Mission statement:

Armed and Safe is a gun rights advocacy blog, with the mission of debunking the "logic" of the enemies of the Constitutionally guaranteed, fundamental human right of the individual to keep and bear arms.

I can be reached at 45superman@gmail.com.You can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/45superman.

Friday, April 29, 2011

GRE Round Up, Apr 29

Here's the latest from my fellow GREs:

David Codrea/National:

Dave Workman/Seattle:
Also check out these other Liberty-oriented Examiners:

Do 'gun control' groups think rights of minorities less important?

Perhaps, though, this kind of thinking explains CSGV's insistence on referring to "our Democracy" with such regularity, rather than acknowledging that our nation is a republic. Promoting the notion that we live in a society where the majority rules, meaning that 51% can legitimately vote away the fundamental human rights of the other 49%, fits right into CSGV's agenda, especially when coupled with the VPC's latest theme, of gun owners as a minority.

Here's a hint, though: there are still enough of us to defend our rights, and forgetting that would be bad news for everyone involved--but worse news for those who forget than for those who are forced to remind them. [More]
That's today's St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner. Please give it a look, and tell a friend.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

GRE Round Up, Apr 28

Here's the latest from my fellow GREs:

David Codrea/National:

Yih-Chau Chang/Oakland:
Dave Workman/Seattle:
Also check out these other Liberty-oriented Examiners:
Finally, and just as importantly, see John Longenecker's Liberty News/Safer Streets newsletter.

NRA convention is excellent opportunity to publicize 'Project Gunwalker' scandal

The NRA's annual convention kicks off in Pittsburgh today, and is expected to draw 65,000 to 70,000 members, and pump $23.7 million (by "conservative estimates") into the local economy. That makes it big news, even for many who have no interest in the gun rights/"gun control" debate.

This is fortunate, because some real good can come from the media scrutiny of the event. Seattle Gun Rights Examiner Dave Workman is in Pittsburgh already, and he expects "Project Gunwalker" to be a topic of much convention conversation . . . [More]
That's today's St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner. Please give it a look, and tell a friend.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

GRE Round Up, Apr 27

Here's the latest from my fellow GREs:

David Codrea/National:

Dave Workman/Seattle:
Also check out these other Liberty-oriented Examiners:

How deeply has DHS been involved with 'Project Gunwalker'?

Hmm . . . Secretary Napolitiano is not a very "hands-on" Secretary of Homeland Security, if she actually was that "unaware." Sipsey Street Irregular Mike Vanderboegh and Seattle Gun Rights Examiner Dave Workman have much more about this latest development, which actually has more to do with the fact that CBS has learned that Congressional investigators are in Arizona, so unhappy are they with the administration's refusal (illegal refusal) to cooperate with the investigation. [More]
That's today's St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner. Please give it a look, and tell a friend.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

GRE Round Up, Apr 26

Here's the latest from my fellow GREs:

David Codrea/National:

Dave Workman/Seattle:
Also check out these other Liberty-oriented Examiners:
Finally, and just as importantly, see John Longenecker's Liberty News/Safer Streets newsletter.

Living for 170,000,000

As charted by Jews for the Preservation of Firearm Ownership (JPFO), governments murdered 170,000,000 of their own citizens over the course of the 20th century, after first passing citizen disarmament laws. Genocide is, after all, a good deal easier when the intended victims cannot effectively resist.

The purpose of the Second Amendment . . . is to protect the people's means to resist, and ultimately abolish, a government that seeks to usurp the ultimate authority of the people--a government that has, in other words, become tyrannical. There can be no greater tyranny than the wholesale slaughter of the people by their own government. The Second Amendment exists to prevent the cherished goal of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (CSGV)--their oft-touted "government monopoly on force," and genocide is the ultimate expression of such a monopoly.

We'll see your 32, Goddard, and raise you 169,999,968 [More]
That's today's St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner. Please give it a look, and tell a friend.

Monday, April 25, 2011

GRE Round Up, Apr 25

Here's the latest from my fellow GREs:

David Codrea/National:

Yih-Chau Chang/Oakland:
Dave Workman/Seattle:
Also check out these other Liberty-oriented Examiners:

Vote on Illinois defensive handgun carry expected very soon

That Illinois, of all states, might finally join the vast majority of states in recognizing citizens' right to an effective means of self-defense, even when not at home, has "gun control" groups in something of a panic. "Losing" the stronghold of draconian gun laws that Illinois has long been recognized as would demonstrate just how impotent the "gun control" movement has become. [More]
That's today's St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner. Please give it a look, and tell a friend.

Friday, April 22, 2011

GRE Round Up, Apr 22

Here's the latest from my fellow GREs:

Liston Matthews/Knoxville:

David Codrea/National:
Dave Workman/Seattle:
Also check out these other Liberty-oriented Examiners:

Author of study quoted by 'gun control' groups singing new tune

Last fall, Colby Goodman and Michel Marizco, of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the University of San Diego Trans-Border Institute, released a study, "U.S. Firearms Trafficking to Mexico: New Data and Insights Illuminate Key Trends and Challenges." Ever since, advocates of "gun control" have been pointing to it as the "scholarly evidence" supporting their assertion that the Mexican drug syndicates are arming themselves at U.S. gun shops and gun shows, and that, therefore, the U.S. needs yet more draconian gun laws--the Constitution be damned.

This study must have been a welcome sight to the gun prohibitionists, who by then had received enough criticism over their wildly inflated claims of "90%," or even "95 to 100%," gradually slipping to "80% of guns recovered at Mexican crime scenes came from the U.S., that they for a while stopped even talking about percentages. The VPC's Tom Diaz went so far in retreating from the talk of high percentages that he called the entire issue of percentage "a red herring"--never mind percentages, just ban "assault weapons" anyway. Rabidly anti-gun Attorney General Eric Holder said much the same thing, as did the Brady Campaign's Paul Helmke.

Suddenly, though, this "scholarly report" comes out and says "80%":

In May 2010, for example, the Mexican government, which has received training from ATF to better identify firearms, said that of the 75,000 firearms it seized in the last three years about 80 percent, or 60,000 firearms, came from the United States.
And everyone in forcible citizen disarmament land was happy, because now they could talk percentages and numbers again. Helmke cited it:
Violence in Mexico has increased since Congress allowed the federal assault weapons ban to expire in 2004. And a study just released by the Woodrow Wilson Center and the University of San Diego matches Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence reports, which confirm that a significant number of the guns used in Mexican drug crimes come from America.
Dennis "What People?" Henigan cited it:
According to a new report, U.S. Firearms Trafficking to Mexico, by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the University of San Diego Trans-Border Institute, of 75,000 firearms seized by the Mexican government in the last three years, about 80%, or 60,000 firearms, came from the United States.
Another Brady Campaign "study" cites it here.

Just recently, CSGV cited it, too:
@bergerjd Here's an excellent compilation of data on firearms being trafficked from U.S to #Mexico. http://tinyurl.com/5whyjqu #p2 #Texas
The only problem is, the "scholarly report's" figures are just as fanciful as all the others, as I explained here (with an account of my comment war with one of the "study's" authors, Colby Goodman) and here.

As I discussed today, though, now Mr. Goodman seems to have recanted his old story:
At the time, claims were made in the U.S. that 90 percent of guns used in crimes in Mexico came from the U.S. The statistic originated with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms and was picked up by the media and members of Congress. The ATF later massaged it to say 90 percent of the seized weapons they had been able to check came from the U.S. But the analyst who wrote the leaked memo said there was no way of verifying that.

“Claims by Mexican and U.S. officials that upwards of 90 percent of illegal recovered weapons can be traced back to the U.S. is based on an incomplete survey of confiscated weapons,” the analyst wrote.

Colby Goodman is an arms trafficking expert and security consultant in Washington. He says the information on seized guns was inconsistent.

“Duplicates, multiple duplicates or it was lacking a lot of basic information that ATF would need to trace it back to the purchaser in the United States,” Goodman said.
Well, Brady Campaign and CSGV, care to show as much integrity as Goodman, and admit your earlier arguments were based on bullshit?

More evidence of guns pouring into Mexico--from the south

Evidence continues to mount that contrary to claims on the part of those who would use Mexican drug war violence to justify heavier gun regulation in the U.S., the civilian gun market in this country is at most a very minor player as a source of the criminals' firepower--at least when the U.S. government isn't abetting the process. When the narco-thugs go shopping for firepower, they go south. The latest confirmation of that comes from McClatchy, in "Drug gangs help themselves to Central American military arsenals" . . . [More]
That's today's St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner. Please give it a look, and tell a friend.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

GRE Round Up, Apr 21

Here's the latest from my fellow GREs:

David Codrea/National:

Dave Workman/Seattle:
Also check out these other Liberty-oriented Examiners:

'Project Gunwalker': When 'justice' is in the hands of criminals

When the Justice Department commits crimes (and is protected in those crimes by a member of the House committee charged with government oversight), and the State Department is complicit with and defends what has been described in some circles as an act of war against a neighboring nation and important trade partner, the legitimacy of the entire government must come into question. [More]
That's today's St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner. Please give it a look, and tell a friend.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

GRE Round Up, Apr 20

Here's the latest from my fellow GREs:

David Codrea/National:

Dave Workman/Seattle:
Also check out these other Liberty-oriented Examiners:
Finally, and just as importantly, see John Longenecker's Liberty News/Safer Streets newsletter.

Tobacco, firearms and the BATFE

The USA Today article quotes a federal government estimate of $5 billion per year in tax revenue lost to smuggling, with that figure only likely to grow. This black maket is, in other words, big business, and becoming a bigger and bigger priority for the BATFE.

That will, no doubt, greatly displease the Brady Campaign's Paul Helmke, who as far back as last August, was very offended that the BATFE wasn't acting like the BFFFF (Bureau of Firearms, Firearms, Firearms, and Firearms). [More]
That's today's St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner. Please give it a look, and tell a friend.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

GRE Round Up, Apr 19

Here's the latest from my fellow GREs:

David Codrea/National:

Dave Workman/Seattle:
Also check out these other Liberty-oriented Examiners:

Incoming DNC chairwoman calls private gun sales 'outrageous'

Rep. Wasserman Schultz is at least a bit more honest than many of her fellows in the forcible citizen disarmament lobby, in that she does not refer to the liberty she proposes to eradicate as "the gun show loophole." She at least acknowledges that it's all private sales she wants banned, rather than "only" those at gun shows.

And, yes--when I say she wants to ban private sales, that's exactly what I mean. To describe any sale in which the prospective buyer is first subjected to a government search of his legal history (and increasingly, his health history) as "private" is to utterly destroy the meaning of that word. [More]
That's today's St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner. Please give it a look, and tell a friend.

Monday, April 18, 2011

GRE Round Up, Apr 18

Here's the latest from my fellow GREs:

Richard Nascak/Ft. Myers:

David Codrea/National:
Dave Workman/Seattle:
Also check out these other Liberty-oriented Examiners:

U.S. State Department is major arms supplier to Mexican drug syndicates

If the Obama administration is willing to use the Department of Justice that way, why not the State Department, too? Secretary of State Clinton is hardly likely to have any philosophical objections to the goal of more restrictive U.S. gun laws. So why not approve hundreds of millions of dollars worth of weapons sales to the notoriously corrupt Mexican government, knowing full well that many of the guns will end up in criminal hands? A Bushmaster AR-15 (as mentioned in the above-quoted WikiLeaks cable), after all, when dutifully traced by the BATFE, will just show up as another "assault weapon" from the U.S. And another justification to infringe that which shall not be infringed. [More]
That's today's St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner. Please give it a look, and tell a friend.

Friday, April 15, 2011

GRE Round Up, Apr 15

Here's the latest from my fellow GREs:

Dave Workman/Seattle:

Also check out these other Liberty-oriented Examiners:
Finally, and just as importantly, see John Longenecker's Liberty News/Safer Streets newsletter.

Another Justice Department lie to Congress about 'Project Gunwalker' exposed

The administration's response to the "Project Gunwalker" allegations has been an endless series of stone walls, evasions, and outright lies. Can a government whose, of all things, Department of Justice is so bereft of integrity be considered legitimate? [More]
That's today's St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner. Please give it a look, and tell a friend.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

GRE Round Up, Apr 14

Here's the latest from my fellow GREs:

Dave Workman/Seattle:

Also check out these other Liberty-oriented Examiners:
Finally, and just as importantly, see John Longenecker's Liberty News/Safer Streets newsletter.

An order of protection in Illinois might soon offer REAL protection

Without legal defensive firearm carry, such as provided by HB 148, even HB 3499 would do nothing for a person's ability to defend one's life outside the home. We have long ago gotten past the antiquated notion that "a woman's place is in the home." Shouldn't that mean that we must acknowledge that her life is just as worthy of defending outside the home, as well? [More]
That's today's St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner. Please give it a look, and tell a friend.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

GRE Round Up, Apr 13

Here's the latest from my fellow GREs:

Dave Workman/Seattle:

Also check out these other Liberty-oriented Examiners:

Time running out to comment on BATFE 'shotgun importability study'

The GunLeaders.com article's suggested starting point for comments is superb--read it, and circulate it widely (and quickly). This atrocity needs to be nipped in the bud.

In the longer term, and at a far more fundamental level, the "sporting purposes" requirement needs to go. With the Supreme Court's Heller decision having made the individual's right to keep and bear arms a settled point of Constitutional law, any requirement to tie that right to sport can now be shown to be even more ridiculous than the now discredited notion of tying it to membership in a government-sanctioned militia. [More]
That's today's St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner. Please give it a look, and tell a friend.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

GRE Round Up, Apr 12

Here's the latest from my fellow GREs:

Yih-Chau Chang/Oakland:

Dave Workman/Seattle:
Also check out these other Liberty-oriented Examiners:
Finally, and just as importantly, see John Longenecker's Liberty News/Safer Streets newsletter.

Protection of Illinois gun owners' privacy picking up steam

As of last Friday, though HB 7 and SB 27 ceased to be the only games in town, as the House passed a new bill (well, not really that new, but newly amended to deal with this issue). HB 3500 easily passed (98-12) in a House vote, with broad bipartisan support.

. . .

Of the 12 "Nay" votes, it should be noted, all were placed by Democrats, 10 of whom represent districts located within Cook County (with the other two both also being "upstate"), and one being AG Lisa Madigan's father, Speaker of the House Michael Madigan. [More]
That's today's St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner. Please give it a look, and tell a friend.

Monday, April 11, 2011

GRE Round Up, Apr 11

Here's the latest from my fellow GREs:

Yih-Chau Chang/Oakland:

Dave Workman/Seattle:
Also check out these other Liberty-oriented Examiners:
Finally, and just as importantly, see John Longenecker's Liberty News/Safer Streets newsletter.

.50 GI conversion on Para-Ordnance P-14 frame?

Readers may or may not know that I have a thing for odd (usually large) calibers of near-wildcat status. Additionally, my all-time favorite handgun platform is John Moses Browning's masterpiece (and Utah's state gun, to much anguished bleating from the gun-haters), the M1911.

That, of course, means that I very much like the idea of the Guncrafter Industries Model 1, chambered for their own .50 GI caliber. In fact, if not for the high price ($3k+ by now, I think), I would certainly have one. I am not, by the way, arguing with that price--everything I've read about it seems to indicate the quality is such that that kind of money isn't out of line.

It's still more than I'm hoping to spend.

Now converting a standard 1911 to fire .50 GI might sound like a good idea (and it can actually be done with Glocks (but Glocks aren't for me)--but it won't work on a standard 1911, for two main reasons. First, the wider cartridge necessitates a wider magazine than a standard 1911 frame can accommodate. Second, the feedramp built into the frame isn't wide enough for the bigger cartridge.

A Para-Ordnance P-14, though, takes a double-stack magazine--plenty wide. Para-Ord also diverges from standard 1911 design in having the feedramp as part of the barrel, instead of the frame. This means that if one could find a custom barrel maker willing to build a .50 GI barrel with a Para-Ordnance-style feedramp, you would start to be in business.

You wouldn't be done, though. The slide itself would either have to have some material milled out of it, to accommodate the larger outside diameter of the barrel, or maybe (if you could somehow get one), you could use a Guncrafter Industries Model 1 slide. You would also probably need to modify the magazines, tweaking the feed-lip geometry, and possibly modify the magazine follower, or fabricate a new one. Hopefully, a magazine that holds 14 rounds of .45 ACP could be modified to hold at least 11 rounds of .50 GI, just to make Sarah Brady cry.

So, my question, gentle readers: does anyone know of any 1911 gunsmith who might be willing to take such a nutty project on, for less than the price of a new kidney?
-----------

Part II


You knew I wasn't done. The .50 GI cartridge, as impressive as it is, isn't really a "magnum class" cartridge--its power is actually pretty moderate. Well, that's not my style.

The brass of the .50 GI cartridge cases is reportedly quite thick and strong. That got me thinking that it might be possible to safely load it up to .460 Rowland pressures. I'd love to be able to drive a Speer 325 grain jacketed hollowpoint at about 950 feet-per-second.

Does that sound doable?

Coalition to Stop Gun Violence again steps into steaming pile of its own lies

CSGV's Twitter feed is, presumably, the work of their communications director, Ladd Everitt. That Everitt is a liar is understandable (if contemptible)--if an organization is going to argue that "safety" is provided by mandated defenselessness, and that "liberty" is protected by the government having a monopoly on force--it's going to need a skillful liar as communications director. Ladd's problem is the "skillful" part. His lies aren't fooling anyone. [More]
That's today's St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner. Please give it a look, and tell a friend.

Friday, April 08, 2011

GRE Round Up, Apr 8

Here's the latest from my fellow GREs:

David Codrea/National:

Dave Workman/Seattle:
Also check out these other Liberty-oriented Examiners:

U.S. general says scores of millions of guns in Mexico from Central America

See? Those "heavy weapons" are "not the issue." Um--why not? Don't they provide a lot more killing capability than firearms more typically available to civilians? Isn't their enhanced killing capability much of the reason for their issuance to military forces? Why, then, would they be less "the issue" than semi-automatic, civilian firearms? [More]
That's today's St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner. Please give it a look, and tell a friend.

Thursday, April 07, 2011

GRE Round Up, Apr 7

Here's the latest from my fellow GREs:

David Codrea/National:

Dave Workman/Seattle:
Also check out these other Liberty-oriented Examiners:

Magazine ban advocates' shaky grasp of mathematics and reality

We're not told what year this "alarming statistic" applies to, but the number of shooting deaths (over half of which are generally suicides--which could, presumably, be committed just as efficiently with any size magazine) has remained fairly steady for a number of years, at around 30,000. That means that Lautenberg's "27,000 guns" have been used, on average, in about 1.11 killings apiece. One wonders why he isn't pushing for a magazine capacity limit of one round. [More]
That's today's St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner. Please give it a look, and tell a friend.

Wednesday, April 06, 2011

GRE Round Up, Apr 6

Here's the latest from my fellow GREs:

David Codrea/National:

Dave Workman/Seattle:
Also check out these other Liberty-oriented Examiners:
Finally, and just as importantly, see John Longenecker's Liberty News/Safer Streets newsletter. Also see John's new book: Even Safer Streets 2011 - The Second Amendment as a Mainstream Value.

Senator Schumer wants to make it easier to pack DoJ with anti-gun idealogues

Now why would Sen. Schumer--so enamored of power that he recently seemed to propose stripping the judiciary branch of all its relevance, and dividing that power among Congress and the executive branch (see very short sidebar video)--want to radically decrease the Senate's power? Well, to a rabid advocate of forcible citizen disarmament (and Schumer is definitely that), the ability of an anti-gun president to pack the Justice Department with radical "gun control" extremists, without having to seek the Senate's approval, is worth giving up some personal power. [More]
That's today's St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner. Please give it a look, and tell a friend.

Tuesday, April 05, 2011

GRE Round Up, Apr 5

Here's the latest from my fellow GREs:

David Codrea/National:

Dave Workman/Seattle:
Also check out these other Liberty-oriented Examiners:
Finally, and just as importantly, see John Longenecker's Liberty News/Safer Streets newsletter.

Former federal anti-drug agency director thinks AG knew of 'Project Gunwalker'

Now, a former director of the El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC), a Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)-affiliated organization established in 1974 to help with the interdiction of illicit drugs at the southwest border, is expressing his own suspicions about what Holder knew, and when he knew it. [More]
That's today's St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner. Please give it a look, and tell a friend.

Monday, April 04, 2011

GRE Round Up, Apr 4

Here's the latest from my fellow GREs:

Mike Stollenwerk/DC:

David Codrea/National:
Dave Workman/Seattle:
Also check out these other Liberty-oriented Examiners:
Finally, and just as importantly, see John Longenecker's Liberty News/Safer Streets newsletter.

Right to keep and bear arms: We'll never know how many lives it has saved

The Second Amendment's guarantee of the fundamental human right of the individual to keep and bear arms was not, of course, included in the Bill of Rights primarily to protect the homeowner's ability to defend his home from common thugs. While that protection is certainly a laudable side benefit, the thuggery of those who would threaten "the security of a free state" is on a much larger scale than typical hoodlums can realistically aspire to.

To get an idea of that scale, see this chart (pdf file), courtesy of Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO). So, while "we'll never know how many lives have been saved" by the right to keep and bear arms, we do know that 170 million were destroyed by tyrannical, evil governments--in the 20th century alone--strongly abetted by the government monopoly on force, so beloved of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (CSGV). [More]
That's today's St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner. Please give it a look, and tell a friend.

Friday, April 01, 2011

GRE Round Up, Apr 1

Here's the latest from my fellow GREs:

David Codrea/National:

Dave Workman/Seattle:
Also check out these other Liberty-oriented Examiners:

Law enforcement support for concealed carry in Illinois still growing

Wednesday, the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police voted to support ending Illinois' shameful status as the only state in the nation to outright ban any form of self-defense with a firearm in public for citizens.

. . .

In so doing, the IACP joins the Chicago Police Sergeants Association, who expressed their support for Illinois HB 148, the "Family and Personal Protection Act," when it came up for a committee vote on March 8. The Illinois Sheriffs' Association has supported concealed carry since 2009. The Illinois State Police have taken a neutral stance. [More]
That's today's St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner. Please give it a look, and tell a friend.