Category: Guns

National Reciprocity Now!

Now is a great time in America for those of us who have chosen to be responsible for the safety of ourselves and our families by carrying a concealed firearm.  As of 2016, there were over 14.5 million citizens with concealed carry permits across the country, an increase of 1.73 million people over the previous year.  In addition, it is now possible to obtain a concealed carry permit in all 50 states, although it is much more difficult in some than others.  Also, there are now 12 states in which no permit is required in order to legally carry a firearm.  All of this in spite of 8 years of an openly hostile administration and never ending lies and intentional ignorance on the part of the leftist press.

One of the issues that still needs to be addressed is the hodgepodge of laws concerning the concealed carrying of a weapon in different states.  Today, states generally fall into one of three categories: no permit required, shall issue, or may issue.  In states where no permit is required, if it is legal for you to possess a handgun, you can carry it.  “Shall issue” states are required to issue a concealed carry permit to every citizen who meets the legal requirements.  “May issue” states restrict the rights of its citizens through the use of high fees, excessive paperwork, long wait times, and requirements for proof of need.  It is possible to obtain a permit in these states, all in the Northeast except for California, but it is difficult.

In an effort to alleviate some of the confusion, many states recognize permits issued by other states through reciprocal agreements.  My Tennessee permit, for instance, makes it legal for me to carry in every state except California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington.  Vermont is also listed as not recognizing Tennessee permits, but to their credit, Vermont recognizes no permits as they are a true Constitutional carry state.  Others states should pay attention.  Most states have some similar reciprocity agreement with other states.  That’s great, but imagine traveling across the country and having to figure out where you’re legal and where you’re not.  Those of us who travel for business or make their living on the road have to be very cognizant of where we’re going and which states will be crossed in getting there.  Many of you will remember the 2009 arrest of Brian Aitken, a legal gun owner from Colorado who was arrested after travelling to New Jersey with two unloaded and inaccessible hand guns (along with scary standard capacity magazines and defensive ammunition) buried deep in his car.  Fortunately, his sentence of seven years in prison was commuted in 2010.

With the White House and both houses of the Legislature controlled by those more friendly to personal defense, it is time to remedy the situation by instituting national reciprocity.  The Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act (H.R. 38) will do just that.  The bill was introduced on January 3, 2017, and currently has 199 co-sponsors.  With the exception of  Congressman Henry Cuellar of Texas, every co-sponsor is a Republican (go figure).  Simply put, the bill will require every state currently issuing permits for concealed carry to recognize the permits issued by every other state.  To me, this is simple logic.  What other inalienable right protected by the Constitution varies from state to state?  Imagine if your speech were limited in one state more than another.  What if you could only go to a certain church because of state laws?  Would it be OK for the police to need a warrant to search your property but not that of citizens in a neighboring state?  No, such abuses of Constitutionally protected rights would never be tolerated.  This is precisely what has been done with the Second Amendment and I see no reasonable argument for allowing it to continue.  Yes, I understand that there are limits on even inalienable rights.  In the case of states that limit a citizen’s ability to legally carry a firearm, they are denying them the essence of the right.  This issue was headed to the Supreme Court in the case of Peruta v. California, but SCOTUS, in a move that proves they are no longer capable of impartiality, has just decided not to hear the case because neither side felt assured of winning.  Read that again slowly.

The CCRA is a great start, but it will not end the confusing array of laws governing firearms across the country.  It will not necessarily prevent outrages such as the one which happened to Brian Aitken.  As a gun owner, it will still be incumbent on you to know the laws of the place in which you are travelling.  That will remain part of our responsibility as law-abiding gun owners.  But it will ensure that your right to carry your weapon concealed is protected regardless of what other draconian laws exist in a given state. As such, I fully support the CCRA and I hope you will as well.  Please consider contacting your Representative and urge them to support H.R. 38, the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act.

As always, I thank you for reading!  I hope that you’ll leave your comments on the page and share this post.  You can also find us on Twitter @FrustratedAmer4.

 

 

 

Cut Through the Noise: The Truth about Suppressors and the Hearing Protection Act

 

On January 9, 2017, the Hearing Protection Act of 2017 was introduced in the House or Representatives (H.R. 367) and Senate (S. 59).  The bills are identical, each seeking to reclassify sound suppressors for firearms as regular long arms.  In my opinion, this is a bill which is long overdue.  By removing the $200 tax and onerous regulations on suppressors, they will become more affordable and accessible to American shooters, making shooting sports safer.  I see no downside, but that isn’t stopping the usual gnashing of teeth and rending of garments by those who oppose anything making gun ownership easier or actually safer.  As is often the case, many of the objections I’ve heard are based on misunderstanding and outright falsehoods perpetuated by the media.  What I’d like to do with this article is provide you with some facts about suppressors, including a little history, what they actually do versus what you may think they do, and why this bill is a good idea.

The modern suppressor was invented in 1902 by Hiram Percy Maxim, the son of the inventor of the first portable, truly automatic machine gun.  Maxim’s device was patented in 1909 and was widely marketed to hunters and shooters across the country.  They were available to everyone and were popular devices.  Maxim’s Silencer (a misnomer that we’ll address shortly) was a tubular device that contained a series of baffles which trapped the escaping gases from the muzzle of a firearm, greatly reducing the report, muzzle flash, and felt recoil.  The same basic principals are used in modern suppressors.

The passage of the National Firearms Act of 1934 changed everything.  The original NFA was the first widespread attempt by the American government at gun control.  The act was largely a response to the waves of crime perpetrated by the likes of Al Capone and John Dillinger during the Prohibition era.  At that time, anyone could own an automatic weapon, although there were very few available and they were expensive.  They were, however, used by gangsters such as Capone and Dillinger in the commission of their crimes.  It was thought that if those weapons were banned, the result would be a reduction in crime (if this sounds familiar, you’re right).  Interestingly, the authors of the NFA were actually more concerned with handguns than machine guns and wanted to ban them as well.  The National Rifle Association (yes, the NRA) successfully lobbied to remove handguns from the bill.  The authors of the bill knew very well the American people would never allow their 2nd Amendment rights to be stripped in such a way, so it was decided to regulate these weapons through taxation.  The NFA placed a $200 tax (equivalent to about $3500 today) on “firearms”, which it defined as “a shotgun or rifle having a barrel of less than 18 inches in length, or any other weapon, except a pistol or revolver, from which a shot is discharged by an explosive if such weapon is capable of being concealed on the person, or a machine gun, and includes a muffler or silencer for any firearm whether or not such firearm is included within the foregoing definition”.  In addition, anyone who manufactured, imported, or sold these items was required to be registered with the Treasury Department and pay a hefty tax, and anyone owning these types of weapons were required to register them.  Private sales between individuals were not allowed.

To read the original transcripts of the hearings that lead up to the passing of the NFA, please follow this link and download the document available on Google Books.  It is a fascinating read and will be covered in more detail in a future post.  Interestingly, there was almost no discussion of so-called silencers throughout the proceedings, so it is unclear why they were included at all.  Gangsters the likes of Capone and Dillinger did not generally use suppressors.  They staged their crimes in broad daylight, relying on sheer audacity and superior firepower, not stealth, to commit their crimes.

Today, suppressors remain legal, but are not simple to acquire.  The $200 tax has not changed, although subsequent legislation and the creation of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosive (BATFE) has added layers of aggravation to the process.  Assuming you live in one of the 42 states where it is legal to possess a suppressor, the first step is to pick out and purchase the one you like.  Once you have made your purchase, the dealer maintains possession of the suppressor as you await approval from the BATFE.  You must submit two copies of completed BATFE Form 4, two finger print cards, two copies of your passport photo, and a completed BATFE Form 5330.20.  To complete Form 4, you must obtain certification from your Chief Law Enforcement Officer.  Once all of this has been submitted you wait for at least three months, and usually longer.  Once your purchase has been approved, the seller will receive one copy of your Form 4 with the tax stamp and will be allowed to release your suppressor to you.  Simple, huh?  That’s all you have to do to purchase a metal tube filled with baffles, which is legal to own and makes shooting safer.  Our government at work!

The primary reason suppressors were ever restricted and remain so is simply that most people do not understand what they actually do.  Maxim’s name for his invention, silencer, was more for marketing purposes than a functional description of the device.  The rise of spy movies in the mid-20th century showing assassins moving through the darkness and dispatching their target with a silencer-equipped pistol with barely an audible sound have reinforced the misconception.  Silencers do not actually silence the report of a gunshot, they merely suppress it.  Hence, the use of the term ‘suppressor’ by people in the industry.

The sound of a gunshot is produced by two different phenomenon that occur simultaneously when a shot is fired.  As the projectile leaves the muzzle of the gun, the gases created by the burning propellant escape, causing a pressure wave that is perceived by the human ear as a loud blast; a BOOM, if you will.  The second is the projectile breaking the sound barrier, which produces a sharp CRACK.  With the exception of specially produced sub-sonic ammunition, almost all commercially available calibers exceed the speed of sound at the muzzle, which is approximately 1125 feet per second (fps).  Suppressors only attenuate the sound produced by the escaping gases.  Each of the baffles inside the suppressor captures a portion of the gasses and directs the remainder forward into the next baffle, rather than outward in all directions.  They do nothing whatsoever about the sonic boom created by the projectile after it leaves the barrel, and this is a significant portion of the sound profile of a firearm. Using a suppressor also results in less felt recoil, which is conducive to accurate shooting.  If you’d like to see more information on this and how your ear perceives the sound, check out this series of slides prepared by Phillip H. Dater, MD.

The decibel (dB) level of a gunshot is dependent on many factors, including caliber, muzzle velocity, barrel length, and position relative to the muzzle.  The decibel level of a variety of calibers of ammunition is presented in the chart below as the blue bars.  This information is based on the work of James E. Lankford, who compiled the data from a series of five different studies.  They are presented as the peak decibel level for each caliber.  I have simplified Lankford’s data somewhat, as he lists numerous calibers and the weapon from which each was fired for testing. According to OSHA, “exposure to impulsive or impact noise should not exceed 140 dB peak sound pressure levels”.  Sounds that exceed 140 dB can cause permanent hearing damage immediately.  As you can see from the chart, every caliber produces sound levels in excess of 140 dB.  If you think it’s ok to go out and shoot your .22 without hearing protection, you’re wrong.

 

Unsuppressed and suppressed decibel levels of common calibers.

OSHA further requires hearing protection to be provided to workers who are exposed to long term noises over 85 dB, which provides a good threshold for safe levels of noise exposure.  This level is represented by the yellow line on the chart.  Based on my own quick search of several manufacturers,  suppressors reduce the dB level between 20 and 40 dB, depending on make, caliber, and a number of other factors.  For this article, I have assumed an average of about 30 dB in noise reduction for every caliber.  That number is represented by the red bars.  The chart clearly shows that for every caliber, with the exception of the .357 magnum, suppressors reduce the dB level to below 140 where permanent damage can occur immediately, but for no caliber does it reduce the level to below the 85 dB level.  In other words, suppressors reduce the sound of a gunshot to a safer level, but not to the point where hearing protection is not necessary.  When you see our movie assassin fire a shot which goes “fffft”, that’s Hollywood magic, not real life.

Even though suppressors do not make gunshots safe for unprotected ears, there are numerous advantages to their widespread use.  Those of us who hunt understand that it is almost impossible to use hearing protection while hunting.  Great improvements have been made in electronic ear muffs that allow for normal hearing while canceling out any sound as loud as a gunshot.  They make it harder to distinguish between birds scratching in the leaves and deer walking right behind you, however.  The same is true for bird hunters.  Shotgun blasts tend not to be as painful as rifle shots, but a day in a dove field where the hunter might fire 50 rounds or more can do a lot of damage without protection.  Electronic muffs do not lend themselves to shotgun use and plugs prevent the hunter from hearing calls from other hunters, either identifying birds coming in or cautioning against shooting at low birds or non-game species.

For new shooters, the noise and recoil associated with shooting can be intimidating. This can lead to poor habits such as flinching, poor trigger control, and failure to follow through.  A suppressor reduces both the noise and the felt recoil, making learning to shoot a more pleasant experience for the student and the instructor.  As for ranges, many are under threat of closing as housing developments spring up on adjacent properties and fill with people who do not like the noise.  The use of suppressors can make ranges better neighbors and opens the opportunity for new ranges where none could have been built before.  If you frequent an indoor range, you know that you often have to use both ear plugs and muffs in order to shoot comfortably.  Even then it can still be very loud.  I think suppressors should be a must for indoor shooting.  For those who shoot a lot, such as law enforcement and competitive shooters, the use of suppressors during practice will help prevent the cumulative damage which comes from firing thousands of rounds of ammunition, even with protection.

As you can see, there are many good reasons why the Hearing Protection Act should be passed and no reason it should not be.  Criminals do not use suppressors.  Period.  They are big, bulky, and very obtrusive, all things that criminals try to avoid in a weapon.  Poachers, by and large, are not concerned with noise.  They rely on isolation and often darkness to conceal their activities.  If suppressors become more easy to obtain, there will not be roving bands of assassins murdering people at will with their totally silent guns, any more than concealed carry laws have led to the “blood in the streets” about which the anti-gun folks warned us.  Friends, I hope you’ll support the passage of the Hearing Protection Act by contacting your representatives and letting them know that you want to see a piece of truly common sense legislation concerning guns pass.  You can follow this link to get the information for your representatives, or you can submit forms here expressing your support for the bill.

As always, thank you for reading!  I hope you found this article informative and that you’ll share it with your friends.  Please leave me a comment here on the page.  Remember, ignorance is our common enemy!

 

Big Fun at the National Rifle Association Annual Meeting

This weekend (April 28-30), I attended the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) Annual Meeting in Atlanta.  I went with my dad and brother, so we were guaranteed to have a good time!  The meetings and exhibition were held at the Georgia World Congress Center, which is about the size of a small city.  The exhibit hall covered 15 acres, which does not include all of the meeting rooms and auditoriums that were in use throughout the weekend.  There was something for everyone in the shooting sports.  If you were looking for information on gun laws, it was there.  Like to hunt?  There was a session for you.  Want to put your hands on that brand new model you’ve seen in the magazines?  It was there.  Heck, even the President was there!  The big draw for the Avery men was the exhibit hall, however.  Imagine the biggest gun show you’ve ever seen.  Now multiply it by 10 and you’re about there!

Overhead

View of a tiny piece of the exhibit hall from above.

 

Pano

Panoramic view of the exhibit hall.

The amount of guns, accessories, knives, flashlights, clothes, and general cool stuff was just incredible.  It was difficult at first to figure out how to go about trying to see it all.  I must have handled 200 different guns through the course of the event, some more interesting than others.  We visited all of the big guys, plus a whole bunch of smaller companies, some that I’d never heard of.  I tried to visit all of the booths for the companies whose equipment I use, which was really cool since I was able to talk to upper management level folks in several cases. For example, I use a Comp-Tac holster and magazine pouches in competition.  I walked into their display to discover that the founder of the company, Gregg Garrett, was not only working the floor, but had found a stool so that my dad could sit down for a few minutes.  We talked with him for several minutes and had a very nice chat.  I like their gear a lot and it turns out I like their founder pretty well, too!  I also spoke with Randy Lee, president of Apex Tactical Specialties.  I have their Competition Action Enhancement Kit in my M&P 9 Pro, which made it a different gun!  I thanked him for making a great product and for the instructional videos that made installation possible for people like me.  There is nothing more frightening than seeing the guts of your pistol laying on the bench!  Randy’s videos made it much less scary.

I have been wanting to get my hands on Walther’s Q5 Match pistol and finally got to at the show.  It is similar to the PPQ that I carry, but has a full five-inch barrel and even better trigger.  If I was going to buy another gun for Production, I’d have to consider it.  The ergonomics and trigger are top-notch.  As a Smith and Wesson fan, I was pleased to see the M&P 2.0.  They have improved the trigger significantly over the old factory trigger.  The M&P is hard to beat.  If I were itching to get into the Single-Stack game and money were no object, the Colt Gold Cup Match in .45 ACP would be my choice.  I made the mistake of picking one up and trying the trigger.  My knees got a little weak and I broke out in a cold sweat!  It is a gorgeous gun and appears to do justice to the Colt name.  The $1700 msrp price tag is not out of scale with other 1911s and I’m pretty sure that no further work would have to be done to it.  Another good choice would be Remington’s yet to be released 1911 set up to the high standards set by pro shooter Travis Tomasie. While I was at Remington’s display, Tomasie and his team mate, Gabby Franco, walked up and started talking.  You might remember Gabby from Season 4 of Top Shot.  Both were very nice and extremely knowledgeable.  I thought it was pretty cool to talk to a guy with his name on a gun!  If punching paper is your sport and you want to look good doing it, the Sig P210 is an absolutely beautiful target pistol meant to put multiple projectiles into a single hole.  The bore axis is extremely low and the grips are, well, perfect.  At over $2000, they should be!

Thompson

I can’t leave out the old guns and the new versions of old guns that were prevalent at the show.  I have a soft-spot for the Single Action Armies and Winchester lever guns that I saw in use on my favorite Westerns.  Cimarron Firearms and Uberti USA‘s reproductions of these classic arms are well made and nothing short of beautiful.  There is something just wonderful about the fit of the SAA in the hand and the smoothness of pulling back the hammer and squeezing the trigger!  I loved Cimarron’s 1876 Centennial Rifle, chambered in buffalo-stomping .50-95 caliber!  Then there was Auto Ordnance’s reproduction of the 1927A1 Thompson submachine gun.  The modern version is a semi-automatic in .45 ACP and appears to be very well made.  It’s hard to not feel like a bad-ass when you hold a Thompson!  I don’t know if they’re USPSA-legal, but I’d like to see a Pistol Caliber Carbine shooter bring a Thompson to a match!  They’d win the cool points for sure.

All of the guns and gear were great, but the best part was the people, both the industry professionals and celebrities as well as the visitors like me.  I met several professional shooters representing the cream of the crop in the shooting sports; the very ones you see on TV.  I understand these folks are there to represent their sponsor’s brand, so they’re getting paid to be nice to all of us commoners.  But not one of them gave me the impression they were anything but genuine.  They all seemed to enjoy being there and spent way more time than it takes to get a photo and an autograph.  I almost expected that, but was still very impressed to see it actually come to pass.  It was just like talking to my friends at the range.  I’ll admit a certain level of fan-boy came out in me, especially talking to Jerry Miculek and Julie Golob.  But they were both very nice people and easy to talk to.  There is a list of the folks I met at the bottom of this article with links to their websites.  I hope you’ll check them out and consider their sponsors when you’re looking to buy your next toy.

Even with all of the stuff and celebrities to see, I most enjoyed the crowd.  I haven’t heard any official attendance figures, but 80,000 were expected.  I believe at least that many people were there.  Normally, I hate crowds, but this one was different.  It was simply a friendly crowd.  We talked to several people during the course of the show, either at lunch, in line to see a celebrity, or just in passing.  Rudeness is one of my pet peeves and will set me off pretty fast.  I almost expect it in a crowd that size.  That didn’t happen in three days of walking the show floor.  The other aspect of the crowd I really enjoyed was the diversity.  The leftist media wants you to think the NRA is made up of a bunch of angry, white, male, John Wayne-wannabe, rednecks.  They’re wrong.  I saw men, women, children, families, fathers with sons, fathers with daughters, mothers with their children, people across the age spectrum, and people with a wide array of ethnic backgrounds.  All were there together and getting along just fine.  That is what makes the NRA the strongest lobbying organization in this country.  It does not appeal to any one group, but to everyone who believes the Founders got it right when they wrote the Constitution.  If you’re forming your opinion about the NRA and its members based on what the mainstream media is telling you, then you’re just flat wrong.

If you have any questions about the NRA, or any other shooting or gun related issues, please feel free to contact me anytime.  If I don’t know the answer, I’ll find it or find someone who does know.  Thanks for reading, and as always, feel free to comment and share!

These are the folks I was privileged to meet at the meeting.  Each is linked to a website where you can find out more about them.

Rob Leatham – A pro shooter with Springfield Armory.  He is one of the people that has built the action shooting sports into what they are today.

Julie Golob – Veteran, mom, author, champion shooter, and very nice lady!  Shoots for Smith and Wesson.

Jerry Miculek – The fastest man on Earth in terms of shooting.  His You Tube channel is hours of entertainment. Shoots for Smith and Wesson.

Max Michel – Max is an incredible shooter for Sig.  Also a very nice guy.

Lena Miculek – The daughter of two great shooters, she was destined to be great.  And she is.  Shoots for Sig.

Travis Tomasie – Travis is a veteran and incredibly talented. I got to talk with him for several minutes at Remington’s display, shooter to shooter.  Very cool!

Gabby Franco – Gabby is a former Olympian and appeared on Top Shot.  She’s a mom and a great shooter, and a very nice lady.

Colion Noir – Colion is a spokesperson for the NRA, doing excellent videos on gun rights issues and the shooting sports.  I was very excited to meet him.

Eric Blandford – Eric is owner of the extremely popular You Tube channel, iraqveteran8888.  The kind of guy with which you could drink a beer.

Chad Sims – Chad is also part of the iraqveteran8888 team.  As nice as guy as his coworker!

Please take some time and check all these folks out.  It’s worth it!

Confessions of a Brass Hoarder

I seek the treasure.  The treasure is found in a variety of settings.  Sometimes it’s gravel, sometimes grass or dirt.  It glistens in the sun, available to anyone that is willing to seek it out and pick it up.  I seek it out in blazing sun, rain, and occasionally even snow.  It comes in many sizes, some worth more than others, depending on what you seek.  No, I’m not having Indiana Jones fantasies.  The treasure I seek would bore Indy and not make for a very interesting adventure.  No, the treasure I seek is the humble brass cartridge case.

I am a brass hoarder.  I admit this openly and without shame.  As a competitive shooter, the most economical way for me to acquire ammunition is to hand load my own.  This means I have to purchase powder, primers, and bullets.  But not cases.  I don’t know how many I have, but its got to be in the thousands.  I pick them up every time I shoot or visit the range.  Why not?  They’re like found money.  I don’t know how many times you can reload an individual case, but it must be dozens of times.  I see no reason to just leave them laying there.

Cases on the ground

Truth be told, I’ve picked up cases since before I started reloading.  It just seemed like the sensible thing to do.  The only caliber I reload is 9mm since that’s the chambering of my competition and carry pistols, but I have cases in .40 S&W, .45 ACP, .380 ACP, .223 Remington, 30/30 Winchester, and .303 British.  I do not own weapons chambered for .40, .45, or .380!  I’ve ended up with them in batches of cases that I’ve picked up or received for working a match.  I’ll probably start reloading for the rifles one of these days.  The others I hang on to until I hear of somebody that needs them.

If I’m shooting by myself or with an informal group, I usually wait until I’m done shooting and then I’ll try to pick up as many of the fired cases as I can.  In more formal settings, such as during a match, there are definite protocols, if not rules, for when to pick up brass.  It is bad form to get in the way of shooters walking down a stage before they shoot it to pick up brass left by the previous squad.  Following immediately behind a shooter and picking up his brass should be grounds for disqualification.  That’s my opinion, feel free to make it your own.  I used to try to pick some up as the match went on, but I’m too busy now helping to run stages.  Afterwards, however, I make time to pick up what I can.  I usually try to find a stage where there is at least one shooting position that everyone used, such as a classifier.  That way, the brass is more or less in one spot.  I have had to learn over the years that I cannot let my OCD-driven need for completion drive me to pick up all of the brass.  I get what I can in a reasonable amount of time, and let the rest go.  It goes against my nature, but sometimes that’s for the best!Clean cases

My treasure usually looks pretty rough when I first gather it.  It’s usually cleaner to pick it up shortly after it hits the ground, but it doesn’t hurt it to be out for a while.  I take it home and give it a good cleaning in corn cob and polish in my tumbler.  Once it comes out of the tumbler, it has a nice, brassy glow about it.  Then it’s ready to be deprimed, resized, belled, and loaded into a brand new complete round of ammunition, just waiting for me to pull the trigger and start the process all over again.

 

Good, but Not Good Enough

In November of last year, in McMinn County, Tennessee, a 13 year old boy was attempting to unload a rifle and accidentally shot and killed his 17 year old sister.  Incidents like this frustrate me terribly because they are 100 percent preventable.  There is no reason that this should ever happen.  As a gun owner and parent, gun safety is something about which I am passionate.  I demand safe gun handling in my house and anywhere else that I go where firearms are being handled.  Its actually very easy to handle modern firearms safely.  Its almost impossible to make one fire without actually pulling the trigger.  And yet we still have accidents.  I think that’s unacceptable.

The good news is that incidents of unintended injuries and deaths caused by firearms is at an all-time low.  According to the 2016 report on firearms related injuries issued by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (nssf.org/PDF/research/IIR_InjuryStatistics2016.pdf), the incidence of unintended fatalities involving a firearm have decreased 57 percent over the last 20 years.  In 2013, 586 unintended fatalities out of 136,053 involved a firearm, or 0.4 percent.  Keep in mind that there are approximately 350 MILLION guns in the U.S., but only 586 unintended fatalities involved a firearm.  Only 0.6 percent, or 400, of the 69,500 unintended fatalities that occurred in the home involved a firearm.  The news is also good when it comes to unintended fatalities involving children (14 years of age and under).  In the last 20 years, the incidence of unintended deaths of children involving a child decreased 73 percent.  Only 1.3 percent (50) of the 3,857 unintended fatalities of children involved a firearm.  Almost every other sport is more dangerous than shooting.  A cheerleader is 29 times more likely to be injured than a hunter with a firearm!

Those numbers are undeniable proof that, by and large, gun owners are safely handling and storing their firearms.  Modern firearms are manufactured to be as safe as possible and still be useable.  Training programs provided by the NSSF and the National Rifle Association are working to make people safer.  This is great news, but we can do better.  These numbers should be zero.

The way to accomplish this is training.  Training takes many forms, from formal classes to a parent instructing their child to all of us correcting people that we see at the range doing something unsafe.  Parents, it is incumbent on you to teach your children how to behave around a firearm.  I don’t care if you think guns are inherently evil and should be eradicated from the earth.  If you pretend like they don’t exist and that your child will never be around them, you are drastically increasing their odds of injuring themselves or someone else.  Children are naturally curious and you simply can’t control their environment all the time.  You do have control over your firearms and it is your responsibility to control access to them.  It takes some thought, but there are ways to keep them away from your kids but accessible to you.  The other way to tame that curiosity is to familiarize your kids with firearms.  If you aren’t comfortable doing that or don’t have that knowledge yourself, then find a trusted friend that can.  If you ask me to help you with this process, I will not say no.  At a minimum, your kids must know that they are never to handle a firearm without you present and that they should tell an adult immediately if they find one.

As for formal classes, I am not for mandatory training.  “Mandatory” requires some form of governmental involvement.  We’ve got plenty of that already.  But I would like to see gun sellers offer free classes on basic gun safety with the sale of every firearm, especially those buying their first gun.  New shooters should seek out a formal class or consult with a friend that has experience with firearms.  Again, if you ask I will help you.

Being safe with firearms comes back to the Four Rules of Gun Safety.  Many of you will know them by heart, but for those that might not be familiar, they are:  1. All guns are always loaded; 2. Never point a gun at anything that you aren’t willing to destroy; 3. Do not touch the trigger until your sites are on target and you are ready to shoot; and 4. Be sure of your target, what is around it, and what is beyond it.

If everyone would follow these four simple rules, there would be no negligent discharges, and therefore, no unintended injuries or deaths involving firearms.  But break just one of these rules, something bad can happen.  Break more than one and it’s almost guaranteed.  Anytime that I hear of a negligent discharge because “the gun went off”, my immediate thought is “bull”!  Guns do not, will not, CAN NOT go off unless the trigger is pressed or there is a major mechanical malfunction.  Given the quality of modern firearms, the latter seldom happens.  People get injured because other people break one or more of those four simple rules.

If you don’t know, I’m a competitive pistol shooter and I carry concealed every day.  I handle a pistol a lot.  I took a training class a few years ago with a Grand Master level shooter.  At the end of a drill, I was preparing to holster my pistol and I forgot that I still had a round in the chamber and I failed to clear it.  We always drop the hammer before we holster, as another layer of safety.  When I pulled the trigger, it went bang, much to the chagrin of my instructor and my embarrassment!  Fortunately, I was obeying the other rules and no one was injured and no damage was done, other than to my nerves.  I tell you this to emphasize that even those of us who handle firearms every day need to be aware of our safety.  It takes one lapse of attention to make a major mistake.

The bottom line is that the shooting sports are some of the safest activities in which you can participate.  But when injuries do occur, they tend to be serious and often involve innocent bystanders.  American gun owners do a great job of keeping themselves and those around them safe.  I’m very proud of that.  But we can do better.  Every single negligent discharge is preventable.  Let’s work to make the number of unintended injuries involving a firearm zero.

What I Carry

When I first started to consider actually carrying a handgun, I began looking at the various models that fit that role.  I knew that I wanted a semi-automatic pistol rather than a revolver.  I love revolvers, but the cylinder creates a lot of bulk for the ammo capacity that it gives you.  I wanted the caliber to be .40 Smith and Wesson (.40 S&W), as 9mm ammunition at the time wasn’t great and I didn’t want the bulk of a .45.  At 6′ 1″ tall and 175 pounds, I’m not a huge guy, so that pretty well meant that full size pistols were not going to work.  Not long before that, Smith and Wesson had released Compact versions of its Military and Police (M&P) series pistols.  They came in the major defensive calibers, including .40 S&W.  The M&P 40c came with a 3.5″ barrel and a 10 round magazine.  Two magazines were included, one with a flat floor plate and one with an extension so your pinky finger had a place to go.  I decided that I liked it and was able to buy one.  It was a great little gun!  It was relatively accurate, easy to shoot, and easy to conceal.  It shot well enough that I actually used it when I started shooting competitively!  I don’t recommend that you do that, but that’s what I had at the time.

In the meantime, Ruger released its LCP, a tiny little .380 pocket pistol that started the current craze for little bitty guns.  I thought that it made a lot of sense, especially since I had discovered that concealed carry was more work than I thought it would be.  It seemed like a great idea to have a smaller pistol that I could just stick in my pocket if I didn’t want to deal with the bigger gun.  And it filled that role nicely.  But with its size came issues.  It was very hard to shoot and impossible to shoot well due to its short barrel, light weight, and incredibly long trigger pull.  I get it, you don’t want a sensitive trigger on a pocket gun, but this was ridiculous.  The .380 ACP round is pretty marginal as a defensive round, but it produces recoil all out of proportion to its size.  That, combined with the pistol, meant that I hated shooting the thing and didn’t practice with it.  I ended up selling it.

So, fast forward to last year.  The Action Pistol group at my club does a big match every year as a benefit for Toys for Tots.  Part of your entry fee is a toy that goes to this very worthwhile program.  Its a lot of fun and we always have a great turn out.  The prize table is also pretty impressive.  I wasn’t too concerned with the prize table last year as I had a terrible match.  I had some ammo issues on one stage and messed up some others on my own, so I wasn’t expecting much.  The way we do the prizes, however, worked to my advantage.  The final scores are divided into thirds; Gold, Silver, and Bronze, with Gold being the top third, etc.  The top finisher in each third gets to pick from the prize table first, that way everyone has a shot at a great prize.  Just by blind luck, I was the top Silver and won a gun!  I could not believe it!  I honestly thought they were yanking my chain, but it was true.

The gun was a Walther PPQ M2 in 9mm.  My first thought was that I could sell it for enough to buy the AR-15 that I was coveting at that time.  But then I picked it up.  I was immediately struck by the ergonomics of this gun!  The grip was very comfortable and angled in a way that lends itself to getting on target quickly.  I liked the way it pointed and the balance was correct.  None of that top heavy feel from which many polymer guns suffer.  Then I tried the trigger.  Wow! Light, but not too light for a defensive weapon, crisp, no creep or grit, and an extremely short, tactile reset.  Yeah, it had the makings of a real shooter!  I decided to keep it and sell my M&P, which ultimately funded the AR, but that’s a post for another time.

brand-new-walther
The new Walther in the box. It came with 2 magazines, a magazine loading tool, 3 interchangeable backstraps, an empty chamber flag, and a lock, all in a plastic case.

The PPQ M2 is the second version of Walther’s PPQ.  The original had the weird European magazine release lever at the base of the trigger guard.  The M2 has a button on the grip behind the trigger guard like God and John Moses Browing intended it to be!  Otherwise, the controls are very familiar to anyone that has every fired a polymer striker-fired pistol.  The barrel is 4 inches long and it holds 15 rounds in the magazine plus one in the chamber.  It isn’t a small gun, but it isn’t a full size service pistol either.  There isn’t a lot of wasted metal or polymer on this gun, so it isn’t difficult to conceal most of the time.  It compares in size to the Glock 19, which is a very popular carry gun.  I think it strikes the perfect balance of capacity, concealability, and shootability.  Click here if you’d like to see the specs on the PPQ M2 or any of Walther’s other offerings.  http://www.waltherarms.com/handguns/ppq/ppq-m2/

At the range, I really started to like it!  The first group that I shot out of it impressed me.  From a rest at 10 ft it put 5 rounds into just under an inch!  I’ll take that anytime out of a 4 inch barrel with factory ammo.  The group was  centered to the left, but that’s pretty typical for me.  A quick adjustment to the rear site and it put round 6 dead center, as you can see.  It showed a definite preference for the factory 115 grain bullets over my 147 grain handloads.  I’m not sure what the issue is, but it may just prefer the lighter bullet.  Either way, it is more than capable of putting the bullet where you want it at any normal defensive range.  walther-group

As for ammunition, the 9mm cartridge has come a long way over the past few years.  In the past, the 9mm was not known for its accuracy or its ability to stop bad guys quickly.  A quick trip to your local gun store will clearly demonstrate how much that has changed!  There are dozens of good, accurate, 9mm loads out there now, made with bullets that will ensure that your assailant leaves you alone from now on.  My personal favorite and what I keep in the Walther is Hornady’s Critical Defense round.  Hornady is really on top of the ammunition world right now, and this round is one of their best.  It is made with a 115 grain FTX bullet that has a polymer insert where the hollowpoint cavity is usually located.  This helps produce consistent expansion of the bullet at a wide range of velocities and through barriers, such as heavy clothing.  The recoil is very mild and the round is accurate.  I’ve never had a failure to feed with this load, although I’ve never had a failure to feed with any ammo in the Walther!

That’s what I carry and why.  I’d love to hear from you about your weapon of choice!  Next time, we’ll talk about how I carry.

Thanks for reading!

Why I Carry

I’m tired of writing about the sad state of politics, so I’m going to shift gears a little, if you’ll indulge me.  Most people that know me well know that I carry a concealed handgun most of the time.  The number of people who are getting their permit to carry is on the rise as more states remember that we live in a free nation.  With that in mind, I thought I’d do a series of blogs about my experiences as a permitted concealed carrier.  We’ll talk about why I carry, what I carry, and how I carry it.  I hope you’ll respond in kind so we can all learn something.  Please keep in mind that I am no sort of professional when it comes to concealed carry or firearms in general, so everything presented here is my opinion based on many years of shooting and carrying handguns.

I decided in 2007 to get my concealed carry permit.  In Tennessee, you are required to take an 8 hour class that consists of 4 hours of classroom instruction and 4 hours of range time.  You are required to pass an exam in the classroom and on the range.  I took the course at the Loudon County Sheriff’s office from a SWAT officer who was very serious about his job.  My class was made up of men and women with very different levels of experience with firearms.  The lady sitting next to me had a revolver that she had been given.  I had to show her how it operated, including how to open the cylinder!  The class was very well done, touching on most of the questions that I had coming in.  The range session was pretty easy since I had experience with handguns already.  Needless to say, I passed both exams.

With my class done, I got my fingerprints sent to the state and submitted my application and fee for a concealed carry permit late in 2007.  Honestly, it was a while before I carried after I got the permit.  It is an unnerving experience until you get used to it.  I felt like the gun was standing out a foot and that everybody around me was looking at it.  After a while, I realized that no one was paying any attention to me.  The gun became part of my daily routine, part of my wardrobe.  I’ve learned to dress to effectively hide it and have improved my rig over the years so that its more comfortable.  Now, I feel awkward without it, kind of like when you forget your wristwatch and keep looking at your arm.

So, why go through all of that? Why incur the expense and put up with the discomfort and inconvenience?  There isn’t a simple answer to those questions, and I think everyone that carries probably has different reasons.  The most obvious reason is simply for safety.  We all carry to protect ourselves and our loved ones.  In my case, its not so much about my safety as it is that of my wife and daughter.  They mean everything to me and I will do whatever I have to do to keep them safe.  Obviously, we avoid places and situations where trouble is more likely to occur, but trouble has a way of sneaking up on you when and where you least expect it.  Part of my job as a husband and father is to be ready if it does.

That leads me to another reason that I chose to carry, a sense of responsibility.  I am responsible for my own safety, as well as that of my girls.  I have nothing but respect for law enforcement and I am more than willing to let those brave men and women deal with the evil that lurks in the world.  Unfortunately, though, when seconds count, the police are minutes away.  That’s not criticism in any way, just the truth.  They can’t be everywhere all the time and I personally don’t want them to be.  That leaves me.  At another level, I feel responsible as a citizen to be available if trouble comes calling on someone around me.  I made the decision to get training and to make myself proficient in the use of my weapon.  I feel like I almost owe it to society to be prepared.  I’m not Matt Dillon and I’m not out looking for trouble in which to involve myself. I hope I never fire a round other than at the range.  But I am going to be prepared.

One question that I’ve been asked is could you actually take a human life?  My answer is yes.  I don’t answer that way lightly or without considerable thought.  If the choice was between the bad guy and either of my girls getting hurt, then there is no question.  I know having to shoot somone comes with a heavy emotional toll, regardless of the circumstances. I sincerely hope that never happens.  But, here’s the bottom line; I could live with shooting someone that was trying to hurt me, my girls, or someone else.  I could not live with it if one of them got hurt because I couldn’t prevent it.  That’s the real reason.

Next time I’ll tell you about my current carry gun, how I came to own it, and why I love it!