The Softer Name of Revenue

Cook County Illinois recently debated the idea of a 1¢ tax per bullet on ammunition. The proposal failed, but it's going to be replaced with a $25 "transfer" fee on all firearms sold within the county.

It's offensive and futile, and it's unlikely to serve its intended purpose. The Illinois State Rifle Association is claiming that the funds will actually be funneled to anti-gun groups, though no attribution is given to the claim.

It's a sneaky brand of gun control, and the constitutionality of the measure is questionable at best, and the law might find Chicago in court yet again on 2nd Amendment grounds. In the McDonald case, the Supreme Court referred to the right to keep and bear arms as "fundamental," and as such, it should be protected under the same scrutiny as freedom of the press.

In the end, the only people affected by this tax will be gun stores in Cook County, as buyers will likely choose to purchase guns elsewhere in order to avoid the tax.

(Pictured above is a 1903 Springfield Krag-Jørgensen in .30 Gov't. Yes, I'm having an inordinate amount of fun with Instagram.)

Stormy Weather

So, I broke down and bought a smartphone. Now I don't have to go all the way across the room for internet. What a marvelous future we occupy!

The little blinky squawkbox has all sorts of applications, some of which are truly novel. Google Sky Map is a great deal of fun, and Instagram makes me look somewhat competent with a camera. It comes in handy for capturing moments like this, when Maia decides that the sudden blustery wind doesn't meet with her approval.

The Heartbreak of Bullet Setback

Take a good look, kids. Don't flinch. Don't avert your eyes. Bullet setback is real, and it could be happening in your very own neighborhood as we speak.

"Impossible!" you say. "My community is free of hippies and bullet setback! It could never touch our halcyon lives of quiet desperation!"

You'd be wrong. Dead gun wrong. See Timmy with his new 1911? Look how shiny it is! A wholesome, all-American boy with his all-American gun! But watch as Timmy loads up a magazine and slaps it into the pistol to "function test" it. He dry-cycles the ammunition by racking the slide to chamber and eject each round. Sure, it looks "cool," but it's a tragedy waiting to happen.

The sad truth is, Timmy's in bed with Communism. The Reds want him to have a negligent discharge! If they can't succeed at that, they'll make darned sure he has a case-head blowout at the range, just like the one pictured above.

What Uncle Joe Stalin knows is that the bullet gets pushed slightly into the case each time it hits the feed ramp. Setback can also occur with folks who constantly unload and reload the top two rounds of their carry ammunition.

"Well, Vladimir's not getting to me!" you might say. "I'll get one of them newfangly plastic pistols!" Wrong again! You're no safer than you are from the lead paint in dear old mom's kitchen.

As the bullet gets pushed further into the case, pressures increase, and that's got to go somewhere. It can happen with any gun. The combination of hollowpoints and the 1911 seems to be a good recipe for this, but I've seen it happen with most major service calibers and guns.

Now, there are other causes, such as improper seating or crimping, but most of the issues I see are from the two aforementioned practices. Dry-cycling ammunition doesn't prove any sort of functionality (or lack thereof) that won't become apparent in live fire. All it does is damage the ammunition, and possibly the gun.

And that's just what the Bolsheviks want.

Yep, He Went There

In tonight's debate, the President was asked point-blank if he'd support a ban on "assault weapons." His answer was an unequivocable yes. It's a bit ironic, since he acknowledged that most of the violence in his hometown was carried out with "cheap handguns" rather than AK-47's.

This places him on shaky rhetorical ground when he claims to support the 2nd Amendment, but the shocking thing is that Governor Romney implied that he'd support it if it "provided opportunities for both [sides] that both wanted." Just like they did in 1993.

Flaunting that NRA endorsement a bit, aren't we Mitt?

I'm not worried about such a thing happening, as the votes aren't there in Congress. Even if the idea had support, everybody remembers the political fallout from 1994. What gets me is that both men were either so overconfident or so utterly...I don't know, what's the opposite of smart?

ETA: It's interesting that Romney brought up the Fast & Furious debacle, which both Crowley and the President conveniently sidestepped discussing. Mittens also thinks machine guns are illegal, when in fact they're simply taxed and regulated by the NFA.

The actual quotes follow.

Ah, Saturdays.

The good: I took home a 3" S&W 66, a gun I've long been seeking.



This one left the factory in 1994, the same year Tip O'Neil died, alternative rock pretty much fell apart, and a big comet smacked into Jupiter. The records are inconsistent, but it doesn't appear many of this iteration were made, making it an even rarer example of an already elusive pistol.

The 3" K-Frames are one of the most versatile and effective carry guns out there. I've waxed poetic on the virtues of the fixed-sight versions before, but a 3" model with target sights is like having a Maserati with the engine output rated in unicorn power.

Yeah. It's that cool.

The weird: we had an odd situation caused by incompetent handloads. It appears that Uncle Joe Bob mixed alcohol, distraction, and a progressive press. The progeny of his folly was a round of .38 Special containing no powder but two bullets.

(What do we even call that particular species of stupid?)

Yep. It was a primed casing with two unjacketed lead bullets stacked atop each other. Thank goodness there wasn't powder, or the shooter would have suffered serious injury.



As it was, the primer ignited with enough force to ram the rearmost bullet into the one in front. The two bullets fused into a single projectile, which then jammed itself between the cylinder face and forcing cone tighter than Marlin Brando in the window seat on a US Air flight. The cylinder was locked shut, and the firing pin was stuck in the primer. Good times.

The gunsmith cleared it by dropping a cleaning rod down the barrel and hammering the bullets back into the casing. Once the weapon was cleared, we realized what had happened. The gun was Ruger's lightweight LCR model, which showed no apparent damage from the mishap.

We have a box at work labelled "Congratulations: You Have Earned a Spot in the 'WTF' Box" for the unfortunate, mangled products of hapless reloading, and this one is certainly the centerpiece of that.