We Like Shooting - Ep 665
This episode of We Like Shooting is brought to you by:
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C&G Holsters (Code: WLSISLIFE)
Midwest Industries (Code: WLSISLIFE)
Blue Alpha
Bowers Group (Code: WLS)
Otis Technology (Code: WELIKESHOOTING15)
Second Call Defense
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Public
Show Titles
GOA GOALS Aug 1-2 in Iowa. https://goals.goa.org/
GunCon.net Tickets on sale now. Use code AGENCY171
GEAR CHAT
(Nick)
Nick's Dumb 6.5 Creedmoor
Nick’s Dumb 6.5 Creedmoor
DERYA RELEASES THE RAN AND RAN
Derya RAN and RAN-X Series Lever-Action Rifles
Derya announced the official launch of its RAN and RAN-X lever-action series, featuring modernized designs with factory-integrated aftermarket upgrades including threaded barrels, M-LOK forends, and adjustable stocks. Available in .357 Magnum, .44 Magnum, and .45 Long Colt, the series will be showcased at GunCon 2026.
Derya has launched the RAN full-size and RAN-X compact pistol lever-action series in .357 Magnum, .44 Magnum, and .45 Long Colt. The rifles feature a mono-block steel receiver, threaded suppressor-ready barrel, M-LOK compatible forend with Picatinny rail, fixed front and adjustable rear sights with optics rail, and rebounding hammer. The RAN offers wood or patented adjustable aluminum Ironwolf stock options while the RAN-X uses a 12″ barrel with Steelfang PSB Ironwolf grip system at 22.95″ overall length.
BULLET POINTS
SOLDIERSYSTEMS
Roni Nano Roni Pistol-to-Carbine Conversion Kit
Houston, TX – Roni Corporaton, the leading designer and manufacturer of the renown Micro-Roni, PDW-style pistol-to-carbine conversion kits and other fi …
The Nano Roni is Roni’s most compact pistol-to-carbine conversion kit that installs a handgun into a chassis in seconds without tools, transforming it into a pistol-braced PDW. It includes a complete system with chassis plus accessories such as magazine holders, light mounts, Picatinny rails, charging handles, optics mounts, slings, and a belt holster. Initial compatibility covers multiple Glock models with additional Glock, SIG Sauer, Taurus, and Canik models planned; available in black, OD Green, and Flat Dark Earth.
THE TRUTH ABOUT GUNS
Can You Shoot 5.56 Through a .22 Suppressor? – The Truth About Guns
Can you shoot 5.56 through a .22 suppressor? Usually no. Here's why pressure, heat, and gas volume matter so much.
The article addresses whether .556/.223 ammunition can be safely fired through a standard .22LR (rimfire) suppressor. In the general case, it is not safe or recommended. Most dedicated rimfire suppressors are engineered only for the much lower pressures, smaller gas volumes, and reduced heat produced by .22LR, .22WMR, or similar rimfire cartridges.
NSSF
NSSF Releases Most Recent Firearm Production Figures (ATF AFMER 2023)
Over 32 million Modern Sporting Rifles in Circulation WASHINGTON, D.C. — NSSF®, The Firearm Industry Trade Association, released the Firearm Production in the United States including the Firearm Import and Export Data 2025 Edition (reporting 2023 data) to its members. The report compiles the most up-to-date information based on data sourced from the Bureau of Alcohol, […]
According to the NSSF article dated January 15, 2026, ATF AFMER data shows 2023 U.S. domestic firearm production at 8,466,729 units, a 15.4% decrease from 2022. Total firearms made available for the U.S. market in 2023 were 13,574,653 (handguns 8,176,535; rifles 3,899,907; shotguns 1,498,211). Cumulative civilian firearms in possession 1990–2023 reached 506.1 million, with modern sporting rifles (MSRs) in circulation estimated at over 32 million.
GUN FIGHTS
Play the best Price Is Right-style GunBroker game on the internet.
BANGRANK
A live cast ranking segment for anything and everything in the gun world, powered by questionable certainty, strong opinions, and audience voting.
THE AGENCY BRIEF
Agency Update
1. AGENCY BRIEF: RUBY RIDGEWhat Ruby Ridge really was: a federal pressure campaign over a minor, technical gun charge that turned into a botched siege, unconstitutional rules of engagement, and the killing of a mother and her child.
The setup started in 1989. The ATF wanted an informant inside Aryan Nations circles in northern Idaho. They targeted Randy Weaver, an Army veteran living off-grid with his family. Weaver had racist beliefs and associations, but constitutional limits matter most when the person in the government’s sights is unpopular.
The ATF used an informant to cultivate Weaver and buy two shotguns. The agency claimed the barrels were cut a fraction of an inch below the 18-inch legal minimum. Whether Weaver cut them at the informant’s request or sold them as-is is heavily disputed. What is confirmed is what happened next: the ATF did not arrest him to protect the public. They used the federal firearms charge as leverage to pressure Weaver into becoming a paid snitch. Weaver refused.
Because he refused, the ATF pushed the case to prosecutors, and Weaver was indicted in late 1990.
Then came the bureaucratic failure. Weaver’s court-appointed attorney was sent a notice with the wrong appearance date, and Weaver missed his hearing. Instead of resolving a government paperwork error cleanly, the system escalated. The U.S. Marshals launched an 18-month surveillance operation on his remote cabin.
In August 1992, an armed reconnaissance team of Marshals encountered Weaver’s 14-year-old son Sammy and family friend Kevin Harris in the woods. A firefight erupted. Exactly who fired first remains disputed, but the results are not: the family dog was killed, Sammy Weaver was shot and killed while running back toward the cabin, and Deputy U.S. Marshal William Degan was killed.
The FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team was called in to take over. Instead of containment, the FBI adopted modified, unconstitutional rules of engagement. In plain English, agents were told they “could and should” shoot any armed adult male seen outside the cabin.
FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi fired two shots. The first wounded Randy Weaver. The second shot, fired as Weaver and Harris retreated, passed through the cabin door and hit Vicki Weaver in the head while she stood in the doorway holding her 10-month-old infant. She died instantly.
The legal aftermath demolished the government’s narrative:
A federal jury acquitted Kevin Harris of murder on self-defense grounds.
Randy Weaver was acquitted of all original firearms and murder charges, convicted only of failure to appear and a bail condition violation.
A 1995 Department of Justice review found the FBI’s modified rules of engagement unconstitutional.
The federal government paid over $3 million in civil settlements to the surviving family.
Despite Senate hearings and state-level indictments, no federal agent ever served a day in prison for the killings.
2. WHY IT MATTERS
Ruby Ridge is the ultimate case study in how federal agencies use technical firearms violations to manufacture leverage, and what happens when their targets refuse to bend.
This operation was never about public safety. It was about coercion. When Weaver wouldn’t play ball, the agency’s objective shifted from investigation to punishment, kicking off a predictable escalation ladder:
Use a regulatory charge as a trap.
Demand intelligence cooperation, and turn refusal into a target on the citizen’s back.
Treat a procedural court-date mistake as a fugitive manhunt.
Deploy paramilitary recon teams for a paperwork warrant.
Rewrite deadly force rules on the fly to authorize a shoot-on-sight posture.
Once federal agencies invest that much time, manpower, and ego, the institutional pressure to justify the operation takes over. They stop seeing citizens with rights, and start treating them as enemy combatants on American soil.
3. THE 2A ANGLE
For gun owners, Ruby Ridge is the blood-soaked warning label on every “it’s just a paperwork violation” argument.
The underlying charge was a National Firearms Act measurement. That is the exact kind of regulatory trap Washington loves to describe as narrow, reasonable, and harmless. But in practice, technical gun laws give agencies the legal cover to ruin lives. That is the modern lesson for FFLs navigating zero-tolerance revocations, home builders facing shifting administrative definitions, and ordinary owners one bad pistol-brace ruling away from becoming a federal case file.
Apply the Supreme Court’s Bruen standard to the government’s actions. There is zero text, history, or tradition from the founding era of a permanent federal bureaucracy measuring the barrels of defensive weapons to coerce citizens into acting as informants, and then militarizing a warrant service when the citizen refuses. The Founders would not recognize a system that turns a man into a felon over a quarter-inch of steel.
Heller proved that the Second Amendment protects an individual right. But rights on paper mean nothing if the enforcement state can use a minor regulatory allegation to justify surveillance, coercion, and deadly force.
The strongest takeaway from Ruby Ridge is that when the federal government wields broad, discretionary power over firearms, abuse is not a glitch. It is the natural result. When agencies can turn a fractional barrel measurement into a capital siege, the process itself becomes the punishment. Being technically compliant doesn’t protect you; it just makes you useful until you aren’t anymore.
GOING BALLISTIC
AMMOLAND SHOOTING SPORTS NEWS(Savage)
NRA, FPC, SAF v. Maryland (SB 334 Glock-Style Handgun Ban)
NRA, FPC, and SAF filed a federal lawsuit challenging Maryland’s SB 334, arguing the state’s Glock-style handgun ban violates the Second Amendment.
The National Rifle Association, Firearms Policy Coalition,...
