David Codrea:

Invoking Lee Harvey Oswald to produce a calculated emotional effect while showing total disregard for laws on the books, “reporter” Dan Freedman of the Hearst Washington Bureau made his case for so-called “universal background checks” Saturday in a “gun control” propaganda piece presented as straight news …

Were Freedman to make good on his assertions and demonstrate the equivalency he would have readers believe exists, he would next demonstrate how he can “buy” a gun online and have it shipped to him through the mail. But he knows he can’t because that would be against the law.

Of course it’s against the law.  And even if it wasn’t, it wouldn’t prove his case for universal background checks unless he could demonstrate that there was no other way for a perpetrator to obtain guns.  Read all of David’s piece.

Kurt Hofmann:

Over the past year or so that 3-D “printing” of guns has become a hot topic, one entity that would seemingly have a major interest in the subject has for the most part been surprisingly quiet. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) has said very little about this transformative–and rapidly evolving–technology. Until now. National Public Radio reports that the BATFE has decided that now is the time to frighten the ill-informed public:

“When these 3-D firearms are manufactured, some of the weapons can defeat normal detection such as metal detectors, wands, and it could present a problem to public safety in a venue such as an airport, an arena, a courthouse,” says ATF assistant director Richard Marianos.

Marianos, of course, did not bother to mention that security scanner technology has advanced a long way since the days that non-metallic objects were invisible to scanners, or that effective metal-free ammunition does not appear to be particularly imminent.

This isn’t about firearms.  The ATF is yelling about something that may threaten their monopoly on control.  You can’t make it through most scanners today with a penny in your pocket without setting it off, and the ATF knows it.  Read all of Kurt’s piece.

Mike Vanderboegh links this piece, which provides interesting results.  As I said earlier, don’t tell me that we can simply substitute steel for brass and be just fine.  By the way, take note of the AR-15 grip used in this photo.  This brings me to Mike’s next post on AR-15 furniture.

The evolution of the AR rifle grip began not long ago when shooters realized they no longer fired their weapons using stances developed in the 1960′s. Back in the day, armorless shooters were taught to use the bladed stance and a high elbow. But today, body armor and enhanced understanding of body mechanics during shooting and weapon manipulation has lead to changes in how a rifle is shouldered. Emerging doctrine now teaches us to shoot with shoulders squared up to the target and elbows tucked in for stability–and to keep from getting shot in the arm.

While I had shot firearms for years, I had not purchased an AR-15 until my son Daniel went into the Marine Corps.  This is the way the Marines taught him to shoot, and thus it’s the way he taught me to shoot my AR-15.  As a sidebar comment, the high grip on the forend of the AR-15 in the picture I linked comes from the 3-gun and gaming community, adopted by Special Operations for its utility in target acquisition because it increased stability when moving the rifle.