Remember when I said that it looked like the DC shooter’s rifles had autosear pins?
It turns out that is exactly what he had. This now raises the question: Where and how did he get three fully automatic rifles? Those look like new manufacture.
Guns
DC Shooter Machine Guns?
Go to this story and look closely at the picture of the AR pattern rifles found at the DC shooter’s apartment.
Now zoom in and see if you can see what I do.
Look just above the selector of those two rifles, and it sure looks to me like there are holes in them for an autosear pin.
Antigun
Antigun Republican
Florida’s District 28 contains Winter Springs and Oviedo. Your state Representative is Davis Smith, a Republican. He is also opposed to open carry.
Open carry is publicly wearing a sidearm wherever you want in the state. … And there are some states that have it. I don’t believe open carry is right for Florida. Why? Because those European tourists spend, you know, seven times as much…South American tourists spend four times as much as American.
Our economy…does everybody like not having an income tax in Florida? Yeah. So we have a sales tax and our economy is tourism. And cultures that don’t grow up with guns, don’t have the NRA and gun safety…The NRA is the single largest gun safety organization in the United States. That’s why I’m a life member of the NRA.
And so, for business reasons, I don’t think that open carry is right for Florida. Constitutional carry, or permitless carry, is different and I’ll tell you, I’m undecided on the issue. I’m open, and if the bill gets filed and we’re gonna hear it, you’re welcome to come talk to me and lobby….
Just because the Democrats are your enemy doesn’t make Republicans your friend.
Antigun
The Clock is Ticking
So now that I have had a chance to review the new ATF gun grab, I can say that I anticipated much of what was in there. However, there is one part that I must admit not being adequately equipped for. Upper receivers are now considered to be firearms, as are 80 percent lowers. This creates a national problem for the USA, as well as a personal problem for me.
Since uppers are now firearms, and any unserialized firearm that comes into the possession of any FFL must be serialized, this is going to be a big problem. Unless an FFL holder is an 07 (manufacturer), it looks like the serial number has to come from the ATF itself. This will cause every handgun slide and every AR upper to be serialized (registered) with an ATF provided serial number. This sets up a nationwide firearm registry.
If I am correct about this, this creates a real problem for every gun owner in the country. This kind of registration has only one purpose: confiscation.
Now I anticipated 80 percent lowers becoming firearms. The uppers, I did not. Over the past year, I have managed to amass a good number of 80 percent lowers and stripped uppers of the AR15, Glock 19, and the AR308 varieties. A <classified> number of them have already been converted into firearms. Due to supply chain issues, what I have is a mismatch between the number of uppers and the number of lowers. Some of that has been corrected, but I am stuck on others. I need a few Glock uppers (slide assemblies), and a small number of AR308 uppers. I can’t find bargains right now on either one. They are all out of stock or so expensive that I just can’t justify it.
The clock is ticking. I have just a few weeks to secure what I need, create the firearms, and cache them before it becomes a crime.
Antigun
New Gun Laws
Biden’s ATF released new gun laws today. I tried to get a quick read on its impact, but that will be impossible. The released document is nearly 400 pages long, and is a complicated, confusing mess that will take lawyers and the courts years to settle. Read it for yourself (pdf warning) as I have hosted it here at Sector Ocho for your convenience.
The Biden administration has, through the ATF, completely circumvented Congress and rewritten US law.
My initial opinion on this new law is that it is vague and open to numerous interpretation, which is exactly how the ATF has always done business. For example, it defines an externally visible housing or holding structure or one or more fire control components to be considered as a frame or receiver. Examples of fire control components may include but are not limited to any of the following parts: bolt, bolt carrier breechblock cylinder, firing pin, hammer, striker, slide rails or trigger mechanism.
Does this mean AR upper receivers and slides for handguns will begin to be considered as firearms too? It’s quite possible!
This will be a mess.
Crime
Tax Money
The federal government has been spending money on research intended to support gun control. What they found is not surprising. They discovered that rural children have access to guns, with one in six rural ‘children’ claiming that they have carried a gun before age 26. This is twice the rate that urban young people admit carrying guns.
In a post from 2013, I showed that 53% of US homicides occurred in cities with populations of over 100,000. Urban areas. Now cities of that size are where 28% of the US population lives. When homicide statistics are combined with the results of the above study, we can see that in places where a person is twice as likely to be carrying a gun, a person’s chances of being a homicide victim are much lower.
That is what is known as negative correlation. That is, as the rate of firearm possession increases, the chances of being a victim of homicide decreases. To put it more simply, more guns mean fewer homicides.
Haven’t those of us who oppose gun control been saying that for several decades?
On a side note, what are researchers doing asking children in the sixth grade to report on whether or not mommy and daddy have guns in the house? Yet another mark against leftist educators.
A second side note. The website that published this article is a website dedicated to physics. What dis this study have to do with physics? Isn’t this more in the realm of sociology?
Guns
Less Lethal
This was just sent to me: A company is selling pepper ball guns, as long as you aren’t in New York or California. I don’t have one, but I am wondering if anyone has experience with this company.
Guns
10mm, Bears, Ammo Shortage, Shopping
A couple of weeks ago, I asked “What caliber for bear?” A few of you mentioned the 10mm.
It turns out (via Commander Zero) that handguns are effective on bears 97% of the time. Who knew? Like me, he leans to the .44, but there is no getting around the 10mm and its higher capacity.
There is also Peter’s post over at Bayou Renaissance Man about the 10mm coming back as a defensive round.
I own defensive handguns in .38Spl, .380ACP, .357 Magnum, .357Sig, .40S&W, .45ACP, and 9x19mm. They require magazines, speed loaders, and a stock of ammo that has to be maintained and occasionally fired. Adding another caliber to the mix will require a lot of shopping and a fair amount of money. Then again…
You guys suck. Now I am starting to think about branching into a new caliber in the middle of this crazy ammo shortage. I may have to take a trip to the LGS to see what 10mm offerings are there…
economics
LGS has gotten ridiculous
I arrived at the range and paid my $20 (plus tax) range fee. I used to have an annual pass (cost $650 for both the wife and I) but we let it expire during 2020 because the COVID shutdown made it silly to pay for a range pass we weren’t using. Once they reopened, we didn’t renew it because ammo had gotten so expensive that we couldn’t go shooting enough to make it worthwhile.
Why? At $20 an hour per shooting lane, we need to go to the range at least three times per month to make it worthwhile to have a membership. Even if the wife and I each took a lane, that still means a range visit every three weeks. Ammo has gotten to be so expensive that we just couldn’t pull that off.
In January of 2020, I bought a 1,000 round case of 9mm for $150. So 15 cents a round for 9mm. Then the ammo supply dried up. When I finally DID get a ‘good’ deal on 9mm, it cost me $150 for 500 rounds of 9mm. That’s right- 30 cents per round, for this stuff:
I took it to the range this morning. That was a disaster. After firing one magazine of it, the RSO came over and told me that I couldn’t shoot steel case ammo, because they were unable to sell the casings to their scrap dealer. He invited me to buy some ammo in the store to continue shooting. Here is a cross section of what they were selling:
Norma .22LR for $10 a box?
Remington .38 Special for $1 a round.
Winchester 9mm for 50 cents a round. I can get the same stuff from 2A warehouse for 37 cents a round.
This means that shooting 2 boxes of ammo at this range using their ammo is going to cost me:
- A $10 annual “membership fee”
- $20 for the range fee
- $13 in extra ammo costs.
Over the course of a year, a monthly trip to the range using their ammo will cost me $406 in range fees and extra ammo costs. Also, I don’t reload, but if I did, this would bug me: They won’t let you take your brass with you.
So I will make sure that I have brass cased ammo next time.