Category: Gun Schtuff
Biden Signs Law Restoring Funding to Hunter Safety Programs in Schools
Congress and President Joe Biden have undone a mess of their own making.
On Friday, Biden signed the Protecting Hunting Heritage and Education Act into law. Congress passed the law nearly unanimously. The legislation restores funding for school hunting and archery training courses.
“The benefits of hunter education and archery programs should be fully recognized as these classes teach future generations the important skills of public safety, confidence, and comradery,” Representative Richard Hudson (R., N.C.), who sponsored the bill, said in a statement.
The law amends 2022’s Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) to clarify that grants from the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act can be spent on hunting and archery programs. The overwhelming bipartisan support for funding firearms and archery training in schools demonstrates, at least, that the floor of support for hunting remains pretty high in American politics.
The law stems from a dispute in the BSCA’s language about whether federal funds can be spent on weapons training. In April, the Department of Education published an official guide that said it couldn’t spend money on programs that provide “to any person a dangerous weapon or training in the use of a dangerous weapon.” Federal law specifically labels any object capable of “causing death or serious bodily injury, except that such term does not include a pocket knife with a blade of less than 2½ inches in length” as a dangerous weapon.
In August, the Education Department told Fox21 it considered hunting, archery, and sports shooting programs ineligible for funding under the statutory language.
The Department’s interpretation of the BSCA was condemned by a bipartisan group of lawmakers, including many who’d voted for the bill. 18 Senators, including eight Democrats and an Independent, sent a letter to the Department in September arguing they never intended the funding language to be interpreted that way. They demanded funding for school hunting and archery programs be reinstated.
“The intent of section 13401 of BSCA was to preclude these funds from being used to purchase dangerous weapons for school staff or to train school staff in the use of dangerous weapons, with the recognition that ESEA funds should support student achievement, educational enrichment programs, and student well-being,” they wrote. “Other federal funds appropriated in the BSCA were intended to support evidence-based school safety and protective measures.”
Another bipartisan group of Senators sent a letter to the leaders of the Senate Appropriations Committee asking them to create a legislative fix if the Department didn’t change its mind. Between the two letters, the effort garnered support from a dozen Democrats, nine Republicans, and an Independent.
Representative Hudson, who called the Department’s interpretation of the language an “attempt to push their radical agenda on our children,” introduced his legislative fix in the House. That bill quickly gained bipartisan support and passed by a vote of 424 to 1. The Senate agreed to it unanimously. Now, President Biden has signed it into law.
“[T]he President supports a legislative solution to ensure ESEA funding can be used for valuable school enrichment programs, such as hunter safety and archery,” Stefanie Feldman, Director of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, tweeted after the House took up the bill.
California Magazine Ban…..
9th Circuit, as expected, grants the stay in Duncan.
— Kostas Moros (@MorosKostas) October 10, 2023
Thread on the dissent in Duncan. https://t.co/O9Dzgp5p45 pic.twitter.com/rIQHhgnRZT
— Kostas Moros (@MorosKostas) October 10, 2023
Karn v. U.S. State Department found that computer code is protected speech. But this judge decided that, because cad files can communicate with the machines directly, they are not protected…really.
Ahhhh. So does that mean ASCII files are no longer free speech after some judge realizes they can be sent directly to an inkjet printer?
These old, activist judges will learn quickly that you can’t stop the signal.
Federal Judge Rules Gun CAD Files are Not Protected Speech
A federal judge in New Jersey ruled that computer code that lets someone produce firearms is not protected speech under the First Amendment.
In the case, Defense Distributed v. Platkin, Federal District Court Judge Michael A. Shipp dismissed the lawsuit that Defense Distributed and the Second Amendment Foundation ( SAF) brought against New Jersey’s law banning the sharing of gun computer-aided design files (CAD). Even before the law was passed, New Jersey issued a cease-and-desist letter to the company in early 2018, demanding it stop publishing firearms information that New Jersey residents could access. Defense Distributed has been posting CAD files on its Def Cad website that allow users to print firearms using 3D printers. New Jersey claimed publishing these files broke the state’s public nuisance and negligence laws.
All the other ‘smith degrees offered by schools are 2 year associates
Oklahoma school to offer nation’s first bachelor’s in gunsmithing
State officials could have a new weapon in their arsenal as they try to lure gun and ammunition manufacturers to Oklahoma.
Murray State College leaders say the school’s gunsmithing program could become a huge economic development driver thanks to a $10 million legislative investment that will allow the college to offer the nation’s first bachelor’s degree in gunsmithing.
With backing from the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, campus officials approached lawmakers in the spring with a pitch that expanding the school’s gunsmithing program to offer four-year degrees could turn Oklahoma into a hub for gun businesses and manufacturing.
“The idea was this is an investment in an industry that can locate in our state, and regionally, we have the ability distribution-wise to become a powerhouse in this,” Murray State College President Tim Faltyn said in an interview.
Although the funding measure passed overwhelmingly, some lawmakers questioned the new investment in a college that’s located in the district of House Speaker Charles McCall, R-Atoka.
‘Major shift toward embracing modern technology’
Murray State College has offered a gunsmithing program since 1979. Annually, the school admits 30 students to its two-year degree program at its Tishomingo campus.
Seems like 10mm has something going for it. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard of it being used successfully.
Men kill grizzly in self-defense near Whitefish
WHITEFISH, Mont. — Two men from Whitefish killed a grizzly bear in self-defense in the Whitefish Range.
One of the men was injured in an accidental shooting during the encounter with the grizzly bear, he was taken to the hospital for a gunshot wound to the shoulder.
“The two men were scouting for hunting season near Smokey Range Trailhead off Canyon Creek Road on the Flathead National Forest on the afternoon of Aug. 26 when they encountered a female grizzly bear with a cub. The men were walking through a thick section of forest when they surprised the bears inside of 15 feet. The adult bear charged the individuals, and both men shot and killed the bear. One of the men was shot in the back shoulder during the incident,” according to Montana FWP.
The following was sent out by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks:
A pair of Whitefish men killed a grizzly bear in self-defense last weekend in the Whitefish Range north of Whitefish.
One of the individuals was injured in an accidental shooting during the encounter. The man was taken to the hospital and treated for a gunshot wound to the shoulder.
The two men were scouting for hunting season near Smokey Range Trailhead off Canyon Creek Road on the Flathead National Forest on the afternoon of Aug. 26 when they encountered a female grizzly bear with a cub. The men were walking through a thick section of forest when they surprised the bears inside of 15 feet. The adult bear charged the individuals, and both men shot and killed the bear. One of the men was shot in the back shoulder during the incident.
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks game wardens and members of the Wildlife Human Attack Response Team responded and investigated the incident. The bear’s behavior appeared to be defensive in the surprise, close encounter with the two men. FWP shared the initial findings with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service law enforcement, and the USFWS concurred it was a self-defense situation. The grizzly bear did not have a history of conflict and was previously tagged for population monitoring work in 2009. The bear was approximately 25 years old. FWP continues to monitor the site for the cub.
Be bear aware
Montana is bear country. Avoiding conflicts with bears is easier than dealing with conflicts. Here are some precautions to help residents, recreationists and people who work outdoors avoid negative bear encounters:
Carry bear spray and be prepared to use it immediately.
Travel in groups whenever possible and make casual noise, which can help alert bears to your presence.
Stay away from animal carcasses, which often attract bears.
Follow food storage orders from the applicable land management agency.
If you encounter a bear, never approach it. Leave the area when it is safe to do so.
Keep garbage, bird feeders, pet food and other attractants put away in a secure building. Keep garbage in a secure building until the day it is collected. Certified bear-resistant garbage containers are available in many areas.
Never feed wildlife. Bears that become food conditioned lose their natural foraging behavior and pose threats to human safety. It is illegal to feed bears in Montana.
Hunting in places that have or may have grizzly bears — which includes northwest Montana — requires special precautions:
Carry bear spray and be prepared to use it immediately.
Look for bear sign and be cautious around creeks and areas with limited visibility and where any noises you might make do not carry well.
Hunt with a group of people. Making localized noise can alert bears to your presence.
Be aware that elk calls and cover scents can attract bears.
Bring the equipment and people needed to help field dress game and remove the meat from the kill site as soon as possible.
If you need to leave part of the meat in the field during processing, hang it at least 10 feet off the ground and at least 150 yards from the gut pile. Leave it where it can be observed from a distance of at least 200 yards.
Upon your return, observe the meat with binoculars. If it has been disturbed or if a bear is in the area, leave and call FWP.
This is correct, but what doesn’t help is when the fumble butter-fingered idjits of FedEx drop the car rifle safe – that took 7 weeks to make and deliver as apparently they construct each order from scratch – off the back of the truck and bend a flange so much the safe is now useless and everyone involved is slow walking taking care of the problem.
Pro Tip: Your Car is NOT a Gun Safe
A little reminder courtesy of the Columbus, Ohio Police Department . . .
“We are absolutely alarmed by the number of guns that are taken from cars that are parked and unoccupied,” said Sergeant James Fuqua of the Columbus Division of Police.
“If you leave your gun in a car whether it’s locked or not and your car is broken into, you have contributed to the possibility of a criminal going out to commit a heinous act against someone else in the City of Columbus,” Fuqua said.
The lesson here: don’t make thieves’ job easier . . .
Buckeye Firearms, a pro-gun lobby said, “Criminals don’t try to break into every car. They profile vehicles just like they profile potential victims on the street. They’re looking for an obvious and easy target. NRA decals on the window or gun-related bumper stickers are a clue that guns may be in the vehicle. Firearm accessories or hunting gear visible through the windows are also a tipoff. Where you park also matters. Don’t park on the street if you can, park in a garage or a secure lot. If you must park outside, park in a well-lit area. If you’re parking overnight, take all your valuables with you,” said Dean Rieck, Executive Director of Buckeye Firearms. Let me break it down for you: your car is not a gun safe. And as the holiday season ramps up, cases of car windows being smashed and valuables being stolen are just going to keep rising. It’s easy to to break a window in your car, truck or SUV and take whatever a thief wants. And if you’ve left your gun in there, congratulations, you just armed a criminal.
Yeah, you’re also out a chunk of money for the gun itself, but personally I’d be more concerned about the firearm that’s now in the hands of someone who thinks crime is the way to fund their lifestyle.
If you’re in a situation where leaving your handgun in your vehicle is the only option, get a real safe. Hornady’s RAPiD Vehicle Safe is a legit option (I own a couple myself). The RAPiD has a 14-gauge steel housing, internal hardened locking lugs, and a steel cable that can be attached to a seat frame. It can be opened using a four-to-six digit programmable security code, one of the RFID wristbands or key fobs it ships with, or one of a pair of barrel keys. Power comes from either four AAA batteries or a 12-volt car adapter.
Is this the perfect solution? No. There is no perfect solution, but it’s unlikely you’re going to run into a criminal doing a smash-and-grab while also carrying heavy-duty bolt cutters or some other tool that will give them access to the safe (assuming it’s properly installed).
That doesn’t mean you should leave a handgun in a gun safe in your car 24/7, either. The best place for your gun is in on your hip in a proper holster on your gun belt…so carry your gun. When it’s not being carried or when you have to go into a non-permissive area, store it securely.
If you’re at home, that’s going to be in your gun safe, not parked in your driveway in your car. Your car’s gun safe won’t do you much good if the entire car is stolen, will it?
Thus ends this friendly Your Car is Not a Gun Safe PSA.
To make it to this level of competition, you have to be really good.
12 U.S. Soldiers Compete in ISSF World Championships in Baku
Twelve Soldiers from the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit will compete in the 2023 International Shooting Sports Federation World Championship in Baku, Azerbaijan August 14 – September 1 as part of USA Shooting’s 40 athlete-team.
The ISSF World Championships includes a number of rifle, pistol and shotgun events where more than 1200 athletes from 101 nations will vie for the title of World Champion in their shooting discipline. It is also an opportunity for shooting sports athletes to earn U.S. Olympic Quotas for the 2024 Paris Games.
Olympic Quotas are essentially tickets, or slots, for a country to compete at the Olympics in a specific event. Each country is eligible for two athletes to compete in each event at the Games.
Currently, USA Shooting athletes have earned 15 Paris quotas. Seven of those quotes were earned at prior international competitions by the USAMU Soldiers stationed at Fort Moore, Georgia.
Let’s require the Secret Service and FBI to switch to this technology exclusively for a 4-year test period. After that we can talk. Of course, they won’t.
– Tom Gresham
The First Smart Gun Is Finally Coming to Market. Will Anyone Buy It?
Gun makers have been working for decades on a weapon that can only be fired by an authorized user
Sasha Wiesen sleeps with a .40-caliber handgun in a safe by his bed. The commercial real-estate broker from Florida recently preordered a new type of firearm he hopes will make the safe unnecessary.
The new weapon is the Colorado startup Biofire’s 9mm Smart Gun, which can only be fired if it recognizes an authorized user with a fingerprint reader on the grip or a facial recognition camera on the back.
“I’m usually an early adapter,” said Wiesen, 46 years old. “It might be the gadget part of me that made me buy it, but it’s also the safety aspect.”
Guns that use technology to ensure that they can only be fired by their owners, called smart guns, have been developed and debated since the 1990s. The Biofire Smart Gun will be the first widely available for sale if it ships in December as planned.
Proponents tout smart guns as a way to reduce accidental shootings and firearm thefts. Gun-rights supporters have been wary, in part over concern that governments could outlaw sales of weapons that don’t have smart-gun technology.
Earlier efforts to bring smart guns to market have failed, largely because of pressure from gun-rights activists or because they didn’t work as promised.
As with other technologies such as electric cars that changed long-established products, the question for smart guns is whether they can work at least as well as the traditional versions they replace and find customers behind affluent early adopters.
The Biofire Smart Gun costs $1,499. Similar handguns without high-tech features typically cost between $400 and $800.
Not as long as I’ve got the ammo I’ve got on hand, it ain’t. While I’m not advising people that don’t have one to go out and buy one, for us that have them, they’ll do just fine.
GLOCK 22: IS .40 S&W A DEAD CARTRIDGE OR STILL RELEVANT?
I remember a time when folks routinely bragged that their go-to concealed carry gun was chambered in .40 S&W, and I’ve met plenty of law enforcement officers who were issued pistols in the same caliber over the years. But it seems like the chatter about .40 S&W is all but gone these days.
In fact, over the last year, I have met only one shooter who routinely carries a Glock 22, specifically for the hard-hitting .40 S&W round it’s designed to shoot.
So, what gives? Is .40 S&W dead, dying, or still relevant?
To get started on answering that question, I pulled a gently used – and very budget-friendly – law enforcement trade-in Glock 22 from the Guns.com Vault. After all, it’s kind of hard to judge a round if you don’t spend some time using it.
Table of Contents
.40 S&W History
Glock 22: Accurate, Powerful, Reliable
Specs Comparison: G22, G21, G17, G19
Ballistics Comparisons: 9mm, .40 S&W, .45 ACP, 10mm
Some Ballistic Testing
10mm Resurgence
Pros & Cons: Why Get a .40 S&W Pistol?
More Thoughts On The Defensive Shotgun
Good training and good technique makes the scattergun even more effective.
One of the reasons that the shotgun is often overlooked as a defensive tool is recoil. Folks who have spent a lot of time shooting the .22 LR, .223 Rem. or even the lighter-caliber deer rifles either don’t know how to manage recoil or have gotten sloppy about it. When folks tell me about how a 12 gauge kicks, I like to tell them about a 110-pound lady I know who has hunted all over the world with a .375 H&H Magnum.
To manage the kick of a 12 gauge, it is important to first tuck the buttstock firmly into the shoulder pocket. The strong hand, the one on the pistol grip, needs to continually pull the gun solidly into that shoulder pocket. Some even suggest that the support hand, at the same time, should push forward on the gun, creating an isometric hold.
One additional problem for the defensive shotgun is that the standard 14-inch buttstock is too long for most people. It probably works fine for the bladed stance that most bird hunters use, but the bladed stance is a mistake for the defensive shooter.
The defensive shooter should address the target with a shotgun in the same way one does with the handgun. That is, the shooter should be squared away with the target, facing it. Knees should be slightly bent and one’s weight should be on the balls of the feet. In addition, elbows should be tucked down, not stuck out there like chicken wings. This type of stance not only allows the shooter to move quickly but it also helps manage recoil.
When shooting the shotgun in this preferred manner, the 14-inch buttstock is just too long. I have a 33-inch shirt sleeve and do my best work with a 12-inch buttstock. Another advantage of the shorter stock is that other, smaller members of the family will also be able to manage it more effectively. It is a simple fact that we can all manage a shorter stock more effectively than we can one that is too long.
As I said in the previous column, the defensive shotgun is quite a bit different than the typical bird gun. Once a person learns the difference and how to deal with it, the fighting shotgun will have another fan.
As I heard it explained many years ago; ‘Fast with a gun’ didn’t mean the “quickdraw” that western movies, TV & some artists have made famous. It meant the man was fast -as highlighted below – in deciding that he would draw and shoot and then not hesitate in doing so.
Lessons on Gunfighting from Wyatt Earp.
Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp (March 19, 1848 – January 13, 1929) was an American Old West gambler, a deputy sheriff in Pima County, and deputy town marshal in Tombstone, Arizona Territory, who took part in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, during which lawmen killed three outlaw cowboys.
Here is an interview that Wyatt Earp shares on “gunfighting“. This was dated back in the 1910 he offered to give an interview about his thoughts on using a gun. In his own words, Wyatt is going to explain how he became one of the most feared and accurate gunslingers… even if he was about the slowest.
The interview was originally posted on primaryandsecondary.com forum.
The most important lesson I learned from those proficient gunfighters was the winner of a gunplay usually was the man who took his time. The second was that, if I hoped to live long on the frontier, I would shun flashy trick-shooting—grandstand play—as I would poison.
No integral light or even the ability to mount a light
No luminous sights or ability to mount optics (and the sights are not adjustable!)
Not FULLY ambidextrous as you have to order either a left, or right handed version for the fingerprint reader. Lose the ability to use that hand and what you’ve got left is a image reader that you hope will read your face when it matters.
No independent tests for failure modes
In other words: Not ready in any respect for self defense use.
BLUF
“If even one or two cases get out where it’s found that someone was unable to protect themselves because the gun didn’t recognize them… I think that’s going to kill the movement for a long time,” Wolf said.
Metro company offers first commercially available ‘smart guns’
Kai Kloepfer is the CEO of the Broomfield-based company Biofire. He said making a gun like this was impossible until very recently.
At first glance, the Biofire Smart Gun is different from other firearms. The large handgun looks part Halo, part Cyberpunk in design.
It’s an appropriate look since the gun is made with new technology ripped straight from science fiction. It’s unlocked biometrically, meaning it can only be activated with an authorized user’s fingerprint or face. That, in turn, means only authorized users can shoot it.
Kai Kloepfer is the CEO of the Broomfield-based company Biofire. He said making a gun like this was impossible until very recently.
“A lot of the technology we’re using did not exist two years ago, in most cases,” Kloepfer said.
Kloepfer began thinking about the smart gun in high school. He grew up in Colorado and remembers the 2012 Aurora theater mass shooting, where 12 were killed. He brought an early design to an international science fair and won first place. More than a decade later his plastic prototype has evolved into a fully functional handgun.
“I’ve gotten a chance to be shooting it, handling it. Even got to take one home for a little bit. It’s just been really cool to see something that I only dreamed of like 11 years ago,” Kloepfer said.
Experts say putting a computer into a gun is a remarkable feat—a gun’s explosive force once made it unthinkable. But beyond the computer, the gun is unremarkable in its function. Biofire’s smart gun is a semiautomatic 9mm handgun, meaning a user can pull the trigger, a round goes downrange, and a new round is fed into the chamber. It functions exactly like any other handgun of its class and caliber—and that’s by design.
It takes an expert like Bryan Rogers, the lead designer at Biofire, to bring the gun to commercial production. He said the secret to making a reliable smart gun is to enable more than one way to unlock it.
“It uses both fingerprint and facial recognition to recognize you as the owner,” Rogers said.” It’s either/or—whichever one it gets first.”
We may be seeing a slight increase from last year
RUGER BRINGS BACK THE MARLIN 1894 IN .44 MAG
Ruger continues to play the hits with its resurrected Marlin Firearms brand, announcing this week that the famed Model 1894 is back in production.