Kalifornia latest gun-control plan takes a new tack, this time aimed at restricting ammo purchases by handgun owners. The NRA-ILA has the details of the Assault on Ammunition Sales!

Anti-gun hysteria has reached a fever pitch in the Golden State.  The California Assembly is considering a bill (Assembly Bill 2062) this session that, if passed, will have dire consequences for California’s law-abiding gun owners.

AB2062 is scheduled to be heard on Wednesday, May 7 in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.  Sponsored by State Assembly Member Kevin De Leon (D-45), AB2062 would require that law-abiding gun owners obtain a permit to buy handgun ammunition and would impose severe restrictions on the private transfers of handgun ammunition.  Applicants for a “permit-to-purchase” would be required to submit to a background check, pay a $35 fee, and wait as long as 30 days to receive the permit. 

Under AB2062, it would be unlawful to privately transfer more than 50 rounds of ammunition per month, even between family and friends, unless you are registered as a “handgun ammunition vendor” in the Department of Justice’s database.  Ammunition retailers would have to be licensed and store ammunition in such a manner that it would be inaccessible to purchasers.  The bill would also require vendors to keep a record of the transaction including the ammunition buyer’s name, driver’s license, the quantity, caliber, type of ammunition purchased, and right thumbprint, which would be submitted to the Department of Justice.  Vendors would be required to contact the purchase permit database to verify the validity of a permit before completing a sale.  All ammunition sales in the State of California would be subject to a $3 per transaction tax.  Lastly, mail order ammunition sales would be prohibited.  Any violator of AB2062 would be subject to civil fines.

Here’s what you can do to help protect our Second Amendment freedoms:

• Participate in NRA’s Virtual “Lobby-Day” on Tuesday, May 6 and tell the Assembly to stop supporting ill-conceived anti-gun proposals like AB2062. 
   
• On Tuesday, May 6, call, fax, and email the Assembly between 9:00 AM until 4:00 PM and voice your opposition to more gun control proposals. Respectfully, tell your Assembly Member to oppose any assault on our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.  To identify your Assembly Member and to get contact information, please click here.  A roster of the entire Assembly can be found here.
   
• Firearms owners able to travel to the State Capitol will be visiting the legislative offices at the same time your calls, faxes, and emails will be arriving. Please be polite while you address your concerns!  The combination of your calls, faxes, and emails, together with those personal visits, will show legislators that California's firearms owners strongly oppose AB2062 and similar anti-freedom proposals.
   
• Forward this message to every gun owner you know and include all gun clubs, stores, ranges and Second Amendment groups.  Please cross-post this on the internet on websites and firearm-related forums.

J.R. Michael of The New York Post does what I’ve been meaning to get around to, reviews Iraq war correspondent Michael Yon’s book, “Moment of Truth in Iraq, How a New 'Greatest Generation' of American Soldiers is Turning Defeat and Disaster into Victory and Hope”

J.R. Michael writes: "Yon's dispatches are not a non-stop action movie full of guns, guts and glory. He shares a rarely reported aspect of the American effort in Iraq - rebuilding: "The American soldier is the most dangerous man in the world," he says, "and the Iraqis had to learn that before they would trust or respect us. But it was when they understood that these great-hearted warriors, who so enjoyed killing the enemy, are even happier building a school or making a neighborhood safe that we really got their attention."

"We can win this war," Yon declares. "And if we do it will be a victory of the same magnitude as the fall of the Soviet Union. It will not be a victory for the Republican Party. It will not be a victory for America and Great Britain and others 'against' Iraq. It will be a victory for freedom and justice. It will be a victory for Iraqis and for the world, and only then will it be a victory for us."

I’ve read his book and Michael Yon has well earned the honor of being called “the Ernie Pyle of the Iraq war.” Buy "Moment of Truth in Iraq" and read it if you want to know the unvarnished truth about the war in Iraq.

Never thought I’d live to see the day I would agree with Bob Herbert, New York Times’ ultra-liberal columnist, but that day has arrived. He took the words right out of my mouth about the not-rev. Jeremiah Wright seeking the spotlight and heartily enjoying his “15 minutes of fame.”

Wright’s ‘I’ll show you!’ tour 

Herbert said: "The Rev. Jeremiah Wright went to Washington on Monday not to praise Barack Obama, but to bury him.

"Smiling, cracking corny jokes, mugging it up for the big-time news media — this reverend is never going away. He’s found himself a national platform, and he’s loving it.

"It’s a twofer. Feeling dissed by Senator Obama, Mr. Wright gets revenge on his former follower while bathed in a spotlight brighter than any he could ever have imagined. He’s living a narcissist’s dream. At long last, his 15 minutes have arrived.

"…It’s not like he’s naïve politically. He knows exactly what he’s doing. Forget the gibberish about responding to attacks on the black church. That is not what the reverend’s appearance before the press club was about. He was responding to what he perceives as an attack on him.

"This whole story is about Senator Obama’s run for the White House and absolutely nothing else. Barack Obama went to Rev. Wright’s church as a young man and was blessed with the Christian bona fides that would be absolutely essential for a high-profile political career.

"Faster than anyone could have imagined, the young Mr. Obama became Senator Obama and then the leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination. Then came the videotaped sermons and the roof caved in on Rev. Wright’s reputation. Senator Obama had no choice but to distance himself, and he did it as gently as he felt he could.

"My guess is that Mr. Wright felt he’d been thrown under a bus by an ungrateful congregant who had benefited mightily from his association with the church and who should have rallied to his former pastor’s defense. What we’re witnessing now is Rev. Wright’s “I’ll show you!” tour," Herbert concluded.

My friend Mary Katharine Ham comments on Wright’s “moment in the sun” with a great headline in her Townhall blog:

The Rev. Wright Clearly Believes in an Afterlife 'Cause He's Killin' Obama

“Joe Klein thinks Wright has aspirations of being the next man who can stop entire U.S. cities in their tracks with fruitless racial demagoguery.

“Hotline calls it just-plain preening, which I think may be more accurate. After all, the path to being the great racial sage of the black people doesn't seem likely to be the sinking of the first viable black candidate for president's campaign. Wright's just enjoying a moment in the sun and resentful enough of Obama for distancing himself that he's willing to take him down a few pegs.”

Eugene Robinson, a Washington Post columnist who I have also never agreed with previously, said Obama threw the wrong “family” member under the bus when he tossed his white grandmother, and said it should have been and now must be Wright's turn to go under the bus:

"Historically and theologically, he was inflating his importance in a pride-goeth-before-the-fall kind of way. Politically, by surfacing now, he was throwing Barack Obama under the bus.

"Sadly, it's time for Obama to return the favor," Robinson concluded.

I couldn’t agree more. And even that may not stop the bus from rolling over Obama, too. I suspect Obama's bus-tossing statement today about his "former pastor" is too little, too late. About 20 years too late.

John McCain, I’ve found your ideal vice-presidential candidate: J.C. Watts.

"There are two primary issues that cut to the heart of social conservatives -- God and guns -- and not necessarily in that order.

"As hard as it may be for some on the left to understand, law-abiding citizens don't own guns to rob banks and people, nor to look for someone to shoot. Those who do are bad people, and they would use knives, pitchforks, cars or any other object to carry out their evil intentions. That's why trying to blame guns for crime is like trying to blame chains for slavery.

"Bad people will use whatever inanimate object they can get their hands on -- including their hands -- to do harm to other people. Contrary to the clumsy assertion of Sen. Barack Obama, law-abiding citizens own guns in spite of poor government, not because of poor government."

"…Nine years ago this week, a couple of bad kids went on a shooting spree inside the walls of Columbine High School in suburban Denver.
"Few care to recall that they used much more than guns to accomplish their evil intentions. Indeed, they compiled an arsenal of deadly contraband, much of it home-made. Guns were highlighted in this case.
"In Columbine's aftermath, Rep. Patrick Kennedy -- who was the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee at the time -- acknowledged that his party had written off rural America due to the gun issue.
"Not many years later, a Democratic presidential hopeful named Howard Dean inartfully reached out to this demographic by claiming the person with the gun rack in the rear window of his truck should be voting Democratic. As of this writing, the party of Howard Dean, who is now Democratic National Committee chairman, is still trying to figure out how to reach gun owners.
"Contrary to the wishes of leaders such as Dean, Obama, Sen. Hillary Clinton and some in my own party, these values voters -- which include men and women of faith who rightfully and lawfully own guns -- will not go away quietly. Any candidate who wants to win elections needs to resolve himself or herself to that reality."

Amen, Brother Watts, preach on! I hope John McCain is listening. J.C. Watts is the Anti-Obama.

Obama’s preacher has been all over the news today. As the old saying goes, better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. It seems that the not-Reverend Wright just can’t keep his mouth shut. He wants his 15 minutes of fame – now!
I heard him make a revealing comment during his interview with Bill Moyers on PBS. Wright said the media have been taking his sermons “out of context” and then added (I’m paraphrasing by memory) “then they say, wink, wink, nudge, nudge, oh, by the way, he’s Obama’s preacher.”
In his own mind, this controversy isn’t about Obama, it’s all about him. Obama is just one of his members. He’s not really concerned about whether his big mouth could torpedo Obama’s campaign. This is his 15 minutes of fame and he’s enjoying every second of it. Obama’s campaign for President is not important at all to this egomaniac. He’s saying, in effect: “Obama’s just one of my members. This is really all about me!”
This is all about Wright, but it’s also all about Obama, and even more so, it’s all about the roots of the extreme left wing of American politics. 

The Moment of Truth for the Left has Arrived by James Lewis at American Thinker says it far better than I can.
"If you haven't listened to Jeremiah Wright's hate sermons at Hugh Hewitt's website, you must do so. Every American with open eyes and ears has to listen to the voice of racial hatred, coming not from the Klan but from a clergyman of the Christian Left. Reading his words isn't enough, because you won't hear the unmistakable meaning of his vocal intonations.
"If you are a person of good will you will feel upset. But it's of the utmost importance to understand this moment of truth. Because Jeremiah Wright -- the respectful word "Reverend" seems grotesquely out of place now -- is shouting out the slander catechism of the Left. His sermons say exactly what other Leftists say in calm voices, over and over again. Mr. Wright just does it with real, raw hatred, and every new slam is cheered on by his jubilant congregation.
"His is not a lone voice. He just sings the music to fit the words. We have been nursing a viper in our national bosom. Seven years after September 11, 2001, this is the moment of truth, when the Left must finally decide what side it's on.
"Wright's sermons may signal the end of the Obama campaign, and they may mean the breakup of the Democratic Party as we know it. I don't see how any centrist Democrat can still belong to this party if Obama is its nominee. Jeremiah Wright may mean the historical end of the Civil Rights Era, because fifty years after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Left's presumption of victimhood and innocence is now gone.
"The Rev is only the visible bulge of this lethal political tumor. This is Saul Alinsky's sociopathic teachings on display, and this is what Hillary Clinton learned back at Wellesley College. It is the voice of feminists who hate all men, and of radicalized blacks who hate all whites."

August 25, 2007

Glock Model 20, polymer frame, full-size 10mm with 15 rounds capacity

EAA Witness "Wonder" full-size, steel frame, 10mm capacity 15 rounds, .38 Super/9x23mm capacity 18 rounds.

I've whittled down my list somewhat in my plan to buy the "Baddest Tactical Pistol I can afford" and settled on two preliminary candidates, the Glock 20 in 10mm or two models of the EAA/Tangfolio, the full-size Witness Wonder or Elite Match in either 10mm or .38 Super/9x23mm. There's a considerable price difference between the two/three. The G20's best price I've seen is $530, while I can get a Witness Steel for $340 or the Elite Match for $480.

I still don't have cash in hand to buy either, so by the time that happens, other candidates on my list may well have emerged. If I could up my $600 budget a bit, I'd get within range of a Para-Ordnance .45 ACP with 14 rounds, leader of the pack for high-capacity full-size .45s.

Then there's the G31 in 357 Sig with 15 rounds, the G21 .45 ACP with 13 rounds and a huge field of 9mm full-size pistols with 17 and 18 rounds. My favorite among the nines is S&W with their ambidexterous safety/decocker (for lefties like me) and the M&P offers 17 rounds.

So with those two candidates emerging, G20 and EAA, I began to look at options, upgrades, carbine kits, et c. that are available either from the manufacturer or after-market sources.

At this point in my investigation, I'd have to rate the G20 as leading for options and upgrades, particularly since I have found I can get a Mech-Tech carbine kit for $350 and a 9x25mm barrel from DoubleTap for $115.

The 9x25 round is even hotter than 10mm, 357 Sig or 9x23, as it is a necked-down, full-size 10mm shell casing; 357 Sig is a necked-down .40 S&W, while 9x23 is a longer 9mm shell casing.

Now adding a 9x25 barrel and a carbine kit for the G20 gives me three options with one pistol. And staying with a round I already have in the G29 makes sense, not to mention 10mm is king of the mountain, ballistically speaking, while 9x25 even takes that to another level. Probably overkill, but more seems always better to me. And DoubleTap will provide the 9x25 ammo.

Here's the specs on DoubleTap 9x25mm ammo, compared to their hottest 10mm 180-grain load:

Caliber	Grains	Type	Mfg.	FPS Muzzle	Ft.Lbs. Muzzle
9X25mm	115	JHP	Gold Dot DoubleTap	1800	827
10mm	180	JHP	Gold Dot DoubleTap	1300	676
10mm	115	JHP	Gold Dot DoubleTap	1650	695

I try not to get too carried away by just numbers, but holy moly, but comparing 9x25mm directly to the hottest DoubleTap 115-grain 10mm load and it's still king. That is mind-blowing stuff!

Only question is whether to go with a stock 9x25 barrel for the G20 from DoubleTap or go with the 6" hunting version, which will stick out about an inch and a half beyond the slide. Since this is not a carry pistol in the first place, I'm thinking the 6" barrel.

From what I've read, one should not shoot a 9x25 next to anyone else at a range without double ear protection. And probably not even then. The muzzle blast alone is said to be sufficient to scare Atilla the Hun into taking early retirement.

Mech-Tech carbine conversion kit, shown with a 1911 .45 in it.

Then there's the Mech-Tech carbine conversion kit for $350, which I've read both good and bad things about. Some of the guys at GlockTalk don't like it, even calling it dangerous.

So I look some more and I find from Lone Wolf Distributors, I find I can get a 16" IGB barrel for $250 to customize the G20.

Lone Wolf also has a Mako buttstock for the G20 for $90 and a Mako fore-grip for $30 that fits onto the rail of the G20 to help hold up that 16" barrel.

So for an extra $370, I can turn my as yet unpurchased G20 into a 10mm carbine.

But then there's the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms regs for a permit for a Short Barrel Rifle (SBR) that comes into play if you own a buttstock for a pistol and also on adding a handgrip to the front of a pistol, which falls under the Any Other Weapon (AOW) permit, $200 each.

Here’s what I found on National Firearms Act rules and regs. It’s written by a veteran law-enforcement officer and NRA Certified instructor, plus certified armorer for Glock, H&K, Remington and Colt.

"In the Supreme court case of Thompson/ Center Arms v. US, - U.S. - (1994) ATF said it (SBR) was a set consisting of a receiver, a 16"+ barrel, a pistol grip stock, a shoulder stock, and a barrel less than 16 inches long. The idea of the kit was that you needed only one receiver, and you could have both a rifle and pistol in one gun.

"While making a pistol out of a rifle is making a short rifle, ATF has long approved of converting a pistol into a rifle, and then converting it back into a pistol, that was not an issue. (My emphasis. This is a crucial point.)

"T/C made one set on a Form 1, then sued for a tax refund, claiming the set was not a SBR, unless it actually was assembled with the shoulder stock, and short barrel, something they instructed the purchaser of the set not to do. The Supreme court disagreed with ATF, and agreed with Thompson/Center.

"The court said that a set of parts was not a short barreled rifle, unless the only way to assemble the parts was into a short barreled rifle. As this set had a legitimate, legal, use for all the parts it was OK."

And on Glocktalk.com, I got the following reply about SBR and AOW regs as they apply to a G20 with long barrel and buttstock.

"I am a lawyer and an leo (don't ask any more questions because I like to remain anonymous on public forums).

"I have a Glock and was interested in putting a 16" inch barrel on it with a buttstock (for cheap 'rifle' plinking at the range). I did the research, printed the Thompson case up and some ATF interpretations of applicable federal regs from their website. I believe that the state of the law is as was previously mentioned until there is a new case to overturn it. And that's how the law works. It is what it is until there is a new holding.

"But as of now, I believe that you can have your Glock with your stock barrel and you can have a 16" barrel nearby...LEGALLY. You can also have a buttstock nearby. The key in my opinion is to NEVER PUT THE BUTTSTOCK ON THE FRAME WITHOUT FIRST INSTALLING THE LONG BARREL."

As for the EAA Witness pistols, they can be converted into other calibers with kits available from the manufacturer in 10mm, .45 ACP, .38 Super and 9mm; barrel and slide for $229 per kit.

Join the discussion on this topic at Steyrclub.com, in two threads at Glocktalk.com, one on pistols and a second on carbine conversions, at CZForum.com on EAA Witness pistols and at S&WForum.com.

August 20, 2007

Top left, Steyr M357-A1; top right, Glock 29 10mm with G20 15-round magazine; bottom left, Kel-Tec P-11 9mm, since replaced with PF-9; bottom right, S&W 669 9mm.

I'm planning now for the purchase of my next pistol, which will fill a hole in SHTF/Home Defense plan. My pistol posse at present includes one compact pistol, Steyr M357-A1 in 357 Sig; two subcompacts, Glock 29 10mm and S&W 669 9mm; one pocket pistol, Kel-Tec PF-9 9mm; and one .22LR "plinker," Walther P22.

On the other, longer-range end of my firepower, I have a Remington 742 30'06 semi-auto rifle and an Ithaca 37 12 gauge pump shotgun, which has had its barrel shortened to barely-legal 18.5" which turns it into a excellent riot gun.

If time and circumstance allows, the Ithaca is my first choice for home defense. Five loads of double-ought buck will stop most anything or anyone, not to mention the bone-chilling "snick, snick" sound of a 12 gauge round as it's pumped into the chamber. That sound alone has been known to send a would-be robber into full flight.

So the "reach out and touch someone" defense area out to 200+ yards is handled by the 30'06; closer in from 30 to about 75 yards is 12 gauge buck territory, from there on in is pistol defense. And though my Steyr compact 357 Sig and G29 10mm are quite capable out to 75 yards ballistically speaking, they're both more carry weapons than longer-range pistols.

Therefore, I have concluded I need a full-size "Tactical" pistol in the baddest caliber and highest capacity I can afford, working with a planning budget of about $600 max.

I define "Tactical" thusly: Full-size semi-auto with as much capacity as can be crammed into a grip, which can definitely be as fat as the fattest Glock 'cause the Good Lord blessed me with big, skinny, long-fingered hands.

When I say "high capacity" I'm thinking at least 15 rounds or more. I realize that leaves .45 ACP out of the running with only 13 rounds max capacity for all but Para Ord's 14, so I decided to make an exception for that caliber and leave it in for all 13- and 14-round models.

Caliber	Grains	Type	Mfg.	FPS Muzzle	Ft.Lbs. Muzzle
357 Sig	125	JHP	Gold Dot DoubleTap	1450	584
9mm	124	JHP	Gold Dot DoubleTap	1301	473
.38 Super	125	JHP	Winchester	1240	427
9x23	124	JHP	Winchester	1460	587
10mm	180	JHP	Gold Dot DoubleTap	1300	676
.45 ACP	230	JHP	Gold Dot DoubleTap	1010	521

Here's the caliber candidates first, with the hottest rounds I could find on any ballistics table or website. (I kept grain size equal at 124/125 for comparison purposes of calibers that all use a 9mm projectile. I went with 180 grain for 10mm and 230 grain for .45 ACP 'cause that's what I like best for those two. Hey, it's my table. Make your own for your favorite grain weights.)

High muzzle velocity trumps low muzzle velocity unless it's a featherweight round, but foot-pounds is at least if not more important than speed when it comes to pistol calibers. So what I'm looking for is the best combination of speed and impact of delivery, combined for "knock-down power." I know that's a highly debatable term, but that's how I choose to define "knock-down power," speed plus impact.

I read Massad Ayoob recently told one of his LFI classes about incidents where BGs hit with 357 Sig rounds went down "like they were hit by lightning!" Now that's smack-down power!

Winchester offers an excellent online testing tool to compare various calibers' penetration in various materials.

And here's another comparison in gel penetration, which demonstrates any of my choices will get the job done.

You may have noticed I left out .40 S&W. I always thought it was a great round, just looking at it on paper. Essentially, it's a "short and weak" version of 10mm, as some have dubbed it, same casing shortened. It's the most popular round with law enforcement nationwide and millions of cops can't all be wrong.

But cops have to shoot what their bosses buy. And when I bought my first .40, a Steyr M40-A1, I was underwhelmed. The round is not as powerful as 357 Sig or 10mm, but for some odd reason, the recoil is "snappier" than either and not as much fun to shoot, at least for me.

The only person I have to please about pistols is me, so I ended up shopping around and made a swap for my subcompact 9mm S&W 669. I used to be a 9mm snob back in the day when I thought 1911 .45 ACP pistols were the only "real" pistols made. But I got over that.

So to rate the calibers from baddest to least bad (but still pretty bad) on the numbers alone, 10mm is 1st, 357 Sig is 2nd, .38 Super and 9x23 are combined for 3rd place, .45 ACP is 4th (with the 13+1/14+1 handicap) and 9mm is 5th.

I combined .38 Super and 9x23 because full-size EAA Witness and Elite Match pistols will hold 18 rounds of each and will shoot each interchangeably without any modification. It's a good twofer because .38 Super is cheaper ammo but that 9x23 Winchester round outperforms everything else on my chart except 10mm, plus ammo is cheaper than 10mm.

So now, let me consider pistols. The Glock 20 and the EAA Witness and Elite Match are, so far as I know, the only 15-shot 10mm pistols available. The EAA Witness and Elite Match are also available in .38 Super/9x23 with a full capacity of 18+1, which in my mind gives it a leg up over the 10mm EAAs.

Choices in 357 Sig are limited in 15-round capacity, plus in what I can afford, to probably a Glock 31. Wish I could afford a genuine Sig. But even if I could, they're somewhat handicapped by 12-round capacity.

Choices in .45 ACP are a bit better: Springfield XD, Glock, S&W M&P, all 13+1; and Para Ordnance Hi-Cap models at 14+1; all roughly same price range.

Choices in 9mm are even wider, including the above and many others, but as noted, 9mm is my last choice. But that's not to say it's out of the running. I just saw a real nice S&W full-size 9mm law-enforcement trade-in with 16-round capacity in a local gun shop at a very attractive price.

I still regret letting that Hungarian-made FEG Browning Hi-Power (see Pistol No. 5) I had get away from me. As Clint told the judge about peeing on the cop car, it seemed like the thing to do at the time. That was one sweet-shooting hunk of iron and I shoulda kept it.

Who knows, I might just decide the Steyr M9-A1 on sale at CDNN.com right now for $350 is the best deal going. It's hard to beat while those "bargain" Steyrs last, which probably won't be much longer.

In Page 2 of my "Baddest tactical pistol I can afford" plan, I'll investigate possible "options" for the leading pistol candidates, such as additional barrels and/or slides for more calibers, carbine kits, et c.

Join the discussion on this topic at Steyrclub.com, in two threads at Glocktalk.com, one on pistols and a second on carbine conversions, at CZForum.com on EAA Witness pistols and at S&WForum.com.