Justin Buist

Remember the other day when I opined as to the original manufacture date of my Henry .22LR? Yeah, that’s still on my mind. I put put a thread on THR on it but got nothing better than “Call Henry” which is valid, but I try not to bug people with stupid questions if there’s a guide online somewhere.

So, tonight I start hitting Google. I think “henry serial number” was my first search.

My second:

Seriously, Google? WTF?! You inflate my ego and cock-punch me at the same time.

Why can’t I quit you?

The topic has been covered by a slew of other gun bloggers, but Sebastian uses it to bring up a good question:

If I can’t have it, because it’s not useful for self-defense, then it’s not useful for police self-defense either, right?

I find myself in agreement with him there. If some SWAT team needs machine guns to raid my neighbors house, where they have the advantage of numbers, certainly I should be entitled to the same weapons when I’m the sole person defending my home against an unknown number of attackers.

Then again, we’re not talking about SWAT teams here, we’re talking about patrol officers. All they’re doing is driving around in the same neighborhoods that we live in. What about the people that live in those areas that are surrounded by the very same criminal element that would visit violence on a police officer?

I say they should be armed equally.

Not that I’d actually want an M4 for my home defense rifle. I tend to favor the Make-Big-Holes school of thought so I either keep an 870 with 00 Buck handy or a Marlin 1894C stoked with some .357 loads from Buffalo Bore.

The above video shows the muzzle blast of a .50BMG rifle blowing out the taillight of a truck. The bullet didn’t impact that taillight, contrary to what it looks like on the video. You can see a discussion of this actual shooting here which is a board for gun guys and the dude that actually shot the video is also a member. The fourth comment was really funny:

Guys-

I know who that is.

Really.

So do y’all…..

Later the dude in the video (Jamz) shows up.

There’s a bit of a myth surrounding the .50BMG that it’ll vaporize guys if it even comes close to them. I heard this last repeated by my own father (not a gun dude) and he got that from a Marine Reservist that works for him. It’s not true, and it only took 10 seconds of explanation for him to understand the whole matter.

I can’t help but wonder if such videos contribute to the myth. It sure looks like that bullet vaporized the taillight when it passed by but what actually happens it the muzzle break directs gasses, at the muzzle, that would usually push back on the shooter, off to the sides at a backward angle. If the muzzle was 6″ behind the taillight nothing would have happened to it.

They’re tremendously powerful rifles, but they aren’t capable of transforming a .50 caliber projectile into a 3 foot cylinder of death.

Ryan Horsley brings attention to some new software intended to help FFLs out. The EZ 4473 software he mentions is interesting to me.

The first thing I thought of when I saw it was: Why didn’t I think of that?!

The second thing was: Good luck keeping up with 4473 changes. In the 7 years that I’ve been buying guns I’ve dealt with 3 different versions of the 4473 if my memory serves me correctly. The older “yellow form” 4473′s wouldn’t have fit well in a typical PC printer. I’d wager that’s a big reason something like this didn’t come out earlier. The ATF moved the 4473 onto standard 8.5″x11″ paper sometime late in 2005. If they ever to back to something different customers of EZ 4473 might have a few issues.

Now, the reason software such as this is needed is because you want to ensure that the customer fills in the form properly. A clerk can sometimes miss the obvious mistakes, like the customer writing “Y” into a field instead of “Yes.” While a monkey could be trained to understand that they’re functionally identical, the BATFE won’t stand for such violations.

STI, largely known for their high-end 1911′s, are going to introduce the GP6, a polymer framed 9mm pistol, reports Michael Bane.

You may or may not remember that STI gave California the finger when they passed their microstamping bill which is a good thing.

For a while now I’ve considered Huckabee to be my #3 choice in the Republican Primary, but that’s only because of his stance on the 2nd amendment. Fred Thompson comes in at #2 simply because he doesn’t appear to be a totalitarian nutjob like Romney and Guiliani do. Tancredo and Hunter are even further long shots than my #1 pick of Ron Paul so I can’t really consider them viable.

Anyway, onto Misha’s take on Huckabee:

Wow. What’s not to love?

He’s not merely a functional illiterate with less knowledge of U.S. history than your average EUroweenie fucking 2nd grader [Justin: reference to his knowledge of Cuba], he’s also a self-admitted opportunistic liar! Combine that with his hatred of his fellow citizens, calling them “racist and nativist” when they don’t agree with him that every single illegal immigrant in the country should receive for free, on the spot, what millions are waiting in line for decades and paying through the nose for, his tender heart when it comes to pardoning rapists and murderers, his love of raising taxes and his philosophy that we should deal with mentally unstable psychopaths like Ahmadinnerjacket according to the Golden Rule and it’s a wonder that he’s not ahead in the polls by 60 percent.

If he were running as a Democrat, that is.

At this point, all I can say is that the polls showing him way ahead as the potential GOP nominee in ‘08 had better be doctored by the MSM.

Ayup.

I personally believe that the best we can hope for in the Republican Primary is a knock-down drag-out brawl between Paul and Thompson.

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership releases a screed on private gun sales and, to nobody’s surprise, it contains misleading facts in it.

Sebastian comes through and compares their facts to reality.

Sunday evening the owners of the lab we were thinking about keeping came by to pick him up. It just wasn’t working.

There was nothing “wrong” with the dog that we couldn’t fix, behaviour wise, but there just wasn’t any spark there. Now that he’s gone I realize how much extra frustration he was bringing me while I tried to work from home. It would have probably all worked out in a month or so, but given that neither of us has a “spark” for the gigantic lovable lug, it just wasn’t worth the effort.

Besides, there were another 2 homes ready to take the guy. If he was going to be put down, we’d have kept him, but since that’s not the case, we’ll let somebody else have a go.

Al Gore done went and won him a Nobel Peace Prize.

How does this happen? Wait, I know: