Here we go.

I really have no words for this.

ATTN: MD residents who have legally purchased HBARs and AR10s out of state.

The police may be coming for you.

I'd like to know who's making all these random decisions without notifying the public.

More info regarding Saturday's post.

Go read it here.

God, it's even worse than we thought.

From an email I recieved from Associated Gun Clubs:

Governor Compromises the Privacy of Thousands of Maryland Citizens

We have confirmed earlier reports that on orders from Governor O'Malley, the Maryland State Police are sharing the personal information on 77R firearms purchase application forms with the following non-MSP government agencies:

Department of Human Resources (DHR)
Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
Department of Transportation
Department of Public Safety
Correctional Services of Department of General Services

This will impact no less than the 38 thousand Maryland citizens who are currently still waiting for the MSP to "Not Disapprove" their applications to purchase a regulated firearm.

It is our information that state employees are being offered "comp time" to work this weekend doing data input. Other than a reported confidentiality agreement, there appears to be no effort to investigate the possible criminal backgrounds of these employees.

These forms contain the applicant's name, address, date and place of birth, social security number as well as information on the firearm the applicant intends to purchase. The Maryland State Police have lost control of the Licensing Division.

At this time, we will not publicly speculate on the Governor's political motivation for this action.

I have no words.

The MDSP have released criteria for the license to own pistols/restricted firearms in Maryland.

More info here.

I believe I've said this many times before, but I truly hate this state. This will completely affect my ability to take newbies to the range, and I abhor this infringement of my and my friends' rights.

Some folks seem to be questioning why Maryland SB281 is so problematic for people who are legal gun owners or want to be a legal gun owner in Maryland.

So here are some key parts of the bill that's headed to the governor to be signed into law.

The parts of the bill that dealt with punishments for those who break the law have been gutted, so this isn't even useful legislation. Governor O'Malley and his cronies DO NOT want us here. I hope they're ready to lose a crap-ton in tax revenue from Beretta, because it's likely they're packing up their stuff and moving elsewhere. Way to go.

I'm ashamed of my legislators.

Maryland truly doesn't deserve to be called the "free" state anymore.

Well, yesterday I was optimistic.

Today, not so much. This was Senator Jamie Raskin during yesterday's hearing:

(Alternate link here, in case that one disappears. You may also want to embiggen it, to see just what game he's playing.)

If you wish to tell him precisely what you think about this, here's his contact information:
Jamie Raskin
(410) 841-3634, (301) 858-3634
1-800-492-7122, ext. 3634 (toll free)
e-mail: jamie.raskin@senate.state.md.us


Also worth sharing:

Well, that took longer than I anticipated.

One of the gun owners whose information was listed in the Journal News is now dealing with a break-in and theft of his guns from his home. Awesome. I wonder how much the newspaper will be paying the victim.

Remember, kids: just because you can doesn't mean you should.

Walmart's not getting *any* more ammo? What?

I can't call Corporate to confirm this - I don't have enough of a voice to make myself understood right now. Can someone else call them and report back?

http://investmentwatchblog.com/breaking-confirmed-wal-mart-is-not-going-to-order-any-more-ammo/


I mean...wtf. Seriously, wtf.


UPDATE: according to FarmDad, this is false information. Sorry for the panic post, folks...and thanks to FarmDad for calling them. I hate how stuff like this happens when I can't call to confirm.

Somebody's a dum-dum...

STOP. TOUCHING. IT.

I'm glad I live in this city.

Because when things like this become more frequent, it'll make ANYWHERE else seem like heaven.

And last night, on my way home, the jackass commissioner decided HEY LET'S HAVE A SEAT BELT CHECKPOINT ON BEL AIR ROAD (which happens to be a heavily-traveled thoroughfare for people entering and leaving the city on the east side).

In the past 2 weeks alone the violence and crime has skyrocketed...because kids are out of school...so OF COURSE it makes sense to waste time and manpower on a bloody seat belt checkpoint.

Yet another TSA failure.

A friend of mine - who is now officially a citizen of both the US and the UK - came back to the States for a family emergency over a week ago. I don't think she anticipated the crap she got from the TSA...nor did she expect them to steal some cookies her aunt made her for Christmas.

I guess peanut butter cookies are potentially deadly. I mean, that's the ONLY possible reason half her cookies are missing, right?

I understand this is petty compared to the other crap the TSA has done, but really, it's just one more reason they need to go. When will the government listen to the people and get rid of this useless POS agency already?

Our ARs finally work!

Or: Why I can't recommend Del-Ton to anyone.

To recap -
I ordered two AR15 uppers from Del-Ton on 1/31/09. This date is important, so keep it in mind.
Between February and the end of November, I made the following posts about it:
Sigh, backorders
Great googly moogly!
Yet another Del-Ton delay
Good news, better news, and bad news
Good news, everyone!

Chris's upper showed up in September, and mine showed up the first week of December of that year. I neglected to post about the upper showing up due to my grandfather's passing, but it did show up that first week in December. By the time mine showed up I was just thrilled to see anything. So: Ordered everything at the end of January, and the second upper showed up almost a YEAR later. In that time, I received absolutely no information from Del-Ton - I had to waste my time and call THEM to get the same answer over and over and over. I don't care how busy a company is, a form email does NOT take much time to write and send out to customers. Thanks to the beauty of technology, said email could have been drafted while someone dropped the kids off at the pool. Anyway, moving on...

We did not get any opportunity to test either upper until 7/4/10, and on that range trip both rifles had consistent issues. I posted about the problems we had here. We did not get another chance to really test anything until last month, when Chris's friend helped him diagnose the problem. After swapping bolts, uppers, lowers, and magazines they were able to determine there was an issue with the gas system in both uppers. Please note, I was quite angry...I expected better of Del-Ton. I suppose I should have used the lack of communication from them as a sign regarding their build quality.

By now, it's well past any warranty would be in effect, so this weekend we took the uppers to Dan over at Gun Connection. Dan was able to diagnose and repair both uppers while we waited. What he found, though, was a bit distressing...both because Del-Ton sent defective parts and because neither Chris nor I knew what we were doing with these rifles. I spent much of Saturday fuming at Del-Ton's shoddy build quality and my own stupidity, and I have since learned my lesson.

So, the problems: On Chris's upper, the gas block was so screwed up there's no way he'd actually get anything to cycle properly. If you take a close look at the photo, you'll see where the hole inside it was poorly drilled...it almost looks like the person who worked on the part used a small explosive to get that hole in there.

That's pretty freaking bad. It also wasn't on properly, as we could jiggle it without loosening anything. No wonder there was an issue with the gas system!

Dan replaced the gas block with one from Daniel Defense and put everything back together. On my upper, the gas tube was off by about 15 degrees and it was clogged (user error - it wasn't properly cleaned before we took it out the first time). He reseated everything and did a particularly thorough cleaning for me. A little over a hundred dollars in parts and labor later and we left with two functioning rifles, though we were charged with testing both over the weekend to make sure everything worked.

Yesterday, during a break in the nasty weather, we took them out...and they worked beautifully. Chris had some difficulty with his optic, but that's user error and will be rectified once he reacquaints himself with the instructions. I, on the other hand, landed almost every shot where I wanted it once I figured out how to use my scope. Overall, I'm glad this ordeal is over, and I'm especially glad we now have two functioning rifles that are quite a bit of fun to shoot.

To sum up:
boo Del-Ton
yay Gun Connection
thoroughly educate yourself about a firearm if it's known to be finicky
thoroughly educate yourself on a retailer before spending a significant amount of money.


The final result of two mags through my rifle (while also learning the particulars of my optics - the low shots were the first few i took, and i aimed for each box at least once to see how well i could do):

...Yeah. I'm happy now.