TGO David

Grabagun.com had them for $409 plus shipping to your local FFL last week. I think total shipped was around $420.

Just type the "at" symbol, a space, and then start typing their name. When you do, it ends up like this: @Ronald_55

Feel free to link it or post it if you want. Those thoughts are just the sum of my rumination on the current state of things and don't represent any sort of copyrighted epiphany. I imagine many others have thought the same things I did long before I hammered that out.

Do you have a picture of what you're describing? An AR-15 pistol with an A2 or an M4 detachable carry handle mounted topside is still a pistol. You can even put an angled forward grip on it so long as it isn't a vertical grip and that's legal too. But when you put a standard vertical foregrip on it, it becomes an AOW and requires a tax stamp. Honestly, if this doesn't make you want to defund the BATFE and do away with the NFA, nothing will. It's the most asinine crap imaginable.

Thanks! I got the patch from OML Patches. http://www.omlpatches.com/its-not-the-gun-you-suck-patch/

As to the general uptick in traffic in the classifieds... Yep, I've noticed it too. I've participated in it lately. I think we can ultimately thank the fact that good deals are to be had on the primary (new) market, and as a result folks are moving things around on the secondary (used) market to fund those new purchases. Capitalism at work. Gotta love it!

I honestly don't remember us ever having a dedicated NFA classifieds. My intention would be for anything NFA to be listed in the appropriate category. A short barrel rifle or shotgun would go in the firearms classifieds and the seller should indicate that it is NFA. An AOW would go in the firearms classifieds, same as above. A suppressor would go in the accessories classifieds and the seller should indicate that it is NFA. The sticky wicket of NFA items is that the purchase of them of course involves a tax stamp or being a Class 2 or Class 3 SOT. In the case of private parties transferring NFA items to one another when neither is a SOT holder, the buyer would have to apply for and receive their tax stamp from the BATFE before the seller can give the item to them. Since that could be months, up to or exceeding a year currently, the buyer would ostensibly give the seller the money for the item and then wait that period of time and hope that the seller doesn't skip town, lose or damage the item being purchased. Are private-party NFA sales / trades very popular? Reading through this blog entry here (click me) it sounds like there's twice the taxation involved in doing this through an FFL.

Smith & Wesson M&P M2.0 Compact 9mm I have owned a variety of M&P semi-autos since they started producing them back in 2005. I bought my first M&P, a full-size .40SW, from Guns & Leather 12 years ago when the pistol first came out and quickly followed it with an M&P 40c and then several other versions joined them over the years. The 40c and the 9c were never really a favorite of mine as they seemed to suffer from the same things that the Glock 26 and 27 sub-compacts did. Namely, they weren't small enough to really be a pocket gun but they weren't large enough to be very versatile either. Just like with Glock, if I was going to carry a double-stack 9mm, I was going to go for the Glock 19 instead of the 26 and with the M&P it meant the full-size 9mm. The M&P Shield was a huge step in the right direction for Smith & Wesson for those who wanted a slim 9mm for deep concealment. It also really put the spotlight on the fact that the 9c was, in my opinion at least, really not good enough at any one thing to make it a compelling option. If only S&W would just listen to their customers and build something exactly the same size as the Glock 19/23. We just wanted them to give us 15rds of 9mm in a package slightly shorter in the slide and grip than the full-size. Apparently someone at S&W has finally listened. The new M2.0 Compact scratches all of the itches in all the right ways. It is as if Smith and Wesson's lawyers finally relaxed and gave the engineers the green light to go ahead and build a better Glock 19 than Glock does. And boy did they get it right. And they kind of snuck it in on everyone. The M2.0 Compact version really doesn't seem to have received the fanfare or enjoyed the publicity blitz that its full size brother did. The release wasn't timed to coincide with any of the major industry shows. The internet wasn't ablaze with rumors of the new gun until it had essentially been announced by S&W. I only saw the "leaked" promotional slick for the new gun maybe 48 hours before the company published it officially. And yet the paradox seems to be that the lack of hoopla over the gun is significantly the inverse of just how good it is. The new M&P Compact no longer occupies a weirdly confusing spot in Smith & Wesson's lineup. It no longer tries to follow in the equally awkward footsteps of the Glock 26/27 platform. Instead, it has taken the Glock 19/23 platform squarely in its sights and blown the center out of that target with a better option. The new Compact gives a platform that is perfect for concealed carry, with superior ergonomics, a better feel and a sexier look than its Austrian competitor. And, just as the Glock 19/23 will fit into a holster made for the larger 17/22, the new M2.0 compact fits even better into holsters made for the larger M&P full-size. Carrying the M2.0 Compact in a TT Gunleather "Mike's Special" leather inside the waistband holster made for my M&P 9mm Full-size yields an extremely comfortable and potent concealment package. The shorter Compact fits the longer gun's holster as if it were made for it. The slide is only 1/4" shorter at the muzzle but otherwise identical in dimension to the larger gun. The trigger guard is exactly the same size. The grip is of course shorter in length at the cost of giving up two rounds of 9mm, but 15 rounds is hardly inadequate and the shorter grip deftly avoids printing against a t-shirt when concealed. So, how does it shoot? It was no problem at all to keep the first two magazines (30 rounds) that I ever fired from the gun inside the head kill zone of a man-sized target at 15 yards. The pace of fire was slower at first but I quickly ramped up the speed to my normal cadence for defensive shooting (2-3 rounds in rapid succession) with only marginal widening of the pattern. I found the trigger's break to be crisp and predictable. I haven't measured the pull yet with my Lyman gauge but i expect that it is somewhere between 4.5lbs and 5.5lbs based on the way it felt. I haven't bothered to check to see what S&W specs it at despite the ease of finding such information with Google. The trigger reset is no more exciting than any other M&P that I have ever owned. For those who like the extremely tactile reset of the Glock pistols, you won't find the M2.0's reset to be quite as audible or authoritative. It's a little on the limp and soggy side, but I've never found that to be a bother or to hamper my ability to shoot the M&P platform quickly and reliably. I tend to subscribe to Rob Latham's philosophy that if you "ride" the trigger you will find it hard to pick up an unfamiliar gun and cycle it reliably. As a result I've spent the past 20 years learning to keep my grip firm and sight-picture correct rather than relying on riding the trigger's reset to keep my groups small. Your mileage might vary and the soft reset may drive you nuts, but Apex Tactical Specialities has all of the trigger and ignition parts you need to make your M&P feel a little more Glock-like if that is what you are after. Another thing that I noticed with the M2.0 Compact is that, with mine at least, the slide lock seems to have been improved by S&W so that lefties can finally release it with their dominant hand's thumb and not pull a hernia in the process. I am not a lefty so I am at a disadvantage any time I try to do lefty-things, but the slide lock lever is no trouble for me to manipulate with my thumb left-handed. My hands are built like that of an ogre with shorter, stronger fingers, but I still think that almost any lefty will be able to release the slide with the lock lever and that it will only get easier as the gun breaks in. Final thoughts... None of us ever buy a handgun with the idea in mind that we are going to publicly tell the world how big of a mistake we made. I have read many glowing reviews of handguns only to follow up with the author's writings later to see that they had parted way with that new wunderpistol once the honeymoon was over. I guess it is just human nature to want everyone else to think that we always make good choices and aren't careless with our money. That being said, I have bought some real turds over the years. I have spent money on guns that were nowhere near as good as the magazine pundits or YouTube pimps said that they were. I've taken new guns to the range and immediately knew that I had made a serious mistake, and already had an idea of how I was going to sell them before I ever got through the second magazine of ammo. HOWEVER. This isn't one of them. Hands down, the M&P M2.0 Compact is a winner. It's riding my hip right now in that TT Gunleather IWB holster. It is replacing my Glock 19 for daily carry. It is going to cause a lot of other guns in my library to spend lonely days in the safe. It is really that good. I found it to be incredibly accurate and flat shooting. The size is perfect. The texture on the grip is perfect. The trigger feels just fine to me. The only thing I changed, and I did it immediately as I do with almost every handgun for which they are made, was to install a set of Ameriglo Pro i-Dot sights with orange outlined tritium front dot and simplistic black rear sight. In this case, the rear has the U-shaped notch that I prefer and a single dimmed tritium dot. Perhaps the most powerful statement that I can make about the new Compact is that I will be buying at least one more of them to have as a backup. And I am probably going to sell some other guns that I won't be shooting anymore.

Icom 4100A. Dual band VHF/UHF. It'll mostly be for chatter around town but also for comms during bad weather or when traveling.

Thanks! I dug around in my radio gear and found a Larsen NMO hole-mount that I had never used, so I think I am good on that for now. I was going to work on it some today but ran out of time. I may pull power to the radio location and run the control-head wire, mic extension and external speaker extension tomorrow if I get a chance to work on it.

You're thinking about this all wrong, man! Keep that 1.0 and give it a little brother!

Hey... with 7 to 28 in the 3rd quarter, the Vols have already done better than Vandy did. Got to look for that silver lining!

Nice! Congrats! The new Compact is honestly perfect. The trigger reset is still a little limp but everything else about the gun is everything that the Glock 19 Gen 5 should have been. It's as if Smith & Wesson's lawyers finally relaxed and let them build a better Glock 19 than Glock does. The dimensions are damn near identical, the capacity is identical but the mags are better, the grip texture is better, the ergonomics are better and it just looks better. I don't know why but I shoot the Compact better than I do the full size M2.0 that I have. It really feels as if it cycles shorter and doesn't have as much muzzle flip. I'm going to do a back-to-back comparison of them soon. I left the full-size at home today and only took the Compact so that I would be forced to run it. Seriously, my favorite handgun right now. I may buy a second one to have a spare!

Took the M&P M2.0 Compact to the range today. S&W has a winner with this one. First 30 rounds at 15 yards...

I got some new Ameriglo Pro i-Dot sights. Oh, yeah, and they were for this...

Obviously it is entirely up to him.

I needed three examples of people a Law Enforcement officer might encounter in a quasi-threatening situation and have to ask himself, "Am I justified in shooting this asshole?". Logical example.

Gentlemen, please. We have the advantage of knowing Dolo and the reasons why he carries what he does how he does. Newcomers do not. From a practical perspective, take Dolo out of this equation and insert someone else. Our favorite dipstick Voldemort, or a quintessentially villainous looking middle easterner wearing prayer robes with a MOLLE decked plate carrier, or an angry-looking youth wearing all black and a trench coat. If you saw any of those people waltzing into a public area with an AK of any sort, you'd probably start moving toward an exit with your hand near your gun too. BUT, we do know Dolo and we understand the reasons why this meets his specific requirements. This thread might be a good place for him to copy and paste some of his previous explanations here for those who, like French, don't understand.

Bolded for emphasis! Really good idea!!

Right? I mean, leave it to the Germans. Theirs is one of a few languages in which you can shout "I LOVE YOU!" at someone and it sound absolutely terrifying.

I can relate to this. 20-something years of shooting the Glock 19/23 platform is really hard for me to unlearn despite how good other guns have felt in my hands. The M&P and the CZ P-07 come closest to feeling/pointing as naturally for me as the Glock does. I should have mine next week but you'll just have to trust me on the review. I doubt I'll be loaning it out, but you're always welcome to shoot it at the range with me sometime.

I think we used to have a member here who went by that as his screen name. Might still. It's such a great word. Edited to add... Yep, he's still an active member! @Schadenfreude

What ever ended up being the cause behind that fire? Any idea?

Thanks. That puts my mind at ease. The Guns & More folks are good people and I really hate that this happened to them. Unfortunately, events like these set the stage for us to to have discussions that I would *hope* lead to improvements for everyone in the future. Obviously we have quite a few gun shop owners and personnel on TGO, even if they don't announce themselves as such. What I hope that we don't become guilty of is simply Monday Morning Quarterbacking things or being critical for the sake of just being critical.

Please don't put words in my mouth. I said there are costs associated with being in business. For gun shops, some of those costs are currently optional. The more prolific these robberies become, and the trend does seem to be on the rise, I predict that those costs will be made mandatory by either the BATFE or by those underwriting insurance policies. Like I've said repeatedly, I am not throwing rocks at Guns n' More. This same thing has happened several times lately to other shops. Everything Weapons had draw-across security gates on their shop and a couple of scumbags took it upon themselves to defeat that by ramming a van through the storefront. The only way to make that more difficult is by putting stanchions in concrete across the building facade. And even then a determined crook is going to find a way in if he really wants in. My point is: Make your guns more difficult to obtain than some other nearby target of opportunity. How expensive is it to buy a length of steel cable and route it through all of your firearm trigger guards and then bolt that down to something in each display case, or anchor it to the floor or to the wall? But, being critical of what I saw in those photos of their shop, they have rifles hanging on peghooks on walls. I would guess they were too bulky for a quick getaway, and that's the only reason handguns were reportedly stolen, and not rifles. If you're not going to have any more physical security than plate glass windows, you probably should figure out other ways to make your firearms less movable.