Marswolf

Fortunately, you and I are not them.

Barbarian!!!

You might notice in my earlier post that I mentioned that one of the local self-shootings came from an XD, which is remarkably similar to a Glock because most people do not take their hand off of the grip safety when holstering the weapon. Training fixes that. There ain't no training fix for the Glock. Modern guns don't go off without operator interaction. But some are clearly safer than others. They allow more room for improper operation of the weapon. There is no reason why you should have to release the striker before disassembling a modern handgun. This is the same design as in the Jennings. Junk. Or maybe I'm looking at it wrong. Maybe the Jennings was a great weapon. At least they didn't have an unsupported part of the chamber. And know what? You can field strip a 1911 with a round in the chamber and without dry firing it without it going off. Not advisable, but you won't kill yourself that way or shoot up the furniture. You'll just feel stupid.

Guys, the problem is that people who handle a gun a lot do not always handle it properly. You can't reasonably expect that to happen. You have to have a reasonable safety factor for temporary brain-deadness. Glock has a lot less margin for this unsafe handling than other quality handguns. That's why otherwise careful gun folks shoot themselves so much more often with a Glock. Glock has a safety problem and pretending that it doesn't isn't my style and doesn't make the problem go away. I've owned Glocks. I don't now. I always do a very critical review of any handgun I own. Glock didn't measure up. There are a lot of better, if sometimes more expensive, choices. And this doesn't even get into the stupidity of having the unsupported part of the chamber. Objectively, it's a lousy design. It is adequate for a LE duty weapon. It should sell for $200.

I've advocated arming teachers for years. I have a friend, now retired from teaching in Johnson City, who had to rearrange her classroom to make it easier to get out of the room in case of a problem with an armed student. Having trained citizens in schools with guns makes s lot of sense. That means it will never fly.

Yeah. You want to make something of it?

I fix problems. Keep retiring and un-retiring.

Oh dear.... I don't normally copy my postings from one board to another, but I've been on a rant about this over on HK94 and a couple of posts pretty much sum up my feelings about Glocks. I'll try to combine them. I know this won't change any minds but it puts my views on record. This started with a story about a veteran cop shooting (and killing) himself with his Glock. http://www.nj.com/news/jjournal/index.ssf?/base/news-3/117497492799530.xml&coll=3 Got the typical crap about how Glocks are safe if you just keep your finger off the trigger that is the mantra of Glock religionists. One guy posted that not clearing the action properly and having the assembled weapon pointing at your chest while cleaning would be equally deadly with any brand of handgun. I responded that this isn't true. "If I start to clean my USP and it still has a round in the chamber I don't have to pull the trigger to take down the weapon and the handgun will not discharge. Same with my P7M8. Same with my 92SB. Same with my P-3AT. Same with P220." Then one of the guys said that blaming the accident on the Glock is like blaming Ford for a Crown Vic catching fire after being hit by a molotov cocktail. I responded that a better analogy is like "blaming the Ford Pinto for bursting into flames when rear-ended. It wasn't the fault of the Pinto that it got rear-ended, but it is the fault of the Pinto that it burst into flames under those circumstances because the gas tank was improperly placed and designed. With proper design, the car doesn't get engulfed in flames. This terrible accident wouldn't have happened with a better designed handgun. The problem is that there isn't sufficient safety factor for people acting improperly. With most other handguns, there is. I'm getting more than a little tired of seeing Glock religionists blaming the victims because they aren't perfect in gun handling technique. None of us is perfect in that area. Much of the problem is the poor design of the gun itself. Why doesn't this happen with H&Ks or SIGs? Design! In my area, of the non-suicide self inflicted handgun wounds I know of in the past five years all are from Glocks except for one (Glock-like) XD-9 shooting and one 1911 shooting in the leg that involved a significant amount of alcohol. Ignoring reality doesn't make it go away and blaming the victims for not being perfect doesn't make Glock a properly designed and safe enough gun. If the design features of the Glock were in a $100 Saturday Night Special, everyone here would be ridiculing it and saying that the people who got hurt or killed with it deserved what they got for buying such a poorly designed gun." Now, that is my

Yeah, but Oak Ridge has Big Ed's Pizza, the beat pizza in the country!. To hell with shooting! Let's go for pizza....

My experience with a carry gun is that the flatter the gun the better, if it is carried IWB. In open carry flatness doesn't matter as much. I like and carry both 40 S&W and 9mm in urban settings. Open carry is a .40 and IWB is 9mm. For most manufacturers, their 9mm and 40 S&W are pretty much the same size. They design the gun for one caliber and then make a few changes to accommodate the other. H&K, for example designed the USP as a 40 S&W and modified to 9mm, while Glock designed as a 9mm and then used the frame for 40 S&W. My thinking is that if you have the same frame size, you might as well use the more powerful round even if you lose a little in number of rounds in the magazine. Note that this does not apply to non-urban settings where you need more range. I find 9mm to be more accurate at distance. But if you ever need to use the gun for protection, it will probably be at less than 5 yards. If at all possible actually shoot a handgun like the ones you are considering. Sometimes what feel either good or clunky in a shop feels the opposite on the range.

I would love to see SCOTUS suddenly go strict constructionist on us - but that ain't gonna happen. Alito has indicated that he thinks the National Firearms Act is unconstitutional, but there is no way the Court is going to rule that way. Get real guys. The intention of the 2A was to prevent the government from keeping the people from having arms to both protect the country as part of a military action in time of need and also to protect themselves from the government should it become dictatorial. One reason for this was to eliminate the need for a standing Army that would act in the interest of the government and against the people, But the super-weapons of the time were cannons. For us to protect ourselves against the government these days we'd need RPGs, tanks, stealth aircraft and nukes. We'd also have to eliminate the standing Army. So 2A will never be interpreted strictly. If it was, the Constitution would be amended to "fix the problem." Get over it. Right now we have a ruling that is in our favor in DC. It does set a precedent - a judicial decision that may be used as a standard in subsequent similar cases. It does not go away because a legislative body changes an unconstitutional law so that the laws are in compliance with the ruling. I don't know where that Idea came from. It will be used by other courts in similar cases where people are denied their right to own guns and keep them in their own homes and may well be extended to other arms matters since the court ruled that the rights under 2A are individual. If the matter is appealed and ruled on by a higher court, they could decide that the public good requires reversing the decision, since they can't rule on the basis of the Constitution without opening a real can of worms. A more likely situation is that SCOTUS will not hear the appeal. The lower courts have already reversed the injustice and the Supreme Court, if it took the case would probably just affirm the ruling and not extend it. In short, the justices know they would just be wasting their time. They don't like to do that. Right now we have an Attorney General's opinion (Ashcroft) that 2A acts upon the individual and a court decision that affirms this view. It would be nice if SCOTUS took an appeal and affirmed it, but the best that would happen is an affirmation and the worse could be that it would be overturned, I'm quite happy with the way things are now. As I said, if it's not broken, don't fix it.

I think we sometimes emote rather than think. I'm big on thinking.

Now...go take your Lithium.

Checking each load on a scale after it's loaded is a good safety check. No reason reloads shouldn't work fine in a Glock. Just remember that you have less safety factor because of the chamber design. The extra weighing will just insure that you haven't gotten a double charge in a round.

A precedent doesn't just go away. It stands until a higher court says it is no longer a precedent. There is a very real possibility that SCOTUS won't agree to even hear an appeal of the decision. At least that's the word I hear.

As it stands right now, the ruling favors us and will basically set a precedence. That might change in a higher court to our disadvantage. If it's not broken, don't fix it.

Ooooooooo.

I'm with you Macho. I carry car fix-it-up gear in my car so I can hopefully make it to a place that fixes cars. Not much "survival" gear. While I have jumper cables and a Halon fire extinguisher (wish you could still buy those) they are not survival gear. This time of year about the only thing I have in the trunk that might qualify as survival gear are a jacket and some big plastic bags. You can do a lot to stay alive and live in relative luxury if you can stay warm and dry with a few plastic bags.

My wife and I just watched Over The Hedge the other night. Reminded me of this topic.

John Pierce of Open Carry is just up the road from me. I keep meaning to contact him and maybe we can meet in person.

Someone gave me one of those generator flashlights as a birthday present. Actually works pretty well and you never run out of batteries. Not in the car though. For some reason it's on the nightstand. Probably because I like to play with it. They make bigger versions that will also run your cellphone. I'm waiting for the version with the built-in blender.

Back in my younger days, I used to have a kit with everything from survival gear to stay-over clothes (in case I got lucky) and a Speedo swimsuit in case I got to the beach on one of my drunken excursions. No Speedos these days. I'm in far better shape than most guys my age, but my chest has still receded to my stomach area.

I go to the doctor every 10 years or so whether I need to or not when required for a physical. Seems lately I've mostly been at the VA getting vaccines for one thing or another. No germ or virus dare come near me. What does it mean when they tell you to grab your ankles?

Considering that laser pointers are around $5 these days, I suspect the price could be dropped a couple of hundred.

I can't make a personal recommendation on this because I've never shot one. My recollection is that the gun seemed a bit rounded for my aesthetics, but that's typical Italian design. I'll buy ugly guns if they are functional. But Beretta makes quality products. I've had a 92 since the 80s and it is still my most accurate handgun. The thing I really like about this gun is that it has a hammer that allows it to be de-cocked and re-cocked. I think that's damned important in a carry gun. Others disagree, of course. If it feels good to your hand, I'd say it should make a fine carry gun.