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2013 SHOT Show – Day Two With Michael Bane And Ed Head

January 17, 2013 by

Michael Bane and Ed Head return to report on day two of the 2013 SHOT Show for the Outdoor Channel. Among the firearms discussed are the Armscor MIG-22 which is an AR clone in .22 LR and the Beretta Nano which will be coming out with various colored frames.

They both agreed that the overriding theme of this year’s SHOT Show was fear. That is, the fear of what would be coming out of Washington. However, after Obama made his speech yesterday, they sensed a rise in optimism along with a sigh of relief.

Some SHOT Shows feature a lot of new innovative product introductions. This isn’t one of them. Ed said the industry seems to be on an even keep with nothing really different. It was more about introducing different colors, sizes, and styles of existing products. Both Ed and Michael agreed that there seems to be a renewed interest in reloading all of a sudden which they attribute to the ammo shortage and proposals coming out of Washington. They will cover this in more depth tomorrow.

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2013 SHOT Show – Day 2 With Gunblast.Com

January 17, 2013 by

Jeff Quinn of Gunblast.Com is back for day two of the SHOT Show with more firearms, knives, and accessories. It was interesting to see the Caracal 9mm carbine as I had heard about it on the GunDudes mini-podcast from the show.

One of the manufacturers interviewed was Newtown Firearms of Placerville, California. You have to wonder how much grief they have been getting from the gun prohibitionists over their company name.

You can see more photos from day two here.

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Obama’s Proposals Attack Crufflers Directly

January 17, 2013 by 2 Comments

The Obama Adminstration’s blueprint for gun control, Now Is The Time, directly targets those of us affectionately known as Crufflers. Crufflers are those of use who hold Curios and Relics Federal Firearms Licenses for the purpose of collecting older firearms. Many who collect these firearms do so out of an interest in military history.

Our ability to collect weapons from overseas that have a military connection such as the M-1 Garands and M-1 carbines in South Korea are directly impacted by Obama’s proposals.

From page 7 of Now Is The Time:

Eliminate restrictions that force the ATF to authorize importation of dangerous
weapons simply because of their age:

ATF is required to authorize the importation of
certain “curio or relic” firearms, and outdated regulations include all firearms manufactured more
than 50 years ago in the definition of “curio or relic.” But today, firearms manufactured more than
50 years ago include large numbers of semiautomatic military-surplus rifles, some of which are
easily convertible into machine guns or otherwise appealing for use in crime. Congress should
get rid of restrictions that prevent ATF from changing this definition, enabling ATF to ensure
that firearms imported as curios or relics are actually of interest as collectibles, rather than letting
these rules be used as a way to acquire fully functional and powerful military weapons.

So if you have a collection of SKS carbines with examples from the Soviet Union, China, Yugoslavia, and other Eastern European countries and need just to get the Albanian variant to complete your collection, Obama says no unless it is in the country already.

Say your tastes are a bit more esoteric and expensive and you want either a FN-49 in 7mm from Venezuela or a AG-42 Ljungmann from Sweden, you can forget it because they both are semi-automatic military-surplus rifles.

I wonder if someone in the Administration can explain just how screwing collectors is going to stop crime in the streets. For some reason, I don’t think so.

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The Ground War

January 17, 2013 by 2 Comments

The fight to preserve our gun rights in the face of the attacks that have been launched by the Obama Administration will come down to who has the better ground war – us or them.

On Monday, Vice-President Joe Biden met with a group of House Democrats regarding the proposals that would be put forth to advance gun control. In addition to laying out the proposals he was going to present to President Obama, he discussed the campaign to get them enacted by Congress.


But Biden did indicate that the remains of the Obama campaign apparatus may be activated in the effort.

“He said that this has been a real focus on the policy and that the politics of this issue, that a strategy on the politics of the issue hasn’t been undertaken yet,” Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) told POLITICO. “He did remind us that the campaign infrastructure is still accessible.”

Not only is that campaign infrastructure still in place but Obama for America is still actively raising money even though Barack Obama is Constitutionally limited to two terms.

In an article in The Atlantic today, Ron Fournier discussed how Obama and his advisers plan to use his personal political organization, Obama for America, to fight for everything from gun control to higher taxes.


Former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, a confidant of the president, signaled the high-testosterone approach shortly before Obama’s announcement on guns, telling MSNBC, “The president has the most exciting campaign apparatus ever built. It’s time to turn that loose.”

He speculated that the National Rifle Association is lobbying lawmakers with the names and numbers of new NRA members in each congressional district, gun-rights supporters galvanized by the Newtown elementary school massacre. “If the NRA has a list,” Gibbs said, “then Obama for America has a bigger list.”

OFA is the president’s personal political operation, affiliated with the Democratic National Committee. One of the great failings of Obama’s first term was his inability to mobilize his election coalition to advance his policy goals from the White House.

He’s going to try again.

Gibbs is probably right that Obama for America has a bigger list than all the gun rights organizations put together.

However, the people who have supported Obama in the past have a multitude of interests and causes ranging from economic issues to gay rights and everything in between. By contrast, gun rights supporters regardless of whether they belong to the NRA, GOA, CCRKBA, SAF, or any of a number of state-level organizations are focused on one thing – gun rights.

The Pew Research Center for People and the Press released the results of their most recent poll concerning gun control on Monday. According to this poll, a majority of Americans favor more background checks and a new assault weapon ban. A near majority favor restrictions on magazines. In and of itself, this is not good news. Overall, a bare majority (51% vs. 45%)  think it is more important to control guns compared to preserving gun rights.

Fortunately, the Pew Research Center did not limit their research to just who favored what ban and in what numbers. They also studied how committed and how active supporters on each side of the gun control debate were. The results were interesting.


There is a wide gap between those who prioritize gun rights and gun control when it comes to political involvement. Nearly a quarter (23%) of those who say gun rights should be the priority have contributed money to an organization that takes a position on gun policy, compared with just 5% of those who prioritize gun control. People who favor gun rights are also about twice as likely as gun control supporters to have contacted a public official about gun policy (15% vs. 8%).

While the numbers expressing an opinion on social media or signing a petition are roughly equal with a slight edge to those favoring gun rights, petitions and posts on Facebook don’t get the attention of those in Congress nearly as much as money and calls from constituents.

Make no mistake that we are in a war but it is a ground war that we can win. Those on the side of the Second Amendment put our money where our mouth is and back it up with calls and letters to politicians.

If you haven’t called your Congressman or Senators yet, do it tomorrow. If you don’t like talking on the phone, send them a fax. Indeed fax it to both their local offices and their Washington office. If you don’t have time to do either of those two, at least go to the Ruger website and use their tool to make your views known. Since it went live on Saturday, almost 450,000 people have taken advantage of that tool which sends a simple letter to your congressman, both senators, governor, lt. governor, and state representatives.

And continue contacting them each and every week for the next few months!

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The NSSF State Of The Industry Speech

January 16, 2013 by

Steve Sanetti, president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, gave the State of the Industry speech yesterday in Las Vegas at the SHOT Show. His speech which lasts about 17 minutes is well worth a listen. He doesn’t shy away from talking about the Newtown shooting which occurred in the NSSF’s hometown. I like his ending where he is repeating what an elderly man said to him about punishing the good people.

Sanetti was the President and CEO of Sturm, Ruger before he became head of the NSSF. He has been through many of these battles before and is a good man to have on our side.

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At Least One Mega-State Governor Gets It

January 16, 2013 by 2 Comments

Unlike Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York, there is one governor of a mega-state that actually gets it. That governor is Rick Perry of Texas. His comments today on the calls for more gun control make a lot more sense that the hysteria we hear from the gun prohibitionists in and out of DC.


“The Vice President’s committee was appointed in response to the tragedy at Newtown, but very few of his recommendations have anything to do with what happened there.

“Guns require a finger to pull the trigger. The sad young man who did that in Newtown was clearly haunted by demons and no gun law could have saved the children in Sandy Hook Elementary from his terror.

“There is evil prowling in the world – it shows up in our movies, video games and online fascinations, and finds its way into vulnerable hearts and minds. As a free people, let us choose what kind of people we will be. Laws, the only redoubt of secularism, will not suffice. Let us all return to our places of worship and pray for help. Above all, let us pray for our children.

“In fact, the piling on by the political left, and their cohorts in the media, to use the massacre of little children to advance a pre-existing political agenda that would not have saved those children, disgusts me, personally. The second amendment to the Constitution is a basic right of free people and cannot be nor will it be abridged by the executive power of this or any other president.”

I know he bombed on the primary trail when running for president which is a real shame given his economic record in Texas and his strong support for the Second Amendment. I hope he’ll be one of the speakers at the NRA’s Annual Meeting in Houston.

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Sen. Richard Burr’s Response To Obama’s Call For Gun Control

January 16, 2013 by 7 Comments

Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) is the senior senator from North Carolina and has been on the correct side of gun rights for years. He released the statement below rejecting Obama’s call for gun control. It is short, sweet, to the point, and unequivocal. I’m glad to see at least one senator from the Tar Heel State stands behind the Second Amendment.

I will fight any effort to further infringe on the Second Amendment rights of American citizens, whether it is legislation or executive action by the President. I am open to having a conversation about ways in which our nation can address mental health issues and reduce violence, but I will not stand by while the President and others try to restrict the rights of law-abiding American citizens.

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This Move By Cabelas Is Going To Cost Me Money

January 16, 2013 by 6 Comments



Cabela’s announced today that they were going to be opening a store in Greenville, South Carolina in the spring of 2014. They also say in the announcement they are going to open one in Bristol, VA.  Having been a customer of Cabela’s for years now, I can see that these moves by them is going to cost me some money. It is one thing to have one of their destination stores hundreds of miles away and another thing to have not one but two within an hour’s drive!

SIDNEY, Neb.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Jan. 15, 2013– Cabela’s Incorporated (NYSE: CAB), the World’s Foremost Outfitter® of hunting, fishing and outdoor gear, announced today plans to open a store in Greenville, S.C., bringing Cabela’s extraordinary retail experience to customers in Greenville and the surrounding area.

Cabela’s expects to open the store – its first South Carolina location – in spring 2014. The 100,000-square-foot store will be located in Magnolia Park, a newly redeveloped shopping center located at the junction of Interstates-385 and -85 on Woodruff Road. Magnolia Park, being developed by Menin Development, already includes Costco, Regal Cinemas, Rooms to Go, Cheddar’s and other retailers and restaurants, with plans for additional expansion.

“South Carolinians are part of an exceptional outdoor tradition and share the Cabela’s lifestyle and values. We wanted to build a store in the Greenville area to recognize that,” said Cabela’s Chief Executive Officer Tommy Millner. “We are also excited about the opportunity to expand our retail footprint in the Southeast.”

The store is expected to employ approximately 235 full-time, part-time and seasonal employees, and most will come from Greenville and the surrounding area. Cabela’s typically attracts as staffers experienced outdoor recreationalists, who join the Cabela’s family of employees known for their passion for and knowledge of the outdoors as well as excellent customer service skills.

“We are excited that Cabela’s has chosen Greenville for its first South Carolina location,” said Greenville Mayor Knox White. “Cabela’s unique retail experience is a great fit for Greenville and will complement other unique retail offerings in Magnolia Park. We welcome Cabela’s and look forward to their opening.”

The building’s exterior will reflect Cabela’s popular store model with log construction, stonework, wood siding and metal roofing. A large glass storefront will allow customers to view much of the store’s interior as they approach the building. The inside will feature the company’s next-generation layout, designed to surround customers in an outdoor experience, including museum-quality wildlife displays and trophy animal mounts displayed on a mountain. The store will also feature a Gun Library, Bargain Cave, Fudge Shop and indoor archery range. The start of construction is still to be determined.

“We are pleased and proud that Cabela’s has chosen Magnolia Park as their point of entry into the Southeast.” said Craig Menin, President of Menin Development. “The fact that Cabela’s, with all of the various options available to it, chose Magnolia speaks directly to the quality of our market and of our project. We welcome Cabela’s to Magnolia and join everyone in the area as we eagerly await the opening of their store in 2014.”

Also today, Cabela’s announced plans to build a store in Woodbury, Minn., opening in 2014. Cabela’s has previously announced plans to open stores in Saginaw, Mich.; Columbus, Ohio; Grandville, Mich.; Louisville, Ky.; Green Bay, Wis.; Thornton, Colo.; Lone Tree, Colo.; Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada; Kalispell, Mont.; Anchorage, Alaska; Bristol, Va.; and Christiana, Del. It also will relocate its Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, store. Currently, Cabela’s operates 40 retail stores across the United States and Canada.

Cabela’s stores showcase thousands of products, including hunting, fishing, camping, hiking, boating and wildlife-watching gear, as well as clothing and outdoor-themed gifts and furnishings. The company is famous for its strong brand and world-renowned reputation for delivering quality merchandise, value and legendary customer service.

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Undercover Feds At SHOT Show?

January 16, 2013 by 11 Comments

In today’s The Outdoor Wire, there was a report that undercover Federal agents from BATFE, the FBI, and the USAF Office of Special Investigations were spread out amongst the crowds at the SHOT Show in Las Vegas. They were leaving cards that said to “report suspicious activity”.


As the industry poises for the Obama administration, word spread through SHOT Show that undercover agents supposedly from a variety of different agencies, from ATF to OSI, were wandering around the show floor, passing out business cards that bore an official-looking seal and the words “Suspicious Activity Reporting: 702-690-9142”

Curious, one industry insider called the number. After several rings, a recorded message thanked him for reporting the suspicious activity, and asked for a callback number. Instead, he hung up. Only a few minutes later, their cellphone rang and a caller identified himself as an FBI agent following up on the “suspicious activity report”.

When questioned about the supposed federal agents wandering the floor, the caller said that despite the fact that OSI was a military agency, breaches of security when it came to the “kinds of equipment displayed at SHOT Show” gave them full domestic arrest powers.

Many attendees at the SHOW have received these cards, raising questions of the legitimacy of the supposed agents and the possibility that SHOT was under far closer federal scrutiny than normal.

This report doesn’t leave me feeling warm and fuzzy about President Obama’s claims that responsible gun owners have nothing to worry about from him.

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I Think My Congressman Might Actually Get It

January 16, 2013 by

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC-11) is a freshman Republican from western North Carolina. He replaced Rep. Heath Shuler (D) who retired to become a lobbyist for Duke Energy in Washington. After Obama’s gun control speech this morning, he released the statement below. I just spoke with his office in Washington and I think they get it.


Washington, D.C. – Representative Mark Meadows (NC-11) released the following statement after President Obama announced that he is moving forward with sweeping gun control measures.

“The recent tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut will never be forgotten. However, it is shameful that rather than having a serious discussion about the root of the violence behind the shooting, President Obama is using this tragedy as a vehicle for his own political agenda. He made his motives clear today when he used innocent children as the backdrop of his press conference.

“I am dedicated to preventing horrific incidents like the Newtown shooting from ever happening again, which is why I am committed to enforcing existing laws, examining issues like mental health and bolstering safety precautions in schools. We need to put politics aside and have meaningful conversations about the tragedy in Connecticut, but the president circumventing Congress and implementing his own rule of law is not the way to proceed. I encourage the president to change his course and sit down at the table with both political parties so we can prevent future tragedies.”

 While the release doesn’t mention the proposed AWB or magazine bans, the impression I got from staff was that he opposed it. I’ll just have to make sure that he gets a weekly call along with a letter for the foreseeable future. I think this is what we need to do with all our representatives in Washington.