In the Midst of the B-S Tsunami, Some Good Gun News!

[Pix from Ammoland]

So a couple of years ago as the SHOT Show was winding down, I ran into my old friend Gary Ramey, who wanted to talk about concealed carry. Gary and I have an interesting history…when he was at USA Shooting as their media guy and I was working with NSSF on some events to raise the visibility of the U.S. Olympic shooting team, Gary and I cooked up the idea to get a major arms manufacturer to do a special USA Shooting version of a popular gun, with some of the proceeds going to the perpetually cash-strappped Olympic team. The results speak for themselves — Kimber's special edition 1911 led that company to become the largest contributor to USA Shooting in history, and many other gun companies followed suit.

Yes, I know everybody and his dog Fred have taken credit for concocting that deal…Gary and I are certain they're all 100% right! LOL!

I worked with Gary when he headed up Beretta in the U.S., and we've remained good friends over the year.  So that day at SHOT Gary asked a simple — and odd, to me — question:

If you had a blank slate, what would your ideal carry gun look like?

About the same time, I saw Rob Pincus and waved him over. Gun guys love stuff like this! So me and Rob and Gary blue-skied a single stack 9mm, available with or without a redundant safety (that's me), available with the option of a longer slide, since the length of the slide is not so much a determining factor for CCW as the length and shape of the grip, striker-fired, polymer-framed, east to disassemble (without pulling the trigger), etc. Gary took notes.

At the end of the conversation, Gary said, "What would you guys think of me building that very gun?" Great idea, but I believe I was honest about the long string of barriers to successfully bringing an independent gun to market.

Gary just kept smiling.

At NASGW next week Gary's Honor Defense will premiere their line of CCW 9mms. I am not only very excited for my friend, but I'm impressed as all get-out with the gun. He assembled an advisory board of experts and —get this! — listened to them!

After a long conversation yesterday, Gary did a quickie iPhone video of the disassembly and sent it to me. I've asked for his permission to post it here.

Marshal's and my plan is to get a full video report up as quickly as possible.

Congratulations, Gary! Great job!

Another great sign and milestone in the path to normalizing silencers. From the American Suppressor Association, the industry lobbying group:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The American Suppressor Association (ASA) is pleased to announce the introduction of the Hearing Protection Act (HPA) by Rep. Matt Salmon (AZ-05). This historic piece of legislation will remove suppressors from the purview of the National Firearms Act (NFA), replacing the antiquated federal transfer process with an instantaneous NICS background check. The HPA also includes a provision to refund the $200 transfer tax to applicants who purchase a suppressor after October 22, 2015.

This is a very important step, because it shows how far the drive normalization has come. As you know, SHOOTING GALLERY has been on the forefront of this drive since Season 1, when we called for all LEOs issues AR-15 pattern carbines to have access to silencers.

I suspect this first initiative won't succeed — it should, since we voted this clown car full of fools into office, but hey, they haven't done anything else — and should it actually succeed, the Other Fool will veto for certain. But is it s very important start!