set the barrel back once to improve failing accuracy and just recently noticed the groups widening again. It was a featherweight model in 22-250 and I thought it would make a fine light hunting gun for medium-sized game if it was re-chambered and barreled to .308 Win. While it was apart, I ran it through the lathe and worked the action. I am still in the breaking-in period and it is giving ½-minute groups.
Too many factory rifles have triggers with excessive creep and weight.
Savage has been coming up in the ranks developing their 110 action into a well-established tactical rifle. They are accurate rifles and their Accu-Trigger is a fine addition to any rifle. The trigger is another part of the action with a direct impact on accuracy. If the trigger doesn’t allow the operator to smoothly send the shot with the least amount of rifle movement, the bullet will not fly true. One of the biggest problems with standard factory rifle triggers is too much creep and excessive pull weight. The Accu-Trigger is crisp and adds a measure of safety in its design.
Mauser and Ruger actions are also excellent choices for a precision rifle. (I know, Mauser is a European action, but there are tons of them out there and they are still an excellent choice.) They are tried and true actions and the large claw extractor is all but indestructible and would be one less thing to fail. Starting with a military surplus Mauser to build your precision rifle on would be an inexpensive way to get an action. As always, Brownells carries a good supply of Mauser stuff to complete this project.
The bolt of the rifle contains the firing pin and extractor with some sort of ejector device. The ejector can be as simple as the bolt stop extending through to contact the base of the case to direct it out or a spring-loaded device in the bolt face to pop the case against the extractor to throw it clear. The Remington and Winchester bolts use this method. The only drawback is they can get dirty and stick, but I have never had a problem as long as I performed normal maintenance.
The Remington extractor is a tiny little piece of metal that looks like it would fail. Don’t let it fool you. It is really a trouble-free part considering it is tiny compared to the robust claw extractor of the Mauser and pre-64 style Winchesters. If it bothers you, it is a small modification to fit the bolt with a robust Sako-style extractor from Brownells. But adding it requires machining a slot in the bolt. The post-64 Winchesters have an extractor set in the front of the bolt and I have had no failures with it on the Featherweight noted above.
The bolt also houses the firing pin. This is one of the most ignored areas for cleaning on a bolt rifle. I think it is because every model has a little trick to taking it apart and there is the fear of sending parts into orbit. Learn how to disassemble your firing pin and keep it clean. Also, the locking lugs are very important; more specifically the contact surfaces that lock the bolt closed. A factory rifle can always stand some improvement here and if a new bolt is being used it should be fitted and lapped properly. The bolt face should also be as flat and perpendicular to the bore as possible.
What makes the precision rifle action different than mass-produced factory rifles? Usually only a couple thousandths of an inch. If you were to take a brand new hunting rifle out of the box and take it down you most likely will find that the bolt face, locking lugs, and face of the action to be out of square with the axis of the action by a few thousandths. These rifles will shoot one-minute groups, sometimes better, and are plenty accurate for most purposes. To consistently achieve the ½ MOA the professional or competitor is looking for this plane needs to be more precise and the locking lugs need to have as close to 100 percent engagement as possible when they contact on closing.
These tolerances are what we pay for when buying a precision rifle from the factory or when we have a gunsmith machine them out on a lathe and hand lap the lugs. Usually, the more of this work that is done by a master gunsmith, the tighter the rifle will be, and the more it will cost. Even though the precision-grade factory rifles are better, they are still produced in numbers and some of the individual TLC is missing. They will most likely shoot tighter than 70 percent of the marksman though.
Whether you start with a new action or resurrect an older rifle that has seen better days, the action is the heart of a precision rifle. So focus on the three most important parts: square and precise machining to provide solid bolt lock-up; a good trigger with very little creep and a magazine that will hold the rounds you expect to use. These factors will go a long way to improving the rifle’s overall performance.
Lautenberg launched this attack on gun rights, using a report from the Government Accountability Office that laments it found 963 cases between February 2004 and February 2009 in which “a known or suspected terrorist attempted to buy a gun.”
Yet, as Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the grassroots-oriented Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, noted in a response to Lautenberg’s bill, 90 percent of those transactions were allowed to proceed after the gun buyer cleared the FBI’s National Instant Check. The remaining ten percent of the purchase attempts were unsuccessful because the would-be buyers had prior felony convictions, or were found to be in this country illegally. Were any of these people arrested or deported?
There is no indication from the GAO whether any of the successful gun buyers used their firearms in the commission of a crime.
In Lautenberg’s world view, any American citizen interested in owning a gun is a potential terrorist. Would he add all of our names to such a watch list, thus stripping us of our Second Amendment rights, without first being charged, prosecuted and convicted of some crime? Probably he would. — Alan Gottlieb, CCRKBA
This is the same GAO that issued a report last week on gun trafficking to Mexico that was discussed here. That’s the report that anti-gunners have been deliberately misrepresenting in order to push their claim that 90 percent of the guns being used by Mexican drug cartels in a bloody war in northern Mexico are coming from gun shops and gun shows in this country.
The claims are so questionable that Florida Congressman Connie Mack noted Friday, “I don't know that the report itself is something that we should put a lot of value in.”
The National Rifle Association weighed in, noting, “Mexico has a huge problem with rampant corruption that clearly cannot be blamed on the U.S. At the same time, Mexico has extremely prohibitive gun laws, yet has far worse crime than the U.S.”
I don't know that the report itself is something that we should put a lot of value in. — U.S. Rep. Connie Mack (R-FL)
Lautenberg isn’t nearly as interested in protecting this country from terrorists as he is in disarming its citizens. He just wants to hand Eric Holder the authority to deny as many people as possible their rights under the Second Amendment. As Gottlieb observed, Lautenberg has devoted his political career to “stripping as many citizens as possible of their firearm civil rights.” In Lautenberg’s perfect world, Gottlieb asserts, any American citizen who exercises his or her Second Amendment rights would be considered a potential terrorist.
There are problems aplenty with Lautenberg’s demagoguery. For example, in May of this year, the inspector general for the Department of Justice reportedly found that the FBI kept a list that included the names of 24,000 people based, as explained by the New York Times, on “outdated or sometimes irrelevant information.” Read more
When the economy sours, people ponder their personal safety and sales tend to increase. Couple those financial worries with the possibility of tougher federal gun laws and sales action spikes even further.
“They (customers) are very much afraid of what politicians are going to do with laws and restrictions,” said Vann, who owns the Plattsburgh shop with her husband.
Those anti-gun leanings, according to Vann, are the primary reason why her shop has been busier than normal this season. She first noticed the business uptick in November after President Barack Obama was elected.
All her shop's offerings, from various ammunition to handguns and hunting rifles, have been moving faster than she could have anticipated.
“We didn't realize the extent of the demand,” she said while standing behind a glass counter of handguns. “There hasn't been lot of ammunition on the market recently.”
The trend is indeed nationwide. FBI background checks, which are required whenever a federally licensed gun dealer makes a sale, rose 29.3 percent from November 2008 to March 2009, when compared to the same time period a year earlier.
Data from the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System indicated that background checks jumped 42 percent in November alone — to more than 1.5 million. Read more
“As the states’ top law enforcement officials, we share the Obama Administration’s commitment to reducing illegal drugs and violent crime within the United States,” the letter read. “We also share your deep concern about drug cartel violence in Mexico. However, we do not believe that restricting law-abiding Americans’ access to certain semi-automatic firearms will resolve any of these problems.
So, we were pleased by the President’s recent comments indicating his desire to enforce current laws – rather than reinstate the ban on so-called assault weapons.”
The letter went on to note that Congressional reaction to Holder’s previous comments on a new AWB were very negative, and that many in Congress rejected the notion an AWB would somehow reduce violent crimes south of the border being perpetrated by Mexican drug cartels. The letter also noted the Constitutional implications of a new AWB.
“As Attorneys General, we are committed to defending our constituents’ constitutional rights –including their constitutionally-protected right to keep and bear arms. This duty is particularly important in light of the United States Supreme Court’s recent Heller decision, which held that the Second Amendment ‘elevated above all other interests the right of law-abiding, responsible citizens to use arms in defense of hearth and home.’ The high court’s landmark decision affirmed that individual Americans have a constitutionally-protected right to keep and bear arms.”
So far, no response from Holder’s office on the letter.
In each case, the agents were making inquiries based on the number of firearms these NRA members had recently bought, and in some cases the agents said they were asking because the members had bought types of guns that are frequently recovered in Mexico.
This kind of questioning may or may not be part of a legitimate criminal investigation.For example, when BATFE traces a gun seized after use in a crime, manufacturers' and dealers' records will normally lead to the first retail buyer of that gun, and investigators will have to interview the buyer to find out how the gun ended up in criminal hands.But in other cases, the questioning may simply be based on information in dealers' records, with agents trying to “profile” potentially suspicious purchases.
On the other hand, some of the agents have used heavy-handed tactics.One reportedly demanded that a gun owner return home early from a business trip, while another threatened to “report” an NRA member as “refusing to cooperate.”That kind of behavior is outrageous and unprofessional.
Whether agents act appropriately or not, concerned gun owners should remember that all constitutional protections apply.Answering questions in this type of investigation is generally an individual choice.Most importantly, there are only a few relatively rare exceptions to the general Fourth Amendment requirement that law enforcement officials need a warrant to enter a home without the residents' consent.There is nothing wrong with politely, but firmly, asserting your rights. Read more
“Mr. Lautenberg plans to introduce legislation on Monday that would give the attorney general the discretion to block gun sales to people on terror watch lists,” the newspaper reports.
Lautenberg is a notorious gun-grabber. He introduced a similar measure in 2007.
Lautenberg’s action comes in the wake of statistics compiled by the Government Accountability Office drawing attention to an “odd divergence” in federal law that allows erroneously designated terrorists to exercise their Second Amendment right to bear arms but prevents them from getting on a plane or getting a visa.
The Inspector General of the Justice Department reported that the Terrorist Screening Center — the FBI-administered organization that consolidates terrorist watch list information in the United States — had over 700,000 names in its database as of April 2007 and that the list was growing by an average of over 20,000 records per month, according to the ACLU. In March of this year the list hit the one million mark, a 32% increase from 2007.
The actual number may far exceed one million entries. The FBI says the number of names on its terrorist watch list is classified. In addition to the National Counterterrorism Center watch list, the FBI keeps a list of persons said to be domestic terrorists, according to ABC News.
Lautenberg said he was frustrated by an FBI refusal to disclose to investigators details and specific cases of gun purchases beyond the aggregate data included in the GAO report, the Times notes. 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.
From the Standard Catalog of Firearms
