User:MT2008

MT2008

• Name: Matt
• Age: 23
• Home Town: Originally from Chapel Hill, NC; currently living in Austin, TX
• Occupation: Geopolitical research assistant at Strategic Forecasting, Inc. (StratFor) in Austin, TX. See http://www.stratfor.com/frontpage for more on this agency.

About Me

After losing my entire account and all the contributions I made to this site, I have finally returned. I'm still extremely upset that I lost everything I did (lesson: back everything up yourself, since you can never count on webmasters to do it for you), but fortunately, I have lots of screencaps and too much time on my hands, so I'm back. In addition to working on articles I had edited prior to the great crash, I'm also working on lots of new ones.

Anyway, I'm a recent graduate of a particular college in Maine (I was a History/Government major) who now has way too much time on his hands. I'm sort of a wannabe movie-gun librarian, and I love watching movies and seeing what types of weapons are in it. To be fair, I don't know as much about the classics, mostly just contemporary movies (Rafa, on the other hand, seems to be good with older films). Sometimes, I will buy movies on DVD, even terrible movies, if the guns are worth looking at - which sounds crazy, I know. Additionally, I tend to look for "behind the scenes" information on the guns in a movie - the company that supplied the weapons for the production, the armorers who built/handled the prop weapons on set, etc. I frequently use pictures of the actual prop guns in my articles, if I can find them (see for instance, my work on I Am Legend, for which I found pictures of the actual AR15 carbine and Mark-23 that were used in the movie).

Although I'm big into guns, movies, and guns in movies, I don't do much shooting in real life. I used to shoot skeet when I was in high school, but that was years ago now. I also go to the pistol range sometimes, but this, too, is pretty rare. Usually, I just buy guns for collector value...I have a very expensive pre-1989 Poly Tech AK which I've fired a total of 4 times in my basement. I am thinking about getting more into shooting once I graduate and I'm not in an environment where guns are frowned upon.

So that's that. Any other questions, please drop me a note on my "discussion" page.

Guns I Own

• Golden State Arms-imported Chinese Type 56S AK - this is my baby
• Smith & Wesson 4506 - it actually belonged to my grandfather, but he gave it to me.

I also used to own a Taurus PT92 which I have since sold (it was a very old and well-used example) and a Ruger Mark III (another of my grandfather's guns which I sold).

Images (of myself + guns)

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Firing a rented SIG P226R at Red's Indoor Range in Austin, TX.

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A close-up of the P226 in my hand (yes, I know I should have kept my finger off the trigger).

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Firing my S&W 4506 at the Durham Wildlife Club. This is an old picture, taken about 3-4 years ago, I think.

My pre-ban Chinese Type 56S AK imported by Golden State Arms, here fitted with the PLA-issue bayonet that came with the gun.

Articles to which I've contributed include:

Movies

• 2 Fast 2 Furious
• 44 Minutes: The North Hollywood Shoot-out
• A History of Violence
• Air Force One
• American History X
• Blood Diamond
• Blown Away
• The Corruptor
• Deep Rising
• The Departed
• Enemy of the State
• Godzilla
• Goldeneye
• Hard Boiled
• Hot Fuzz
• I Am Legend
• The Incredible Hulk
• Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
• Live Free or Die Hard
• Lord of War
• The Matrix
• The Negotiator
• Patriot Games
• Raiders of the Lost Ark
• Raw Deal
• The Replacement Killers
• RoboCop
• Romeo & Juliet
• The Siege
• Snatch
• Training Day
• U.S. Marshals
• XXX 2: State of the Union

Television

• Harry's Game
• Harsh Realm
• Ultimate Force

Guns

• AK-47
• FN Minimi
• Glock
• MAC-10
• RPG-2
• Sig Sauer P220 pistol series
• Taurus PT92