Octopodial Chrome

The Army of the United States has kindly provided us with a study guide to common failure modes of the M16 (or AR-15, as the civilian-legal version is know). Useful knowledge no matter what sort of weapon you shoot.

Hat-tip to my buddy Capt. V——.

If you live on Earth, then you should be familiar with the rules of gunfighting. No, you’re not likely to ever need them; you’re also unlikely to ever need your fire, flood or earthquake insurance.

A survivor of the 1966 University of Texas shooting reminisces:

As I walked down the hall toward that office the sound of a large caliber rifle thundered from that open doorway followed by two men talking. After all the bizarre events of the last few minutes it didn’t seem strange to me when I peeked around the office doorway to see one professor shooting a deer rifle at the top of tower while the other fed him ammunition. It never entered my mind to question why an English professor would have his deer rifle in his office complete with boxes of ammunition. This was Texas after all. Guns were commonplace. From the office windows, we could see the top of the tower clearly. Small puffs of smoke were coming from the rifle of the sniper on the observation deck. The large glass faced clock above the observation deck was shattered from others shooting back at him. The professor ran through several boxes of shells before running out of rounds. My ears were ringing.

That’s as it should be.

This man has stuck his Glock .45 ACP in mud, in sand, in baby powder. He’s shot at it; he’s run it over with trucks; he’s dragged it behind a car. He’s dropped it from a roof and tossed it from a plane. He’s never cleaned it in 10 years. And it shoots as good as the day he got it.

I hate the way Glocks look, but if my life ever depended on a firearm, a Glock is what I’d want to shoot.

I just found a glorious page of specialised shotshells. Family & friends: these are what I want for Christmas. Who wouldn’t want a tracer shell, or an incendiary shell, or a flechette shell? Or a pepper gas shell—how sweet is that? Or a shell designed specifically for stopping vehicles. Granted, I don’t need to stop any vehicles. But it’d be great to have it on hand anyway, for the bragging rights if nothing else.