I’ve been watching Sons of Guns on the Discovery channel. I immediately noticed that the words “muzzle discipline” and “Red Jacket Firearms” go together like “Miranda Kerr” and “frumpy one-piece bathing suit.” Seeing as Sam Adams had blessed this house with some Winter Lager, my beer ‘bro and I decided to chug whenever someone lasered someone (pointed the muzzle of a gun at human flesh). And sip responsibly when someone almost lasered someone. Frankly, I’m surprised this post is coherent. It is coherent isn’t it? (Funny word coherent.) I was donning beer goggles after the first five minutes of tonight’s episode. Make the jump for four more reasons why I’m having [more] trouble [than usual] focusing my eyes . . .


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47 COMMENTS

  2. That link to Miranda Kerr sends you to one of those annoying pages with the pop up dialogue box that traps you… I had to close my browser to get away. LINK TO A DIFFERENT PAGE PLEASE.

  3. While not lethal, as a occassional paintball player I found myself wincing when there was shooting going on without eye pro …even though I suspect it was staged.Using Sons of Guns as a poster child for firearm safety would be like using Pres. Obama as a poster child for balancing a checkbook.

  4. Which proves a point or two. Or three. First, slavish devotion to any of the “rules” without taking into account situations where they do not apply elevates them into a form of religion, making them utterly preposterous. Second, hoplophobes and muzzlephobes have more in common that either of them wish to admit. And third, you didn’t invite me to your beerfest.

  5. You and I don’t see eye-to-eye on this one Ralph. I believe in slavish adherence to the golden rule of gun safety. No matter what. You start making exceptions, you open the door to accidents. Which is always open anyway.

  6. So when is TTAG getting its own show? I envision something like MotorWeek, but for guns. We could use some reality TV that featured actual reality.

    • See, and I was thinking something in line with the Britsh version of Top Gear. Three highly disfunctional gentlemen testing new and old firearms.

      One guy who thinks it needs to be bigger with more powder.
      Another who wants us to go back to flintlocks because those were the days.
      And a third who things if it isn’t mil-spec it isn’t worth having.

      Add in a guest every episode, someone who runs an obstical course with a Beretta Cx4 Storm or 9mm AR-15.

      • Okay, that would be awesome.

        Throw in Top Gear’s sexy camera work and we’ve got a real winner.

  7. Secretly we are all hoping someone on the show looses a finger to an “unloaded” gun. That would get some ratings.

  8. I tend to agree with Ralph’s sentiment. Safety and adherence to the rules is first priority, without a doubt, but there comes a point where a gun can can be called “safe” and handled as any other inanimate blunt object would be. Once we begin thinking of them as any more dangerous when made safe than any other tool that’s been unplugged, it plays into the antis hands of them being scary, evil weapons.

  9. I’ve watched one episode. I want my hour back. It fulfills the sterotype of gun owners as reckless testosterone laden Southern rednecks.

  10. While the golden rule that every gun is always loaded definately should apply here,at what point is it then safe? I mean,they are not practicing good firearm safety 90% of there show but they DO have to work on them. And that generally means that your looking down barrels,into the cylinders of revolvers (like in the show,I’m pretty sure you couldn’t see a loaded cartridge in that revolver otherwise) . All I’m trying to say is if they are cleared and safe and are being worked on then it’s BOUND to muzzle sweep some people. It’s just the nature of working in a building filled with guns,you gotta point it somewhere to move them around and thoroughly inspect them.

    • I agree. They have to work on these things. I don’t know if it is possible to not sweep someone in that environment. Also, have they even made ammunition for this type of firearm in 100 years?

    • That’s exactly what I was going to say. It’s physically impossible to gunsmith and rebuild weapons while acting like they’re some loaded gun you just found. It’s not like they’re sitting there playing shoot out. How else are you going to really check out a 20 shot revolver if not from the front where you can actually see the holes?

  11. I wouldn’t want to defend those red jacket dummies but the photo you chose to illustrate this kind of detracts from your point. The revolver is clearly harmless with its cylinders empty and raised up out of battery.

    • Meh. Airport ‘security’ takes itself way too seriously, and needs to chill the hell out.

      Seriously, I remember a dime when I flew with no fewer than three knives. It took me 2-3 trips back and forth through the metal detector to find them all, and not one word was said to me about it.

      Today, you aren’t likely to be able to get past the theater queue without being groped or pornoscanned. And God help you if you have a knife.

      Seriously, the so-called security measures put in place since the attacks of September 2001 are both arbitrary and reactionary. They do absolutely nothing to keep us safe.

      What would be better is to return screening procedure to that of 9-10-2011, and perhaps add patrols with bomb sniffing dogs. Oh, and have the pilots all armed with firearms, and mandate that the bloody cockpit is LOCKED before boarding begins.

  14. More than a few times I’ve disassembled and cleaned both pistols and ar rifles with as many as a hundred people in the room with me also with weapons and have never swept or been swept. Don’t tell me it can’t be done.

  15. OMG an unloaded muzzle! Help I’ve been shot, Help me Jesus, help me Jewish God!Save me Allah! Help me Jeff Cooper! Jeff Cooper use your witchcraft to keep the invisible bullet from killing me!

    That is what comes to mind after reading this article.

  16. Uh.. yeah. Muzzling someone with an antique pistol for which no functional ammunition exists (they had to make some), that is readily identified as being empty (pinfire), while maintaining reasonable trigger discipline. Clearly that is one narrowly avoided catastrophe.

    As a reader I’m left to draw one of two conclusions from this:

    1) The “safety as a religion” crowd are so terrified of a ND that anything other than handling a weapon as though it were actively trying to kill them, even when in a known “inert lump of metal” state, brings about complete condemnation of a given person or situation to the point of ridiculousness.

    or

    2) Safety to the point of satire is simply a convenient method of which to bring about yet another round of slamming a reality TV show about guns.

    Option 1 is very silly as it suggests that fear of inanimate objects is a rational state of mind, and option 2 is even sillier as its transparency is trumped only by the utter stupidity of implying that increasing the exposure of the “gun thing” to the masses is somehow a bad thing.

    Personally, I think the show in question is rather silly, but that doesn’t justify the nonsense directed toward it– be it this stuff or parroting the easily disproven, years old rumors from gossip sites about FFLs being pulled and such. Whatever happened to integrity?

  17. If you’re drinking a lager it wouldn’t be an ale that ails you – it’d be a lager. Come on, guys, it’s like referring to a Glock as a revolver!

    😛

      • I’m a beer nerd. I can’t help it 😀

        The Sam Adams winter pack was changed up for 2011 – they got rid of the junk and made it a totally solid pack. While I prefer other craft beers (Imperial Stouts, for example), the SA Winter Pack is irresistible at the price!

  18. Coming next: Beer Pong Gunner. You try to shoot the cup of beer off the table. If you miss, you have to drink it. If you hit an opponent at the other end of the table, you have to drive them to the hospital.

  20. I refuse to watch SOG because of their habit of putting military gear in the hands of law enforcement. Very wrong.

  21. Photo number one, yes the muzzle is pointing at the guys rotund tummy – but it is the customer doing it not the owner. Photo number five, it’s hard to say. If it is not pointed at his head it’s damn close – but his finger is not on the trigger of this weapon that has not had any ammo made for it in decades. Photos two through four, the muzzle does not appear to be pointing at anyone as the muzzle is tilted slightly off to one side or the other. I have spent a lot of time shooting both guns and cameras and generally take no issue with how they are handling them in the photos.

    If the author wants to make a point about gun safety on the show, he needs more damning photos than the ones provided.

    • That’s an easy one. Check out the world famous Sons of Guns : Blanks Prank.

      That video in itself clearly shows the owners true colors and the shops unprofessional atmosphere.

  22. I stopped watching after I surmised there was something “between” that gap toothed daughter and that gap headed, slobbering idjit of a worker.
    One episode had that nob head appear to overhear a conversation between that skank and a boyfriend. He offered his condolences….yeah right; he offered something else!
    And you could just tell that the show needed something better, like sexual tension, then that fat slob of an owner could offer with his “southern wisdom”.
    Nope, not gonna watch, evah agin!!!!

    Steve

  23. Iam a huge fan and i watch there show all the time, i think it is beast(really good) I have nothing negative to say about this show.And nobody should talk bad about Wills crew.

    • My daughter worked for a shady beauty salon. The owner asked her to go on the Net and post some positive remarks about the shop. If you checked out their site all they had was negative remarks. This sounds strangely familiar.

      Of course my daughter didn’t do it.

      So what RJF employee or relative are you?

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