Revolvers

A lot of Americans who believe in the right to own guns were very disappointed this weekend. On Friday, the Bush administration's Justice Department entered into the fray over the District of Columbia's 1976 handgun ban by filing a brief to the Supreme Court that effectively supports the ban. The administration pays lip service to the notion that the Second Amendment protects gun ownership as an individual right, but their brief leaves the term essentially meaningless.

Smith & Wesson Corp., announced today that after 10 years of successfully hosting the Smith & Wesson International Defensive Pistol Association (IDPA) Winter Championships, the company will now hold the first IDPA Indoor National Championships February 21-23, 2008.

The United States Practical Shooting Association (USPSA) is shooting for 20,000 members in 2008 and has enlisted the help of some of the firearms industry’s biggest leaders.

We were recently informed by a friend of Gun Tests in the ammo-making business that .38 Special and .380 ACP ammunition are some of the best-selling types out there, so we decided to immediately give our readers a look at a few of the snubbies available in .38/.357. We secured a blued five-shot Taurus Model 605B2 ($391), and a stainless-steel six-shot Rossi Model R46202 ($377), and concentrated our testing on .38 Special ammo.Though both guns were made in Brazil by Taurus, there were significant differences and, as we found, similar problems. The street prices of these two were within $40 of each other, so we chose to test blued five-shot against stainless six-shot. Of course both of these revolvers could be fired with .357 Magnum ammo, but we suspect most of these sold will seldom see a glimpse of the hot stuff, for various reasons. One reason is the cost of ammunition, and another is recoil and muzzle blast. Both are generally drastically increased, and sometimes to no good effect, with .357 fodder. Lets take a look at what we found.

We found the NAA guns to be quite well made, though we experienced significant gas escape with both cylinders in both guns.

The Burner Series, $230, is a ten-VHS-tape set covering virtually every aspect of the popular run and gun sport of Practical Shooting.

The legislation requires federal agencies to provide relevant data for use in the NICS system, a database that stores the names of individuals prohibited by federal law from purchasing or possessing firearms.

A new agreement between NSSF's ranges division, the National Association of Shooting Ranges (NASR), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) allows shooting ranges to submit Environmental Stewardship Plans anonymously.

Forty million Americans today are active in shooting sports and hunting. During their lifetimes, the total retail value of their recreational activities will top $4 trillion, projects the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), a nonprofit trade association for the firearm industry.

The 'Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Reform and Firearms Modernization Act of 2007' (HR 4900) legislation represents a major advance in protecting the rights of firearms dealers.

Charter Arms has just released its new .22 LR and .22 Magnum Target Pathfinder Series 6-shot, all stainless-steel 4-inch-barrel revolvers with fully adjustable sights.

Ron Sieg, Flagstaff Regional Supervisor, will present issues associated with lead from spent ammunition.