Robb reviews the Taurus 709 Slim.

Cool photos and a bleg.

I dunno what it is but it has 7 barrels.

S&W 617

Auto Burlgar

So says Bill Maher.

Well, not really. I came in today and yesterday. And let me just say that most people on the road in snow are idiots. Snow still on a rear window acts as an idiot warning system. Like how brightly colored animals are usually poisonous and you should avoid them. I saw all manner of those in the last couple of days. But the major stupid today was the guy/gal in the Honda Hybrid thing that could only be bothered to remove snow from the driver side half of his front window. The car had a Dog is Love sticker on it. If you know that person, tell them the internet says they’re stupid.

And pro tip: if your vehicle is sliding on the snow, whichever way your wheels are facing when you come out of the slide is the direction your vehicle will travel once it stops slipping. See, in my rear wheel drive, lightweight car with a decent engine, I had no problem. Drive slow and take it easy. I apparently annoyed someone in a four wheel drive Jeep Wrangler who decided to ride my ass, flash his lights and then, ultimately, pass me. A bit up the road, I saw him on the side of it. I honked and waved. 4WD helps you go. Not that great for stopping when you’re going the wrong way.

The Sad Death Of Gun Control. It’s a good thing. Despite the whining from John at Gawker. But, you know, that’s what losers do. Whine. It’s tough being on the wrong side of history.

Dallas News:

The undercover officer approached a suspected drug dealer in the darkness, wary that his target might be armed and prepared to strike.

So the Plano cop drew his gun from his holster. He pointed it at the shadowy figure. He tried to activate his gun-mounted flashlight.

A shot rang out. The suspect fell to the ground. The officer had made the worst possible error.

The Oct. 13 accidental fatal shooting of unarmed Michael Anthony Alcala, 25, in a Far North Dallas parking lot highlights what some experts say is the potential danger of affixing flashlights to guns – something many departments around the nation now routinely do. In this case, a light switch was directly below the gun’s trigger guard.

Sounds like an excuse for bad gun-handling to me.

Police drew down on a woman carrying in a church and arrested her. Turns out, she hadn’t broken any law and the police arrested her for, uh, something made up I guess. The police settled the federal lawsuit. I’d have added a couple of zeros to the price tag, myself.

For gunsmiths:

“1911s are the perfect storm. They are expensive and need a lot of gun smithing to sort out their bugs.” He continued, “The design is a hundred years old, we learned a lot in that hundred years. The mag design alone is awful. Even Jeff Cooper would bitch about their capacity and reliability now. What the F&%k, it’s been a hundred years.”

Report here. I found this odd:

I had noticed in the classroom that each of the rifles had a big eyebolt – like you’d get from a hardware store – screwed into the front of the forestock; it looked like some kind of redneck sling swivel, but I thought it was strange; when we got to the firing line, I was amused to notice that every rifle was tied to the shooting bench with a chain padlocked to the eyebolt on the stock! Obviously they didn’t want anyone running amok in there – they locked the rifles up before passing out the ammunition, and by the time it was possible to get your hands on a loaded weapon, it was impossible to point it anywhere but downrange. You could only shoot offhand (standing up), and to aim the thing, you had to support both the rifle and the chain.

Never heard of such. Is this a NY thing?

William Saletan says the armed guy who helped subdue the Tucson shooter is a danger. Because he almost shot the guy who took the gun from the shooter. And almost, of course, means not at all:

But before we embrace Zamudio’s brave intervention as proof of the value of being armed, let’s hear the whole story. “I came out of that store, I clicked the safety off, and I was ready,” he explained on Fox and Friends. “I had my hand on my gun. I had it in my jacket pocket here. And I came around the corner like this.” Zamudio demonstrated how his shooting hand was wrapped around the weapon, poised to draw and fire. As he rounded the corner, he saw a man holding a gun. “And that’s who I at first thought was the shooter,” Zamudio recalled. “I told him to ‘Drop it, drop it!'”

But the man with the gun wasn’t the shooter. He had wrested the gun away from the shooter. “Had you shot that guy, it would have been a big, fat mess,” the interviewer pointed out.

Zamudio kept his head and made the right call. Which is what you’re supposed to do. Still not good enough for anti-rights buffoons like Saletan.

Indeed: IF YOU DON’T WANT PEOPLE TO HAVE CONTEMPT FOR GOVERNMENT, STOP ACTING CONTEMPTIBLY

Applying the Paul Helmke’s standards to other rights.

Stop politicizing, and do your job:

Dupnik needs to recall that he is elected to be a lawman. With each additional comment, the Democratic sheriff of Pima County is revealing his agenda as partisan, and, as such, every bit as recklessly antagonistic as the talk-show hosts and politicians he chooses to decry.

Well, we knew it would happen. Never let a crisis go to waste and all. And the trick for them is to move quickly before anyone has time to think about what a dumb idea it is.

A magazine ban is useless because, as Joe shows, folks can change them pretty darn quick:

Calls for a new assault weapons ban and a ban on regular capacity magazines. National Review points out that the AWB wouldn’t have stopped this, which anyone with half a brain would know. And what’s up with NR? That’s at least 3 pro gun pieces in recent memory and they usually ignore gun owners unless there’s an election on.

Press calls for more gun control.

Boehner says no to more gun control. Good.

How many Kos kids own guns. More than I thought. Good.

Mom’s first gun show.

The narrative changes, depending on the shooter.

Blaming pro-freedom rhetoric: If any rhetoric can be blamed for this weekend’s tragedy, it’s the rhetoric that insists that gun control means an assault on people’s constitutional rights, and that we need only to enforce the gun laws we already have.

Massad Ayoob discussses the shooting.

Jay has a list of items that, really, no longer exist. I’d add commercials to things our kids may not know about. Junior was three before she ever saw a commercial.

Convincing myself larger groups are OK. Kidding aside, it’s a discussion of why small groups, while fun on the range, may not be effective in self-defense. There’s a trade off between speed and accuracy. Some folks call it Acceptable Combat Accuracy. I prefer the term MOA (minute of asshole). That balance is the trick. I can, probably, draw and fire accurately in a bit over a second (or, more likely, a bit under two). Top professional shooters manage to do both, though.

My shocked face. On facebook, I predicted this.

Shooting the KSG:

KSG pic

For those not paying attention yesterday, you can see the new Sig rifle in this post.

He says FoxNews misstated him when they said his position that the state has every right to restrict conceal and carry permits to citizens. From Jacob Sullum:

Pratt now says Fox “misstated my position,” which distinguished between rights of citizenship such as voting in U.S. elections and natural rights such as those protected by the Second Amendment.

Pratt’s response is at that link. He says, in part:

. . . fundamental human rights such as the right to self-defense as embodied by keeping and bearing arms, on the other hand, SHOULD MOST DEFINITELY extend to everyone, period.

Good for Larry Pratt.

Update: Seems his staff didn’t get that memo:

From: Gun Owners of America [mailto:noreply_goa@gunowners.net]
Sent: Monday, January 10, 2011 10:33 AM
To: XXXXXXX
Subject: Gun Owners of America: Ticket 201115416, FOX News

Re: Ticket XXXXXXXX, Responded

Dear XXXXXX

A new message has been added to the email #XXXXXXXXX.

Constitutional rights belong only to citizens. The ACLU’s logic can lead to tearing down our border – that there are no rights unique to American citizenship, so, hey, let everyone come in. That same logic allows the state to take away the right to keep and bear arms of a citizen. We have argued in court that only a citizen can lose his right to keep and bear arms by renouncing his citizenship. The current view that citizenship is no big deal has led to a progressive encirclement of the exercise of our rights. We gave gone from denying the right to keep and bear arms to felons, then to those with misdemeanors, now to those with certain medical diagnoses (and that without any due process).

We must make the distinction between citizens and others.

The American constitutional order is one of rights for citizens. Any enjoyment of those rights by non-citizens is a privilege in constitutional terms. The ACLU, as usual, is wrong in this case. It is for the state of South Dakota to determine whether legal non-citizens have the right to keep and bear arms. I don’t agree with their new policy, but constitutionally, they are within their power to so act.

I have forwarded your comments to my supervisor.

Robert Duggar
Gun Owners of America

Another politician signs on to support a law banning mentioned earlier.

Next, Rep. Peter King said Tuesday that he will introduce legislation to ban the carrying of any firearm within 1,000 feet of what he described as “high-profile government officials.”

What the Hell is wrong with these people?

A man not knowing that NJ thinks you’re too stupid to pump your own gas, pumps his own gas. Cops move in to arrest him for that. Really. Ask if he has weapons. He says he does. He’s arrested. He’s lost his appeal. Case could be interesting to watch.

A string of restaurant robberies.

This may be the dumbest list of supposed gun myths ever printed.

Ok: An Italian man has astonished doctors by sneezing a bullet out through his nose after being shot in the head.

Video here

John Green, father of 9 year old Christina Green who was killed in Tucson:

This shouldn’t happen in this country, or anywhere else, but in a free society, we’re going to be subject to people like this. I prefer this to the alternative.

It’s out in force, after the Tucson shooting. Sheriff and press blaming AZ’s gun laws. Blaming metal, like it’s 1980 again.

Media BS about guns.

Blaming the gun culture. Even though pot-smoking commies aren’t usually associated with the gun culture.

SPLC says if you look hard enough, obviously a tea partier.

Anti-gunners seem to be celebrating.

Despite bleating, support for gun control is down. And no indication that the Obama admin will change their policy on guns.

Some are pointing out the narrative doesn’t fit. But they’re gonna shoehorn it in anyway.

Paul Helmke: We also are deeply concerned about the heated political rhetoric that escalates debates and controversies, and sometimes makes it seem as if violence is an acceptable response to honest disagreements.

Pretty rich, right there given the rhetoric Paul has engaged in.