I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, nothing ruins a good gun like a bad trigger. Especially on the AR-15 platform, where everything is precision crafted and tuned for accuracy, even a little annoyance like an extra creepy trigger can throw off your game (and your shots). Thankfully there’s a thriving aftermarket for “improved” triggers, so you can find one that suits your needs. Today we’re talking about the X-Treme AR-15 trigger.
This is going to be a short and sweet review because there’s not much to say about a grip. It either works or it doesn’t. Magpul has a track record for making things that fall into the “works” category, but unlike the legions of Apple fanboys I don’t tend to spend money on something (especially sight unseen) just because the company has a good track record. I mean, look at the Nintendo Virtual Boy — I rest my case. So is this grip as good or better than the previous incarnations? Let’s find out.
There are so many curious aspects to the Gunwalker scandal. There are well over a thousand smoking guns still out there, somewhere. All of which prove that the ATF “lost control” of Operation Fast and Furious. But there is no single piece of evidence that answers the fundamental question about Uncle Sam’s gun running black bag job: why? What was the point of allowing bad guys to buy guns? The ATF claims they were going after the “big fish” controlling the U.S. gun stores-to-Mexican drug cartel weapons trade. That hardly seems likely—as there were no big fish to be gotten. It now looks like the ATF set about creating one. Or more. Equally damning, the ATF knew that Bureau-enabled guns were going awry a lot earlier than previously admitted . . .
In my little town about 30 miles outside of Rome there was a carnival. They were celebrating the patron saint or some political holiday, but it was just like what you have in the States. There were kiosks with ring-toss games, dart throwing, a merry-go-round, bumper cars, all the usual. I was walking through the place holding my 7-year-old boy’s hand when we looked to the left and both of us saw the shooting gallery. Alessio practically let out a yelp for joy, pulling me by the hand in that direction . . .
If people want to collect Nazi memorabilia, that’s their business. Although I’m the son of a Holcaust survivor, I don’t want to live in a world where the government or some random committee decides what otherwise legal objects should be deemed illegal by association. Morally, I reckon owning or displaying Nazi stuff is all about the context. Veneration or vilification? You pays your money, you make the call. Not that I like to see Nazi accoutrements held up as objects of totemic worship. More specifically, no matter how it would be presented (or not), this piece REALLY turns my stomach . . .
Here’s the official statement on the educators’ legal loss in the battle to keep their campuses gun-free zones (in theory):
Today the Oregon University System (OUS) received the opinion from the Oregon Court of Appeals that it did not prevail in the defense of its administrative rule to keep guns off of public university campuses across the state. The Court concluded that the OUS’ administrative rule, OAR 580-022-0045(3) which prohibits firearms and other weapons from campuses, is invalid . . .
The nice thing about the AR-15 platform is that with the push of a couple pins you can change the entire ballistic profile. New barrel lengths, new twist rate, even new calibers, delivered straight to your front door without all that mucking about at gun stores. After my visit to AAC’s firearms wonderland, I was bitten by the .300 BLK bug. The silencer is still months away from being mine (the gun store lets me come visit it every once in a while), but that doesn’t mean I can’t play with the upper in the meantime. Despite ammo being rare as hen’s teeth around me (and none too cheap either) I put a couple hundred rounds through it the other day and I’ve formed an opinion. I think.
After reading Steven Pinker’s The Better Angels of Our Nature, which claims we’re living in the least violent period in human history, New Yorker cartoon editor Robert Mankoff decided he needed more empirical evidence. How better to gauge violence through the sweep of human history than through the pages of Eustace Tilley’s favorite periodical with its all-encompasing world view? What Mankoff found, though, disturbed him; 111 murders had been depicted in about 76,000 cartoons published since the 1930s. Oh, the humanity…
Jared Lee Loughner should face justice for murdering six people and wounding 14 others. But the government’s decision to forcefully medicate the spree killer into some semblance of sanity so that he can stand trial in a criminal court is reprehensible. Loughner was not medicated at the time of the crime. To dope-up Loughner now and present the killer to a jury as a man who could separate right from wrong and understood the consequences of his actions is a sham. It would lead the jury’s attention away from Jared’s unintentional but nonetheless mission critical co-conspirators: the Pima County Sheriff’s Office (who knew of Loughner’s erratic behavior), Pima Community College (ditto) and the ATF (who received a heads-up on a dangerous person who might be armed) . . .
After my experience with the Eliminator, I started perusing Burris’ product offerings a bit harder. If you’ll remember, I dinged the Eliminator on practicality, but gave it big props for doing REALLY cool things. I have one of their AR P.E.P.R mounts that has performed flawlessly, and Burris offers some really innovative gear. The Speedbead seems to be in that same vein. Check out their short promo video here. Of course, red dot sights on shotguns aren’t new. Turkey hunters have been using them for years. However, using a low profile red dot mounted at the far rear end of the gun seems pretty forward thinking to me (so to speak). Burris is not messing around with their advertising either. This sight is meant for shooting things out of the sky . . .
According to the wikipedia hive mind, the word “mincing” has two meanings: to “cut up or grind (food, esp. meat) into very small pieces, typically in a machine with revolving blades” and to “walk with an affected fastidiousness, typically with short quick steps.” Members of the gay community are known for “mincing.” UK TV presenter Julian Clary celebrated the prediliction in his song “Mincing Machine.” See what I did there? Although my headline accuses The Brady Campaign for the Prevention of Gun Violence of grinding something-or-other to bits, it also kinda sorta implies that the Brady Campaign is gay. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Or that it’s true. Which is precisely my my point . . .
americanrifleman.org reports that PARA-USA has KO’ed its AR. “PARA has some exciting new projects in development that will continue the innovation that we started with the high capacity P14-45 pistol,” CEO Thanos Polyzos said, changing the subject. “We want to bring these exciting new major caliber handguns to the firearms market and we need to focus our attention on them.” Well fair enough. Despite winning the Golden Bullseye Award for Rifle of the Year, PARA’s Target Tactical Rifle didn’t exactly set the AR world alight (tracer rounds might have helped). The developer of the clean-running DIGS (Delayed Impingement Gas System) action will seek another champion. Meanwhile, memo to PARA: when you kill a product you need to do so on your website.
