Free Republic

FOREST LAKE, Minn. - A Forest Lake homeowner says he is livid about an "outrageous, unnecessary ending to a great wildlife story" after a police officer came onto his property at about 7 a.m. on Saturday and shot two orphaned fawns that often slept in the dog house at close range without warning. Jeff Carpenter contacted FOX 9 News about the weekend shooting, saying an officer "brutally gunned down" the twin, 6-month-old fawns his family had come to love thirty yards from his home. Carpenter said he was working in the home office when he was startled by a shotgun...

Phil Tagami, the Oakland developer who made headlines by defending his building with a shotgun during Occupy protests last year, has been appointed to the California Lottery Commission, one of three commission appointments Gov. Jerry Brown announced Wednesday afternoon. Brown's recasting of the three-member commission comes a month after his appointment of a new lottery director, former business consultant Robert O'Neill. The lottery does about $3 billion in game sales annually and provides about $1 billion to California schools. Like Brown, the appointees all are Democrats. Brown and Tagami, 46, know each other from Oakland, where Brown was mayor, and...

FAIRFAX, Va. --(Ammoland.com)- This year, NRA-ILA worked with pro-gun legislators to include a provision in the 2012 Commerce, Justice and Science appropriations legislation to help prohibit the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from banning the importation of shotguns that are currently legally imported. That legislation was a part of a consolidated appropriations bill that Congress passed to fund major portions of the federal government for the remainder of fiscal year 2012. Unfortunately, some inaccurate reports have claimed that this provision would repeal the “sporting purposes” test for importation of firearms. While NRA supports repeal of the “sporting purposes”...

It’s the last thing two burglary suspects expected to hear when they broke into a Coon Rapids home. From within the house came the unmistakable sound of a pump shotgun. At the other end of that gun was a 22-year-old woman who is nine weeks pregnant. The young woman asked not to be identified because the two suspects are still at large. However, she says when the men ignored her barking pit bull and black lab, and broke through a kitchen door, she had no other choice but to chamber a round into the 12-gauge shotgun. There’s perhaps no other...

Manasquan, NJ --(Ammoland.com)- Saiga 12’s, Benelli M4’s and virtually any other tactical/military shotgun can no longer be banned from import by the ATF. A little noticed provision tucked into a large appropriations bill obviously flew under the radar of the “Brady Bunch” and the “Illegal Mayors.” The new law effectively kills ATF’s plan to stop tactical/military shotgun imports by way of abusing the “sporting purpose” requirement and their agency rulemaking powers. The “Fiscal Year 2012 Agriculture, Commerce/Justice/Science (CJS) and Transportation/Housing/Urban Development (THUD) Appropriations bills”, also known as the “Mini-Bus”, was passed by Congress, and signed into law by President Obama...

Shotguns, buckshot, SHTF With all of the insane government spending going on, and the potential of nasty inflation hitting soon, I have been looking for things to buy that have utility, trading value, and long term storage life. I have been heavily involved in the gun culture, grew up in it, studied it, and have been a professional for the last 16 years. Almost everyone has a shotgun. Usually it is a 12 gauge, although there are plenty of 20, 16, and 410 shotguns out there. Most people have a box or two of bird shot. They might have a...

I never cease to be amazed at how many people approach me and ask about taking them out to learn to shoot. Like most outdoorsmen I know I usually try and accommodate these newcomers to the outdoor sports but sometime there just isn’t time to do it all. I usually have to refer them to other experienced outdoorsmen or to a professional shooting range to learn the basics from a certified National Rifle Association instructor. Many of these “newbies” are women who have wanted to learn how to use guns. In the world of today there are certain elements that...

With new manufacturing technology and materials speeding weapons evolution, it’s no surprise that Kel-Tec took another look at the tactical shotgun. Kel-Tec’s KSG Bullpup shotgun stormed the SHOT show like the Red Army into Berlin, championing its 14-round capacity, diminutive configuration and radical ergonomics. Sounds great on paper, but what’s it like in real life? Our favorite Russian émigré Oleg Volk, brought one to the Lucky Gunner Blogger shoot over Memorial Day weekend . . . Kel-Tec has a bit of a rep for cheap-feeling weapons whose fit and finish makes a pre-C11 GM product seem like a Swiss watch....

Love waterfowl hunting with classic side-by-sides but sometimes really wish you had that third shot? Shoulda been at this auction, where a one-of-a-kind triple-barreled Dickson side-by-side-by-side shotgun just sold at auction for a cool $66,000. From this story in the Scotsman: A unique triple-barrelled shotgun made for a Scots aristocrat has been sold at auction for £43,000. The shotgun - dubbed the "Holy Grail" - was made in April 1891 for John Adrian Louis Hope, 1st Marquess of Linlithgow and the seventh Earl of Hopetoun. The three-barrelled ejector, 16-bore gun, with three triggers, was designed by renowned Edinburgh gun makers...

Yesterday, the Louisiana Senate unanimously passed NRA-backed Senate Bill 39. Sponsored by state Senators Eric LaFleur (D-28) and Neil Riser (R-32), this bill would clarify that Louisianans may purchase a long gun in any state, and allow a citizen of any other state to purchase a long gun in Louisiana, so long as both states allow such purchases. SB 39 has been assigned to the House Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice.

“Tracy St Clair Pearce, 50, [above] was confronted by four men carrying a chainsaw and a knife, who warned her they would kill her cattle at her farm in Colchester, Essex,” dailymail.co.uk reports. “She called police late on Good Friday to report the threat, but was left gobsmacked [surprised] when officers took 35 minutes to get to her home, before telling her they would confiscate her shotguns.” The local constabulary confirmed the pre-emptive policing maneuver. “Inspector Jim White of Essex Police said: ‘In order to prevent any public order incidents, and to keep members of the public safe, we obtained...

Back at the end of January, we talked about a proposal from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE), to outlaw the importation of many popular shotguns, on the grounds that these shotguns were not "particularly suitable for or readily adaptable to sporting purposes." Application of this "sporting purposes test" is relevant because under provisions of the Gun Control Act of 1968, importation of firearms is generally illegal, except under such excemptions as the firearms in question having "sporting purposes." This started with a "study" the BATFE conducted (pdf file) that found (surpise, surprise) that many shotguns now...

I am planning to purchase a shotgun. I'm fairly certain that I will be buying the Remington 870 Express, synthetic. I do have some questions, though. I'm not experienced at all with shotguns. I've read that the barrel can be changed out on the Remington 870 and I am wondering to what extent that is true. What I am hoping is that I can buy one shotgun, and by purchasing a couple of additional barrels, I can have a true multi-tasker. Can I, for example, buy the 870 with the 18 inch barrel, and the magazine extension so that I...

A rich Englishman could be sentenced to prison after shooting an "annoying" burglar alarm at a neighbor’s home. This happened at Saint John’s Woods, one of England’s most affluent neighborhoods. He owns a home worth 10 million pounds there. Peter Shalson, one of Britain’s wealthiest men, worth 175 million pounds, broke into a neighbor’s home and blasted their “annoying” burglar alarm with his shotgun. Being rich obviously doesn’t make one smart though. But it does get you a trophy wife. He pled guilty to...

Using chambers cut off 12 ga. scrap barrels and a new $10 bbl for an Italian auto shotgun, the only other gun part is a scrapped hammer from a 1857 Remington perc revolver: Loads like a SAA Colt but underlever rotates and cocks it. Blow-by is negligible, hardly noticeable with normal shirt sleeve. Opened for some still shots, at top of the inside pix screwed in is the firing pin, impact type with return spring. The ratchet or star with the hand is visible below on the left side, also the pawl that cocks the hammer. The cylinder indexing lock...

A man police are calling a would-be burglar lost most of his calf muscles Monday after an Avenida Cañada homeowner shot him at close range with a 12-gauge shotgun. “(The homeowner) said he didn’t have the heart to kill him,” Española Police Lt. Christian Lopez said. “He shot him in the legs.” Joe Quintana, 28, was still in surgery at Española Hospital late Monday evening after he was shot by Joseph McNeil just before 9 a.m., Lopez said. A slug from McNeil’s shotgun tore through Quintana’s right calf muscle, which destroyed it, and went through his left calf, partially removing...

Kel-Tec’s KSG is a SHOT Show stopper, with crowds hovering over the bullpup like disaster victims over Red Cross food supplies. OK, maybe not that desperately. But there’s no question that Kel-Tec will sell every one of their 1000-unit initial run of their space-saving man stopper. The company says they’re aiming to produce 5000 units in 2011. With law enforcement types sniffing around, there’s every chance they’ll ramp up from there. Firearms fans familiar with the Kel-Tec brand will cross their fingers on the quality front. We can report that the gun’s fit and finish look fine. Though that chamber...

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Georgia authorities are investigating the discovery of six loaded shotguns aimed at a food plot that were rigged to be fired through a network of Web-controlled cameras. The Augusta Chronicle reported the guns were discovered last fall on Georgia Power Company right of way in rural south Georgia. The set up was discovered by a utility contractor and it was reported to the U.S. Office of Homeland Security. The newspaper reported that a bulletin circulated by the Office of Homeland Security said it appeared that the rig was only intended for illegal hunting in an area known...

TTAG loved it some Kel-Tech Sub-2000. Capt. John Raguso reckoned it was a far better choice for home defense than a shotgun: less recoil, more bullets, wieldy as a pen knife, foldable for bug-out duty, accurate, cheap, lovely! Throw in some frangible ammo to eliminate that pesky over-penetration problem and Bob’s your uncle. I’m getting one in 9mm, which may force me to switch from a Springfield XD-M to a Glock 19 (yes one of those), ’cause the Sub-2000 takes Glock mags. Anyway, the Sub-2000′s a hit. Not a runaway success, but a solid hit. But this, THIS is monster...

Workers at the Metrodome have intentionally ruptured another panel in the building's damaged roof. Pat Milan, a spokesman for the commission that runs the Dome, says a shotgun slug was fired into the panel because the weight of ice was creating a safety issue. It's the fifth panel that has torn or been torn since a winter storm caused the roof to give way eight days ago.