TGO David

I've been trying to figure out a way to have the forum software drop a disclaimer / warning at the top of messages sent by people who are using brand new accounts also. Just as a reminder to folks to verify things before blindly trusting. I know that TGO is well-stocked with smart folks who have a lot of common sense, but I keep reminding myself that there are still people in this world who fall for telemarketing scams too. Not because they are dumb, but rather just because of genuine trust for people or innocent naivety. I'd like to protect those folks if they happen to join, especially if they join in the current climate just to find ammo or a firearm. Sadly, so far I've had no luck pulling-off this particular hack of our software. I may have to farm it out to someone who develops add-ons to the forum software we use.

All of the recent scammer activity on TGO and other big gun forums uses the same tactic: A new "member" registers for an account and immediately sends a private message to legitimate members of the community with an alleged off-site, out of state contact, who either has the item they want to buy or is wanting to buy the item they have to sale. To date 100% of this activity has been fraudulent. In order to make it harder for these scum to operate in the shadows, I am considering the following changes to TGO: Placing all new members into a category that forbids them from being able to send a private message until X-Number of days have passed since registering, or X-Number of posts have been made in other areas, or some combination of the two. If a person wants to bypass that restriction, they can buy a Benefactor subscription, at which point we have a way to track them down if they do something illegal. Otherwise they participate by providing meaningful content for a brief period of time, after which they can send private messages. What do you all say about this plan?

KNOWN SCAMMER ACCOUNTS The following accounts and email addresses have been banned from TGO for attempting to scam our members. Member: JuWon Email: juwonalex2@gmail.com Member: AlbertZip Email: zmatthew1922@gmail.com Member: Jason411 Email: smithja908@gmail.com Email: MerrillKieferxzq25@gmail.com

BE WARNED: SCAMMERS ARE ACTIVELY WORKING AGAINST THE GUN COMMUNITY ON TGO AND OTHER INTERNET FORUMS IN THE BUY/SELL/TRADE AREAS. Folks, lately we have seen a significant uptick in scam attempts that go like this: You post an ad for an item for sale or wanted. A scammer contacts you about the item you are selling or looking for and offers to put you in contact with a friend or relative in Texas or some other state. Throughout the whole thing, your Spidey Sense is tingling and telling you it seems suspicious... because it is! We strongly recommend that you stick to dealing with local Tennessee residents only and that you use forms of payment that are guaranteed, secured, and cannot be retracted once the sale completes. For example, you don't want to sell someone something via Venmo or PayPal, only to have them reverse the charge later after they have possession of what you were selling. TGO remains a great place to buy and sell privately, but please be cautious and smart. And please do not hesitate to report anything suspicious to us! On behalf of myself, @MacGyver and the moderating team - thanks and be safe.

Using TGO is free. Buying from someone on TGO is free. We don't charge for either of those things. The only way I can imagine we would charge anything for the ability to view Trading Post listings is if we had to charge some silly low fee like $1.00 per year in order to make you a "member" to work around egregious laws. Am I forecasting that or predicting that it will happen? NO. But I'm not stupid and I've been involved in businesses for a few decades now and I know that sometimes legal loopholes exist for businesses that operate as a fraternal organization and charge a small membership fee. Case in point? Many fraternal lodges are able to sell and dispense beer or alcohol on Sundays in states where such a thing is not allowed, by dispensing it to members of their organization only. We have tried to think strategically at TGO and have contingencies for the ever-changing political and legal landscapes. It's just smart. Back to the topic, if anyone feels guilty about something that's between them and their conscience. Ain't my fault.

I've said it before and I'm saying it again: Those people are stealing. No one is entitled to the fruit of someone else's labor. Someone spent time and money to provide that service to the gun community. Whether you like them or their practices or not, they get to set the rules for their service and the rules are that people pay a fee to sell or trade. It burns me up that people think this sort of petty theft is OK. I also question the sanity of dealing with a seller who will steal a few dollars from a business. If they're willing to rob the website of pocket change, are they going to be more willing to rob me of a couple hundred dollars in a parking lot when I go to meet them to buy the gun? Are they going to be more willing to misrepresent the quality of the item or hide something about it that I will later wish I'd known about in advance? Probably so! If a person is willing to steal from someone else, there's no reason to assume they will suddenly be honorable with you. It's probably dying, at least in part, due to the fact that they don't enforce their policies very well. As people freeload off of them, it deprives them of operating capital. Without operating capital, a business eventually shuts down because they can't pay their employees, pay their bills or make a profit. They aren't running a charity.

I mean, if only we knew where to find the consistently best buying/selling experience for private transfers in Tennessee.

You will. Sorry.

Almost my experience. I fell asleep at 3-something A.M. with my head against the wall near the toilet. At some point I was really wondering where it was all coming from.

Baofeng radios can generally be programmed to use analog. I haven't tried them with digital yet. With them you're talking about a radio that generally costs less than $100 per. Yes, we use surveillance headsets like these. This is the one I use, personally: Klein Patriot K1. You have to be careful to order the one that works with your radio's style of connector, though.

Business-band digital radio, if your church is willing to spend the money or has a donor who will front the small cost of the FCC license for you. It's really not that expensive and it keeps your communications from being easily eavesdropped upon. Business-band analog works also, but it's easy to find with a scanner and then be privy your team communications. This site has put together a pretty good overview of it. http://businessradiolicensing.com/applications/fee/

We use a rotation. But most of us are mic'd up and carrying every service regardless. Yes, we require both firearms qualification and situational training throughout the year.

Thanks for the updated information.

Apparently a very contagious variant of the stomach flu is making its rounds these days. It hit my household on Sunday and by Monday morning everyone had it. I'll say that this was worse than my encounter with COVID-19. At least COVID didn't have me sitting on the toilet with a trash can in my lap. I am pretty sure I puked up my own socks by the time it was over. 10/10 would not recommend. Avoid it at all costs. Save yourselves.

HEY! Them's fighting words. Don't call my baby ugly!

TGO ought to flood the media websites and social media with criticism. Just saying.

I've got good news and bad news: The good news is, we're not of this dying world and it's not meant to be our home. We're just passing through. The bad news is that we're still called to be salt and light to it so we have to make a go of it while we're here. Any time some Leftist tells the world how much they hate me and my Christian brothers and sisters, I just smile and remember that Jesus said that they would and that they hated Him first. That tells me we're on the right path even if it's getting darker around us and the path sometimes harder to see.

For the sake of expediency, let's just agree to substitute the word Reforms with the word Mitigations any time that Leftists promote something as a good idea. Supreme Court Reforms? Negative, Ghostrider. Those are Supreme Court mitigations. I sure am glad that Uncle Joe saved us all from COVID-19, though. Without him we'd probably be in... well... exactly the same place we are right now. Hey, work with me, folks. I'm trying to support the Party the best I can. They just aren't giving me much to work with.

Yep, my call for people to end the practice of Slacktivism and put their own skin in the game. It was a great idea and maybe some folks did it, but the sad fact you are a rare bird if you do. I have very little faith in any political party. I identify as a Constitutional, Christian Conservative. There isn't a party that represents me anymore.

Y'all... these things have been going on since the beginning of time. People have been murdering each other since Cain smashed Able's skull in with a rock. The difference today is that the Leftists who run the media have an agenda and they are so close to succeeding that they can taste it. They are foaming at the mouth to report every single gun related act of violence that happens anywhere other than Chicago, Illinois right now. It's hype time. It's crunch time! They've languished for this moment for decades and they're almost at the finish line. They will report every gun crime they can just to push it to victory. We're ####ed, because most people are sheep and most people are just soaking it all in and thinking the thoughts that the Leftists want them to think.

That holster is the PHLSTER Floodlight. It's made for PHLSTER by the folks behind some of my favorite gun-specific holsters, Henry Holsters. The advantage of the Floodlight design is that it's fairly universal for a wide range of guns since the weaponlight itself is what provides the retention. I also have a holster for the PDP without any light whatsoever from Tenicor called the CERTUM3, and a holster for use with the TLR7 from Texas Holster Solutions, called the Pierce. I'll post a pic of it below. I also have a TLR7 holster coming from McKinaTec but I haven't received it yet so I don't feel comfortable recommending it sight-unseen. Texas Holster Solutions "Pierce" Let me talk about that Surefire X300UB light and PHLSTER Floodlight holster some more, though: I am using that light and holster combination for several reasons. First, the X300UA light puts out 1,000 Lumens in a beam pattern and light temperature that really throws some illumination on a target. It's 1,000 usable Lumens and that can mean the difference between a bright light that just blinds you behind the gun, or a bright light that lets you identify a target and what they're holding from quite some distance away. Daytime, night-time, indoor, outdoor. Second, the longer holster honestly conceals BETTER for me and reduces the "hot" spots (pain points) that shorter Kydex holsters can cause when worn inside the waistband. Think of that long holster as being the keel fin on a sailboat, and your belt-line being the water-line. The extra length beneath the belt-line keeps the holster from wanting to shift around or "roll" at the belt. I can wear this thing all day and barely notice it. A shorter holster eventually starts to dig into my leg and cause a "hot" spot that rapidly makes it miserable once it begins. @Smith hit on some of the reasons to go with the C&H plate already. I will add that the C&H plate is precision machined whereas the Walther plates are cast metal. I've seen more than one person post that their Walther plates didn't fit perfectly flat in the pocket on the slide until they took a honing stone to them and flattened the bottom surface of the plate. Yeah the PPQ M2 mags work with the compact but are too short for the 17rd full size. Enjoy that gun and the second one you're going to buy too.

I have the new full-size on order and it'll be here tomorrow. I'll have some pics of it soon. As for the auto, that's only in full size right now. Honestly, the Axis lock on the non-auto makes an automatic practically pointless in my opinion. With minor adjustment to the T-10 pivot screw you can get the sweet-spot where the blade doesn't have any wiggle to it but will flick open with barely any effort, if not open/close by gravity only. I took the blade and brass washers out of my Mini, cleaned the blade and pivot thoroughly and applied some better oil to it, and polished both sides of the washers on a 5,000 grit water stone to smooth them out. That knife opens effortlessly.

Guns are cool. Guns with bright lights and red dot sights are even cooler.

There's one in the Trading Post FAQ section. https://www.tngunowners.com/forums/topic/100866-suggested-personal-firearm-bill-of-sale/

I'll add: I test our contingency plan every single time I update the software by virtue of doing the software update itself. I have, on more than one occasion, had the software update go poorly and rolled us back to the previous state, instantly, with a backup. I know that TGO's plan works because I test it regularly and update it as things change and new options become available or old options phase out. It's a good habit that working in enterprise healthcare IT has ingrained for the past 20 or so years.