I apologize for my long absence from the blog, but I have been busy protecting the Second Amendment.

Unfortunately, fighting that battle took time away from Gatling's primary mission -- helping to ensure safety by rescuing and repurposing firearms that are unwanted or improperly stored.

Now that there is nothing more I can do on the political front, Gatling is back in business.

Thanks for your support!

- Dr. Gatling

When Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson formed their partnership in 1852, they began a legacy that fortunately will continue.

And although the holding company that owns the firearms company is planning a name change, company Vice President Liz Smith told me on Nov. 8,  “The name change we announced yesterday pertains only to the holding corporation, a corporation that began in 2002 and now owns Smith & Wesson Corp., as well as Crimson Trace Corp. and Battenfeld Technologies, Inc. ‘’

Smith added, “ It is only that holding corporation that we will name American Outdoor Brands, a name that we believe represents our broad and growing array of brands and companies in the shooting, hunting and outdoor enthusiast markets. “

I have owned, carried and shot several S&W handguns and am extremely partial to the little J-Frame. But the Smith & Wesson line has expanded greatly, now comprising many excellent semi-automatic pistols and rifles.
 
So news that a long-trusted brand will endure is certainly welcome in these uncertain times.

• Dr. Gatling
  

 I'm not going to comment about this conundrum
other  than to note that in order to obtain a license to drive, applicants in all 50  states must be able to demonstrate their ability to drive. 

If Iowans are concerned about this, their licensing program should include  live fire proficiency. 

Texans must fire 50 rounds at three distances and score 70%. Until this year, shooting was also required to renew a concealed handgun license.

 - Dr. Gatling

People love lists. Best, worst, biggest, smallest, whatever. They can make you think  and maybe have a discussion. 

You  may know that Cabela’s stores include gun libraries so you can buy guns, ammo  and good reading matter. I like the idea. Robert Heinlein said, “An armed  society is a polite society,” but he may also have agreed that an educated
society is more likely to be armed. 

I’ve been collecting and shooting guns for a long time. And I’ve been reading about  them even longer. I thrilled to the story of how Sam Colt invented and marketed  his revolver; a story I didn’t think would be topped until Gaston Glock came
along.

So, for what it’s worth, here is my list of the 10 best gun books. Please bear in  mind that I am not a hunter or a soldier, so my list leans toward the technical  or historical side of the genre. I’m also influenced by a book’s literary content as well as its informational content.

9. (tie) Brownell’s catalog and Numrich Gun Parts Corporation catalogs. New  parts or used parts, these catalogs are rich in parts and pictures to help  with any firearm repair project.

8. Glock: The Rise of America's Gun. By Paul M. Barrett. More about marketing  than mechanics, this well-researched chronicles how Glock turned upside down  common conceptions about how guns should look and work.

7. Blue Book of Gun Values. By S.P. Fjestad. Now in its 34th edition.  Expanding on Chapel’s lead, until the Internet, this was the only way for gun  buyers and sellers made sure each was getting a fair deal.

6. Dixie Gun Works Catalog. Before Val Forgett’s Navy Arms made replica black  powder guns available to shoot, you had to make do with the originals, often  restored to working order with parts from Dixie or firing round balls cast from  Turner Kirkland’s innovative molds machined from hair straighteners. An  essential, entertaining resource. Let’s see what we have here …

5. Small Arms of the World: A basic manual of military small arms. By W.H.B.  Smith. An excellent history followed by a massive guide of how to load, fire and  fieldstrip military small arms anywhere in the world. What’s not to like?

4. A History of the Colt Revolver. By Charles T. Havens and Frank A. Belden.  The history of how a Yankee inventor’s dream – a gun that fired more than one  shot before reloading -- became reality. Photos plus patents  and advertising. 

3. The Gun Collector’s Handbook of Values. Author Charles Edward Chapel said that  every time you buy a gun, you should buy a book about it. I subscribed to that  theory; thus I’m now sharing what I’ve learned. From 1940 through the mid-70s,  this was THE book to consult on gun values.

2. Hatcher's Notebook: A Standard Reference Book for Shooters, Gunsmiths,  Ballisticians, Historians, Hunters, and Collectors. By Julian S. Hatcher,  retired U.S. Army major general, technical editor for The American Rifleman, and  director of the National Rifle Association from 1922-1946.

 1. Sixguns. By Elmer Keith. Ned Buntline and Zane Gray may have written about  the Wild West, but, as Keith puts it in his autobiography, “Hell, I Was There!”  Sixguns is not a textbook or armorer’s manual. It’s a social history of why we  have a gun culture; good, bad or otherwise.

And a special #1 for Best Book Series about guns to Stephen Hunter. Former  Marine sniper Bob Lee Swagger, introduced in Point of Impact and his daddy,  Arkansas State Trooper Earl Swagger, star in novels in which the plot and action  focus on tough men and their guns. What makes them best is that Hunter knows his  guns and gets the details right.



 

I  haven’t had much time to blog lately, but this case is just too disturbing to  ignore.

By now you’ve probably seen the stories about how police in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, fatally shot Monroe Isadore:
http://pbcommercial.com/sections/news/local/107-year-old-man-killed-officer-involved-shooting.html

Now  while I’m sure investigators will determine whether Mr. Isadore needed to be  shot, several things jump out at me.

First,  he’s 107 years old. According to the Census Bureau, in 2010 there were just over  4,000 Americans older than 104. That's a pretty small and distinguished crowd. Local media probably started writing about his  birthdays when he made the century mark. 

Second,  he was shot to death in his bedroom. He had retreated there and returned fire when police gassed him and broke into the room. He had no hostages, just his handgun. The report does not say how long he lived there, but he apparently felt safe in his room.

Third, look at the timeline. From the time Pine Bluff responded to a disturbance call to  the time Mr. Isadore was killed, is just three hours. In another hour, he may have taken a nap or offered to swap the gun for a bowl of pudding. 
 
Incidents like this get a lot more attention because of the Internet. But I’d also like to  see it get a lot more discussion.

RIP, Monroe. You saw a lot of changes in your time, but probably never expected to be gunned down in your bedroom.

-  Dr. Gatling

You may have seen headlines about Newtown shooter Adam Lanza’s “arsenal” of weapons. 

Well, I don’t often commend the New York Times, but thanks, guys, for posting the entire list of items seized under a search warrant.
 
For starters, since Adam took his mother’s AR-15 and two pistols to Sandy Hook Elementary, and left his shotgun in the trunk of his Honda, that left little at home to constitute an arsenal, let alone a cache or even a collection.

Second, since this list was compiled by veteran police officers, I’m a little surprised by some of the entries, including:

 -          An Enfield “Albian” rifle in .323 caliber. Since they also recovered boxes of standard .303 British ammunition, the .323 looks like a typo. So does the Albian. Albion Motor Works in Scotland  made .38 revolvers for Enfield, but I’m not
familiar with an Albian rifle.
 -         A Volcanic .22 caliber starter  revolver. This only fires blanks, so is not a firearm.
 -         A Saiga semi-automatic 12-gauge shotgun found in his car, along with TWO magazines containing SEVENTY rounds of ammunition. I’ve seen a 20-round drum for the Saiga, but not one that could hold 35 rounds. 

Please take a look at the published list. I’d appreciate any corrections, clarifications, or additions.

 - Dr. Gatling

Well, the second part of the poll pretty much explains the absurdity of the first.
 
Quinnipiac University, a small school in Hamden, Conn., which does a lot of polling, says it found 91 percent of Florida residents polled favor universal background checks for gun purchases.
 
Trouble is, nobody doing the polling ever explains that the universal background check would require a universal database in order to be efficient. If that were known, perhaps the results would be different. 

The poll also found favor in banning so-called assault weapons and high capacity ammunition magazines.

But imagine the results of a poll that asked, “Would you favor banning semi-automatic rifles
that look like military rifles, but aren’t?”

Or:  “Would you favor banning magazines that automatically load a bullet each time the trigger is pulled? If
so, how many times would the shooter have to pull the trigger before the magazine became of a high enough capacity to be banned?”

But there is a bright light in the polling tunnel. Apparently they don’t measure the passion of the respondent. And this story says that’s why the Democrats way overestimated the national sentiment for gun control.

-  Dr. Gatling


 

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper cited the number of suicides by firearm as he signed new gun  restrictions into law. 

"However many homicides we have each year with handguns,  we have about 20 percent more suicides," he said. "That number drops  significantly when you have universal background checks."

I’m not sure where the governor gets that figure, but it is NOT from the Centers for Disease Control. 
 
The most recent (2012) data from the CDC simply studies the methods used to commit suicide. 
 
"For Americans, suicide  is the 10th leading cause of death. It resulted in 36,909 lives lost in 2009.
The top three methods used in suicides included firearm (51%), suffocation  (24%), and poisoning (17%)," the CDC said.

Now here’s the interesting part. The CDC says deaths from suicide are only part of the  problem. “More people survive suicide attempts than actually die. In 2010, about  465,000 people received medical care for self-inflicted injuries at emergency  departments across the United States,”  the Centers reported.

However, the CDC does  not break down the percentages of which methods attempted were unsuccessful. So
it stands to reason that, for whatever reason, guns may not always be the deadliest  and most efficient method to end it all.

Perhaps Gov. Hickenlooper theorized that conducting a background check on all gun purchases could save lives. Maybe
he also should have looked into background checks for selling rope and prescription drugs.

- Dr. Gatling


 

 
New York Gov. Andy Cuomo, who rushed gun control legislation through his Democrat-controlled statehouse, apparently is backing off his plan to cap the capacity of ammunition magazines.

Among his ideas – including registering all so-called assault weapons while banning their future sale -- Cuomo’s mag limit would have specified a maximum of seven rounds when locked and loaded.

Even possession of a bigger mag would be a crime, so New Yorkers had a year to send their magazines out of state.

Well, the governor may have had a change of heart, or has seen the political and practical impossibility, and is now suggesting that 10 rounds of magazine capacity be  the new Empire State Standard. But shooters could only load seven. Otherwise they would be over the Legal Limit and subject to prosecution.
 
This is brilliant since we all know that terrorists and  sociopathic massacre-killers would adhere to the rule in order to avoid being charged with additional crimes once caught and brought to justice. 
 
Here’s a better idea, Andrew. Don’t mess with the magazines, just put capacity on the honor system. Ten, 15, 20, 30, whatever size magazine. Just load seven and we’re good to go. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Declare victory and withdraw. And keep your mitts off my mags.

Now doesn’t that make you feel safer? Sorry, folks, but as my dad also used to say, “You can’t fix stupid.”

- Dr. Gatling

Well, New York residents today lost the right to possess detachable ammunition magazines holding more than 7 rounds and buy AR-15 or similar semi-automatic rifles that have one feature resembling an assault weapon -- such as a pistol grip. Any such weapon must now be registered with the state.

A court challenge to Governor Cuomo's late-night lawmaking and waiver of the three-day waiting period for bill passage failed in Albany when the judge said he could not rule on the governor's statement of necessity because previous law made it clear that such statements could not be questioned.

“The Court of Appeals has been clear, is clear, that judicial intervention or judicial review of a message of necessity is not
allowed,” said New York Supreme Court Justice Thomas  McNamara.

Thus, state lawmakers are implementing changes that would not pass in Washington. Colorado has a new magazine limit law and a silly statute that, effective July 1, requires all private gun transfers between unrelted parties to be processed by a licensed Federal Firearms Dealer, who must conduct a background check through the FBI NICS system unless the gun recipient has a valid Colorado concealed handgun license. It is then the gun dealer's responsibility to archive the 4473 form completed for the transaction. 

The firearms dealer can charge no more than $10 for the background check and paperwork processing. In the past, dealers have gladly done this in order to sell a gun. But ten bucks is hardly worth the time taken away from sales and customer service to walk an applicant through the process and make the call. Oh, we're hearing that NICS line has been pretty busy of late.