Guns

Good

Colorado has proposed SB25-003, a law which would ban the manufacture, distribution, transfer, sale, and purchase of any semiautomatic firearm that has a detachable magazine, with the exception of .22 rimfire. First offense would be a misdemeanor, second offense a felony.

Exempt from this law is the government, colleges, and armed security guards that work for companies operating armored vehicles.

It also appears to establish a requirement to have a firearms license with required training that expires every 5 years and must be taught by a sheriff department approved instructor.

I hope this passes. This is so blatantly unconstitutional that there is no way it makes it through the courts.

By Divemedic, ago

Another Brick In The Wall

A Mississippi court in the 5th Circuit has just ruled that a ban on machine guns is inconsistent with the text, history, and tradition of the 2nd Amendment, which makes the ban unconstitutional. Admittedly, this decision only applies to the defendant in the case, but it is the correct decision.

One court case at a time. There is a chance that, some time in my life, I will be able to go down to my LGS and walk out with a FA. That day will be a glorious one.

By Divemedic, ago

Caetano v. Massachusetts

The next time some brain dead moron tries saying that the Second Amendment only applies to muskets, please refer them to Caetano v. Massachusetts 577 U.S. 411 (2016). In that case, the US Supreme court held 9-0 that the Second Amendment applies to all bearable arms, not just those that were in existence at the time that the Second Amendment was ratified.

In that case, the Massachusetts Supreme court had ruled that stun guns are not protected [by the Second Amendment] because they “were not in common use at the time of the Second Amendment’s enactment,” that stun guns are “dangerous per se at common law and unusual,” and that “nothing in the record to suggest that [stun guns] are readily adaptable to use in the military.” 

The U.S. Supreme Court, per curiam, vacated, reiterating that “the Second Amendment extends, prima facie, to all instruments that constitute bearable arms, even those that were not in existence at the time of the founding,” and that it has rejected the proposition “that only those weapons useful in warfare are protected.”

This line of argument will eventually be the one that kills both the NFA and the GCA.

By Divemedic, ago

Safety, My Ass

Florida does not require a concealed weapons permit. They also tell you that, if you comply with a police officer’s demands, you won’t get shot. The traffic stop that involved Jason Arrington proved that to be a lie. I tried to find a copy of the bodycam video that I could embed, but that was a no-go. Here are two links to the video:

When you watch this video, note that the man was completely compliant in every way. He answered every question, and complied with every request and order. He was pulled over in a traffic stop and the cop asked him if he had “anything crazy in the car.”

Mr Arrington replied that he did have a gun on his person. The cop then made some small talk and asked if he had a concealed weapons permit, and the man replied that he did not. (That isn’t required under state law.) The cop then asked Arrington if he was a convicted felon, to which he replied that he was not.

Then the cop said that they would have Arrington step out of the car and would disarm him, for the safety of both Mr Arrington and the police. That turned out to be a lie. The statement from the Sheriff’s office tells the rest of the story:

The firearm was secured in a holster and Officer Cardwell [a female backup deputy] had difficulty removing it. When [she] was finally able to remove the firearm from the holster, she unintentionally placed multiple fingers inside the trigger guard of the firearm, causing the firearm to discharge.

The bullet from this negligent discharge struck Arrington in the leg. I don’t blame the female deputy for this. She was placed into this situation without the proper training, and one would assume that the JSO takes guns from people during traffic stops as a matter of course. This wasn’t her fault. The real fault lies in a department policy of unnecessarily seizing firearms, and in not training deputies in how to safely handle unfamiliar firearms.

Unnecessary gun handling increases the odds of a negligent or accidental discharge from near zero to some other, higher chance. A gun that is in a proper holster has a near zero chance of discharging unexpectedly. Additionally, a person who has been pulled over for a nonviolent, noncriminal traffic violation and is otherwise compliant has a near zero chance of attempting to use that firearm to illegally injure or threaten police officers.

This unintentional discharge was the direct result of:

  • Police who are paranoid in believing that everyone who has a gun is a threat to their safety. They are not.
  • Police attempting to handle firearms with which they are unfamiliar is a hazard to everyone around them. Contrary to popular belief, police training in firearms and firearm safety is poor. If official policy of a department requires cops to disarm people, then the department has a responsibility to train officers to handle firearms in a much safer manner than what was displayed here.

For those reasons, the man is suing the Sheriff’s office. As a result of this incident, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s office sent a memo to the entire department, notifying deputies that a person who is in possession of a firearm but not otherwise demonstrating that they are a threat to officers who are present, is not subject to having his firearms seized.

As it should have been all along.

This is also why I don’t inform cops that I am carrying. Florida doesn’t require me to, and I don’t. Asking me “Do you have anything crazy in the car?” isn’t asking me if I am armed, and I will respond in the negative.

By Divemedic, ago

Guardians

Some of the cops who are acting as SROs in Orange county schools are demanding raises. This will result in $18 million in costs to the county for police coverage in schools located in 5 different Orange county cities. The school district says that they can’t afford it, so they are going to transition to using Guardians.

Don’t get excited. That doesn’t mean that teachers and other staff who want to carry concealed weapons will be permitted to do so. No, I have already posted on how the Guardian program is being misused because school administrators are leftists who only want guns in the hands of their friends.

Mom’s Demand Action is demanding that the schools simply find the money somehow.

It’s a little scary that our children’s safety can be negotiated, especially based on dollars

Yep, that’s the left- there is no tax to high, no gun control too onerous, no Constitutional right that is off limits, nor government spending that is too much when it comes to doing what they want done.

Keep in mind that cops who are charged with defending students have claimed in court that they don’t have to do anything, and the court has agreed.

Orange county was not previously a participant in the Guardian program. They would rather squander tens of millions of dollars each year in paying cops to arrest and hassle kids, but then hide in the parking lot when God forbid there IS an actual shooter.

When the Guardian program was first announced, I bought a new handgun just for what I thought it was going to be- armed teachers. I practiced with that firearm until I could exceed the minimum standards on the course of fire for Federal Air Marshals. Then the program was actually put in place, and what do you know- only cops and people who were politically connected were allowed to be part of it. May issue ALWAYS becomes a grift for leftists to steal more money from the public trough. It isn’t that the left is antigun, they are just only in favor of guns for other leftists.

By Divemedic, ago

Micro Dot

We moved back in January. I had placed the Performance Center Shield Plus into the cold safe and had been carrying the standard Shield Plus. The difference between them, other than the fact that the Performance Center has the ported barrel and slide, is the PC pistol came with a Crimson Trace microdot sight on it.

When I went to do the annual run through on the cold safe, I discovered that the microdot wasn’t working. No sweat, just a battery change. After changing the battery, the microdot still didn’t work. Luckily, I had another in storage that I had been planning on putting on one of the standard Shield Pluses, but hadn’t yet. So I decided to swap out the CT microdot on the PC Shield Plus.

The sight that I put on it is a Holosun 507K with the Green combo reticle. I like the green better than the red, because it is just more visible of a color for me. YMMV. The only problem is that Holosun’s K series of sights is designed to fit on handguns that have a two post mount, but the Shield Plus has a 4 post mount. This requires that you have an adaptor plate like this one between the sight and the slide. I chose the Aluminum version, and it cost $36.

The reticle looks nice, and you can choose brightness level as well as circle, dot, or both as your reticle. They are very eye-catching, which is what you want in a reticle.

I use the circle without the dot. My split times are faster like that, but you give up a small bit of accuracy for that extra speed. It doesn’t seem to matter much with my shooting. Again, YMMV.

By Divemedic, ago

Gun Talk

Today is annual firearms maintenance day. This is the one day of the year that I spend going over each firearm in the gun safe, making sure it is in working order, and then placing them back into the deep sleep until they are needed, or until next year, as the case may be. Are the night sights still bright? Are all batteries either removed or working? Does the firearm need cleaning? It takes 4 or 5 hours to give all of them the once over. If a firearm needs repairs that take more than 10 minutes or so, then it gets red tagged and goes on the ‘to do’ list. With that out of the way, here is a filler post about firearms:

Choosing an EDC is a personal, opinion driven choice. Each of us has that one handgun that we like to carry, and none of them are wrong, because it’s a matter of opinion. Unless you carry a Taurus Judge, but even then, I know a woman who shot a rapist 5 times with one. He was found by the cops, dead in the bushes about 100 yards away. That’s a story in itself.

The only bad handgun choice is the one that is so poor that you leave it at home and wind up not carrying anything.

All handguns are a tradeoff. They have low power, short range, and don’t have as much firepower as a long gun like an AR-10 or an AR-15, as well as not having as much punch as say, a shotgun. We carry handguns because we aren’t sure whether or not we will need one, but it is useful to have one just in case. The chief advantage of a handgun is that it isn’t inconvenient to carry- not like a long gun, which is a pain in the ass to carry everywhere.

Remember, you carry a handgun in case you might be in a gun fight. If you KNOW you will be in a gun fight, endeavor to not be there. If that is impossible, bring a long gun and bring a friend with a long gun, if possible.

There is no such thing as “knockdown power” in a man portable firearm. Any firearm that produces enough force to “knockdown” a target will also, thanks to Newton’s laws, knockdown the person firing it. With that being said, there are a number of considerations that went into me selecting a firearm. The most important of them (in order of importance) are reliability, how accurate I am with that firearm, concealability, capacity, and the caliber.

I have owned a good variety of handguns. According to my logs (yes, I keep a log of every gun that I have owned in the past 20 years, but sadly don’t have a list of anything from before that time.)

  • Beretta: Tomcat
  • Colt: Combat Commander
  • Glock Models 17, 19, 26, 27
  • Kimber Pro Carry, Eclipse Custom, Ultra Carry 2, Raptor
  • Para: 1911 Black Ops
  • Ruger: P-95
  • Smith and Wesson: Models 59, 5906, 4506, 4566, 4586, 637, 642, 686. M&P models 22, 9, 9c, 40, 45, 45 2.0, Shield models 9mm, 40S&W, 380ez, 45, Shield plus, Bodyguard
  • Sig Sauer models 220, 226, 229 in 9mm and in 357 Sig, the Mosquito
  • Taurus: PT45, Millenium

If a handgun has any sort of failure- whether it is a soft primer strike, a failure to feed, eject, or any other failure more than once in every thousand rounds, it isn’t a carry gun that I will rely on. It becomes a safe queen that is fun to shoot on range day, but won’t get close to EDC status.

Reliability

I found the 1911s to be too finicky, requiring customization and a good amount of work, and even then they weren’t reliable enough to bet your life on. Some of them are jamomatics- they jam every 50 to 100 rounds. Others are better, jamming only every 250 rounds or so. That still isn’t good enough. I’ve heard tell of 1911s that are good shooters, but most of those are $5,000 or more custom jobs, or the owners are constantly fussing over them, replacing springs and such. Still not good enough.

The Smith and Wesson Model 59 (my very first handgun) was not drop safe. I dropped mine once and it went off, shooting a hole through my dresser and into the wall.

The Third Generation Smith and Wessons are all of the ones with 4 digit model numbers- 4506, 5906, etc. They had a nasty problem- there were times that you would pull the trigger when the hammer was back, and nothing would happen. The hammer would stay back and not move. I don’t know why, but it would happen periodically. That was it for the Third Generation Smiths. I stopped carrying them after that happened a couple of times. This problem bugged me so much, that I didn’t buy another Smith and Wesson handgun for 15 years, and that one was a revolver.

Accuracy

The Glocks are good handguns, but I just don’t like to shoot them- they don’t feel good in my hand. I still have a few, but they just don’t go into the EDC rotation. The Ruger felt like holding a brick. For those reasons, I am just not as good at shooting them as I am others.

Concealability

The full sized and even compact handguns just aren’t concealable enough in Florida’s casual, hot weather dress. For that reason, we are limited to the subcompact and smaller handguns most of the time.

The Sig Sauers are great handguns, and I put a few trophies on the wall shooting IDPA with them. I loved shooting the 229 in 357 Sig. Hitting targets was almost intuitive with them. At one point, I was buying the Black Stainless version of them 2 or 3 at a time at a steep discount from CDNN, but that was so long ago that I was getting 357Sig ammo for $125 for a 1,000 round case. The 229s are no longer available from there. Still, they are a bit too large to be concealed very well, so you don’t see me carrying them very often.

Likewise, the Smith and Wesson 686 is an L frame revolver. It’s as hard to conceal as a full sized auto. I have toyed with getting a shoulder rig for it, but never have. That large of a handgun with only 6 shots is just a non-starter for me. It’s fun to shoot, but I likely will never carry it.

Capacity

The 642 is a five shot revolver. I don’t like carrying it unless there is no other choice. Still, it’s better than carrying one of the 380s, which I will also do from time to time.

The Shields in 45 have only one round more at a capacity of 6, unless you carry the extended mag to get 7. Now the extended mag makes it easier to shoot for a person with large hands, so it’s still a contender.

The Shield 40 has the same issue as the 45, bit with less power. So it’s largely out.

Caliber

The Beretta Tomcat was only a .32ACP. I got this one in a trade, where I traded a S&W 642 with a customized trigger to her because her hands would hurt using the Tomcat. I only carried it when nothing else would do. Since it wasn’t really suitable for carry, I eventually sold it.

The Sig Mosquito and the M&P 22 are not of a caliber that is suitable for carry. They are out.

What’s Left for EDC

For those of you keeping track, we are now left with the Smith and Wesson Shields and the 642, a J-frame revolver.

Those are the handguns that are in the EDC rotation. They meet all of the criteria that I have for an EDC handgun. The 642 is one I carry in either a pocket holster or an ankle holster. It was my favorite to carry when I worked night shifts on the ambulance. Strapped inside of my left ankle, it met all of my criteria and it was comforting to know that I wasn’t an unarmed target carrying valuable drugs in a bad neighborhood. This handgun was also written about my Marko when we were discussing whether or not the J-frame revolver was still relevant.

My favorite is the Shield Plus. The one l like is the ported Performance Center model that has a red dot on it. There will be a post on that tomorrow. It’s main drawback is how hard it was to find good leather for it. I went with a custom holster from Milt Sparks, but there was an 8 month wait to get one.

Even so, each of my handguns gets an occasional test drive, and some of them do get carried from time to time, but the 642, and one of the Shield Pluses are my main EDC handguns.

By Divemedic, ago

Make This Make Sense

The Ninth Circuit made this ruling on so called “sensitive places” where states can prohibit firearms:

  • Parks, athletic facilities and similar areas. Gun bans there are likely constitutional.
  • Playgrounds and youth centers. Gun bans there are likely constitutional.
  • Bars and restaurants that serve alcohol. Gun bans there are likely constitutional.
  • Places of amusement, including casinos, stadiums, amusement parks, zoos, museums and libraries. Gun bans there are likely constitutional.
  • Parking areas connected to certain sensitive places. Gun bans there are likely constitutional.
  • The private-property default rule. Hawaii’s rule banning guns on private property unless the owner gives consent orally, in writing or on a sign is likely constitutional.
  • Places of worship. State-mandated gun bans there are likely unconstitutional, but nothing prevents the owner or operator from banning firearms.
  • Gatherings that require a permit. Gun bans there are likely unconstitutional.
  • Financial institutions. State-mandated gun bans there are likely unconstitutional, but nothing prevents the owner or operator from banning firearms.
  • Hospitals and other medical facilities. State-mandated gun bans there are likely unconstitutional, but nothing prevents the owner or operator from banning firearms.
  • Public transit. A broad ban on carrying guns on public transit is likely unconstitutional, but a narrower law allowing the carrying of unloaded and secured firearms would likely be constitutional.

It’s a Mish mash. It isn’t even consistent. Where in the Constitution is this even found? Where in the history and tradition of the country was there a ban on weapons in bard? Casinos? But not hospitals, churches, or banks?

If you argue that schools are sensitive places and rights can be suspended to protect children, then why not suspend the First Amendment there and disallow faggotry?

Our courts are just as partisan and divided as the citizens. It’s long past time to admit that this nation is too large and varied for one set of rules to work for everyone.

By Divemedic, ago

Going to SCOTUS

There are millions of Ford F150 pickup trucks on the roads of America. More than 41 million F-150s have been sold since the truck was introduced 76 years ago. The F series has been the best-selling truck in the U.S. for 47 years, and the best-selling vehicle of any kind in the U.S. for 42 years. If you walk out your front door and look around, you will probably seen a few F150s within the first few minutes outside.

That’s important, because with all of that popularity, one needs to remember that there are more AR patterned rifles in the US than there are F-150 pickups. Despite those facts, the Fourth district court of appeals has allowed that state’s ban on the AR-15 to remain in place because, the court ruled, the AR pattern rifle is “highly unusual.”

This means that the concept of Assault Weapons bans is heading to SCOTUS and is likely to appear on the court’s docket this term. The case, Bianchi v. Brown, is being brought by the Firearms Policy Coalition, the Second Amendment Foundation, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

By Divemedic, ago

Expert

I am removing this entire post because it was based upon incorrect information. I should learn to vet my sources more carefully.

My only defense is that I worked until 2 am then got home to hear the news about the Trump assassination attempt, so I stayed up until 4 watching videos. I was awakened at 8 am by my wife because I had asked her to get me up early so I could get the house ready for my pending solar install.

Mea culpa.

By Divemedic, ago