gear

Concealed Carry Basics Part 3: CCW Belts

Don’t Underestimate this Important Piece of Carry Gear

This is the third installment in the Concealed Carry Basics series. In Part 1, we addressed the factors involved in choosing the right firearm for you to carry. In Part 2, we brought up a number of considerations in choosing one of the main pieces of carry equipment: the holster.

As mentioned in the holsters piece, one of the most common means of concealed or openly carrying a firearm is “on the hip” or, rather, somewhere on the waist. Wherever you decide to carry on your waist, it is important to have a good holster that is well fitting, comfortable, secure, and easy to access. Lots of CCW-ers put a lot of time, effort, and money into finding the right holster but overlook another piece of equipment that is equally (or more) important: the belt. Here, in Part 3 of the series, we will address that.

If you haven’t already, be sure to catch up on Part 1 and Part 2 of the series. If you are starting from scratch, head over to Firearms 101 for the basics on what firearms are, how they work, and commonly used acronyms.

So, do you really need a special belt to carry your firearm?

Like everything else, the answer is completely subjective and it will depend on what you are carrying, where you carrying it, and how you are carrying it. However, a good number of the issues that concealed carriers run into (which can sometimes convince them to stop carrying) can be easily solved with a belt upgrade, which is hard to believe until you have tried it.   Continue reading

Concealed Carry Basics Part 2: Holster Options

You Have Your Pistol – Now How Do You Carry It?

This is the second installment in the Concealed Carry Basics series. In Part 1, we addressed the factors involved in choosing the right firearm for you to carry. As we mentioned there, people have been carrying firearms for protection since there have been firearms. The practice can be as simple as literally carrying it (like, in your hands) or tucking it into your waistband. However, the first method will likely (at best) lead to a chat with Officer Friendly after he gets a MWaG (man with a gun) call while the second might lead to such pleasantries as a surprise vasectomy. Therefore we strongly recommend not using either method for your EDC.

Many, if not most, folks who endeavor to carry a firearm tend to go through a number of holsters before they find the one that works best for them (or, worse, end up using a bad holster). Thus they end up having to try to sell their used holsters or having the proverbial box o’ holsters tucked away into the back of their closets. Good holsters can be somewhat pricey and a box of pricey holsters can add up pretty quickly to real money.

We’re here to help with some basics on what kind of holsters are available and some considerations to keep in mind when choosing yours. As with the choosing a firearm part, This article is not a primer on what specific holster is best or which one you should get – instead, we hope to help you find one that works best for you and your situation.

If you are starting from scratch, head over to Firearms 101 for the basics on what firearms are, how they work, and commonly used acronyms.

So, you have the firearm you want to carry for protection… what next?

First off, you should definitely use a holster – no questions asked. Sure, some people do just drop a firearm into their pocket or purse or tuck it into their waistband like they just got out of jail and found it in an unlocked glovebox, but it’s a bad idea for several reasons addressed below.   Continue reading

Concealed Carry Basics Part 1: Choosing the Right Firearm

Finding the right pistol to carry

This is the first installment in the Concealed Carry Basics series. Carrying a firearm on your person is as simple as… well, as carrying a firearm on your person. It is not rocket science – people have been carrying firearms for protection since there have been firearms – but there are pieces of information that you pick up along the way that make the practice easier, safer, and more effective. With a couple combined decades of carry experience among us, the GunLink team hopes to share some of that information with you to help make the process easier.

This article is not a primer on what specific firearm is best or which one you should get. Rather, it lays out a number of considerations that you need to make when choosing the best firearm for you and your situation.

If you are starting from scratch, head over to Firearms 101 for the basics on what firearms are, how they work, and commonly used acronyms.

Technically, the first thing you need is the mindset – the decision to carry a firearm in the first place – but the first three parts of this series are focusing predominately on the gear, with mindset coming in Part 4. For now, let’s presume that you have decided that you want to carry a firearm for protection… what next?   Continue reading

SHOT Show Industry Day at the Range 2019

In the desert nearly an hour outside of Las Vegas, the cool air is filled with the smell of diesel exhaust and the sound of gunfire. Lots of gunfire. Like, really… a LOT of gunfire.

It isn’t some wild west shootout and, although there will be pistols at noon, they’ll be rattling off shots all day – along with rifles, shotguns, machine guns, and a whole lot more. Welcome to the 2019 SHOT Show Industry Day at the Range.

As they do every year on the day before the NSSF Shooting, Hunting, and Outdoor Trades Show – the industry’s annual B2B expo – oficially opens its doors, nearly 200 vendors and exhibitors meet at shooting range in Boulder City to host invited media and industry buyers.  Those in attendance braved the biting wind, easily 15mph all day long, to see industry leaders showcase the latest and greatest hardware that their companies have to offer.  Not just to see new guns – but also to shoot them.

Given the political climate several years ago, it seemed as if a lot of firearms R&D had slowed down – perhaps for fear of increased regulation. The relentless attack on 2A rights has not let up in the latest election cycles and, when we saw that a couple familiar names were absent at Range Day, we worried that, instead of innovation, we might just find new lipstick on old pigs. While there was some of that – the same firearm lines with addition of new calibers or colors – we were treated to a few interesting items.

Continue reading

Acting AG Signs New Bump Stock Ban

Devices Must Be Destroyed Within 90 Days of Rule Being Published

After months of speculation on whether such a measure could be taken under an ostensibly pro-RKBA administration, Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker signed a new rule today that classifies “bump stocks” as machine guns and bans their possession. The rule, set to take effect 90 days after it is published in the Federal Register – which is expected to happen this Friday – would require current owners of the devices to destroy them.

The BATFE had previously concluded that such devices were unable to be federally regulated as such because they are simply an accessory part. Following the Mandalay Bay attack in October 2017 in which the attacker allegedly used weapons equipped with such devices, President Trump prompted the DOJ to revisit the matter. AG Jeff Sessions introduced the proposed legislation in March 2018.

The new rule inaccurately concludes that these devices allow a “shooter of a semiautomatic firearm to initiate a continuous firing cycle with a single pull of the trigger,” making it a machine gun. Generally, under current regulations, possession or transfer of a machine gun manufactured prior to May 19, 1986 – the date on which the Firearms Owners Protection Act (and the Hughes Amendment thereof) went into effect.

The complete Final Rule can be read here. The summary of the rule reads as follows (emphasis added):

The Department of Justice is amending the regulations of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to clarify that bump-stock-type devices […] are “machineguns” as defined by the National Firearms Act of 1934 and the Gun Control Act of 1968 because such devices allow a shooter of a semiautomatic firearm to initiate a continuous firing cycle with a single pull of the trigger. Specifically, these devices convert an otherwise semiautomatic firearm into a machinegun by functioning as a self-acting or self-regulating mechanism that harnesses the recoil energy of the semiautomatic firearm in a manner that allows the trigger to reset and continue firing without additional physical manipulation of the trigger by the shooter. Hence, a semiautomatic firearm to which a bump-stock-type device is attached is able to produce automatic fire with a single pull of the trigger. With limited exceptions, the Gun Control Act, as amended, makes it unlawful for any person to transfer or possess a machinegun unless it was lawfully possessed prior to the effective date of the statute. The bumpstock-type devices covered by this final rule were not in existence prior to the effective date of the statute, and therefore will be prohibited when this rule becomes effective. Consequently, under the final rule, current possessors of these devices will be required to destroy the devices or abandon them at an ATF office prior to the effective date of the rule.

The BATFE sought public comment on the proposal, receiving upward of 100,000 comments, although passage of such a rule seems to have been a foregone conclusion with direction straight from the White House. Given the Second and Fifth Amendment concerns surrounding the issue and the time frame for it to go into effect, we expect to see a number of legal challenges to the rule.

Mantis wins Best Accessory of 2018

Mantis Tech is humbled to receive the coveted 2018 Caliber Award for Best Accessory at the prestigious NASGW Awards Dinner. Read the GunLink review of the Mantis X system here.

The award is determined by an expert panel of 18 members of NASGW and POMA.

“Two minutes before receiving the award, 90% percent of the members of NASGW had no idea who Mantis is,” says President Austin Allgaier. “And 90% of them still probably have an incomplete picture of what we do. Kudos to the NASGW-POMA panel for recognizing small upstarts making significant waves of innovation in the industry.”

Mantis manufactures the MantisX: a small, powerful precision sensing device that tracks the minutest of movements, collecting thousands of datapoints per second. Once rail-mounted, it analyzes shooter movements, and sends the data over Bluetooth to the MantisX app for smartphones and tablets.

“With the pending public launch of 4 new products at SHOT Show 2019, our pace of innovation is only accelerating. Combining powerful electronics with complex software and big data, we’re making tremendous breakthroughs in changing how we all shoot,” says Allgaier.

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