blog.riflegear.com

Hello Kitty rifle makes CNN

It looks like the irrational fear of pink Hello Kitty and other painted guns keeps spreading. Now it appears that reporter Brahim Resnik from KPNX Channel 12 in Phoenix has picked up the story and offers this one-sided hit job:

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/02/19/resnik.painted.guns.kpnx

After showing a woman on the street a picture of the Hello Kitty rifle and getting a laugh from her, he then proceeds to tell her "that it is a weapon used by the military". The military is using semi-automatic civilian AR15's now? Wow, maybe that is why it is taking us so long to finish up in Iraq.

This is just another made-up hypothetical "threat" to law enforcement that has no basis in the truth. They even dig up a retired police officer to warn us about how frightening it is that it is legal for us to paint our own personal property any color we wish. Must have been a slow news day...

University of Florida newspaper prints correction on "Painted Guns" story

Due to numerous comments, emails, and blogging on their incorrect reporting on the Hello Kitty rifle, and painted guns in general, the editors of The Alligator have printed this correction (link).

I like this part:

"On Thursday, Feb. 8, we ran an article based on a report from the Gainesville Police Department about guns painted to look like toys. GPD provided us with a photo, which we ran in the paper and online. As far as we knew, the entire issue was about disguising guns in order to confuse law enforcement.

We were wrong."

But I thought this part was most interesting of all:

"This story should have been about gun laws, gun-owners and the concerns voiced by law enforcement, not just the perspective of law enforcement on this trend. We should have asked GPD where they got the photo of the rifle and followed up to make sure we could use it. (Turns out, the whole thing was handed down from New York.) "

Yep, no doubt handed down directly from Mayor Bloomberg's office due to his crusade against DuraCoat. At least the editors of The Alligator have admitted their mistake and are linking back to my actual blog for the real story behind the Hello Kitty rifle. I commend them on the correction.

University of Florida newspaper, the Alligator, helps spread anti-gun lies

According to the University of Florida newspaper, The Alligator, "Hello Kitty stickers are part of the latest danger to police officers nationwide". That's right, the Gainsville police department is scared shitless of the Hello Kitty rifle.

Here are a few other choice extracts from their "news story":

"Automatic weapons painted pink and covered in Hello Kitty and flower stickers are an example of a growing threat - real guns painted to look like toys, according to a notice recently circulated among officers at the Gainesville Police Department."

"The sole purpose of these guns is to fool the observer, said Lt. Rob Koehler of GPD’s Tactical Impact Unit."

"In the past, officers have misjudged toy guns for real ones with tragic results, according to a news release from the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence."

Quote from the Brady Bunch - big shock there, huh?

"Can you imagine a child finding a pastel blue or pink Glock, fully loaded?" the release stated.

And then add this tiny, tid-bit of information:

"Although GPD officers have not encountered a painted gun locally, the weapons are a growing concern elsewhere in the country."

So they have never actually seen a painted gun, yet is is a growing concern and threat to them. Perhaps they should worry a little more about a criminal with a $100 steet purchased glock stuffed down his shorts and a little less about law-abiding gun enthusiasts that would take the time and money to create custom, one-off designer paint jobs that cost hundreds of dollars.

The Brady Center and Gainesville PD's willing accomplises at the UF alligator also didn't bother to contact me to get permission to use the copyrighted Hello Kitty AR image in their one-sided propoganda piece. When I posted a well reasoned and polite comment in the story and offered to allow them to use the image if they contact me and add some balance to the story, instead they decided to just remove the image and proceed to delete all the comments! They still couldn't get it right when they replaced the image with the following "Editors Note: As per a request from the company that is making the Hello Kitty rifle, we have taken down the image."

Now that Editor's note made it sound like I was mass producing guns that look like toys for sale on the open market. A couple more rounds of emails and comments and they then replaced it with the following: "Editors Note: As per a request from the person who made the Hello Kitty rifle, we have taken down the image." Well, at least they finally got the editor's note right, but in another blatant attempt to silence any opinions that differ from their own, the proceeded to delete all the newly posted comments again.

It looks like the University of Florida newspaper, the independent florida alligator is a little fast and loose with the facts, supports censorship, and is willing to print any one-sided propoganda piece without concern for the truth or doing any investigative journalism on their own. Feel free to tell them how you feel about this.

352-376-4458 (Voice), 352-376-4467 (Fax)

1105 W University Ave Gainesville, FL 32601

Editor Chad Smith

California Assault Weapon Identification Flowchart

The brilliant minds at www.calguns.net put together this handy flowchart to help people understand the complex assault weapon laws in California. Using this chart you can determine if your centerfire rifle is California legal or an illegal unregistered assault weapon.

Hell Kitten AR-15 - evil black rifle meets cute and cuddly

So called "Assault Weapons Bans" such as the now expired 1994 Clinton ban and the one still in place in states such as California seek to ban rifles that our misguided legislators feel have no purpose in civilian hands. They identify "evil features" they can use to generically classify these "military style" weapons in sweeping terms. Of course these features, such as plastic pistol grips, barrel shrouds, and bayonet lugs have absolutely nothing to do with the firearms potential lethality in the real world and are merely cosmetic features. After all, it really doesn't matter what color the firearm is if it fires the same ammunition right? Well, in the "spirit" of the California Assault Weapon Ban I decided to do my best to alleviate the fears of my fellow citizens and gun-banning legislators when I put together a new AR-15 for my wife. Below is the result of my painstaking work to transform an Evil Black Rifle (EBR) into a Cute Pink RIfle (CPR). Introducing the Hell Kitten AR-15!

This rifle is 100% legal in California because it is based on an "off-list" lower receiver made by Stag Arms and has no evil features at all, instead featuring a fixed stock instead of the evil collapsible stock, a muzzle brake in place of the vile flash-hider, and a MonsterMan Grip instead of the heinous and malicious plastic pistol grip. The C Products magazine looks like a 30 round magazine body but is permanently modified to only allow 10 rounds.

I have to give props to my friend Drew at Armory Airbrush who painted the parts for me and did a great job on the graphics. Check him out at http://www.armoryairbrush.com/

It has come to my attention that a lot of people think this rifle is merely a photoshop job. To convince the doubters here is a picture of the painted parts prior to assembly.

Update 1/13/2008: Well we finally got the Kitten rifle to the range. Here are a couple pics of the wife shooting her new pink paper puncher. Hopefully this will put to rest the chatter about this not being a "real" rifle.

Update 2/23/08: Due to an overwhelming number of comments posted on this page, it was taking an unacceptable amount of time to load. To improve the performance, I have moved a majority of the comments to an archived list. Don't worry, I haven't deleted any of them. You can view the archived comments here.

"Assault Weapons" are rarely used in assaults

Here is a graph I put together from the data posted on the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program web site. The data can be found here. In next to last place, right after "other guns" which I assume includes potato guns and airsoft, rifles weigh in at 4% of all homicides committed with firearms in 2005. That is ALL rifles, mind you, even the revered "sporting" kind.

If you check out the data you will find that 25% more people were killed with blunt objects, 2 times as many were killed with "personal weapons" (hands, fists, feet, etc..) and more than 4 times as many were killed with knives or cutting instruments than with all rifle types combined, let alone the "Assault" variety.

Stallone CCW Story Makes Sirius Satellite Radio

I am just amazed at how this article spread over the net. I posted it on a couple forums and then it got picked up by dozens of other forums and blogs. My visitor count has been between 1200 and 1500 a day since I posted it, and to top it all off, it got about five minutes of air time on the Cam & Company radio show on Sirius Patriot Channel 144 and streamed on the www.nranews.com website.

I recorded the segment from the show. Click here to dowload the audio.

The Hypocrisy of Sylvester Stallone

After a few months of letter writing and waiting I finally received a copy of Sylvester Stallone's CCW application from Los Angeles County! This was made available to me due to the California Public Records Act. Of course, the fact they are required by law to make these records available upon request didn't stop them from trying to be evasive and not comply. I detailed my efforts and published the letters and a copy of Stallone's CCW application in this article. Check it out, it really points out the hypocricy of this anti-gun Hollywood elitist.

You can find the article here: The Hypocrisy of Sylvester Stallone

"Evil" form, "Neutered" function

C Products LLC, a popular manufacturer of M-16 and AR-15 magazines, can "block" their stainless steel body magazines to limit the round capacity. After a fairly lengthy wait I finally recieved a shipment of these magazines. These are 30 round stainless steel magazine bodies that have a tab punched into each side of the body. The purpose of the tab is to restrict the movement of the follower so that no more than 10 rounds may be inserted.

You can find them here.

Here is a close up shot of one of the tabs on the side:

Now personally I would not want to use one of these magazines in my rifles because I do a lot of bench shooting and I think all that extra magazine body would just get in the way. However a lot of people are interested in these type of magazines for the "cool" factor. There also has been some discussion that the level of permanence of the modification could be a "gray area" if it is possible to modify these magazines to allow then to hold more than 10 rounds. I actually think it would be very difficult to do so, as it would probably require the use of a power drill to drill out the tab. If it requires the use of a power tool and the removal of metal from the body of the magazine is that not a "permanent" modification? Just what is permanent?

California Off-List AR-15 and AK-47 "Cliffs Notes"

Forum member MudCamper from the calguns.net forum created a nice, concise document that describes the legality and options available for acquiring or building an AR-15 or AK-47 style rifle in California. Yes, for those of you reading this from free America (i.e. outside California) it may come to a surprise to know that it is still possible to legally own one of these rifles despite the California Assault Weapons Control Act, aka the California Assault Weapons Ban.

The pdf can be found here.