SHOT Show 2023 and TheFirearmBlog

 TheFirearmBlog has posted tons of info from this year's SHOT Show on their blog and their two YouTube channels. I've almost forgotten to look anywhere else for information.

The Firearm Blog on YouTube

TFBTV Show Time on YouTube

The Firearm Blog

Of course, there is Michael Bane's site, videos, and podcast.

MichaelBane.TV

Triggered! on YouTube

MB.TV On The Radio

And then Classic Firearms - my local favorite.

ClassicFirearms on YouTube

Outside The Warehouse on YouTube

Classic Firearms News

Ruger's Big Announcement

Michael Bane said on his podcast this week that Ruger has a big pre SHOT Show announcement. Of course, we are talking about one of Ruger's product introductions that always preceed SHOT Show. Well, it sounds like it will come a little earlier this year.

I'm intrigued. Maybe it will be a SIG Cross clone.

Credit: SportsmansFinest.com

And by the way, SHOT Show is cancelled.

Violence Is, Well, Violent

 It seems that, once attacked or threatened, most people are too shocked by the affront to immediately mount an effective defense.

Like Michael Bane often suggests and blatantly states, you need a plan for actions against assaults before you are actually in a defensive situation.

In addition to that sage advice, I think you need to curate the mindset needed to deal with a situation that might maim or kill you. Many of us could develop very quickly the rage necessary to prosecute blood-thirsty revenge, if someone harms us or a loved one. But could we instantly fight off an assault, when we are attacked?

"... when it's time to fight, you fight like you're the third monkey on the ramp to Noah's Ark… and brother, it's startin' to rain."

- Christopher Woods, Rash'Tor'R

Sub $300 Gun

Originally posted on the Hoplotarian blog

Michael Bane had said on his Down Range Radio Podcast episode #619 that SCCY had found a niche - the sub-$300 gun (presumably 9mm). He also focused on Ruger's sub-$200 Wrangler, which is now challenging the Heritage sub-$200 single-action .22 revolvers. Ban'es point was that the big players will eventually see potential in a niche and then invade and take it over.

So how many sub-$300 9mm pistols are out there? And according to Bane, we are talking about MSRP - I think.

To start with, SCCY offers their CPX-1 at $284 and CPX-2 at $269.99. The CPX-2 deletes the manual safety.

credit: SCCY.com

To my amazement, Taurus now offers NO sub-$300 guns in 9mm. They used to - but no more.

Ruger comes in at $299 with the EC9s, a decontented economy LC9s with machined instead of adjustable/replaceable sites and only one magazine.

credit: Ruger.com

Smith & Wesson offers nothing? So where are the big boys with the cheap guns?
600
But first let's explore some of the offerings by some of the smaller players. Kel-Tec offers NOTHING. Then of course, there are the extreme-budget makers.

Hi-Point comes in at $199 ($219 as shown) with the "entry level" C-9.

credit: Hi-PointFirearms.com

Cobra offers its Big Bore Derringer in 9mm for a probably MSRP of around $187*. The Cobra Patriot 9mm is priced out of the competition.

credit: SportsmansOutdoorSuperstore.com

Jimenez, possibly the smallest and cheapest pistol maker, offers the J.A. Nine at $199*.

credit: JimenezArmsInc.com

Now price and quality start going up. Diamondbnack's DB9's MSRP is $269.

credit: DiamondbackFirearms.com

So where are the "big-boy" manufacturers with this? Remington offers nothing below $300. So it looks like the sub-$300 9mm semiautomatic niche being invaded is a myth, or MSRP is not really the benchmark, or Michael Bane has some top-secret info under NDA wraps.

So what are we talking about? Also, we are also looking at a window in time, because of inflation. My first-ever firearm was an SKS that my uncle purchased as a dealer for $89. So adjusted for inflation and dealer markup we are looking at a gun that would retail for $300 now.

Let's get back to the current sub-$300 handgun thing and what Bane was getting at. Since SCCY had "such a niche," I'm going to make a few assumptions: (1) sub-$300 MSRP and (2) 9mm, and (3) quality, (4) 10-round magazine. All that would make the SCCY 9mms really the current niche firearms.



credit: SportsmansOutdoorSuperstore.com

So since quality is subjective, and this is my blog post not Bane's, this is a list of the guns available despite quality:

Sub-$300 Guns: Contenders 

1. SCCY CPX-1 (safety) & CPX-2 (safety delete) 
Price: $284.00 & $269.99 (base prices)
Capacity: 10+1
Weight: 15 oz


2. Jimenez JA-NINE
Price: $199*
Capacity: 12+1
Weight: 30 oz



Sub-$300 Guns: Pretenders

1. Ruger EC9s
Price: $299 + ~$17 = $316
Capacity: 10+1 (with aftermarket magazine)

Weight: 17.2 oz +
Disqualified: Price & Form-Factor Violation

2. Hi-Point C-9
Price: $199 +$21 = $220
Capacity: 10+1 (with "accessory" magazine)
Weight: 25 oz +
Disqualified: Form-Factor Violation

3. Diamondback DB9
Price: $269
Capacity: 6+1
Weight: 13.4 oz
Disqualified: Lack of 10-round magazine

4. Cobra Big Bore Derringers (6 pistols)
Price: $1122
Capacity: 12
Weight: 84 oz
Disqualified: Completely Ridiculous

So in the end, SCCY does not have a niche, unless you factor in weight and overall quality. I think in my follow-up post the two factors will be mitigated, if I think I know what Michael Bane is getting at. So the Jimenez JA-NINE stays for now.

*Genitron.com

We Outsourced The Fight

According to Michael Bane, gun-rights advocates are failing on two fronts, and a new one has opened up:

1. "The willingness to outsource the fight."

2. "Inability to consolidate victory."

3. "We are now in a Culture War" and that makes it a "zero-sum game."

Whom did we outsource the fight to? Bane said it was pretty much left up to Gun Culture 2.0, and they did what the rest of us did (Gun Culture 1.0) - which was not much. But I think the most important that we ALL did was act like "membership" WAS the fight. We joined the NRA. We followed Facebook gun pages. We liked posts and loved tweets. We enjoyed the echo chamber. 

We do make small victories. Bane contends that we elected Trump, but what have we gotten for it? And he said that the same thing went for Bush, Jr. We do not hold our elected officials to task and account, and Republicans in Congress are demonstrating that in spades. We rest on shaky laurels; we do not consolidate victories - judicial, legislative, elected, and appointed.

And now with the liberal MSM and politicians pandering to youth, Bane finally contends that we are in a Culture War in which the anti-private-gun faction wants us dead. They want to rip private guns from American culture, and since they are so determined to pursue this Culture War, then this is a zero-sum game. Either we win, or they win.

Well, I believe that we will never lose. We may have setbacks - like most of the 20th century, but gun rights are on an upswing with concealed carry and Constitutional carry, and the judiciary slowly recognizing the natural, individual right to arms.

So what have I done? I have argued with Facebook friends and foes - and edjumacated coworkers, but did I do anything political?

Well, in this modern social-media age, I did offer kudos to my U.S. Rep, when he posted his NRA rating on Facebook - and I defended him and encouraged him and he responded positively. But I haven't written a letter to a pol in a couple years, and I've never done anything else.

 So what to do? I listened to the recent Society and the State podcast episode "How To Lobby In Your Pajamas." Connor Boyack's main strategy is, if I can be so bold to paraphrase: Treat politicians as people. Offer them a free lunch. Honor their accomplishments (of course, the ones that went our way). Even if they are not NRA "A+" rated, we still need to make them feel appreciated. Give kudos for non-gun issues. Make your contact with them a positive experience, and of course, contact them about the issues you care about.

What else, I don't know. But in the meantime, I need to research what my Congress people have been doing - and contact them.

Oh, yeah. Apparently, state-level gun rights organizations can be really effective and need more attention.

You might be saying: "What's this we crap?" If you have been active in lobbying politicians and defending our rights, then I say: "Thank you."

Firearms: Sporting and Self-Defense Purposes

I could claim a myriad of sporting and self-defense purposes for a semi-automatic, combat-like rifle. I could say something like:

I enjoy preparing for the coming economic collapse.

I like playing Rambo on the weekends.

The Mayan calendar was wrong, but I know it's coming.

I enjoy three gun.

I've decided such a weapon is my best form of self defense.

But I don't need any of those justifications for owning and possessing my property. The right to keep and bear arms is a natural right enumerated in the 2nd Amendment. The natural right is not for some arms; it is for all arms.

The founders also wanted to make sure of one additional thing: that the common person would be an integral part of the defense of ones state, of ones military, as a citizen, as a private individual, with ones privately owned arms. A citizen needs an effective weapon that brings parity* with common military arms.


Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show Shoots Self In Foot
I'm glad to see that the major sponsors and vendor after vendor are abandoning the Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show, because they fail to see that shunning the black rifle or "tactical" weapons abandons the 2nd Amendment for a watered-down, "legitimate"-sporting-purpose privilege.

In the promoter's defense, Reed Exhibitions's markets the show as a "unique celebration of authentic hunting and fishing traditions." But the "modern sporting rifle" - I really hate that term, by the way - the modern sporting rifle has made major inroads into hunting and self-defense uses. Almost every maker of ARs makes a varmint version. Manufacturers of ARs and ammunition have been working for several years to develop systems that are effective for larger game. Some are not as scary looking, because they ironically have fright-disrupting camouflage. For example, there is the Remington R-25 in military-developed 7.62x51mm NATO.

http://remington.com/en/products/firearms/centerfire/model-r-25/model-r-25-rifle.aspx

And not to put too fine a point on the legitimacy of using military-style arms for sporting stuff - because we don't need to care - but the deadly-for-humans Springfield 1903 in military-developed .30 '06 bagged plenty of game, whether it was "sporterized" or not.

And not to belabor the point, but hunters putting ARs in the field "normalizes" the use of ARs. And once again, we don't need to care, but "normalizing" is one part public relations and one part "a right not exercised is lost" foil.

Michael Bane, putting it pretty well:

WE ARE UNITED!
I've read today about how hunters and shooters have "different needs," and how the NRA membership is "separated" from the NRA executive. Let me use a simple, easily understood word here:
BULL! 

*A couple firearms Acts put us at a disadvantage, illegitimately.