Need Assistance?: Call (817) 393-4000
Account   |   Login

YOUR CART
0 items - $0.00
 

Western Sport

Premium firearms, optics, and tactical gear for professionals and enthusiasts.

 

Posts by Lance Rankin

SCOTUS is about to decide if states can ban your AR-15

Posted on:

I’m Lance Rankin, and the AR-15 is literally my trade. I’ve built, repaired, and customized them at Western Sport in Roanoke, Texas for years, so when the Supreme Court agreed to hear challenges to state semi-automatic rifle bans, that got my full attention. This AR-15 Supreme Court case is the biggest Second Amendment fight in a generation, and as of this writing it hasn’t been decided, so here’s what’s at stake and what I’m watching for.

The question in this AR-15 Supreme Court case

Can a state ban the most popular rifle in America? Connecticut, Illinois, California, and a handful of other states have done exactly that for years, and the Supreme Court kept declining to weigh in. That silence let a patchwork of bans harden into place, where the same rifle I sell over the counter every week in Texas makes you a felon a few state lines away. By taking these cases, the Court is finally going to answer whether that squares with the Constitution.

The legal core is the “common use” standard from Heller. There are tens of millions of these rifles in American hands, used overwhelmingly for lawful purposes: sport, hunting, and home defense. If that’s not common use, the phrase means nothing. The states argue the rifles are unusually dangerous and outside the Second Amendment’s protection. One of those arguments is about to lose.

Why I’m hopeful and cautious at the same time

Hopeful, because under the Bruen framework the government has to justify a ban through historical tradition, and a tradition of banning commonly owned rifles is a hard thing to find. Cautious, because we’ve watched what happens after big wins. Bruen affirmed the right to carry in public, and several states responded by declaring nearly every public place a sensitive zone. The ruling stood on paper while the right got squeezed in practice.

If the Court strikes down rifle bans, expect the same playbook: bans reborn under new definitions, feature tests rewritten, compliance slow-walked, and years of follow-up litigation. A win here gives gun owners the legal leverage to fight those games. It doesn’t end them.

The risk nobody should ignore

It cuts the other way too. If the Court upholds these bans, that blesses the existing laws and hands a green light to states that have been hesitating. The stakes are genuinely national, which is why both sides poured everything into this one.

What I’d do between now and the ruling

First, check the current status of the AR-15 Supreme Court case before making decisions based on any article, including this one; I covered how we got here in why yesterday was just the beginning. Second, if you live in a free state and you’ve been putting off that rifle, quit stalling. Start with my beginner’s AR-15 guide, or if you like doing things the satisfying way, build one yourself. Third, if you already own one, set it up properly and train with it; my home defense AR setup covers the essentials.

I’ll break down the AR-15 Supreme Court case ruling when it lands. In the meantime, we’re an authorized Daniel Defense dealer with in-house gunsmithing here in Roanoke, and AR questions are my favorite kind: [email protected] or 817-393-4000.

FacebookTwitterLinkedInEmailPinterest

Why yesterday was just the beginning for Second Amendment rights

Posted on:

Lance Rankin here, gunsmith and FFL at Western Sport in Roanoke, Texas. Let me tell you what “yesterday” means in that headline, because it deserves to be spelled out: the Supreme Court agreed to hear challenges to state bans on semi-automatic rifles. After years of the Court sidestepping the question, the AR-15 issue is finally on the docket. That’s the news, that’s real progress for Second Amendment rights, and the video below digs into it.

What the Court actually did

Several challenges to state rifle bans were sitting in the pipeline. Rather than take them all, the Court selected specific cases to hear while leaving others pending, which is how it usually builds precedent: decide the lead case cleanly, then let the rest fall in line behind it. Oral arguments are expected in the fall term. As of this writing, no ruling exists yet, so treat everything from here as a preview, not a result. I wrote a fuller breakdown of the stakes in SCOTUS is about to decide if states can ban your AR-15.

Why I’m calling this Second Amendment rights progress a beginning, not a victory

Because the gun community has a habit of only counting losses, it’s worth pausing on how much has actually moved in a few years. The Rahimi decision, whatever you think of its outcome, left the Bruen text-and-history framework standing, and that framework is the whole reason rifle bans are now vulnerable. The Department of Justice has started treating Second Amendment cases as civil rights cases, including suing California over its handgun roster. And constitutional carry has spread to more than half the states, Texas among them; the doom predicted by critics keeps failing to show up in the places that adopted it.

None of that happened by accident. This progress on Second Amendment rights is the result of years of litigation, funded largely by ordinary gun owners’ memberships and donations. Yesterday’s cert grant is that machine working.

The clear-eyed part

I run a gun shop, not a pep rally, so here’s the honest caveat. A cert grant is not a win. The Court could rule narrowly, or badly. And even a strong ruling gets met with the post-Bruen playbook: restrictive states rewrite the same ban under a new name and dare plaintiffs to spend five more years in court. Progress on Second Amendment rights is real, and so is the resistance to it. Both things are true.

What to do while we wait

Stay informed and check the current status of these cases rather than trusting a months-old blog post, including this one. Support the legal organizations doing the actual work. And exercise the rights you have. Here in Texas that’s easy; if you’re new, start with how to buy a gun in Texas, and if you carry, know your state’s rules cold.

I’ll post again when arguments happen and when the ruling drops. Until then, the shop’s open, and I’m at [email protected] or 817-393-4000 if you’ve got questions.

FacebookTwitterLinkedInEmailPinterest

Someone built the Half-Life MP5 with the M203, and you can own one

Posted on:

Lance here from Western Sport. Every so often a project comes across my feed that makes the gunsmith in me and the guy who wasted a whole 1999 playing Half-Life equally happy. This is one of them: a purpose-built MP5 grenade launcher rail called the Freeman Rail (yes, named for Gordon) that lets you hang a real 37mm or 40mm launcher under an MP5, recreating the game’s iconic “bulldog nose” setup. To be clear, this isn’t my build. The video below is from the folks who designed it, and it’s worth watching in full.

Why an MP5 grenade launcher rail has to be purpose-built

People have bolted launchers under MP5s before, and the results were usually wobbly. A loaded launcher is a lot of mass to hang off a thin handguard, and most mounting solutions flexed or shifted under it. The Freeman Rail runs full-length support and locks up against the receiver, so recoil forces transfer into the frame instead of levering against a plastic forend. The launcher sits as part of the gun rather than dangling off it. There are M-LOK slots along the way for lights and lasers, because of course there are.

As a gunsmith, that’s the detail I respect. It would’ve been easy to make something that photographs well and shakes loose after two range trips. This was designed like a tool.

The surprising part: it handles better

Here’s what the video demonstrates that surprised people: the launcher isn’t just cosplay weight. An MP5 barely recoils to begin with, and adding that much mass forward flattens it out even more. Muzzle rise practically disappears during rapid fire. Heavy guns are easy guns to shoot; it’s the oldest trade-off in the business.

Fitment across MP5 clones

One smart design choice worth calling out: MP5-pattern guns are not all built to the same spec. Genuine H&K, PTR, Zenith, and the various clones all differ slightly, so this MP5 grenade launcher rail uses slightly ovaled mounting holes to accommodate the spread and still clamp up solid. The designers are upfront that a properly torqued install may mar your finish. Good. That’s the honest answer, and if a rub mark bothers you, this probably isn’t your project anyway. (For what it’s worth, we do Cerakote in-house if you ever want to make a working gun pretty again.)

The legal part, from a guy with an SOT

Now the part I’m actually qualified to lecture on. A 40mm launcher like a real M203 is a destructive device under the NFA, and each round of 40mm anti-personnel ammunition is its own destructive device on top of that. It’s ownable in many states through the proper registration and tax stamp process, and as a Type 07/SOT dealer we can walk you through that world, but do not order one on a whim. Know your state law and talk to someone who handles NFA items for a living first.

The 37mm route is the practical one for most people. It gives you the same profile and the same grin, launches flares and similar payloads, and avoids the destructive device paperwork in most places as long as you stick to legal payloads. Same look, fraction of the legal homework.

My take

I love projects like this. An MP5 grenade launcher rail straight out of a video game pulls people into the hobby through the door they actually care about, and the engineering underneath is legitimately sound. If you’re MP5-curious or want to talk through the NFA side of a build like this, that’s a conversation I enjoy: [email protected] or 817-393-4000. And if you’re more of an AR guy, my AR-15 build guide will scratch the same itch with less paperwork.

FacebookTwitterLinkedInEmailPinterest

California’s Glock ban is under fire as the DOJ files a federal lawsuit

Posted on:

Lance Rankin here, FFL and gunsmith at Western Sport in Roanoke, Texas. Something unusual is happening in California: the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a federal lawsuit against the state over its so-called Glock ban and its handgun roster. The federal government suing a state over gun control, arguing the state is violating its citizens’ Second Amendment rights, is not a sentence I expected to type. Here’s what’s going on, as of this writing.

What California actually restricts

California doesn’t just run background checks. It maintains a roster of “approved” handguns, and a pistol can’t be sold new in the state unless it’s on the list. Getting on the list means meeting a stack of requirements: loaded chamber indicators, magazine disconnects, and microstamping, a technology that has been more theory than product. The practical effect is that new handgun models almost never get approved, so Californians shop from a menu frozen years in the past.

The newer “Glock ban” went further, targeting semi-automatic pistols based on technical specs of the trigger mechanism. The result pulled some of the most popular handguns in America off California shelves. When I say popular, I mean it: the Glock 19 and 17 are probably the two most common defensive pistols in the country. I sell them week in, week out.

Inside the DOJ lawsuit against California’s Glock ban

The lawsuit leans on District of Columbia v. Heller, which held that the Second Amendment protects the right of law-abiding citizens to keep arms for self-defense, and specifically recognized handguns as the class of firearm Americans overwhelmingly choose for that purpose. The DOJ’s position is blunt: a state can’t use a regulatory maze to accomplish what an outright ban couldn’t. If the most commonly owned pistols in the nation can’t legally be sold to you, your right to acquire protected arms is being denied by paperwork instead of statute, and the outcome is the same.

Notably, the DOJ is framing California’s approach as a potential pattern of civil rights violations, not a one-off dispute over one model. That’s an escalation, and it signals the federal government intends to treat gun rights the way it treats other enumerated rights.

Why it matters outside California

California’s gun laws travel. Other states copy the roster concept and the feature mandates, so a DOJ lawsuit win against the Glock ban would echo well beyond the state line. The core question is one every gun owner should care about: can a state make it functionally impossible to buy commonly used firearms, so long as it never says the word “ban”? Courts answering no would change the playbook in a half-dozen states.

My take from behind the counter

Here in Texas I can sell a customer the current generation of any pistol they want, and the process is still thoroughly regulated: 4473, NICS check, the works. I explain the whole thing in how to buy a gun in Texas. Nothing about a handgun roster adds to that safety process; it just decides which safe, common guns you’re forbidden to choose.

The DOJ lawsuit over California’s Glock ban will grind through the courts for a while, and rulings get appealed, so check the current status before you rely on anything here, and talk to an attorney if California law affects you directly. I’ll keep following it, the same way I’ve tracked the suppressor rulings. If you’re in a free state and shopping for a pistol, the store is open, our pistol inventory is current, and I answer my own phone: 817-393-4000.

FacebookTwitterLinkedInEmailPinterest

Best 9mm ammo for self defense in 2026: what actually works

Posted on:

I’m Lance Rankin, gunsmith and FFL at Western Sport in Roanoke, Texas. Customers ask me about the best 9mm ammo for self defense more often than any other ammo question, and my answer hasn’t changed much in years: buy a proven hollow point from the short list below, then prove it runs in your gun. Here are the loads I trust and why, with honest notes on each.

The two rules that matter more than the brand

First, terminal performance. You want a bullet with a track record in standardized gel testing: adequate penetration, reliable expansion, and weight retention through cloth and common barriers. Every load below has that record. Second, reliability in your gun. Hollow point profiles feed differently than ball ammo. Before you carry anything, run at least 100 rounds of it through your actual pistol. Expensive test? Yes. Cheaper than a malfunction at the worst moment of your life.

My picks for the best 9mm ammo for self defense

Federal HST 124-grain JHP

If you want the short answer on the best 9mm ammo for self defense, this is it. HST expands wide, holds its weight, and doesn’t clog up when it passes through clothing. Recoil is civilized in anything Glock 19 sized and up. It’s what I’d grab off my own shelf.

Speer Gold Dot 124-grain

The law enforcement standby. The jacket is bonded to the core, so the bullet stays in one piece through hard barriers. Gold Dot’s design has barely changed in years because it got it right the first time. You will never be wrong carrying it.

Hornady Critical Defense 115-grain FTX

Built for short-barreled carry guns. The red polymer tip keeps fabric from plugging the hollow point, so it expands even through heavy clothing, and the soft recoil suits micro nines. If you carry a small gun, start here.

Winchester Defender 147-grain bonded JHP

The heavy-bullet option. The 147s push a slower, softer impulse that a lot of shooters track better in rapid fire, and the bonded construction handles glass and barriers well. Heavier subsonic loads also pair nicely with suppressed pistols, which we know a thing or two about as an SOT shop.

Sig Sauer V-Crown 124-grain JHP

Consistent expansion across barrel lengths and nickel-plated cases that shrug off holster sweat. A solid value in the premium category.

Worth knowing about

A few more contenders for the best 9mm ammo for self defense earn a mention. Black Hills 124-grain JHP +P adds velocity if your pistol is rated for the pressure; you trade extra snap and wear for it. Barnes TAC-XPD 115-grain is all copper, retains essentially all its weight, and matters where lead is restricted. Lehigh’s 90-grain Xtreme Defense uses a fluted solid instead of a hollow point; interesting physics, but I consider it a niche choice next to the proven expanders. Remington Golden Saber 124-grain, with its brass jacket, is an old warhorse that still works.

Practical advice from the counter

Barrel length changes the math. A load that expands beautifully from a 4.5-inch barrel may not reach expansion velocity from a 3-inch micro, which is why short-barrel-specific loads exist. Match the load to the gun; if you’re still picking the gun, my lists of the best home defense handguns and best 9mm pistols under $500 are the place to start. And if you’re wondering whether you should be shooting 9mm at all, I settled that argument (for myself, anyway) in 9mm vs .45 ACP.

Rotate your carry ammo every six months to a year. It rides in a hot car, gets rechambered, and absorbs oil and humidity. Shoot the old stuff at the range; that’s free practice with your actual carry load. Day to day, practice with quality FMJ in the same bullet weight so the recoil feel matches.

We stock most of these loads in the ammunition section of the store, and if you’re local to DFW you can pick up by appointment here in Roanoke. Not sure what your specific pistol likes? Call me at 817-393-4000 and we’ll figure it out.

Frequently asked questions

Should I carry +P ammo?

Only if your pistol is rated for it. You get more velocity, and you pay in recoil and long-term wear. Standard pressure HST or Gold Dot gives up very little.

How often should I rotate carry ammo?

Every six months to a year. Sooner if it’s been riding in Texas heat or repeatedly chambered.

Does barrel length really change expansion?

Yes. Shorter barrels mean lower velocity, and some hollow points won’t open below their design speed. Short-barrel guns deserve short-barrel loads.

Will my pistol feed hollow points?

Almost certainly, but verify it. Run at least a few full magazines of your exact carry load before trusting it.

Can I practice with cheap FMJ?

Yes, and you should. Match the bullet weight to your carry load so the recoil feels similar, and periodically confirm with the real thing.

FacebookTwitterLinkedInEmailPinterest

SUBSCRIBE FOR EXCLUSIVE INFO & SPECIALS