Heck, the Big Storm missed my little corner of the High Country...we got a smattering of snow, but the 60+ mph gusting winds stripped it all away. It's nippy, but hey, it's winter.
Interestingly enough, considering some of our former conversations, our "pals" at the Violence Policy Center — who regularly read this blog; you wouldn't believe what hope Santa brings them! — is opening a new front in their relentless attack on our gun rights.."big boomers," also known as hunting handguns. This from their "special report" last week:
“Big Boomers”—Handguns With Rifle Power Capable of Penetrating Body Armor—Are Growing Threat to Lives of Law Enforcement Officers, According to New VPC StudyAs you guys all know, this is how it works...all guns — hunting, competition, self-defense — are "potential" tools of terrorists. Of course, so are knives, soda bottle, airplanes, puppies, garden rakes, indeed pretty much everything on earth is a "potnetial" tool of terrorists.
Drug Traffickers Are Already Using These “Vest-Busters” to Kill Police in Mexico
Washington, DC—Powerful new handguns called “big boomers” by the gun industry are a growing threat to the nation’s law enforcement officers, a new 36-page study released today by the Violence Policy Center (VPC) reveals. (See http://www.vpc.org/studies/bigboomers.pdf for a copy of the study, see http://www.vpc.org/studies/boomerskeyfindings.pdf for a summary presenting the key findings of the study.) Body armor used by police has been able to stop handgun rounds and saved thousands of lives over the last three decades, the study states, but standard body armor cannot stop rifle rounds. "Big Boomers"—Rifle Power Designed Into Handguns warns that the gun industry is aggressively marketing a growing number of new handguns designed to fire bullets with rifle power. The rounds these guns fire can penetrate all but the most resistant body armor (such as that used in raids by many SWAT teams).
“The gun industry has once again proven that it is willing to put profits over health, safety, and even national security,” VPC Senior Policy Analyst Tom Diaz, the study’s author, states. “The firearms industry is congratulating itself that ‘big boomers’ are ‘good for business,’ even while these guns are ending up in the hands of felons and drug dealers in the United States. One need look no further than Mexico—where these guns are smuggled in by drug traffickers and used to kill police— to understand the growing threat these weapons represent to U.S. law enforcement and security forces.”
The study traces the proliferation of various “big boomers” and the gun industry’s increased marketing of vest-buster handguns following the 2003 introduction of the first vest buster: the Model 500 S&W Magnum from Smith & Wesson.
Adds Diaz, “Marketing deadly firearms such as these is yet another reckless spasm of an industry that finds its markets shrinking and is willing to do anything to try to pump them up.”
Diaz is a smart man with a political agenda...the complete disarming of all the people of the United States...and in his mind the ends justify the means. VPC doesn't hesitate to simply make things up, much lke the old Weekly World News and their 34-pound grasshoppers. MSM outlets pick up the VPC reports and present them as fact. By the time the VPC reports are exposed as complete bunk, the damage is done.
Since the VPC doesn't think Americans should be allowed to own these things, here's how you can get a boomer of your own for Christmas!
As an aside, I'm a big fan of the boomers, and as Gary smith notes, they're all very hard to shoot. My first big boomer was a 10-inch 45/70 T/C from J.D. Jones back before there were factory barrels in that caliber. I went from there to one of J.D.'s looney .50 cal T/C barrels. Then, thanks to Hank Williams Jr. who gave me my first .454 Casull, I moved into big bore single actions.
I enjoy shooting the .500 Mag S&Ws; I've got a long-barreled one and would love one of the 5-inch John Ross Specials...the absolutely best .500 I've ever shot and one of the few guns that might convince me that there's a caliber more versatile than the great .44 Magnum.
If you don't have a boomer, give one a try, especially since Tom Diaz doesn't want you to have one. The least expensive path is one of the Taurus "Raging Bull" series of revolvers in .454 and .500 or the superb Ruger Super Redhawk line, which includes .454 and .480 Ruger. I love my Ruger Alaskan snubby-boomer .454...with hot CorBon hunting loads, that gun would make God flinch.
The ne plus ultra of the genre are the hunting revolvers from Freedom Arms. They are masterpieces, and, yes, you can have it your way. The Freedom Arms guns are, to me, the pinnacle of the single action revolver, an heirloom.
Magnum Research, famous for their Desert Eagle semiauto boomers in .50 AE, also has an extensive line of BFRs, Big Fine Revolvers, in a slew of boomer calibers, including 45/70, 30/30 and .450 Marlin. Their custom shop can also tinker together pretty much whatever you want. I haven't shot any of the BFRs, but I think there might be one in my future.
vpc- they have imaginations bigger than any kid ever. But EVIL! I was in a good mood. Maybe I'll stop at the gun shop and buy some .454,.480,.308 for mine. Just for Christmas! Damn if they don't make a case against the 1st. Antigun ignorance is boundless. Evil spews from their breath and pores infecting those who just don't know different. God help the Republic. the mushroom --Merry Christmas MB, sweetie, alf, shooters, hunters, good gunners everywhere.
ReplyDeleteMB why is there no organized response to these attacks? Why is it that we shooters love to bitch and moan, quote how many there are of us, yet do nothing when the vermin like VPC come up with a great idea (for them) for another attack?
ReplyDeleteCan we not organize and gather ourselves together so that when VPC comes up with some campaign we respond quickly and effectively across the entire country? We get to the media before it turns viral? I propose a "war room" for our side. You see how political campaigns have evolved over the last decade. They in fact monitor the press and their sensors go off when negative reports come out. They then respond in hours ! OUR WAR ROOM MUST ALSO DO THIS.
A holiday weekend will go by and NOTHING will happen. But by Monday they will have spread their vile lies to every news organization in the US. I will bet you that by next week they have something posted on Youtube, Facebook etc.
If you tell me that we should just wait for the NRA to do something I will just puke. To be quite honest I am becoming more disappointed in the leadership of the NRA as the years go by. Yes they are a great organization but they are NOT keeping up with the world. And yes, I am a member. A Benefactor Life member, and I've given them many thousands of dollars (even when I couldn't afford it). So I put my wallet where my mouth is.
nj larry is right. We need to be counterpunching faster.
ReplyDeleteHere's an idea...do a debunking segment on one of the TV shows. Regularly disassemble one of the great myths.
As to the big boomers...they're not my cup of tea. Flintlock & percussion duelling pistols, and the Olympic-grade .22 pistols are more to my taste.
The industry doesn't counter punch....EVER. The industry lets our opponents define us. We are among the poorest political communicators of any group and certainly of one with the kind of financial resources available.
ReplyDeleteThe interesting thing is that this comes out in time for SHOT Show. So, who doesn't think that they, VPC, would try to get this message into the SHOT Show coverage. Some b-roll from the floor of the newest big handgun, some of the past favorites and then cut back to studio to get comments from VPC spin-meister.
And where will we be, you ask. We'll be talking amongst ourselves pretending we're getting our message out when we're not.
[changing the subject] Where is the Wednesday popcast?
ReplyDeleteForget counterpunching. Get on the offensive.
ReplyDeleteLink a friend or family member to DRTV. :-)
Take a new friend or family member shooting each month.
After they're hooked, gift them an NRA membership at next birthday or holiday.
As for the big handguns. I'm happy as a clam with my Colt 45 old model Vaquero. It'll handle more load than I care to handle.
That reminds me, I've got a bag of 310gr SWC waiting to be loaded into 45 Colt. Here piggy, piggy.
nj_larry said...
ReplyDeleteMB why is there no organized response to these attacks? Why is it that we shooters love to bitch and moan, quote how many there are of us, yet do nothing when the vermin like VPC come up with a great idea (for them) for another attack?
Larry, I agree completely. We've got to fire right back at them every time they release garbage like this. I'm starting a new blog that I hope will at least give a few people the right idea.
Here
This battle won't be won or lost in the 'blogosphere', but it's a place to start. There's nothing there yet, but I'll publish very soon. I'm geting tired of the anti gun crap.
Sigh...nj_larry and the other commenters are right! The rationale from the industry, BTW, is that counterpunching simply brings attention to the antigun message.
ReplyDeleteYou will note, however, that this strategy has never worked, because it allows the enemy an open field for spewing their lies. their message gets out; we don't even have a message.
When I created the star-crossed Media Program years back, me, Paul Erhardt, Scottie Moore and our cadre of ace instructors — Dave Arnold, Todd Jarrett, Walt Rauch, Lisa Munson, Lisa Farrell, Dave Thomas and many others — were determined to take the battle to the enemy. And we won, again and again and again. The antigunners weren't prepared for our relentless counterpunching and having to deal with an offensive instead of silence. They especially weren't prepared for us making fun of their lies instead of nodding respectfully then presenting our counterarguments.
At the beginning of the program, Sarah Brady bragged she could make the evening news on all three networks with one phone call. By the end of the program, her operatives were running around Washington asking everyone they could find what the heck had happened. They were so rattled they attacked me by name in the New York Times, a big no-no in media war and a clear act of desperation.
I remember lunch in D.C. with one of our lobbyist...he laughed that he was playing handball with Brady's lobbyists when he got off work. "You can't do that..." he said to me. "You really, honestly hate them, don't you?"
I believe you guys know the answer to that question.
We even cracked Hollywood, something considered impossible. At our last event we got a message through a mutual friend from Quentin Tarantino, asking whether he might attend an event.
The program died for 2 reasons...it was expensive by industry standards (a tiny fraction. BTW, of the funding for recruitment and retention and feel-good programs, which is probably one of the reasons I respond so poorly to them). And 2, the industry found it scary...we had to respond quickly, "on the ground," without time to go back to an industry council and call for a vote or fret the wording of a press release. It didn't help thay I lost a couple of my "rabbis" high up in the industry, so there was suddenly no one covering our back.
In truth, we were high visibilty and high risk, and we knew how to win. The industry is still reaping benefits from that program.
MB
I think that the VPC should sue body armor manufacturers too! After all none of them do the responsible thing and make sure the face is protected. Any decent terrorist, drug dealer, ne'er-do-well knows that all you have to do to defeat body armor is shoot them in the face.
ReplyDeleteBody armor used by police has been able to stop handgun rounds and saved thousands of lives over the last three decades, the study states, but standard body armor cannot stop rifle rounds. "Big Boomers"—Rifle Power Designed Into Handguns warns that the gun industry is aggressively marketing a growing number of new handguns designed to fire bullets with rifle power. The rounds these guns fire can penetrate all but the most resistant body armor (such as that used in raids by many SWAT teams).
The preceding message does not condone shooting most government officials in the face.
Maybe the reality here is that there's no such thing as "body armor". After all, if you have to "tell" the criminal which type of gun he should use and in what caliber, why not just "tell" him/her not to shoot police officers! OR, maybe companies are getting rich on selling "protection" that really doesn't protect.
ReplyDeleteDon't get me wrong, some protection is better than none and there is much data to show that body armor saves lives, but are we not setting a too-high expectation by the uninformed public? Oh wait, now I get it. That's all part of the indoctrination.
I can only wonder what the real motivation for citizen disarmament really is. No wait. I really do know what that is.
Life Member
"Are Growing Threat to Lives of Law Enforcement Officers"
ReplyDeleteToo bad that they couldn't care less about the rest of us and want to disarm us, so as to leave us at the mercy of merciless criminals. Too bad for us.
"big boomers"...... jesus, if I didn't know it was actually their site I'd assume the phrase came from some parody type site.
ReplyDelete