There have been a string of a half dozen robberies in D.C. in the last 10 days where the perpetrators (not shown) threatened their victims with stun guns before relieving them of their belongings. Luckily in the most recent incident, after giving up their bikes, the victims were able to flag down nearby MPD officers, who scooped up the misbehaving miscreants. Whether the two arrestees were responsible for the other recent robberies is still unknown. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king, and in the land of the (legally) disarmed, the law-abiding are the losers . . .

The Second Amendment as a tourist attraction… Forbes contributor Susannah Breslin (“I cover the business of sin”) has a story about gun tourism in Hawaii, of all places. At the Royal Hawaiian Shooting Club — located in a high-end mall that has stores named Cartier, Fendi, and Hermes — guns are tethered by cables and padlocks to keep them pointed downrange, and the clientele breakdown is listed as 60% Japanese, 30% from New Zealand or Australia, and only 10% locals or from the mainland. Check out the link for more, and scroll to the bottom for a photo that will make you cringe.

WJLA in Maryland trots out a big ol’ straw man in their story about a couple Maryland fire departments holding gun raffles when they say that “some are criticizing the timing of the gun giveaway so close to the Navy Yard shootings.” Try as I might, I couldn’t find any examples in either the video or the accompanying story of anyone criticizing anything. I’m sure they just edited those interviews out. Their headline says that the gun raffle “raises questions,” but it seems like the only people with questions are the reporters trying to stir the pot.

A family that said their child was threatened at school sent out an email blast over the weekend, resulting in over 200 absences on Monday. The parents say an 11-year-old sixth-grader at their child’s school threatened last week to bring a gun to school and kill their son because he “hated him.” After the 11-year-old was interviewed, admitting his actions to the principal, he was allowed to return to class. The parents sent out the email in response to an administration that they say is not doing enough to stop an ongoing pattern of bullying by the 11-year-old and others. Police are still investigating.

Citing industry and business changes, MidwayUSA is doing away with their dealer pricing tier as of January 1, and “inviting” all of their dealer customers to become retail customers. Among other reasons listed, “the separation between dealer and retail pricing has narrowed to the point where the prices are predominantly the same.” Full text of the notification letter can be found here.

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34 COMMENTS

  1. Regarding the stun gun armed robberies in DC, here is my surprised face… 😐

    (and I’ll be putting together by very first AR from scratch tomorrow…thanks in part to Nick’s “Getting Started…” book, I’m glad I’m doing it. Just having the components individually and understanding how they operate together has been extremely educational… I’m almost ready to buy my own milling machine… :D)

    • Congratulations! If you don’t already know AR’s are addictive – you’ll likely hear the siren song of a 6.5, 6.8, 300 BLK, .458 SOCOM, or .50 Beowulf haunt your dreams. Not to mention multiple barrel lengths, sighting options, optics, mag carriers, lights, etc. If you can resist temptation, you’re a better man than me.

      • No kidding about them being addictive. Just finished a pistol lower for an eventual BLK with a Sig brace, and trying desperately to resist the .458 for another finished rifle lower. It’s like they multiply in the safe when you’re not looking.

  2. Here’s an interesting anecdote about RKBA tourism.

    Once I was visiting the excellent gun shop of First Stop in Rapid City,SD.

    The establishment has a whole skew of rifles adorning the walls, a sight quite shocking to someone not prepared for it.Like a couple of Mt Rushmore tourists.

    So, as me and some other gentlemen of the gun are browsing the handgun case, the lady of the couple stammers out “….the rifles…..what kind of background check do you need to buy one?”

    ‘5 minutes ,FBI instant check’.
    Says the nonplussed counter jockey.

    “Ohmigawd, you mean there’s no WAITING PERIOD.!!!” blurts out the 5′ nothing balding man next to her.

    ‘Nope’

    “But but,there’s permits for handguns right?”

    “Where are you from?” Asks the grey haired dealer.

    “Were from New Jersey,where we dont just let anyone carry handguns like the wild west”

    No he didn’t.

    The rest of us patrons are ready to break out laughing.The dealer then,evenly, states that not only were handguns NOT regulated,but that every single man around them was discreetly armed.

    —–cue hard stares from myself and the ad hoc group of shoppers——

    “Uhh,honey letssss go!”

    She’s not ready just yet.
    “So, can I see that AK-is that what it’s called?—”

    ‘WE ARE LEAVING this BarBariC place!!!”

    —-ding ding——

    beat.

    HaHaHaHahA…..all of us there had a collective stitch fest in the gun shop.
    Good times.I asked the clerk how often that happened .

    “O, twice a week once tourist season begins.The California visitors always crack me up”.

        • Hey, not all Yankees are hoplophopes. In fact it is a Southern New England thing, Northern New England is still mostly free in that regard. Besides, there’s no way I would consider someone from NJ to be a Yankee.

      • Well the way that state is going you won’t have to want long before it will be coming to California.

    • The guys in the gun shop should also point out to their shocked visitors that SD’s murder rate is only 2.5, which is much lower than that of NJ, NY, or CA .

    • Rofl! I remember my first time I went to a nice gun store! It was almost that exact response, except in awe and wonder instead of terror. …need to bail NJ more often.

    • When I run across northerners like this I like to ask them why the people in their home states are so criminally insane and untrustworthy that they can’t be allowed to own and operate tools without a state supervisor. It generally makes them pause and think.

  5. While I was reading these posts I got a pop-up ad from “our sponsor”—Starbucks. Weird experience.

  6. I read something a while back about gun tourism in Guam. They interviewed some Japanese people that had just rented and fired a .44mag. and were grinning ear to ear, but then mentioned that they weren’t sure if anyone should be trusted with that kind of power. I guess old brainwashing dies hard.

  8. Mind you, not all gun tourism is a good thing. Being a country with better gun laws than those around you has its downsides.

    One of the ranges I sometimes visit has had six suicides during the last few years. Sometimes a tourist sends three dozen rounds downrange and suddenly BAM and his instructor has a corpse instead of a client.

      • +1 – some underpaid range lackey probably had to clean up that mess. It’s a fairly common occurrence here in Tampa. As far as range fvckups go, suicide by rented pistol is only outpaced by NDs. The main range I frequent (it shall remain nameless) has about 20 holes in the floor and ceiling. The attached gun store has about 20 more if you look closely. SMH.

  9. I know a lot of people with FFL03’s sign-up with Midway, but did anyone every really get any special deals? I do not ever recall getting any super duper discounts and lately there has not been any.

    I going to assume that expenses have gone up which has been squeezing margins.

    Not sure this was news worthy

    • I’m not sure about Midway but when I got my C&R I called up Brownells, excited to get my new SUPER-DUPER DEALER DISCOUNT!

      That hot fart of a dream lasted about ten seconds when the nice telephone receptionist informed me that the dealer pricing only happened when you bought (going from memory here) something like 5K worth of inventory every month.

  10. The most important question: if I purchase that stun gun does that nice lady come with it?

  11. Out of curiosity, does anyone know what hawaii’s gun laws and gun culture are like? It’s the one state I seem to never get any news about.

  12. Visiting gun stores and ranges is pretty much the only reason I’d travel to the states on my own initiative. =D

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