Layne's Guide to Guns

Note: I started writing this article well before Charlie Kirk was shot. I emphatically reject political violence and anyone trying to use this resource to conduct political violence needs to look elsewhere. This article is intended only for US citizens legally capable of owning and operating firearms. RIP Charlie.

Note: Not gonna lie, this article’s formatting kind of sucks. I’m going to try to hyperlink these headers so you can tap/click individual sections. There’s a bunch more “mini sections” that are not listed here, else my table of contents need a table of contents.

In the 90s and early 2000s, smug libtards frequently opined that the firearm was the ubiquitous icon of American culture and the American nation. Obviously this was intended as an insult; one not to be heard by the unwashed armed American masses, but by managerial class counterparts in disarmed civilized Europe. Sneering elites peered down their designer glasses acquired from staring at screens for “work” and scoffed at this vestigial relic of bygone American life. In their eyes, once the frontier was settled, once the last Redwood was chopped down to make room for Section 8 housing ghettos, Picasso Pawn, and Sally Beauty, we all should’ve sighed in jubilant relief because our reliance on that nasty tool was no longer necessary. Obama helpfully stepped forward to steamroll those racist artifacts, literally:

You can still see echoes of this today in staunch elite strongholds; clinging to anti-American beliefs even as their outposts of libtard-ery in Academia, NGOs, and the bureaucracy resemble bunkers against the Right’s burgeoning cultural counterassault. Here’s one soon-to-be obsolete specimen of Elite Human Capital riffing on the inherently racist history of guns in America:

From the early battles between English settlers and Native Americans in New England to the widespread fear of uprisings of enslaved people on plantations in the Antebellum South, to the later fears about race riots in major American cities, guns have always been entangled with white supremacy and racial conflict.

-Philip Gorski, “Professor” of Psychology at Yale

Yeah, we all remember how awful the 1960s were. Y’know, when white men with guns inflicted their anti-scientific racial views on the general population against their will:

Oh.

Well, guns are racist or something.

To be honest, the firearm is a part of American culture. They’re not wrong. The difference is, trve Americans don’t see this as backwards or a little quirk of our racist past that needs correcting. In fact, firearms are often one of the most accessible forms of “living history”. They’re links to specific times and places, events and even ideologies.

How did it all begin? How did we get here?

From the very moment settlers docked on the shores of the New World, they needed to establish a defensive perimeter against the savage indigenous people and wildlife. The independent American nation was truly born, not when the Declaration of Independence was signed (July 2 btw, not the 4th), but when British colonists in Lexington, MA finally decided to up the switch on their own army over a long list of grievances later enumerated in the Declaration. Many “irregular” (read: militia) Continental Army units were formed by non-military men who took their family firearms to war. “Family firearm” should give you some idea of how important these things were.

The Green Mountain Boys, Kentucky Free Rifle Corps, and Roger’s Rangers sound like something out of a post-Apocalyptic fanfic (perhaps Fallen Continent..) but were actually integral irregular units comprised of regular American citizens that performed unconventional warfare duties on behalf of the Continental Army: skirmishing, scouting, sniping, reconnaissance, escorting, and more. Something tells me “Professor of Psychology at Yale Philip Gorski” would spontaneously wither into a pillar of salt if someone informed him that General Washington relied on the equivalent of J6 elite shock troopers to attack the licherally lawfully elected British overlords over taxation disputes.

Fast-foward through the War of Independence, and firearms remained by our sides when the nascent American nation fanned out from coastal settlements towards the seemingly infinite horizon. There, they became indispensable tools to protect a man, his property, and his family from the spartan natural world and those already inhabiting it. The settlers faced increasingly organized resistance from the Natives, who were mad that somebody showed up and was better at violence than them. Often times, it was up to the citizenry to defend settlements due to the large distance between outposts and their local garrison. This is where we get the Americanism “circle the wagons”, btw.

These conflicts, such as the Peach and Seminole Wars, were hideous, bloody, and miserable affairs involving the brutal and torturous deaths of women and children at the hands of the natives. None of their suffering matters, as Hank Greeneblattsteinbergwitz informs us so educatedly, because all conflicts are actually just colonization when whites win and anti-imperialist resistance when they lose. Something tells me he doesn’t have a problem with Malcom X brandishing what appears to be an M1 carbine and an illegally modified Large Capacity Ammunition Feeding Device:

Regardless, firearms reached their maximal importance around the Civil War era (1850s - 1880s). By this time, we’d crested the high tide of the frontier (including the minting of several esteemed and iconic firearms brandishing American vintages: the Rocky Mountain frontiersman, the Plainsman, the Texas Ranger, and the Cowboy, among others) and it was really the first time the North American natural world didn’t feel like an unconquerable force incessantly overpowering our attempts to tame it— diminishing the value of firearms in daily life. Honestly, Red Dead Redemption does a great job demonstrating this. A little part of America died when the last settlements were connected by telegraph and rail to the broader continent.

The only niche remaining for guns was war, and boy did they play a role in the next war. As in the Revolutionary War, many men on both sides of the Civil War (although overwhelmingly in the South) initially marched off to war with their own furnished firearms and equipment. In the unindustrialized South, some volunteers started by carrying the same weapons in the same uniforms that their great grandfathers fought the Revolution in. Metal.

Eventually, the war ended. As the corpses of over 600,000 American dead littered the countryside, America was forced to reestablish its relationship with firearms.

Their grisly work had left the nation permanently scarred, and this time there was no frontier left for our collective attention to turn to. The Civil War and lack of new frontier were actually quite damaging to the national psyche. As historians like Whatifalthist (using “historian” very loosely in his case) have argued, America’s identity is the frontier.

Indeed, there is a view that our civilization reached its zenith the millisecond before Neil Armstrong’s boot touched the surface of the moon. Without new worlds to conquer, new horizons to explore, something to channel our Ganglo Wanderlust into, without what Uncle Ted refers to as the satisfaction of the Power Principle, the nation’s momentum began to slow, buckle, and grind to a bureaucratic halt even as invaders immigrants bravely sallied forth from their farflung shitholes to claim their spoils from safe American urban areas. The young, muscular, scarred nation was now faced with questions it could not answer for the first time: Without a frontier uniting us, what are we doing all of this for anyway? Why bother? What are we building towards?

From Industrial Society and It’s Future:

Consider the hypothetical case of a man who can have anything he wants just by wishing for it. Such a man has power, but he will develop serious psychological problems. At first he will have a lot of fun, but by and by he will become acutely bored and demoralized. Eventually he may become clinically depressed. History shows that leisured aristocracies tend to become decadent. This is not true of fighting aristocracies that have to struggle to maintain their power. But leisured, secure aristocracies that have no need to exert themselves usually become bored, hedonistic and demoralized, even though they have power. This shows that power is not enough. One must have goals toward which to exercise one’s power.

I argue further that there is no frontier without the active presence of external danger, and thus of of firearms.

However, the libtards are right when they say guns were no longer even remotely relevant to the average American’s daily life by about 1940. That Americans continued to actively own and operate guns after the end of the Frontier era is actually a testament to their cultural staying power and formative role in American identity. Electing to keep firearms close to daily life when they weren’t necessary was an affirmation of being American. When the guy coming off the Ford assembly line in 1960s Detroit goes out to hunt deer on weekends in winter and shoot clay pigeons in spring, he is affirming his unique American-ness and, in a way, connecting with his forefathers that carried arms under very different circumstances. This is a powerful and solely American cultural trait that can trace its lineage to near mythical inspiration: the Anglo Saxons also refused to part with their arms even in the “safe” burgs. Perhaps they were further inspired by the Ancient Greek citizen-solder armies (militias) that kept arms in the house as a matter of duty— this was certainly a foundational concept to the Founders, who used this tradition as the inspiration for the Second Amendment.

So began a major gun culture boom (teehee) around the time of WWII that lasted until the 1980s where firearms were a staple of American recreation and rural living.

Where so-called “Military grade” firearms were readily accessible, so too were their previous operators. For a time, it was common for American war veterans to either buy their service rifle from the military or return from conflicts with “bring back” treasures. You could go to a public gun range, or perhaps public land, and hear precisely how to operate an M1 carbine from a 45 year old WWII veteran that used it in combat.Perhaps there were older men that carried the venerable M1903 Springfield into the same theater twenty years prior. If you can believe it, it was inconceivable for the public to decide that guns “had no place in civilized society”. In fact, it was trivially easy to mail order fully automatic machine guns out of a Sears catalogue. Strangely, not a single school or post office was powerwashed by these Thompsons.

Take a moment that you live in the same America these advertisements came from:

Indeed, this period was probably the pinnacle of positive firearm ownership in America. We have a long way to go if we want to return to this level of individual responsibility. It was also the era of a few neat Americanisms, like the beloved trope of “kids bringing their hunting shotguns to school in the backseat of their trucks without anyone thinking they might shoot the place up”. I mean, look at this:

That’s a policeman showing a kid how to operate a “military grade” rifle in an American elementary school. What is inconceivable today was once relatively standard practice, particularly in high-trust rural regions. In this age, guns were around and they weren’t a particularly big deal, a sort of necessary instrument for the various recreational activities Americans had always engaged in. Do you make a point of noticing car keys or coffee makers in the room with you?

Their prevalence also reinforced a mutual high-trust environment between the people and their government. In many places, merely possessing a firearm in front of a law enforcement officer was not reason for suspicion, nor would the officer be particularly concerned about it so long as you didn’t otherwise look like a threat. You might imagine this in today’s context of being free to operate a motor vehicle (much more dangerous than guns btw) in the presence of a cop without looking suspicious. Even if you were using them for “suspicious purposes”, you were given the benefit of the doubt— a perk of homogenous society that was comfortable around guns. Case in point: some WWII veterans besieged the town of Athens, TN on account of its extreme local (Democrat) corruption, and the rest of the country acknowledged that this was merely the American system working as intended.

Americans engaged in this lifestyle to affirm that guns still had a part to play in civilizing society; we were not our defanged cousins in Europe. Firearms were not yet barbaric relics of a bygone era, they were a tool amongst many others and the crown jewel of America’s heyday. Later, they became a hobby item like model trains or something.

Anecdote: My dad had a truly all-American childhood in the early 1970s and told me the story of biking to his small Midwestern town’s local pawn shop to buy a Remington .22 for $50 in what we would now call an “unpapered transaction”. The guy behind the counter understood the pretext: my dad had saved up his allowance and there were presumably parents hovering just off stage to shepherd this normal enough looking young man in the proper care of his new firearm in one of many initiation rituals on the path to becoming a functioning American male.

It’s hard to overstate the cultural shift we’ve undergone since the 1980s. For instance, my city is submerged in advertisements begging parents to keep guns locked and away from children. I get the point, but having to say this aloud would be a completely alien concept to the America of 50 years ago. Instructing children in the proper use and storage of firearms was as natural and American as teaching them how to throw a football or wait for the school bus. Guns were not some hideous fetish token that needed to be locked away until the shameful annual trip to the indoor range or whatever. Ironically, treating them like this engages the wrong reaction in a child’s brain because kids are naturally curious and don’t like being told no. You shouldn’t leave loaded guns around small children, for sure, but the alleged “kids shooting themselves / each other / their parents” epidemic is primarily a failure of parenting and not a lack of locks.

Anecdote: When I was a kid, my dad brought my siblings out to the backyard and had us watch him blow up our Halloween pumpkins with a 12 gauge shotgun. He told us that the orange shrapnel scattered over the yard would be our skulls if we ever played with guns. That was the only “safety instruction” I ever needed until it came time to actually operate one myself. Maybe it’s just because we had a white stable home life, but I was never worried one of my playmates was going to SHOOT us.

The astute among my readers might remember several major incidents that occurred before, during, and after this golden age that already began to turn public opinion away from from readily accessible firearms. Indeed, there were several blows to gun culture that began percolating in this time frame. Overall, it seemed to have never occurred to the vast majority of Americans that guns can be used for bad in the same way we are often shocked by the way brown people co-opt seemingly innocent infrastructure (Trucks, planes, etc.) into acts of terrorism.

Al Capone’s gang mowed down a bunch of rivals in 1929 over the rights to illegal booze (this in the Prohibition era). The massacre received unprecedented coverage in newspapers and radio programs, as if a bit of the nation’s remaining innocence had just been lost forever. Sure, there had always been crime, there had even been ethnic Enclaves that had been up to no good. Nothing prepared the country for the deliberate, cold blooded butchering of fellow Americans using machine guns. Stop me if you’ve heard this one: the tragic mass shooting was used as the pretext for the illegal 1934 National Firearms Act. The bill unconstitutionally and illegally gave the Federal government the power to designate certain firearms outside the scope of the Second Amendment because…erm… we wouldn’t another St. Valentine’s massacre or something?

If you’ve ever heard of someone referring to machine guns, short barreled shotguns, short barreled rifles, suppressors, or other boutique firearms and their accessories as “NFA items”, this is why. Now, you can pay for your Second Amendment rights by sacrificing $200 and your Fourth Amendment rights. In exchange for getting back the right to own something you already could pre-1934, the ATF can self-authorize itself to enter your house and “inspect” to make sure obscure NFA protocols are being followed. Or they’ll kill arrest you on the spot. Awesome! I’m sure this will not be the pretense for the worst slaughter of innocent American citizens by the ATF 60 years later.

For an idea of just how profoundly retarded and poorly written in verbose legalese the NFA is, here is their ridiculous attempt at clarifying what a “firearm” is:

The term "firearm" means a shotgun or rifle having a barrel of less than eighteen inches in length, or any other weapon, except a pistol or revolver, from which a shot is discharged by an explosive if such weapon is capable of being concealed on the person, or a machine gun, and includes a muffler or silencer for any firearm whether or not such firearm is included within the foregoing definition.

As an added bonus, we now get the legal classification of “Any Other Weapon”, a firearm that the depleted-uranium dense legalese still couldn’t categorize. This is, straight up, whatever they want it to be. The criteria is supposed to be if a firearm has “legitimate sporting purpose” instead of being a “gangster’s weapon”. Seriously. Your rights today are beholden to the feelings of a gaggle of retards in the 1934 Congress. Since few of them had ever spent much time around guns, their opinions were formed by -guess what- what they read in the Newspaper. Thank God for our unlimited access to the totality of Human knowledge sourced by portable magic pieces of glass that has corrected this.

Note: I was gonna put a section here about the Kennedy Assassination, but you can probably guess what it might say. Another “military grade” rifle (the humble Carcano) used to scare the public with a highly visible killing.

Vietnam was an extremely inconvenient mass-cultural phenomenon. The previous events helped to gently turn the public’s opinion on firearms, but Vietnam seemed to reintroduce them in a ghoulish light. We’ve all heard about how Vietnam was the first war on live TV. The societal impact of watching 18 year olds (conscripted on both sides) mow each other down, for unclear reasons, can’t be overstated. Suburbanites that were increasingly only vaguely familiar with the family hunting shotgun (tucked in the closet 9 months a year) now looked upon guns with suspicion, especially as their neighbors, coworkers, and friends came back from ‘Nam traumatized, disfigured, or dead. All at the hands of firearms. Was letting grandpa hunt elk really worth it? Boomers overwhelmingly said “No”, and much of the Hippy movement’s strongest imagery came from their relentless assault on firearms of any stripe:

We all love to laugh about YNs and Chiraq enforcers mowing people down today, but most young people don’t know that gang violence in the big cities was actually much worse in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Detailed discussions of why this happened are beyond the scope of this article, but I’ll do a quick roundup: increasingly regionalized poverty, crack epidemic, lax laws, increased organization of black criminal groups, general libtard-ery around social programs so black men didn’t have to work, disintegration of the family, and lots of the “original gangsters” of the 1960s and 70s hitting the streets after being released from jail. New York was probably the worst offender in the country. The New York subway system was one step away from being a Rube Goldberg machine for assisted suicide before Sith Lord Mayor Guliani Esq. stepped in with two major reforms that helped to stabilize and then improve the situation: increased police presence and “stop-and-frisk” laws. Stop-and-frisk, patting down “people who look suspicious” (young black guys with heavy winter coats on and suspicious bulges around their waistline) for guns, recovered a mind-boggling amount of guns.

It’s also probably not Constitutional, despite being upheld by the Courts. Sorry, but just appearing to be a black delinquent isn’t “reasonable articulable suspicion” for getting groped by Stasi on patrol. It was still a good thing, but I don’t like it. If anything, the situation raised important questions about just who the Constitution was intended for.

Gangster culture was a legit problem for the country. By the 1990s, rap music was a real force in mainstream culture for the first time. Albums such as Nas’ Illmatic (which is a great record to try for people who don’t like rap music), Notorious BIG’s Ready to Die, Dr. Dre’s The Chronic and more helped to romanticize the gangster lifestyle to youth around the nation. I mean, look at this:

All I want is bitches, big booty bitches
Used to sell crack, so I could stack my riches
Now I pack gats, to stop all the snitches
From stayin' in my business, what is this?
Relentless approach, to know if I'm broke or not
Just 'cause I joke and smoke a lot
Don't mean I don't tote the glock
Sixteen shots for my niggas in the pen
Until we motherfuckin' meet again
Huh, I'm doin' rhymes now, fuck the crimes now
Come on the ave, I'm real hard to find now
'Cause I'm knee deep in the beats
In the Land Cruiser Jeep with the MAC-10 by the seats
For the jackers, the jealous ass crackers in the
I'll make you prove that it's bulletproof
Hold ya head, 'cause when you hit the bricks
I got gin, mad blunts, and bitches suckin' dick

-Notorious BIG, Machine Gun Funk (1994)

Gangsters became rappers, who became celebrities. Snoop Dogg is a prime suspect for this. Look closely, and you’ll see a well armed entourage following him around just off stage—even in his old age. All rappers have these gun toting posses now.

None, but dicks [Guns] just sittin' on a tour bus, me, and my twin in this bitch like it's tour us
Fuck, I look like scared, are you doin' what? Loaded weapon, my Glock 22, it's tough
Like Steph, my shooters clutch, I ain't get the impression, but you was tough
We ain't recruitin', bro, you won't fit, don't want no new niggas in my clique
I'ma stick to the niggas I grew up with, you ain't go to them funerals, you weren't sick

-Polo G, Chinatown Pt. 2 (2025)

-

Servin' out the backdoor 'cause the trap windows boarded up
Don't think it's sweet 'cause I rap though
Got a gun store on the tour bus
Like an encore, we gon' clap more
A lil' ten shot won't do enough

-Culture Jam, Waves (2021)

In fact, it’s even a sore spot for Drake, who comes from an affluent suburb of the relatively normal (back in the 2000s, anyway) Canadian city of Toronto. He was so embarrassed by a lack of gang sponsorship, he effectively hired mercenaries from Atlanta to be his shooters for other blacks to take him seriously.

You run to Atlanta when you need a check balance
Let me break it down for you, this the real nigga challenge
You called Future when you didn't see the club (Ayy, what?)
Lil Baby helped you get your lingo up (What?)
21 gave you false street cred
Thug made you feel like you a slime in your head (Ayy, what?)
Quavo said you can be from Northside (What?)
2 Chainz say you good, but he lied
You run to Atlanta when you need a few dollars
No, you not a colleague, you a fuckin' colonizer

-Kendrick Lamar, Not Like Us (2024)

As you can imagine, suburban soccer moms and coastal elites didn’t have a positive impression of guns when they turned on the TV and saw Bloods and Crips blowing each others’ brains out with Tech 9s. I don’t blame them.

Remember the 1934 NFA? It gave unilateral enforcement power to a certain subsect of goons inside the Federal government, including the rising star of the Justice Department (fresh from the Treasury, randomly), the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Apparently, there were not enough bodies dropping in urban areas around the nation, so the ATF needed to create a boogeyman. What better boogeyman than the one the Clinton administration already conjured into existence: the white supremacists? The Clintons hated white supremacists. They were around, but there really weren’t that many of them by this point. Honestly, as I remind the ones on Substack, the “skinhead” era was a complete disaster that nuked their ability to recruit regular people for like 25 years. That didn’t stop the Clintons from trying to obliterate them wherever they hid, by any means necessary. And so began an unholy alliance that would combine the Clinton’s hatred of white identity with the ATF’s current lack of purpose. The White Supremacists…own guns… don’t they?

Ruby Ridge: Following a realignment to the Clinton administration’s witch hunt, the ATF was deadset on actually convicting some White Supremacists, even if they had to manufacture them. Eventually, the ATF and other enforcement agencies created a massive dragnet that revealed a small infestation of White Supremacists in the completely irrelevant northern panhandle of Idaho. This backwater quickly became the ATF’s sole purpose for existing. Their opening move was to acquire “sources”, first by attempting to persuade them. When that failed, they moved to intimidating and blackmailing American citizens unsuspected of a crime. Such tactics were deployed on Randy Weaver, an Army veteran that moved out there to escape the modern world, though he later did start linking up with WS groups. It is important to note that most of these WS organizations were positively radioactive with glowies, absolutely packed to the brim with Feds and their informants. The ATF embedded a source that convinced Weaver to sell him a shotgun that was marginally below the legal limit of overall length. They didn’t place him under arrest after he completed the transaction.

Instead, they elected to pose as civilians broken down on the side of the road, and waited for him to pull over and offer assistance. Then they arrested him before giving him the wrong date to appear in court, so they could issue an arrest warrant when he “failed to appear”. Sufficiently sketched out after a warrant was issued for his arrest, Weaver stayed with his wife and family in their cabin on Ruby Ridge. The Fed coalition sperged out and ringed the cabin with multiple layers of Federal agents who employed siege tactics on Randy Weaver, his young family, and neighbor boy Kevin Harris (16). A series of insanely stupid and aggressive decisions followed.

First, US Marshalls threw rocks at the Weavers’ dog until it chased them, then shot it. Presumably, this was done to demoralize the family. Randy’s son Samuel chased after the dog with his friend, Kevin Harris. Upon seeing the dead dog, Samuel shouted “You killed my dog, you son of a bitch!” and shot an exposed US Marshall, before being killed himself (while retreating). The body was apparently recovered, because FBI Sniper Lon Horiuchi then shot and wounded Randy Weaver while he was visiting his son’s dead body in a nearby shed. Strangely, Horiuchi later testified that he was aiming for his spine. As the other family members fled for the concealment of the cabin, he shot again. This time, he wounded Kevin Harris. The same shot struck and killed Randy’s wife Vicki as she stood in the doorway of the cabin while holding her ten month old baby. She was never even suspected of a crime, besides standing near her husband. Sickening.

Although later investigations and trials agreed with the Weavers on basically every charge, nothing happened to anybody except the wounded Randy Weaver, who was sentenced to a token prison sentence for inconveniencing the ATF.

All of this chaos came from the 1934 NFA.

Waco:

Note: T-Rex Labs has produced an excellent series about Waco (and Ruby Ridge) by Isaac Botkin, easily the best Botkin brother. He was actually at the aftermath of the Waco siege as a young kid following his cameraman dad around. The first episode is available here. Waco discussion starts at 31:36 and leads into the next video.

Ruby Ridge was a story about one (strange) family getting blindsided by a series of malicious circumstances forced on them by the Feds. Waco is not the same story.

Instead, this time the 120-strong “Branch Davidians” are under the crosshairs: a strange sect of some obscure branch of 7th Day Adventists that was probably a cult. They practiced polygamy and were fiercely armed as they believed they were going to be God’s footsoldiers in the battle of Armageddon. The cult was well known to the local police, who had to settle a few crazy petty disputes involving desecration of a corpse (and the ensuing shootout). I’m pretty sure they also believed their leader, David Koresh (a charismatic guy that was something of a local celebrity outside the compound), was an incarnation of Christ. Apparently this entitled Koresh to a bunch of 13 year old child brides. Still, CPS investigated the Branch Davidian compound in 1992 and didn’t remove a single child.

Here’s where guns come into play. The BDs were well known local gun dealers. They went to all the shows, had a few gun stores, and (crucially) possessed an FFL, a Federal Firearms License. In other words, their business was totally legitimate. This is important because the ATF was tipped off by a delivery guy who magically found out he was delivering lots of “military style” guns to their compound. Wow, it’s almost like they’re in the gun business or something! The ATF, smelling blood in the water, menaced the group with an ominous declaration that they were suspicious of their dealings. Koresh offered to let the ATF come to the compound and audit their firearm stock, no small task given they had a lot and this audit is the business equivalent of a colonoscopy. The ATF declined.

Instead, they elected to discretely build a case on the BDs. Because they didn’t do anything wrong, they had to conjure up excuses about someone hearing machine gun fire from the compound…where they’re legally allowed to own and operate machine guns. This trickled into speculation that the inert grenades they were buying up might be getting reactivated with gunpowder shipments. Eventually, they cobbled together enough of these anecdotes that they secured a search warrant for the property and an arrest warrant for David Koresh.

At this point, Koresh was polite and courteous to the ATF. There is no reason to believe he would’t have just taken himself to the police station if they cared that much. He also frequently left the compound, so if anything they might’ve just grabbed him while he was getting groceries or something. CPS had just been to the compound, and the BDs were more than willing to voluntarily let the ATF in to audit their dealings. Seems like they were operating in good faith, right?

Yup.

So then the ATF decided that the best way to handle this was to siege their compound without giving anyone a chance to cooperate or surrender. They worked several other agencies, and the media, into a frothing frenzy of hatred and adrenaline, telling them all about these gun traffickers that were going to open fire to protect their cult leader. They yapped so much that the local mailman (seems to be a recurring theme) tipped the BDs off that the ATF fedswarm coalition was pulling up to the compound with armored troop carriers and machine guns. This all happened about a year after the Federal meltdown at Ruby Ridge, probably fresh in the mind of the BDs.

The Feds pulled up to the compound in full force, and both sides claim the other shot first. Given their proclivity to lying about anything to do with this case, it is likely the ATF lied about this too. Either way, the BDs rained down on them from inside the compound, killing several ATF agents and wounding others. Eventually, they fled limped off the battlefield (claiming they “ran out of ammo” lmao) and were replaced by the FBI.

Uh oh.

Unlike the juvenile and stupid ATF that botched every stage of the operation, the FBI was a serious threat. Rather than mounting a frontal assault on the compound, they circled it and started a siege. Let me remind you that there are lots of women and children inside the building, and nobody is giving them a chance to get out. The FBI played pounding music and shined spotlights to prevent them from sleeping. In the daytime, they played the sounds of animals being tortured to demoralize the…women and children. They cut off power and water access, and blocked any sort of resupply from the outside.

When Clinton got into office, he beefed up the FBI besiegers (now a month into trying to starve out a bunch of American citizens) with helicopters, Bradleys, and even Abrams tanks from nearby Fort Hood. To be used on his own countrymen. And their property, actually, as bunch of cars and other stuff outside the compound was crunched under the tanks as a show of force to a bunch of people not suspected of a crime.

After 51 days, the FBI had enough and sent in tanks and .50 cals to punch a hole into the compound walls. Afterwards, they lobbed dozens of CS gas bombs into the building (along with some pyrotechnic grenades) that caught on fire.

Most of the BDs died in the blaze, although some investigators believe that a dozen or so of them were machine gunned as they tried to flee. This would make sense given that the majority did not attempt to evacuate (perhaps seeing the fate of those who tried) and elected to burn to death.

Obviously, this was horrible. It matters to the gun world for a few reasons. The biggest takeaway is that the government approved boogeyman, armed white supremacists, would be destroyed wherever they were found. It doesn’t matter how polite or cooperative or legally compliant they are, if they attract the Eye of Sauron Clinton administration, they would be ground into the dirt by any means necessary. Apparently, this specific outing meant tanks were necessary to endure the overwhelming firepower of unarmed women and children afraid for their lives. The Clintons later went on to pass an “Assault Weapons Ban”, using Waco as impetus. You can imagine that any “armed group” outside the Black Panthers is also a target.

There are some wild claims about Waco. I am of the opinion they probably did machine gun evacuees as they fled for their lives— probably assuming they were armed and doing some sort of suicidal final frontal assault.

The story is hazy because the government created an entire industry of manufacturing low quality, easily disprovable lies. The lies were so stupid, it was insulting. For example, spokesmen for the FBI falsely claimed (under oath) that pyrotechnics were not used at the site. He felt comfortable saying this because Fed forces poured in after the last BD was executed to destroy all evidence. They used bulldozers to crush all of the bodies and rubble and destroyed vehicles into a giant pit. Because the government was in charge, they didn’t do it right. They weren’t even close. Everyone from amateur investigators (including the young Isaac Botkin) to the media (who was tipped off on the whole operation and ended up documenting it so thoroughly their footage was used in court to knock down the ATF’s lies) to the Houston Attorney General was able to easily approach the wreckage and recover evidence. After being presented with overwhelming evidence, the FBI and ATF waited their standard several years before admitting they lied about the pyrotechnics.

I want to end this little bit of trivia with some photos of the ATF / FBI goons at the scene. These guys were celebrating their “victory” over some of the most compliant non combatants (well, until the shooting started. The BDs are definitely at fault for that) in human history. Let these images process before moving on:

Nobody ever faced meaningful consequences for the botched Waco raid. Several of the instigators got promoted, actually.

We all know what happened at Columbine. There were many mass and even school shootings beforehand, but Columbine changed the American public’s view of guns forever.

Over time, the narrative has shifted completely— at the cost of American identity. Today’s libtard insistence that guns were a “necessary evil” betrays a mis-understanding of firearms that is completely alien to the American nation. Guns are one tool amongst many that helped us win and maintain this land, nobly taking their place between the plough and the cotton gin. Americans use them for myriad recreational activities in the same way we hold the “Lumberjack championships” and other competitions for mundane activities in the American countryside. There really isn’t a difference between, say, bull riding and skeet shooting: they’re both gamified skill expressions of things old school Americans already had to be good at.

Firearms peaked in importance somewhere before the Civil War, before enduring as recreational and functional tools. The public’s opinion on firearms and their common access has soured on account of some very suspicious events in the 20th century.

Mandatory Disclaimer: This article is solely educational and intended for only legal firearms purchasers, owners, and usage. Those ineligible to possess or purchase a firearm should NOT continue reading. I am not responsible for the misuse of information presented in this segment of the article. The reader is responsible for being aware of and complying with all local, state, and federal regulations concerning the operation of, possession of, and purchasing of firearms. This article is strictly non-political.

Because firearms are tools, you need to have the right tool for the right job. This is perhaps the most important element of choosing what variety, what specific model produced by which manufacturer, and any peripheral purchases such as optics and slings.

I am firmly of the opinion that so-called “safe queens” (guns bought to sit in storage) are immoral, with few exceptions. Buying a gun is a lifelong commitment to maintain it, train with it, and be responsible for its storage and safe operation. What is the purpose of bringing it into your life? If the answer is “to shoot it once a year and post pictures of it online”, you don’t need it.

I’m going to rank guns into categories of necessity, starting with the essential and moving to the retarded. Each section will also include a small buyer’s guide for first time purchases.

If you’re an American man reading this, and you are legally eligible, you need to own an AR-15. Straight up. There is no other platform that is so universally available and provides such benefit-per-dollar effectiveness. I’m saying this as someone that finds them to be soulless little machinations of plastic devoid of character or identity (the academic word is sovl). The AR-15 can perform nearly every function expected of a firearm: hunting of animals up to deer size, home defense, zombies, target practice, really anything outside niche applications like skeet shooting. Please do not skeet shoot with rifles.

Moreover, they’re sometimes called “Adult Legos” because they’re highly modifiable. The American AR-15 community is gargantuan, the largest of any platform anywhere in the world by a substantial margin, and thus there are near infinite methods and resources available for tinkering with your AR any nearly any price point. For someone with some trve white boy autism, this can be a lot of fun. There is a legitimate science to firearms, and you might enjoy digging into it to discover why the industry has standardized on certain practices, why the AR is constructed the way it is, or why MLOK rail is so terrible.

For example, there are ARetards who will Reddit soy chimp out over the necessity of the forward assist, a small button designed to help force the bolt carrier group shut even when covered in debris. A certain passionate segment of the AR ecosystem freaks out over its inclusion because they believe Direct Impingement (using the gas and force generated by the round’s detonation to cycle the bolt instead of actioning a piston. Boston T. Party puts it simply: “Shitting where you eat”) to be the platonic perfect system expertly crafted by the ambassador of Jesus Christ himself, Eugene Stoner. Is the forward assist a big deal? Not really, its a small button that is pretty easy to forget about most of the time outside of discussions about manufacturing costs or something. Does that stop ARetards from shrieking over it? Absolutely not. Maybe you enjoy this sort of infotaining discourse and shit flinging, maybe you don’t. Personally, I think you need to at least be aware of these discussions as you acquire a deeper than surface level understanding of the weapon and how it works. Being completely un-opinionated about forward assist-tier minutiae is not indicative of serene neutrality, it’s a form of voluntary retardation.

Anyway, while you absolutely need an AR in your lineup effectively regardless of context, it is important to note its strengths and drawbacks. Let’s start with its strengths.

The AR platform (AR standing for “Armalite Rifle” and not “Assault Rifle”, btw) was originally intended to guard Air Force bases after World War II. It was also a competitor to replace the venerable M1 Garand and M14. In other words, its full-auto military counterpart, the M16A1, was selected to be the new weapon system millions of service members would have to be retrained on; and the new standard tool every recruit would be issued. In this pivotal modernization effort, there could be no adaptation period where fielding the incoming weapon produced worse results than before, nor could there be “generational gaps” in which new basic training graduates could not interface with those already in the field and vice versa. Therefore, it needed to be approachable and manageable on every front, from the manual of arms, to field maintenance, to part replacement and distribution. This is perhaps its greatest strength. The AR quickly gained a reputation for its friendly accessibility designed for the massive conscript armies of Vietnam.

There were drawbacks, of course. Revisions and improvements were made over time, notably after a botched implementation in jungle fighting (which we now know was at least partly because of the ammunition sent to the jungle and not the rifle itself), but the core rifle has changed the same. What differences can you spot between this M16A1 and today’s HK416?

If your answer is “a bunch of gadgets and a paint job”, you’d be almost totally right. There are other important details that a trained eye might pick up such as the implementation of flip up BUIS (Back up Iron Sights), adjustable stock, the removal of the weird triangular hand guard, and an improved muzzle device. Under the hood, the HK416 is also a piston gun instead of the aforementioned Direct Impingement, a devilish detail that has caused some AR fanboys incalculable mental anguish. Other than that, the design really hasn’t changed much in the last 60 years. Consider how much has changed since the 1960s, especially with the skyrocketing implementation of new technology the last few years, and you’ll start to see the stalwart AR platform is the ultimate expression of the American addage, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.

This is a tougher question to answer than might be immediately apparent, given there are so many factors in what makes something “combat effective”. Generally, the AR is resistant to environmental factors such as temperature and humidity. This was a big deal in the olden days of Vietnam, when both combined to warp the wooden stocks of M14s. Most ARs can reliably reach out to about 500 meters, which is about as far as a conscript or Average Joe ever really needs to shoot. Most can fire around a thousand rounds before cleaning becomes a show-stopping issue, plenty for most use cases. Cooking the barrel or otherwise damaging the rifle from prolonged use is possible, but unrealistic with proper training unless you’re in some ridiculous Black Hawk Down 14 hour firefight that involves hosing off unwashed hordes of Somalians in cyclic 5 round bursts. Cleaning them is also easy and dis/re-assembly is something you can get the hang of in an afternoon. Modern ARs have a lifespan measured in the tens of thousands before major components such as the barrel need to be replaced. Minor components do wear out quicker, but are often quite cheap to replace. In fact, they should be replaced anyway to customize to the individual user. For example, I am actually someone that likes a relatively heavy trigger pull. I stand in stark contrast to most gun guys, who want a “sneeze and you’ll have a Negligent Discharge” featherweight trigger. Perhaps this is because of my right hand’s 175 pound grip strength *smiles smugly*.

We can all have our way on the AR platform, because trigger assembly groups are so easy to replace. The manual of arms (proper handling and operation) is pretty easy to learn as well, given that the system is ambidextrous (a novelty when it was originally introduced that has now become an industry standard because of the AR’s widespread adoption), is comprised of far less components than its predecessors and competitors, and is designed to be modular. All of this amounts to an environment where a beginner can pick it up and begin farming XP much faster than any other platform, and an advanced user can build ARs far superior to standard government issued Colt M4s. The platform is the best place for new shooters to start, and a rewarding place for certified gun hobbyists to return to. The ease of use and customizability combine to make the AR platform a premier choice in the swamps of Vietnam, the foothills of the Appalachians, and the dense concrete jungles of urban warfare. It is honestly impressive just how “pretty good” it is in almost every conceivable context. There is no other rifle that can do it all without serious tradeoffs. I’m looking at you, SCAR-H!

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, there just isn’t much recoil. You might find this an odd thing to include, but its actually really important for new shooters, who are often intimidated by recoil. This advantage counts quadruply for women, who simply will not touch high recoil firearms without a thorough immunization to recoil. We will talk more philosophy later, but it goes without saying that the women in your life should all be suitably familiar with the firearms you choose to own. Standardizing on the AR platform means you can have a “his and hers” setup where parts, magazines, ammo, etc. are all interchangeable while still retaining customization. Neat! Maybe hers can be pink and yours can have the pro Israel Punisher Skull on it.

You can comfortably tell new shooters that the AR platform is not going to knock them down or leave a bruise, despite a Jewish journalist named “Gersh Kuntzman” saying he suffered PTSD from shooting one:

I’ve shot pistols before, but never something like an AR-15. Squeeze lightly on the trigger and the resulting explosion of firepower is humbling and deafening (even with ear protection).

The recoil bruised my shoulder, which can happen if you don’t know what you’re doing. The brass shell casings disoriented me as they flew past my face (Layne Note: you do not see shell casings fired from an AR unless your head is contorted to a 45 degree angle and you’re crosseyed). The smell of sulfur and destruction made me sick. The explosions — loud like a bomb — gave me a temporary form of PTSD. For at least an hour after firing the gun just a few times, I was anxious and irritable.

Counterpoint:

^I loathe monkey antics with guns

Combining that with all of the aforementioned advantages, the literal billions (probably trillions, if you include DoD/DHS etc. storage) of .223 and 5.56mm rounds circulating the US available in bulk for quite cheap, the manufacturing options available at every price point, the universal accessory support for the AR platform, and the wealth of information about them available for free or low cost, and the AR-15 has solidified itself as the king of American private arms for the next 50 years— minimum. Sorry LARPerators, but your beloved .300BO NVG setups and 6.5mm RECCE rifles are not going to achieve the same level of mainstream adoption within your natural lifespan.

There is no counterargument to the ownership and routine operation of an AR-15.

Perhaps most obvious is the cartridge itself. The .223 / 5.56mm round (the same size bullets with different pressurization and gunpowder loads) is anemic, to say the least. In fact, factors such as the clothes you’re wearing (and the body armor you should be wearing if you’re planning on getting shot!) can impact the survivability of your intended target. This is a tricky topic, because both sides of the debate love to lie about it since they are personally invested. I’ve heard fudds (we will discuss what those are) say that the AR platform was “designed to wound, not kill”, completely false; and I’ve heard Redditors claim singular hits to the unarmored chest cavity always incapacitate— equally false.

The reality is, you’re firing a tiny projectile very quickly. Recall from 10th grade science that kinetic energy is equal to 1/2 the mass of the object multiplied by the square of its velocity (𝐾𝐸=(1/2𝑚)*𝑣^2). In other words, the speed the object is traveling matters a lot more than how much it weighs. It is true that the 5.56mm cartridge has a tendency to “zip” through targets because it moves at a blistering speed. For the older generations, this was a shock because they were used to the 7.62x51mm or .30-06 round really slamming into the target, inflicting gaping entry wounds and smashing bones on contact. The 5.56mm is unlikely to do this in most contexts. What it is likely to do is create a massive exit cavity from all of the force it just generated and dumped into the target’s soft tissue. Combining this with the frangible (fragmentary on impact) nature of the bullet itself makes for a very lethal combination on unarmored targets. Variations on the 5.56mm round like the legendary “Green Tip” similarly tune it up for armored targets or other combat and hunting applications.

I think the takeaway is, like many other traits of the AR, the standard round is “good enough for most circumstances”. Yes, we’ve all heard the stories of the thick robes of Al Qaeda fighters gobbling up the kinetic energy of impact after impact and keeping Muhammad on his feet. Those stories are probably true. What’s also true, and what might miss the observer’s eye amidst bullets and suicide vests converging on his location, is that these guys were often hopped up on near-lethal levels of “Combat drugs” (and adrenaline) that were designed to keep them fully operational after having ribs cracked or fingers shot off or whatever. The M4’s generous standard magazine capacity and limited recoil meant that followup shots were a matter of routine.

The 5.56 or .223 round is probably good enough for your regular ahh civilian use case. The only exception that comes to mind is if you live far enough out west where the game is big enough and the ranges are far enough to make the round really ineffective as it does perform quite poorly at large distance. In that case, you might consider the AR-15’s big brother, the AR-10. It shoots the far more powerful (and heavier) .308 round, which is good enough for anyone that doesn’t live surrounded by megafauna predators.

Here is an all time classic video of a guy tanking several .308 rounds to the chest at near point-blank range, in case you needed more nuance for this discussion.

Another disadvantage of the AR system is that its universal adoption cuts both ways. Yes, your Fallout 4 post-apocalyptic trader network will have AR parts readily available, but keep in mind the bad guys also get a vote. You can expect your Fallout raiders to also carry ARs, meaning you will have similar capabilities. Moreover, when they plan to attack you, they will likely correctly guess that you have an AR and plan accordingly. It’s not that ARs are completely useless beyond 500m, but at that range the bullet will begin to wobble in the air and deliver much less force. The drop off increases exponentially, so the difference between 500m and 600m is much greater than might be expected. Bullets travel in an arc (not a straight line), and trying to eyeball how much drop you have to compensate for while in a firefight is certainly not easy. Long range skirmishing is one of the few situations where ARs are straight up outclassed by even Grandpa’s deer rifle unless you can afford (both time and ammo) to spray and pray.

Lastly, these things are the subject of political ire and you may be putting a target on your head by buying one. The ATF illegally collects the information of every AR transaction in preparation for a extermination roundup mandatory turn-in. You’re elevating which torture chamber of the concentration camp you’ll be sent to by buying one, unlikely if you were to purchase an M14, Mini-14, AUG, AK (actually idk about this one), SKS, or really anything else. Probably. This is all speculation, as the ATF currently pathetically trots out the “We don’t keep a registry” lie through official spokespeople and their servants in the media class. This did not stop them from magically knowing who possessed bump stocks, Polymer 80 Glocks, Forced Reset Triggers, and other goodies they don’t like, before showing up to intimidate gun owners. That they didn’t know were gun (or bump stock, or whatever) owners, because they don’t keep a registry. Yup.

From that USAToday “fact check”:

It's true that ATF does possess hundreds of thousands of firearm records, most of which have been digitized. And federal law prohibits a national gun registry.

But those records are not stored in a searchable database or a format consistent with a registry, as claimed.

If you believe the last sentence, I have a timeshare to sell you..

Here’s a video of some ATF goons getting beasted by the Columbus, OH police. They later sued because the enforcer getting owned had a “condition”, but the schadenfreude is still delightful.

Looking to purchase an AR? Here are a few decisions you need to make before you ever spread your wallet for Daddy Stoner:

1. Barrel length: This is the most important decisions you’ll have to make. The AR platform is heavily influenced by the length of the barrel firing the 5.56mm/.223 round. I consider this a drawback, btw, because other calibers (7.62x39mm) are not nearly as dependent on barrel length. In a nutshell, longer barrels stabilize the round and generate more velocity: increasing the effective range and total kinetic energy generated. In exchange, longer barrels are more expensive and unwieldy. This is a lesson the military learned when sending 20” M16s into urban fighting in Iraq. Turning corners, opening doors, and other facets of “Close Quarters Battle” (CQB) become nightmarish micromanagement tasks in an already mentally taxing environment when your rifle is constantly getting caught or clanging on things. I mean, imagine trying to go up a flight of stairs while someone is trying to kill you, with a red hot 20” stick out in front of your face and tied to your body.

   

   

   The M4 was introduced partly to lower the average barrel length to 14.5”, right before those 14.5” M4s were sent back to the mountain ranges of Afghanistan where they were immediately the wrong length again. My advice? A first time purchase should be 18”. 18” is the preferred compromise length where the rifle isn’t impossible to maneuver but retains most of the benefits of a longer barrel. Maybe if you have a group of 5 friends, one guy should have a barrel at or over 20” for the sovl; this is where you start to be able to zap opps at 800m+ reliably and crack most ceramic plates at closer ranges with the right ammunition. 16” is fine if you end up going with that, but I wouldn’t go much lower if its the only rifle you own. The heinous “AR pistols” and SBRs (Short Barreled Rifles) will be discussed later but are almost always terrible.

   Anything over 20” starts to become a musket that won’t fit in most cases, cars, etc. I wouldn’t even consider a 24” or 26” barrel like this chart shows. I don’t think I’ve ever even seen above 22” and that thing was comically large. I enjoyed briefly holding it before giving it back to its owner, like a crying baby.

Note that other barrel characteristics such as the twist rate (how many times the bullet will rotate 360 degrees before leaving the barrel) are important, but this guide is designed for beginners to get up and running. If you’re a first time gun owner, having a 1:7 or 1:9 twist rate will make no meaningful difference in your 100m flat range.

2. Weight: this matters more than you might expect. Your total ensemble (scope, magazines, etc.) is only going to move if you carry it with your body. The difference between a 7 pound and 13 pound rifle is non-trivial, even for strong guys. It’s a problem that compounds with every mile under your boots and second supporting the weapon with only the relatively small muscles in your hands, wrists, and forearms. You don’t want to create a beastly platform drenched in GADGETS!!! that you can’t carry for miles, or pull up and fire without support. If you don’t believe me, try to hold a gallon of milk out in front of you for even five minutes straight. Now curl it every 30 seconds. More weight = more capability, but at the cost of more pain. In general, you want to keep your rifle simple and light. Remember that you have to know how to operate and maintain every piece of kit you own.

   

3. Cost: I will briefly touch on a suitable peasant-tier build, but your budget is important. Not only will you purchase the gun itself, it has a short list of peripherals that need to come with it. As well as ammo, which you can expect to cost somewhere between .30USD and 1.0USD every time you pull the trigger. Your budget will also determine your upgrade path and factors such as whether you’ll be shooting steel-cased ammo or brass-cased.

   Note: As a former AK guy, the philosophy was “if she can’t eat steel, she don’t deserve brass”. I like the sentiment, but most ARs straight up can’t shoot steel-cased ammo, I honestly don’t know why. I think it might be because steel-cased rounds are loaded with weaker powder loads that don’t cycle the bolt every time. That, and the shell deforms upon detonation in a way that brass shells do not. Steel-cased rounds are much cheaper, by the way. That’s the only advantage, outside of niche Slavic forum wizards telling us they handle long term storage better.

   If you ask me, I’d set aside $1,000 for the rifle itself and about $500 for accessories and ammo. That is a pretty barebones setup. Remember that guns use consumable resources (parts, ammo, cleaning supplies, targets, etc.) and you will need to establish how much you can pay to maintain this ecosystem in recurring costs.

4. Attachment ecosystem: There’s two main choices here, 1913 Picatinny (“Pic rail”) and MLOK. Keymod is kill. They don’t interchange (outside of some zany Amazon adapters of dubious quality) and you have to be sure that whatever you buy for the rifle is suited to that choice. I personally just hate MLOK. It is lighter than Pic rails, but it is much harder to get situated (involving tightening screws in reverse with a screwdriver crammed into the slot) and can often jiggle loose, especially with bigger calibers. You can probably smell my bias, but I think the weight savings aren’t worth abandoning Pic rails. They’re the safe noob bet.

5. Building vs Buying: Building an AR is epic because you typically save quite a bit of money, learn more about the system, and get to stimulate autism. Later, you’ll have the prerequisite knowledge to customize little details. The tradeoff is that if you buy parts, you’ll be solely responsible for ensuring that it works and is assembled correctly. Most distributors also don’t offer warranties for assembled rifles, especially if you create a Frankenstein out of several different companies’ goods. If you’re familiar with building vs. buying a PC, its much the same concept. Having built both, I’d say the AR is a little harder. It’s something you could do on a weekend, but that’s also a weekend you could’ve spent on the range. Note that “building” can mean anything from “slotting together pre-built parts” (done in seconds) to “constructing the entire thing yourself” (wickedly hard). My advice is to buy a separate pre-built “upper” and “lower” half of the gun to minmax benefit per dollar. This will be discussed in the peasant build section.

   

6. Color / Changing the Color: I have had the fascinating experience of carrying a non-black AR-15 through a crowded parking lot (en route to my car) and nobody thought anything of it because it wasn’t black. Multiple times. I’m not saying this will be your experience, but I am saying there is a strong correlation between the public’s mental image of “dangerous scary weapon” and the color black. Remember that even in America, the average normie’s “experience” with the AR platform comes from movies, video games, news article silhouette stock images, and other screen-based propaganda platforms that always depict evil “military grade” killing machines as slick and black and unknowable. Meanwhile, nobody even looked at my green AR, perhaps also because I was carrying it nonchalantly. Another hilarious instance of this mass psychosis comes from the Mini-14, a weapon that is every bit as deadly as an AR-15. It even fires the exact same round at similar velocities. The Mini-14 survives many gun bans because it looks like this:

   

   Moreover, black is not a color that occurs frequently in nature. In other words, your black AR will always stand out in any environment you travel to short of a Nightcore Rave. The main way people change this color (outside a professional paint job or paying lots more for one that is already colored from the factory) is through spray paint. You can have fun with this if you want to as an afternoon project, but understand that it will degrade with time and use (typically by getting kind of gummy), it could have adverse effects on the gun’s thermal image, and it will destroy the resale value no matter how cool the paint looks. Also, I’m pretty sure spray paint glows under NVGs. Embarrassing if true. You can also use colored / camo athletic tape to wrap around most of the surface area, but this has its own drawbacks. Either way, you should figure out what the game plan is before you drop any money. It’s not an urgent issue, but it does need to be addressed. You don’t really gain anything by leaving the generic black nitride coating exposed.

The first thing I’d do is answer the most obvious question. What is my intended use case? For the sake of example, I’ll assume you’re a 20-25 year old unmarried guy living on or near the East Coast. Your use cases are target practice, hunting, home defense, and Zombie “partial collapse or unrest” defense. In other words, you’re not entering any accuracy contests any time soon, and you’re not seeking to specialize in any one category that requires ultra specific rifle construction.

My next step would be to find a friend whose autism I can draft off of. Let him ramble, and make sure he accepts your input as to what you want. As in, don’t let him try to shill you a 24” (or 11”, debatably worse) blunderbuss because of some retarded niche use case—especially if he’s never been in the military/combat. Remember why you’re buying it in the first place. If you don’t have a friend like this, you might glean some info out of the standard YouTube deep dive. Keep in mind, the “AR-15 beginner market” is a radioactive wasteland of people trying to capitalize on a mouthwatering corner of the market by preying on helping the uninformed masses rolling in from TikTok.

Think about it from their perspective, they’re “growing the hobby” and targeting finding new shooters with little foreknowledge and flush with cash to spend. Understand that this is single single ripest harvest to reap in the gun industry, and they definitely have a profit incentive to wage psychological warfare on unsuspecting and overwhelmed noobs. If you choose to rely on YouTube, SEO Listicles on Google, Reddit posts, /k/, whatever, you have to remember everyone has their own biases and agendas— even if they’re subconscious. Except me. I’m an enlightened centrist who is always perfectly rational. Well, I do actually get bonus points for not having any monetary incentive to influence whatever you end up doing. Either way, your goal here is to cobble together a few models that sound like they’re up your alley. I’ll spoonfeed some at the end of this section, but being a good “gun guy” means doing lots of your own research. You should be vetting trustworthy sources over time and going to them first to form your opinion before trusting outsiders.

Next, I’d check my friends to see if anyone has an AR they’d let me shoot. Bonus points for an outdoor area to do this at, private land seated firmly atop the throne for “most pleasant shooting experience”. Indoor ranges are usually miserable, and are a last resort. Ideally, you can get a group of guys with all different builds that will split a couple hundred rounds and let you taste test their various setups. If you don’t have this, you’ll have to pay to go to a range and rent some ARs, lets say 2-5 unique setups. Maybe you can find a helpful employee there who can substitute for the autistic friend you should have. Fine, just don’t let him sell you anything on this outing. Rent a few models, shoot them, and either mentally or physically record some notes. You won’t remember all the details, but do try to figure out what you do or don’t like. It’s okay to like or not like something that is not perfectly optimized. This is not about finding the meta build, its about finding what you enjoy shooting. Hell, this article is about what I enjoy shooting. If you have to use the dreaded forward assist to have fun, then so be it. No gadgets, though. Seriously.

Whittle this list down and repeat the process if necessary. By now, you should have 2 or 3 base models that you like. There are a few purchasing options here.

1. Buying in-store: Sort of the safe low B tier pick. You’ll be at the mercy of whoever is behind the counter. If you’re forced to do this, I’d try a mix of one-off small gun stores, mega chain ranges, pawn shops, whatever. You might have to drive a few hours to hit a big radius of these, but your efforts might be handsomely rewarded. Maybe you can haggle or take a blemished / used model for cheaper. If you go to a small gun store (in the community’s quasi-military obsession with acronyms, these are known as the Local Gun Store or LGS) you might convince the friendly boomer behind the counter to give you a sweetheart deal. Be prepared to fill out some paperwork and wait for a background check to clear before you leave with it.

2. Buying online retail: Only do this if you already know what you want. You can score cheap deals here, but remember that you can’t ship complete guns to your house anymore so you’ll have to pay to pick it up at a gun store anyway. Be prepared to fill out the aforementioned paperwork. Don’t get lured in by SEO garbage and flashy marketing about 10% off.

3. Buying online secondhand: Before you attempt this, you need to ensure private firearms transactions are legal in your state. I am not responsible for failure to comply with applicable local, state, and federal laws. There are a few websites out there that will facilitate the buying, swapping, and trading of guns. ArmsList and Tacswap come to mind. Armslist used to be free, but now they’re trying to paywall everything and squeeze noobs for membership money. It’s also the “Craigslist of guns”, in the good (big catalogue) and bad (lots of weirdos) sense. I’ve talked to some truly bizarre characters on there.

   

   I’ve never used Tacswap but hear good things about the general IQ of users being higher.

   

   In a state where this process is legal, you can meet the owner of the firearm and purchase it outright. Remember, you cannot drive across state lines or leave your state of residence to purchase a firearm without going through an FFL. I’ve done this a few times in my free state, and its sort of a thrill. I pulled up to meet a random dude at a parking lot with my buddy, who was carrying the aforementioned 10mm in the rare case of a chimp out. There’s a bit of sniffing out to make sure that both parties are sane and not Feds trying to sell a barrel that is 1mm too short or something (a felony). Honestly, that is a much bigger risk than getting smoked for the money you brought: you’re not sure if its a honeypot, even if you’re not doing anything wrong. In this vignette, blud had me flash my ID to ensure I was an in-state resident, and I already ran his name and phone number through a few websites to ensure he wasn’t a Fed, wanted, or anything else. Anyway, I happened to pay with cash and went on my way having completed a perfectly legal transaction.

4. Gun shows: These are, sadly, going extinct. I highly recommend you visit one before they’re gone for good. You’ll see a lot of cool guns, some eclectic people, and a little slice of (pre-Obama) America. Here’s a couple of the best archetypes:

   

   

   

   

   They were almost killed off by the Clintons in the 1990s, who described them as “Illegal Arms bazaars”, but they endure today mostly in the form of a “circuit” of the same show put on by traveling retirees who probably don’t make much money on it. If you read the above section and wondered how the “paperless” process is legal, the idea is that the original purchaser already completed a background check. If he passed, he was already deemed to be in good standing and judgement to determine if his intended purchaser is able to safely possess the gun. That’s how it’s supposed to work, and I think it’s basically fair. That process has been dubbed the “gun show loophole”, combined with endless shrieking about a complete fantasy where mass shooters go to gun shows to buy guns. Imagine an immigrant of peace going to a classic car show to find the best 1966 Mustang to drive through the German Christmas market, that is how stupid this retarded babble is.

   Meanwhile in reality, I’ve personally seen gun show boomers cross their arms and tell young black men they’re not going to sell to them because they look like gang members. Lol! Keep in mind, this “loophole” only applies to individuals selling individual guns, not full time firearms salesmen. The Third Obama Term Biden Admin apparently spent a lot of political capital trying to “close the gunshow loophole” by requiring anyone to have the stringent Federal Firearms License to buy and trade guns, even individually. If that survives court, the days of meeting some dude in a parking lot with cash are over. The Biden admin falsely claimed this was designed to “prevent mass shootings”, the real reason is one more inconvenience to help bleed out a hobby they haven’t yet accrued enough power to outright ban. They also airballed trying to turn millions of Americans into felons by retroactively outlawing pistol braces.

I would mix and match these approaches to determine what the best price for your specific model is going to be. You don’t need to rush it.

Remember the “upper” and “lower” parts of the gun?

The upper is far more important to the overall quality and value of the rifle than the bottom. That’s where the cartridge ignition happens, where the bolt carrier lives, where the barrel is, where the optic is mounted, etc.

If I had $1500, I’d sink $800 into a good (18”) upper, and about $150ish into the lower. You can get a cheap “Military Grade” lower online for that much, and you don’t get a big performance boost out of going up a tier or two. The lower tiers work perfectly fine, they just don’t contain the accouterment and fine machining of higher builds. For example, no snack compartment in the pistol grip outside a very cheap rubber stopper. The stock is a tubing piece of plastic, the grip is a hollow piece of plastic, and the trigger just needs to go bang— dont overthink it. Remember that the lower is the serialized part of the firearm, bizarrely, and thus the upper can be shipped to your house but you have to send the lower to an FFL holder.

I generally trust the “AR tier lists” out there, with some major caveats, so use them to help narrow down what brands are g2g and which brands manufacture expensive paperweights. Note that these summarize someone else’s collected wisdom, but should never take the place of actually trying the rifle in question at the range.

There is one infamous brand that needs addressing.

Palmetto State Armory (PSA) is infamous for their “value” dealings. In the old days, when I was just getting into guns (2014ish), they had a really bad reputation because of poor quality control and design. They’ve since attempted to get this under control, but still flop on offerings like their “PSAKs”, which were a whole debacle involving a PSA gunsmith lying about consulting “Old Soviet Armorer’s manuals” for their abortion PSAK Gen 2s that sucked. Not sure why they went through that route instead of just admitting they were beta testing on paypigs.

PSA is fine for ARs for most people, although I will say I’ve had a few problems with their offerings to include the gas tube literally falling off (?). I am not going to beta test anything else they make. Offerings like the PSA Dagger and JAKL are a hard pass until at least the 3rd generation, when they’ve had enough feedback from paypigs to make the rifle they should’ve made the first time. I wish them luck on recreating cool historical guns tho.

Note: the PSA mission is to make ARs so accessible that confiscation efforts are pointless. Based.

A few brands I’ve used and liked: Aero Precision (RIP?), Daniel Defense, LaRue Tactical, Giessele (their fanbase is insufferable), PSA, BCM, KAC (teehee).

Overall, BCM and Aero are a sweet spot for quality, customer service, and reliability. Those are the two I have the most experience with.

A few I’d stay away from: Bushmaster (huge quality decrease in recent years), Ruger (poor quality that has reversed the last few years, massively anti-gun company that shilled for Obama era regulations), Rock Island Armory (Philippine trash, didn’t even know they made ARs), Springfield (Zombie brand trash, do not get a SAINT), Remington (Zombie brand), Delton.

Which is basically the consensus of most tier lists:

Here's an Aero lower for $400 as of Labor Day Weekend:

https://www.aeroprecisionusa.com/m4e1-556-18in-rifle-complete-upper

And a PSA “Servicable tier” lower for $100

https://palmettostatearmory.com/psa-moe-stealth-ar-15-complete-rifle-lower-w-classic-grip-and-trigger-guard-gray.html

I even removed the URL tracker ID bloat for you!

Note: I am not a fan of the “old school GWOT sovl” uppers that have the circular (MLOK) handguards and fixed front sight posts:

For one, that massive unsightly front sight post is attached to the gas block, so its not going anywhere. Given that current year exceeds AD2006, we can now deploy flip-up iron sights that don’t require blocking the view permanently like this one does. Notice there isn’t a rear sight anyway, so the front sight is sort of a gimmick. I already ripped on MLOK, but please understand I really despise it.

“Old school” uppers with carry handles are similarly obsolete.

I would buy a “flat top” instead:

Let’s just call that $700 so I can keep my math straight. This is probably the true cost of the above items after shipping, FFL fees, sales tax, goy tax, whatever. Your noob build needs 3 more components before its ready enter on duty: an optic, a sling, and a light.

Optic: a simple 1x Red Dot Sight (RDS) will do. You almost certainly don’t need magnification or any other wild capability (clip-on thermal xD) at this stage, and trying to cram them in before you’re ready can damage your fundamentals. You should also train with iron sights. The Peasant-tier option is the venerable Sig Romeo 5, the Honda Civic of RDS, available here for $115:

Do NOT buy an Amazon, Airsoft, or any other cheap garbage optic to try to save a buck. Your meaningless donation to the Chineseum factories will only facilitate other noobs getting rekt by garbage equipment. Speaking of Chineseum, I am mixed on Holosun but find their budget rifle optics to be serviceable. The Sig Romeo probably comes out of the same Gook factory, but its track record is about 10x better and customer base 10x bigger, and the results speak for itself. Holosun also tends to make bulky “mailboxes” that block your peripheral view.

There are other options and categories, such as the faddish LPVO (more below). Avoid at this stage or you’ll be at risk of destroying fundamentals and overcomplicating the whole thing. Just get a dot and practice ringing steel at 100 yards.

Sling: Your sling is an often overlooked piece of the rifle. It’s going to be making constant contact with your body, and is the liaison between you and the rifle over the long marches I hope you undergo to train with it. Get an Airsoft sling at your own risk, the cheap canvas ones will literally rub your skin off over time especially if you’re sweating (You do plan on sweating with your rifle, right?). The “Honda Civic of Slings” (albeit a little overpriced) is the Blue Force Gear Vickers Sling:

Larry Vickers is also a funny gun industry guy you should look up if you decide to buy the sling that I guess he designed. It’s a good sling, I can vouch for it. It’s comfy and does a good job of dissipating heat generated by rubbing without becoming gummy from moisture absorption until you really start sweating.

Slings are a corner of the industry swamped with offerings because manufacturing them is quite cheap and there are some different opinions about how they should work (1,2, or 3 point sling mounts for example) and what they should be made of. Don’t get discouraged if your preliminary results are 10,000 copies of the same thing and you can’t tell the difference. This is why I said its important to accrue a few voices in the industry that you trust to help you separate the wheat from chaff.

Light: I belabor the point on lights more in the handgun section. In short, lights are a small, light, and cheap way to make your rifle more effective (Force multiplier! 🤓). You want to know what you’re aiming at before you shoot it, simple as.

Peasant Honda Civic Choice: something in Streamlight’s TLR lineup. Yes, they also fit on pistols. No, your meatshield Conscript tier AR doesn’t need an expensive light underneath with the perfectly calculated Candela and throw values. You’re not going to be sniping invaders at 200m in the dark, you want to make sure that humanoid figure you’re pointing your 18” Laynemaxxed Opp Droppa at is actually something worth shooting and not your buddy running back with a replacement OCP Snickers bar for your snack compartment.

These things are around $150 and are effectively bomb-proof. You can also get the gay tactical versions with the pressure pads if you want to pretend to be Spec Ops.

Do NOT get Olight branded bombs lights.

“Laser sights” (Not LAMs): Retarded gimmicks that instill false confidence.

Bipods: Harmless but mostly redundant. Unless you’re the LARP squad Designated Marksman you don’t need one. They’re cool and useful, but they do contribute to bulk and weight. They have to sit in the front to do any good, so you’re making the gun even more front heavy in exchange for questionable utility. If you choose to get one, remember that you’ll be carrying it 100x more than you’ll be using it. Don’t get an airsoft one or it’ll rattle apart. You can also use your foregrip (below) as a brace against something like a window if you want to go that route. However, if you live in a mountainous region out west, I’d imagine bipods are actually very useful because they cling well to uneven surfaces like boulders. But I don’t live anywhere that cool, so I wouldn’t know.

Bayonets: I see a lot of guys (Brent0311) claiming that these are fashionable again. I get the sentiment, but bayonets are not coming back. In fact, they haven’t been en vogue in almost 200 years. For example, less than 1% of American Civil War fatalities were caused by bayonets. This in a conflict where waves of men crashed into one another for hand to hand combat after firing their single shot at a scant 100 yards. If you think you’re going to “close with the enemy”, the real solution is to go to the gym and practice your reloads. Trvke!

The biggest problem with bayonets is that you should be shooting the target, not stabbing it. Contrarians arguing that “everyone needs a backup plan” fail to realize that guns are the backup plan. You shouldn’t put yourself in a position to need a gun if you can help it, much less relying on the antiquated tripping hazard on the front. Modern muzzle attachments (even basic flash hiders) are also a suitable stabbing surface, especially if you can hit small bones or orifices— even better if the barrel is hot. Bayonets also extend the overall length of the rifle, defeating the purpose of shorter barrels. Overall, a cool throwback but ultimately unnecessary and even a little dangerous for you and your chums. You’re far more likely to accidentally stab something you don’t intend than to need it in “hand to hand combat”.

Laser Aiming Modules (LAMs), Thermal, IR, and Night Vision Capabilities: Do not run out and buy one of these until you’re able to consistently hit a man sized target at 300m with just the RDS. Seriously. 80% of your improvement comes from actually shooting, not spamming impulse purchases on GADGETS!!!. You cannot buy your way to better trigger control, steadier breathing, faster reloads, stronger forearms, or tighter shot groupings—outside of paying the “brass price”. Yes, NVGs et. al obviously have serious utility, but their usage is beyond the scope of this guide. If you go down this route, be prepared to spend thousands and thousands of dollars.

I will say this as an owner of NVGs: they are ridiculously cool and an enormous advantage over anything or anyone that does not have them. If I can see you, and you can’t see me, I win every time.

Piggyback and canted sights: I find these to be really stupid, personally. Another instance of “dubious use case”. These have very small value propositions that are beyond anyone that’s not in the Infantry or a SWAT team, or an AR-10 countersniper team in the Zombie invasion. You will never, ever need one of these. Yes, even during the Boog. If it’s such a big deal, throw some flip up BUIS on and be done with it.

They even look stupid:

If you’re the Designated Marksman and want one of these on your giant telescope in case you need to “rock out” on an inbound swarm of zombies, I will grant you that it will be upgraded from “completely retarded” to “gay”.

Handstops and Foregrips: Okay, I have a soft spot for the actual, old fashioned Magpul foregrips:

They’re big and dorky and a little clumsy, but I still really like them. I say “still” because they’ve basically been retired by the handstop:

which I find to be a stupid and unnecessary substitute for “grip strength”, and the micro “VFG” (vertical foregrip):

that people mostly just use as a handstop. I get it. I’m sure there’s some massive wad of canned spreadsheets lurking in the comments of a T-Rex Arms video that demonstrates how the OG foregrip is somehow “going to get you killed”. I have no idea if they actually improve accuracy. I still like them, in part because I have big hands and I like tugging them towards my chest in a sort of old school C clamp.

Risers: I use these and like them. The gist is that they raise the optic off the barrel a few inches so that it rests naturally closer to your eye, preventing you from having to hunch over to lower your eye to the optic. I don’t have a preference for height, but I do enjoy the ones just below so called skyscraper height (2.5”) on account of my necc height (6’1 btw) and infrequent use of NVGs. They’re cheap and make the gun substantially more comfortable to shoot, in exchange for a jagged edge on the profile of your gun and probably a small accuracy penalty. I’d imagine they can get snagged on thicc brush. Get a decent quality aluminum one because cheap (plastic) risers will shake with recoil and destroy your zero.

LPVOs: Someone reading earlier definitely soyed out when I said LPVOs are “Faddish”. Was it you, Roxy? Maybe they stopped reading to drop an “erm akthually” payload in my comments. The trvth is, Low Power Variable Optics are an expensive trend of dubious utility. The drawbacks are immediate: they’re expensive, more fragile than their alternatives, typically have tight eye boxes and relief (how clear the sight picture is and how close your eye needs to sit to the scope to see through it), and some of them embarrassingly don’t even have glass etched reticles so you’ll be shackled to another battery powered system. Their 1x magnification (where you should be 90% of the time) is typically quite poor unless you shell out. Which leads me to yet another consequence: this market got flooded with Hypebeast and Amazon junk, requiring more mental overhead before making a safe purchase. Or you can pay the premium price, which is as much as your entire peasant build AR (>$1200). The positives of these things are that they do allow for adjustable magnification so that you can nuke your zero when you have to zoom in to 6x to do… what exactly? Countersnipe? Drill something at 800m because…? My advice is if you didn’t know what “LVPO” stood for before reading this article, you don’t need one. Just get a red dot, or EOTech if you’re rich, and be done with it.

Magnifiers: Alright, prepare the boiling piss cauldron for my supple skin. I do like these things. They are the one gadget that I’d be comfortable issuing noobs. If you didn’t know, they sit closer to your eye than your optic and magnify the sight picture. This allows you to “double dip” by owning a decent quality Red Dot and getting to magnify it when you want at the cost of only a little extra weight, another thing to maintain, and slightly reduced glass clarity (unless you get a really nice one). Most models allow you to push them out of the way when they’re not needed. I know these things are the definition of gadgets, but I like them and think they’re a logical upgrade path for the average “American rifleman” once he’s ready. If you must know, my current setup is EOTech + Magnifier.

Binary Triggers, Forced Reset Triggers, Bump Stocks etc.: Pretty much just range toys. Full auto (or anything like it) is almost never necessary and severely reduces your effective range and ability to control the rifle. In exchange, you eat up ammunition much quicker and place more wear-and-tear on the internals. It’s just not worth it. Also, you can just simply “pull the trigger faster” if truly necessary.

Now, what about the rest of your money?

I’d spend a good chunk on ammo. Go to Ammoseek.com and buy the cheapest non-reloaded brass ammo you can get. Once you get a little more experience, you can refine this search to “cheapest non-reloaded brass ammo from a reputable brand, of a specific grain and model number, that I know my specific rifle likes to eat because I write it down”. Start with about 500 rounds so you can put some in storage and use some for training. A good rule of thumb is to always order a little extra (10-25% more than you plan to shoot) so you can slowly accrue a solid stockpile. You shouldn’t slow down until you have at least 1,000 rounds salted away in long term storage.

You’ll notice that some rifles do not like certain types of ammo. The market follows a weird pattern where poverty builds are “picky”, everything in the middle will generally shoot anything, and the elite tier rifles become picky again. I always think about how EBT recipients only eat chicken nuggets and macaroni, normals have a large palette, and the rich only eat fine cuisine.

The ammunition choice makes a noticeable difference in accuracy for intermediate shooters, even in completely similar situations. This applies twice: to the shooter, and to the gun itself. Ideally, you should keep a notebook of which ammo, with what powder load and bullet grain etc., produces what results. Over time, you’ll find what diet your new lady prefers to eat.

You can try messing with steel and other cheap substitutes, but be prepared to feed your lady the “vape and Whiteclaw” girl dinner of at least medium tier brass-cased ammo.

They’re epic, if a little uninspired, and you need one. Train with it, take it apart, learn to love the thing.

If you scroll down a bit, you’ll see that I’ve differentiated between “handgun” and “revolver”. Your first pistol purchase should not be a revolver. They’re cool, but they’re completely outdated in the Big 25 for reasons that we will get to after I yap about these. Skibidi!

Why is a handgun so important? The biggest reason is its portability, followed closely by conceal-ability. If you live in a free state, you should be bringing this thing just about everywhere (with the notable exception of schools, banks, stadiums, concerts, jewelry stores, and other sensitive/illegal areas). The old African proverb goes, “a man who sleeps with a machete under his pillow is a fool every night but one”. As a man, you’re responsible for protecting those in your orbit whether you like it or not. That, to me, is the premise of the pistol in today’s world: a stopgap when you can’t get to your rifle. In exchange for this portability and easy access, you don’t get much capability. Unless you’re one of those autists who carries an entire handyman belt with multiple magazines and an IFAK (please don’t unless you’re an EMT or something), you’re going to get about 15 chances to make the threat go away before you’re unceremoniously demoted to “unarmed” status again. A few things to consider with handguns:

1. Understand that they are intrinsically inferior to longer arms: In pretty much every way. They dump much less kinetic energy on the target. They have much shorter barrels and much lower effective ranges. They’re much harder to control, and therefore much easier to shoot something you’re not trying to. They are, straight up, inferior to rifles or even just “anything that can be braced on the shoulder”. That doesn’t mean they don’t have a niche, it’s just important to understand what that niche is. Sometimes you see guys try to “counter” this by carrying a bigger caliber, which is shrimply and inarguably not correct. I highly recommend against a pistol for your singular home defense weapon or in any situation where a bigger firearm is appropriate.

2. Caliber: A discussion of perhaps greater importance than the barrel length of ARs. There are many viable calibers with wildly different performance, and they each have their own little camps that come armed with payloads of spreadsheet data and boomerisms about why their caliber is the only one worth a damn. The worst of these is the infamous “stopping power” meme. Let me explain. Because pistols are simply not as lethal as longer arms, fudds and their intellectual progeny (Reddit) have devised the mythical “stopping power” as a way to qualify lethality. Stopping power is basically a made up catchall that is supposed to indicate the overall ability of a bullet to end confrontations. Most fudds will weight discussions on stopping power towards bigger rounds (.45) because the simple logic is that the bigger bullet is going to cause more damage when it slams into the enemy.

   

   Also, Two World Wars! Fair enough for Farmer Jim and his reliable .357 J Frame that he’s had since the 1960s (rarely fired). But this is, of course, a comforting mistruth. Remember, the mass of an object (the weight of the bullet) matters far less than how fast the object is traveling. Pistol bullets are typically heavier only because they will never generate the speed rifles can, so the heavier bullet is a “better than nothing” compensation. In exchange for slightly less speed, there is a much bigger and heavier projectile hitting the target.

   Like our previous discussion on rifle barrel lengths, there are anecdotes where the perp gets “knocked down” by a larger round and is rendered combat ineffective. I don’t doubt those stories are mostly true. The problem is, those rounds come at a cost. They’re much heavier, recoil way more, they make the weapon much bulkier (and thus harder to conceal), and severely limit capacity. They’re also typically much more expensive. Sorry fudds, but I’d rather have 15 rounds of 9mm than 7 rounds of .45. In other words, I’d rather get to shoot them twice than throw a singular haymaker and hope that the stopping powah gets them on the ground.

   Personally, I am sort of caliber agnostic. If you’re a normie, just get a 9mm. This is the safe choice, especially in America. It has the largest community (and thus largest selection) and sits at a nice balance between capacity and weight. It has a proven track record from a couple decades as the police caliber of choice in which baddies are consistently dropped from one (or two) rounds to a vital area, especially with hollow points. There are also stories and bodycam footage highlights in which cracked out street urchins tank five rounds to the chest. Maybe a boomer handcannon would’ve smashed their lung cavity in a single shot, idk. Anyway, I wouldn’t try to carry smaller than the .380 or larger than the 10mm. For noobs, there is a substantial difference between the two despite the small difference between the numbers 10 and 9:

Important Note: Do not try to carry .22LR. It is inherently unreliable as a rimfire cartridge and is neither fast nor heavy. Just don’t.

There are other oddball calibers out there. I guess I am aging myself, but I am just not interested in stuff like 5.7mm, which is actually just .22 Magnum but European. The problem is, these fringe calibers are on the fringe because they all come with weird little problems and use cases that Average Joes are simply not concerned with. Enter the gun guys, who want to spam esoteric knowledge about why 3.8x6,000,000mm Super Hitler is actually the only choice for serious concealed carry. For example, the aforementioned 5.7mm is actually so light and so fast that it is particularly prone to “poking holes” instead of blowing massive and satisfying chunks out of the intended opp. That’s because it was designed for a platform (the P90) that was given to rear echelon Euros guarding supply trucks or whatever, taught to spray and pray on suppress enemies that have plates on. In other words, not at all the same premise as your family trip to Chick-fil-A. Before anyone spergs out with esoteric Tarkov knowledge about how 5.7mm actually has stopping powah, here is a screen grab from a Garand Thumb video where he shoots a ballistic dummy in basically perfect conditions.

I’m dunking on 5.7x28 specifically because this thing has been the gun community’s “fascination of the month” recently, which is really just a prelude to our later discussion about the neuroticism of some gun guys. There are people, one of which I know personally, that carry 5.7 right now because of the remote possibility that they might have to shoot someone with body armor on. Seriously. If you get to that point, you need to find a new hobby. This might seem like a tangent, but you’ll find the 5.7mm in this discussion is a stand-in for many other oddball caliber choices, including the fad that’s coming to replace it. Yes, the times and technology change— slowly. Sit back, and let the cream rise to the top. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel or drive yourself to delirium trying to find some obscure platform. Just do the basics. Personally, I’m not interested in maintaining an expensive and isolated ecosystem for my pistol platform. I want to shoot a balanced round with a balanced capacity and a balanced feature set. And be able to buy cheap(ish) Glock mags if I want to. Simple as. Either way, the skill of the user ultimately matters the most. If you can John Wick baddies with a 5.7mm in dey foreheads, so be it.

Attachments: Recall that the advantage of pistols is that they’re portable, light, and accessible. There are factions within the concealed carry world today that want to trade all of these advantages away by soaking the thing in GADGETS!!! So, for nearly a thousand dollars, they make a tiny and ineffective little abomination that is the worst of both platforms.

There are other guys that refuse to touch anything on it out of the box, which is perhaps a slightly better idea. Here’s my perspective.

There is ONE attachment that is mandatory and the rest range from “probably unnecessary” to “retarded”. The one mandatory attachment is, of course, the humble underbarrel flashlight (WML). The most important reason is that you are responsible for everything that happens every time you pull the trigger (or don’t). You want to be precisely sure of what you’re about to try to shoot before you do. Consider the fact that whatever situation this unfolds in is an adrenaline-laden and chaotic environment in which you need to gather and process lots of information quickly while being afraid or jumpy. Now add the fact that you’re substantially more likely to need to draw and fire at night. If you’re walking around without a flashlight on your pistol, you will be entirely relying on whatever ambient lighting conditions surround you to quickly and positively ensure you’re pointing at the correct target. If the bad guys do their homework, they will ensure this ambient lighting is kept to a minimum. If you put a light on, you also get the added bonus of blinding intended targets, which can buy you the tenth of a second you need to think and react before making a very important decision.

I am against most other attachments. The biggest offender right now is probably optics, because most people marginally benefit from the use of them over iron sights. I do have one on my carry blicc at the behest of a friend, but I don’t really see much of a difference in “target acquisition time” and other such buzzword metrics. Also, these sights get dirty really quickly if you carry a lot because lint, dirt, and other debris collects on the side of the glass closest to the user. Overall, a minor net positive to your setup in exchange for a few hundred dollars and some extra maintenance.

There are also “laser sights”, which are going extinct. The gist is that you get a definitive and low effort permanent sighting, typically by either hitting a button or squeezing a grip activator. These things are notoriously hard to keep zeroed, especially on larger calibers, require one more battery and more maintenance, and teach people the wrong thing about aiming. You’re supposed to aim directly at the target, not stare past the gun while dragging a tiny red dot over the intended (moving, shooting back) baddy. At best, they’re a harmless but expensive distraction. At worst, they’re dangerous because they inspire a false sense of confidence. Case in point: My beloved mother tells me she “doesn’t need to practice” because the laser sight on her carry pistol “does the work for her”. Sigh.

4. Holster and Carry style: A very important choice influenced by a few factors. The most obvious is the pistol you decide to buy, because it has to fit the holster. One element thats not so obvious is your body composition. Are you tall or short? Skinny or fat? Broad shouldered or shrimpy? Your build drastically impacts what you can get away with carrying, and how you carry. You don’t want to be the guy with a Glock shaped bulge “printing” an outline on your schmedium polyester gym shirt.

   

   Most people are going to want to carry IWB: Inside the Waistband. Most people also want to “cross draw” by reaching part way across their body instead of trying to draw from the hip like a cowboy. I’m not sure why, but the “straight draw” is always intrinsically slower. Assuming you’re right handed, you should probably carry with the pistol between the 10 and 12 o’clock positions. Yes, it goes right over your balls. I’ve also seen “belly bands”, thigh holsters, and other paraphernalia, but I can’t vouch for any of them. Depending on your purchase, you might try the PHLster Enigma, which is becoming a cult classic holster in the concealed carry world. I can’t comment on strap holsters, behind the back holsters, or any other format.

   Note: do NOT carry with leather holsters. They look cool, but they will warp over time and start to press on the trigger. There are leather holsters with plastic trigger guards for this exact reason.

5. Hammer vs. Striker Fired: The “Classic” pistol has a visible hammer that you can intimidatingly cock Dirty Harry style before threatening to scatter melanated dirt all over this nice, clean alley way:

   

   These are fine, and even offer a few clever tricks (carrying “cocked and locked”) over modern pistols. The primary concern is that the hammers get snagged on anything from your holster to your shirt. Modern pistols are now “striker” fired, a small internal hammer that rests completely inside the slide:

   

   Striker fired pistols are superior in this aspect (and probably overall), but I don’t see some massive liability emerging out of hammer fired pistols. In fact, my beloved CZ actually made a designated carry pistol that had a hammer, once a upon a time:

   

   90% of people should just go with a striker fired design unless you feel quite strongly about the absence of an external hammer. That’s fine, maybe you like the beaver tail in the back for your meaty paws. Personally, I don’t really care. However, I am also unmoved by Team Hammer Fired’s myth-making on “pushing the slide out of battery” on Striker fired guns and other such retarded conspiracies. Here is Clint Smith (gun industry legend) talking about all non-revolvers as some bizarre liability:

   We will explore this topic in detail further into the article, but know that you’re looking at a near lethal dose of radioactive Fuddlore.

   If you care to know the answer to the problem posed in this video, 99% of “going to the ground” scenarios can be countered by better training: shooting them quicker and better before it gets to that point. If you do go to the ground with a potential rapist / murderer, the front of that pistol becomes an excellent stabbing surface and the grip becomes a bone breaking weighted club. You should be aiming for eye sockets, nose bones, exposed throats, etc. You should also be strong enough to create 1mm of separation between your pistol and the target with your forearms if necessary.

   Oh yeah, and the force has to be squarely on the front of the barrel. Pushing above or below the barrel will just grind it deeper into the housing before you get misted. Another solution is just to tilt it the right direction (exactly opposite of the pushing force) for just a moment before taking your meat shower. Hammers can also be blocked from falling, and revolver cylinders can be manually stopped from cycling. Any true Chiraq YN knows this.

6. Hollow points vs. FMJ: This is more of a quick talking point than a “decision”, partly because there is one correct answer and partly because its not a permanent choice. Hollow points function exactly as they sound, they have a hollow centered projectile that is designed to splat (“mushroom”) against soft targets. I’m going to spare you the photos, but suffice to say you can tell when someone gets shot with a hollow point. They rip disgusting, gory holes out of flesh, truly awful— the tradeoff being they are much less effective against armor and cover. Therefore, you should basically always carry hollow points. Full Metal Jacketed bullets are more of a neutral, where the shape of the bullet is reinforced by the thin metal jacket. The only reason I could see to not carry HPs is if you live in an ultra libtarded state where HPs will be treated as a “weapon of war” by the gaggle of DeJaylens and LaSheikas in the jury. You laugh, but I have seen their presence successfully argued as “cruising for a bruising” because they appear to the uninformed as expensive dangerous toys that someone wants to try out on innocent home invaders and highwaymen. The logic is that: because the chances of surviving a HP are much lower than an FMJ, and because the object of a defensive shooting is to stop the threat (not to kill your opponent), and because FMJs are a reasonable “precaution” against unnecessarily slaying a lifetime tax burden to America future astronaut, deploying HPs is an over-aggressive signal that you wanted to kill and not debilitate. I don’t agree with any of that sentiment, but I also don’t make the rules or sit on every jury in the ghetto. Don’t let this stop you from carrying HPs, but you should be aware of how this might look to stupid people in positions of power.

7. Lever, Button, and Grip Safeties: Do NOT carry a pistol with a lever or button safety. This is a well intentioned idea that quickly establishes itself as a massive liability. I know safeties “make people feel better” because they did something to prevent a Negligent Discharge. I got it, I understand. The simple reality is, most defensive pistol shootings occur well within 7 yards and are over in about one second. You are not going to have enough time to draw, fumble and flip the safety off, acquire a sight picture, and squeeze the trigger before your skull bounces off the pavement.

   

   Moreover, in these situations your fine motor skills diminish as your body is flooded with fighting chemicals. Have you ever felt jittery after a big argument or fist fight? Do you think you’d be capable of flipping a stupid, tiny piece of plastic on the side of your gun with your thumb reliably enough to save your own life?

   The answer is no, no matter how agile and quick you think you are. When your body is flooded with these chemicals, your vision blurs and narrows, your sense of touch dims, and your body trades finesse for raw power and endurance as you prepare to go Monke mode. Trying to include a safety lever somewhere in there is playing to your evolutionary weaknesses.

   

   If you don’t believe me, you can watch the footage of cops and concealed carry guys getting shot with their own guns because they either drew it on safe or carried without a round in the chamber. I did the latter when I first started carrying because I was scared of shooting myself in the balls. This is a valid fear. However, you have to get this through your head: your training and your holster are your safety! Outsourcing safeness to something or somebody else is always a bad idea, whether we are talking about guns or anything else. Control what you can control: train consistently and slowly, work up the courage to carry without a safety.

   If you’re not going to listen to this sage advice, there are two options. The first is to carry without a round in the chamber. Empty chamber carrying starts as being only “borderline liability” tier, and can be upgraded to “bad idea” tier with training practicing drawing and racking the slide. To make it more realistic, do a bunch of chin ups and sprints before trying. The second option is to purchase a pistol with a built-in “grip safety”, a mechanism only actuated when the grip is squeezed hard enough. My impression is that these are a little unreliable and are one more step between you and saving your own life. Its also just another point of failure. Imagine squeezing the daylights out of it while Muhammad advances with the sheep liver condom, only to realize that its gummed up with dirt or jammed. Also, you can never remove or change the grip safety so if you outgrow it, you’re stuck.

Please do not attempt to open carry even if its legal in your state.

Open carrying, in general, is pretty stupid unless you’re in deep forests or something. Maybe if you don’t have your concealed license yet and live in the hood it makes sense. To be honest, most people won’t notice anyway because people are generally quite unperceptive. Those that do will be wary of you at best, and afraid or hostile at worst. Do you really want to intimidate a bunch of randoms at the movie theater? Why?

In the event “shit pops off”, the baddies are going to be much more perceptive than the normies, and they’re going to shoot the vigilante clearly demonstrating the ability to shoot back before anyone else. Therefore, it only makes sense that you wear a plate carrier and helmet every day of your life. At that point, just go ahead and flashbang every room you enter before sweeping it.

Anecdote: I once saw a black guy open carrying a tan Glock 19x inside a Temu digital camo holster in the Walmart dairy section. This was was already cause for concern given he is surely lactose intolerant and belongs in the Swarthoid Almond milk department. He rested his hand on the grip like the sabers of old, and was clearly “cruisin for a bruisin”: aggressively making eye contact, menacing bystanders by asking if passersby (mother and kids trying to buy string cheese snacks) if they had a problem, and refusing to move out of the way for incoming carts. Idgaf if what he was doing was “legal” (it wasn’t btw, Walmart prohibits weapons on their property so he was technically trespassing with a firearm), it was gross and weird. He clearly had a couple screws loose.

Anecdote 2: I don’t know what it is with open carriers but they seem to love grocery stores. This time, I was at Aldi. This guy was open carrying an enormous stainless revolver with a MAGA hat on. I am probably mostly aligned with him politically, but he was no friend of mine in that Aldi. Something possessed me to comment on his sidearm, as it was quite a flashy piece. “Nice revolver man,” I opened. He smiled for a brief second before concentrating above my left thigh, where he was smart enough to detect the bulge coming out of my shirt that indicated I was carrying too. “Thanks,” he replied gruffly, “I carry it so people don’t FUCK with me”. Not trying to do anything like that, I muttered something under my breath about how they won’t make that mistake twice before slithering away meekly. I kinda got mogged, but that guy also seemed agitated and willing to escalate. The MAGA hat + revolver combo reeked of seeking confrontation, and I imagine he was hoping to instigate arguments with strangers so he might have an excuse to shoot them.

Overall, your plan needs to be to get away. Not to bravely volunteer to 1v1 across the mall food court with this week’s tranny, as noble as it might seem. The concealed carry gun is there to protect you and your loved ones when the situation calls for lethal force, not to trade blows with agitated strangers or deputize you as a vigilante offering “frontier justice”. Here is the police interrogation of a lawful concealed carry guy that KILLED someone (Last name McGlockton, lol) for parking in a handicap spot outside a gas station:

You might call my mentality cowardly, I guess, and maybe in the case of a mass shooting you should drop the bad guy if you’re able. I don’t know, I’ve never been in a situation like that and I pray I never am. My point is that the gun should not give you a false sense of confidence or authority. Your object is to survive, not pass initiation into the Wotan Mannerbund.

Set aside about $700. This will get you a quality pistol ($400-600), a couple extra magazines, some FMJ training ammo, and some HP carry rounds.

I’m only going to look at compact-sized, 1.5 or double stack polymer 9mms (or Wonder Nines!). That sounds extremely specific, but that is actually where the bulk of pistol sales occur today. If you want to buy a revolver or Desert Eagle, you’ll have to read a different Substack article.

Easy Button: Gen 4 Glock 19

Runner up: S&W MP Shield 1.0 or 2.0

Other Contenders: Sig P365 (be prepared to be called a Sigger for the rest of your life), Beretta CCW 9mm I can’t remember, FN 509

Autism Darkhorse (What I carry): CZ P-10C (Glock 19 clone that is more ergonomic and rugged)

Infinite Money wildcard: Walther PP/PPK, HK VP9, Custom Wilson Combat 1911

My liked and disliked brands actually align with this tier list:

I wouldn’t buy anything outside of S tier in this picture, there’s plenty of price points. My favorite brand (Reddit Moment!) is CZ, and I can think of about 5 models they make inside this price range that are g2g. Nobody needing a noob pistol guide should even look at the websites for HK, Wilson Combat, or even Walther. Beretta is fine, but I find them to be chunky and ugly, which is the complete opposite of most sleek Italian-made products.

You can rinse and repeat the advice in the AR-15 portion if you need to walk yourself through a pistol purchase. Once again, please follow all applicable laws.

Man, shotguns are awesome. Just take a second to appreciate what they offer. Unlike the identity-less and mercenary AR-15, the shotgun is the TRVE jack of all trades. Shotguns are really the most malleable canvas upon which to paint your gun autism masterpiece. Turn ah opp into a Jackson Pollock type shii.

They’re beloved in part because they’re so authentic. Genuine, even. They don’t hide their identity behind the dreaded gadget tsunami. You know what that thing is there to do.

I think shotguns are a great “third purchase” i