FirearmsTruth.com Goes to the Show (of Shows)

This weekend is one of the biggest for gun collectors, and FirearmsTruth.com is heading to SOS – the SHOW OF SHOW in Louisville, Kentucky. This is the largest military collectibles show in North America (and arguably the world). But this is also the weekend of the huge National Gun Day Show, which also is taking place in the Kentucky Expo Center.

These are two shows not to miss! Check back later this week for photos from SOS.

Ohio Valley Military Society: The Show of Shows Official Website
The Great Eastern National Gun Day Show Official Website

NRA – ILA: On the Second Amendment, Obama Budget Tells All

NRA – ILA:

Barack Obama’s careful effort to hide his anti-Second Amendment agenda is starting to come undone.

The latest evidence is found in the budget he sent to Congress this past week.

As we reported last fall, NRA was very successful in having a number of provisions included in the annual spending bills that are important protections for our rights. Obama grudgingly signed the Fiscal Year 2012 spending bills that contained those “riders,” although in his signing statement, he announced his intent to defy some. Now, in Obama’s FY 2013 budget, he proposes eliminating many of them outright. Read more

Why Do Newspaper Editors Feel it Necessary to Comment on Gun Laws Across the Country?

Most newspapers – with a few exceptions – are really build around local news reporting. While national and international news is covered, the papers are really about the “hometown” spirit. So why do some larger papers feel it necessary to offer editorials about firearm in issues across the country?

We see this a lot with New York City’s papers as somehow the country’s largest city seems to think it speaks for the nation. But this week The Los Angeles Times noted in an editorial “Virginia shoots itself in the foot on handguns” in response to the overturned one-gun-a-month law.

Not only that but the subhead (the dek as it is called) offered this thought:

There’s simply no good reason for the state Senate vote to scrap a sensible law that limited handgun purchases to one a month.

So is the Constitution of the United States of America not a GOOD REASON?

But the editors write:

Virginia’s refusal to close the notorious “gun-show loophole” has long been criticized by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who frets that relatively tough regulations in his state are undermined when criminals can easily purchase firearms in other states and bring them into New York. In fact, similar worries about interstate gun-running were what prompted Virginia’s Legislature to restrict handgun purchases in 1993. But with Republican lawmakers and two Democrats from rural districts eager to make a statement about gun rights, the state Senate approved the repeal by a 21-19 vote, and Gov. Bob McDonnell is expected to sign it.

Here is an interesting fact. Gun crimes continue to be a problem in NYC. Criminals find a way of buying guns, and the limit apparently hasn’t stopped them.

The paper added:

Backers say they’re just trying to bring Virginia’s laws in line with those in other states, pointing out that only California, Maryland and New Jersey have monthly limits on handgun purchases. Moreover, they say the ban isn’t effective because it doesn’t apply to groups such as police officers and holders of concealed weapons permits. But that’s a reason to strengthen the law, not to repeal it. And we have yet to hear a gun-rights advocate articulate why any law-abiding citizen has a compelling need to buy more than one gun a month. Criminals sometimes need to get their hands on a lot of guns at once to pull off a big job or to keep gangs well-armed; citizens who want to protect their homes from intruders have no such imperative.

So here is the rub… the editors in California feel that other states should be as restrictive as California. But let’s answer the question. Why does any law-abiding citizen have a compelling need to buy more than one gun a month? How about collectors for one? Collectors are often seldom mentioned in these debates, but it is a valid argument.

And here is the other side of that coin – it notes that criminals might want guns to “pull off a big job” or gangs that need to arm up. This is nonsense pure and simple. The editors watch too many movies. Criminals aren’t going to go to the gun show or gun shop to arm up, nor are gangs. For one things any gun shop is absolutely going to do a background check, and even at gun shows any licensed dealer has to do a background check, while many other part-time dealers could still ask for driver’s license or other information. What criminal looking to pull a big job is going to want their information on file? Same with the gangs, because the successful ones know how to avoid being arrested.

Finally the paper makes an interesting point:

Effective lobbying by the National Rifle Assn., combined with a reflexive antipathy to gun laws by conservative voters — even when they would have no impact on the rights of law-abiding citizens — have turned gun control into a dead issue politically, abandoned by Democratic lawmakers who once championed it. But even if new restrictions are off the table, that’s no reason to scrap sensible laws already on the books. Virginia’s repeal is a gift to killers that will endanger people in nearby states.

Why is this an issue if gun control is a “dead issue politically” unless you are pro-gun control? The truth is that the issue of gun control is VERY MUCH ALIVE but the gun lobby, gun advocates and anyone who believes in the Second Amendment is just going to fight gun control!

So-called “Bonnie and Clyde” Guns Sell for $130,000

Once again we question the media’s fascination with “legendary” criminals such as Bonnie and Clyde. Vintage firearms, reported to have belonged to the pair of violent bank robbers, have sold at auction for $130,000. There have been several accounts, and many of these note that the value of the guns is based on their connection to the duo.

We must ask, why can’t the media see value in other vintage firearms? Why is it that the media taints firearms except when those are tied to colorful criminals from 80 years ago? Shouldn’t the firearms used by heroes in World War II be of value as well?

Anti-Gun Crowd Targets “Replica Guns”

We’ve long said that the reason anti-gun crowd hates semi-automatic firearms is that they look so darn menacing. Now iWatch News via The Huffington Post claims, “Fatal Texas shooting highlights struggle to regulate replica guns,” noting:

The fatal police shooting earlier this month of a Texas middle school student clutching a BB gun — the latest in a series of incidents involving imitation firearms — spotlights how localities and states have struggled to identify and control both look-alike toys and guns that fire something other than bullets.

Now we agree this was a tragedy, and one that shouldn’t have happened, but this news article doesn’t address all sides of the issue. Instead it limits the focus and throws in no shortage of bias:

And, even though some U.S. cities and states forbid it, kids regularly play with increasingly real-looking guns in neighborhood streets, parks or forests and in their own yards, sometimes attracting police attention that ends in children’s deaths.

Again, we agree these can be tragedies that should and could be avoided. But should we only blame the toy guns? Children have played with realistic looking toy guns for decades. Isn’t part of this really that police are being told too often to shoot first and ask questions second? How often are 10-years shooting at police?

Whilst we understand that this country has seen too many school shootings in the past 20 years, we should understand that the majority of kids aren’t killers and are just playing.

But this article doesn’t address another issue – collectors. If replica guns were banned, it would truly hurt collectors, re-enactors and history buffs. No collector is going to want an orange musket to hang on the wall! Of course these anti-gun zealots don’t care about preserving history when it comes to vintage firearms in the first place!

Historic Guns From Infamous Bank Robbers Auctioned Off

So here is something to consider. The media in the last week has been reporting that guns that belonged to Bonnie and Clyde would go up for auction. These guns actually KILLED people, but because they are associated with the infamous bank robbers it apparently is both newsworthy and acceptable – at least in the eyes of the media.

Now we see many antique firearms as highly collectible and more importantly historically valuable. This goes beyond mere monetary value of course. So we understand why the Bonnie and Clyde guns would be so sought after.

But yet, isn’t the mainstream media that reports on gun buybacks and practically cheers when guns are guns handed in are destroyed. How much potential history is lost there?

Consider that the guns that could end up being destroyed might have been used in World War I or World War II to ensure that we remained the land of the free and home of the brave. But to the media, those are as bad as any gun wielded by a criminal and deserve to be destroyed.

The irony is that media fascination is what made Bonnie and Clyde folk heroes of a sort, so it is no wonder there is sudden fascination with the guns they owned. But it is a pity so many other historic guns simply end up destroyed.

Hartford Gun Buy Back “Takes Guns (including collector’s items) Off the Street”

Among several gun buybacks held this past weekend, the reporting on the one in Hartford, Conn. caught our attention. The CT Mirror reported:

The New Haven haul included 34 handguns, 26 long guns (including three sawed off shotguns), two fully automatic assault rifles and one Uzi. Police gave out gun locks free of charge to anyone turning in a weapon, and individuals were asked to fill out a questionnaire explaining the history of the gun and their motivations for bringing it in. All participants agreed to complete the survey.
“A number of elderly people came in,” said Pina Violana, injury prevention coordinator for Yale-New Haven Hospital. She helped coordinate the event. “They said they just wanted the guns out of their house — they had grandkids and worried for their safety but didn’t know how to get rid of them,” she said.
Some of the guns could have been considered collector’s items.

We are scratching our head s on this one. We aren’t sure if this is a mistake in the reporting, but if someone handed in two fully automatic assault rifles, would they really fill out the questionnaire?

But we make special note of the final line above, “some of the guns could have been considered collector’s items.” Despite that fact it is likely those firearms will still be destroyed, reportedly crushed and melted down. What a sad fate for “collector’s items.”

Gun Values – Historic Colt Lightning Pump Carbine – I have this old gun.

Jim Supica of the NRA National Firearms Museum evaluates a Colt Lightning pump carbine with a special history on American Rifleman TV’s “I have this old gun”, episode 505

Gun Collecting: Sad Turn for Wabasha Museum

This past week we heard a sad story about the Arrowheads Bluffs Museum from the Winona Daily News in a story titled, “Wabasha museum owner: It’s time to be done.” The paper offered this somber passage:

“Buses don’t stop at the Arrowhead Bluffs Museum anymore; they all go straight to the casinos. Riverboats don’t bring loads of people willing to drive up to the farm, sitting atop a bluff west of Wabasha.”

Perhaps this passage explains the situation even better:

“And the last time Les Behrns had a school group visit his homemade museum, it just wasn’t the same. ‘Kids have no interest in history,’ he said Wednesday. ‘They pull out their phones and start texting right away.’”

The sad fact is that this sounded like an amazing museum:

“In 2008, he auctioned much of his coveted Winchester collection, some 260 guns and more than 800 shell boxes. Pieces of his former collection now reside all over the world — more than a third of the items were shipped overseas — and more will soon join them. Les said his remaining collection has drawn interest from as far as Saudi Arabia.”

It is simply the sad state of our interest in history.

Firearms from the MAX

Fall means many things, kids go back to school. Football season starts, Christmas is just around the corner, and it means it is time for the MAX (Military Antiques Xtravaganza). The annual show is taking place this weekend at the Monroeville Convention Center, just outside of Pittsburgh, PA. And a look at the firearms of the show proves it is firearpower to the MAX! Read more

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