Technical question re: old load handgun kept in storage - Page 2

Jim K · 08-16-2012, 12:08 PM

Why not just have the gun fire and forget about the suspense?

Or (a common storage situation) the gun could be stored empty, but with a box of cartridges next to it. Then the hero would have to fumble around getting cartridges out of the box, loading the gun, maybe only getting a few rounds in the cylinder before the BG interrupts him, but the first chamber up is empty.... Suspense all over the place, loaded cartridges falling on the floor, and so on. Of course that would mean the hero would have to know enough about guns to know how to load that one, so he can't be a complete newbie. (For example, to open the cylinder in a Smith & Wesson, the thumb piece is pushed forward, but in a Colt it is pulled backward.)

Jim

Alpo · 08-16-2012, 12:20 PM

Could be even more fun. Could be a S&W top-break, and there are four different ways to open them.

Cyn71 · 09-08-2012, 10:34 AM

Me again! :-D

I'm editing the scene I wrote earlier and had a couple new thoughts. If a safety has been turned on in an old 1930s/1940s S&W handgun/revolver (or if I changed it to a Remington - I like what someone mentioned about the 22s), what does it sound or feel like?

Did they even have safety's in guns that old?

I'm thinking I'll go with safety being on in the first attempt, bad primer(s) in the next one or two and then "bang".

Cyn71 · 09-08-2012, 10:38 AM

I totally missed your latest comments, sorry about that.

Originally, I've opted for the protagonist just reaching for the gun, not fumbling with bullets because he's actually just a teenager and doesn't really know the first things about guns. It's there, he grabs it out of desperation. (ETA: he is *not* the one who ends up firing successfully ... even though he does make the effort, I'm trying to avoid the scenario of a kid being the one who shoots the antagonist.)

BUT - I do like the idea about him fumbling for the bullets. That adds to the drama. Because of the constraints of my storyline, it's rather important that there are one/or two false fires (safety on, bad primer, etc.). That's why I'm trying so hard to make it work.

If the safety is on, does this affect loading the gun in any way?

Alpo · 09-08-2012, 11:20 AM

Safety.

First, yes they had safeties in guns that old.

Revolvers, except for a few European types, don't have safeties. This is a major "look at what that stupid author wrote" laugh causer, to pro-gun people. "Rick Shovel pulled his Smith and Wesson revolver and took the safety off".

Unlike what it shows in the movies, generally a safety prevents the trigger and/or hammer from moving, so pulling the trigger with the safety on would result in nothing. Trigger don't pull. Nothing moves. No sound.

Smith and Wesson, pretty much, only made revolvers back then. They made one little pocket auto, and it didn't sell really well, so they weren't around very long.

The feel. When you pull the trigger on a gun that is ready to fire, you feel the trigger start to move. There is some resistance against your finger, and as you continue pulling the resistance gets greater (you are compressing a spring) until the trigger "breaks" and the hammer falls.

When you pull the trigger of a gun that has the safety on, there is no movement at all. The trigger feels like it is a solid part of the gun, instead of a moveable part. You can pull 'til the veins bulge on your forehead and your nose starts to bleed, and it doesn't move.

There were a few pistols, back then, that had what was called a "hammer-drop safety" (Walther springs immediately to mind). When the gun is cocked, the trigger is to the rear of the trigger guard. If you put the safety on, the trigger is locked in that position, a block moves in front of the firing pin, and the hammer falls, hitting the block so the gun does not fire. As long as the safety is on, the block is there, the gun won't fire, and the trigger is locked to the back of the trigger guard, and will not move. If, however, the hammer was down (the gun was NOT cocked), and you put the safety on, it still moves the block in the way, but now the trigger is disconnected. If you were to pull the trigger, it moves, but the spring pressure you are pushing against is less that what you would find on a ball-point pen. Nothing else will happen. The hammer does not move, the gun won't fire.

That might be an idea. Have him find a Walther - either a PP or PPK, fully loaded and hammer down on a loaded chamber, but the safety on. He picks it up and pull the trigger a time or two, and nothing happens - the trigger kinda swinging freely - and the he looks, sees the safety lever, disengages it and the gun is now good to go, with from seven to nine shots, depending on gun and caliber.

Jim K · 09-08-2012, 11:23 AM

Except for the old Remington double derringer (in .41 caliber) and the Model 51 auto pistol, there were no Remington handguns being made in the era you have chosen. I think your idea of an S&W swingout cylinder revolver in .38 Special is more realistic. By the late 1930s around 3/4 million had been made so they were quite common.

There are some oddball exceptions, but usually revolvers don't have safety catches; to have an S&W revolver with a safety would show ignorance.

Jim

Alpo · 09-08-2012, 11:30 AM

Safety affecting loading the gun.

That's a good question. Depends on the gun. Browning-designs (which were all the FNs and all the Colts) the safety also locked the slide. You could put a loaded magazine in the gun, but you could not work the slide to put a round in the chamber. Remington - don't know. Never had one in my hand. Savage and Walther - don't remember, and I'm to lazy to go dig one out of the safe to check.

Luger - safety locks the toggle, so could not load the chamber. Mauser - same thing. Matter of fact, if it's a broomhandle, you have to pull the slide back to load the magazine, so you could not load anything in it with the safety on. Don't know about the Webley autos. Never saw one for real.

Cyn71 · 09-08-2012, 11:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alpo

Revolvers, except for a few European types, don't have safeties. This is a major "look at what that stupid author wrote" laugh causer, to pro-gun people.

And this is exactly the type of reaction I'm trying to avoid.

Cyn71 · 09-08-2012, 11:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alpo

That might be an idea. Have him find a Walther - either a PP or PPK, fully loaded and hammer down on a loaded chamber, but the safety on. He picks it up and pull the trigger a time or two, and nothing happens - the trigger kinda swinging freely - and the he looks, sees the safety lever, disengages it and the gun is now good to go, with from seven to nine shots, depending on gun and caliber.

This could work; have not heard of that type of gun before so I'll look into this one. The primer issue can still happen with this type, correct? As in, one or two maybe bad?

Cyn71 · 09-08-2012, 11:48 AM

I see that the Walther (PPK) was created for the German Criminal Police; given the history of the time (when the gun was originally stored away in my book - during WWII), is it feasible that an American would own such a gun?

Cyn71 · 09-08-2012, 11:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim K

Except for the old Remington double derringer (in .41 caliber) and the Model 51 auto pistol, there were no Remington handguns being made in the era you have chosen. I think your idea of an S&W swingout cylinder revolver in .38 Special is more realistic. By the late 1930s around 3/4 million had been made so they were quite common.

There are some oddball exceptions, but usually revolvers don't have safety catches; to have an S&W revolver with a safety would show ignorance.

Jim

The S&W revolver you mentioned was my first pick all along (and it fits b/c as you said, it was a common piece). Since there's no safety, then either I'll have to pick another gun or just stay with my original scenario of a couple bad primers.

Alpo · 09-08-2012, 12:56 PM

Well, the PP (Police Pistol - uniformed officer's holster gun) was released in 1929. PPK (Police Pistol, Criminal - detective/plainclothesman's concealed gun) was released in 1931. I can see, in the next ten years, it being possible for one to make it from Germany to here.

Alpo · 09-08-2012, 12:59 PM

Should not be a problem with it being a "foreign gun". The Ortgies (won't work for your plot - no safety) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ortgies...tomatic_Pistol was a German gun, made from 1919 to 1924, and Dillinger carried one. He was killed in 34, so somewhere in that ten or so years, several German Ortgies made it over here. I don't see why Walthers wouldn't.

Cyn71 · 09-08-2012, 02:04 PM

Many thanks! I'm nearly done with 2nd draft and will soon be ready to start on 3rd. Before I return to the gun scenes a third time, I'll explore everything that's recently been posted and weigh my options between the S&W and the Walthers. Going with the Walthers will require a little tweaking, but it is certainly do-able; I like that it's got a safety feature - and the fact that it's a German gun kinda adds a neat twist to the end (given the identity of my antagonist).

To clarify for my own mind - is it still possible to have the primer issue (one or two of them going bad) on a gun like the Walther?

Alpo · 09-08-2012, 02:45 PM

Certainly. Bad primers can happen, no matter what the gun is.

But, with a revolver, you got loaded chambers at 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 o'clock. You pull the trigger and they all move, 1/6 of the way around. 12 goes to 10, 6 goes to 4, 2 goes to 12, etc. When 2 goes to 12, and the hammer falls, if it is a bad primer it just goes click. Pull the trigger again and they all move again, and the bad one at 12 moves to 10 and the one at 2 comes up to 12. So you could have a couple of dead ones. Click, click, and now the one that was originally at 6:00 comes up to 12:00, and it goes bang. Yay. Shoot the bad guy.

An automatic, though, only works "automatically" if the gun fires. If, with your Walther, you pull the trigger and it goes "click", if you just pull the trigger again it will still go click. No matter how many times you pull the trigger it will still go click, because you are hitting the same bad primer. What you have to do with an automatic is grab hold of the slide and yank it back, ejecting the bad shell and loading the top one from the magazine. And, of course, if it also has a bad primer, you must work the slide again, to get THAT one out of the way, so the next one can feed.

Saw almost this same idea in a Frank Yerby book. Civil War veteran, broke, in NYC, decides to kill himself. Tries twice to shoot himself in the head, but bad caps prevent the gun from firing. So he takes that as a sign, and says, "Hell with it, I'll go west and be a cowboy", and then points the gun at the fireplace and pulls the trigger again. The bullet hitting the burning log breaks it in two and fire is now burning on the rug.

olafhardt · 09-16-2012, 06:47 PM

Please don't have the guy click the safety off the revolver. Very few had safeties. Lots of serious shooters change out their defensive ammo to avoid this. Wild Bill Hickok is said to have changed his out daily.

WHSmithIV · 09-17-2012, 01:13 AM

I agree, it would seem lame for a 50 or 60 year old revolver that was stored loaded to only be partially loaded. In a tense situation and if I was in that situation I'd pull the trigger and hope it went bang. If it went click and I still had time I'd try again and again. Then if it hadn't gone bang while I still had time to try for a plan B I'd throw the gun at his face and run like hell.

WHSmithIV · 09-17-2012, 01:16 AM

and definitely make it a revolver - not a semi auto. Too many different safety options for a semi auto and your hero would need to a) drop the clip out to see if it had bullets and b) pull the slide back to find out if there's a round in the chamber. Lot of time used up there.

Cyn71 · 09-18-2012, 10:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WHSmithIV

Then if it hadn't gone bang while I still had time to try for a plan B I'd throw the gun at his face and run like hell.

It's kind of funny you said this, because that's actually how I've got part of the scene written. LOL After the first unsuccessful attempt to fire, the gun is then used as a club.

TheGunClinger · 09-19-2012, 06:00 AM

An unloaded or a fail to fire gun is referred to as a hammer, or club.

kingcuke · 09-19-2012, 08:59 PM

The scenario presents itself where the known gun was used x number of times prior to be hidden/stored. The character quickly checks to see if the revolver is loaded, but doesn't notice some of the cartridges have been fired. The act of opening the revolver places however many used cartridges required, up to 5, before the final fatal shot

circa1885 · 10-06-2012, 12:10 AM

to CYN71: Congratulations on getting correct information from people who know guns in writing a novel. I read a lot of novels in which guns play a part in one way or another and nothing burns my behind more than an author who publishes total crap relating to guns and their use. It is so easy to go to the source and these guys are proud and happy to lead you down the straight and narrow concerning firearms.

08-16-2012, 12:08 PM	#26
Jim K Advanced Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2009 Posts: 6,408	Re: Technical question re: old load handgun kept in storage Why not just have the gun fire and forget about the suspense? Or (a common storage situation) the gun could be stored empty, but with a box of cartridges next to it. Then the hero would have to fumble around getting cartridges out of the box, loading the gun, maybe only getting a few rounds in the cylinder before the BG interrupts him, but the first chamber up is empty.... Suspense all over the place, loaded cartridges falling on the floor, and so on. Of course that would mean the hero would have to know enough about guns to know how to load that one, so he can't be a complete newbie. (For example, to open the cylinder in a Smith & Wesson, the thumb piece is pushed forward, but in a Colt it is pulled backward.) Jim

08-16-2012, 12:20 PM	#27
Alpo Advanced Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: NW Florida Posts: 8,647	Re: Technical question re: old load handgun kept in storage Could be even more fun. Could be a S&W top-break, and there are four different ways to open them. __________________ Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy, and taste good with catsup - George of Lod, Year of Our Lord 297 I always take precautions. Beware the Evil Bullet Fairies.

09-08-2012, 10:34 AM	#28
Cyn71 Member Join Date: Aug 2012 Posts: 18	Re: Technical question re: old load handgun kept in storage Me again! :-D I'm editing the scene I wrote earlier and had a couple new thoughts. If a safety has been turned on in an old 1930s/1940s S&W handgun/revolver (or if I changed it to a Remington - I like what someone mentioned about the 22s), what does it sound or feel like? Did they even have safety's in guns that old? I'm thinking I'll go with safety being on in the first attempt, bad primer(s) in the next one or two and then "bang".

09-08-2012, 10:38 AM	#29
Cyn71 Member Join Date: Aug 2012 Posts: 18	Re: Technical question re: old load handgun kept in storage I totally missed your latest comments, sorry about that. Originally, I've opted for the protagonist just reaching for the gun, not fumbling with bullets because he's actually just a teenager and doesn't really know the first things about guns. It's there, he grabs it out of desperation. (ETA: he is not the one who ends up firing successfully ... even though he does make the effort, I'm trying to avoid the scenario of a kid being the one who shoots the antagonist.) BUT - I do like the idea about him fumbling for the bullets. That adds to the drama. Because of the constraints of my storyline, it's rather important that there are one/or two false fires (safety on, bad primer, etc.). That's why I'm trying so hard to make it work. If the safety is on, does this affect loading the gun in any way? Last edited by Cyn71; 09-08-2012 at 10:39 AM..

09-08-2012, 11:20 AM	#30
Alpo Advanced Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: NW Florida Posts: 8,647	Re: Technical question re: old load handgun kept in storage Safety. First, yes they had safeties in guns that old. Revolvers, except for a few European types, don't have safeties. This is a major "look at what that stupid author wrote" laugh causer, to pro-gun people. "Rick Shovel pulled his Smith and Wesson revolver and took the safety off". Unlike what it shows in the movies, generally a safety prevents the trigger and/or hammer from moving, so pulling the trigger with the safety on would result in nothing. Trigger don't pull. Nothing moves. No sound. Smith and Wesson, pretty much, only made revolvers back then. They made one little pocket auto, and it didn't sell really well, so they weren't around very long. The feel. When you pull the trigger on a gun that is ready to fire, you feel the trigger start to move. There is some resistance against your finger, and as you continue pulling the resistance gets greater (you are compressing a spring) until the trigger "breaks" and the hammer falls. When you pull the trigger of a gun that has the safety on, there is no movement at all. The trigger feels like it is a solid part of the gun, instead of a moveable part. You can pull 'til the veins bulge on your forehead and your nose starts to bleed, and it doesn't move. There were a few pistols, back then, that had what was called a "hammer-drop safety" (Walther springs immediately to mind). When the gun is cocked, the trigger is to the rear of the trigger guard. If you put the safety on, the trigger is locked in that position, a block moves in front of the firing pin, and the hammer falls, hitting the block so the gun does not fire. As long as the safety is on, the block is there, the gun won't fire, and the trigger is locked to the back of the trigger guard, and will not move. If, however, the hammer was down (the gun was NOT cocked), and you put the safety on, it still moves the block in the way, but now the trigger is disconnected. If you were to pull the trigger, it moves, but the spring pressure you are pushing against is less that what you would find on a ball-point pen. Nothing else will happen. The hammer does not move, the gun won't fire. That might be an idea. Have him find a Walther - either a PP or PPK, fully loaded and hammer down on a loaded chamber, but the safety on. He picks it up and pull the trigger a time or two, and nothing happens - the trigger kinda swinging freely - and the he looks, sees the safety lever, disengages it and the gun is now good to go, with from seven to nine shots, depending on gun and caliber. __________________ Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy, and taste good with catsup - George of Lod, Year of Our Lord 297 I always take precautions. Beware the Evil Bullet Fairies.

09-08-2012, 11:23 AM	#31
Jim K Advanced Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2009 Posts: 6,408	Re: Technical question re: old load handgun kept in storage Except for the old Remington double derringer (in .41 caliber) and the Model 51 auto pistol, there were no Remington handguns being made in the era you have chosen. I think your idea of an S&W swingout cylinder revolver in .38 Special is more realistic. By the late 1930s around 3/4 million had been made so they were quite common. There are some oddball exceptions, but usually revolvers don't have safety catches; to have an S&W revolver with a safety would show ignorance. Jim

09-08-2012, 11:30 AM	#32
Alpo Advanced Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: NW Florida Posts: 8,647	Re: Technical question re: old load handgun kept in storage Safety affecting loading the gun. That's a good question. Depends on the gun. Browning-designs (which were all the FNs and all the Colts) the safety also locked the slide. You could put a loaded magazine in the gun, but you could not work the slide to put a round in the chamber. Remington - don't know. Never had one in my hand. Savage and Walther - don't remember, and I'm to lazy to go dig one out of the safe to check. Luger - safety locks the toggle, so could not load the chamber. Mauser - same thing. Matter of fact, if it's a broomhandle, you have to pull the slide back to load the magazine, so you could not load anything in it with the safety on. Don't know about the Webley autos. Never saw one for real. __________________ Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy, and taste good with catsup - George of Lod, Year of Our Lord 297 I always take precautions. Beware the Evil Bullet Fairies.

09-08-2012, 11:48 AM	#35
Cyn71 Member Join Date: Aug 2012 Posts: 18	Re: Technical question re: old load handgun kept in storage I see that the Walther (PPK) was created for the German Criminal Police; given the history of the time (when the gun was originally stored away in my book - during WWII), is it feasible that an American would own such a gun?

09-08-2012, 12:56 PM	#37
Alpo Advanced Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: NW Florida Posts: 8,647	Re: Technical question re: old load handgun kept in storage Well, the PP (Police Pistol - uniformed officer's holster gun) was released in 1929. PPK (Police Pistol, Criminal - detective/plainclothesman's concealed gun) was released in 1931. I can see, in the next ten years, it being possible for one to make it from Germany to here. __________________ Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy, and taste good with catsup - George of Lod, Year of Our Lord 297 I always take precautions. Beware the Evil Bullet Fairies.

09-08-2012, 12:59 PM	#38
Alpo Advanced Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: NW Florida Posts: 8,647	Re: Technical question re: old load handgun kept in storage Should not be a problem with it being a "foreign gun". The Ortgies (won't work for your plot - no safety) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ortgies...tomatic_Pistol was a German gun, made from 1919 to 1924, and Dillinger carried one. He was killed in 34, so somewhere in that ten or so years, several German Ortgies made it over here. I don't see why Walthers wouldn't. __________________ Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy, and taste good with catsup - George of Lod, Year of Our Lord 297 I always take precautions. Beware the Evil Bullet Fairies.

09-08-2012, 02:04 PM	#39
Cyn71 Member Join Date: Aug 2012 Posts: 18	Re: Technical question re: old load handgun kept in storage Many thanks! I'm nearly done with 2nd draft and will soon be ready to start on 3rd. Before I return to the gun scenes a third time, I'll explore everything that's recently been posted and weigh my options between the S&W and the Walthers. Going with the Walthers will require a little tweaking, but it is certainly do-able; I like that it's got a safety feature - and the fact that it's a German gun kinda adds a neat twist to the end (given the identity of my antagonist). To clarify for my own mind - is it still possible to have the primer issue (one or two of them going bad) on a gun like the Walther?

09-08-2012, 02:45 PM	#40
Alpo Advanced Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: NW Florida Posts: 8,647	Re: Technical question re: old load handgun kept in storage Certainly. Bad primers can happen, no matter what the gun is. But, with a revolver, you got loaded chambers at 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 o'clock. You pull the trigger and they all move, 1/6 of the way around. 12 goes to 10, 6 goes to 4, 2 goes to 12, etc. When 2 goes to 12, and the hammer falls, if it is a bad primer it just goes click. Pull the trigger again and they all move again, and the bad one at 12 moves to 10 and the one at 2 comes up to 12. So you could have a couple of dead ones. Click, click, and now the one that was originally at 6:00 comes up to 12:00, and it goes bang. Yay. Shoot the bad guy. An automatic, though, only works "automatically" if the gun fires. If, with your Walther, you pull the trigger and it goes "click", if you just pull the trigger again it will still go click. No matter how many times you pull the trigger it will still go click, because you are hitting the same bad primer. What you have to do with an automatic is grab hold of the slide and yank it back, ejecting the bad shell and loading the top one from the magazine. And, of course, if it also has a bad primer, you must work the slide again, to get THAT one out of the way, so the next one can feed. Saw almost this same idea in a Frank Yerby book. Civil War veteran, broke, in NYC, decides to kill himself. Tries twice to shoot himself in the head, but bad caps prevent the gun from firing. So he takes that as a sign, and says, "Hell with it, I'll go west and be a cowboy", and then points the gun at the fireplace and pulls the trigger again. The bullet hitting the burning log breaks it in two and fire is now burning on the rug. __________________ Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy, and taste good with catsup - George of Lod, Year of Our Lord 297 I always take precautions. Beware the Evil Bullet Fairies.

09-16-2012, 06:47 PM	#41
olafhardt V.I.P. Member Join Date: Jun 2011 Posts: 52	Re: Technical question re: old load handgun kept in storage Please don't have the guy click the safety off the revolver. Very few had safeties. Lots of serious shooters change out their defensive ammo to avoid this. Wild Bill Hickok is said to have changed his out daily.

09-17-2012, 01:13 AM	#42
WHSmithIV Advanced Senior Member Join Date: May 2012 Location: Moore, Idaho contributor Posts: 2,590	Re: Technical question re: old load handgun kept in storage I agree, it would seem lame for a 50 or 60 year old revolver that was stored loaded to only be partially loaded. In a tense situation and if I was in that situation I'd pull the trigger and hope it went bang. If it went click and I still had time I'd try again and again. Then if it hadn't gone bang while I still had time to try for a plan B I'd throw the gun at his face and run like hell.

09-17-2012, 01:16 AM	#43
WHSmithIV Advanced Senior Member Join Date: May 2012 Location: Moore, Idaho contributor Posts: 2,590	Re: Technical question re: old load handgun kept in storage and definitely make it a revolver - not a semi auto. Too many different safety options for a semi auto and your hero would need to a) drop the clip out to see if it had bullets and b) pull the slide back to find out if there's a round in the chamber. Lot of time used up there.

09-19-2012, 06:00 AM	#45
TheGunClinger Advanced Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: SW Florida Contributor Posts: 2,378	Re: Technical question re: old load handgun kept in storage An unloaded or a fail to fire gun is referred to as a hammer, or club. __________________ New England Patriots Rule Next year.

09-19-2012, 08:59 PM	#46
kingcuke V.I.P. Member Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Cucumber Island Posts: 154	Re: Technical question re: old load handgun kept in storage The scenario presents itself where the known gun was used x number of times prior to be hidden/stored. The character quickly checks to see if the revolver is loaded, but doesn't notice some of the cartridges have been fired. The act of opening the revolver places however many used cartridges required, up to 5, before the final fatal shot __________________ Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good. H. L. Mencken It is not in the nature of politics that the best men should be elected. The best men do not want to govern their fellowmen. George MacDonald

10-06-2012, 12:10 AM	#47
circa1885 Member Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Gulf Coast Alabama Posts: 25	Re: Technical question re: old load handgun kept in storage to CYN71: Congratulations on getting correct information from people who know guns in writing a novel. I read a lot of novels in which guns play a part in one way or another and nothing burns my behind more than an author who publishes total crap relating to guns and their use. It is so easy to go to the source and these guys are proud and happy to lead you down the straight and narrow concerning firearms.