Commentary

Semi-automatic carbines have become enormously popular. Applications range from law enforcement and home defense to competitive target shooting and hunting. The most popular platform is the AR15-based weapon chambered for 223 Remington. But if you visit your local shooting range, you will find AR-style carbines, circa the 1960s, shooting alongside historical battle-rifle actions made popular in the 1940s. Gun Tests magazine recently tested an M1A variant in the form of Springfield Armory's $2090 Socom II AA9627 with black fiberglass stock.

From the “Downrange” editorial in the January 2011 issue of Gun Tests magazine: Surreal experience today. Took an hour for lunch, and while munching on red beans and rice, I remembered I had the season-ending episode of FX’s Sons of Anarchy on the TiVo. So I engage the box and start watching the cliffhanger. If you haven’t seen that episode yet, stop reading now. Spoiler alert:

Gun Tests Magazine has named the Kel-Tec PMR-30 22 WMR as the publication’s “Best in Class Pistol” for 2011.

What happens when a robber picks the wrong diner? Here’s R. Lee Ermey’s take.

The History Channel compares the M14 and M16 rifles.

Representative Joe Walsh (R-IL) has drafted a bill that would block U.S. funding to the United Nations if it seeks to implement gun control measures affecting U.S. citizens. Despite victories by gun owners in elections and legislative battles throughout the country in recent years, on the international front gun control is moving quickly. Most significantly, in 2012 the UN plans to release a final draft of the Arms Trade Treaty—a treaty that will have severe consequences for American gun owners.

The Texas Department of Public Safety has begun an investigation into a central-Texas concealed-carry-instructor who said in a recent radio advertisement that he wouldn’t teach the handgun course to a “socialist liberal,” people who voted for the “current campaigner-in-chief,” or to a “non-Christian Arab or Moslem.”

KHAS-TV in Hasting, Nebraska, did follow-up interviews to mark the five year anniversary of Nebraskans' being allowed to carry concealed handguns.

We're not endorsing Gov. Rick Perry for president, but it is certainly refreshing to see an executive choosing a different kind of recreation besides golf. GunReports.com advertiser LaRue Tactical hosted Perry recently for a little sniper-rifle shooting.

The Minigun is a 7.62 mm, multi-barrel heavy machine gun with a high rate of fire (2,000 to 6,000 rounds per minute), employing Gatling-style rotating barrels with an external power source. FPS Russia shoots one in the video here.

(GunReports.com) -- Derek Scammon, a representative of the Hawaii Concealed Carry group, wrote a nice piece on the Hawai'i Free Press website. He said:

If you’re interested in long distance rifle shooting, or in hunting with a rifle, I highly recommend that you check out the Spirit Ridge Rifle Golf facility, in Utah. The “golf” part of the name is really just part of the rules for how your shots are scored. Other than that, it’s all rifle and no golf, and it’s one of the best opportunities I’ve ever seen to test one’s rifle skills.