I’ve been getting a few emails and comments on the 9MM build. Most folks want to know why I want one. The reason is to fire at the indoor range. I want a rifle that mimics my 5.56 that I can take to CCA’s indoor range and get some practice with. Others have asked why bother since the performance of a 9MM is questionable. Well, according to one of the testers at AR15.com, a 9mm out of a 16 inch barrel exceeds 430 foot pounds, roughly equivalent to the 45 Colt and more powerful than a 45 ACP (both shot from handgun barrels, of course). Additionally, the ammo is cheap. For $11, I can get 100 rounds of Winchester White Box at Wal-Mart. Most importantly, because it will be fun.

The next question I usually get is what do I need to swap out my 5.56 AR to a Colt style 9MM system. Well, after looking at it, I decided it was better to just have a dedicated 9mm AR. To convert, you need magazines, a 9mm mag block, a 9mm upper half of the gun, a 9mm buffer (for a CAR stock, with an A2 stock it’s unnecessary), and a 9mm hammer. In other words, it’s not simply a matter of swapping out the upper receiver and will require push pins and partial disassembly of the fire control group and popping out the buffer. Now, if you look at it from the other side you realize that your 9mm parts are only lacking a lower receiver, a fire control group and a stock assembly to become a complete rifle. In other words, for a few extra dollars (around $200), you can have a dedicated rifle to eliminate the need for swapping out all the time.

Some folks tell me it sounds fun but they have no desire for a 9mm and want something with more oomph. Well, you’re in luck. Olympic makes ARs in 9mm and 40S&W that take Glock magazines. Now, they’re even making them in 45ACP and 10mm. Their site doesn’t list them but you can get them here.

And did I mention that pistol caliber carbines are just cool?

Chaos in Motion has more on the bullshit study that tries to conclude that we gun toters are more prone to road rage.

Heard rumors that Wolf Ammo was going to get in the better quality ammo market. Looks like they’ve released their Gold series, with reloadable brass.

Nicki Fellenzer was featured in this piece on kids and gun safety:

Fellenzer said she doesn’t worry about having guns in the house because she and her husband have taught Daniel and their daughters, Sarah, 10, and Anna, 16, about gun safety.

“The No. 1 rule around this house is that a gun is not a toy,” Fellenzer said. “Our children know this and understand it. They are drilled regularly on gun safety.”

Right ruling, odd reasoning:

A city agency violated the separation of church and state when it seized a woman’s home to help a religious group build a private school in a blighted Philadelphia neighborhood, a state appeals court ruled Monday.

Yeah, forget about all that pesky fifth amendment stuff.

They are up at In the Agora. That is twice I’ve submitted stuff and twice it wasn’t posted. If you want to host it, you should check your email.

Michael Silence:

But as I’ve said before, I think blogging it leveling off. Don’t get me wrong, it is definitely here to stay and it is evolving into community or group blogs, as noted below.

In the beginning, there were message boards. Then there were blogs. Now blogs are turning back into message boards.

Only this time, it’s budget stuff and not a corrupt registry of NFA weapons or kitten stomping. The WaPo:

The new headquarters of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in the District is at least $19 million over budget at a time when the agency is considering sharp cuts in the number of new cars, bulletproof vests and other basics it provides agents.

The Justice Department inspector general’s office recently received a complaint alleging that ATF Director Carl J. Truscott put through or proposed unnecessary plan changes and upgrades to the 438,000-square-foot building in the past two years, according to four sources familiar with the project.

[snip]

The sources also said that some ATF officials object to the approximately $1 million annual cost of an extensive security detail for Truscott, who spent 22 years at the Secret Service before coming to ATF. The expenditures pay for five full-time agents and two armored Chevrolet Suburbans, which have not been made available to previous ATF directors or to the heads of comparable agencies, such as the U.S. Marshals Service, according to sources and government records.

ATF spokeswoman Sheree L. Mixell said a $12 million funding cut last year by Congress — not spending on the building — was a primary cause of current budget difficulties at the agency. She also said cost overruns for the new headquarters have not been excessive or unexpected.

Looks like there is some concern over their spending. Here’s hoping this serves as a catalyst to look at other issues with the agency.

ABC reports that 40 states and Congress are looking at eminent domain in a post Kelo world:

Echoes of the debate are happening across the country, after a U.S. Supreme Court decision brought new attention to governments’ ability to seize property through the tool of eminent domain. Some 40 states are re-examining their laws with action in Congress, too after the court’s unpopular ruling.

Here’s hoping something gets done.

I understand engaging in behavior as a means of protesting governmental overreach. However, forcing yourself to take up an addictive, expensive habit that could very well kill you doesn’t seem like a great plan:

My decision to smoke was much less sound. It was based on a phenomenon too recent to have been the subject of statistical studies or biological analysis: New York City’s ban on cigarette smoking in indoor public spaces.

Via AC.

Via David Codrea, a reporter is very loose with the facts:

Congress has failed to renew the 1994 legislation that banned assault weapons, even though George Bush, during the 2004 presidential election campaign, said he supported the law. As a result, it’s now OK to buy an AK-47 or an Uzi machine-gun, if that turns you on.

The AWB did not affect machine guns. Looks like he fell for Brady Campaign misrepresentations, is too lazy to research or is a liar. My bet is on liar. Nicki has more.

Pro-Gun Progressive went packing for the first time and describes how it made him feel:

Having people stand behind me in line made me hyper-aware of the proximity of someone else to my gun. Carrying, I noticed, brings your alertness level to the maximum; you pay attention to everyone’s moves, everyone’s posture, and where every other person is in relation to you. You just do.

I’ve been carrying since handgun carry permits came out in Tennessee (1995ish, I think) and that feeling never goes away. But there will come a time after a while when you’ll feel strange when your gun is missing. The only similar feeling I can compare it to was the one day I made it to work and realized I forgot my wedding ring. You notice all day that it’s not there.

According to the gun boards, SigArms (following FN’s release of the P90) is planning on getting into the EBR market by manufacturing a civilian version of their 55X series of rifles. They look like this:

Rumor has it they will be called the 556. The folks at The Firing Line have already started a group buy. Excellent. I like the 7.62 version (which can be seen here if you scroll down a bit). Official confirmation from SigArms is expected from the Shot Show next weekend. I hope they do and I hope H&K follows their lead and gets into the civilian market, as I’ve poo-pooed them for their lack of in the past.

That’s a sweet looking rifle.

Looking for a good way to back up computer data that is portable. Since having a kid, we now snap digital camera photos by the hundreds. We’ve been backing them up on CDs but that is tedious and, currently, I have about 12 to burn to complete the whole back up. We’d also like to take them to family members so they can see them. So, I need something that is both compatible with most computers as well as holding lots of stuff. I was looking into some sort of DVD recorder (which I’ve heard can hold 17 gig of data). This sound perfect. But the ones that I find say they hold 5 gig. Anyone got any recommendations?

Apparently, Van Hilleary thinks we the best thing we can do for the country is re-elect Bush. And this guy wants to be my Senator. Heh.

Chaos in Motion has a lot more on the study as does the Geek, who does it with a flow chart.

Says Nicki:

Several things (other than the authors’ history of bias against guns and gun owners) struck me. One was their blatant misrepresentation of the definition of road rage. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, road rage is defined as “an assault with a motor vehicle or other dangerous weapon by the operator or passenger(s) of another motor vehicle or vehicles precipitated by an incident, which occurred on a roadway.” Road rage is violent. It is an assault. It is dangerous, criminal behavior, according to NHTSA and Richard Wark, Roy Lucke and Richard Raub of the Northwestern University Center for Public Safety.

Countertop has the final round of the gunnies. Go vote.

It might read something like this:

There are 10 primary values at BB&T…

1. Reality (Fact-Based)
What is, is. If we want to be better, we must act within the context of reality (the facts). Businesses and individuals often make serious mistakes by making decisions based on what they “wish was so,” or based on theories which are disconnected from reality. The foundation for quality decision making is a careful understanding of the facts.
…
2. Reason (Objectivity)
Mankind has a specific means of survival, which is his ability to think, i.e., his capacity to reason logically from the facts of reality as presented to his five senses. A lion has claws to hunt. A deer has swiftness to avoid the hunter. Man has his ability to think. There is only one “natural resource” – the human mind.

Via Uncommon Sense.

The Carnival of Cordite be up n shit.

John Lott has an update on the study that tries to intimate that drivers with guns in their car are more dangerous and notes that Hemenway refuses to provide his data.

Update: BTW, I have a copy of the study if anyone wants it.

GLN was asking for Lautenberg cases. Read this tale of a guy who has lost a lot due to the Lautenberg Amendment.

Hehe, he said Boehner.

It’s probably a good idea to register your name as a domain to avoid stuff like this.

Yesterday, the grandma was desperate for some Junior time and called me up to ask if she could have her for the afternoon. I said sure and used the time to go to the range. I went to Coal Creek Armory and shot the breeze with Tam and Alston (who has apparently forgotten that he has a blog) and shot the Glock 30 and the Walther.

I’m happy to report that Coal Creek is now a one stop shop for your 9mm AR needs. They have buffers, mag blocks, and magazines. And they assured me uppers were on the way. Tam said she had to twist some arms and pointed out the 9mm AR market is something they need to be in since it’s a rifle that people can shoot at the CCA range. I concur. I’ll get an upper there eventually as ADCO is now out of RRA 9mm uppers (that will teach me to let you guys know where I find my gun deals – note to self: self, post deals after you buy them.). I snatched up a 9mm buffer. So, if you’re in the market and local, head on over for the 9mm hookup.

I love the spicy food. I also happen to have a pretty high tolerance for it. I’ve apparently passed that on to Junior. Last night, we went to a local Ameri-Mexican place (this stuff isn’t real Mexican food) and she started dipping her chips in the salsa, which I would classify as mildly spicy but for a 19 month old was probably more spicy. She eventually bypassed the chips altogether and started eating the salsa with a spoon, pausing occasionally to take a drink of her water which implied she realized it was spicy. Glad she got that bit of DNA from me because the Mrs.’ family are kind of wimps when it comes to anything remotely spicy.

Another in a series of jokes that don’t work well when written

Aunt B. relays a laugh she had at a funeral. Here’s one from my life. A few years back, my great uncle Paul passed away. The funeral was a somber event, of course. And me and the other elder cousins were pallbearers.

My eldest cousin, saddened, looks at mean says: Why do they call us pallbearers?

I say: ‘Cause we’re carrying Paul

We had a good chuckle. Paul would have approved.

Could be the end of that boondoggle:

The new Conservative government has the federal long gun registry in its crosshairs, which has prompted some defenders of the program to plead with the Tories not to pull the trigger on the much-maligned registry.

But the cries of clemency coming from crime victims and now police chiefs, as compelling as they may be, must not be heeded and the registry must be put out of its misery.

In comments, Rick asks:

I really like your site because if the rather level headed “pro-gun” Point Of View, but since I am neither a “gun enthusiast” nor a gun owner I simply get lost when you get in to the Acronyms. I know ATF, but what is NFA?

Suggestion? A post of all your firearm TLAs (three or more Letter Acronyms)for us casual fans?

Here’s a good list courtesy of AR15.com. Also, NFA is the National Firearms Act which regulates machine guns, suppressors, short barreled rifles (SBRs), short barreled shotguns (SBSs) and any other weapon (AOW).

The New Scientist:

GUN lobbyists like to repeat the quote often attributed to American writer Robert Heinlein, that “an armed society is a polite society”. But this is certainly not true for motorists.

A survey of 2400 drivers carried out by David Hemenway and his colleagues at the Harvard School of Public Health shows that motorists who carry guns in their cars are far more likely to indulge in road rage – driving aggressively or making obscene gestures – than motorists without guns. Some 23 per cent of gun-toting drivers admitted making rude signs, compared with 16 per cent of those who did not carry guns (Accident Analysis and Prevention, DOI:10.1016/j.aap.2005.12.014).

Then why is it that in every case where CCW laws have passed there has been no dramatic increase in crimes? There is also the fact that there is no indication from this survey they determined that those armed actually used their weapons.

Via KABA who notes Do Hemenway and crew ever change their tune or admit their blatant bias?

Update: John Lott has more.

Insty is right. The new Gillette Fusion gives the second best shave ever. Number one is when my barber (Hill’s Barber Shop off Broadway) uses a straight razor to trim up the neck after a haircut. I once commented that I liked the shave and he said he’d get me a straight razor if I wanted. I asked if it came with a class on how to use it because I’d hate to cut off my face. Then, he had an idea to do an instructional DVD for the straight razor. But I digress. Back to the Gillette, it gives a damn fine shave compared to the old Mach 3 I’d been using.