Santa with Gun courtesy politenewyorker.blogspot.com
Hear something, say something? According to the New York Post, panic is in no short supply in and around New York City lately, with many local residents calling 911 in a panic to report shots fired. Sirens wail, squad cars roll, only to find out that the “bad guy shooting up the place” is nothing but a film set. Although (simulated) gunfire is the most common cause of alarm, occasionally EMS crews get to play, too. During a recent shoot for “Nurse Jackie,” seven residents called 911 to report a horrible car wreck, which turned out to be a mock accident with an overturned car. Local precincts are supposed be…

(and usually are) notified when there will be filming in their area, but according to their source, you still have to respond when people call, and you still “have to go into the situation thinking that it is real.”

Florida has a reputation as the Gunshine State, and it’s usually for good reasons, and well deserved. However, another aspect of gun ownership here could probably use a little work. You see, according to data from the last few years, Florida’s gun accident rate is running right around double the national average. Statewide, four in ten people who are treated in the hospital with nonfatal gunshot wounds were shot by accident. In Orange County (my home), the number is over 5 in 10. That said, the CDC refused comment on the Orlando Sentinel’s findings, warning that the methods they used were not the same, and could result in different numbers. Still, it sounds like Florida gun owners could benefit from a little more control. Self-control, that is.

Concurrent with last weekend’s L.A. gun buyup that saw the surrender of a Sturmgewehr 44, San Jose, Oakland, and San Francisco also held their own exercises in futility and waste. San Jose saw 463 firearms surrendered in exchange for $46,400 in Target gift cards, which was more surrendered guns than Oakland and San Francisco combined. Thankfully, there haven’t been any stories of rare and expensive military artifacts turned in from these boondoggles.

A little longer video tonight, since it’s Friday. Hickok45 takes a look at the Steyr M9A1, and though he rarely has an actual bad thing to say about any gun, his videos are still usually educational. This gun isn’t one I really would have looked twice at prior to watching this, but hey, more is never bad, right?

Oh, and just for completeness’ sake, Joe Grine reviewed the M9A1 back in March of 2012.

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39 COMMENTS

  1. I never liked how the Steyrs looked, then I started
    reviews and such, then saw it on sale for $370 and was REALLY tempted to buy one. Kinda wishing I had bought it

  3. but according to their source, you still have to respond when people call, and you still “

    Why? We already know from many supreme court cases, the police nor EMS has to respond. We know from the VA Tech recent case, if there is a shooting on campus, the police do not need to notify the people at the school either — they have “no duty” to do so. So, why? Sounds like they just all want to be part of whatever is filming.

    • Police can’t be held liable for your safety. That doesn’t mean they are going to simply not respond to a call if it comes in.

      In the same way, EMTs and Paramedics are not going to be able to save every patient. Sometimes they’ll do everything right – everything perfectly right – and the patient will still die. But they absolutely will respond to any call that comes in.

      I don’t know how it works for police, but EMS personnel are legally required to respond – we have a legal “duty to act” – if a call comes in. We can’t simply “not respond.” It doesn’t work that way.

      • There is no duty to act as far as the courts are concerned. This was established in a case where multiple women were raped because the police did not respond to a call.

        Warren v. DC

        • I will add this was confirmed into two Supreme Court cases, the most egregious (because the court was dead wrong) was Gonzales v. Castle Rock.

          Ms. Gonzales had a restraining order against her estranged husband. The order made arrest or a warrant for arrest MANDATORY upon violation. Mr. Gonsales violated the order and abducted their three children. She called the PD. He later called from an amusement park and Ms. Gonzales called the PD to tell them where he was. They did NOTHING, not even issue an arrest warrant.

          He drove to the PD himself…not to turn himself in…no. He came in shooting. The PD shot him down and then discovered the bodies of the three children, now murdered, in his car. They were alive both times Ms. Gonzales called. The PD did nothing, despite the protective order which mandated arrest.

          The court said screw that. They not only continued to say no duty “unless special relation to the individuals” the opinion also mentioned the history of “police discretion” despite in this instance the discretion being removed by positive law passed in Colorado. Apparently even when citizens pass a law saying in X circumstance you must arrest/issue warrant for arrest, police don’t have to.

        • Please reread what I said …

          I said that “Police can’t be held liable for your safety.” I am well aware of the USSC decisions. That’s why I made that statement starting off my comment. I agree, police do not have a duty to act.

          I then said “That doesn’t mean they are going to simply not respond to a call if it comes in.” I’m not suggesting, in any way, that the police will get there in time to do any good, or that they are legally obligated to protect people’s lives. But as far as I know, most police departments will eventually send someone for most cases. It’s true that they don’t send someone for every case. It’s true they don’t have a legal duty to act, and I never said they did.

          I also said that “EMS personnel are legally required to respond – we have a legal ‘duty to act’ – if a call comes in.” I did not say that the police have a duty to act. But the duty to act does apply to EMS, at least based on everything I was taught in paramedic school.

          I’ll also attempt to clarify that EMS personnel cannot be held liable for your death as long as they perform up to the accepted standard of care. Since it is possible for all medical personnel involved to do everything perfectly and still end up with a dead patient, this is obviously how it has to be (and should be). That’s how life works. Some injuries/diseases are unsurvivable.

          For police, since they don’t even have the duty, they obviously can’t be held liable.

          I hope this helps you to understand my point.

    • They’re guaranteed to respond if the 911 call indicates either an officer is down, or that it’s an active shooter scenario in a major public place like a mall or school. Your specific emergency may not conform to those imperatives, of course; but if they did, or if the 911 operator at least got that impression, I bet the response would be more swift.

      So be careful in how you speak to the operator. You wouldn’t want to garble your frantic words in trying to say something like “Get an officer down here!” and have it come out like “Got an officer down here!”. That my mistakenly trigger the cops to get off their rears and respond immediately, instead of when they felt like it.

  4. It’s my birthday. Many have given me high-end booze today. The thing speaks for itself:

    1. Why do so many people fight for the right to have guns, but think handling them carelessly is OK? That the law should not punish such behavior? If the gun isn’t under their control and holstered, it should not have a bullet in the chamber, period. If people are going to be careless with them but I am not allowed to smack them in the head during a public humiliation ritual, then they should be fined, punished, put in the stocks for a few days. They cost me credibility every time I speak with a legislator. Really.

    2. Guns can be both functional and beautiful. Good wood, even ordinary wood full of dings and scratches, brings beauty to a gun, be it a long gun or handgun. The market is flooded with guns that merely function well. Changing guns frequently is bad. Keeping one beautiful functional gun a long time, and using it a lot, is good.

    3. Christmas is that “wonderful time of the year.” Maybe Santa is pro-2A and has read my mind? There’s always hope.

    • Since Santa is busy this year, I’m treating myself to an Inland M1A1 with a God awful 3rd party paratrooper’s stock. It also has a mounted scope where the rear sight should be. But that’s easily remedied. Picking it up tomorrow with 330 rds and 6 magazines. Merry Christmas. PS My granddaughter is getting a Savage Rascal and 525 rds of ammo. OF course the stock is “pink”. Girls, what can I say?

    • When you make my house payment you can tell me how to store my guns. Until then, they will be loaded and ready to use.

        • About 2 seconds longer than you will need to have it ready. When I need my gun for self defense, I need it NOW, not 2 seconds from now. When the adrenaline dumps into your system in an emergency, it is very easy to make the mistake of not chambering a round. I treat my self defense weapon like a camera, point and shoot.

    • Maybe drinking and blogging should be banned. Drunk texting is already at least frowned upon. What is drunk blogging but drunk high capacity assault texting?

  5. The video was crap. The M9 designation was given to the Beretta 92 FS for Military issue 9 MM. So unless styler somehow got that, wich is impossible because no 2 weapon systems get the same designation, they are trying to ride on the back of the real M9 and confuse the public as to what firearm is the real military issue.

    • Eh, don’t overthink it. It’s the Steyr M series. The M9 shoots 9mm, the M40 shoots .40 S&W, and the M357 shoots .357 SIG. I don’t think they’re trying to pull a fast one on anyone with this.

      Also, the Steyr is made in Austria by an Austrian company. Do you really think they give a damn what the U.S. military chooses to designate a given weapon?

    • A couple quick points…

      First, as Matt pointed out, Steyr named it the M9, not Hickock45. I seriously doubt Hickock is deliberately trying to fool people into thinking that the pistol in question is a Beretta, or that it has ever been in service with the US military.

      Second, the M# designation system is used in several countries and by several arms manufacturers. It is used for weapons and other items for military, law enforcement, and civilian use. It isn’t unique to the United States, nor is there any international standardization that would prevent two or more different countries/manufacturers from using the same designation for wildly varying items.

      Finally, the M# designation is just one part of a much more complex system of inventory tracking used in the US military. I don’t recall it off the top of my head (I’ve been out of the service almost as long as I was in at this point), but if you were to look up the Beretta in the Army’s logistics system it would look something like: Pistol, Semi-automatic, caliber 9mm, M9 NSNXXXX-XX-XXXX. That’s why something like the M1 designation can refer to:
      M1 Abrams
      M1 Bayonet
      M1 Carbine
      M1 Garand
      M1 helmet
      M1 mortar
      M1 Thompson Submachinegun
      M1 flamethrower

      And internationally:
      M1 Monoplane
      M1 submarine
      M1 minesweeper

      Or commercially:
      M1 Benelli shotgun

      • This has kind of bugged me forever, but why was every seemingly every single rifle an M1 in WWII? M1 Garand, M1 Carbine, M1 Thompson. Would the Johnson have been an M1 also? Wouldn’t surprise me.

        • Prior to the Garand the army used the date of adoption as the model number. 1903 Springfield. 1892 Springfield(Krag). Prior to ww2 the army redid it’s system. The first rifle adopted after this was the Garand, thus M1. The carbine was the first of it’s kind, thus M1.

          The Johnson would probably have been the M2. It was a full size rifle, not a carbine or sub gun. M1 rifle, M2 rifle, m1 carbine, m1 subgun.

          The grease gun was the m3 subgun. Between the m1 thompson and the m3 greasegun they experimented with another model which took the m2 designation.

          I’m no expert in this subject but my reading leads me to believe this to be the basic reasoning for all the m1’s.

    • Wrong. It’s M for mid-size and 9 for 9mm. They also make an L9, C9, and S9. There’s also the same letters with 40 attached for the .40 cal version and there are .357 Sig versions as well.

    • The steyr pistols are S for small M for medium and they finally released the L for large/long. They also have a C which is an S length slide on a frame with the M sized grip.

  7. Yup. Call it what you want: police state or prison city. NYC politicians have figured out how to control the inmates: fill them with abject, irrational fear of guns, disarm them, and then make them totally dependent upon the police for their “protection”.

  8. Hickok doesn’t review weapons. He educates you on the weapon, gives you his personal comments along the way. It’s up to you to take what he has shown you and make up your own mind.

  9. Florida leads the nation in stupidity in general, so this is not surprising.

    “Ain’t nevah been dun befoh!”

    • You must be forgetting California, New York, New Jersey, D.C., etc. in your ranking of Florida. True stupidity reigns in those parts.

  10. “Florida’s gun accident rate is running right around double the national average.”

    That’s just Natural Selection in action. Let God do his work. Nothing special to see here…

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