News came this morning that Otis MacDonald passed away. Mr. MacDonald is legendary in Chicago, and by rights ought to be as famous as Heller, Brown, and Wade. At the very least, as famous as Heller. Mr. MacDonald was a … Continue reading →
Mail for the Czar today. Operative KH, who is in charge of our moon cratering project, writes in to clarify: Dread Czar, I believe the one who was supposed to be in the truck the LAPD was looking for was … Continue reading →
A quick followup on a topic that got some serious reads—the anatomy of police shootouts. Your Immensity; I’m well aware of human stress reactions (trying being 17, scared of heights, and being one of two Air Force pukes in Army … Continue reading →
This little note from the Retired Spook has much to unpack: Your Immensity: A recent news article seems to indicate that 103 rounds were fired by eight officers into a newspaper delivery truck. If memory serves, the range-to-contact was less … Continue reading →
“J’accuse, ass-hats!” (‘Puter, using his fancy-dancylawyering skills in a courtroom, of all places). You read the post’s title correctly. Lawyers caused the Navy Yard Massacre, and it’s about time a practicing lawyer stood up and said so.* Yes, the murderer** … Continue reading →
As you likely have heard, Illinois became the 50th state to join reality and legalize concealed carry. To be fair, implementation of this law will take a little while yet, but already people are watching to see what happens in … Continue reading →
The Czar and the Mandarin went off shooting on Friday, and put rather a lot of rounds down different types of weapons. However, the Czar noted that he has never, somehow, done a review of a rifle. Not sure how … Continue reading →
Could the Czar be any happier than to have not one but two highly respected epistolarians offer sweet prose on different topics, each of which deserves a response. First, in order of arrival, is Borepatch, who delights us with a … Continue reading →
A popular video is shooting around the Internet in which Natalie Foster—a woman, evidently—is advocating two things: that women need to get into shooting because it’s fun, and that male shooters need to be supportive of women when shooting. The … Continue reading →
The Czar has finished reading Glenn Beck’s latest book Control: Exposing the Truth About Guns and wanted to beat the Mandarin (a) to a book review and (b) with a hockey stick. We shall tackle (a) here today. The book … Continue reading →
For all the sanctimony that Democrats fly on their recently multi-colored flag, they sure are into theatrics just as much as Republicans. Maybe more so, particularly in matters of good taste. In Illinois, beleagured—and that puts it mildly—governor Pat Quinn … Continue reading →
Michael Shermer usually does pretty good analysis, but one of his lesser-effort essays is being circulated around the Facebook these days: *#147;The Science of Guns Proves Arming Untrained Citizens Is a Bad Idea.” Dr. J. forwarded the Czar this essay, … Continue reading →
Well, you put the Царица in charge of date night, and you gotta expect something like this. After a superb dinner at a nearby Szechuan place, the Czar was asked to drive to our favorite shooting range for an evening … Continue reading →
These came up while the Czar was washing blood off his hands in the men’s room. First up is JAB, who pops up from the Doublewide to tell an awesome story: Dear Mr. Mandarin and Your Czarness: Reading your “Literal … Continue reading →
A chat at the Gormogon lobby bar the other day between Mandarin, Borepatch, and the Czar encouraged the Czar to paint this rather interesting analogy. Indeed, this might be one of the most enduring images of the debate—rather than the … Continue reading →
Psychologists ought to be studying the strange disconnect between the Right and Left when it comes to perception of media bias. The Right has, for a long time now, been supplying fairly inarguable evidence that the news media is tilted … Continue reading →
Know what has gotten to be so obvious that it has become a cliché? Progressivism. Notice how every state in the union suddenly has a bill on the table about firearms. And notice how oddly similar they all are. Americans … Continue reading →
The Czar was in need of new boots lately, as his previous pair of boots lost their ability to keep out snow and blood. Any excuse to go Bass Pro Shop, really, as they have very nice inexpensive and not … Continue reading →
Long-time reader Mark Spahn of Seneca, New York, is head of our recently inaugurated Caring & Sharing Division. He notified the Czar of a genuinely weird story involving the Czar’s long-time annoyance—the Department of Homeland Security, under Janet “Concrete Blonde” … Continue reading →
ScottO writes in in response to the Czar’s review of the Ruger P89. Dread and Powerful Czar, I have one thing to say about your italicization of bona fide: Merci beaucoups! FWIW, bona fide is not recognized as English by … Continue reading →
Very alert and long-time follower mastermind EC writes in: Okay: This is much ado about nothing, but four points: 1. President Obama is depicted firing an over and under shotgun. Why is there a wisp of smoke about 8″ back … Continue reading →
See? The President is too macho and tough! Like Reagan! Even though we were told that there were no pictures of the President shooting, suddenly someone comes up with one in the same amount of time it would take to … Continue reading →
RKB writes into the Czar with an appropriately supplicating tone: Oh great and dreadful Czar, She isn’t using a pump shotgun, which tells the Czar she knows about shooting clays. Bet she knows the President lied about his experiences based … Continue reading →
Essential Update at the end Well, now that Americans have forgotten about Sandy Hook and are all excited excited excited for the President’s inauguration tomorrow (Obama 2.0? More like Obama 1.1), okay, well, now the story is getting out that … Continue reading →
Well, a lot of our mailbags have been filling up with gun talk, but not because any of us wanted to go there, but because once again the Left dragged us there so they can replay another failed lecture on … Continue reading →
History will vindicate my memory.—James Buchanan The worst president ever.—History The suggested gun rights legislation should be of enormous interest to political bird watchers like yourselves. Perhaps you don’t own or even care about firearms; even so, what’s happening now … Continue reading →
For those of you who read our site here, but do not follow us on Twitter, you might be wondering what our reactions to the ObamaScare report were. “No, no, Jimmy!” Relax—it’s a Photoshop, Mr. President. Briefly: a tremendous waste … Continue reading →
A big welcome back to LTC Dan, from whom we have not received a message in far, far too long. We appreciate the Colonel’s presence here at the Castle, and are most interested in his question: Sir, I found “Reading … Continue reading →
Chief Jay writes in with a disturbing amount of supplication, even for a power-mad despot such as the Czar. Check out the second sentence in particular: Mighty, Fearful Czar and Fellow Inmate of the Peoples Democratik Republik of Illinois; I … Continue reading →
Fair is fair. The media have declared the Second Amendment ineffective. We get it. But guns are only half the problem, right? Someone has to pull the trigger. So in the same spirit that the media are looking out for … Continue reading →
Right now, a lot of firearm enthusiasts in Illinois are in a panic, with emails flying around urging immediate action! Illinois legislators are planning to pass a sweeping bill that will outlaw everything you like, from magazines, to pump shotguns, … Continue reading →
Here is a quick link to a petition gathering web site for the defense of the 2nd Amendment – click here The MandarinThe Mandarin, whose real name is 吏恆, joined the order in 1309, and introduced the Gormogons into England … Continue reading →
Tying up some loose ends here. The last two weeks, thanks to the Portland shooter, the Sandy Hook shooter, and the New York firefighter assassin, have triggered a hypocritical caterwauling from the liberal progressives about removing guns completely from the … Continue reading →
Three things were wrong with Wayne LaPierre’s speech on behalf of the National Rifle Association. Some of us are members of the NRA, by the way, while some of us are not. Even so, and even though the NRA tends … Continue reading →
Figures there would be nitpickers. Well, maybe that’s unfair; perhaps they are sincerely concerned. Long-term Operative BG takes a break from training sea turtles to carry encoded messages to our trained attack infantry whales (The GormoPodForce™) to hector the Czar … Continue reading →
Okay, the Czar is willing to compromise on an assault weapons ban. He recommends Congress quickly pass the following restrictions through: The following weapons (“assault weapons”) shall be banned from sale effective the date of passage: Weapons with a detachable … Continue reading →
Liberals want to have a “national conversation” on the subject of guns. Uh-oh! Whenever liberals want to have a national conversation about anything, what they mean is that they want you to shut up with your reality-based facts and figures … Continue reading →
Imagine the surprise the Czar got when he found out that a federal court has not only struck down Illinois’ concealed carry ban, but has ordered the legislature to draft a new law in 180 days or less. This means … Continue reading →
Not all the news is bad, you know. Just as conservatives bemoan the potential loss of many of their social arguments, they are decisively and quickly winning one of their most popular: legalized firearms. A couple of Supreme Court victories … Continue reading →
Since the Aurora, Colorado, shootings, gun sales are up nationally, either despite the media’s fear and terror about firearms, or because of the media’s fear and terror. Firearms are the media’s biggest bogeyman. And like all bogeymen, this fear is … Continue reading →
The Left should just admit they don’t know anything about firearms. Those of us on the Right who embrace firearms know this already—one of the safest bets in all of gambling is linking an anti-gun crusader to ignorance about firearms. … Continue reading →
FJR brings up a great observation: we have not had a firearm-related post up for a while. Dread and awful Czar, Followed a youtube link from Borepatch and stumbled on to this cool video showing dragon’s breath shotgun ammo. Thought … Continue reading →
Our good neighbor (well, he is the kind of neighbor who strolls out to get the morning paper wearing only his underwear) Uncle Jay writes in with this very interesting update: Oh dread & awful Czar— Re: Some shooting ranges … Continue reading →
Man, the Czar hates when people ask him to cite sources, because then we all find out what little work we actually do around here. Oh, dread and mighty Czar, I read with interest your post on the baloney reasons … Continue reading →
Well, we go from not having nearly enough firearm-related posts to having way too many at once. And the Czar will admit he is to blame for the latter. Maybe the former, too. But Confucius* alerted the Czar via Twitter … Continue reading →
Secret Operative TB writes in on the Czar’s review of a few .40 caliber handguns: Sounds like you are qualified to give us your best-.40-4-teh-$ opinion. That is, if you’re willing to say, ‘cause you seem a bit reticent to … Continue reading →
We haven’t had a good gun post here in a while. So the Czar, like a few of the G-boys around here, is a fan of .40 caliber weapons. Here is a round up of things we like or do … Continue reading →
Your Czar and the Mandarin spent a gloriously sunny day in not unscenic Bonfield, Illinois, taking in the Illinois State Rifle Association’s open house. Nice event: everything from handguns to rifles to shotguns to muzzle loaders to archery…if it shoots, … Continue reading →
In keeping with the Olympic fever (there’s only one cure — more cowbell!) sweeping our fine Nation, ‘Puter rushes in where angels fear to tread. That’s right, boys and girls, it’s time to set straight, once and for all, which … Continue reading →
The Czar had the opportunity today to fire the Sig Sauer P226, a slick-looking 9mm pistol today. The weapon has become the flag ship of the venerable Sig Sauer line, and it is easy to see why. The Sig Sauer … Continue reading →
There never was much wrong with the venerable .45 ACP, or the 9mm. Both have been around for decades. But the .45 is a big ugly, slow round that limits how much you can put into a handgun, and the … Continue reading →
