Auto-Ordnance M1 Carbine into layaway safe, S&W 317 gets liberated!

One out of the layaway safe and another one goes back in. The story of the life of an unrepentant gun slut.

This time the one going into the layaway safe is not a handgun, which is a radical change for me. I'm pretty much of a handgun slut, but I made an exception this time for the Auto-Ordnance M1 Carbine Tactical Folding Stock Model. 


The only other long guns I have suitable for castle defense are a pair of 12 gauge shotguns, one SBS double-barrel my daddy left me and an Ithaca 37 pump that I had the barrel shortened to 18.25" as a riot gun; plus a Marlin 1894 .44 Magnum Stainless Lever-Action Carbine. All of those are pretty much for close-up work. The lever-gun is a bit more long range than the shotguns, but after 100 yards those .44 Magnums start dropping like the huge hunk of lead they are. You just can't repeal the law of gravity.


The M-1 Carbine isn't exactly a long-range weapon but it is capable of rapid semi-auto fire out to about 200 yards with some degree of accuracy, which is suitable for my purposes. I don't live in the wide-open spaces, but alas, I'm a town dweller. It should suffice for any threat to home and hearth in my housing subdivision.

And when the brown stuff hits and fan, it's light and easily portable with a folding stock for my bug-out bag.

The .30 Carbine round has a bad rep for "stopping power" but statistics from its battle record show it was more effective in use than the .45 ACP in a round-for-round comparison. It's hardly fair to compare a rifle with its superior accuracy and ease of use to a 1911 pistol, but this is war we're talking about, not fairness.

And that was with full-metal-jacket rounds. With the jacketed-soft-points available in .30 Carbine, it's a much more effective round. 

And one reason I decided to buy an M1 Carbine is Cor-Bon just introduced the very first genuine hollow-point for .30 Carbine.

Loaded with pure copper Barnes Triple-Shock X Bullets, the DPX line offers deep penetration with 100% weight retention. These revolutionary bullets from Barnes are made of 100% copper and contain no lead. When the bullet expands, four razor-sharp cutting petals are created, allowing the bullet to penetrate farther through tough bone and tissue.

They're a little pricey, more than $2 a round, but what's your life worth? I'd say a couple of boxes of those reserved for home-defense is definitely worth the investment in the security of my home and loved ones.


And before I go, what came out of the layaway safe? My new-to-me gently used S&W 317 .22LR revolver.

And also before I go, my apology to one of my readers who commented that the 317 is a J-frame. I argued that it's a K-frame based on its heritage as a lightweight alloy version of the S&W K-17 .22, but I was wrong. Smith & Wesson says on their website it's a J-frame, and how can I argue with the manufacturer? 

And one more correction. I also stated in an earlier post that the S&W 317 is a 9-shot revolver. As you can see from the above photo of my new-to-me 317, there's eight holes in that cylinder, not nine. I've been having a lot of trouble with math since I ran into those multiplication tables in the 3rd grade. And I never got over it.

The buck never stops anywhere in the Obama administration

NRA-ILA updates the non-news on the Obama administration's ban of the import from South Korea to the U.S. of nearly a million WWII U.S. M1 Garand 30'06 rifles and M1 .30 Cal. Carbines.

Whodunit? Not us says Hillary Clinton's State Department, or the BATF (AKA BAT-crazy department of banning Firearms), or Eric "Cold Cash for Clinton Pardons" Holder's Department of Justice (only for black people who are also Democrats). The chorus of "Not Me!" is passed around.

A lot of things have changed in the federal government since President Harry S. Truman put his famous "the buck stops here" sign on his desk. This week, Fox News reported that it couldn't get a straight answer from the State Department about its decision in March to disapprove the importation of more than 800,000 M1 Garand rifles and M1 carbines from South Korea.

According to Fox, the State Department claimed that the rifles might be used "for illicit purposes." But when asked to explain, State passed the buck to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which passed it to the Department of Justice, which passed it back to State.

The anti-gun Brady Campaign didn't hesitate to give Fox an answer, however. "Guns that can take high-capacity magazines are a threat to public safety," the group's Dennis Henigan told reporter Maxim Lott.

Of course, Henigan's response was factually flawed. The M1 Garand does not "take" a "high-capacity" magazine; its magazine is built in, and holds only eight rounds.  That's three fewer than the 11 rounds necessary for a magazine to be restricted as a "large capacity" magazine under California's law, which the Brady Campaign calls a "model for the nation," or the federal ban of 1994-2004 (which the group still advocates as a fall-back position in the event that Congress doesn't impose something more severe).

Since sales of imported firearms are subject to the national instant background check, Henigan's position was also hypocritical. To justify not letting the M1s and carbines into the U.S., Henigan essentially took the position that the instant check is not enough to protect public safety. But at other times, Brady takes the position that public safety requires us to impose the same instant checks on sales of firearms by people who are not dealers.

Finally, the "public safety" fear of these guns is irrational. Today, Americans own more Garands and carbines than ever before.  We also own more semi-automatic rifles in general than ever before, and more self-defense handguns with standard magazines that hold more than 10 rounds than ever before.  Yet despite gun ban groups' predictions, the nation's violent crime rate is at a 35-year low.

Remember in November.