August 10, 2011
A woman in her early 50s was getting out of the shower when the bathroom lights suddenly went out. An intruder collided into her in the dark, causing her to fall backward into the shower and injure her back. She fought the man, but he put a knife to her throat.
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August 10, 2011
Season 3 got off to a great start last night with the producers choosing to create an instant winner versus loser dynamic, via the medium of the S&W .500 Mag. In the initial head-to-head shoot off, competitors were paired up according to their backgrounds and Mike Hughes showed his mettle with a smoking run, despite being much more familiar with a Glock. Both ladies were forced to deal with recoil that was way out of their comfort zones—a pretty harsh way to kick off the competition, but great for showing the audience dramatic high speed footage of flames blowing out of the barrel/cylinder gap.
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August 09, 2011
Slap me upside the head and call me stupid. The Insider is supposed to have his finger on the pulse of the industry to predict trends, foresee developments and anticipate changes. However, I’ve completely missed one of the most remarkable handgun innovations in the past five years, the surging popularity of .410 revolvers.
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August 09, 2011
In my last blog about back-up guns, I received a couple of comments about how one gun is enough if you maintain it and make your shots count. One reader also said that you’ll probably never be faced with multiple attackers anyway. This made me realize that some don’t understand why a person would carry a second handgun.
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August 09, 2011
It’s only been a year since the Top Shot season 1 finale and already we’re facing the launch of Season 3, with Season 4 about to start production. I’m still amused that it took so long for a mainstream network to discover the marketability of shooting, but now the History Channel is completely behind the show. Make no mistake, this is a hugely expensive undertaking and the amount of cash involved in producing one episode might surprise you, but the American public has taken to the mixture of firearms, explosions and drama. You and I both knew they would, but it’s nice to be vindicated.
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August 08, 2011
Smith & Wesson has a new product introduction that has been long overdue—the “E” Series of 1911s. Like so many other handgunners, I was delighted when S&W introduced their own line of 1911 pistols several years ago. But I was less than happy with the grip-activated firing pin safety system. To work properly, this safety required an exceptionally firm grip on the butt of the pistol. To my considerable dismay, I found that I didn't fully depress the grip safety every time, particularly when using a one-handed grip. The hammer would drop, but the gun didn't fire.
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August 08, 2011
We here at the magazine are 100 percent behind Ruger CEO Mike Fifer’s “Million Gun Challenge” to benefit NRA. Ruger has pledged to donate $1 million to NRA if 1 million new Ruger firearms are sold between the 2011 and 2012 NRA Annual Meetings and Exhibits. Fifer recently came to NRA HQ to meet with Wayne LaPierre and Chris Cox to drop off the first $300,000 installment.
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August 04, 2011
Seeking help following an assault at the hands of her boyfriend, a woman phoned her parents. They quickly picked her up and brought her to their home, calmed their terrified daughter and she went to sleep. Then a banging at the door arose—the boyfriend had found her hiding place.
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August 03, 2011
Two guns are one, one gun is none. This saying has bounced around for years on gun forums as the reason to always carry a backup gun. Some self-defense advocates on the forums even take it further and claim that three guns are two.
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August 03, 2011
At the 2011 SHOT Show in Las Vegas, I looked at most of the new handgun models that were being introduced. With a few notable exceptions, sights on these guns follow the modern trend of three painted or imbedded white dots. The idea is that the shooter aligns the three dots in an equally-spaced row. I believe that this pattern of sights started to appear on some European models in the 1970s, quickly achieved popularity and is now a virtual standard. As a matter of fact, when I suggested to a gun company executive that he should leave the dots off of a particular model, he looked horrified and assured me that a pistol would not sell without three dots. In truth, this guy probably knows more about selling guns than I ever will, but we are in a situation where the dots are there because they have always been there. I firmly believe that the three-dot system commonly used on most modern service pistols does not add anything to the gun's utility value.
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