Tag Archives: Self Defense

Bringing the Second Amendment to the hood

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The Black Lives Matter movement has embraced gun control and allied with anti-gun groups while their leadership has very publicly painted the group as non-violent and non-confrontational.

Not affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement, 29-year-old community leader Maj Toure is a gun owner and a card-carrying member of the National Rifle Association and believes that the right to keep and bear arms is fundamental. And he is bringing that message, without any outside support, to the black community through outreach and free firearms training conducted by certified instructors.

I had a chance to talk with Toure this month about his Black Guns Matter group, his vision, and why it’s needed. In short, he wants to replace more gun regulations, buybacks and rhetoric with firearms training, education, and concealed carry permits.

black guns matter

“Charlton Heston said it – you basically got to pry this out of my cold, dead hand. I’m not going down that way because we are citizens, Americans,” Toure told me. “We are citizens. We have the right to exercise the Second Amendment and anyone that’s tryin’ to infringe on that is not only in violation of the Constitution but they’re also just a dick.”

I told him he needed to put that remark on a T-shirt.

More in my column at Guns.com

The Army’s surplus gun pipeline may be fixing to run dry

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Last week the U.S. Senate overwhelmingly passed the 2017 defense authorization act– but hidden inside its pages is a section that could destroy the military’s current stock of surplus rifles and pistols.

The Senate’s version of the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act authorizes some $602 billion in spending and despite President Obama’s threat to veto the annual policy measure over issues including a ban on closing the Guantanamo Bay military prison, saw widespread support, passing 85-13 last Tuesday.

While many have noted the measure includes such items as requiring females to register for the draft beginning in 2018, others have been lost in the almost kafkaesque layers of the bill.

In short, within 90 days of the bill becoming law, the Army would transfer almost all of the surplus guns it held at Anniston to Rock Island for meltdown. The only exceptions would be for up to 2,000 M1911 pistols and 2,000 M14 rifles that could be donated to military museums for preservation.

This could mean the death knell for surplus guns for CMP, the 1033 Program which supports some 8,000 local police agencies, and the Ceremonial Rifle Program which provides guns for veterans’ groups such as the VFW and DAV.

More in my column at Guns.com

CMP may get into the 1911 business

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remingtn 1911 with knuckleduster1918
An add-on to the upcoming National Defense Authorization Act that passed committee includes a plan to transfer the U.S. Army’s remaining stock of .45 ACP 1911A1 pistols to the Civilian Marksmanship Program.

Added as an amendment by Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Alabama, while the NDAA was in debate in the House Armed Service Committee, it could see potentially the largest remaining stock of military surplus World War II-era handguns in government hands sold to the public.

The lawmaker disclosed that the military currently spends about $2 per year to store 100,000 Model 1911s that are surplus to the Army’s needs. While 8,300 have been sold or disposed of in recent years – largely through the controversial Department of Defense’s 1033 Program, which offers eligible law enforcement agencies up to one pistol per full-time officer – the guns still on hand have in many cases been stored since the 1980s when they were withdrawn from service in favor of the then-new Beretta 92F (M9).

More in my column at Guns.com

So you’ve been involved in a defensive gun use, now what?

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It has happened. That event that you always hoped would never occur under your watch: having to use a firearm in self-defense. Whether you had to pull the trigger or not, you now have several things to worry about. Will you be charged? Go to jail? Stripped of your guns? Sued?

As a firearms instructor for both concealed carriers, security and law enforcement over the past couple decades, I spend a lot of my time talking about the proper use of force. Now, force can be anything from just being there and looking at someone all the way up to taking a life. First off, to keep on the side of right, you are never the aggressor. By definition this puts you behind the 8-ball of having to respond to an unjust threat presented to you by no reason of your own. Yes, it sucks, but that’s self-defense.

A good test of if self-defense is justified is the old 3-legs of ability, opportunity, and intent.

Let us talk about that.

Springfield XD Sub Compact 40cal

Read the rest in my column at X  D  Forum

Want to own a gun in Puerto Rico?

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While writing a piece on a federal indictment of a police detective lieutenant in Puerto Rico for Guns.com, I took some time out and read the 20-pages of gun laws in the Commonwealth as well as talked to some folks back and forth down there.

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Here’s what I found out:

The island territory requires those who want to legally own a firearm first obtain a weapons license or “Licencias de armas,” which costs $125 and has to be renewed every five years. This permit allows the holder to possess a maximum of two firearms, which have to be registered with the police, for which they can only purchase ammo in the same calibers as their declared firearms. Ammunition purchases are limited to just 50 rounds per calendar year per firearm.

Then of course you still need to buy a hunting permit if you want to use your guns for sporting purposes.

Those who want a concealed carry permit must already have a weapons license, become a member of a gun club recognized by the police, obtain an additional $25 Target-shooting permit (“Permisos de tiro al blanco”), which allows the possessor to purchase larger amounts of ammunition and then file an application to appear before a judge to argue their case for a CCW. This typically requires using a lawyer to expedite the process and obtain additional training.

The process costs upwards of $1,000 and the number of permits issued are so low as to classify Puerto Rico as a “No Issue” jurisdiction when compared to such notoriously strict “May Issue” handgun permit states as New Jersey and Hawaii.

However, the Commonwealth also suffers from a crime rate that is seven times higher than that found in the rest of the U.S. despite strict control over legal firearms.

The elusiveness of legal permits on the island has led to a burgeoning black market in illegally procured permits.

Hence the indictment for bogus permits…

NeoStead 2000: South African Scattergun

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South Africa has had a long history of armed conflict and, as such, has an equally long history of innovative local weapons design—so innovative in fact, they’re solution based designs have been copied by manufacturers internationally. With limited budgets South African arms makers have a reputation of doing ‘more with less’ and a good example of this (and one we can see elements of Kel-tec’s latest combat shotgun, the KSG) is the NeoStead 2000.

Read more in my column at GUNS.com

neostead

The Full Auto Enfield Rifles: The Charlton, the Electrolux and the Rieder

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Odds are, if you speak gun, you’ve come across an Enfield rifle at least once in your life. With that being said, you have probably never come across a full-auto Enfield unless you wore a uniform in 1940s. Let’s have a look.

The Lee-Metford and later the Short-Magazine Lee Enfield (SMLE) in a multitude of variants was the standard British military rifle for nearly 70-years. It served through two World Wars and dozens of smaller conflicts on half as many continents. When World War II erupted in 1939, her Commonwealth allies including New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa joined Britain. Rapid and extensive mobilization saw these Allies ship most of their troops and arms to Europe and North Africa by 1940 to fight the Germans and Italians. Then, in December 1941, the Empire of Japan entered the war.

With the standard light machineguns of the Commonwealth armies, the Bren gun and Lewis rifle, available in few numbers, there was an emergency need for .303-caliber automatics. Interestingly enough, two different inventors, continents apart, came to the same conclusion at roughly the same time: convert the Enfield to full auto.

read the rest in my column at GUNS.com

Five Worst Handguns of All Time

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Throughout the past several centuries, handguns have sprouted several evolutionary branches. Some of these branches are shorter than others. We look at five of the shortest, and the reasons behind them. See if you agree with me.

Read the rest in my column at GUNS.com

Rohm Model RG 10 double-action .22 short caliber six-shot capacity revolver with its original packaging purchased at the Golden Valley Sportcenter in Minnesota. The revolver is made of blued steel and has checkered white plastic grips with round “ROHM” medallions. The original two-piece paper box bears a black “RG 10” medallion. Also included are a cylindrical cleaning brush and an instruction page in English and German. Made in Sontheim, Germany……worth $19.95 in 1967, and about that much today….

A Gun’s Role in your Prepper’s Kit

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When the first caveman decided to keep a little more food or fuel for his fire than what he needed to get through the week, he became a prepper. Odds are this first prepper decided he needed a good-sized club or rock to help make sure he could hold onto it. Today’s Preppers are the same way. Shelter, food and fuel are stockpiled and a weapon (usually a gun) is obtained to be able to protect it from those that did not.

Read the rest in my column at GUNS.com

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