Recently I’ve been fooling about with some rarely-encountered but nonetheless very cool guns:
The Auto Mag .44AMP of Mack Bolan fame…
…and a Wildey gas-operated .45 Win Mag of Charles Bronson vintage
Both are aristocratic hand cannons from a different era. We call it the 1970s and 80s.
With that in mind, I’ll be in Las Vegas for SHOT Show all week, so stay tuned for updates on cool guy stuff.
For the past few months, I have been carrying Diamondback’s new Gen 4 DB9 pistol.
The $225 micro-framed 9mm, with an unloaded weight of just 13.4-ounces, while maintaining a 3.1-inch stainless steel barrel that gives an overall length of 5.73-inches, is described by Diamondback as the “smallest and lightest” 9mm on the market. With a flush-fit magazine shoe installed, its height is 4-inches flat. The maximum width is 0.89-inches. This puts it a hair larger than “mouse gun” semi-autos in .22LR, .32ACP and .380 Auto, but more than, say a J-frame .38.
While I prefer to carry a double stack (G19, S&W M&P M2.0 Compact, et. al) on most occasions, I did find the DB9 great for going to the gym as I find it weird to wear a belt with track pants. Likewise, while kayaking in shorts or doing yard/housework, the Diamondback in pocket carry was a good fit.
In all, I put about 1,000 rounds through the palm-sized parabellum in the past few months and found out a few things about it.
Anyway, more in my column at Guns.com, should you be curious.
So in California, which has had an assault weapon ban going all the way back to 1989 and yet still have mass-shootings with California-compliant firearms, lawmakers tried to pass over 20 legislative actions on increased gun control this session.
A baker’s dozen of these made it through the legislature in Dem-heavy votes of which Gov. Jerry Brown signed 7 into law and returned five with vetoes.
Since gun rights groups and Republican lawmakers couldn’t derail these, a group of gun owners on a gun forum (Calguns) got together and decided, “Let’s try for a ballot referendum to repeal these…”
And that’s exactly what they are doing.
With a pressing deadline of Sept.29, they are trying to get 450,000 signatures on 7 different propositions. Of course, California has 13 million gun owners, which by definition should all be capable of registering to vote, so it’s not far-fetched.
I’ve spoken with the man behind the effort, a San Diego tech company executive, and it’s a hail Mary play with a lot of spunk behind it.