Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress’ latest crack at a new assault weapons ban would protect more than 2,200 specific firearms, including a semi-automatic rifle that is nearly identical to one of the guns used in the bloodiest shootout in FBI history.

One model of that firearm, the Ruger .223 caliber Mini-14, is on the proposed list to be banned, while a different model of the same gun is on a list of exempted firearms in legislation the Senate is considering. The gun that would be protected from the ban has fixed physical features and can’t be folded to be more compact. Yet the two firearms are equally deadly.

“What a joke,” said former FBI agent John Hanlon, who survived the 1986 shootout in Miami. He was shot in the head, hand, groin and hip with a Ruger Mini-14 that had a folding stock. Two FBI agents died and five others were wounded.

Hanlon recalled lying on the street as brass bullet casings showered on him. He thought the shooter had an automatic weapon.

Both models of the Ruger Mini-14 specified in the proposed bill can take detachable magazines that hold dozens of rounds of ammunition. “I can’t imagine what the difference is,” Hanlon said.

I’m not the first one to point out that Feinstein’s dream list featured one model of Mini-14 while ignoring the rest.  This is just further proof that the people doing this idiocy are clueless morons. Nothing proves the absurdity of these ‘feature’-specific bans like putting a Ruger Mini-14 or 10/22 on a table next to its pimped out version and asking folks to spot the assault weapon.

I actually like the Mini-14 very much. I’ve found them to be very reliable but rather inaccurate. The newer models supposedly are more accurate, but with the advent of gas-piston AR’s, the reliability is about the same but the AR wins for ergonomics and modularity.

But, were I trapped in a place that thought pistol grips and flash hiders were a fast-ticket to the greybar Hilton, I’d probably take one and not look back.

Since this bill exempts particular guns by name, some manufacturer needs to market a single-shot .22 and give it a distinct name..AR-2013, or some such….and get it added to the list. Then, if theban goes through, transfer the name to a regular AR and see if that makes anyone start foaming at the mouth.

Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

Cheaper Than Dirt, Home of the $99 PMag, has jumped on the bandwagon of businesses that are refusing to deal with those who stomp on gun rights. This is akin to the guy who just let go with the ‘ol one-cheek-sneak looking around and innocently asking “Hey, who farted?”

I have some issues about prices. I don’t believe in ‘price gouging’..I believe in charging what the market will bear. The guy you bought his full-auto Uzi for $400 in 1985 decideds to sell it in 1987 for $4000. Is that price gouging? Well, the law changed and his Uzi bullethose is no longer available except only to LE/Mil/dealers….so I thin we’d argue that since the scarcity of his merchandise went up, so did the price. Heck, thats just good business.

So CTD buys a couple pallets of PMags back in October for about $7 a mag in bulk. Suddenly the market explodes with demand and theres a risk that all those PMags may be all that CTD will ever have. So…they raise prices. Fine.

Here’s where me and the laws od supply-n-demand part ways. There’s the old saying about how you can eat a sheep once but you can shear it a bunch of times. CTD pissed off scads of folks and many of those folks have long memories. I know people who still won’t touch a Ruger product even after Billy Ruger finally hit room temperature.

CTD, realizing that they may have accidentally screwed the pooch, in terms of public relations, is now saying “Hey, we’re just like you guys!” in an attempt to distract from what some might characterize as unreasonably high price increases.

Again, I’m not going to tell anyone what to charge for something. If I dont like a price, I dont buy it. That simple. I’m free to do that. I think price controls are absurd and do nothing beneficial. But…with great power comes great responsibility, as we were told by Stan Lee. You can charge $100 for a nice PMag that everyone knows you were selling for $19.95 two weeks ago, and that’s your decision….but you need to really think about the consequences of that sorta thing. One consequence is that guys like me are gonna make fun of you for quite a while.

On the bright side, as gun control gets pushed further and further down the news cycle it looks like prices (but not availability) are slowly sinking from the stratosphere. Saw a new RRA basic AR carbine for $1150 at the show this weekend, so thats an improvement. And mag prices has stabilized around $20-$30 for AR mags.

Regardless, this is just a good example of why you shoulda stocked up on this stuff years ago.

Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

So…gun show today. Stumbled acorss, of all things, a 1911 carbine conversion. Now, these things used to be available through Gun Parts and a few other mail order catalogs. What is interesting is that this is the first one I have ever seen with a folding stock. The stock is very well designed and well made from aluminum. Theres a little bit of wiggle in the lockup but when I took it out to the range this evening it shot very well and cycled flawlessly.

TPIWWP, so…………..

The stock must have been made during the ban years…I say this because theres an ugly hole drilled/gouged where a pin must have been put in to lock it in the open position.

Now, I took this thing out tonight and shot it. Works great, accurate, and a lot of fun. Also totally freakin’ useless, in my opinion. Now, if you SBR the gun you could use the stock with the regular barrel and thats only slightly less practical. But…I bought it for resale and novelty value. If anyone wants to look cool at the range with it, here it is up on eBay.