Under a Gibbous Moon

A month or so ago, I had a conversation with my brother (on Xbox Live, of all places) about muzzle breaks. He had recently had the opportunity to fire a ported pistol and wanted my opinion on them.

First, while poking around the internet for this, I discovered that there is some variation in terminology. For our purposes, a muzzle break is (either built in or added to the barrel) porting that direct some of the projectiles gases upwards and/ or backwards in order to control muzzle climb. (continue reading…)

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Detective Rod Tauson of the East Palo Palo Alto (California) Police Department doesn’t like it when other people carry firearms. On his Facebook page, he made threats to shoot those he saw do it, despite the fact that it is legal in his jurisdiction.

I have run into this attitude (not quite this extreme) semi-regularly for the police. That is that they are the only ones who should be given the right to carry a weapon. I have found this odd that, as I have discussed in an earlier post, the police are merely a reactive agency who are not required nor are capable of defending any given individual.

What makes this most repugnant is, in essence, it means that police officers like this consider themselves to be a special class of citizens who are therefore entitled to rights and privileges greater than those given to the rest of us.

This is a dangerous attitude when carried out as part of a larger policing strategy. It leads to a situation where the police stop being protectors and move into the position of keepers, where they define what is and is not allowed and deal with those who disagree with them in any way they feel (look up pretty much anything with the words “Police” and “Brutality”).

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This video is of a prototype collapsible PDW:

Looks interesting, it apparently makes use of a Glock upper reciever with their own custom, collapsible lower.

I picked this up from BoingBoing. I highly recommend checking it out because it is always entertaining to watch people who know nothing about firearms discuss them.

This is not a SMG, unless they use the Glock 18 for the upper. This would be impractical due to the fact that, with the collapsible grip, you would be limited to standard magazines which would leave you with a very limited ammunition capacity.

Also, this is not a SBR (short barreled rifle). It is a pistol with a stock. No special permits needed.

All that said, it would be a rather interesting product if they decided to market it. It would give you greater stability (granted by the stock) in a very compact package.

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Now, for me, I’ve never seen the need to gold plate my firearms. The various gaudy embellishments that some people seem to think are necessary really detract from the weapons appearance as well as its functionality.

Personally, I have always been drawn to the elegant design and simple functionality of the Colt Model 1911.

I know that this pistol has quite a few adherents, the design has been in service for almost one hundred years.

Some may say that there is little that can be done to improve upon the original design, aesthetically speaking.

Well, Talo has managed it.

And it’s only just a bit north of $1600.

Hat Tip: The Firearm Blog

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From CBS News, an Oklahoma woman, Donna Jackson shot and killed Billy Riley after he forced his way into her home. She had heard him trying to break in. She called 911 but there was no chance of the police being able to get there before Riley was able to break in through a glass door.

She had a shotgun though and when the intruder came in, she shot and killed him. Below is a recording of the 911 call that she made.

(continue reading…)

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