Les Jones

Guns > Thursday Gun Links #15

My wife said the greatest thing. "I was going to plan something tonight, but I remembered tonight's the night you write the Thursday Gun Links. We can go out another time." What a gal.

SayUncle is posting pics of his guns, and is asking other bloggers to do the same.

Joel Rosenberg and Joe Olsen note what happened after Minnesota passed a concealed carry law: nothing. Nothing bad, that is. All of the dire predictions of living in Dodge City never panned out.

Clayton Cramer is blogging about mandatory gun ownership laws in Colonial America.

James at Hell in a Handbasket reviews the Russian Tokarev pistol.

Kim du Toit has a range report on the .45 caliber CZ 97B.

So the Tennessee Highway Patrol decides to equip themselves with Bushmaster rifles. They describe them as hunting rifles, but the media labels them assault rifles, even though they're semi-automatic. (See Donald Sensing and SayUncle.) Then a local TV station decided they were assault rifles and sniper rifles. Anything to sell papers.

The newest danger to Americans: lawnmowers. Won't anyone think of the children?

Jeff has the weekly check on anti-gun bias.

I've never read Soldier of Fortune magazine, but this Playboy magazine piece by Fred Reed is hilarious.

The Flesh Gun

A Dutch artist made a flesh gun (or at least a flesh L) out of an eight inch piece of skin removed from her abdomen. Said the artist, "If everyone made a pistol from their own skin, I think they would think twice about using a gun. I think there would be less violence in the world. But it's not that easy. Violence will always exist."

That lead origamipoptart to add, "If everyone made a toothbrush from their own skin, I think they would think twice about skimping on dental hygiene. I think there would be less tooth decay in the world. But it's not that easy. Plaque will always exist." Or replace "toothbrush" with model rocket, 3 x 5 index cards, roofing shingles, etc. Me, I think she figured out how to get a grant to pay for a tummy tuck, which makes her a con artist. That's a kind of artist, right?

New Rugers

The all-new KP345PR is a compact, 8-shot .45 with an accessory rail.

Ruger has updated their popular .22 pistols with the Mark III and 22/45 Mark III. The main changes are all safety-related: a loaded chamber indicator, a magazine disconnect safety, and an internal key lock.

On a target gun, I don't see any reason not to have a magazine safety. Loaded chamber indicators are fine, too. The internal locks will be controversial. Some Smith &Wesson fans are still mad about the "zit" and refuse to buy the newer guns with the internal locks. I'm in the camp that says it's there if you want it, and it doesn't do any harm, but I don't think it's a positive feature. And unfortunately it's necessary to be able to sell the guns in California with its 34 million residents.

Ruger is on board with the new .17 Mach 2 cartridge, which is a necked-down .22 Long Rifle. Ruger now has the .17 Mark III and .17 Single-Six.

Also, it's old news now, but Ruger has re-designed the 10/22 rifle. By the way, many Rugers are now set up for scope mounts with no gunsmithing required, and include the scope base or rings. That's a nice touch, and we can hope more gun makers will follow their example.

Why No Priceline for Guns?

This is more economics than guns, but I try to cover both. This fits better here than in the Tuesday E-commerce Report.

From: Bryan C (bryancasinger@aol.com)
Subject: Priceline.com for guns - wish
Newsgroups: rec.guns
Date: 2004-04-23 13:39:06 PST

Wouldn't it be nice if there was a Priceline.com for guns? I would like to be able to type in what I was looking for, and the price I am willing to pay, and then a seller that would meet my price contact me and close the deal. Hey, works for airlines and hotel rooms.

There's an economic difference between selling guns and selling plane tickets. Plane tickets are perishable goods in the economic sense. Before the plane takes off, an empty seat might be worth hundreds or thousands of dollars. Once the plane takes off, that same empty seat is worth nothing. Same thing for an empty hotel room. That's why airlines and hotels are willing to deal.

The Priceline model has been tried with non-perishable goods like gasoline, but it didn't work out. If the gasoline seller (or gun seller) doesn't get a good price today, he can just wait until tomorrow for another seller to come along.
Next week: Buying guns on GunBroker.com

Gun Pic of the Week

At first glance I thought this was a Model 19, but it's actually a 586 with the front of the underlug ground off. This was from a thread on the virtues of full vs. part lugs. The composition is great, filled with old, worn objects.

Posted by lesjones