This Week in Guns Special Edition: Derping at Georgetown Law

Presented for your amusement -- or horror -- is an honest liberal law professor who complains that the US Constitution is ancient text that is longer applicable to life in modern day USA.

The fact based stuff, I.E. gunz and ammo is after this presentation:

Here we go again. With 12 dead bodies at Washington's Navy Yard, not including that of the shooter, Americans are back to the usual handwringing: Why, oh why can't we stem the tide of gun violence?

People, this is not rocket science.
True. If it was rocket science, you still wouldn't get it.
For a start, we have too many guns sloshing around. A recent Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) backgrounder notes that "The United States, with less than 5 percent of the world's population, has about 35-50 percent of the world's civilian-owned guns." Reading the news, you might imagine that Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or some other conflict-ravaged nation would be leading the most guns-per-capita race, but nope: That's us. We're No. 1.
Woohoo! Numero Uno! Not for nothing we are called the Arsenal of Democracy!
But guns don't kill people, you say, people do. That's true. Last I checked, guns just lying around all by themselves don't spontaneously start shooting at elementary-school children or random passersby. With rare exceptions ("I dropped it on the floor and it just went off ...."), it takes a finger on the trigger to get them going.
Thx for the 411
But while guns don't kill people on their own, they sure make it easier for people to kill people. This, incidentally, is why our troops carry guns, instead of slingshots or brass knuckles: If you need to be able to kill quickly and surely, guns will do the trick.

How likely are you, though, an ordinary citizen, to have a need to kill quickly and surely -- keeping in mind that a gun kept in the home is 12 times more likely to kill a family member or guest than an intruder?
First fallacy: That a free men keeps a gun so he can kill. It's called self defense for a reason.
Since 2003, America has lost more than twice as many kids 19 and under to firearm homicides than it has lost soldiers and citizens to two wars and global terrorism combined. Between 2003 and the end of 2010, 7,027 Americans died in Iraq and Afghanistan and from terrorist attacks, while 35 times as many Americans, or 247,131, were killed by guns in the United States.

How many of those killed were involved in a criminal interaction, on one or the other side? How many of the killers' guns were illegally rather than legally acquired? Those numbers are out there, my dear. Please run and fetch them.

Doing so would ruin a perfectly good emotional appeal...

Solid data are not yet available for the years after 2010, but if recent trends have continued, U.S. firearm deaths since March 2011 will come within spitting distance of the number of deaths caused by Syria's bloody civil war.
Uh, we are in a civil war in the United States. A hostile elite is trying to disarm its citizens. It has been bloody with the ruling elite's personal army causing all the bloodshed, so far.
Moral of the story for all you national security types out there? If you're concerned about saving American lives, gun control would be a good place to start.
Second faulty premise: That those who uphold the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (RKBA) believe saving lives is a goal. The goal is to fight tyranny. I was thinking maybe we could start with disarming police forces of all those icky EBRs.
Americans currently have lousy gun-control laws, meaning hopelessly, pathetically inadequate, especially when compared to other countries' laws. Yes, those countries with fewer guns and fewer gun deaths -- they have much tougher gun-control laws than the United States does.
And those places suck much worse than the United States does.

Not to mention that some of them, like Russia, have more deaths per capita. It turns out that people really do kill people.

Right again, NRA friends, this could be a coincidence. The fact that the sun appears to rise every day in the east could also be a coincidence.
Or a liberal spreading lies with questionable statistics. Oh wait, you said coincidence..
And why do we have lousy gun-control laws? Because of the Second Amendment, which gives Americans a constitutional right to lousy gun-control laws. That's why we fought a war against the British: We wanted to the right to kill each other, instead of being killed by foreign enemies.
Hey, give her some credit. She 1) admits we have a second amendment and 2) that it is stopping her from disarming us.
Ah, now we're getting to the real culprit. Why, oh why are so many Americans killed by guns? In the end, I blame the U.S. Constitution and our weird quasi-religious worship of that antiquated text.
The text upon which you have, by virtue of Marbury, acquired your personal power.
For its time, the U.S. Constitution was a pretty impressive document, if you leave aside certain small details such as slavery, which was considered OK by the Founding Fathers, and women's rights, which were considered not OK. But let's give the Constitution's authors a break; they lived at a time when slavery was widespread not only in the United States but around the globe, and women were still considered semi-chattel in most of the world. For its time, the Constitution was not bad at all.

But for our time, it stinks.
It does stink, but for all the others, which are much, much worse.
Whenever I teach constitutional law,

Oh lord. Those poor students. Can they get their money back?

I ask my students if they're happy that they live in a nation with the oldest written constitution in the world. They all nod enthusiastically.

Then I ask them if they'd be equally pleased if our neurosurgeons operated in accordance with the oldest anatomy book in the world, or our oil tankers steered using the oldest navigational charts in the world, or NASA's rocket scientists used Ptolemaic astronomy to chart the path of the Mars Rover.
So, what do they say? Just kidding.
Frankly, having the world's oldest written constitution is not something to be proud of. 

Strange, lots of Americans are very proud of an enduring, flexible constitutional system that has survived civil war, slavery, world war, and totalitarian movements...

As my Georgetown colleague Mike Seidman wrote in a 2012 New York Times op-ed,

Our obsession with the Constitution has saddled us with a dysfunctional political system, kept us from debating the merits of divisive issues and inflamed our public discourse. Instead of arguing about what is to be done, we argue about what James Madison might have wanted done 225 years ago.
He meant it has saddled liberals, leftists and other forms of maladaptive tyrants with restraints, just as it has always been intended to do.

Betcha he (and she) despise Plato as well, as bringing nothing useful to the modern table. This, my darlings, is the result of a narrowly tailored education and an incurious mind. Had she only chosen one of the two, she would not now be falling so deeply into error.

The writer doesn't want to argue about what is to be done in the modern age, she wants to impose what is to be done (based on the delusions of a third-rate nineteenth century German philosopher), and for us to shut up and do as we're told...

I'm not very good at that, I'm afraid.

As someone who has taught constitutional law for almost 40 years, 

That's a hellaciously large number of miseducated lawyers. Y'all might want to check with yours to make sure he/she got their degree elsewhere, just in case.

I am ashamed it took me so long to see how bizarre all this is. Imagine that after careful study a government official -- say, the president or one of the party leaders in Congress -- reaches a considered judgment that a particular course of action is best for the country.
Now, I understand the term Constitutional Law: It's an oxymoron!
Suddenly, someone bursts into the room with new information: A group of white propertied men who have been dead for two centuries, knew nothing of our present situation, acted illegally under existing law and thought it was fine to own slaves might have disagreed with this course of action. Is it even remotely rational that the official should change his or her mind because of this divination?

One assumes she doesn't read literary classics, either. What has Jane Austin or Chekhov to say about the universals of the human condition that could possibly apply to the computer age?

The word "divination" is appropriate, because much of what passes for constitutional debate in this country has more in common with theology than law. Americans spend an inordinate amount of time arguing about how best to interpret the Second Amendment, but the real question -- the one we should be asking -- is this: Why are we so fixated on a 226-year-old piece of paper?

Nor our tradition, inherited from England, of relying on legal precedents to buttress current legal arguments all the way up to the Supreme Court. Why, in the name of all that's holy, did this person go into the law, and how can she bear to spend her days teaching what she must view as an abomination?

Political theory has advanced a good deal since 1787. We now have decent social science research on the pros and cons of different voting systems and different judicial systems; we can now measure and evaluate the impact of different political and legal regimes in ways the framers could not.

Most other nations have had reason to develop new constitutions over the last two centuries, for the simple reason that structures and rules that once made sense often make far less sense when circumstances change.

And boy, have circumstances changed lately. To return to gun deaths, the framers could never have imagined weapons technologies like those used in Newtown, Conn., or the Navy Yard. But because the U.S. Constitution is amazingly difficult to amend (incredibly, women still have no text-based constitutional guarantee of equal rights), Americans are stuck with gun rules from more than two centuries ago.

Which suggests that, unlike you, the citizenry of the country are satisfied enough with the status quo that they have no interest in the great exertion needed to change it.

This may help explain why the U.S. Constitution no longer gets much global respect. Just a few decades ago, the overwhelming majority of nations around the globe modeled their own constitutions on it. 

They did? Who?

Today, that's no longer true. As a recent study by David Law of Washington University in St. Louis and Mila Versteeg of the University of Virginia found:

The U.S. Constitution appears to be losing its appeal as a model for constitutional drafters elsewhere. . . . Among the world's democracies, constitutional similarity to the United States has clearly gone into free fall. Over the 1960s and 1970s, democratic constitutions as a whole became more similar to the U.S. Constitution, only to reverse course in the 1980s and 1990s. The turn of the 21st century, however, saw the beginning of a steep plunge that continues through the most recent years for which we have data, to the point that the constitutions of the world's democracies are, on average, less similar to the U.S. Constitution now than they were at the end of World War II.

There's no rule saying that other countries have to do things the way we do them. Since their culture is different, modeling their constitution on ours might not be a good idea. We put a lot of thought into ours in the 1780s. You don't reproduce that in a day, and certainly not in a Georgetown Law School recitation...

Just why other democracies are losing interest in the U.S. Constitution as a model is an interesting question, and there are undoubtedly a thousand and one reasons. 

The author then discounts a thousand of them...

But I'll bet the Navy Yard shootings just added 12 more.

Intelligent people can separate crime perpetrated by a mentally ill person and governance in a population. Only the socialists seem to conflate the two...

Rosa Brooks is a self-entitled elitist law professor at Georgetown University and a fellow at the New America Foundation. She served as a counselor to the U.S. undersecretary of defense for policy from 2009 to 2011 and previously served as a State Department senior adviser. She wrote this for Foreign Policy.

Rantburg's summary for arms and ammunition: 

Despite renewed noise for even more Draconian gun laws from our indigenous fascists in the wake of the Washington DC shooting, ammunition prices for nearly all classes including rifle and pistol ammunition were steady, and either lower or unchanged from the previous week.

Prices for all classes of weapons were lower for all but two classes of guns. An AR ban in Maryland takes effect October 1st.

Pistol Ammo

.45 caliber, 230 grain, From Last Week: -.04 each
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Selway Armory, HSM reloaded, .34 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Selway Armory, reloaded, .34 per round

.40 Caliber Smith & Wesson, 180 grain, From Last Week: -.03 each
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Selway Armory, BVAC, reloaded, .29 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1000 rounds: LAX Ammunition, reloaded, .27 per round (w/ ammo can)

9mm Parabellum, 115 grain, From Last Week: -.02 each
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Cabelas, Herter's Select Grade, .28 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1000 rounds: Georgia Arms (all brass), Canned heat, .25 per round

.357 Magnum, 158 grain, From Last Week: -.04 each
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Glenn's Army Navy, CCI Blazer, .46 per round
Cheapest, Bulk, 250 rounds: BulkAmmo, MagTech, .78 per round

Rifle Ammunition

.223 Caliber/5.56mm 55 grain, From Last Week: Unchanged
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Alamo Ammo, Brown Bear, steel cased, .35 per round
Cheapest Bulk 1,000 rounds: LAX Ammo, TulAmmo, steel cased, .33 per round

.308 NATO 145 grain, From Last Week: -.06 each
Cheapest, 20 rounds: MunrilUSA, Prvi Partizan, brass, .67 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1000 rounds: Sportsman Guide, MFS, .56 per round

7.62x39 AK 123 Grain, From Last Week: +.01 each
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Ammo Supply Warehouse, Wolf Polyformance, steel core and case, .26 per round
Cheapest, Bulk, 1000 rounds: BulkAmmo, Wolf Polyformance, steel core and case, .25 per round

.22 LR 40 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Ammo Fast, Eley Target, 10 per round
Cheapest, Bulk, 1,000 rounds: Smokey Mountain Munitions, Remington Thunderbolt, .14 per round

Guns for Private Sale
Rifles

.223/5.56mm (AR Pattern Semiautomatic) Average price: $815 Last Week Avg: $990
California: Smith & Wesson M&P: $675
Texas: DPMS: $850
New York: Bushmaster C-15: $950
Maryland: CNMG: $900
Florida: Mixed Build: $700

.308 NATO (AR-10 Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $1,363 Last Week Avg: $1,320
California: DPMS: $800 (Same Gun)
Texas: Diamond Back DB-15: $915
New York: Core 30 MOE: $1,200 (Same Gun)
Maryland: DPMS LR-308B: $2,500 (Same Gun)
Florida: Bushmaster MOE: $1,400

7.62x39mm (AK Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $890 Last Week Avg: $730
California: IO Inc: $900
Texas: Saiga: $1,000
New York: Saiga: $750 (Same Gun)
Maryland: AK-47: $900 (Same Gun)
Florida: WASR AK-47: $900

7.62x54mm (Dragunov Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $1,350 Last Week Avg: $1,350
California: Romak PSL: $1,650 (Same Gun)
Texas: Romak PSL: $1,200 (same Gun)
New York: None
Maryland: None
Florida: Romak PSL: $1,200 (Same Gun)

Pistols

.45 caliber ACP (M1911 Pattern Semiautomatic Pistol) Average Price: $583 Last Week Avg: $716
California: Rock Island Armory: $475
Texas: Colt (Hybrid build): $525
New York: Sig Sauer Compact 1911: $885
Maryland: Metro Arms: $580 (Same Gun)
Florida: Bersa-Eagle: $449

9mm Beretta 92FS Semiautomatic Average Price: $495 Last Week Avg: $507
California: $550 (Same Gun)
Texas: $475 (Same Gun)
New York: None
Maryland: $500
Florida: $455

.40 caliber S&W (Glock and other semiautomatic) Average Price: $455 Last Week Avg: $405
California: Glock 23: $499
Texas: Glock 23: $500
New York: Glock 22: $350 (Same Gun)
Maryland: Smith & Wesson 4006: $450 (Same Gun )(I think)
Florida: Steyr M40-A1: $475
Note: Maryland's Draconian AR ban goes into effect October 1st, so I may be forced to find another upper east coast state for my data.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and BorderlandBeat.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com

This Week in Guns, September 21st, 2013

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

Earlier in the week, 100 million firearms owners did not go to Washington DC, enter into a secured US Navy facility, sneak a Remington 12 gauge pump shotgun inside, kill one guard and wound another, then go to a building where they knew others would be for the sole purpose of killing them. 

Of those 100 million some of them were probably mentally ill by today's standards, and a lot of them, a lot more of them owned firearms considered by today's standards to be "illegal". They probably go around angry about things, family, friends, co-workers and the like, some even about the nut-crushing government we have which is still growing.

Yet a young man in his 30s, unmarried, childless, unattached in any meaningful sense, with a relatively good career in information technology did all that mayhem in Washington, DC which cost the lives of 12 and ruined the lives of many others.

Immediately following the shooting politicos, amateur and otherwise focused on the wrong things: what caused him to "snap", where did he get the weapons he used, etc. Very rarely in paid media did I read anything about how the man was just a treacherous asshole.

We have those in abundance in the United States, many of them with their hands on the media's microphones and some of whose writings appear in dead tree and digital media, whose sole goal in life is to use the US Constitution to wreck the parts they don't like, such as guns.

For all the many moments of belly drops we get from these incidents and the many more to come, nothing is worse than what the dead and the wounded experienced just before they were shot. Nothing could have prepared them for those shootings, save for the one thing our fascists in the media say they want to take away from everyone. 

Guns.

So, what do the media focus on? The shooter? Sure, that's an obvious choice, but mostly the first thing proffered as a "solution" is gun control. They focus on everyone else, the 100 million firearms owners who would not, who could not conceive of such an act, but who wish to be both left alone to their own lives, and to be allowed to defend themselves against treacherous assholes like the shooter in Washington, DC.

Pointing out the shooter's pro-Obama pedigree doesn't help, nor does pointing out his penchant for "violent" video games; nor does imposing common sense gun laws. The only deterrent against a treacherous asshole is private individuals with guns who are ready to use them.

Speaking of treacherous assholes, a University of Kansas journalism professor (I know, shut up), for all intents and purposes on Twitter threatened the children of National Rifle association members for their role in the Washington, DC murders, which, in case you haven't been following, had no role in that incident. The University of Kansas supported David Guth's right to say what he did, but later suspended him for saying what he said.

And they say the 1st amendment is not alive and well in the United States.

Lastly, some fun facts about the AR-15.


Rantburg's summary for arms and ammunition:

Pistol Ammo

.45 caliber, 230 grain, From Last Week: +.01 each
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Munire USA, TulAmmo steel cased, .38 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1000 rounds: LAX Ammunition, reloaded, .37 per round

.40 Caliber Smith & Wesson, 180 grain, From Last Week: -.01 each
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Bangit Ammo, Precision One, reloaded, .32 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1000 rounds: LAX Ammunition, reloaded, .27 per round (w/ ammo can)

9mm Parabellum, 115 grain, From Last Week: +.02 each
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Bangit Ammo, Precision One, reloaded, .30 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1000 rounds: Fitz Munition Works (all brass), reloaded, .27 per round

.357 Magnum, 158 grain, From Last Week: +.12 each
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Bud's Gun Shop, CCL Blazer, .50 per round
Cheapest, Bulk, 250 rounds: LAX Ammunition, reloaded w/ ammo can, .40 per round

Rifle Ammunition

.223 Caliber/5.56mm 55 grain, From Last Week: Unchanged
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Cabelas, Herters FML, .35 per round
Cheapest Bulk 1,000 rounds: Bulk Ammo, TulAmmo, .39 per round

.308 NATO 145 grain, From Last Week: +.13 each
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Prvi Partizan steel cased, .73 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Wideners, Prvi Partizan steel cased, .65 per round

7.62x39 AK 123 Grain, From Last Week: -.02 each
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Ammo Supply Warehouse, Wolf Polyformance, steel core and case, .25 per round
Cheapest, Bulk, 1000 rounds: Ammo Supply Warehouse, Wolf Polyformance, steel core and case, .26 per round

.22 LR 40 Grain, From Last Week: +.02 each
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Ammo Fast, Eley Target, 10 per round
Cheapest, Bulk, 1,000 rounds: Bang it Ammo, Federal, Premium Gold Medal Target, .17 per round

Guns for Private Sale
Rifles
.223/5.56mm (AR Pattern Semiautomatic) Average price: $990 Last Week Avg: $940
California: Custom AR-15: $1,250
Texas: Colt Sporter Match: $800
New York: Bushmaster Orc Carbine: $1,050
Maryland: Ruger SR556 : $1,100
Florida: Bushmaster AR-15 : $795

.308 NATO (AR-10 Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $1,320 Last Week Avg: $1,570
California: DPMS: $800
Texas: Smith & Wesson M&P: $800
New York: Core 30 MOE: $1,200
Maryland: DPMS LR-308B: $2,500 (Same Gun)
Florida: Armalite AR-10 LE: $1,300

7.62x39mm (AK Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $730 Last Week Avg: $790 
California: Saiga: $650 (prolly same gun)
Texas: WASR: $650
New York: Saiga: $750
Maryland: AK-47: $900
Florida: AK-47: $700

7.62x54mm (Dragunov Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $1,350 Last Week Avg: $1,333
California: Romak PSL: $1,650 (Same Gun)
Texas: Romak PSL: $1,200
New York: None
Maryland: None
Florida: Romak PSL: $1,200

Pistols

.45 caliber ACP (M1911 Pattern Semiautomatic Pistol) Average Price: $660 Last Week Avg: $716
California: Rock Island Armory: $650
Texas: Regent UMA R100 (Turkish) 1911: $450
New York: Kimber 1911: $999
Maryland: Metro Arms: $580 (Same Gun)
Florida: Springfield: $620

9mm Beretta 92FS Semiautomatic Average Price: $507 last Week Avg: $506 
California: $550
Texas: $475 (Same Gun)
New York: None
Maryland: $500
Florida: $500

.40 caliber S&W (Glock and other semiautomatic) First Time Listing Avg: $405 
California: Glock 23: $500
Texas: Smith & Wesson: $350
New York: Glock 22: $350
Maryland: Smith & Wesson 4006: $450
Florida: Smith & Wesson SD40: $375

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and BorderlandBeat.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com.

This Week in Guns, September 14th, 2013

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

The big news is that two Colorado state senators were recalled last Tuesday. ABC news says that the recall puts a chill on gun control laws. Yeah, right.

Ex Brit troopie Max Velocity now offers contact drills classes and patrol classes.

According to Mike Vanderborough, the executive order which could ban reimportation of surplus rifles isn't an executive order, yet. The Civilian Marksmanship program is still in business, and very little has changed.

Rantburg's summary for arms and ammunition:

Pistol Ammo

.45 caliber, 230 grain, From Last Week: Unchanged
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Munire USA, TulAmmo steel cased, .37 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1000 rounds: LAX Ammunition, reloaded, .37 per round

.40 Caliber Smith & Wesson, 180 grain, From Last Week: +.03 each
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Bangit Ammo, Precision One, reloaded, .32 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1000 rounds: LAX Ammunition, reloaded, .27 per round (w/ ammo can)

9mm Parabellum, 115 grain, From Last Week: -.02 each
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Ventura Munitions, Hunting Shack Ammo, .28 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1000 rounds: Battle Bag Ammo, reloaded, .25 per round

.357 Magnum, 158 grain, From Last Week: Unchanged
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Selway Armory, BVAC reloaded .37 per round
Cheapest, Bulk, 1000 rounds: LAX Ammunition, Fiocchi, .41 per round

Rifle Ammunition

.223 Caliber/5.56mm 55 grain, From Last Week: -.03 each
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Cabelas, Herters HP, .35 per round
Cheapest Bulk 500 rounds: Cabelas, Herters HP, .34 per round

.308 NATO 145 grain, From Last Week: Unchanged
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Ammunition to Go, MFS, .60 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Wideners, Prvi Partizan steel cased, .70 per round

7.62x39 AK 123 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Firearms for Sale, Wolf WPA, steel core and case, .27 per round
Cheapest, Bulk, 1000 rounds: Ammo Supply Warehouse, Wolf Polyformance, steel core and case, .27 per round
Cheapest, Brass casing: Ventura Munitions, Fiocchi, .54 per round

.22 LR 40 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Cabelas, CCI/Speer, .08 per round
Cheapest, Bulk, 1,000 rounds: Ammo Supply Warehouse, Amscor, .13 per round

Guns for Private Sale
Rifles

.223/5.56mm (AR Pattern Semiautomatic) Average price: $940 Last Week Avg: $1,050
California: Armalite AR-15: $800
Texas: Bushmaster MOE: $950
New York: Colt (Preban): $1,050
Maryland: Bushmaster C-15: $1,100
Florida: Sis Sauer : $800

.308 NATO (AR-10 Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $1,570 Last Week Avg: $1,660
California: Smith & Wesson M&P-10: $1,600
Texas: DPMS, Sig Sauer: $1,400
New York: Magnum Research: $1,200
Maryland: DPMS LR-308B: $2,500 (Same Gun)
Florida: Smithy & Wesson M&P 10: $1,150

7.62x39mm (AK Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $790 Last Week Avg: $717
California: Saiga: $650
Texas: WASR: $750
New York: Yugoslavian w/thumbhole stock: $950
Maryland: WASR: $800
Florida: Yugoslavian: $800

7.62x54mm (Dragunov Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $1,333 Last Week Avg: $1,425
California: Romak PSL: $1,650 (Same Gun)
Texas: Romak PSL: $1,200
New York: None
Maryland: None
Florida: Romak PSL w/ 5 mags & 880 rnds: $1,150

Pistols

.45 caliber ACP (M1911 Pattern Semiautomatic Pistol) Average Price: $716 Last Week Avg: $571
California: Rock Island Armory: $600
Texas: Rock Island Armory: $550
New York: Colt: $1,150
Maryland: Metro Arms: $580 (Same Gun)
Florida: Springfield: $700

9mm Beretta 92FS Average Price: $487 last Week Avg: $481
California: $475
Texas: $475
New York: None
Maryland: $550 (Same Gun)
Florida: $450

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and BorderlandBeat.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com.

This Week in Guns, September 7th, 2013

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

The state of California is gearing up to seize legally acquired guns of individuals who have run afoul of the law. 

According to David Codrea, the ATF raid on the gun shop where the weapons were purchased that were used in the Sandy Hook massacre was a staged media event. As if nothing Obama's security apparatus does is staged. Bastards.

Troy Industries' hiring of Jody Weis as a mouthpiece has prompted Hammerhead Armaments to suspend sales of Troy Industries' products.

Chicago's top cop, Garry McCarthy, has threatened to shoot armed citizens even if they are legally licensed to a carry guns in his city. Threats against legally armed individuals: 1; Threats to gangbangers actually murdering others: 0. Way to go, baby. Mayhem! It's the Chicago way!

Rantburg's summary for arms and ammunition:

Pistol Ammo

.45 caliber, 230 grain, From Last Week: Unchanged
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Ventura Munitions, Wolf Polyperformance steel cased, .37 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1000 rounds: LAX Ammunition, reloaded, .39 per round

.40 Caliber Smith & Wesson, 180 grain, From Last Week: -.02 each
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Selway Armory,BVAC reloaded, .29 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1000, 500 or 250 rounds: LAX Ammunition, reloaded, .27 per round (w/ ammo can)

9mm Parabellum, 115 grain, From Last Week: +.02 each
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Battle Bag Ammo, Geco Ruag, .30 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1000 rounds: Battle Bag Ammo, reloaded, .25 per round

.357 Magnum, 158 grain, From Last Week: -.13 each
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Selway Armory, BVAC reloaded .37 per round
Cheapest, Bulk, 1000 rounds: LAX Ammunition, Fiocchi, .41 per round

Rifle Ammunition

.223 Caliber/5.56mm 55 grain, From Last Week: -.01 each
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Munire USA, Monarch, steel cased, .38 per round
Cheapest Bulk 500 rounds: Cheaper Than Dirt, Tulammo, steel cased, .40 per round

.308 NATO 145 grain, From Last Week: -.10 each
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Ammunition to Go, MFS, .60 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Wideners, Prvi Partizan steel cased, .70 per round

7.62x39 AK 123 Grain, From Last Week: +.01 each
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Firearms for Sale, Wolf WPA, steel core and case, .27 per round
Cheapest, Bulk, 1000 rounds: Ammo Supply Warehouse, Wolf Polyformance, steel core and case, .27 per round
Cheapest, Brass casing: Ventura Munitions, Fiocchi, .54 per round

.22 LR 40 Grain, From Last Week: -.02 each
Cheapest, 50 rounds:Firearms for Sale, Aguila Prime, .08 per round
Cheapest, Bulk, 500 rounds: Smokey Mountain Munitions, Winchester, .15 per round

Guns for Private Sale
Rifles

.223/5.56mm (AR Pattern Semiautomatic) Average price: $1,050 Last Week Avg: $820
California: Bushmaster M-17 Bullpup: $1,200
Texas: Anderson AM-15: $999
New York: Daniel Defense M$ V7: $905
Maryland: Spikes Tactical: $1,300
Florida: Smith & Wesson M&P : $850

.308 NATO (AR-10 Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $1,660 Last Week Avg: $1,554
California: Sig Sauer 716: $1,450 (Same Gun)
Texas: DPMS w/scope: $1,300 (Possibly same Gun)
New York: SCAR 17 (misplaced ad: $1,750)
Maryland: DPMS LR-308B: $2,500 (Same Gun)
Florida: DPM s LR308: $1,300

7.62x39mm (AK Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $717 Last Week Avg: $737
California: Saiga SGL 26-61: $950
Texas: Century Arms (underfolder): $525
New York: Saiga: $750
Maryland: WASR: $900
Florida: Zastava Pap: $460

7.62x54mm (Dragunov Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $1,425 Last Week Avg: $1,425
California: Romak PSL: $1,650 (Same Gun)
Texas: None
New York: None
Maryland: None
Florida: Romak PSL: $1,200 (Prolly same gun as before)

Pistols
.45 caliber ACP (M1911 Pattern Semiautomatic Pistol) Average Price: $571 Last Week Avg: $634
California: Rock Island Armory: $425
Texas: Taurus PT1911: $500
New York: Colt Commander XSE 1911: $700
Maryland: Metro Arms: $580
Florida: Sig Sauer w/ laser: $650

9mm Beretta 92FS Average Price: $481 First Time Listing
California: $475
Texas: $500
New York: None
Maryland: $550
Florida: $400

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and BorderlandBeat.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com