MacGyver

I've got a CTR on my 10.5" .458 SOCOM right now.  It's light and fast to come on target.  Plus, as a bonus, you get a free Magpul tattoo with every shot!   It's not really that bad.  It's not like you're firing hundreds of rounds through it.

I commonly edit posts to remove language, offensive links, and personal information that someone may not want shared.  As a general rule, when I do this, I leave the "edited by" comment visible, and leave a reason.   I figure if it was my post, I'd rather have it cleaned up than removed altogether.  The poster always retains the right to go back in and re-express themselves in a more appropriate manner.

I think I can get that squared away.  Good idea.

Register a complaint around here and you're likely to die of old age before we cede to your list of demands. This was absolutely not driven by complaints. As I said in the original post, it's us as a staff keeping our fingers on the pulse of the community and noticing something off. We've got a good thing here that we don't particularly want to see screwed up. We thought posting some guidance as opposed to making hard and fast rule changes in the TOS would be more than sufficient for the vast majority of our membership.

Here's the thing, y'all. We're not trying to ban any topic. Nor are we saying you have to be pro law enforcement. Lord knows I'm critical of a lot that's going on right now, and I love to discuss issues big and small. But, if you're going to engage in a discussion, make sure you're actually adding to the debate. Do that and you're fine. If a thread devolves, we'll lock it. We don't do this very much now, and I don't expect to going forward. My original post was just giving you guys some insight into how we're looking at things as moderators.

All people need to do is ask whether or not they're adding to the discussion and the community or distracting from it. If the answer is the latter, then our general position is that they either need better rhetoric, a better position or should simply refrain from posting.

The very fact that you can't type his name in without having voldemort substituted in should tell you exactly how we feel about giving this guy another second of airtime.

Exactly.

I've banned more than one person for not being able to refer to gay people without the use of a slur.  There's a famous post by one of our moderating team relating to the tendency to profile people who may look middle eastern and the problems associated with it.    The DNC doesn't need our help.  They've yet to meet a sure thing that they can't screw up.   But your point stands.  We can discuss big issues.  We've got a lot of diverse opinions.  But, if you're just here to stir stuff up, we're going to take notice because it's affecting the community at large.

One of the great draws to this site from my perspective is that it doesn't need a lot of moderating.  I probably make as many administrative actions as anyone, and I bet I've not made a dozen this year.  This community does a pretty good job of policing itself.   But, of late, we've noticed a few people just posting things to stir people up.  It's causing discord, and that's what tells me that we to be more involved than we typically are.    I get it that we live in a stressful time.  We're in a politically charged, bipolar world.  While there really are a lot of people with moderate opinions, all of the voices are at the extreme ends of the spectrum.    And it's certainly not just TGO - I was proxy to a conversation the other day with a bunch of kids.  They were discussing who they would look for if they got lost.  Out of 20 of them, not one said a police officer.  When someone asked if they might look for a police officer, several of them immediately shook their heads, no.    I could certainly put together a completely concrete, "non-arbitrary" list of rules for posting about law enforcement.  But, that's our intent.  We're just trying to give some insight into what influences our decision making process.

There's a lot to discuss here, and a lot of it needs more good discourse than it currently gets.  We can discuss big issues here.  There are cases where individual officers are lacking in tact or judgment or both.  There are a ton of departments that need better training when it comes to this stuff.  But, it's too easy and not at all fair to the dialog to paint all cops with a bad cop brush.       We're shooting from the hip here, Mac.  You've got to start somewhere.  But, we do trust our staff to make these decisions.  Even though the bench is a bit thin of late - there are really only a few active mods right now - we're depending on them to make appropriate calls, and we do discuss most moderating decisions.  Like I said earlier, we're always happy to provide reasoning for our decisions.   I guess at the end of the day, we're just trying to make this place somewhere people actually want to spend time.

This really isn't intended to apply to single threads or topics - it applies more to members who have no interest in anything but having a platform for their particular cause/obsession.  We don't boot many folks on TGO.  We don't need to.  But, to give you some insight into what I look for when trying to make these decisions, I almost always look at their last 20 posts.  If there's not a single one that's firearm related, you're probably in the wrong place.   You're right.  It's not going to be easy.  That's why we pay our staff so much and regularly enter them into popularity contests.  :)

It's not going to surprise me when Gander Mountain closes their doors in a couple of years.    They used to be such a good resource to the outdoor community.  But, the management team there seems pretty intent on making sure that customers feel as unwelcome as possible.  The last three times I've walked into the store in Turkey Creek, I've gone in with money to spend, yet left without buying a thing either because their price was so outrageously out of line with reality or there staff simply made it impossible to give them my business. 

The Ares Gear Ranger belt is, in my opinion, the best belt on the market today.  Yes it's stiff - as you want a good gun belt to be.  Yes, you're going to need to unthread the buckle from the belt to get it through a pair of 501s or any decent holster - again, this is by design.   I'm certain that if they bury me in this belt and an archeologist digs me up in 10,000 years, they'll be able to dust off this belt and put it back into service.   You're in Cleveland - anytime anyone in Nashville wants to put eyes on one, let me know and you're welcome to come by.

All,   I wanted to take a few minutes to discuss the anti-law enforcement trend I've been seeing a lot of recently in threads here on TGO.  The heart of the matter is that with almost 20,000 members we have a diverse community, and these threads are affecting the sense of community that both our staff and our core members work so hard to sustain.  As such, I'd like for people to be careful in expressing their opinions, and check their motivations when it comes to posting topics about interactions with law enforcement.    Here is a short list of guidelines that we'll be following:   If it's not happening here in Tennessee, then I'm not sure it needs to be posted here.  An open carrier getting the "harassment" they were seeking by officers out in Seattle isn't news.  On the subject of open carry getting questioned/harassed/detained by law enforcement.  I have no doubt that these people believe in what they're doing.  Ideologically, I agree with them to an extent - in that I think I should be able to carry where I want in whatever manner that I choose.  That said, discretion is a highly underrated virtue, and that's something that seems lacking in these stories.  As a general rule, these threads aren't really newsworthy.  They're sideshows with cops doing their jobs.  Do some of them stumble through it?  Yes.  Do some of them display a more aggressive attitude than necessary?  I don't know.  Maybe?  You decided express your first amendment rights through the second amendment - you're making a statement with a deadly weapon.  You should probably expect law enforcement to be on edge in 2013.  All that said, if you want a place to post open carry stories - again if it's not in Tennessee - go over to opencarry.org or any of the other places that'll give you all the response you seek. We do encourage legitimate discourse - especially when it's local.  I can't give concrete guidelines, but we'll be asking staff to use their discretion in making these judgment calls. For those members that only seem to be here to have a platform to voice their anti-government stuff, don't be surprised when we give you the opportunity to find another place to have those conversations.  This is a gun board.  While we like to talk about a lot of stuff, content needs to have at least a tangential connection to the firearms community. I understand that not every case is black and white, and that there is some room for disagreement.  This is exactly the reason we have selected the moderating staff we have.  If we shut down one of your threads, feel free to PM one of us about it.  Our moderating team is always happy to back up our reasoning, and we have reopened  threads in the past.  Give us a good reason to reopen a thread, and we will.   There are things that concern all of us.  The increasing militarization and paramilitarization of law enforcement should be concerning to everyone.  The growing surveillance state is a problem.  Bring good discourse and we can discuss big issues.   But, there are a few people on here with personal axes to grind.  I'm sorry.  This just isn't the place for that.  Are there some bad cops?  Sure.  Are there some that just come to work and dial it in?  Sure.  Are there people who do that where you work?  You bet there are.  I bet you wouldn't appreciate being lumped in with them.    There are a lot of members of law enforcement on this site.  A lot.  Stop to think about it, and you'll realize quickly that the vast majority of them are on our side of the issue.  They see good citizens able to protect themselves and their families as making their jobs as police officers a lot easier.  There really are people who want to take your guns.  Your average cop walking a beat isn't one of them.   I know that a lot of people are stressed right now.  We're 4 years nine months into an 8-year administration that really does hate us as a group.  There are a ton of new shooters out there competing for ammo right now.  Did you know that a little over one in four legally purchased firearms in America has been bought in the last five years?  Scalpers aside, there's a lot of competition for ammo out there right now.  I know people aren't shooting a lot, and that in and of itself is stressful.  This is a time where we need to pull together as a community, not fracture it.   I'm going to leave this thread open so that our community can discuss it.  I'm specifically putting it in general chat before moving it to announcements so that it can be discussed.  Subjects like this are tough, and we recognize that.  There isn't a firm rule that can be set.  Yet, we simply ask that people think about what they post, watch your tone and check your motivations for doing so.    We appreciate everyone's support in this matter.

I used a fixed Ace stock for a while and liked it. Isaac Newton does get the last word on this subject, though. That said, you're not shooting 3 gun with it. Put whatever you want on there. You'll know if you need to change it.

That's a great offer. Thanks!

Those are three roughly equivalent ARs.  The S&W is a pretty good value for the price it generally runs.  That said, deals can be had for any brand in that class (Colt, Bushmaster, DPMS, Rock River, S&W, whatever) if you look around.

I'll check with Jeff tomorrow.

Okay, I think we've got this squared away. Let me start by sincerely thanking Jeff Cross of CMT Tactical. Without his desire to see this done in the state of Tennessee, I really don't think this would have been possible. It's taken a little while to figure out how we're going to do this, and we thank you for your patience. Please read the following details carefully, as you need to take specific actions if you want to get in on this group buy. Here are the details: 1. If you want one of these lowers, you MUST to respond to this thread. 2. Responses in any previous interest threads are not valid. Again, if you want one of these lowers, you must respond here 3. The cost is ridiculously low. Low enough in fact that we're not posting it publicly. It's inline with what we discussed in the original thread. Once we get enough responses, we'll PM individual members with the final price. At this point you'll be able to firmly commit. 4. To avoid taking advantage of CMT's generosity, we're limiting individual members to two lowers. 5. Once we place the order, CMT's staff will reach out to individual members to make payment. This will give you the flexibility of having multiple payment choices. 6. These will ship to a limited number of FFLs. Again, to avoid creating logistical nightmares as well as reducing cost, we're not going to have more than about 6 FFLs involved (as a side note, we've got two FFLs in middle Tennessee who have offered to facilitate and treat our members well...we need some in other parts of the state.) 7. Bonus offer - Jeff has also offered to do matching billet uppers at a ridiculously low price. These will be TGO engraved. They will not be serialed. There's to much hassle to keep up with what serials need uppers and lowers, vs. who just needs a lower. You don't have to get the matching upper, but they're available if you want them. 8. There will not be a choice as to the serials you get. We'll try to make pairs consecutive. Again, there will be no custom serials. Just one TGO limited edition run. 9. We won't be engraving anything like member names on the lowers. again, it adds way too much complexity. If you want to have it engraved later, great. Make sure to post pictures. 10. We'll keep this thread open until September 30, 2013. Jeff's staff will start reaching out to folks after that. This should give you some time to plan appropriately. 11. I'm sure there are some things I've left out. I will edit this original post with any further details that need to be added. Final note - Rest assured that if I see any of these lowers for sale at inflated prices during any panics future events may precipitate - regardless of what the market may bear - I promise you that I will ban you myself.

I'm getting ready to post the new order thread. Just trying to square awry the details.

I run DM Bullard leather for my 230. 

I'd say a tact driver is my wife kicking me under the table when I'm telling a good story. I'd define tack driver literally. Push a thumbtack partially into a piece of wood and drive it in. Maybe 50 meters for .22 and 100 meters for everything else.

Stay tuned tomorrow. Y'all are going to like it. Turns out there's a genie named Jeff...

Love or hate the New York Times, they've really been stepping up their graphics over the last year or so.  Here's one tracking everyone's position on use of military force in Syria.   http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/09/05/us/politics/syria-vote-tracker.html?_r=0