TGO David

If you're carrying without a permit, you're committing a crime. Don't be stupid.

You aren't wrong, but here's what needs to happen: If they're going to allow us to carry there, then THEY should be allowed to carry there as well. Government workers should be allowed, no... encouraged to be armed. Armed in the clerks offices, armed in the courtrooms, armed in the jury gallery, armed in the hallways, armed in the parking lots, armed on the sidewalks... armed. Let's face it: Politicians piss people off no matter which side of the aisle they are on. Someone, somewhere, blames them for something. The same for judges, attorneys, jurors, etc. And assembling them all together with set schedules of comings and goings makes them easy to find and easy for criminals and future-criminals to target. You and I probably get to enjoy a life where we aren't as loathed as a lot of government workers are. We go to our jobs where, if we are lucky, people are reasonably happy to see us and interact with us. I wouldn't wan to to be an unarmed government worker in a sea of armed potential assailants. Level the playing field and I'm a lot more open to it.

Undoubtedly so. The only way you would have read a positive prediction about Bill Lee from John Harris would have been if Lee descended from the clouds upon a carpet-sized copy of the Constitution, and was carried to his inauguration on the shoulders of the ghosts of James Madison and Thomas Jefferson while tossing 9mm ammo to the crowd like candy from a Mardi Gras parade float.

I think at least one of the two companies I mentioned might have already looked into a P320 grip module and might still do one. That's really all that I can say about that.

Agreed, but you chose the best of the currently available grips for the P320 too. The X-Compact has my eye if the grip feels good. I am still surprised that Magpul, Polymer 80, or some other big name in firearms plastics, hasn't already come out with a completely different grip module for the P320 chassis to slide into. Seems like there's a good business opportunity for someone! By the way, ice cream is a lousy grip material. Just saying.

What's the source of that? Who said it and in what context?

Meh. That piece, like much of what the TFA publishes, is the opinion of John Harris. While John has done a fantastic job of championing firearms rights over the years, I take what they publish with a grain of salt and read it through the lens of being one man's opinion. An opinion that the one man believes should be yours as well. The last statement of that article strikes me as being the reason it was written: Bill Lee hasn't done anything wrong yet from a Second Amendment perspective and former Sheriff Jeff Long, now Lee's Commissioner of Homeland Defense, was an extremely pro gun-ownership Sheriff for as long as I've lived in Williamson County. Until either one of them make a move to restrict our rights, the worst the TFA can accuse them of is not expanding them... and Lee has only been in office for a ONE DAY as of this writing. Do I think the TFA is worthy of your financial support? Sure. Do I need a fear-mongering OpEd to make me cut them a check? No. But I guess some people do. Honestly, a more economical and far more effective way for you to ensure that Bill Lee doesn't trample the Second Amendment is to email, write, call, and visit him in person and tell him how important it is to you. We, as gun owners, need to stop outsourcing this to organizations like the TFA, NRA, GOA, etc. We need to evangelize the message ourselves and be serious about it. Elected representatives fear or respect their constituents far more than they care about organizations who claim to represent them. What's louder? One large voice or the storm of thousands of voices?

The X-series grip modules are the only ones of the P320 family that would even remotely feel good to me. I tried a standard P320 and tried several different grip modules that were worked over by either myself or infinitely more skilled artisans with wood-burning tools. None of them felt good. All of them felt as ergonomic as a thick wooden axe handle made of plastic. Namely, you could get your hand around it but that was it. None of the other evolutionary improvements in handles that we've come to enjoy with firearms from other manufacturers. I liken the P320's grip to the Apple earbud earphones. Apple spent a ton of time coming up with a shape and size that was mathematically average enough that it would fit inside almost every ear on the planet. But it's also average enough that it doesn't fit any of them great or comfortably. Same for the P320 grip. It's blah.

OK, so we've been here before. I admit it. Every so often, someone will release a mid-size 9mm handgun with dimensions somewhat approximate to those of a Glock 19 and I will buy it and then tell you all that it's worth your time and attention. On a few occasions, even, my opinion of the firearm hasn't deteriorated over time. I still love my M&P M2.0 Compacts, for example. But eventually and inevitably my attention wanders back to the Glock 19. I have carried it or the Glock 23 for over 20 years now and it would be impossible and foolish for me to be dismissive of the experience with and familiarity with that platform. I can index a target with the Glock 19 as naturally as I could point at it with my finger. So, why do I keep doing picking up the next "Glock Killer" every time one is released? Enter the new FN Herstal 509 Midsize, or 509M as they're calling it for short. I took a chance on it sight-unseen. I had never held the full-size 509 and had only fondled a FNX-45 Tactical on a few occasions in gun stores. There really is no comparison in size or feel between the FNX-45 and the 509, but that's really as close as I had come. But, some friends of mine prodded me toward the 509M because of how well they liked their full-size 509's and I took a chance. I'm glad I did. The 509M seems like a perfect marriage of the best elements of some of my favorite guns: -- The slide's serrations and top rib remind me of the HK VP9 as does the profile of the picatinny rail on the dust cover. The slide's heavily beveled face reminds me of an HK P2000. -- The trigger shoe feels like a fatter, wider, smoother M&P trigger and the crisp break and short, pronounced reset remind me of a Glock Gen 5. -- The grip's backstrap and front strap remind me of a CZ P-10C and the flat side panels remind me of a Polymer 80 that's been worked over by a skilled stippling artist. -- And of course it is virtually the same length, width, height and weight as the Glock 19. I am honestly very, very excited about this gun. Far more than I thought I would be. I purchased it for right at $500 and initially thought that I would just flip it for a wash or maybe a small profit if I didn't like it. Most of them are selling for $550 online at the moment, but you can still find them for a hair over $500 if you search and aren't slow on the "BUY NOW" button when you luck into one at that price. I know that I say this every time, but this stands a good chance of relegating the Glock 19 to the safe. Well, for at least part of the time.

I think the folks at Raven Concealment said it best about why the Glock 48 makes sense: A lot of folks who are saying the idea is stupid probably don't and won't ever carry a gun appendix IWB or anywhere further frontward on the belt-line than three o'clock. If you've carried AIWB or in front of the hip bone with a short slide, small frame gun, you have probably felt the Lego Principle at work as the firearm dug into you while you sat. The longer slide makes perfect sense. So does having your holster manufacturer cut your leather or kydex rig a little longer and wider than the gun to spread out the point(s) of contact it has with your flesh. Food for thought.

Initial thoughts: Grip texturing is great! I like how they used different textures for different parts of the grip. It's as if they spent some time thinking about it rather than just smearing the same texture all over. It really is the same size as Glock 19 or an M&P M2.0 9mm Compact and, for me, that is a good thing. With the larger of the two backstraps installed, as it came from the factory, the grip profile has a soft curve that a cover garment should drape across more gracefully and not be as "identifiable" as is with a Glock 19. The mag release on the 509M is easy to manipulate but not so easy that it could happen accidentally. Deep undercut on the trigger guard allows you to get a good, high grip on it. The polymer there has a super-fine texture that shouldn't agitate anyone but I may polish it to a mirror at some point. I prefer an undercut that is as smooth as glass. The stock sights are steel, which is good, but I prefer a very prominent front dot and no, or subdued, rear dots with a U-notch. I have a set of Trijicon HD sights on the way. The barrel is crowned, which is nice to see. I also noticed that the final half-inch (approximate) of the barrel right before the muzzle is a thousandth of an inch or so larger in circumference than the rest of the barrel's length. I assume this aids in accuracy much the way a bull-barrel in a 1911 does by providing a snug fit between the barrel's terminus and the portal that it passes through in the end of the slide. The slide release lever is a piece of cake to manipulate with either hand, unlike the M&P M2.0. The extractor is a monster and looks hella stout. The slide serrations, fore and aft, are perfect and exactly what I prefer on a fighting gun. The trigger is NOT BAD AT ALL! It's a bit heavy but seems to be lightening up and smoothing out a little as I dry fire it. I'll put a trigger gauge on it tomorrow. Wish I'd done that before dry firing it a hundred or so times, for comparison. Whoopsie. I doubt seriously that I will swap the trigger out for an Apex part. The OEM trigger seems just fine for me.

Have you tried the Smith and Wesson M&P Shield 380 EZ yet? The "EZ" in that is, as you might guess, pronounced easy and is a nod toward the fact that it was designed to have a slide that is easily manipulated. https://www.smith-wesson.com/firearms/mp-380-shield-ez-0

McCain will be voting for someone on the Arizona Democrat ticket next election, guaranteed.

What's your point? Let's be complacent and ignore her again because that punch she's thrown the past 20 times never made contact?

Are you shocked? This is my shocked face: Feinstein proudly announces that she and other Senators (you know, the ones who supposedly work for all of us) have announced a new Assault Weapons Ban that would prohibit the manufacture and sale of 205 different firearms. If you've been on the sidelines and not calling, emailing, writing, and visiting your elected representatives to oppose this garbage... get after it. You can't expect the NRA, GOA, 2AF, FPC and other orgs to do it for you. YOUR voices matter more than theirs do to your representatives. https://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2019/1/senators-introduce-assault-weapons-ban?fbclid=IwAR3xTTd5SgGw-982yQdwkmLFY5voI9YyDZF3eaUK944avP9-QMVx_6ZpjmY

FN America has announced that the 509 family has expanded to include the new 15-round FN 509 Midsize as well as a black 509 Tactical. The Midsize is dimensionally similar to the Glock 19. FN 509 Midsize Specs: Check back with me sometime next week. I'll be able to offer some first-hand thoughts on it, as I have one on the way.

I sincerely hope that you are right. I am finding it very hard to be optimistic about the public these days.

Those were my experiences with the P365 as well. Oddly, I didn't like the larger P320 one bit, but the P365 is top of the line for pocket carry and deep concealment.

Guys, we need to fight this with every ounce of energy that we have. The time for letting the NRA, GOA, 2AF, and everyone else fight for our rights is long past. It's time to actually get off our butts and make it important enough that we call, write, email, and even VISIT our elected representatives and tell them that there will be hell to pay at the voting booth if they support this.

My prediction is that Officer Delke will be spending time in prison now that it is up to a jury to decide his fate, regardless of what the law says an officer can do to a fleeing felon. Juries are made up of the public, and the public increasingly cares less about facts or laws and more about feelings and social justice. This guy is sunk.

So, Judge Blackburn recommended that the Delke case go to the Grand Jury. https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/crime/2019/01/07/andrew-delke-ruling-daniel-hambrick-shooting-nashville/2500355002/ @bud, my condolences on your loss of $5. I'm glad I didn't make any bets on this one.

My experience has been that the 2.0 triggers are a lot better than the first generation. I put an Apex trigger in one of my M2.0 Compacts just to see if it really made that much difference and, in my opinion, it really doesn't. Bear in mind too that a lot of Glock owners swap triggers for aftermarket kit despite the Glock trigger reset having become the example of what a polymer striker-fired gun's trigger should feel like. While some people may replace them in pursuit of a certain aspect of an aftermarket trigger's feel or function, I think a lot of people -- on both the Glock and S&W sides of the aisle -- swap them because folks are chronic tinkerers or gear-whores. Tinkerer's gonna tinker!

How did it go?

You probably know this, but wear rubber gloves or do everything in your power to keep your skin's oil from fingerprints and such off of the bulb when you install it. The minuscule amount of oils on your skin can actually cause bulbs to burn hot on the area where the oil is present, and consequently fail early.

This is what worries me. The media and a lot of people in government WANT us to be against each other. They despise the vision that leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. had for a country united where "color blindness" could reign supreme. My wife are working hard to ensure that our kids love people the way that Jesus loved people. We want them to be indifferent to a person's physical appearances and to make decisions based on the character of people's hearts. I dread the day when our kids encounter someone who doesn't look like them who tells them they hate them because they are white and because white people are guilty of "insert injustice here". My kids aren't being raised to be apologists; they are just being raised to be decent.