News from the AZCDL

HB 2607, the AzCDL-requested Campus Carry bill, was filed on Monday, February 9, 2009, the last day for bills to be filed this session. HB 2607 removes the authority of a governing board to prohibit a person who possesses a CCW permit from carrying a concealed firearm on the property of an educational institution (i.e., College or University).

Also submitted was SB 1270, which would allow for Vermont-style concealed carry (prohibiting, of course, criminals and those in the course of criminal action) without permits. Open carry, as usual, would not be affected.
I’m a strong advocate of both bills, particularly as I open carry regularly wherever I go off-campus (excepting where it’s prohibited, obviously). Being able to carry concealed on campus would allow for myself and other responsible individuals to have the means to defend ourselves from violent criminals which, unfortunately, do not cease their criminal acts at the city-university border.
Since I can already legally open carry in most public places without any sort of permit or license, why should I not also have the right to carry concealed as well? Is there a major difference between having my gun covered by a shirt and not covered by a shirt? People who carry, both openly and concealed, have not been any sort of statistically significant problem here in Arizona, so why not?

Finally, some ammo…

I was up in Chandler this weekend visiting Sarah and her sister, Heidi. Heidi wanted to go to Dick’s Sporting Goods to buy something as a gift for her friend’s birthday. While we were there, I browsed around the gun counter and came across a 150-round pack of Ultramax .223 factory reloads.
The price was quite comparable to what one could get for the same quantity from various mail-order sources, if they had any in stock, and I was willing to give Ultramax a shot as I had used some of their pistol stuff before and it had been fine. With the employee’s permission, I opened the box and took a look at the bagged, loose-packed ammo inside. It was all Federal (both commercial and Lake City), Winchester, Remington, or PMC brass, all polished to a high shine, and all with no split necks or other deformations. While the cases themselves may have had different neck lengths, all the cartridges had the same OAL (on the cases with a slightly shorter neck length the cannelure was visible, while with slightly longer case lengths the cannelure was covered by the neck).
When I was loading the ammo into magazines at home, I inspected each cartridge. Every one looked to be in good condition, all the primers were seated below the back of the cartridge, and no defects that I could find. I’ll let you know how well they work the next time I’m at the range.
I’m doing my part to help out the enviroment by recycling ammo, both by reloading my own and buying factory reloads from reputable companies. It’s always fun to mention that to green types. 🙂
Now, if only the ammo companies could somehow ramp up supply to keep up with demand. This whole every-store-sold-out-all-the-time thing is getting old, fast.

Sales Volume

At 6:00pm I get an email from Midway letting me know that 17-round Glock 17 magazines are in stock.
At 6:45pm, I visit Midway’s page to see about ordering some. Out of stock. They’re expecting more on the 19th of February.
Midway’s entire stock of Glock 17 mags sold out in less than 45 minutes? Damn. I’m impressed.

Tutorial suggestions?

A while back I made a brief tutorial on how to disassemble and maintain Ruger 10/22 magazines. It’s been pretty well received, with nearly 60,000 visitors since its inception.
That said, I’ve been looking at creating some other tutorials. Anyone have any suggestions? Should I make a tutorial about the AR-15? M1 Garand? Ruger MkIII? 10/22 (the rifle itself, not just the mags)? XD?

Borrowing a chronograph?

If anyone in the Tucson area happens to have a chronograph lying around, would it be possible for me to borrow it for a range session or two? I want to get some data for my reloads, but I lack a chrony.
It doesn’t need to be fancy, and I’d be willing to provide some sort of reasonable collateral against my accidentally shooting it.
If so, please contact me by email. Thanks!

Question of the Day

The university has a post office (contract unit) in the student union. In addition to being able to buy stamps and ship parcels, one can also rent post office boxes[1].
Now, it’s perfectly legal to ship firearms in the mail (handguns must be shipped by an FFL through the mail, mere mortals can only ship long guns) so long as certain rules are obeyed. Parcels, including firearms, which are too large to fit into a box are held for the box holder to collect over the counter.
Now, it’s legal to mail firearms, and it’s legal to receive firearms (say, being returned from the manufacturer for service, or from a gunsmith). It’s legal to possess firearms just about anywhere in Tucson, but it is against the law to possess firearms on the university campus without the express permission of the university police department (good luck getting such permission).
Assuming one were to have a PO box at the on-campus post office, and one was to receive a firearm…would it be legal to transport that firearm (unloaded, cased, locked, etc.) from the on-campus post office to an off-campus location by the most immediate means available (e.g. walking off-campus, to a waiting car, etc.)? It seems like there’s some sort of “island of legality” within the confines of the post office, but one cannot actually transport the firearm from the post office to an off-campus location without crossing through the no-guns-allowed region of the campus itself.
Any thoughts or pointers? I could call the university police department, but I figured I’d ask here first.
[1] Which reminds me of a cool label I saw affixed to a liquid nitrogen dewar (like a big thermos) today: it was made by some nuclear division of the Union Carbide Company, and had “Post Office Box X” in some city. How cool is that? “Box X” sounds very mysterious indeed, particularly when relating to nuclear stuff.

Bloody Hell…

My friend Louis just got me an RCBS bullet puller today, as I have been pining for one for some time.
I can’t get the bloody thing to work. I popped the tar seal on some old Wolf ammo I had lying around, put the cartridge in the puller in the prescribed manner, and pounded the snot out of it to no avail. Even following excellent instructions such as this, I’ve been unsuccessful. (Note: I lack a piece of firewood, but I do have a 2×4 clamped to my desk to which my reloading press is attached, and I pounded the puller on the wood, as well as my lightly-carpeted floor.)
Same thing with my non-sealed, not-heavily-crimped reloads.
Any suggestions?
Perhaps a collet-puller would have been a better idea?

New Shooter Ammo Fund

The costs of running this blog are extremely minimal, about $20/year or so. Well within my meager student budget.
However, ammo costs a fair bit of money. While I wouldn’t think of asking readers to contribute money for my own personal ammo budget, I’d welcome any assistance that readers might be able to offer to help me provide ammo for new shooters that I take to the range. None of the ammo funded by such donations will be used for my personal use, though I may shoot a magazine or two so as to demonstrate things to new shooters.
I’ve put a small PayPal button in the right column where people can donate, if they wish. Of course, this is entirely voluntary, and nobody should feel the least bit compelled to donate. If you do donate, please let me know if you’d like your name (or pseudonym) and URL mentioned in posts, and I’ll gladly give you credit in the new shooter reports. Those who wish to stay anonymous will have their wishes respected.
I feel very awkward asking for donations of this type, and hope that nobody feels any less of me because of it. Unfortunately, donations to the New Shooter Ammo Fund are not tax deductible.
…..
Update: I also thought of a different option: if people would be more comfortable donating ammunition itself rather than money, please contact me and I can provide my shipping address. The top priorities are .22LR (both super- and subsonic, though subs are preferred; Winchester Dyanpoints work excellently with my suppressor, are subsonic out of a 16″ barrel, and are not nearly as expensive as purpose-made subsonic ammo) and .223 Rem/5.56mm NATO (62 or 55 grain bullets are fine — I’ll gladly take even “cheap” stuff like Wolf). For safety purposes, I’m only willing to accept factory-new or commercial reloads (like Ultramax or Miwall), not individual reloads or handloads. Cheap imports are fine, so long as they’re safe to use and meet relevant specs (e.g. SAAMI, NATO, etc.).
Lower priority but still important are .30-06 Springfield (M2 Ball spec only, as it’s being fired from an M1 Garand which has very specific pressure tolerances), 9mm Luger, and .45 ACP.
In certain quantities, I may be able to help pick up part of the UPS shipping. Contact me for details if you’re interested.