mcbethr

Um... I think I'm the last person on the planet, but I don't have a Facebook account. I have no idea what that page says.

I was just at Rayco Armory last month. Did they close down? Their website is offline: www.raycoarmory.com

This could always be a case of money. If Beretta made a pistol that underbid SIG by $0.13 per magazine, odds are the military will go with the cheaper gun. I also wouldn't be surprised if there was some sort of deal going on. If you buy two of our C-130s we'll buy 300,000 of your pistols... that sort of thing.

That M&P .22 pistol would be nice. I haven't seen it anywhere. The Charter Arms Rimless Revolver in 9mm would be nice to see. From what I understand they have renamed it the "Pit Bull." You can see the .40 caliber version available for sale at websites, although I don't know of anybody who owns one. I would like the 9mm version for consolidation of calibers. I don't have much of a use for pistols, but I find revolvers to be very... mechanically satisfying. And the CARR/Pit Bull is supposed to shoot rimless ammunition without the need for moon clips. I'd like to see how this thing works.

I have never been escorted buying ammunition in Princeton, Cherry Hill, or Mt. Laurel. But once I bought some .22 LR value packs at the Burlington Dicks and they put it in some kind of anti-theft box that had to be re-opened at the register. I don't know how they could cram a case of target load in there. That whole escorting thing must be individual manager or store policy. When you think about it, anybody who is buying ammunition has gone through an extensive criminal background check: hardly your profile of a criminal. Can you say the same for somebody who is buying running shoes or golf clubs?

I've always assumed that the employment block was for the employees of security companies who are getting an FID so they can be an armed guard. But since it doesn't specific 'security' or 'Detective Agency' on the form, towns just assume that they need the employer's information whether the FID is employment-related or not.

I've said before that if we all kicked in the cost of 1 box of ammunition to NJ2AS every time we take a range trip, we would have $15,000 by now. I bought two boxes of .22 ammo instead of buying 3 when I went to the range yesterday. I just donated the cost of one box to NJ2AS. The new shooter worked out well. She is interested in going again, this time with a girlfriend to introduce her. One becomes two. Two becomes four.... We can change minds, even if it is one at a time. We can change laws, even if it is one dollar at a time. And yes, I am laying the Jewish guilt on you if you plan to go to the range this weekend. Give em a few bucks, ok?

You can't go wrong with a Glock 19, Beretta 92 or Sig P226. There is a reason why these three pistols are so popular. They work. You can find parts for them. You can find gunsmiths for them. You can buy magazines for them easily. You can also get a practice kit to turn that pistol into a .22 for those three guns. The availability of a practice kit is important. 9mm ammunition runs about $15 a box or maybe $12 when its on sale at Dicks. .22 is $4.00 a box. What allows you to shoot more? As Maksim said: holding a gun is one thing, shooting it is another. Take the drive to Shore Shot and rent the Glock 19. If you like it, buy it. Then buy a practice kit. Once you have the Glock, then think about the CZ. I think that CZ owners are kind of like the Rodney Dangerfields of the shooting community. They get no respect, but they are passionate about their firearms. Go to http://www.czforum.com/ and see if somebody there has the firearm you are looking for. If that owner is close by, he will probably be passionate about his CZ P01 to meet you somewhere and let you shoot it.

I think most people just don't care. I've always likened NJ's gun laws to its laws on All Terrain Vehicles or ATVs. I know that NJ restricts where they can be used and has repeatedly promised that they will open 3 public parks... 'someday...' I don't own an ATV. I will never own an ATV. I don't want to ride an ATV. I can't wrap my head around why anybody would want one. They are dangerous, and parents let kids ride around on them unsupervised. People who own them can be reckless and tear up the environment. Sound familiar? Replace the word ATV with Assault Rifle. So when a politician comes along and says : ATVs are damaging our environment, am I going to write any letters? No. If NJ banned the use of ATVs because of public safety concerns, would I care one bit that owners would be stuck with thousands of dollars in equipment that they would be forced to sell out of state at a loss? Nope. So there is no use in explaining how an AR with a bayonet lug is no more dangerous than an AR without one. Nobody cares. If nobody cares, people can pass all sorts of wacky laws. Gun control in NJ is our state's way of playing lip service to preventing crime. There are basically two ways to prevent crime: increase the availability of jobs and social services or hire more police and build more prisons. Both ways cost money. The alternative solution is to pass gun laws that create the illusion of action because laws are cheap. In all honesty, our state's biggest barrier to legislative gun rights reform is the low rate of ownership. The low rate of ownership stems from the permitting scheme, which dissuades most people from ever returning their FID application. How do we grow the ownership? Take a new guy shooting and open their eyes to the fun of the sport. Donate to NJ2AS to fix the permitting scheme. But reasoning your way into an anti's heart just isn't going to work.

I think that there are thousands of people across New Jersey who have their FID paperwork sitting on the kitchen counter or inside the middle console of their minivan for the very same reason. They are interested, but they are reluctant to fill out the paperwork. I think that NJ's permitting scheme was probably a brilliant idea back in 1968. But it set the wheels in motion to norm firearms out of every day life. I don't think that this was intentional. My guess is that it probably only took a few days to get a permit, and you may have made small talk with the police officer as he typed it up. But the permitting process slowly made it more difficult to purchase firearms, until a tipping point was reached and this tipping point suddenly made NOT owning guns a normal thing. Now you have politicians passing anti-gun laws and there is no reason for anybody to resist. Why would you get upset if you don't own a gun, don't intend to own a gun and don't know anybody who owns one either? There is only two ways to fight this: Grown the population of gun owners, or pursue judicial action. So you know what, I'm donating another $7.00 to NJ2AS right now in celebration. I intend to go skeet shooting this weekend and as I said before, if everybody just bought one box less of ammo and donated that money to NJ2AS, we would be at $15K by now and the silly FID roadbumps would be a thing of the past.

Discretion never hurt anyone. I've done this before when I travel in my wife's SUV, which doesn't have a locking trunk. I take my case, lock it, and then put it into a folding suit bag. Now it just looks like I'm traveling with a suit in the trunk. When you are walking back and forth- you are just carrying a suit to your car. No big deal. My neighbors know I shoot skeet, but they respect my hobby, and I don't rub it in their faces by carrying around cases that scream "shotgun!"

What's funny is that you are saying 'My gun' in the singular. I think its possible for someone to keep a self defense handgun loaded, but to keep their sporting rifles and shotguns unloaded. So there should be another button for the 'mixed' condition.

You aren't alone in keeping your guns unloaded. I do this as well. It's what I feel is appropriate for my situation. I have a cousin who has a .38 Revolver. He keeps his in a safe, with the ammunition separate and the gun locked with a trigger lock. I think that is a little extreme, but it is his choice, not mine. My suggestion would be to look at safes that hold two guns, and buy a safe that is four times the size. The reason is simple. Once your spouse sees that safe, she is going to start putting jewelry, and documents in there. I keep my shotguns in a safe, unloaded with the ammunition in the safe as well. I don't know your family situation, but this is what I feel is best with kids in the house. A shotgun shell isn't going to hurt anybody by itself, but there is a reason why "keep out of reach of children" is printed on the box. I know you said that you didn't intend to store ammunition in there, but if you ever want that option, it is available to you with a larger safe. Whenever Dicks Sporting Goods has a sale, I'll buy several cases of Remington Gun Club Loads so I'm not running to Dicks and paying more the day I'm going to the club. If you buy in bulk when ammunition is on sale, you will save money in the long run. So my suggestion: Get a 10 gun Stack-on cabinet from Dicks Sporting Goods. It will run you about $119 or maybe $99 when its on sale. You can bolt it to the floor and it will hold plenty of ammunition or shotguns if you ever got into clay games.

I think that the answer is "probably not, but it can't hurt." You might be able to bolster a legal case by pointing out that yet another state went "shall-issue." But I don't think that will make much difference. I can't see politicians suddenly "seeing the light" and getting Senator Van Drew's bill out of committee. Not with that attitude it won't... There are basically three ways of getting CCW reform passed: #1. The gun-owning population increases from 12% to 20% and becomes an important voting block. Politicians start to listen. Reform is enacted. #2. The current legislature or next legislative iteration votes for reform. #3. We seek judicial remedies. I think that #1 is impossible. That would require some pretty extensive outreach to the tune of 688,000 new gun owners in the state. #2 is not possible as well, for reason I'm going to explain below: Take a look at the map below and think about the areas inside that red box and why they are special. Note: This is a big map, I'll keep going down below. Here's what's special about it: Most of the population of New Jersey lives in that box. Now what's so special about that box? That box basically contains Camden, Trenton, Newark and Jersey City. These are the four cities with the highest levels of criminal gun activity. There are a good many people inside those cities who are victims of gun violence every day. A lot of them wouldn't shed a tear if all handguns simply fell off the face of the Earth. I'd imagine that there aren't very many legal guns in these areas because people are just too busy working to go through the necessary paperwork. What else is in that box? Some of the most wealthy communities: Cherry Hill, Mount Laurel, Princeton, West Windsor, Millburn. People in those towns simply see no need for guns because their lives just don't intersect with violent crime. You can talk about 2A rights until you are blue in the face with somebody from Millburn, but they won't care because they don't see a pressing need for a weapon. The average minivan driving mom just doesn't see need for a gun when she's dropping Jaden and Skyler off at Gymboree so she can get her pedicure in peace. There are about 26 legislative districts packed into that box. There are 40 legislative districts in the state. The math is not on our side. Now Let's talk about what's outside of the box: everybody else. These are the people who could use concealed carry because they live in Salem, Vineland, Browns Mills, Lakewood and Toms River. These are the towns that have good neighborhoods but plenty of rough neighborhoods as well. This is where the majority of the state's gun owners live: the the people of the Pine Barons in Jackson, the farmers in Cumberland County. These are the ones that see a need because they are driving for 20 minutes down long stretches of dark pineland road to get milk at 1AM because they just realized that they are out and their kids need it for their morning cereal. If you've ever had your car break down on the Black Horse Pike at 11:00 at night, you know how scary it can be. You are in the Middle of Nowhere, and help is very far away. I doubt that we will ever have the votes to pass CCW reform unless we flip some of those people in the box, and that just isn't going to happen without a lot of 2A outreach and seeding the population inside the box. The best best course of action at this point to seek judicial remedy. It's far easier to convince a single judge than it is to convince an entire legislative district. This is in the works, but it takes time... and money. But I honestly think that we will see some kind of judicially enacted CCW reform within the next 3 years.

I have never reloaded anything in my life. However, a cartridge that has 10% more powder should weigh more than a cartridge that has the normal amount of powder. If you have an electronic scale, I would weigh each cartridge. Any cartridge that is above the mean can be discarded. That may save you some time.

+1 With Leroy. His basement is like a museum. Lots of amazing WWI and II stuff to look at while your NICS is being run. Great guy to deal with.

He was attracted to the. 40 cal but backed off when he realized that it would cost more over the long run. I think its a great price if you are a police officer and you get .40 ammo for free when you qualify, or if you reload.

A couple weeks back, I said that if we all donated the cost of one box of ammo to NJ2AS ever time we went and shot, they would be at $15K by now. Well, I'm putting my my money where my mouth it. I went to the range last night and fired 2 boxes of .38 ammo when I normally would have fired 3. I just donated another $16 to NJ2AS. I'm not expecting a pat on the back... but if you went to the range this week, how about kicking a little of money over to the NJ2AS tzedakah box. It is Shabbos...

I went to Hague's tonight with a friend of mine who was up in the air over an M&P 9 or Beretta 92. After some wheeling and dealing, he walked out with the M&P 9. The price was $600, nothing spectacular, but I have to admit I've had a change of heart over Hague's. When I bought my CX4 there, it was a very positive experience. When I went back for a PX4 a few years later, I got a lot of pressure to buy a Beretta 92, even though I already owned one. That left a bad taste in my mouth. I don't know... maybe the salesman was having a bad day that last time. But this time, my friend and I dealt with the owner, Dan Hague. I was very, very impressed with this guy's knowledge and professionalism. This guy knew everything about the M&P9. Their selection is quite limited: you are basically choosing from S&W, Beretta, Glock, Kimber or Sig, but if you have already decided on one of those guns, and you are making your first purchase, Dan is really willing to explain things. So I have to give credit to Hagues for a good experience.

As a first gun, you cannot go wrong with the Beretta 92, Sig P226 or Glock 19. I own a Beretta 92 and I love it. Try them out. See what fits you best.

I agree with Dan.

One of the most important lessons I ever learned in life happened at a diner. I was 6 years old, so this was back before ATMs and credit cards weren't accepted everywhere. My father and I were eating at a diner. When the bill came, my father suddenly realized that he didn't have enough money. He explained this to the waitress and told her that he just had to go to the bank, get the money and come back. Well, we left, went to the bank, he took out the money, came back and paid the bill. I've always remembered that lesson. There is a difference between finding $10.00 on the ground and $17K in a bag. I know what I would do, I learned it from my dad.

IMHO if you like the Sig, get the Sig. You won't regret it. But you should consider getting it in 9mm. At this point, you are stocking 2 calibers. That's 2 types of ammo to lug to the range. Throw in a 3rd caliber with. 40 Cal and now you are bringing 3 different types of handgun ammo. I've recently consolidated to 9mm, 12 gauge and .22. This works well for me and simplifies logistics going to and from the range. Guns are cheap. Ammo is expensive. Bringing the wrong ammo is the worst.

I've had good experiences at CMO. I've never bought anything from them, but I go there on occasion to see what used O/U shotguns they have in stock. There is an older man who always seems to be there. He's always been nice to me,even though I've never bought anything. They have a nice used Franchi there that keeps begging me to take her home, but I've resisted the temptation. Still, the guy let's me look at it every couple of weeks as I pat my wallet and weigh the happiness of a new skeet gun over the earful I'll get from my beloved wife. I've had good and bad experiences at Hague's. They were great when I bought my CX4. But when I went back to look for a PX4, they kept pushing the 92FS, which I already own. And they pushed it after I told them this. That left a bad taste in my mouth. The guys at Hague's... hard to explain. It's almost like they can't turn Cop off. Odds are that my next handgun will be purchased from Rayco Armory. I like the fact that there is a gun store close to Cherry Hill and I want to keep it that way.

IMHO, stay away from the LCR. If you lived in a state with CCW it would probably be great to carry, but the trigger was *horrible.* Regardless, I would get the pistol, you can always get the 22-15 later.