Talk to me about AR15/M4gery SBRs.

Specifically: what uppers have you used? What's the process for building an SBR? At what point should I get a tax stamp for it? Should I set up a trust?

I'm starting research, and planning on actually starting to acquire parts either late this year or early next year. I will probably buy a completed upper, unless someone can justify the effort of putting together my own upper. I'm only moderately mechanically inclined. Putting together a lower wasn't difficult, but I don't know how well I'd do with an upper, especially with a lack of workbench.

Here's the plan thus far:
Go through York Arms for a lower
Get a Spike's upper (unless someone can suggest a better upper than one of theirs)
Trigger kit will probably be a DPMS set unless there's a better option out there.

Still trying to decide the stock I want to get. I'm VERY tempted to go the obnoxious route for this one...just because.

Someone famous is coming to town...

And he'll be signing books while he's here.

Anyone interested in joining me for the Elicott City signing?

New gun-friendly comic just got started.

For those of you who are fans of Two Lumps, the creators have started a new comic, Failure to Fire.

Says James,

I am a lifelong shooter. Fired my first .22 on my 5th birthday, grew up Mormon and went shooting often, hunted on a regular basis in my teens. Name a gun that’s on the American market, there’s a good chance I’ve put some lead downrange with it, including the .50 Desert Eagle, the Steyr Aug, the .50 BMG, and (once) an illegally converted Glock 17 Full Auto. (This was, btw, one of the worst firearms I’ve ever put my trigger finger to.)

More on his preference between the AK and the AR (and other stuff) can be seen here and here. I've met these people, and I like them. Go check it out. :)

I know most people support one of the two headlining candidates...

But this might be interesting to some of you. Gary Johnson will be answering questions on one of the biggest communities on the Internet. Might be worth looking out for his AMA. If he's any better than our current President, he'll answer more than 10 questions before claiming some lame excuse for running away.

Breaking news: Perry Hall high school has a shooting in the cafeteria on the first day of the year.

This has JUST hit the news (and I'm told it's already gone national):

School shooting at Perry Hall High

I truly hope the victim is alright, though they flew him/her to Shock Trauma so it sounds quite serious. They're evacuating the school, and parents can pick up their kids in the shopping center across the street. Local folks: if you know parents with students at the school, please make sure they know this information.

UPDATE: There are THREE evac sites: Perry Hall Shopping Center; the Middle School across the street; Joppa View Elementary. PLEASE get in touch with your child/ren and figure out where he/she/they are.

UPDATE: Honeygo Park is also being used as an evac site.

Got another couple of newbies lined up for range time.

I'm excited about this one. A dear friend has been talking about it since she moved into her condo, and now her guyfriend wants to come along. She's asking all the right questions. She's never handled a firearm before, so this should be a treat. Not sure about him - will suss out the important info beforehand regarding his history with firearms.

Should be happening in about 3-4 weeks, and I hope to get a post up shortly after (with their permission, of course).

An idea.

As part of my birthday present, Chris gave me a 1911-ish watergun, complete with removable magazines.

I'm considering using this as part of my basic firearm introduction for friends who have interest but aren't quite sure about guns. It doesn't have any safeties and the slide doesn't move, but the removable mag is a nifty feature that I'm thinking could be useful.

What say you?

So, I'm home.

Thanks for the well-wishes. I'm gonna go focus on post-op recovery.

I have some of the worst luck, I swear.

So Chris and I were planning on going up to NH for Jay's shooty event, but my body had other plans. I'm still at the hospital, and will probably be here well into next week. FML.

Hope everyone has fun. Really wish i didn't have to keep sitting things out. :(

Hitting the "mark all as read" button today.

Am spending some time in a hospital room for the immediate future. If there's anything I'm missing that I absolutely need to see, please let me know. Otherwise I'm going to work on getting out of here.