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
How many of you are “Three-Percenters?” If you are reading this, you probably should be. OK, what’s a Three-Percenter? The term goes all the way back to the American Revolution. During the war for our independence, only approximately a third of the colonists supported the independence cause. Another third didn’t care one way or the other and the last third wanted to remain under British rule. Out of those that supported independence and revolution, only some three percent were actively engaged on the battlefield with the full active support of only about 10 percent of those who were pro-independence. Twenty percent of the pro-independence faction did nothing to actively support the cause. This is the root of today’s Three Percenter term.
Those of us who currently proclaim ourselves to be Three Percenters make no claim that we actually represent three percent of the population, although we might – nobody knows for certain how many of us there are, but we stand for the Second Amendment, and our support goes far beyond mere words. Three Percenters today are American gun owners who have taken a stand. We WILL NOT disarm. We WILL NOT obey further anti-gun legislation, regardless of its source. We WILL NOT stand for further circumscription of our God-given rights and we WILL defend ourselves if we are attacked. Since our guns are the most effective means of defending ourselves, we WILL NOT surrender them. We are committed to restoring the Republic as envisioned by the Founders and are wiling to fight and to die in defense of ourselves and the Constitution.
I know that these are strong words, but in the words of Thomas Paine, “These are the times that try men’s souls.” As I wrote a few months ago, what I am currently witnessing is unprecedented in my lifetime, which has spanned more than 65 years. I noted then that Barack Obama was the most anti-gun president in the history of our Republic, but since then, things have gotten worse – much worse. Obama clearly wishes nothing so much as the destruction of our Republic. Don’t believe me? Read on. Incidentally, we DO NOT live in a “democracy” as so many in the “lamestream media” would have us believe. A “democracy” is two wolves and a lamb sitting down and taking a vote on what’s for dinner. The United States is a Constitutional Republic!
Barack Obama and his far-left cronies are attacking the entire Bill of Rights, not just the Second Amendment. In this essay, I will focus primarily on that aspect of the Obama Administration's anti-liberty attacks, although the entire Bill of Rights is under attack by Obama. There are several anti-gun measures proposed in the House of Representatives, the most draconian of which are HR45, the Blair Holt Firearms Licensing and Record of Sale act of 2009 and HR 2159, described below. You can look at the entire text of HR 45 Here.
Here are the high points:
-A federal license for all handguns and semiautomatics, including those currently owned.
-All handgun and semiautomatic owners must have their thumbprint taken by law enforcement and the owner’s signature on a certificate to the effect that the firearms will be stored in an inaccessible location, essentially where they cannot be readily accessed for self-defense. But wait – we’re only getting started! Next is HR 2159, introduced by a REPUBLICAN!
HR 2159 was introduced by Rep Peter King (R-NY) and is titled The Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act of 2009. Read the full text HERE.
Here is a summary:
– In a nutshell, HR 2159 enables the Attorney General to designate anyone he desires to be a “Dangerous Terrorist” and deny him or her the right to possess firearms. (Note that the DHS Assessment on “Right Wing Extremism” defines almost anyone as a potential “terrorist,” especially veterans.) If you attended a “Tea Party” last month or plan to in the future, you can count on being labeled a “terrorist.” But as the TV commercials say, “Wait – there’s more!”
HR 45 and 2159 are clearly unconstitutional, but that hasn’t stopped the Obama Administration from its anti-American activities thus far. Besides, by the time these unconstitutional “laws” were challenged and overturned, they would have been fully implemented, although enforcement might be difficult as we will presently see. Obama and his left-wing cronies are well aware of the unconstitutional nature of their proposed “laws” and are seeking to circumvent the Constitution via international treaty. Obama has recently been bringing pressure on the Senate to ratify the “Inter-American Convention Against the Illicit Manufacturing and Trafficking in Firearms,” also known as “The Curb Illicit Small Arms Trafficking (CIFTA) Treaty.” This treaty was signed by Bill Clinton in 1997 and mandates a national database of firearms owners and registration of all firearms. This database would be accessible to any other signatory nation to the treaty and would essentially allow the government to confiscate guns from those to whom they were registered.
Obama tells us that ratifying the treaty is “the right thing to do” because 29 other countries have ratified it. But as Lou Dobbs commented in a CNN feature on the treaty, “Those countries don’t have a Constitution and a Second Amendment.” Dobbs’ coverage, by the way, was very pro-gun. The good news is that a number of senators are prepared to fight ratification of this egregious treaty.
Another component of The Bill of Rights that Obama and his cronies are attacking is the First Amendment, which recognizes our right to free speech. Obama is attempting to resurrect the “Fairness Doctrine” and make it permanent. Not only will this shut down his critics like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Michael Savage and others, but will also severely restrict Internet communication that is critical of government. I never imagined that anything like these proposed unconstitutional laws and actions would occur, but they all took place during Obama’s first 100 days.
I suspect that neither the legislation I have described, nor CIFTA will become law, but the fact is that Obama and the left will never give up trying to deny us our God-given, inalienable rights that are protected by the Constitution. What this means is, as Thomas Jefferson said, “The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.” In present-day America we must therefore all be aware of what our enemies are doing and make no mistake, Obama and the left ARE our enemies, just as they are enemies to the Republic and the Constitution.
What can you do? Get out to the “Tea Parties” in your communities. Join the NRA if you haven’t already. Be vigilant, be informed and perhaps most important, be vocal! Contact your representatives and let them know your beliefs. (You DO know who they are, don’t you?) You don’t have to write a letter and mail it – they all can be contacted online and they will respond. I know because I make it a point of contacting my representatives on issues that concern me. Speak in defense of America’s values, culture and Christian foundation.
It isn’t all bad news, though – there are positive straws in the wind. One is Oath Keepers (https://oath-keepers.blogspot.com/) a fast-growing organization of law enforcement and military personnel who, like me, swore an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of The United States against ALL enemies, foreign and domestic. I took that oath when I joined the US Army and swore a similar one when I signed on at the police department where I am a reserve police officer. I did not take an oath to uphold the president, the congress, the governor of my state, the mayor of my city or any other politician. My loyalty is to the Constitution and neither I nor any other police officer of my acquaintance will obey or enforce unconstitutional laws. I suggest that you go to the Oath Keepers web site above and read the “10 Laws We Will Not Enforce” section. I have discussed this with officers in my small department and with officers in adjoining jurisdictions and we are all of a single mind – we are in lock step with Oath Keepers and WILL NOT enforce unconstitutional laws, although this leads to another cause for concern.
Obama probably knows that the majority of serving military and law enforcement personnel apparently will not enforce unconstitutional laws and edicts, and so for some time he has been calling for a national police force that he envisions being as well armed and equipped as the military. Why does Obama want a national police force whose loyalty is to him rather than the Constitution? Go back and study history! The last time something like this took place was Germany in the 1930s, the police force was called the Sturm Abteilung (SA) or just “Brown shirts” and the leader of Germany was a guy named Adolph Hitler. The Brown Shirts were his personal enforcers. Don’t think Obama is similar to Hitler in his actions?
Compare the similarities between him and Hitler and see for yourself.
Another positive indicator is the “nullification resolutions” that have been passed by some 25 states as of the time this was written in May 2009. The list of states is growing and it appears that we may be headed for a situation similar to that which led to the Civil War of 1861-65. Nullification resolutions state in essence that if the federal government infringes on the Bill of Rights, especially the 2nd, 9th and 10th Amendments, the compact established between the state and the federal government by the Constitution is nullified and the state will secede. Nullification resolutions were passed by all eleven states that eventually became the Confederacy. The modern ones are virtually identical and the governors of several states, including Texas, are openly using the “S” word!
If you are in the military or law enforcement, I urge you to remember your oath to the Constitution and reflect on your willingness to enforce orders that clearly violate that oath. I also encourage you to join Oath Keepers. If you are a gun owner who believes in the Second Amendment, the Bill of Rights and our Constitutional Rule of Law, there are two things you should do: First get a copy of the Constitution and read it, especially the first ten amendments – The Bill of Rights, which you should commit to memory. Second, go to the following web site and learn what it means to be a Three Percenter. Click Here
Finally remember the words of Patrick Henry: “Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me: Give me Liberty, or give me death!”
Shooters normally associate sub-MOA accuracy with above-average cost, but in the case of this single-shot chambered for .25-06, that wasn't the case. And, even better in the past decade, the price of the H&R Ultra Rifle hasn't changed much at all.
Is the single-shot H&R Ultra Rifle lightweight? Not really. The thick barrel, big laminated wood stock, and a 50mm scope put the package at more than nine pounds.
Most people would agree that it’s better to have a good-shooting rifle that’s also easy on the eyes, but few of us would choose to carry a rifle that looked great, but couldn’t hit the side of a barn.
Some years ago I owned an inexpensive single-shot .25-06 single-shot rifle, a $250 Harrington & Richardson Ultra Rifle. It shot well and operated cleanly, and I still consider it to be a bargain.
Though there are several more models in the line now than when I tested, the basics of the Ultra Rifle remain the same. They are break-action designs with a spring-loaded extractor/ejector. The action is released by pushing a lever on the right side of the external hammer, allowing the barrel to pivot down.
There’s basic bluing, a laminated wood stock, and 26-inch-long barrels on the long-action units. The stock featured a one-inch ventilated recoil pad, and the gun came with swivels installed. I liked the cut checkering on the fore end and the buttstock, and I thought its weight and well-proportioned buttpad made the rifle a joy to shoot.
A recent price check in these pages and in the GDTM online classifieds showed a remarkable fact—these guns still sell for around $250. Here’s more you need to know about these guns, before you buy.
Field Use
Overall, this gun handles well in the field. It is well balanced and shoots well from a woods rest as well as offhand. You’d think that a single-shot would be slim and lightweight, but the thick barrel, large stock of laminated wood, and a 2.5- to 10-power 50-mm scope made the H&R gun tip the scales at 9.3 pounds. It measured 41.4 inches in OAL, but still felt like a manageable field rifle.
The trigger as I received it needed work. It broke at more than six pounds and was grainy. An affordable $75 trigger job changed that to a trigger than broke crisply at 2.8 pounds.
Accuracy Testing
The basics of the Ultra Rifle are a break-action design with a spring-loaded extractor/ejector. Push a lever on the right side of the external hammer, and the barrel pivots down.
From the bench, I shot three-round groups with Federal Premium 115-grain Trophy Bonded loads, Federal Premium 90-grain HP Varmint loads, and Federal Classic 117-grain loads. All groups were shot at 100 yards and measured center-to-center to the nearest 0.1 inch.
The groups were fired in rapid succession before the rifle was allowed to cool to see the rifle’s reaction to barrel heating. The short version is that I didn’t see accuracy variations because of heating of the 26-inch barrel, which was 0.7 inch thick at the muzzle.
The best group with the 115-grain Trophy Bondeds was 1.6 inches. The 90-grain Varmint loads shot best groups of 1.4 inches. But the best in the test were the 117-grain soft points, which averaged 0.7-inch group sizes and a best three-shot group of 0.62 inch.
Before You Buy
My experience with the H&R Ultra Rifle is easy to express: It’s a perfectly satisfactory field tool. When you factor in price, the H&R has an unqualified edge over many other guns.
Do I think the lack of magazine capacity (that is, one shot) is a detriment? Of course. But I never lost a deer or coyote I shot with the gun, in part because I was extremely careful with the one shot I did have. The real issue with the single-shot isn’t speed of loading, I found.
It was that I had to take my head off the stock to operate the mechanism and reload, which meant I had to relocate the game in the scope. But that happened only once, and the spike I had to shoot twice was already Dead Man Running—he just didn’t know it yet.
Certainly, a repeater has an advantage, but for the money, if you need only one shot, then the Ultra Rifle is probably worth $250.
I have not had time to read the entire document, nor to analyze it. I expect the experts to begin weighing in immediately, and national gun organizations will no doubt release position statements soon. In the mean time, read the report for yourself. Notable highlights from first glance:
“Over 90 percent of the firearms seized in Mexico and traced over the last 3 years have come from the United States.”
Which, as we've seen repeatedly, is a woefully incomplete data set to extrapolate from.
While the eTrace data only represents data from gun trace requests submitted from seizures in Mexico and not all the guns seized, it is currently the only systematic data available…
HOUMA, Louisiana — In 15 years of selling guns and ammunition, he’s never seen anything like it. Wednesday afternoon, there were wide gaps between the boxes of ammunition for sale at the shop, formerly an auto-parts and gun store but now strictly a firearms business.
“That shelf is usually packed,” Prevost said. “If we don’t hide ammo, they’ll buy it all.”
Spurred by rampant rumors and fears that President Barack Obama, now six months into his term, may levy massive taxes on ammunition or add cumbersome new firearms restrictions, gun owners have been buying bullets in huge quantities, creating shortages nationwide.
“The American public just went bonkers,” Prevost said. “People are panicked.”
Workers at three other gun shops and sporting goods stores in the Houma said they face similar problems.
“People are buying whatever they can get their hands on, and there’s a shortage with the distributors,” said Bryan Butcher, owner of Tri-Parish Police Supply on La. 311. “They’re afraid they’re not going to be able to get it or it’s going to be three times the price.”
The shortages are affecting law-enforcement agencies also. Terrebonne Sheriff Vernon Bourgeois said his office has had trouble finding ammunition in bulk for deputies.
“We’re not out yet, but we will run out,” he said. Read more
The proposal, which is scheduled to be heard today in the Senate Judiciary Committee, has sparked a debate over what restrictions should be placed on gun owners who wish to carry weapons in public buildings, schools and other places.
Opponents said the bill would endanger law-enforcement officers and the public by eliminating permits and the training courses now required to obtain them.
“This bill would make a radical and very dangerous change to state law,” Attorney General Terry Goddard said at a Thursday news conference. “The current law in Arizona is not broken. It has worked exceptionally well.”
To receive a concealed-carry permit today, gun owners have to take an eight-hour course on gun laws and safety and pass a shooting test. The course costs about $100. About 125,000 Arizonans have obtained the $60 permit since the concealed-carry law was established in 1994.
Senate Bill 1270, sponsored by Sen. Sylvia Allen, would make the safety course optional. It also would allow people to carry guns into public buildings and onto school campuses if they were picking up their children or responding to an emergency.
Supporters of the bill say existing concealed-carry laws are confusing and can lead to unfair prosecution. A woman could be arrested for a concealed-carry violation if she was driving in her car and inadvertently placed a newspaper on top of a gun in the passenger's seat, they say.
Gun owners who want to untuck their shirts to conceal a weapon when they walk into a store shouldn't have to take a training course, said John Wentling, vice president of the Arizona Citizens Defense League. 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.
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.
