Ken's Weblog

People should not fear their governments; governments should fear their people.

Category: Guns

  • You can’t stop the signal

    Cody Wilson Takes Gun Plans Offline After Judge Issues Restraining Order. The internet is defying a federal judge’s attempt to block Defense Distributed from publishing instructions showing how to create 3D-printable firearms.

    A few hours after U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik, a Clinton appointee, muzzled Defense Distributed with a court order Tuesday evening, the CodeIsFreeSpeech.com mirror site appeared. It’s a project of the Calguns Foundation, the Firearms Policy Coalition, and other civil rights groups, and includes freely downloadable computer-aided design (CAD) files for the AR-15, AR-10, Ruger 10-22, Beretta 92FS, and other firearms. [Reason.com]

    I have a copy of all the files here, in case something happens to that mirror: Defense Distributed files (335.5 MB).

  • Cops get away with murder yet again

    Arizona Cop Acquitted for Killing Man Crawling Down Hotel Hallway While Begging for His Life. Arizona jurors watched the video below, which shows former Mesa, Arizona, police officer Philip Mitchell Brailsford shooting and killing a man who was begging for his life and attempting to follow the officer’s orders to crawl down a hotel hallway.

    Yesterday, the jurors found Brailsford not guilty of second-degree murder and reckless manslaughter.

    The incident occurred in January 2016. Daniel Shaver apparently was showing off a pellet gun, and it was visible through the hotel room window. This prompted somebody to call to the hotel front desk, which prompted a call to the police. [Hit & Run]

    It’s perfectly legal to carry real guns either openly or concealed in Arizona, to say nothing of a pellet gun in a temporary residence. Of course, cops don’t care about the law.

  • Quote of the Day

    Do you know what stupid is? Stupid is continually telling a large portion of the population that they’re the cause of all social problems, you hate them, they’re Literally Hitler and you wish them dead. And then telling them oh by the way, please give up your guns.

    Ace of Spades HQ

  • Not so offline as the Gestapo would like

    Court: Group’s 3D printer gun files must stay offline for now The federal civil suit originated three years ago when Cody Wilson and his group, Defense Distributed, published designs for the “Liberator,” the world’s first 3D-printed handgun. Within months, Defense Distributed received a letter from the United States Department of State’s Office of Defense Trade Controls Compliance, stating that 10 files, including the designs of the Liberator, were in violation of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). This letter came despite the fact that these files had already been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times and continue to circulate online. [Ars Technica]

    This reminds me of the 1990s, when the Evil Empire tried to keep encryption technology away from people using the same tactics. It didn’t work then, and it won’t work now. Here’s a BitTorrent link to download the files in question.

  • Tavor trigger review

    Since the stock trigger for my Tavor is extremely heavy, I’ve been keeping an eye on the various companies developing after-market triggers. The first of these to ship is made by Timney Triggers, so I gave it a try. Unfortunately, it was so unreliable as to be useless–I experienced many failures to fire due to light primer strikes. With M855 ammo I got light primer strikes about 25% of the time, and with Black Hills match ammo (with softer commercial primers) I had one per 30-round magazine. Needless to say, I don’t recommend this product. Timney did honor their return policy and gave me a full refund after I shipped the defective trigger back.

    There is a user modification to the factory trigger described in detail on the Military Arms Channel blog. It’s easy enough to do, but since it involves removing two very small parts which I would almost certainly never see again, I’ve been holding off until such time as IWI starts selling spare parts.

  • Tavor Initial Impressions

    Tavor and G3
    IWI Tavor SAR rifle with PTR-91 clone of H&K G3.

    I took my new Tavor rifle to the range yesterday and put 230 rounds through it. Overall, I’m quite pleased with it. The Tavor is a bullpup rifle, which means the action is behind the trigger, making it much shorter than a conventional rifle. To emphasize just how important that is, I’ve included a comparison photo with the Tavor on top and a conventional design from the 1950s (the G3) on the bottom. Notice that the length of pull is almost identical even though the Tavor is much shorter. Many words have been written about how bullpups are better in close quarters, and I’ve found that it’s quite possible to quickly turn around in a cramped apartment hallway with the Tavor shouldered. Less often mentioned is that a rifle like the Tavor is much easier to fire accurately offhand because you aren’t trying to keep a long heavy metal object steady while held way out in front of you.

    Tavors are sometimes described as ambidextrous, but they’re really not. Two of the major controls (the magazine and bolt releases) are ambidextrous, but the rifle ejects to the right (at least, in the right-handed model I bought) and has a safety lever on the left side. When firing left-handed, I found that the Tavor’s case deflector does an acceptable but not perfect job–I had brass graze my chin, but not hard enough to hurt or throw off my aim. I actually found that the way the safety lever dug into my left hand was more of a nuisance. Still, the design works fine for occasional off-hand fire as might be needed when firing from cover.

    The Tavor trigger is extremely heavy. It’s well beyond my trigger gauge’s ability to measure, but I’ve seen a weight of eleven pounds mentioned in various places and that seems about right. Other than the weight, it’s actually not a bad trigger–there’s a slight amount of creep, but it’s not especially noticeable. It’s quite possible to shoot accurately, although fatigue will soon set in–the tip of my trigger finger is actually still numb 24 hours later! Several different respected manufacturers are working on after-market trigger pack replacements for around $350, and I intend to buy one after they’ve been out long enough for some reviewers to test them.

    I got the Tavor hot enough to smoke, but the parts that the shooter is in contact with never got more than slightly warm. I’d be comfortable using it in a training class where I’d expect to be rapid firing all day. I was feeding it with a variety of magazines–mostly aluminum STANAG magazines that I was rotating from my plate carrier, along three different polymer magazines. One was the IWI-branded magazine that came with the rifle (actually a CAA MAG17), the others being a Lancer L5AWM and a Magpul Gen3 PMAG. All magazines worked as expected, although I liked the design of the Lancer magazine the best.

    I was using an Aimpoint CompM4s red dot sight, but I haven’t settled on this as the final optic for this Tavor. I have an order in for a Browe Combat Optic, but there’s no telling when it will actually show up. I generally prefer magnified optics, but red dot sights like the Aimpoint are much cheaper to use with night vision–I just need to add a quick detach mount for my AN/PVS-14.

  • A good cop

    Florida Sheriff Arrested for Protecting Citizen’s Right to Bear Arms.

    Submitted by William Keeley

    In February of 2013, all 67 county sheriffs in Florida signed a pledge declaring that they would uphold the 2nd Amendment and protect peoples’ right to bear arms. Sheriff Nicholas Finch of Liberty County was such a signatory to the pledge.

    Recently, Sheriff Finch, 50, was taken into custody by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and booked into the Liberty County Jail on Tuesday evening for “official misconduct.”

    Reports state that in March, a Liberty County Sheriff’s deputy arrested a man for having a concealed firearm during a stop. The sheriff said, “I believe in the second amendment and we’re not going to charge him.” He released the man and is accused of destroying paperwork related to the arrest.

    For doing his job and protecting a citizen’s rights, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement arrested Sheriff Finch. Florida Republican governor Rick Scott replaced the sheriff with Carl Causey.

    If you are so inclined, please call Governor Rick Scott at (850) 488-7146 and Pam Bondi, Attorney General, at 850-414-3990 and tell them to drop all charges against Sheriff Finch, and re-instate him to his elected office.

    If that doesn’t work, then we need to work to remove both Rick Scott and Pam Bondi from office next year’s election. When police and sheriff personnel do the right thing, we need to protect them.

    When system purposely breeds bad apples, and roots out the good ones, it’s no surprise that the policing system has degraded into what it is.

    Florida Sheriff Arrested for Protecting Citizen’s Right to Bear Arms is a post from Cop Block – Badges Don’t Grant Extra Rights

    [copblock]

    It’s pretty rare, but every so often I do encounter a story about a good cop. Unfortunately, those stories inevitably have the cop being arrested, fired, or both.

  • Springfield XD(M) first impression

    I was at the range today to test some new defensive ammo in my CZ-75, and found that they had finally got in a fresh supply of 9mm. I decided to buy a box and try out a Springfield XD(M)–the range had the 9mm competition model available for rent. I’ve fired numerous Glocks (of various models) over the years, and never really liked the feel, but I hadn’t tried any of the various polymer frame striker-fired pistols that have come along in recent years to compete with them. The XD(M) is a derivative of the Croatian HS2000.

    As expected of a polymer-framed pistol, the XD(M) was quite lightweight. It probably weighs about as much empty as my CZ-83, which seems strange in a much larger pistol. Of course, I’m used to all-steel pistols, so my weight expectations are based on pistols which are actually rather heavy by modern standards.

    The trigger was a pleasant surprise–it was much better than a Glock’s, and roughly on par with my CZ-75 (which has a stock trigger). It’s not nearly as good as my M1911 triggers, but that’s to be expected. The Glock trigger is one of the things I don’t like about that design (I can shoot it accurately, but I don’t like the feel), so I was pleased to find that not all striker-fired pistols have mushy triggers.

    Accuracy was good. I didn’t shoot quite as well with it as I did with my CZ-75, but then I’d never laid hands on an XD(M) before while I’ve fired thousands of rounds through that CZ-75. With greater familiarity, I’d expect to shoot it just as well. In any case, it was more than sufficiently accurate for self defense use.

    A magazine loading device (not supplied with the rental gun) is a necessity for loading the XD(M)’s 19-round magazines. Even though a range rental’s magazine has no doubt seen considerable use, I still found loading the last few rounds unaided to be very difficult (not to mention hard on my thumbs).

    Overall, I was impressed enough that I’d definitely consider buying one at some point, albeit after some rifles I’m currently more interested in.

  • Quote of the Day

    Let’s get something straight. Anyone who uses a CZ-75…in a shooting competition is basically a cheater. This thing is simply too easy to shoot.

    MrColionNoir

    I’ve only entered one shooting competition, ever (I’m not at all competitive and was basically nagged into it), and I used my CZ-75B. Yes, I won.

  • Good Riddance

    In recent years the amount of money the California state government steals directly from my paycheck had gone up dramatically, far in excess of what they claim for taxes. They do send out tax refund checks, but this was effectively a forced no-interest “loan” to people I loath. I just deposited my last tax refund check from California, and decided to use the money to do something to show what I think of the scum who rule that state. So, I bought 1,000 rounds of 5.56 NATO ammo–a type used by many rifles that they think only they and their enforcers should be allowed to own.