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Gun Control Activist’s Strange Argument for Not Allowing Teachers to Carry Guns in Class by Julio Rosas

AP Photo/John Amis
A Moms Demand Action activist who said she is a former teacher yelled at Tennessee state representatives for advancing a bill that would allow teachers to have firearms on campus in the aftermath of the shooting at a private Christian school, which left three students and three staff dead.

The shooter, who identified as transgender, specifically targeted the school because another location she thought of attacking had too much security.

The hearing room, which was full of gun control activists, booed and heckled the Republican representatives after voted to advance the bill through a House committee. As people got up to leave, one woman began shouting at the representatives about how she knows how to use firearms but she would never carry inside the classroom because she would not shoot her students.

“I would never carry a gun in front of my students! I loved my students. I would die for them but I would not shoot them,” said the woman wearing a Moms Demand Action t-shirt.

Now there’s a few ways to interpret what she said, none of which are good. One is that she thinks she is not stable enough to be trusted around a firearm because she might use it on a student, which ok, yes, if you think that, you should not have a firearm. One charitable interpretation is she meant the second “them” as in the incoming random attacker, but then in theory her students would still be in danger if she dies without taking out the threat.

The last possible explanation is that she would not shoot her student who is going around killing other students. Again, none of these explanations are good and it was certainly an odd comment to make in an attempt to persuade lawmakers.

—————————————————————————————-As a retired School Teacher myself, I strangely have to agree partically with her. In that the vast majority of teachers that I have met out here in the Peoples Republic. I would NEVER let them near a gun!!! As while frankly while nice folks. I just know that it would be either a blood bath or the shooter would quickly have another gun. Grumpy

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This great Nation & Its People War

The US Navy in Vietnam | US Navy Documentary in Color | 1967

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N.S.F.W. Well I thought it was funny!

Happy the IRS did not throw you in jail day! N.S.F.W.

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All About Guns

ARTV: The Winchester Model 70 Story

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All About Guns Fieldcraft

AN EXPERT’S GUN WRITTEN BY ROY HUNTINGTON

Don’t let ‘em fool you — these are guns are for experts!
Top to bottom: S&W Custom 640 by Gemini Customs, classic Colt Agent,
Roy’s beater S&W 340 and an old cut-down Charter .44 Special.

 

Yeah, I know, we all have one or more of them, and there’s nothing wrong with that. In experienced hands — and I mean near-expert hands — they are effective, accurate, reliable and highly concealable. But frankly, too many inexperienced shooters have them, and in most of their hands, the small revolver is an inadequate tool with the potential for being a real problem if called upon to be used.

It’s been my experience most who carry a small-frame revolver can’t shoot it worth beans, and hardly ever (maybe never?) shoot it anyway. In their mind’s eye they have themselves whipping it out, engaging a bad guy, the bad guys does down with solid, centered hits, and the good guy is a hero.

In reality most people shoot poorly with these little guns, don’t carry a reload, can’t manipulate them well and have little or no idea of the gun’s true abilities. They’re a potential danger to themselves and everyone around them.

Why do we seem to think we can buy one of these guns, load it, and for some magical reason — suddenly know everything about it?

 

 

A S&W 6″ Model 14 and a 5-screw 36 on the right. At a lasered 37 yards,
using Federal .38 Special148 gr. Match wadcutters the 14 gave 2.25″ and the 36 about 3.6″.
Not bragging — just showing the little guns can shoot if you know what you’re doing.
Astoundingly enough, the J-frame was spot-on (a rarity) and I favored
the top of the red zone as I shot, dropping the shots right in.

The Problem At Hand

Are small-frame revolvers actually expert’s guns? Absolutely. But, they’re alluring because they’re easy to carry. Few are willing to compromise with comfort, and are drawn to the lightweight and small size of these appealing little shooters. But is that bad?

It’s not — if you take the time to learn to run these tiny terrors. If a gun-store-counter-commando talks you into buying one for your wife or yourself, there’s more to the game than simply loading it and putting it into your pocket. Much more.

Don’t be fooled though — the guns are inherently accurate, and I’ve actually shot old-time PPC courses (a form of police target shooting out to 50 yards) and used a 2.5″ Model 19 .357 K-frame. You’d be stunned at the groups possible at 50 yards, and a tuned gun in good hands can deliver 5″ or 6″ — and better! — easily at that range. The scary thing is so can some J-frames in good hands.

Not long ago at Gunsite, with a crew from S&W, we shot 2″ to 5″ J-frame .38s out to 100 yards, making regular hits on man-sized steel. But these were experienced shooters, and most importantly, everyone knew how to run a double action revolver, staging the trigger to get accuracy at the same level you can get shooting single action. And that’s the biggest secret to these little guns (or any gun) — trigger control.

More Secrets

 

Like anything small, a J-frame or equivalent can be fumbly so you have to train your fingers to work smaller grips, smaller triggers, harder actions, cylinder releases tending to be sticky and tiny cylinders. Not to mention those usually inadequate sights and short sight radius. But, if you seek the training you should, from people who understand these guns, you’ll find them to be elegant compromises when it comes to personal protection working guns. If you’re willing to work at it.

As we’ve chatted about before in these pages, sight picture is important, but trigger control is paramount. It’s especially true with these little guns, as the slightest wobble can toss a round into the next county. If you gain control over the stagy-hard-gritty trigger on many of these guns, you’ll be rewarded with accuracy sure to surprise you.

When I was a range officer for a short time on the police department, we would have detectives attempt to qualify with their various 2″ guns. This was the very early 1980s and wheelguns were the backbone of police work. Plus, wearing a Colt Detective or Chief’s Special was the hallmark of a detective. Call it their badge of office.

However it was the rare bird who could actually shoot one. Most would show up with their old duty belt and 6″ Model 10 and shoot that. I would cry foul, but at the time, it was allowed. But now and again, I’d see one try with a 2″ and snort in disgust, “This is a piece of crap and it won’t hit a thing at this distance!”

“This distance” was usually seven to 15 yards. “Can I borrow it for a sec?” I’d ask. They’d hand off, making harrumphing noises of disgust. I would load with five and, taking a comfortable stance and staging the trigger, could usually place the five in a neat group in the head or center torso of the B27 target. I would then hand the gun back and say something witty and charming like, “Gosh, the gun seems to shoot fine. Perhaps you need to learn how to shoot it? I’d be happy to teach you,” delivered with a big, toothy grin.

I also bought a lot of small guns, cheap, right then and there, and used to keep a $100 bill in my wallet just for that purpose. And it’s too bad, as 15 minutes of training might have had most of them on-target — if they’d only wanted to learn.

And that’s the key, right there in front of us. You need to want to learn. It’s the only way you’ll be safe with these guns. And, it’s the only way you’ll be able to use one and enjoy just how remarkable these little “expert’s guns” truly are. Honest.

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N.S.F.W.

Some Cheeky Stuff NSFW

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Uncategorized

“THIS GUN WON’T SHOOT!” LET’S TRY AN OBVIOUS FIX FIRST WRITTEN BY JOHN TAFFIN

I recently received a call from my friend Jim Martin. Jim is an even older guy than I am, an expert in fast draw and gun spinning, a top-notch tunesmith when it comes to Colt Single Actions. He is also the man who rebuilt the Great Western .45s, which appeared on the cover of the first issue of GUNS in January 1955, so I could shoot them for the 50th Anniversary issue. Jim had recently tuned and tightened a 3rd Generation 7-1/2″ New Frontier .44 Special and informed me the owner said it wouldn’t shoot. “He will sell it for $600…” and that’s where I immediately interrupted him and said, “I will take it!”

I had a pretty good idea why it wouldn’t shoot and made arrangements for it to be shipped to my FFL dealer, Buckhorn Gun & Pawn. It arrived the next morning and within an hour, I had it shooting 1-hole groups. Martin had done a magnificent job tuning it to perfection and tightening up the cylinder by installing an oversized bolt. When I received it the first thing I noticed was the rear sight was cranked high enough it was obvious the previous owner had been shooting 200-grain bullets, which were probably intended for the .44-40 and also probably sized at .427″. The latter is precisely why it probably wouldn’t shoot.

Using plug gauges I found the cylinder throats of the New Frontier to be a uniform .433″. Shooting .427″ bullets through such a cylinder is a guarantee of mediocre accuracy. The largest bullets I had loaded in .44 Special cases measured .431″, and over 7.5 grains of Universal they shot superbly in the new New Frontier. The reason this sixgun couldn’t shoot was easily traced to the ammunition.

Match the bullet to the sixgun’s chambers. Here, .431″ bullets grouped
this well in a Smith & Wesson Model 1950 Target .44 Special.

 

In my early sixgunnin’ years, I religiously measured the groove diameter of sixgun barrels by tapping a pure lead slug down the barrel with a wooden dowel and then trying to measure the diameter of the bullet. Enlightenment came when I finally realized the barrel diameter was not the most critical measurement. The chamber throats of the cylinder matter the most, as cast bullets pass through these tunnels long before they arrive at the barrel rifling. The less distortion when they get there the better. When this became apparent to me, I stopped measuring barrels and with .44 and .45 sixguns, gathered sizing dies from .428″ to .432″ for the .44, and .451″ to .454″ for the .45 and simply used the largest bullet which could be pushed through the cylinder throats.

Several years ago, I received a phone call from a distressed local reader who related he had been on the phone practically every day the last week with Smith & Wesson complaining about his three Model 629s. He had all three barrel lengths, 4″, 6″ and 8-3/8″. None of them would shoot. Now right away I knew something had to definitely be wrong. You might get a new revolver that would not shoot, but three of them at the same time?

He asked if I would be chronographing anytime in the near future and if so, if he could chronograph his Smith & Wessons. Now I didn’t have the slightest idea what chronographing would prove, however, I did set up an appointment. I already had a pretty good idea of why his sixguns wouldn’t shoot. I surmised it had to be either poor ammunition or poor shooting on his part. So just to be sure, I took along some of my own .44 Magnum reloads.

 

Break The Rule

We rendezvoused, he shot his three revolvers and he was right, they certainly did not shoot very well. “Well, let me try them.” I did and they still did not shoot very well. Since we were in such a dire situation, I broke an almost unbreakable rule of mine, which is: never shoot my reloads in someone else’s guns. However, I had noticed something about his ammunition. Without saying a thing to him about his loads, I tried some of my own, which were loaded with the same Keith bullets.

With the short-barreled .44 Magnum using my loads the groups were not spectacular, but certainly passable. They tightened up with the 6″ sixgun and then the group from the 8-3/8″ was as good as it gets with all holes touching. I turned around, looked at him and said: “I think you better call Smith & Wesson and apologize.” The problem was not the sixguns, nor even his shooting, rather his loads. I had noticed the lack of a good crimp on his loads. Every time one of those loads was fired, the remaining rounds in the cylinder would allow the bullets to move forward which played havoc with accuracy. He was, of course embarrassed, but at least the problem was solved. Once again, the problem was ammunition.

Porting

 

A gunsmith sent me a custom ported Smith & Wesson Model 29 complete with a scope in place. He wanted me to test the recoil reducing effect of his newly designed porting. I fired the first shot and it felt pretty good. After firing the second shot, my eyes started to cloud up a bit, as they will do when tired; at the third shot my first thought was I’m not feeling this tired! It was easy to discover the problem. The ports were perfectly designed to throw all the trash back on the front of the scope. By the third shot the light gathering qualities had been diminished significantly. I felt a little sorry for the gunsmith going to all the trouble and sending me a revolver with porting incompatible with a scope.

Porting also turned out to be a problem with a custom Contender barrel. The cast-bullets supplier sent a supply of his gas-checked 7mm bullets along with a scoped barrel. I called him and asked if he had thoroughly tested this barrel, as quite often, ported barrels will not work with cast bullets. He replied, “Oh yes, the maker of the barrel had completely tested it.” I fired several rounds and the bullets were everywhere! I called him back and related my results, he went back to the barrel maker, who went to his employee, who admitted he had not even fired a single load through the barrel.

Sometimes Colt New Frontier .45 Colts are encountered with oversized chamber throats.
Sizing bullets to .454″ improved the groups of this New Frontier tremendously.

 

Have I ever had factory guns which would not shoot? Smith & Wesson once sent me a .44 Magnum that would not shoot at all. This problem was an easy fix; they had sent a display gun from the SHOT Show and forgot to replace the firing pin. The same thing happened years ago with a Magnum Research Desert Eagle. When we tried to shoot it we discovered once again there was no firing pin. Someone had mistakenly shipped their photography sample to me. I once opened a Dan Wesson box to find no barrel included. It wasn’t hard to figure out it would not shoot!

Shortly after the 10mm arrived a company sent me a brand-new design, a radical departure from the standard semi-automatic. It came from Europe with a special barrel. I tried to shoot it on paper at 25 yards using an 18×24″ piece of poster board. I could not keep all the shots on paper. I used a black felt tip pen to make a small little target in one corner, stitched it with a magazine full from a Smith & Wesson 1006, folded the target to make a its own envelope, and sent it off to the president of the company. A few days later I received a phone call asking me to please send that gun back. The radical new design was never seen again.

Yes, there are guns out there that won’t shoot, but they are awfully difficult to find. If a gun won’t shoot the first thing to check is ammunition, which is most always the problem. The next step is to check the shooter and in fact, have several people of known ability shoot the same gun. If it still won’t shoot then it is time to look for a real problem. I love it when someone tells me “This gun won’t shoot!” as I know I may buy a really good sixgun for a small price. Did I ever tell you about the 7-1/2″ Ruger .44 Magnum Flat-Top I got at a ridiculously low price because it wouldn’t shoot?

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All About Guns Allies War

British Submachine Gun Overview: Lanchester, Sten, Sterling, and More!

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All About Guns

The IWI Zion-15: The Working Man’s Fighting Rifle

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Ammo Born again Cynic! War

Pentagon Says Russia Will Soon Be Forced to Use Old, ‘Degraded’ Ammo In Ukraine Properly stored ammunition can last a lifetime but Russia has a bad track record of improper storage that leads to massive explosions and death. Matthew Gault By Matthew Gault

GettyImages-1240342021

According to the Pentagon, the Russian military is running out of ammunition. The problem is so bad, the U.S. military said, that the Kremlin will soon start dipping into stocks of ammunition produced during the Cold War.

This isn’t necessarily a problem as ammunition isn’t perishable. In the right conditions, it can last a long time. The problem is that Russia tends not to store its ammo in ideal conditions that keep it from rotting.

An anonymous source in the U.S. military told reporters on Monday that Russia was running out of new ammunition. “Their stocks of, again, fully serviceable ammunition, you know, this would be new ammunition, is rapidly dwindling,” the unnamed official told reporters. “Which is probably forcing them to increasingly use ammunition in what we would consider degraded conditions.”

The Pentagon said that, at the current rate of use, Russia might run out of “fully serviceable” artillery and rocket ammunition by early 2023. As Moscow continues to burn through ammo in its war with Ukraine, the official said it will have to rely on less safe munitions.

“They have drawn from [Russia’s] aging ammunition stockpile, which does indicate that they are willing to use that older ammunition, some of which was originally produced more than 40 years ago,” the official told reporters.

Moscow isn’t the only country on the planet that uses old ammunition. The U.S. Air Force has repurposed 18,000 40mm shells built during World War II for use in the AC-130. The Pentagon has wanted to retire the AC-130’s 40mm cannons for a while, but they’ve proven too effective.

Properly stored in a climate-controlled environment, ammunition can last a long time. The U.S. Defense Logistics Agency oversees vast stores of munitions left over from America’s various wars. Some of what it’s sitting on is almost 100 years old. Kept in a cool dry place, some of these ammunition might still be usable. An improperly stored round can be volatile, misfire, and even explode, however.

Russia has never done a great job of properly storing its ammo. We know this because their depots tend to explode. In 2020, an ammo storage warehouse southeast of Moscow exploded, taking 75,000 tonnes of ammo with it. In 2019, an ammo storage depot in Siberia exploded. The warehouse was used to store artillery shells, rockets, and various other munitions. A similar explosion injured eight people in 2015, also in Siberia. In 2009, an explosion at an ammo storage warehouse in the city of Ulyanovsk killed two people.

These are just a few of dozens of examples of ammunition exploding in Russia. Ammo depots have exploded in former Soviet countries like Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. It’s also happened in Ukraine, multiple times.

The use of aged ammo is not necessarily the problem, it’s that Russia could soon be relying on unstable and improperly stored munitions pulled from Soviet-era warehouses that they’re lucky haven’t already exploded.