​Big topic but I’ll keep this short and sweet. 

When a business outsources it’s production to china or elsewhere overseas, it robs America of two thirds of the economic pie. Thats two thirds of the American pie (and dream) remember! Those three segments of the economic pie are as follows 1) the exchange of monies for the bricks and mortar, machinery, utilities and raw materials required to produce an item, 2) the exchange of monies for the labor required to craft parts and assemble them into the product, and 3) the final sale of the item to consumers which returns money to the business owner and thusly completes the economic cycle. When an item is outsourced, two thirds of the cycle are handed to the overseas business/country and one third stays here to benefit the American seller. Thusly that business becomes an island in the consumerist business model that does not benefit the community or our country as a whole. Now the business owner may go on to spend their money at other businesses so the trickledown is there, but it is entirely limited by that persons propensity for frugality or spending. Obviously this is vastly simplified to make a point but the outcome is the same regardless of the complexity or size of any given business. 

The firearms industry is proof that constraint benefits our country’s economy. By rigidly regulating what can be made and imported by foreign manufacturers, the pressure (and financial benefit) is on domestic entrepreneurs to produce their firearms and related products here at home. Thanks to the ATF, the gun industry has stayed largely domestic and made a lot of people very comfortable over the last decade by beautifully fulfilling all three slices of the American financial pie. Other industries could take a lesson from this playbook…um…like yesterday. And our politicians could take heed follow this model. Here's an example: Thailand, little Asian country of 65 million people, figured out that by heavily taxing imported goods it forced domestic manufacturing, zeroed out unemployment and instilled national pride in Thai made goods. We were that way once upon a time and God willing we will return there promptly under our new President. 

So next time you get a pizza just imagine someone cutting it in three and whisking two slices away before you leave the door of the pizzeria. Them’s fighting words, just the thought of that is enough to incite riot in the mellowest of red blooded Americans, but that’s what has happened to our economy, and our jobs, and our pride and our amazing country! And that’s why I LOVE the firearm industry because it has defied and resisted the enema that's been inflicted on almost all of our remaining industries.

​1989, Long Island, New York. As I approached the legal age for owning my first handgun, I browsed my bible (that being the Gun Digest annual catalogue) each morning on the throne and weighed the pro’s and con’s of every available pistol and revolver. I read the specs over and over, recalled the movies some of them had appeared in and ruminated for a solid 30min a day about what to buy. The licensing system was protracted to say the least, nine months for a limited carry license that’d allow me to travel back and forth to a range only, but I didn’t care, I was smitten by the plethora of steel guns in a mostly pre-polymer age. One gun I kept returning to was the Charter Arms Pathfinder with the 3” barrel and tiny adjustable sights. It was just too pretty with it’s diminutive proportions and tapered barrel and wee wooden grip. But in the end I stupidly went with cache and bought a S&W 617 which shot fine but was the antithesis of refined and concealable. I really disliked it’s inelegance and promptly traded it in. It would be 28 years before I finally decided to search out and buy my darling little Pathfinder, blued and just cute as a button in unfired condition. It is everything I dreamed it would be and more. As owner of many revolvers I have to say it’s as glassy smooth and tight as a Python: I can trip-up all my other wheelguns during decock but not the Pathfinder, Douglas McClenahan sufficiently reconfigured the standard revolver trigger and sear to eradicate snag and it’s a shame it’s not made identically today because I think the market is there for old school aesthetics.  The moral of this little tale is…always grab that gun you yearn for, because two and half decades is too long to wait and god forbid you kick the bucket before you find one at a price you can afford. AS

For those with hearing damage caused by a lifetime of unprotected firearm use, sound suppressors - or silencers - are a welcome accessory. Sadly their use is regulated by archaic laws drummed up decades ago to curb a murderous criminal element, but some things do stay unrepealed in our legal systems like the fact you can still be hanged for poaching the king's deer in England (though they did outlaw hanging) and New Jersey's law regarding slingshots due to an administrative typo. One day - as discussed in a previous post - firearms will shoot a different type of ammo using a whole new operating system and silencers will be rendered redundant anyway, but for the meantime we suffer the silliness. As I was saying, my ears are becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the bang or a gun so a recent addition to my toolkit was a Huntertown Guardian 22 (of course with the necessary tax stamp). Huntertown have since replaced it with the titanium Chameleon for a bit more money but it's essentially the same. I selected it for 2 main reasons: they've put the serial number on the threaded collar so in the event of a baffle strike you just send back the tube and the innards for repair without any need for paperwork. Cleverly thought out. Also, the engineers at Huntertown seem to understand this is an old technology and charge accordingly. In Europe where silencers are normal and easy to procure they run under $100 on average, which is about right, there's not much to them. Youtube is chock with videos showing people using flashlights, oil filters and soda bottles to good effect so anyone who tells you their silencer utilizes some revolutionary new, quieter baffle system is stretching the truth just a little. I happened to have a (legal) silencer some 20 years ago and though it was 8 inches long, sealed at both ends and weighed a full pound, I have to say it was quieter than any lightweight configuration I've heard in the last 5 years. Of course in a regulated market, prices are usually higher than if sales were unlocked, so all the better for everyone if someone would just throw out the rules on them and make them subject to the same background check as a standard firearm purchase. Or give over-50-year-olds a hall pass like with crossbows for hunting, or free prostate checkups. In fact it could be part of a mid-life package to congratulate folks for getting to that age and staying law-abiding, married and tax-paying. Either way, Huntertown produce a great little silencer and if you haven't looked at them give them a peek at https://huntertownarms.com.  AS

I’m certain there are engineers around the world investing much energy into the R&D of new firearm concepts. Over morning coffee this morning we debated what those might look like, you know, 25 years from now. The discussion went around and around the gamut of possible variables but all of us agreed on one thing, ammo needs rethinking. Conventional lead and powder bullets are costly and a constant source of stress in combat situations not to mention expensive to produce and purchase, so what would this future firearm shoot if not "ammo"? One suggestion was a gun resembling a portable wood chipper where you just fed in any debris you found lying around and it was spit out to deadly effect: however, accuracy would be an inevitable issue so that was quickly discarded. A second and rather cliched idea was an electrically charged gun that shot a bolt much like a stormtroopers blaster: but we all agreed the bolt of electricity would have to harness such extrordinary power that it'd likely pass through it’s target and everything else behind it, perhaps for perpetuity. And then a third design that seemed interesting was a nuclear powered fuser (utilizing a miniaturized reactor pack on the shooter's back) that forms balls of air (fused O2 molecules) and discharges them at pre-programmed speeds. Permanence of the “air balls” would depend on how much energy went into their making thus enabling long distance, midrange or rapid close up engagement at the flick of a switch. I reckon there'll always be a place for lead & powder (one day to be known as old school ammo) for hunting and sporting purposes, but militarily we all agreed conventional systems have their days numbered. Thoughts? ED

Over the last years of a democratic administration we’ve suffered a stream of attacks on the Second Amendment that have resultantly brought about the greatest surge in firearms innovation and manufacture since our independence. Never have we been so spoiled for choice! We can have almost any thing we want (cost prohibiting) in 1911’s, polymer pistols and the subject of this post, the AR. Indeed, sometimes the choices can be so crippling that they lead to indecision and malaise, doubtless some of us have even taken to the bottle to steady the reeling mind!

So how DO we choose? When a newbie asks me what they should buy for their first firearm I tell them it truly doesn’t matter because your first gun is never your last. You’ll be hooked and you’ll just go on buying until your bank account or spouse puts a stop to it. If they’re persistent I then tell them to look at three things and these rules can apply equally well to us seasoned addicts when it comes to buying our first AR.

Firstly, don’t look at the gun, look at the maker. Call them and ask about their customer service. If you can’t reach them or they don’t answer your email then look elsewhere. It’s quite simple, EVERY gun - no matter who made it and what space age materials were used - can fail! And if you’re then stuck with something you don’t know how or can’t afford to repair, you’re gonna be mad! Believe me, I know, I have my fair share of paper weights and though I’ve long since stopped caring, I once suffered a lot of annoyance over each of them. I have a friend who only buys guns made by a certain company in NH beginning with “R” (we won’t mention names): he says problems are rare but when there is an issue, no matter what happened they take care of it promptly and at no cost to him. That’s the LL Bean standard you’re ideally looking for and every manufacturer should strive to achieve that.

Secondly, thanks to the exponential growth of the internet, we now have “customer ratings”. Browse the big online gun stores and see how users mark and rate the AR’s they buy. It’s good to have customer service but ideally you don’t want to encounter a problem in the first place so look for reliability as stated by buyers, not the manufacturing company (every maker will say there’s is the best, period). 

Thirdly, I think of a gun like a car. I may want that behemoth of a truck with all the bells and whistles and road-proven intimidation credits, but in reality I can’t afford to feed such a beast. Similarly, it’d be lovely to have a 50cal, but I know for a fact it’d go largely unused whereas my 22’s get lots of action and whole afternoons are devoted to turning cans into sieves. So, it may be that if you want to actually get proficient with your rifle you need to shoot 22LR, no shame in that, any sniper will tell you a 22 will do fine if it’s placed right. So being able to hit where you aim consistently, takes range time. And if your paycheck allows for 308, then I say go for it.

The beauty of a good AR is it’s modular so you can start with the basic rifle in the caliber you want from a reputable manufacturer and know as time goes by you can add every doodaad you like, ‘cos it’ll all fit (um...for the most part). It’s like a Harley, or Lego, buy the basic kit and add as you go. You’ll also discover how well you like the platform before launching full bore into a hefty investment: AR’s are not for everyone, personally (and I may get hate mail for this) I can handle them just fine but I can take ‘em or leave ‘em. I like old school carbines because I simply get more pleasure from shooting them. But that’s me and each to their own.
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Whatever way you go it’s the start of a habit and you can look forward to years of buying and tinkering until you get it right. God Bless America! ED.

Lenn Krystal with his “Babies” may be the littlest guys on the block but his jeweled 25acp (John) Browning 1927 replicas are big on bang for the bling-buying dollar. These are some of the most finely finished pistols on the American market and for the collector or fan of deep concealment tried-and-tested platforms, it’d be tough to do better than this. In a caliber-obsessed market the halls echo with ridiculing laughter at the 25acp’s efficacy, but I never met a person yet that wouldn’t flinch at having any gun pointed to their head no matter the size of projectile it housed. The WWII-era French Resistance (original users of the FN Baby) or any contemporary special operative will tell you it’s shot placement that’s the deciding factor so no matter what you have in your pocket it’s what you can do with it that counts (in the bedroom or the battlefield it seems). Also, if you’re ever unfortunate enough to be pushed to defend yourself, a small pistol tells the arriving police that your purpose of carry was self protection far more plausibly than a full sized 9mm with two 17 round magazines. Either way, PSA’s tiny little auto is one of the sweetest pistols made anywhere in the World today and a great way to kick off this blog! ​http://www.precisionsmallarms.com
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