Last month Texas governor Rick Perry was jogging with his dog. A coyote threatened his puppeh, so Perry shot it with his laser-sighted Ruger LCP. It was a non-story that was seized on by people who know little about coyotes or guns but have strong opinions on both.
A month later, Ruger showed its good-humored side by releasing a silly "Texas special LCP (sans laser, for some reason).
Again, not a huge story. But what grabbed me in that article was this:
UPDATE: Travis says ...
I was at an Ace Hardware in Waco, TX this weekend. The gun counter employee showed me a Coyote Special. He said that Ruger made 1,000 of them. Also, he said that Ruger had shipped 500 each to two different distributors in Texas. He claimed to have received the pistol from one of those distributors.
In Texas, there are gun counters at Ace Hardware?! Y'know, I'm pretty heavily involved in the gun rights issue, and I'm still sometimes surprised by how nonphobic much of the country is outside New Jersey.
ETA: Mind you, reading some of the liberaler coverage of the incident, some of the "critics" they interview make Austin sound like a little slice of New Jersey. Some of them seem unaware that people carry guns at all.
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Hardware stores everywhere used to carry guns. Some in non-urban areas still carry ammunition, even in Blue States. (Here in Long Beach...)
ReplyDeleteI know, but I'd thought the CGA killed all the gunned-up hardware stores. I sure didn't think a national hardware chain would bother getting an FFL.
ReplyDeleteI remember one old-timer telling the story of buying a .380 pocket pistol at the sporting goods counter of the Macy's in Manhattan.
I'm still surprised Dick's Sprouting Goods bothers in NJ. Wally and the big K don't even carry ammo any more
ReplyDeleteI guess it's worth it when you're the only game in town. There _are_ a whole lot of gun owners in the Garden State just by virtue of our population density, so if Dicks is the only shop in thirty miles that sells guns or ammo, they can probably draw a decent bit of business.
ReplyDeleteProbably. There's a thread for sharing info about the availability there on the NJ Gun Forums, and their prices aren't outrageous for ammo. (I've not considered them for firearms purchase).
ReplyDeleteOTOH, all three of the ranges I've been to sell ammo (and you don't have to card for ammo purchase at a range); and the boutique gun stores all sell ammo as well. (Since all the ranges I go to sell firearms as well, they pretty much have to sell ammo).
One positive note about NJ's opressive firearms laws; I didn't notice as much of an impact on my purchases during the Great Ammo Shortage :)
I think about that whenever people talk about being unable to find .380. Nobody here can carry little pocket guns, and our asinine permit system effectively prevents out-of-staters from buying "pistol ammo", so we've had plenty of the stuff all along.
ReplyDeleteNot that I'm a big fan of the tradeoff, mind you. ;)
For some silly reason I can't find jacketed/plated ball .22lr anyplace I have looked, though. When I only had a psitol it didn't matter since the restrictions for HP are the same as for pistols. Now that I have a rifle it is a little more annoying
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean. We have about 6000 .22lr cartridges around the house, every last round of which is either jacketed hollow point or unjacketed ball. It all feeds well in Danielle's MkIII, and we only have the pistol, so it's no big deal. But when I get around to picking up a .22 rifle? PITA.
ReplyDeleteI've been feeding my rifle out of the unjacketed I bought by accident a while back; but it's a bolt-action. I haven't dared put it through the P22
ReplyDelete