NEW YORK (AP) — Police officers fired three shots on a crowded Manhattan street near Times Square on Saturday night, missing the man they believed had a weapon but striking two bystanders, police said. via USA TODAY.
I’d like to suggest a new slogan for NYPD…”You won’t be the first innocent bystander we’ve shot this year but, you might be the next!”
-GM
Given a second try, a Mecklenburg County grand jury indicted a police officer Monday in connection with the shooting death last fall of an unarmed Charlotte man.
Just before 4 p.m., the voluntary manslaughter indictment of Police Officer Randall Kerrick became public. The officer was arrested Sept. 14 after he shot Jonathan Ferrell 10 times during a predawn confrontation northeast of Charlotte. If convicted, the 28-year-old could spend between three and 11 years in prison.
via CMPD Officer Kerrick indicted in shooting of unarmed man | CharlotteObserver.com.
In a case with unfortunate political and racial undertones, this incident does little to further trust and respect between civilians, police. Last week, Meckenberg grand jury refused to indict former Charlotte-Meckenberg Police Officer Randall Kerrick in the on-duty shooting death of Jonathan Ferrel. The same grand jury that refused the indictment had “true billed” or returned indictments on 276 other cases the same day so this is a truly unusual incident. But keep in mind, the man’s own department saw fit to arrest him within two days of the shooting, That too is highly unusual.
Attorney General Roy Cooper responded by sending the case to the county’s other sitting grand jury with the same charges. In fact, Cooper stacked the deck pretty heavily and that may have more to do with political aspirations than it does real justice. Cooper is expected to run for governor. As if to ensure an indictment on the second go around, he sent twice as many witnesses to this second grand jury, including two of Kerrick’s own CMPD colleagues.
Kerrick’s defense attorneys protested and sought to block the second indictment according to the Charlotte Observer. “How in the world is that grand jury supposed to go into that courtroom and make a decision when you’ve also got the NAACP outside?” defense attorney Michael Greene asked Superior Court Judge Bob Bell. “How is Randall Kerrick supposed to get a fair trial and due process?” Bell refused to block the indictment.
How this will all play out remains to be seen. Unfortunately, it may very well become a circus similar to the Travon Martin incident. Kerrick is facing three to eleven years in prison in addition to a civil suit brought by Jonathan Ferrel’s family
AUSTIN, Texas — Gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis promised Tuesday to veto a state income tax to pay for public schools and expand where people may carry handguns, while her campaign attempted to move past allegations she misled people while telling her life story.
via AUSTIN, Texas: Davis stakes out middle ground, shifts topic | Elections | The Sun Herald.
It seems that in an attempt to distract from her real life story making the news, Wendy Davis has decided to claim support for expanded gun rights and promised to veto a state income tax if elected governor. Imagine that, a liberal democrat advocating for gun rights and lower taxes. Sounds too good to be true doesn’t it? Yeah well, it probably is too good to be true but, that’s what she said during an Associated Press interview last week while the press was having a field day with the revelation that the life story she’s told in campaign ads and previous interviews was found to be less than accurate.
Prior to her filibuster of abortion legislation, few people outside liberal democratic circles knew or cared that Wendy Davis existed. She was allegedly a Republican once upon a time so it may be that no one really knows who she is. Where gun rights are concerned; since beginning of her gubernatorial campaign, she has largely avoided saying anything on the subject. Guns and gun rights aren’t mentioned at all in the issues section of her website.
But, if we use a time machine (or simply look at her legislative record), we see that her sudden support for expanding gun rights is a 180-degree reversal of her position on this issue. What am I talking about? Remember campus carry (SB 1581)? Yeah well, you’ve got Wendy Davis and other Texas Democrats to thank for that bill dying on the floor of the Texas Senate floor. And true to that reversal, she did vote in support of SB 1907 last session which allows us to keep guns in our cars on college campuses. Of course, she’s done nothing to raise awareness of her vote on that issue. Doing so might ruffle the feathers of fellow liberals Democrats and cause some to withdraw support on that issue alone.
Surprisingly, in the same AP interview,Davis went on to claim that she “owns a handgun for protection, plans to get a concealed handgun license,” I wish her luck with that. Given her voting record, some CHL instructors, likely wouldn’t let her sign up for their class or sign her completion certificate if they knew who she was ahead of time. Of course, Texas CHLs records are not available to the public (nor should they be) so there’s no way to verify her claim but, I’d love to know if she actually follows through on that claim of getting a CHL and ultimately supports the right for all rather than just the privileged few like herself. I’m not holding my breath.
-GM
The government announced Monday that it had reached a deal with vigilante leaders to incorporate the armed civilian groups into old and largely forgotten quasi-military units called the Rural Defense Corps. Vigilante groups estimate their numbers at 20,000 men under arms.
As ice forms on my Mustang near Katy, Texas, it seems Hell has officially frozen over. For the last several years, we’ve heard Mexico blame its cartel wars on the United States. And among the many “wrongs” the US has committed, chief among them, according to Mexican heads of state/government, past and present, has been the fact US citizens are “allowed” to own guns. Mexico of course, is a shinning example of what strict gun control laws do to benefit their society.
Well, in what seems to be a shocking reversal, Mexico has legalized the citizens who took up arms to defend their homes and take their streets back from the cartels who held them hostage while Mexican troops and police often just watched. Now, American anti-gunners will note that these people are being institutionalized into a government body known as the Rural Defense Corps. The Mexican equivalent of a militia and one that will be “well regulated” by the government. But, they are ignoring that these are people who have privately acquired, modern rifles such as the AR15, that is usually contraband in Mexico.
Anti-gunnners will likely praise the fact the Mexican government will allow these people to keep their guns if they register them with the Army but, given the corruption so common in Mexican government, it would seem that giving the government a list of who has these modern arms is just as likely to be signing up for a hit list for the cartels. Time will tell but, the irony of the whole situation is striking given the push by our own President and his ilk to try to disarm American citizens at every opportunity. After all, these are the folks who never want a tragedy to go to waste.
It’s the kid nearly everyone would pick last for their team. No one asked for it. We were all surprised when it showed up. And as much as we want to stomp on it’s throat, give it a fatal super-wedgie, and drown it with Drano, we have to admit, we actually kinda like it.
Jeff has shot it. Now I’ve shot it. Lots of our friends have shot it. And nearly everyone comes away from the experience surprisingly happy. Jeff reports that Glock promises 9x19mm and 40-caliber versions in the not too distant future. The reason the .380 was release first? Because no one would buy it if released after the 9mm/40 variant. Glock sales people can say anything but, some how that logic almost works. Time will tell.
What we can tell you is that this is a gun well suited to people with small hands. This is the slimmest/smallest gun Glock has ever built. Glock sales folks tell us this is a gun meant to capture female shooters. There are a lot of guns marketed toward women, chambered in .380, so that isn’t a completely absurd assertion. And the fact is, the Glock fan boys will buy it just to be the first kid on the block to have it. There are Internet (errornet) reports of people paying $100+ premiums just to be the first in line to get one to slip into their pocket.
How big is it compared to the M&P Shield? Well, it is nearly a full half-inch shorter in height. It is also 1/8th inch shorter in overall length but, within a millimeter of the Shield’s overall width. The latter measurements make sense given the fact .380 and the longer 9x19mm cartridge are the same bullet diameter with .380 having a case length only 2mm shorter. Some “guesstimated” that migrating this gun to 9mm/40 could be done with a simple conversion kit. They are wrong. The length of the grip/magazine well from front to rear is too short to handle the longer overall cartridge lengths of those rounds. While we had the G42 in our little paws, we slipped a 124gr, 9x19mm round into the magazine and found the magazine was easily 4-5mm short of handling the longer cartridge and there simply isn’t an extra 4-5mm in the magazine well. So if there is a 9mm/40 version coming, it will be a slightly larger gun…Possibly as large as the M&P Shield or at least Kahr’s PM9.
At the end of the day, this is a Glock in look and feel, just miniaturized. It likely will find its way into a bunch of pockets in short order. None of us have had a chance to put more than a total of perhaps 300 rounds through at least two different copies of this gun among everyone in studio so we can’t speak on its long term reliability. The trigger certainly feels like a normal 5.5lb factory trigger and travel is still just under a half-inch so it is very much a Glock in that regard. Glock promises typical Glock durabilty and reliability so this is allegedly a gun meant to be shot regularly. Hopefully that really does pan out as durability and reliability will be a critical. Anyone who carries this gun needs to train with it because in spite of the very Glock-like trigger, it’s not the same shooting experience as one might have with other Glocks.
I found that my support hand thumb, using my normal grip, extends nearly a half-inch past the muzzle. Is that a big deal? Well other than looking funny in pictures, the usual answer is actually “no,” given the chamber pressures associated with the gun. Still, big hands like mine tend to wrap up and around the slide enough that it is possible to clamp down only to find your hands impeding the slide. This is true of nearly all small guns but, especially true of a generation of sub-compact 9mm and smaller pistols meant to be pocket guns. Not a deal breaker but, something of which shooters should be aware.
Not having spent much time with the gun, I’m a little cautious to jump on the bandwagon of telling everyone to rush out and buy it. That said, my experience with the gun so far has been positive and I think it’s worth checking out for those with smaller hands or looking for a deep concealment option. I’ll probably end up with one in my safe just as something to let people try out of curiosity or help them find a gun when everything else seems too big. Part of my hesitation here is the cost and availability of .380 which, in recent years, hasn’t been impressive and shockingly, has been at least as expensive as 9x19mm if not more. It is also a rather anemic cartridge compared to 9x19mm with fewer good options for defensive ammunition, almost none of which can meet FBI requirements using their testing protocols. While I sure has hell wouldn’t want to get shot with a .380 but, I’m not excited about depending on its ability to work in anything but absolutely perfect conditions. Your mileage may vary.
