#the average civilian getting a gun here is extremely difficult

[bluesofasalamence]

It feels kinda annoying seeing posts about the NRA when they haven’t been politically relevant for the past 10 years, and even more annoying when liberals blame the NRA for not being able to pass gun control

like. the NRA has only 5 million members. Over 100 million people in the US have guns. They literally represent less than 5% of all gun owners, if they vanished or went bankrupt tomorrow liberals still wouldn’t be able to pass gun control because gun owners are one of the most politically active groups out there and they’re not interested on becoming felons overnight because of liberals passing ineffective laws that ban certain guns based on aesthetics and doubling the police budget instead of trying to help the average citizen so they don’t have to go to crime to make ends meet

This whole story of “Those things are hard to do, passing gun contrrol is much easier” sounds completely untrue every day that passes

[razieltwelve]

Final Earth Exports (Final Earth)

Final Earth is an AU in which Vanille accidentally opens a portal to an Earth very similar to ours by accident. The main differences is that nothing associated with the Final Rose universe (e.g., RWBY, Final Fantasy, etc.) exists there and they don’t have the same political leaders we do.

For the Children of Remnant, Earth is a veritable gold mine. There are huge quantities of resources (e.g., raw materials, food, etc.) and comparatively little danger. Obviously, Earth isn’t perfect, but we’re also not locked in existential battle against a bunch of monsters that spend all of their free time wondering how they can kill us all more efficiently. To get at those resources, what could Remnant export to Earth?

Let’s have a look at some possibilities.

Energy Simply put, Remnant is centuries ahead of Earth in power production. Final Earth is set when Fraise is in her twenties, so Remnant already has access to not only hyper-efficient fission reactors but also fusion reactors of all kinds. As in, they literally have portable fusion reactors and fusion reactors that can be scaled from small enough to fit into a closet to large enough to power entire continents. They’ve also got a functional orbital solar collection system/death ray.

Imagine you’re Australia (the portal opens up to the middle of the Australian desert). Now, one of the things people complain about the most is cost of living, and a big part of that is electricity. If Remnant were to build a power plant for Australia, they could massively reduce the cost of electricity. This would benefit not only regular people but also industry and commerce. Moreover, Australia’s political leaders would love it.

Want to get re-elected? Tell everybody the cost of electricity is going down by at least 75% and watch the votes just roll in, not to mention the reduction in the cost of goods and services. With drones to aid construction techniques, they could have a hyper-efficient fission reactor or a fusion reactor built in months, maybe less.

Medical Care One of the few upsides of waging existential war for centuries is advancements in medical technology. As long as you’re not dead, there’s very little that Remnant can’t fix. Earth humans are actually easier to fix since they don’t have complex Aura circulatory systems or anything like that.

Setting aside medical science, there are also a whole heap of Semblances like Fraise that would, by Earth standards, be considered miracles. 

Not only would exporting medical care be extremely profitable it would also be another fantastic means of securing political support. Again, any leader would leap at the chance to be able to tell their constituents that all those medical problems they have can now be dealt with. This might sound awful, but can you imagine what it would do for a leader’s polling numbers if they could point at Remnant and say to people: don’t worry, that terminal illness you’ve got, that paralysis you’ve got? No problems. They can fix it. Just vote for me, and I’ll get the deal done.

Reproductive Science The cost of fertility treatment is enormous and results are not guaranteed. That’s not an issue for Remnant. Give them two people, and they’ll have a baby ready to go before you know it. Like the other exports, this is another automatic win in the public relations department (you just know Jihl and Jahne are going to push this angle hard).

Transport Remnant has way more advanced transport like actual flying warships, transports, etc. I can think of plenty of world leaders who might want a stealth capable aircraft that can manoeuvre like a more agile helicopter but packs the speed of a fighter jet and the range of a commercial jetliner. 

Tourism Let’s be blunt. People like cute and awesome stuff. Remnant has plenty of both. I’m sure people would pay handsomely to get to ride a chocobo or to see some of the wildlife in Remnant. It’s like Jurassic park except instead of just giant reptiles, you can get giant tigers, giant rats, giant birds, giant... everything, basically.

Culture Earth loves heroes. We make sportspeople, celebrities, and so on into heroes and put them up on pedestals. How might Earth people react when they have a chance to see actual superheroes with actual superpowers in action? I have a sneaking suspicion that hunters will become super popular on Earth, and that tournament and hunting footage will make piles of money. And that’s not counting other aspects of Remnant’s culture and civilisation that might be popular. Yes, you know what I’m talking about. Remnant has actual cat girls. The internet would explode.

Weapons Yeah, Remnant kind of has the whole weapons thing down. Even if they don’t give out their most up to date weaponry, they’re still decades, maybe even further ahead of Earth. After all, this is a civilisation that has functional laser weapons, mechs, aerial warships, rail guns, plasma weapons, orbital death rays, etc.

Mercenaries There are plenty of battles being fought on Earth. Can you imagine what even a lower-level hunter would be able to do on the battlefield? Heck, imagine what the average student at Beacon would do to human opponents who don’t have Aura. It’d be like sending superheroes out to fight civilians.

Of course, you could also go a step further. Imagine someone like Snow being deployed onto a battlefield. That blue giant of his is capable of standing up to nukes and has attacks that are considered weapons of mass destruction. Imagine Lumina taking the field. Imagine Elsa.

Other Services This is a category that kind of lumps together all of the other stuff Remnant can do that Earth can’t. Take someone like Elsa. Do you have a weather problem? Is your country suffering from draught or about to be hit by blizzards/hurricanes? No problem. Pay the fee, get it fixed. Quick and easy. Guaranteed. Have a science issue? Vanille and her lab can get it handled. Want someone to interrogate your suspects? Pay the right price, and Jihl has you sorted.

Gary No world is safe.

X     X     X

Author’s Notes

Earth meeting Remnant would be fascinating. Of all the nations on Remnant, I think Atlas would be the most interested since they have the most difficult position in terms of territory and resources. It’s a good thing they’ve got Jihl to go snooping around for deals. It’s not like she won’t take shameless advantage of the situation...

If you’re interested in my thoughts on writing and other topics, you can find those here.

I also write original fiction, which you can find on Amazon here or on Audible here.

[howtohero]

Sound Based Enemies

You know who likes to make a huge ruckus? Supervillains. Seriously, for the most part superheroes don’t actually need any sort of alarm of warning system. When something supervillainy is going down you’re definitely going to hear it. Not just hear about it. You’re literally going to hear it. If they’re not standing atop a giant animal shaped mecha and ranting through a megaphone about the how unfair it was that they lost a childhood swimming competition to “That blasted buffoon Rodrick Rodigan” then they’re in the middle of the city square blowing up cars they “brought from home so it’s not technically a felony ha.” (You still need those alarms to alert you about like natural disasters and attacks from alternate dimensions I suppose.) Then there are some villains who have had the good sense to recognize that they’re really very loud and to weaponize that facet of their character. They use sound to commit their heinous crimes and to defeat the pesky superheroes who “deign to approach [their] superior visages.”

When you’re dealing with a supervillain who uses sound as a weapon it’s important to determine exactly how they’re using sound. Some villains for example can control others with their voices. In cases like that they don’t need to worry about the volume of their sound, just that they can make it. Even the faintest whisper can be enough to sway someone to their command. So when dealing with a villain like that you need to make sure there is absolutely no way that you can hear them. Ear plugs should generally do the trick. Like we said, these guys aren’t necessarily particularly loud so you don’t have to work too hard to protect your ears from them. But just because you had the good sense to protect yourself from the villains abilities doesn’t mean everyone else in the area did. Civilians are notoriously bad at taking the proper precautions for dealing with supervillains. It’s embarrassing really. Don’t you people watch the news? There are supervillains everywhere. New ones pop up literally all the time. I once even created a supervillain entirely by accident! (You guys remember Mustard Man? Were you around for that one? Basically I made fun of a man for his hotdog condiment choices and now he’s a supervillain.) Pack some earplugs before you go out. Don’t be a fool. 

When you’re dealing with villains who are a bit louder than your average persuasive speaker you need to take more intense precautions. For example, if your villain uses horrible screeching sounds to render people catatonic. Or if your villain has weaponized the disturbing powers of the brown note. In cases like those you need to make sure that there’s no way their sound attacks can effect you. Professionally speaking, I think that the best way to guarantee that is to just render yourself deaf. If you can’t hear you can fight these guys no problem. They’ve only got the one trick. They didn’t expect you to be immune to it. You’ve really ruined their entire day now. How you choose to make yourself deaf is up to you. It can be as simple as turning off your hearing aid or as complicated as journeying into the desert in search of a tiger shaped cave that holds within it a magic lamp which contains a genie who can magically remove your powers of hearing. Whether or not this process is permanent is up to you, but you never know when another sound based villain will pop up. So make sure you think everything through here.

Another thing you can do to stop a sound based villain is too silence them. Wow. Revolutionary. I guess you didn’t really have to deafen yourself after all. If your sound based supervillain happens to be one of the many sentient gun that shoots very loud blanks that we have running around and committing crimes (such as for example The Lone Gun or The Blanker) then silencing them is as simple as getting close enough to them to screw a silencer onto their barrel. If, for some reason, your sound based villain is not a sentient floating gun don’t fret! We can still get you through this. Try projecting some kind of cone of silence around the villain. Or a sphere perhaps. A quiet time bubble. Ooh that’s good. I have dibs on that name now! Throw a big ol’ Quiet Time Bubble® around those suckers. The Quiet Time Bubble will simply trap their evil sound waves inside with them so as soon as they try to use them they’ll just end up hurting themselves. Amazing! The Quiet Time Bubble® fights the bad guys so you don’t have to! Think of all the time you’ll save not having to physically go toe to toe with these robot/cassette players and living sound waves. Heck, you could write a book, see the world, start an entirely new society from the ground up where everybody gets their own cool personalized sweaters and money is illegal! Wow, these Quiet Time Bubbles® sound almost too good to be true. If you want in on this hot and spicy silencing action, call us now and tell us how to invent it!

Then there are villains who weaponize sound in a more aggressive way. Instead of using the sound to hurt people’s ears and brains they actually use sound to physically push people around. Which is just baffling. Why would you use sound for such things. You can push people with any number of tangible objects. Sticks, bulldozers, a cow. (Your arms!) Yet these noisy nuisances insist on cranking up the volume so loud that they’re knocking people off of their feet and hurling cars. Inconsiderate. And also, it makes it very difficult for people to get close to them. They’re always pushing people away. Which means they don’t have very many loved ones, which is sad. And it also means that it will be difficult for you to get close enough to them to beat them up. Even if you’ve got earplugs. Once again our solution lies in using the baddie’s own sound against them. 

Let’s talk a little bit about acoustics. Generally, sound bounces well off of smooth and hard surfaces while softer surfaces tend to absorb sound. So if you were planning on charging into battle wearing a suit made of pillows maybe wait a minute. (Why would that ever be the plan?) In order to defeat this bad guy they need to be overwhelmed by their own sound. Anything you try to throw at them will simply be reflected back at you. So lure the bad guy into an abandoned concrete building. Or drop one around them. Depending on what kind of resources you have. Villains are pretty easy to lure wherever you want, thanks to the fact that they’re always loudly declaring their motivations and ranting about what they want. Just put whatever that is inside the building you want them to go to. Next you need to goad them into using their powers inside. If they know anything about their powers (honestly it’s 50/50) it might be a bit more difficult to get this done. They might even figure out what your plan is and then you’re out of luck. They also might use them without thinking as soon as they see you. Really it can go either way. Some villains are really dumb. Most villains though, are extremely hotheaded to the point where a few well-place insults should trigger an explosive episode from them. For some good insulting techniques see our post on banter. Now, since you’re trying to get them to unleash their powers in a place where their powers will be reflected and bounced back every which way, you certainly don’t want to actually be in the room when that’s happening. So you need to either get a hologram projector, a good teleporter, or get tricky with mirrors to make it look like you’re there when you’re not! 

Sounds are all around us. I’m making sounds right now. If you hold up this post to your ear you may even be able to hear them! Let me know. Supervillains make more noise than anybody else and they’ve even learned to corrupt it, as they do with all things, to suit their own treacherous purposes. So you need to be prepared to fight those nefarious noisemakers and quiet them the heck down.

[gunnersalley]

Thinking You’re a Hero, The John Wayne Syndrome

Making the decision to intervene with deadly force, requires much consideration.   You’re a civilian concealed carrier, out and about on a typical day. You stop into the grocery store, turn to grab a box of Wheaties and hear screaming coming from the front of the store. Unsure of what is going on, but knowing you are armed, you now have to make a decision … investigate and possibly get involved, or avoid the area.  In this article, I am not talking about being personally attacked inside or outside of your home, or your family member being attacked. Of course you should defend yourself and your family against any attack with appropriate force. Instead, I want to address deciding to use force on a stranger’s behalf.  There are hundreds of considerations you should be processing before you decide to intervene with deadly force on another’s behalf. The type of crime being committed and the number of attackers are just two of these.  But…  there is one mindset that can cloud your decision-making process, and get you killed . I have seen it in the Marine Corps during firefights and as an LEO.  Thinking You’re Invincible:  Seeing well-trained people do things contrary to common and tactical sense is not uncommon. In the Marine Corps, we said the guy had the ‘John Wayne Syndrome.’ The ‘John Wayne Syndrome’ or the ‘Hero Complex’ is something that affects the person’s ability to properly calculate the risks and develop the proper response. This comes from a belief that the individual is invincible or bulletproof.  The exaggerated belief in one’s abilities is a double edged sword. Controlled, this mindset allows us to persevere and succeed when our mind is telling us we can not. Uncontrolled, or used misguidedly, it can get us involved in situations where we are ill-prepared and ineffective against the threat. This is the situation we need to watch for.    Don’t be a victim of the ‘John Wayne Syndrome’   Should You Get Involved?  This question is common in my Concealed Carry Class. There are legal issues dictating when you should use deadly force to intervene on someone else’s behalf. Generally speaking, a civilian incurs an incredible amount of liability when they intervein on someone else’s behalf. In some states, the person may face both civil and criminal charges if he/she mistakenly uses force against the wrong person. For this and many other obvious reasons, the legal implications should be one of the first things you should understand before carrying a firearm.   Legal issues aside , the question of  should  you get involved is extremely difficult to answer, and an individual decision based on countless factors.  I recommend you play ‘what if’ scenario games. Wherever you are, think about what your response would be ‘if this happened.’ For example, while in line at the bank (if people still go into the bank) think about what you would do if someone came in with a gun through that door, or the other door. What about your response if there were two bad guys etc.  Watch videos of shootings or assaults. Study how the person responded and what they did well, or what they could have done better. Study how bad guys react to certain actions. A quick internet search of something like ‘concealed carrier shoots bad guy’ will return a plethora of pertinent videos. We can sometimes learn more from seeing poor decisions because the tragic results of those fatal flaws burn into our minds.    Sometimes what we think we can do, and what we can actually do are entirely different.   Know Your Role:  I know many of the readers have a desire to protect and help others, and this is a noble trait. But if you’re are not a Law Enforcement Officer, don’t act as one. As a civilian, you are not protected criminally or civilly like an LEO.  Don’t get me wrong, you may be a high-volume shooter who possesses fighting and gun skills the average police officer doesn’t. But knowing your role doesn’t have anything to do with your skill set.  Your role as a civilian is to protect yourself and family FIRST, then, if appropriate and necessary help others. As a civilian, you may feel a moral obligation to help, but it’s not your job and you have to differentiate between the two.  A police officer’s job is difficult, dangerous and thankless. But they are the ones who protect the public and keep the peace. They possess other, less-lethal force options may be more appropriate in a given scenario. They also wear body armor and can radio other officers for assistance. Also, think about trying to detain someone if you don’t carry cuffs.  Know Thy Self:  Be honest and know your abilities and limitations. If you haven’t found your effective distance on the range, you should. Get an idea of the zone where you are a ‘can’t miss’ guaranteed hit, and where you have to get on the sights a little harder. This will help you determine realistic response to threats.  Know your level of physical fitness or hand to hand fighting skills, as well as physical limitations. Understand what you can and can’t do, if the situation involves intervening without using a firearm.  Also know what you feel is worth risking your life for. Some of us posses the ability or nobility to risk our own lives on behalf of others. Some of us either lack this noble trait or just may feel that the need to continue to live as a dad or mom outweighs the potential good that can come from risking one’s life on behalf of a stranger.    If you are a parent there are few things more important than staying alive for your children’s sake.   Know Your Gear:  Every tool you carry has a specific purpose and may be more appropriate in a given situation. Sometimes the response may call for a gun sometimes not. Sometimes a knife,  hand strikes or a blunt object may be the ‘proper tool .’ Remember every tool has its limitations, respond accordingly with the tools at your disposal.  Handguns are great but they are not a magic wand. Part of knowing your gear involves trusting that it will work. So maintain your firearm, knife, holster etc. You must be able to trust that when you present your firearm and pull the trigger you are sending bullets into the bad guy, not hearing…CLICK.  And while we are on  knowing your gear , you must know the condition of your firearm. By condition, I mean if it has a round in the chamber or not, and if the gun is on safe or not. This is not the article to discuss if you should or should not  carry with a round in the chamber , or if you  need a safety on your EDC . Whatever you choose to do, know the condition of your firearm so you don’t screw it up.  Do You Really Know the Whole Story:  Before jumping into a situation where you don’t know who the players are, pause and reflect. Do you REALLY know what’s going on? For example, you exit a 7-11 at night, turn the corner and walk to your car. As you reach a poorly illuminated area of the parking lot, you see two men. One is kneeling and the other has a firearm drawn and pointed at the other guy. Both men are in plain clothes, and you hear ‘don’t move or I’ll shoot you!’  Is the guy kneeling on the ground being robbed by the guy with the gun? Could it be a narcotics detective in plain clothes (and we all know these dudes usually look grimier than the guys they arrest) effecting an arrest and you can’t see his exposed badge?  Point is, we can come up with a lot of scenarios where things are not always as they seem. This is why intervening on someone else’s behalf, is so risky.    It isn’t always easy to identify who are the good and bad guys in the situation   Think About Tactics:  You can avoid getting involved in situations where you are ill-equipped if you think about tactical considerations, for example:  Intervening in a bank robbery where there are multiple suspects with rifles, while only having a 5 shot revolver is probably not the wisest thing to do, tactically speaking. This incident may devolve into one where engaging is your ONLY option, but it certainly is not preferable.  Getting involved in a situation when you have your toddler with you, will place you at a severe tactical disadvantage. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t, it just means it is something that you HAVE to take into consideration when formulating your plan and decision to intervene.  While this point could really be found in any of the above sections, I am going to put it right in here. Remember, you are in plain clothes. The opportunity to be  mistaken as a bad guy , not just by responding law enforcement, but an over anxious fellow concealed carrier is there.  Be a Good Witness:  Sometimes intervening, while legally and morally justifiable, is not the best solution. After weighing all the facts, you may determine the risks just don’t outweigh the reward. In these situations, gathering as much information as you can, statements, descriptions, the direction of travel, vehicles people involved etc. can help in catching the bad guys.  AGAIN, I am not talking about hiding in the back snapping photos with your cell phone during an active shooter. But I think you get the point.    Not getting involved does not always mean you are a coward. Sometimes not getting involved and just being a good witness for Law Enforcement is the better thing to do.   You Expect me to Take All This Into Consideration Before I Act?  Yes, absolutely! I know it’s a lot to contemplate, so don’t try to do it all in 0.005 of a second. Think about scenarios, train for the known and possible contingencies,  c ome up with a plan on how to secure your family, know your gear and your limitations ,  and know the law   before hand .   So when the time comes, you can focus on the specifics of the incident, and make a decision.  Last but Not Least:  Make a decision and live with it. This doesn’t mean make a bad decision and justify it. Sometimes indecisiveness is worse than making a bad decision. After weighing all the options you may only have two courses of action. Bad course number one, or bad course number two.  Think back to that active shooter. You may be out gunned and out manned. If it were just a robbery, you may choose not to intervene. But this is an active shooter incident, people are dying by the second. Each second spent weighing odds, another person dies. Do you intervene with the odds stacked against you? And if so when? Make a decision and live with the results.  It is natural to second guess your decisions in retrospect. But do your best and live with your decision to, or not to get involved. Don’t ever feel like a coward for not getting involved, or a hero just because you did get involved.  Thinking that you are a hero is one mindset we want to avoid.  Check out this list of 55 other concealed carry mistakes, and how to avoid them .  As always stay safe and God bless.

https://www.concealedcarry.com/training-2/thinking-youre-a-hero-the-john-wayne-syndrome/

[gunnersalley]

Teaching Fundamentals and Safety With the UMAREX NXG APX Air Rifle

Firearm safety should be paramount in any responsible gun owner’s mind. Ingraining safe gun handling habits, as well as proper shooting fundamentals in children, is something that every parent (gun owner or not) has probably thought about. So it should not surprise you that the writers of Concealed Carry inc. have covered this topic several times in various articles.  If you have wondered how to go about teaching your children, or when the right time to teach them about firearms should be, you are not alone. As the father of a 4 and a half-year-old daughter I put great emphasis on this important topic; so much so that I personally addressed it a couple different times:     The One Article That May Save Your Child’s Life        When To Talk To Your Kids About Firearm Safety     And Joshua recently covered the topic in:     Here’s A Novel Idea, Teach Your Kids About Guns       Umarex NGX APX Air Rifle   You may be asking, what does any of this have to do with a review of an air rifle? In my opinion, air rifles are the perfect tool to use when introducing a child to guns, and after reading the articles I mentioned above, you will see why I feel this way. With safety and training children in mind, I looked at a specific air rifle from UMAREX, to see if it qualified as a great training tool for teaching fundamentals and safety.  I have to admit, I have had a blind spot in a particular segment of the shooting sports community: air guns. Fortunately, I had the chance to get my hands on a brand new air rifle from a company that is well known in the pellet gun market. Many folks don’t know this, but this company, Umarex, is the parent company of Walther Arms. In other words, this is not a company manufacturing cheap, plastic air guns to be used as toys, but rather producing quality air-powered pellet guns and accessories for serious air gun users.  Why use an air gun instead of a real gun?  I am glad you asked.  Air guns have some clear advantages over traditional firearms for some applications. The one I find most intriguing is the benefit while training youth shooters. Because they don’t use live cartridges, there is no loud explosion that can scare youngsters. The loud noise and resulting startle reflex can make it difficult for the new shooter to learn fundamentals because they are more focused on the anticipation of noise. Air guns are also lighter, a huge bonus for youngsters who would have trouble handling a traditional firearm.  Venue of training can be an issue, but not so with air rifles. As long as you have adequate room and a safe backdrop, you can shoot your pellet gun pretty much anywhere, even indoors. This can make practicing much more convenient and comfortable. All the usual firearm safety rules should be followed while handling any type of gun, especially when you consider that an air rifle is definitely not a toy. I set up my ‘range’ in my basement.  I had roughly 60 feet or so of clear space that I used for my basement air rifle range. I had a few heavy wool blankets, that I folded and placed into a medium sized, cardboard moving box. I placed the paper target on the box so that when the bb went through the target and cardboard, it would be trapped in the thick wool blankets. This worked awesome at collecting the bbs, so they weren’t bouncing back toward the shooter or sucked up later in my vacuum.  An obvious factor that is worth mentioning is that air guns are generally  less lethal  than your traditional firearm, so an ‘accident’ may not result in a fatality. I use the term “less lethal” because, under the right circumstances, even a pellet gun could result in a lethal injury. So remember, using air rifles in training won’t remove the duty to adhere to firearm safety rules, but the fact that they are not as deadly isn’t a bad thing.    The APX air rifle is a great training rifle   Why use an Air Rifle Instead of a Pistol to Train a new Shooter?  For the most part, rifles are easier to learn the fundamentals on than a pistol. If you want to lay a good foundation of fundamentals down for that future concealed carrier, it can help tremendously to start them out on a rifle. The rifle can be shot from more supported positions, sight alignment and sight picture are easier to understand and apply with a rifle, as well as the trigger weight on air rifles is usually lighter than what is found on most pistols.  I also find it easier to ingrain muzzle discipline in a new shooter who is using a rifle rather than a pistol. Umarex makes many types of air guns, however, for the reasons I mentioned, I find the rifle the preferred introductory training firearm.  Why is the NXG APX Air Rifle a great youth training rifle?  First and foremost the NGX APX was  purposely  designed as a youth training rifle. It is a multi-pump pneumatic pellet gun. It is designed to be extremely lightweight, and having a thinner stock and grip for smaller hands, arms and build. However, I have to state that it does not feel like a small, toy gun. I am 5′6″ so definitely not a huge guy, but it feels just fine in my arms. So while it is designed for youth, someone of ‘average’ stature will not feel uncomfortable using it as well.      The NGX APX has clear sights that make it easier to teach proper fundamentals. It comes with a clear fiber optic front sight and fully adjustable rear sight. Additionally, it ships with a 4×15 scope that mounts to an accessory rail. Obviously, this isn’t a high precision air rifle scope but is a great introductory piece that is great for learning.  The NGX APX is designed with a self-engaging automatic safety. This feature is unique to this air rifle. What I like about this, is that while we train fundamentals, we are also establishing and ingraining the safety fundamentals.  Even though real guns don’t have self-activating safeties, and there may be an argument that training with a gun that automatically engages the safety is not building the right mindset; when training new shooters (especially children) accidents can happen. If we can use a firearm that has this self-engaging safety to train children, and reduce the possibility of an ‘accident’ happening, all the better in my opinion.  It is further my opinion that this Umarex air rifle is one of the best pellet guns for youth training on the market, right now.    Self Engaging Manual Safety   What are the specifications of this Umarex bb gun?  As mentioned above, the NGX APX is a multi-pump pneumatic air gun. It has a rifled barrel and can shoot .177 (4.5mm) pellets or bbs. If shooting alloy pellets, the velocity rating is 800 feet per second. To put this into perspective, when shooting a pellet at 800fps I found it easily penetrated drywall and traveled about 1 inch into a piece of scrap 2′x4′.  UMAREX states the danger distance for this pellet gun at 525 yards! So again, this is not a toy. The trigger pull weight is 3.5 lbs and the rifle’s overall weight is 3.4lbs. Moreover, its overall length is 39″ with a barrel length of 20.” The length and weight are just perfect for youth shooters.  Impressions:  When I shot the rifle I was seriously impressed with how easy it was to load and pump. If you’re training a child, you don’t want an overly complicated piece of equipment and don’t want it to be overly difficult to pump. I was also impressed with its ergonomics. It had a nice butt stock and the stock iron sight as well as the scope were surprisingly solid. Once I zeroed it, the rifle held a nice group (about the size of a half dollar) at about 50 feet. I think this is more than adequate for an air rifle like this.  But enough about me, I wanted to see how this Umarex bb gun performs under actual instructional use. So I enlisted the help of a 13-year-old family member who had no prior gun experience. After about 30 minutes of instruction covering the parts of the rifle, how it functioned and a safety brief with the rifle, I let him get acquainted with the rifle. After shouldering it and advising on how to hold it, he got into a good prone position.  He cranked off some ‘rounds’ and immediately had a smile on his face.  I asked him if it beats playing video games.  The response …”Oh Yeah!”  After about 45 minutes, I had to coax the gun away from him, because he was having so much fun.    The NGX is surprisingly accurate using both bbs and pellets.   I have been teaching marksmanship to Marines, Law Enforcement Officers, and civilians for years, but never before did I have the opportunity to teach a 13-year-old how to shoot a rifle. While there are similarities, teaching a child comes with an added level of responsibility and attention to detail. I feel that using pellet guns to teach basic fundamentals is great, and the process of teaching proper firearms safety to a child is especially rewarding.  Final Note:  I have to mention that while I tested the NGX APX as a kit, the gun can also be purchased individually. If you are purchasing your first air gun, and don’t already have pellets, bb’s and eye protection, I would recommend the kit. The value is great and for someone wanting to learn how to shoot, it would make an unbelievable gift.  At $75.00 on the  UMAREX web page , it is definitely one of the best pellet guns out there, and totally worth the price in my opinion.  How were you first introduced to the shooting sports? Was safety the first thing you learned? Is firearms safety top on your list as well?  While we are on the topic of safety,  Our team has researched 300 news stories involving firearms accidents, and present our findings to you in this comprehensive article . Every gun owner should check it out!

https://www.concealedcarry.com/safety/teaching-fundamentals-and-safety-with-the-umarex-nxg-apx-air-rifle/