Welcome to the Nation! I am also a fan of Talley's one-piece lightweight mounts. There are a number of companies copying them these days.

Grouchy used to teach them n Sunday school.

Damn, I love this forum. 

Come on San Andreas

If the whole thing fell into the Pacific, the only loss might be a bit fewer strawberries and pistachio nuts in the grocery stores.

California continues on the path to communism and total insanity. Now they're trying for annual registration of all firearms with an annual tax on every gun to go with it. What a left-wing zoo.
https://sd25.senate.ca.gov/news/2024-02-14/senator-portantino-introduces-bill-requiring-annual-registration-firearms

Grouch, what brand/model?

I was thinking of trying one of these, but after reading a bunch of negative customer reviews and looking at a few discussions online, I pretty much changed my mind. There are a lot of complaints of them breaking/dying quickly, large crappy "flower" projected "dots" and poor dot visibility in daylight past 25 yards. From what I've read, you can expect no more than to "get on paper" with them. So much for laser precision - I can get on paper doing a traditional boresight at 50 yards well enough to hit within 6 inches of MOA on the first shot at 100 yards, so I'm thinking these things are mostly a waste of money if I can do at least as well for free. I had the impression you would be within 2-3 inches of MOA with one of these, but I guess not. Does anybody use one with a high level of success? If so, what brand/model? Many cost far more than they appear to be worth.

This is a common AR-15 topic of discussion and a question often asked: should you or shouldn't you clean the gas tube? I never have done it and although some may disagree, I stick with the "don't clean it" route. I've been told that cleaning it can actually be the start of issues from solvent residue and that the tube is actually essentially self cleaning. The video below pretty much confirms this, although apparently, using a .22LR conversion kit can change things because the much lower resultant heat and gas forces are not as they were designed for, leaving deposits in there. If anybody has valid evidence to the contrary, please feel free to throw it out there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYF3SLq-fP0

I take any reviews in magazines with a grain of salt because of, as danno said, advertising money. I've gotten various NRA publications for decades and product reviews are always either glowing (nearly every gun reviewed is the greatest thing since smokeless powder) or even if deficiencies are noted, still always end with recommending the gun as a should buy. The linked review above however seems pretty honest: an impractical, poorly designed pistol, but fun just the same. Strictly a novelty gun you might even shoot now and then (but not likely very much).