More P6's

Looks like Centerfire Systems has P6's for sale. There were a ton of these for $250-$300 back when I bought mine and then the supply dried up. It would appear more have come in from Germany.

Sorry, Your Permit is No Longer Valid

Sebastian finds out he can no longer carry in Nevada, since they've change their reciprocity agreements and no longer recognize Utah or Florida Non-Resident permits. Like he says, they need to stop jerking us around. It's extremely frustrating for CCW holders to have these reciprocity agreements change every time some bureaucrats feel like it. If PA were to suddenly decide not to honor Utah Non-Res permits my permit would be essentially useless.

I tend to look at CCW reciprocity and lack of state preemption as one big clusterfuck aimed at intentionally making things as difficult for gun owners as possible. This creates somewhat of a dilemma for pro-gun folks. Do we push for national reciprocity which eliminates the headache? Sure that sounds great, but do we really want to give the feds (and the ATF) power over the permitting process? I think I might actually prefer keeping things as they stand now rather than giving the federal government even more authority over the states.

Red Dawn

I don't get it. I honestly never found it all that entertaining of a movie. Sacrilege I know.

SB139 and Markell

I guess we'll get to see just what Jack Markell's true colors are with SB139, which passed the State Legislature unanimously. I'd much rather we not have the FTAP at all, given the potential for government misuse. SB139 is at least a step in the right direction.

A related bill, SB29 is even more important, given what we know about the DSP and their recordskeeping.

I can't help but be a bit cynical about the odds of Markell signing anything even remotely pro-gun.

This Hits Close To Home

So often we hear the crime statistics, we watch the news, but we can't help but feel somewhat detached from the violence around us. Even if we're fully aware, it often doesn't feel "real" until someone we know has been victimized.

I've been going to Tony's Cafe in Newark since at least Sophomore year of college and Julie has served me hundreds of times over the past few years. I can hardly remember a time where I stopped in and she wasn't there, lighting up the place with her infectious attitude and bright smile. Now Julie Gricol is gone, slain by a misguided youth who was merely a victim of circumstance. She was 23.

Rest in Peace Julie, you will be missed.

Your Stupid for the Weekend.

Markadelphia linked to a post over at Kevin's. In the comments to that post, commenter Thomas says, and I quote his first sentence,

"Why do you equate Socialism with state ownership of the means of production?"

Hmm, maybe because that is the definition of Socialism? I swear sometimes the things you hear and read from your fellow citizens leave you in awe.

Socialism, from Merriam-Webster Dictionary so that folks like Thomas and Markadelphia wont be confused.

"1: any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods."

Lead-Free Frangible and Barrel Erosion

I found this thread over at M4Carbine.net. Does anyone know if that's just internet rumor or if there's actually truth to it? Barrel erosion is something I know pretty much nothing about. I ask because I've got several thousand rounds of the Speer CF Frangible in question and I'm shooting it through a brand new .357 SIG barrel.

Light at the End of the Tunnel?

Falnfenix recently discussed whether the ammo craze is finally ending, and I think she may be right. Hell, she found .380, which was unheard of not long ago. It's not fully over yet, but we're finally starting to see prices drop and avaliability increase on certain products and calibers. Defensive ammo in most pistol calibers is still grossly overpriced and hasn't dropped to normal levels yet, and I still can't find any Federal HST in .45 ACP.

That said, it looks like AR-15 prices are finally coming back down and you can actually find .223 at reasonable prices again. Still, if you take a look at most major online vendors you see more out of stock than in stock, so we're not out of the woods yet.

Comp-Tac MTAC

As I mentioned in another post, I finally broke down and spent the dough for a good Comp-Tac holster.

I've been carrying my P6 in a basic leather holster from JBP Holsters. The JBP is the same holster many of you saw Breda carry her pink-gripped Bersa .380 in at the Blog Bash. It actually works well for lighter guns like the Bersa, and I carry my FS22 in one with no issues at all.

Carrying a P6 or similarly sized pistol in a JBP holster is an entirely different story. I would call it "adequate" at best after four days of carrying in Phoenix. Most of my CCW around here consists of short trips to PA where I'm rarely carrying for more than a few hours, but Phoenix convinced me I needed a better holster.

Enter the MTAC. It's not cheap at ~$90, but my initial thought is that it's worth the money. I ordered mine with the standard clips and a holster body for my Sig P229R. It's immediately evident this is a quality product.

The stitching and leather are excellent and the leather backing is soft enough that even carrying without a tucked undershirt is not uncomfortable. That's certainly better than carrying all day with hard kydex against your skin. That's actually the primary reason I bought an MTAC over a CTAC. I don't have any "natural cushioning" around my midsection and thought kydex would probably dig into my sides all day.

Also worth mentioning is Comp-Tac's customer service. The holster came with an allen wrench for adjusting the tension screws, business cards, a hand-written "thank you" and smarties. They also had the holster to me in about 5 days, despite quoting me a 10+ day wait initially.

I can carry a fully loaded P229R and it is, dare I say, comfortable! I never thought I'd be able to conceal any of my Sigs, much less a double stack 229R under nothing more than a T-shirt.

I only have two complaints. One, when I first put it on without adjusting the retention screws I gave myself a huge wedgie trying to draw the gun. If you buy one adjust the tension before trying it out, unless you like wedgies. Two, (and this is a completely random, useless observation) the leather just plain smells bad.

Now, for some pictures.



Wearing the smallest T-shirt I could find, a Gap Stretch T.
A darker color would conceal far more effectively as well.



If I twist my torso enough it prints, but I am carrying a good sized gun on a thin frame.



I'm thinking I might need to buy one now for the P6. The P6's and P228 will fit in the 229R body, but I'm not sure that's the best way to carry them. I'd rather have a holster made for the respective gun.

Quote of The Day

To me, being not a member of the shooting community, it is exactly that foreign, and seems quite strange. Sitting here, I cannot imagine ever wanting to do so, so far outside of my world it is, and I find myself trying to unravel my initial reaction of surprise and fear.

Commenter APB responding to Caleb's statement that "the concept of carrying a firearm is as alien as little green men.”

I understand APB's reaction completely. I'm a relative noob to the gun world and I still remember some of the reactions I first had that now seem so strange. When I bought my 1st gun I was nervous. Not because I was doing something wrong or didn't trust myself, but because I hadn't grown up around guns. I'd previously had no positive exposure to guns. Instead, everything had reinforced the "guns are bad, guns are taboo" image that many people have. At the time, I felt like I was doing something wrong. Why? because it was strange and foreign to me.

I was completely pro-gun on principle and yet I still feared them, despite knowing just how unfounded and irrational that fear was. Fear is a strange thing. We fear what we've been conditioned to fear, particularly when that fear is borne out of ignorance.

I still remember my 1st range trip. Going in I couldn't shake the feeling that what I was doing was somehow wrong. There was no rational reason for it, and yet there it was, a purely emotional response. Then, after the 1st few shots I realized what nearly every new shooter does. This was FUN.

After bringing my mom to the range for the 1st time, she said to me that she now understood what I meant when I said there's a difference between fear and healthy respect. It's amazing how even a little exposure to guns can change a persons reaction from surprise and fear to healthy respect. Once you've learned to respect rather than fear firearms the idea of carrying one won't evoke the same reactions that it does now.

Quote of the Day

"A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence. "

-David Hume

Holsters

Saysuncle reviews his new Comp-Tac MTAC. I just got one myself last week for my P229R and I love it. The P229 isn't the lightest gun, weighing over 30 ounces, but with the MTAC and a Galco Matrix belt it's surprisingly comfortable.

I'll post pictures and an in-depth review this weekend.

Did Someone Say Waffles?

Alternatively titled "Chris Matthews is an idiot, but hey, what's new?"

Apparently Mr. "Tingle up my leg" thinks it's easier to get a gun than to get someone to make you some waffles.

I'll tell you what, the day I have to pass a background check and wait 10 days to get a waffle is the day my own personal revolution starts. The same goes for beer. Require waiting periods for Guinness and you'll have riots in the streets.

Damn, I could really go for some waffles now. Mmmm.

12 hours

Joe engages a neophyte anti-gun blogger in a bit of calm, rational, articulate discussion. The post has of course *magically* disappeared. It took this anti-gunner only 12 hours from the time of Joe's post to engage in "Reasoned Discourse" and delete his original post.

I can't help but laugh at these folks, whether it's this liberal anti-gunner, Skyewriter from November Fifth, Catherine, or the folks at Iggydonnelly. It's almost dumbfounding how intellectually deficient they are, to the point that you can't help but laugh and feel sorry for them. In my experience, every single one of them has been unable to defend their positions. Every single one of them moderates comments, deletes comments, bans commenters, and runs away from their own words and positions faster than even the sleasiest politicians.

They are the Sad Panda's of the blogosphere, following in the footsteps of the Sugarmann's, Hamm's, and Helmke's.

Yup, read the comments here for a good laugh.

An Impossible Shooting At DC Holocaust Museum

Via Delaware Liberal and Huffpo we see that an alleged White Supremacist went on a shooting rampage at the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. It is noted in his bio that he served 6.5 years in Federal Prison in the early 1980's.

I don't get it, I thought all of DC was a "gun free zone?" I thought felons couldn't own guns?

Oh, and guess what stopped Van Brunn? Two people with guns who shot back!

Clearly this is all the fault of the evil gun lobby and Dick Heller! Without them DC would still be a 100% gun free utopia where unicorn farts keep everyone safe and things like this just don't happen.

Update - Oh god, the whole "blame Dick Heller" bit above was a joke, but Sebastian tells us that some raving loon from the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence actually did blame the Heller case.

Not This Crap Again.....

We heard quite a bit about this during the Presidential Campaign, and now there's more talk about the possibility of taxing employee health care benefits. McCain made this a platform of his campaign, and Obama rightly jumped all over him for it. Now that Obama is President and is eager to soak America in taxes he's all for it.

If I didn't make myself clear on this issue back then I will now. It's a stupid fucking idea Remember that promise about not taxing anyone making under $250K? I don't make anywhere near that amount, and such a tax would be a direct tax levied on me. Healthcare is one of the biggest expenditures many folks have, and now you want to tax people like me, who are lucky enough to be covered by our employers? The hell with that.

The one thing that gives me hope is that I doubt Congress could actually get something like this passed. I just can't see the Unions getting on board with it.

H/T to Kevin

Oh, and while we're on the subject of stupid fucking ideas. We gave GM how many billions already and they STILL ended up in bankruptcy. Now Obama thinks the solution is to throw another $30 Billion at a company that's essentially on life-support (and damn well deserves to be.) Boy, and I thought George Bush was an idiot!...