Monday - March 15, 2010
BATTLING BRITS IN AFGHANISTAN ….
Nothing for me to add here except to say these fellows are damn good and uphold a long and proud military tradition. They are better and braver then many who are representing them.
Inside Afghanistan: the sniper’s tale
Heathcliff O’Malley (camera) and David Ferrarotto
Published: 12:30PM GMT 15 Mar 2010
As part of The Telegraph’s series of videos looking at life for the British Army in Afghanistan, we hear from a sniper whose daily challenge is to kill before he is killed.
Telegraph photojournalist Heathcliff O’Malley spent two weeks embedded with British troops in Helmand, Afghanistan.
In this exclusive series, he shows what life is really like on the ground for the 10,000 soldiers serving in the country.
Posted by peiper
on 03/15/2010 at 01:22 PM
Filed Under: • Battling Brits • Guns and Gun Control • Military • Muslims • UK • War-Stories •
• Comments (1)
•
Trackbacks (0) •
Permalink • Friday - March 12, 2010
Airsoft Update: A Post For B3
Consider this the final update to my original post on the subject. I would have called this story over and done with nearly a week ago, but the pro-gun side of the internet leads the rest of the digital world by several days on these kind of stories, and the digital world leads the MSM by an equal or even greater amount. So like a bad penny, this one keeps turning up. Let’s put it to sleep forever then, if we can.
Note: To be fair to reader B3 he did come around to agree that the current toy gun receiver under question was sufficiently different from a real one that a functional weapon could be based on it. But he didn’t have one of the original versions of the toy gun receiver and had to posit that the design could have changed. Has it? I don’t know. Were the seized toys of that “original” design? I don’t know. I do know that design changes take some time to put in place, especially when your manufacturer is overseas.
Quoth B3:
I do not have an original WE receiver that I can compare to, as the first version of the gun was really buggy and didn’t work very good at all. However, unlike real steel, Airsoft can change on a dime by changing the castings for the upper and lower. And it appears that if they are off in size from the RS major components, they have changed.
So, I will stand corrected, the current version of the WE M4 is NOT dimensionally equal to a real steel M4 or AR rifle system. And is as dimensionally in-accurate as other airsoft replicas available.
So this post is for B3, but NOT to bring him to task. No way; he did the RIGHT thing passing along what he’d heard, and he’s the man on the inside of the Airsoft game world. But for those other folks out there - that means YOU BATFE - here is the email chain I’ve had going with the Airsplat company and pics of their attempts to make one of the WE M4 toy gun receivers mate up with real AR-15 gun parts. It doesn’t work.
Gosh, but what about modifying them, wouldn’t that do it? Looks like a big NO to me. There isn’t enough metal on the toy receiver to re-drill the holes without leaving a mess. You’d have to weld on or glue on extra plates on the outside, which would then force you to build your own longer pins. And moving the pins, especially the rear one, could cause all sorts of interference internally. The magazine catch isn’t right either, nor do the internal areas line up for use with the real gun’s internal parts. You’d have to do a tremendous amount of very careful fabrication - casting, welding, machining - just to make that happen. And in the end you MIGHT get things to function - you might NOT is more likely - but the toy gun’s metal is of such low quality - compared to a real firearm!! - that it would likely break.
And that is the big rub about this whole story. The toy gun parts look like the real ones, but they aren’t usable for actual firearms. And it would take tremendous amounts of work by a fully equipped precision machinist to make the necessary modifications, if that is even possible. (and one willing to knowingly skirt the law!) And after all that, on the slight chance you could do all that, you’d still have a dangerously weak receiver. So BATFE’s claim that the toy parts can be “easily modified” for fully automatic fire seems to be rather false. Nearly the same amount of work would be required to mill a real one out of proper bar stock in the first place. So why bother?
Now, let’s lay this one to rest. The modification can’t be done easily. It can’t be done safely. It probably can’t be done at all, even by a skilled professional. These things are toys, not actual firearms parts.
And a big thanks to Airsplat for giving it the old college try, and then some. I edited the emails down to the core concepts, thus the [snip][snip][snip] stuff.
From: Drew458
To: airsplat.com
Sent: Thursday, March 04, 2010 8:31 AM
Subject: corporate response wanted on ATF seizure
Dear AirSplat
News item: ATF seizes shipment of Airsoft toy guns imported from Taiwan , says they can be easily converted to fully automatic lethal weapons.
[snip]
This claim by the ATF seems preposterous, but if your toys are made from parts that are fundamentally identical then they may have a valid point. Even if only AR15 parts can be fit to it, devices like the Lightning Link can be used to allow full-auto fire.
Just how close to real life are your parts?
From: AirSplat
To: Drew458
Sent: Thursday, March 4, 2010, 10:00 PM
Subject: RE: corporate response wanted on ATF seizure
Drew,
It’s great to hear from you about this. We’ve actually been following this for quite some time now. And seen many of the articles and blogs posting about it.
[snip]
We did catch word of the possible usage of it being so realistic that it could be modified to fire real bullets. One version we heard was that a real steal upper could be used with this lower. So, just out of curiosity, several personnel here brought in several of their AR’s to work to test with.
[snip]
Synopsis: It doesn’t work.
From: Drew458
To: airsplat
Sent: Friday, March 05, 2010 9:22 AM
Subject: RE: corporate response wanted on ATF seizure
Again, my thanks for your great response. I posted your letter and gave you kudos for your research and good business decisions. Unfortunately I have a reader who says it can be done with the one particular model of receiver. [snip]
From: AirSplat
To: Drew458
Sent: Monday, March 8, 2010, 6:19 PM
Subject: RE: corporate response wanted on ATF seizure
Drew,
I have to say, I’m surprised to hear someone saying they are so confident it’s possible. [snip] Fair enough, [snip] we will take it upon ourselves to do so, just to prove a point or just to humor everyone.
I’ll have one of the techs pull out the sample and some people to bring in their guns and we’ll take some pictures for you. Keep you posted!
From: AirSplat
To: Drew458
Sent: Friday, March 12, 2010, 1:44 PM
Subject: RE: corporate response wanted on ATF seizure
Drew,
Here are the images.
In general, you’ll notice many parts including upper and lower all seem very close to the naked eye. But on closer examination you’ll see the lower is 1/8” shorter, the upper doesn’t even fit on the lower, the pins are different sizes, lots of minor changes that are really noticeable, but when put side by side, become blatantly obvious.
Hope this helps. Feel free to let us know if you have any other questions.
AirSplat.com
More pics below the fold if you still aren’t convinced yet.
Posted by Drew458
on 03/12/2010 at 02:14 PM
Filed Under: • Government • Guns and Gun Control • Jack Booted Thugs •
• Comments (6)
•
Trackbacks (0) •
Permalink • Government Departments Arming Themselves
Department of Education Buying MORE Shotguns
Why do they need more? Why do they have any to begin with? By what authority do they arm themselves? Why do they need short barreled weapons?
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) intends to purchase twenty-seven (27) REMINGTON BRAND MODEL 870 POLICE 12/14P MOD GRWC XS4 KXCS SF. RAMAC #24587 GAUGE: 12 BARREL: 14” - PARKERIZED CHOKE: MODIFIED SIGHTS: GHOST RING REAR WILSON COMBAT; FRONT - XS CONTOUR BEAD SIGHT STOCK: KNOXX REDUCE RECOIL ADJUSTABLE STOCK FORE-END: SPEEDFEED SPORT-SOLID - 14” LOP are designated as the only shotguns authorized for ED based on compatibility with ED existing shotgun inventory, certified armor and combat training and protocol, maintenance, and parts.
The required date of delivery is March 22, 2010.
If the workers at the DOE feel the need for armed protection, hire some guards. Or borrow some Marines. And why would they need armed protection in the first place?
h/t to Moonbattery, who also noted late last year that the EPA is buying 9mm Glock pistols
Haven’t these dummies heard that government is a gun-free zone?
Posted by Drew458
on 03/12/2010 at 11:55 AM
Filed Under: • Government • Guns and Gun Control •
• Comments (8)
•
Trackbacks (0) •
Permalink • Monday - March 08, 2010
burglary victim chases off bad guys but now regrets not shooting them as cops arrive 50 min. later
I go through the papers every morning and grab coffee etc. and generally get worked up even before booting the puter. That reminds me. I really NEED to take a typing course. I’m fast with two or three fingers but wish I could type properly. But that’s not the topic. Burglars and a shotgun and a home owner are.
So then, while going though the first paper I landed on page 13 of The Telegraph and saw this headline.
I WISH I HAD OPENED FIRE, SAYS FATHER WHO CHASED BURGLARS.
Which was alongside this photo, but not on line. So again, this is a scan.
The photo in the hard copy of course is very sharp and clear.
He should have shot the scum. They’ll now go off and find a more helpless target.
Burglars make off as police take 50 minutes to attend emergency callTwo burglars who a pub landlord confronted with a shotgun to protect his family made off after police took 50 minutes to respond to his emergency call.
By Nigel BunyanSimon Thomas, 45, initially pointed his shotgun at the raiders and later pursued them in his Land Rover. By the time police reached The Anchor Inn at Barcombe, east Sussex, the men were nowhere to be seen.
Mr Thomas, whose children, Toby, 14, and Holly, 12, were asleep at the time of the raid, said: “If push came to shove I would have opened fire.
“In some ways I wish I had done – to stop them. Both my children were asleep in the house and protecting them was my priority.“I don’t want people to think I’m some gun nut, but I was prepared to do pretty much whatever it would take. I would not hesitate to do it again to protect my children and my livelihood.”
Mr Thomas, an experienced hunter with a collection of licenced guns, recalled hearing the burglars moving about outside shortly before 2am on Saturday.
“I am a firearms man and have been for 25 years, so I went to my cabinet and got out a shotgun. I couldn’t believe what was happening.“One of them was loading the bikes into his car and the other was breaking into the conservatory. I opened the bedroom window and shouted out `Do not move – I have got a loaded gun on you`.” Mr Thomas conned the burglars into believing he had already dialled 999 and that the police were on their way.
When they saw his shotgun they begged for their lives and started unloading their haul of stolen mountain bikes from their car. They claimed to have thought the premises were empty.The raiders drove off into the night as Mr Thomas lowered his gun and finally went to summon police.
He said: “I called the police and they told me they didn’t have anyone available to come over right away but to put the gun away so I did.”
A few moments later he gave chase in his Land Rover but lost the pair as they drove through Barcombe.Sussex Police confirmed that it took them 50 minutes to get officers to the scene and that there was no trace of the offenders when they arrived despite control room staff having graded the alert as one requiring an “immediate response”.
A police spokesman said: “The call was graded for immediate response. Officers arrived as soon as possible but were responding to other calls at the time.”
The thieves were still at large last night as police continued to investigate the attempted burglary.
Posted by peiper
on 03/08/2010 at 06:38 AM
Filed Under: • Crime • Daily Life • Guns and Gun Control • UK •
• Comments (9)
•
Trackbacks (0) •
Permalink • Friday - March 05, 2010
BATF Seizure and Airsoft Update
See, that wasn’t so hard. A little bit of citizen journalism: politely ask the people and the company involved a couple questions and get some answers. I wonder why the MSM didn’t do that with this story? Could it be that they were just looking for a bit of sensationalism?
Drew,
It’s great to hear from you about this. We’ve actually been following this for quite some time now. And seen many of the articles and blogs posting about it.
Just as a disclaimer, we do not carry this model because of the possible risk involved with importing it. We believe there’s plenty of money to be made in other ways. However, having said that, we have had a reasonable amount of experience with this model that was seized.
Before deciding not to carry this model we did have a few samples. We did catch word of the possible usage of it being so realistic that it could be modified to fire real bullets. One version we heard was that a real steal upper could be used with this lower. So, just out of curiosity, several personnel here brought in several of their AR’s to work to test with. We made several observations; I’ll start with general ones and move to more specific.
First off, the lower half although made of a metal, is really only made out of cast metal. This is a low quality nickel alloy that really can’t take much abuse. We really doubt it could take any of the abuse needed. Although true a majority of the stress is on the upper, but even the buffer tube takes a good amount of stress from the recoil. Most likely the rear of the frame would break and fly off if a round was hypothetically able to be fired.
Second, the top of a real AR does not fit the lower. We tested this on several different makes and models, none of which fit. The 2 pins were located in different locations and just off about 1/2”; enough so that you couldn’t drill another hole there in place of the original without the 2 overlapping and becoming one big hole. Not only that, but the top half wouldn’t even close down onto the lower, even with the lower gutted and emptied out.
Third, the magazine lock was not located in the same position as the real magazine. It was about 1/4” higher. We’ll have a short video of another M4 that we took a real steal M4 magazine and it would not fit in. It’s part of our weekly you tube videos. And this one happened to be about another M4. It will be published tomorrow, please visit: http://www.youtube.com/user/AirSplatcom
But even more so, for this gun in specific, the mag well, was about 1/4” narrower than the magazine, so even if you could re-notch it, the magazine would have to make it 1/4” slimmer to fit in. This is only true with the model that was seized. In airsoft, we’re only making replicas, we’re not making makeshift fire arms, so manufacturers really have no standard as to what size they make the magazines or mag wells for that matter. So in the video it’s 1/4’” wider than a real M4 mag. But for this gun it’s 1/4” slimmer.
Fourth, I won’t go too much into the trigger / hammer assembly. Mainly because this is just completely different, it’s not even close to be compatible and I don’t think anyone has gone so far as to say it would be compatible. But I would like to mention that the trigger assembly in the real AR’s we compared to this rifle, were completely different, and it’s highly unlikely that they would somehow fit in, even with major milling and reworking.
These 4 points cover one concern where a real upper is used with this lower.
However, in this specific seizure, if I understand it correctly is stating that the guns as is, even without a real upper, could be modified to chamber and fire a real bullet. Which in this case, I have to say is case is absolutely impossible. The barrel isn’t the right size, there’s no where to “chamber” a round. There’s no hammer / pin to strike the bullet. It’s completely impossible without a complete rework and replacement of the entire internals and barrel, not to mention redoing the entire lower and upper to house these new or modified internals. Making a gun out of paper would probably be more effective and faster, although look less appealing to the eye.
Sorry, I think I ended up writing an essay for you. There are some distributors in the industry that send every one of their airsoft guns to ATF first before they import. Hence, if you ask the ATF HQ, they most likely know that airsoft guns, couldn’t possible be have any sort of these ramifications that are being implied and stated in this seizure.
But sometimes eating your own words is very hard. Sometimes it’s easier to stay the path!
We’ll be sure to continue following your blog, please feel free to let us know if you have any questions. You have a great blog. Feel free to let us know if you’re looking for any support or help. Thanks.
AirSplat.com
I guess that settles it. The parts don’t fit close enough, and even if you could make them fit via a whole lot of modification, they would not hold up to the stresses of firing real ammunition. And we have a corporation, the major player in this field, investigating things on their own and arriving at that conclusion. Sounds like responsible action to me. And even though they disproved this rumor to their own satisfaction, they decided not to run with this model just in case. Because rumors can turn into hassles for business, even when they are utterly untrue. Who needs that? They are even taking it one step further, putting out a video that shows it can’t be done. Just to help squash the rumor. Nice move.
So now the ball is squarely in the BATF’s court: make it work. Get out the hand tools and have at it. Prove your case on both points: that not only is such a modification possible and that a reliable firearm is the result, that it can be done is reasonable time by laymen with only reasonable tools and skills. Otherwise they’ve only hammered a new hobnail into the soles of their jackboots, and managed to give themselves both a black eye and a sore thumb at the same time. And they’ll owe the importer an apology, some sort of certificate of approval, the cost of the materials seized, and some amount of payment for the inconvenience. I’d say court costs too, but there shouldn’t be any; the BATF should be doing the right thing, right now, WITHOUT any pressure from the courts or any legal injunction. Otherwise they ARE a bunch of ham handed jackbooted thugs with an agenda.
And that’s all I have to say about that. Except to tell our overseas readers that ATF and BATF and BATFE are the same folks. The federal government’s Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms enforcement agency renamed themselves the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. So they have a new acronym, but WTP - We The People - continue to call them whatever we want. Which is often unprintable. And now you see why.
Small Update: Reader B3 is big into Airsoft, and he says it CAN be done. See his comment in the original post. So I guess it comes down to Show Me. I’m looking forward to AirSplat’s video, but like OJ “trying” to put on the bloody glove, I will have to view it with a bit of skepticism until B3, the ATF, or somebody can either put out a video that shows that the conversion works, or publish an official paper detailing how it was done in front of recognized experts. Perhaps all that is needed is a diagram that shows the measurements of the “toy” receiver vs. the real one? Mmmm ... no. Even if it was one for one, as B3 says, I’d want to see proof at the firing range, although I realize that isn’t strictly necessary from the ATF’s perspective. The receiver is the part on this rifle that is designated as the actual firearm, so all they really need to show is that the real parts can fit on and that, with a bit of work, pulling the trigger releases the hammer enough to fire the primer on a chambered blank round. Anything more than that is a parts quality issue, which is not germane here.
Update the II: I think this is a situation where we need government. Not for willy-nilly arbitrary enforcement of “it’s wrong because I say so” feelings, but to act as a fair arbitrator in setting up standards that everyone can live with. Somewhere there has to be a line between what is a toy, what qualifies as a BB gun, what is a replica, and what is a real firearm. That line may have to be drawn right down to the individual components, or at least the receivers. But without such a standard and the widespread awareness of it, problems will continue to occur. If such standards already exist - and I bet they do! - then it’s merely a matter of getting the word out; better awareness should alleviate situations like this one. It is not fair to expect customs agents to have the level of expertise required here to tell the toys from the real things, right down to the individual parts level. They have plenty of other things to do. But parts for toys or replicas could be shipped with some kind of label or certificate that says “meets government standard XYZ.123” and a look at the stuff, a quick check of the rules book, and a measurement or two would be enough. Especially since labeling real firearms receivers as toys would be a form of smuggling!
Posted by Drew458
on 03/05/2010 at 10:09 AM
Filed Under: • Government • Guns and Gun Control • Jack Booted Thugs •
• Comments (9)
•
Trackbacks (0) •
Permalink • Thursday - March 04, 2010
Thinking It Through First
Seriously, it is. Build this out of the proper material and insert it into the mechanism of a certain semi-automatic rifle made with the proper model of bolt, and you will have a fully automatic weapon. The parts only last 1000 rounds or so before needing to be rebent, but they do work.
One key thing about Eugene Stoner’s little wondergun is that almost all the stresses of firing are contained by the upper. That part of the gun has the barrel, the bolt, the breech, the gas tube, and the recoil system. The lower can be, and has been, made from plastic. Granted it’s a very strong plastic, like Delrin or Bakelite, but it’s plastic nonetheless. Which means it can be modified without much effort. The plastic extension at the back of back of the toy’s receiver could be filed off and a plastic plug glued into the rear ring. The two necessary holes could be easily drilled through that plug. If real trigger parts - the “fire control group” were put inside this and they didn’t quite fit, then grinding the required clearances, redrilling the connecting pin holes, inserting spacer shims, or even building up surfaces with machinable epoxy is no big deal. And out the other end could come a fully automatic weapon strong enough to be fired a few hundred times that is totally untraceable - because toy guns don’t have serial numbers. And every other part of an M16 is perfectly legal to buy and own without any kind of permit or paper trail.
I saw this story a few days ago and wanted to run with it, but I realized it would require a bit more thought before I shot my mouth off about what looked like another episode of Stupid Government In Action:
ATF seizes 30 toy guns, infuriating local business owner
CORNELIUS, Ore. - A local business owner is flabbergasted after a shipment of 30 toy guns for his store was confiscated by ATF agents in Tacoma.
Brad Martin and his son, Ben, sell the Airsoft BB guns from their store in Cornelius where they’ve been in business for seven years.
The Martins said they buy their stock from Taiwan because the merchandise is less expensive. But the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives seized a shipment of 30 in October. That shipment is worth around $12,000 and the ATF is promising to destroy the entire shipment.Special Agent Kelvin Crenshaw said the toys can be easily retro-fitted into dangerous weapons.
“With minimal work it could be converted to a machine gun,” Crenshaw said.
Brad Martin is furious about the loss of money, for sure, but also in what he now thinks as a loss of his time and the use of government agents to seize toy guns.
“All this manpower, all this time, all this taxpayer money, [it is] wasting my time and my profitability,” Martin said. “[Just] to seize 30 toy guns!”
Ben Martin disagrees that the toy guns could ever be considered dangerous.
“To say these are readily convertible to machine guns is absolutely preposterous,” he said. “The round wouldn’t go into the firing chamber and even if the firing pin did strike the primer the gun would basically blow up in your face.”
ATF said it also seized the toys because they are missing the blaze orange tips required on all imported toy guns.
Shock News. Jack Booted Thugs at ATF, again, as usual. Waco, Ruby Ridge!!
No. There is misdirection in this story from both sides.
The orange tips thing is just plain wrong, since these Airsoft products aren’t exactly toy guns. They are a form of BB gun, and BB guns don’t get the orange tip specifically because they AREN’T TOYS. They actually shoot some sort of projectile at some sort of significant velocity. Sure, it’s a little plastic ball, but the thing pushes them hard enough so that they can fly nearly 100 yards.
The “absolutely preposterous” reaction of the importer is quite foolish. He is confusing “readily convertible” with “an actual firearm”. No, the Airsoft is not a real AR15 or an M16. But if you can fit a REAL upper onto the thing, and fit a REAL fire control group to the thing, and fit a REAL gas tube and recoil assembly to the thing, and do it all with a Dremel tool and a pot of glue and an hour or two, then the “readily convertible” argument is valid.
Kind of makes me wonder if you couldn’t just carve an M16 lower out of oak and attach all the parts. But that’s more skill and effort than your usual criminal can come up with. No, what we need here is a bit of proof. Show us how it’s done, Mr. ATF guy. Or somebody.
Machine Guns Seized At Tacoma Port
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms found that the rifles were tooled to shoot plastic balls, but replacement of internal components with original machine gun components would render the rifles capable of firing live ammunition.
“These rifles could have had far-reaching and potentially devastating ramifications if they had gotten into the hands of individuals who wanted to do harm in the American population,” said Customs and Border Protection Area Port Director, Rolando Suliveras, Jr. “This was a good interception by our officers.”
The guns will be destroyed.
I have written to Airsoft and asked them for a statement on this situation. Whether they respond, and how their lawyers allow them to respond, remains to be seen. I asked nicely, so you never know. In the meantime, instead of just flying off the handle like so many other blogs, I searched through a large number of hits on Google and finally found somebody with a bit of common sense, who got a statement from the distributor, who had approached a gunsmith with parts in hand and said Have At It:
Now we at Airsoft Outlet Northwest, being the rational individuals we are, went out and had a gunsmith check the true compatibility of these replicas and found the following information:
- The WE TTI M4’s lack any sort of functional gas tube which is integral to an AR15’s operation
- The upper receiver of an AR15 fits onto the lower of the WE TTI M4
- The stock trigger pack in the WE TTI cannot strike the firing pin of a AR15 bolt
- The body of the WE TTI lower is several mils thinner than an AR15 lower, and shims would be needed for any AR trigger pack to work
- The trigger pack of an AR15 appears to be able to fit onto the lower receiver of a WE TTI M4, one of the AR15 trigger pack retaining pins is impossible to insert without major modification, and the hammer isn’t operable with the WE TTI lower.
Nice work, Every Day No Days Off! Thanks.
He provides a couple of links and even has the news video embedded. Great work Mike! And he concludes ...
Basically, if the ATF claims these airsoft guns can be easily converted into real guns, they should just demonstrate the conversion, and put a couple of magazines through it. There needs to be some accountability and burden of proof placed on these government organizations.
I concur. And I’m sure you noticed the bit of CYA in the above statement from the distributor. Again, we need to have a clear understanding of what “major modification” really entails. These “toys” may be a bit too close to the real thing, so let’s see it. On the other hand, if the guy from the ATF has a leg to stand on, then why the hell hasn’t the government immediately banned the sale of these things? You think that the 30 seized ones are the only ones in the country? Hella no, there are tens of thousands of them.
One last bit of opinion from the importer, who seems convinced that the border inspectors are untutored automatons with an agenda:
When I called this CBP Agent in Seattle to inquire what the problem was he more or less gave me the cold shoulder and wouldn’t (or couldn’t) give me any reason as to why he was holding our product. I had stated that it was my right to know what laws Airsoft Outlet Northwest had broken and he more or less told me:
“What rights?”
After this conversation my faith in Customs and Border Protection completely fell apart. I realized that we (Airsoft Outlet NW) were dealing with bigoted individuals whose personal agendas were more important than holding the Airsoft industry to any sort of standard.
I now assume that this agent in Seattle, like many oblivious officials do, based his judgments purely on hearsay and without any circumstantial evidence seized our product for his own self gratification and/or self promotion. He has yet to provide any sort of proof that he, or anyone else, has been able to convert any of the WE gas pistols, KJW M700’s, or WE TTI SCAR’s to shoot live ammo. I would even go as far as to call him a liar if he said he did test them because of the fact that the civilian or military version of the SCAR is still extremely limited in number, and I doubt this CBP Agent would be able to get one to potentially destroy. The simple fact of the matter is that these three Airsoft replicas are nowhere close to having the ability to shoot live ammunition. The inspecting agent is basing his judgments on speculation and not fact, he cannot provide any evidence to support his argument, and refuses to open any lines of communication about our product being illegal.
And one last bit of counter-opinion: if you are importing a product that feels like a gun, looks like a gun, and is a type of gun, then it is in your best interest in this day and age to pro-actively make the effort with the government to get their sign-off that your product is OK. No, you really shouldn’t have to, but there’s a war on, so what did you expect?
Posted by Drew458
on 03/04/2010 at 12:06 PM
Filed Under: • Government • Guns and Gun Control • Jack Booted Thugs •
• Comments (4)
•
Trackbacks (0) •
Permalink • Thursday - February 18, 2010
Really Good News, Slghtly Bad News
We must answer whether the Second Amendment applies to the states—an issue Heller explicitly sidestepped. Id. at 2813 n.23.
Incorporation is “[t]he process of applying the provisions of the Bill of Rights to the states by interpreting the 14th Amendment’s Due Process Clause as encompassing those provisions.”
Heller also found universal support for an individual right to bear arms in pre-Civil War case law and commentary.
The Heller Court also analyzed post-Civil War case law and commentary to conclude a key purpose of the Fourteenth Amendment was to ensure freed blacks had the right to keep and bear arms.
Considering Cruikshank:
Moreover Cruikshank merely held the federal Constitution does not apply to private individuals: “The only obligation resting upon the United States is to see that the states do not deny the right. This the [Fourteenth] amendment guarantees, but no more. The power of the national government is limited to the enforcement of this guaranty.”
Courts that rely on this precedent misunderstand its holding. Because Cruikshank and Presser predate the Supreme Court’s process of selectively applying the Bill of Rights to the states under Duncan, they cannot impede the current incorporation doctrine. Nevertheless in early 2009 the Second Circuit puzzlingly and reluctantly relied on Presser to reject incorporation.
On the other hand a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit recently abandoned Cruikshank, Presser, and Miller v. Texas as obsolete. Nordyke v. King, 563 F.3d 439 (9th Cir. 2009). But on July 29, 2009 the court voted to rehear the matter en banc.
Although it cannot be cited as precedent “by or to any court of the Ninth Circuit,” Nordyke v. King, 575 F.3d 890, 891 (9th Cir. 2009) (Nordyke II), the panel decision persuasively applied the Second Amendment to the states via the due process clause.
Bottom Line:
Pursuant to Duncan the Second Amendment protects an individual right to bear arms from state interference through the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This right is necessary to an Anglo-American regime of ordered liberty and fundamental to the American scheme of justice.
CONCLUSION
The Second Amendment right to bear arms applies to the states through the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
So we have a state supreme court finding that the 2nd is incorporated, a few weeks before SCOTUS is scheduled to hear arguments on McDonald v. City of Chicago, which asks the same question. (that case will be heard March 2, 2010)
The Washington State Supreme Court found that the 14th incorporates the 2nd. Will SCOTUS do the same? Stay tuned.
Is this a good decision? Yes. But then again no.
The best decision would be to say that the 14th merely re-affirms by incorporation what already existed under the 2nd. That the 2nd applies even without the 14th existing. Shades of difference perhaps, but the “universal support for an individual right to bear arms in pre-Civil War case law” found by Heller means exactly that. The right could not be infringed BEFORE the 14th existed, so the 14th really doesn’t need to be used as justification now that it does exist. But it doesn’t hurt to say that it can’t be infringed NOW because of the 14th, so there ya go. An extra layer of armor I guess.
Oooh, I’m getting a nice feeling about this. I think Slaughterhouses is going to be overturned. I can’t wait to read Scalia’s consent and Sotomayor’s dissent.
Read more about the Sieyes decision at The Voloch Conspiracy. Read the decision yourself, it’s only 24 very widely spaced and footnoted pages, so it reads fast. The kid (Sieyes) lost. His claim was that the 2nd let him have a gun when he was under age because he’s still a citizen. He didn’t prove that. But the people won. That’s a good thing.
Posted by Drew458
on 02/18/2010 at 05:29 PM
Filed Under: • Guns and Gun Control •
• Comments (2)
•
Trackbacks (0) •
Permalink • Monday - February 08, 2010
EYE CANDY AND GIRL IN BIKINI
UPDATE: BMEWS readers are a very observant bunch, but this is a first. Reader IBM writes in “Don’t who the girl is but unless I’m very much mistaken the location is Target Masters II range behind the cop shop in Milpitas CA.”
And I was gonna mention how I thought the ear muffs were Peltors. That’s got my comment beat by a mile.
OK first of all there’s a mis match of colors here. Her ear warmers are the wrong color to wear with the gun. No?
Don’t care for the bikini. Same color as ear warmers would work tho. Did I miss anything?
This pix looks familiar to me but darned if I can remember if it’s been posted here already, or I saw it someplace else.
As long as they aren’t pointed at me, there’s something nice about a girl and her gun. Kinda sexy.
Posted by peiper
on 02/08/2010 at 11:30 AM
Filed Under: • Guns and Gun Control • Miscellaneous • USA •
• Comments (8)
•
Trackbacks (0) •
Permalink • Thursday - February 04, 2010
Good Data, Bad Conclusion
The Violence Policy Center, a leftist anti-gun “think tank”, is aware that nearly half the violent crime in America is committed by black people against other black people. Their solution? Disarm the black folk. They aren’t “advanced” enough to responsibly own firearms.
Calls to limit the access of African-Americans to firearms specifically echo the “black codes” adopted immediately at the end of the Civil War. These laws were passed in southern states in response to the Thirteenth Amendment’s outlawing of slavery, and were specifically engineered to circumscribe the civil rights and liberties of newly freed slaves and freemen. The codes assured the second-class status of African-Americans, and were a forerunner to decades of “separate but equal” segregation under Jim Crow laws — which were only overcome during the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Among the codes commonly passed were laws that forbid or restricted the ownership of firearms by African-Americans. The codes were “justified” with the explanation that African-Americans did not have the same rights as white citizens.
Calls to limit the access of African-Americans to firearms specifically echo the “black codes” adopted immediately at the end of the Civil War. These laws were passed in southern states in response to the Thirteenth Amendment’s outlawing of slavery, and were specifically engineered to circumscribe the civil rights and liberties of newly freed slaves and freemen. The codes assured the second-class status of African-Americans, and were a forerunner to decades of “separate but equal” segregation under Jim Crow laws — which were only overcome during the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Among the codes commonly passed were laws that forbid or restricted the ownership of firearms by African-Americans. The codes were “justified” with the explanation that African-Americans did not have the same rights as white citizens.
From VPC’s report:
Introduction
America is facing an epidemic of homicide among young black males.
According to a recent study conducted by Professor James Alan Fox of Northeastern University, one of the nation’s leading criminal justice researchers, from 2002 to 2007 the number of black male juvenile homicide victims rose by 31 percent. The number of young black homicide victims killed by guns rose at an even sharper rate: 54 percent.
This study examines the growing problem of black homicide victimization at the state level.
The devastation homicide inflicts on black teens and adults is a national crisis, yet it is all too often ignored outside of affected communities. This study analyzes unpublished Supplementary Homicide Report (SHR)2 data for black homicide submitted to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The information used for this report is for the year 2007 and is the most recent data available. This is the first analysis of the 2007 data on black homicide victims to offer breakdowns of cases in the five states with the highest black homicide victimization rates and the first to rank the states by the rate of black homicides.
Gender
Of the 7,387 black homicide victims, 6,345 (86 percent) were male, and 1,042 (14 percent) were female. The homicide rate for black male victims was 37.59 per 100,000. In comparison, the overall rate for male homicide victims was 8.56 per 100,000. For white male homicide victims it was 4.63 per 100,000. The homicide rate for female black victims was 5.62 per 100,000. In comparison, the overall rate for female homicide victims was 2.11 per 100,000. For white female homicide victims it was 1.61 per 100,000.Age
Six hundred seventy-four black homicide victims (9 percent) were less than 18 years old and 150 black homicide victims (2 percent) were 65 years of age or older. The average age was 30 years old.Most Common Weapons
For homicides in which the weapon used could be identified, 82 percent of black victims (5,743 out of 7,011) were shot and killed with guns. Of these, 73 percent (4,204 victims) were killed with handguns. There were 701 victims killed with knives or other cutting instruments, 247 victims killed by bodily force, and 200 victims killed by a blunt object.Victim/Offender Relationship
For homicides in which the victim to offender relationship could be identified, 72 percent of black victims (2,474 out of 3,431) were murdered by someone they knew. Nine hundred fifty-seven victims were killed by strangers.
Conclusion
Blacks in the United States are disproportionately affected by homicide. For the year 2007, blacks represented 13 percent of the nation’s population, yet accounted for 49 percent of all homicide victims.
As noted at the beginning of this study, the devastation homicide inflicts on black teens and adults is a national crisis, yet it is all too often ignored outside of affected communities. For blacks, like all victims of homicide, guns—usually handguns—are far and away the number one murder tool. Successful efforts to reduce America’s black homicide toll must put a focus on reducing access to firearms.
Not one word about figuring out a way to teach these young men respect for human life, or anger management, or anything positive like that. Nope. Best to just disarm them all, since they’ve proven they can’t be trusted with a gun.
Like eugenics, the other left wing “solution” to a problem, this one draws the wrongest possible conclusion from otherwise accurate data. And this from the camp that is made up of our superiors, the folks who know better and believe they should be empowered to tell us what to do. For our own good, right Hillary?
[ to be completely fair to the VPC, they are for disarming everyone. But this paper of theirs speaks specifically about the violence endemic among black people. So their call to reduce access to firearms must be taken in context: they are talking about disarming black people. Later on they’ll get around to disarming everyone else. ]
One commenter at Pajamas Media put the proper solution in a golden nutshell: ”Laws don’t prevent crime, civilized culture prevents crime.” Darn shame we live in such a PC-delimited world. Once upon a time, in a more forthright age, the task of permeating civilized culture to the black races was called ”the white man’s burden”. But even then the perils were known:
Take up the White Man’s burden--
The savage wars of peace--
Fill full the mouth of Famine
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hopes to nought.
So who will tame the savage breast? The “savages” themselves. It’s a bootstrap lifting thing that has to come from within. Damn shame that 60+ years worth of “free footwear” has only given the “abos” more desire to go barefoot.
Posted by Drew458
on 02/04/2010 at 12:38 PM
Filed Under: • Guns and Gun Control • Racism •
• Comments (5)
•
Trackbacks (0) •
Permalink • Wednesday - February 03, 2010
Pay Your Taxes
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) intends to purchase sixty Remington Model 870 Police RAMAC #24587 12 gauge pump-action shotguns for the Criminal Investigation Division. The Remington parkerized shotguns, with fourteen inch barrel, modified choke, Wilson Combat Ghost Ring rear sight and XS4 Contour Bead front sight, Knoxx Reduced Recoil Adjustable Stock, and Speedfeed ribbed black forend, are designated as the only shotguns authorized for IRS duty based on compatibility with IRS existing shotgun inventory, certified armorer and combat training and protocol, maintenance, and parts.
Submit quotes including 11% Firearms and Ammunition Excise Tax (FAET) and shipping to Washington DC.
Hey, aren’t they coool? Aren’t they the shizzz? They have to have the super dooper Knoxx Stocks, $150 each, all tactical and adjustable, and double spring loaded to absorb 95% of the recoil. Just wait till they have to bash in a door or smash a still with one of those things. Ain’t gonna work.
And while it’s interesting that the IRS sees fit to remind their vendors to include the special gun tax, do they grant themselves special Class III SBR status now? Because none of us can own a scattergun with a 14” tube on it. Ain’t legal. Or did they just spend a big pile of our scratch getting 60 Class III permits from BATF? Transferable ones, so anybody in the department can use these weapons?
The sights are nice, good stuff. The forend is a bit of a silly specification, since the Remington comes with a nice grippy forend to begin with. But the “only shotgun authorized for IRS duty based on compatibility with IRS existing shotgun inventory” is pure horse shit. Because they just bought 200K dollars worth of Remington model 11-87 shotguns 12 years back. The model 870 is a pump gun, the model 11-87 is a gas powered semi-automatic. Two entirely different guns, with very few parts shared between them.
Richard Bachert, Georgia CATS
July 29, 1998 Richard BachertThe IRS is contracted with several vendors to obtain various specialized
weapons and covert surveillance materials. Please see:
http://www.treas.gov/sba/irssic.html For example, Remington Model 11-87
Shotguns (a $200,000 contract) are a special model made exclusively for the
IRS, holding 8 cartridges instead of the normal legal limit of 3.
How the hell do you wear out a Remington in 12 years? This is something no one else has ever been able to do. You’d think the IRS is in constant gun battles or something? Or at the range busting clays 40 hours a week? About the only thing that ever wears out on a gas gun is the gas seals, and that’s a $5 fix once a year if you shoot constantly!
Why the IRS can’t buy Mossbergs like every other police department in the country is beyond me. Or why they have to come up with their own spiffy standards when the FBI and the military are already procuring tactical shotguns in a very workable design. And then they need fancy fast acquisition sites on their choked sawed off barrels? Sounds to me like they’re building drive-by rigs, or long range buckshot blasters they can hide under their black leather trench coats.
No, let the IRS get their shotguns from the leftovers from the other branches that have an actual need for such things. If they really have to have new ones, go to Walmart like everyone else.
Posted by Drew458
on 02/03/2010 at 09:37 PM
Filed Under: • Government • Guns and Gun Control •
• Comments (5)
•
Trackbacks (0) •
Permalink • Thursday - January 14, 2010
New Champion of a new sport
Most BMEWS readers will recognize the above as the title of Col. Jeff Cooper’s book. Half of you probably own a copy. It’s a book about being a sheepdog not a sheep. It’s a book about learning to use your guns and become a “shottist”. It’s a book about situational awareness. And so many other things. I’m borrowing the title because it boils down almost the entire cowboy ethos into 8 short words. Words which show that being called a “cowboy”, or referencing “cowboy diplomacy” is a great compliment, not the insult various euro-wienies think it is.
There is a sport played with guns called Cowboy Action Shooting. That’s right. A sport. Played. With guns. And bullets!! Actually, it’s a whole series of competitive events, dreamed up by, and organized by, the Single Action Shooting Society. You have to wear cowboy style clothing, use cowboy style firearms, go by a cowboy alias, and you compete in several kinds of cowboy styled shooting, like fast draw, long range buffalo hunting (using a steel buffalo), defending the stagecoach, or robbing the bank. Great fun is had by all.
I don’t do this sport. I’ve got nothing against the costume aspect, or the firearms used. I’m a little let down by their use of extremely low powered ammunition, or even blanks for some events, but safety has to be paramount. And before today, I was only aware of one “mounted” competition, in which the folks fired off shotguns while atop a barrel “horse” up on blocks. That just didn’t sit right with me. How the heck can you be a cowboy, even a modern weekends-only just for fun kind, without an actual honest-to-God horse?
Turns out I was under-informed. There is a competition that requires horses. It’s called Mounted Shooting. It’s a cross between barrel racing and target shooting. Ride your horse around a course and shoot 10 balloons as fast as you can, with a single action six-gun in each hand. The pistols are loaded with black powder blanks, but the blast from each shot is enough to burst a balloon from 10 to 20 feet away. Sounds like great fun, and it’s probably a big hit at rodeos too! (What do I know from rodeos? I live in New Jersey. Around here the only thing ever called a rodeo is a big flea market or used car sale.)
The sport is cut up into gender, age, and skill divisions, but they have an overall championship at the end of the season. And the overall champion for 2009 ... is Kenda Lenseigne from Ellensburg, Washington.
One perfect run.
That’s all that separates Kenda Lenseigne from something extraordinary: a world championship.
She waits to enter the arena and can almost hear the tension crackling in the air.
The crowd holds its breath, waiting for her.
It’s October and this cowgirl from Sultan is one run away from beating last year’s reigning world champion in mounted shooting.
Shooting from a horse has been around since the invention of guns.
This particular cowboy skill didn’t become a sport until 15 years ago. That’s when a few modern-day cowpokes found a safe way to combine horseback riding and shooting.
It would come to be known as Cowboy Mounted Shooting and it looks like this: Competitors riding a horse on a timed course lined with 10 balloons, shooting the targets as they go. Two pistols, five shots each.
Jim Rodgers, a dedicated rider from Arizona and the father of the sport, thought up the idea of shooting blanks at balloons. That bit of inspiration made it safe for a cowboy to ride at top speed in an arena around a series of barrels, while rapidly unloading two .45 caliber single-action revolvers.
Rodgers and his friends started putting on competitions and demonstrations at rodeos. Pretty soon there were clips on cable television shows and feature stories in Western Horseman magazine.
The sport caught on quickly, says Brady Carr, one of those riders who discovered the sport in its early years.
He’s now the executive vice president of the Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association, a national organization based in Tennessee that oversees and administers the sport. “Raw Horsepower, Hard Ridin’, Straight Shootin’” the association’s Web site boasts. In 2003, the association had 2,000 members. Today, membership is close to 10,000.
The sport is a natural companion to other popular Western events like roping and barrel racing, with a ready-made base of cowboys with the skills to give it a try.
“We laughingly call it ‘cowboy cocaine,’” Carr says. “It’s an adrenaline rush.”
Read the rest of Debra Smith’s well written piece at the Everett, Washington Herald right here, which also has a nice bird’s eye view animated graphic of the event, and then jump over to my pal Mo’s blog (he’s the guy who casts those enormous lead bullets for me) to see the video from the championship.
If you can’t be a 17th century pirate, you might as well be a cowboy. Or at least live by the Cowboy Way. And that’s as good as it gets. Congratulations Kenda!
Posted by Drew458
on 01/14/2010 at 11:37 AM
Filed Under: • Adventure • Guns and Gun Control • Sports •
• Comments (8)
•
Trackbacks (0) •
Permalink • Two More Dirty Lefty Hypocrites
Former chief UNSCOM weapons inspector, anti-war Bush critic busted AGAIN for underage sex chat
A former chief United Nations weapons inspector is accused of contacting what he thought was a 15-year-old girl in an Internet chat room, engaging in a sexual conversation and showing himself masturbating on a Web camera.
Scott Ritter of Delmar, N.Y., who served as chief U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991-98 and who was an outspoken critic of the second Bush administration in the run-up to the war in Iraq, is accused of contacting what turned out to be a Barrett Township police officer posing undercover as a teen girl.
The police affidavit gives the following account:
Officer Ryan Venneman was posing as 15-year-old “Emily” in an online chat room when he was contacted by someone using the name “Delmarm4fun.” This person, later identified as Ritter, told “Emily” he was a 44-year-old male from Albany, N.Y.
“Emily” told Ritter she was a 15-year-old girl from the Poconos, at which point Ritter asked for a picture other than the one “Emily” had posted on her account. Ritter then sent her a link to his Web camera and began to masturbate on camera.
“Emily” asked Ritter for his cell phone number, which he provided. Ritter again asked “Emily” how old she was. Told she was 15, Ritter said he didn’t realize she was 15 and turned off his webcam, saying he didn’t want to get in trouble. Ritter told “Emily” he had been fantasizing about having sex with her, to which she replied: “Guess you turned it off ...”
Ritter then said: “You want to see it finish,” reactivated his webcam and continued masturbating and ejaculated on camera.
EEEWWW. And now it turns out that he didn’t have a “happy ending” after all.
This is not the first time Ritter has been in such trouble. According to reports, Ritter was charged in a June 2001 Internet sex sting in New York, but that case was dismissed.
He had been charged with attempted child endangerment after arranging in an online chatroom to meet what he thought was a 16-year-old girl at a Burger King restaurant. The girl turned out to be an undercover policewoman. Ritter said the criminal charge was a smear campaign in response to his criticizing U.S. policy in the Middle East.
The New York Post reported Ritter had been caught in a similar case involving a 14-year-old girl in April 2001, but that he was not charged.
In 1998, Ritter resigned from the United Nations Special Commission weapons inspection team and has been the most outspoken critic of U.S. policy toward Baghdad.
Gun Control Senator/Lawyer Indicted For Shooting Former Client
State Sen. R.C. Soles Jr., North Carolina’s longest-serving lawmaker, was indicted Thursday in connection with an August shooting at his Tabor City home. Soles, 74, a Democrat, faces a felony charge of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious bodily injury. A conviction could result in a prison sentence of up to two years.
Soles shot Thomas Kyle Blackburn, 22, in the leg during an incident at Soles’ home Aug. 23. His lawyers, Joseph Cheshire and Bradley Bannon of Raleigh, reiterated Thursday what Soles has maintained all along: that the shooting was self-defense.
“We are disappointed with the indictment of Senator Soles and maintain that he was acting in defense of himself and his home,” the lawyers said in a statement.
The indictment was expected because last month a Columbus County grand jury found probable cause to move forward with charges.
District Attorney Rex Gore, who has long-standing ties to Soles, had recused himself from the case earlier, and the state Attorney General’s Office is handling the prosecution.
Last week, Soles announced he would not seek re-election to the state Senate, the latest in a string of Democratic legislators leaving open seats in competitive districts.
Soles’ decision not to run again could give Democrats a better shot at keeping that seat because Soles’ troubles were sure to be a major hindrance in a political campaign in the district in southeastern North Carolina.
Blackburn’s wounding was the most recent in a string of encounters between Soles and young men who were former law clients.
Ok, at first this doesn’t look like much. It looks like the Senator was defending himself against a felon and former convict trying to break into his house. But it turns out that the guy Blackburn was once represented by Soles, and had been to his house several times before. There is a whole lot “read between the lines” here if you run down the links, and Google up some more:
http://www.wwaytv3.com/node/20292
http://www.wwaytv3.com/node/19818
http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20090823/ARTICLES/908239980/-1/stormpost02&tc=email_newsletter
http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/national/article/74-year-old_n.c._state_senator_shoots_wounds_intruder_at_his_home/287987/P10/
http://www.wwaytv3.com/node/9774
http://www.topix.com/city/tabor-city-nc/2009/10/another-man-accuses-state-sen-r-c-soles-of-sexual-assault
http://wilmingtonshame.blogspot.com/2008/09/rc-and-moonpie.html
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2305001/posts
I don’t want to commit outright libel, but it appears to me that some people have the idea that Senator Soles has a long history of both transient gay dalliances and a long history of gay dominance relationships with his legal clients that in any other context would be called sexual harassment. I don’t live in North Carolina and I never even heard of Senator Soles before today, but that’s my read of all these articles. I was originally just going to post this one because of the “guns for me but not for thee” nature of the story of a gun control legislator shooting one of his former clients, but then the whole thing just blossomed when I started looking stuff up.
h/t to Moonbattery for both these sordid tales.
Posted by Drew458
on 01/14/2010 at 09:57 AM
Filed Under: • Crime • Guns and Gun Control • Liberals •
• Comments (1)
•
Trackbacks (0) •
Permalink • Tuesday - January 12, 2010
Finally For Sale
Production licensing is complete, pre-orders being accepted.
Length: 5.1”
Height: 4.2”
Width: 0.95”
Cartridge/Capacity: 9mm/9mm+P, 7+1
$849.
I wrote about the Boberg Engineering pistol about a year ago. It’s a remarkable design and an extremely well made little firearm. It’s been in development and undergoing testing for a long time now. Three models were on the drawing boards; a compact, a sub-compact, and a micro. Boberg is bringing the sub-compact model to market first, called the XR9-S.
Big deal Drew. Everybody has a teensy weensy little mousegun for sale these days. What makes the XR9 special?
Hey, glad you asked.
For starters, the Boberg XR9-S is a very small pistol. It’s the size of a Berretta Tomcat, which is one of the tiniest semi-automatic pistols ever made.
Except that the Tomcat uses the utterly anemic .32 ACP cartridge, whereas the XR9-S uses the 9mm Luger.
It’s a little bit bigger than the Ruger LCP
and the LCP can only handle plain .380 ACP. It will break if you use +P ammo. The XR9-S is rated for 9mm +P.
It’s pretty much identical in size to the little 9mm jewel sold by Rohrbaugh
just as well made, $200 less, and uses a mechanism that gives lower perceived recoil.
More importantly, the XR9-S is about 25% more powerful using the exact same ammunition.
You want a concealed carry gun, a back-up gun, to be rock solid reliable, controllable, and as powerful as possible, and as small and light as possible. The XR9-S seems to give you everything.
At ranges of just a few feet, the .32 ACP is a very marginal cartridge for self defense. From a full length test barrel it fires a 77 grain .312” diameter bullet at about 800 feet per second. From the very short barrel of a Beretta Tomcat velocities are down in the 600fps range. It might be fine for “poppin a cap upside yo haid” but don’t count on it to shoot through a leather jacket, much less the torso of the guy wearing it. It just ain’t enough gun, but it’s better than no gun at all. Barely.
The .380 ACP just makes the grade as the minimal acceptable cartridge for self defense. The .380 can push a 90 grain .355” diameter bullet to around 850fps in the little Ruger LCP. It makes a bigger hole than the .32, a bigger noise, but isn’t a real confidence builder when you think in terms of stopping power. The +P version of the .380 can push a slightly heavier bullet slightly faster - 100 grains at 1000fps - and while that’s a significant increase in power, it’s still far behind the old time standard .38 Special, which is an Ok self defense cartridge when used with soft cast lead bullets. The classic .38 Special load is a 158 grain .357” lead bullet at 900fps. More modern loads use a 125 grain jacketed hollowpoint at about 1000fps, for 25% more power than the .380 +P can manage. But the .38 Special is a revolver cartridge, and it is much longer than any cartridge for a semi-auto.
When used with the proper kinds of expanding bullets, the 9mm Luger ( aka 9mm Parabellum, aka 9x19 ) is a very good self defense cartridge. From a standard barrel the 9mm can push a .355” 124 grain bullet at about 1250fps, so it’s half again more potent than the .38 Special round, roughly twice as potent as the .380 +P, and probably 4 times as potent as the diminutive .32 ACP. The +P versions of the 9mm are hotter still, coming quite close to the performance of what passes for .357 Magnum ammunition these days. The .357 Magnum is another revolver-only round, and while unquestionably usable for self defense, is often more cartridge than many people can handle. The bullets also tend to shoot through the bad guys and the walls behind them, the cars behind them, and so on. It’s too much gun, but makes a fantastic flame thrower and flash-bang grenade in a stubby revolver. [ it’s loud as hell and the muzzle flash is furious! So is the recoil. Ouch. ]
So the 9mm/9mm+P is a very good balance point. Sure, so is the .40S&W and the .45ACP, but they both require thicker pistols, so you’re trading stopping power for “imprinting”; it’s often harder to conceal a thicker pistol under your clothes. And you get less shots from a magazine of a given size because the cartridges are larger in diameter. You can’t fit as many in the same space.
The Boberg XR9-S uses the 9mm round, regular or +P, so it has enough punch to do the job. As long as you use the right kind of ammo.
It’s a nifty design too, which is where that extra power comes from. 25% more than other 9mm pistols of similar size, plus less recoil. And believe me, the recoil of a 9mm in a mousegun is something to be concerned about. These little guns are very lively. The kick isn’t that hard, but it’s very fast, and the tiny little guns often jump a couple of feet up when you fire them. Less recoil means less movement, which means you can get back on target for the next shot a little bit faster. And that eyeblink of time matters when it’s you vs him.
The XR9-S uses a rotating breech locking mechanism. Recoil causes the barrel to turn a quarter turn around and actually unscrew itself from the locking lugs. Once unlocked the recoil pushes the cartridge back against the slide and then the slide ... slides. We’re only talking about a few milliseconds here, but a rotating breech unlocks slower than a cam locked breech like the 1911 .45 automatic pistol uses. So, just like firing an M1 carbine, the recoil is slowed down enough to be delivered in two parts. Bang, clunk. Bang, clunk feels less than the “bangslam” you get from the 1911, or a Glock, or any blowback (unlocked breech) 9mm. Actually, I’m not sure there are any blowback 9’s. It’s too hot a cartridge for that kind of action. Whatever, the XR9-S has less recoil than other designs. And that’s great.
But 25% more power? That’s a pretty big claim. Tests back this up though, and it’s because of the design of pistol. The Boberg guns use a feeding mechanism very similar to the ones used on machine guns. Instead of a magazine mounted below and behind the back of the barrel, and a mechanism that grabs a new round and slams it forward into the breech on closing (which is how just about every semi-auto pistol works), Bobergs grab the new round when the old one is being ejected. They have a reliable little puller gizmo inside that lifts and cradles the next shot out of the magazine, pulls it backwards and then up as the slide completes it’s movement, and then slips it into battery when the slide closes. You see, in a Boberg the magazine is under the barrel, but not behind it. This means that for a given size pistol, the barrel in a Boberg is about 1.25” longer than in a regular gun. That extra bit of bang tube gives the bullet more room to speed up, and the result is higher muzzle velocity. Bullet energy is based on the square of the velocity, so a little more speed gets you a lot more power. This is why Boberg brought the sub-compact pistol to market first. It’s just as powerful as everyone else’s compact pistol. In theory, the best barrel length for a 9mm is about 16-18”. That’s a rifle. Anything longer than that, and friction starts to slow the bullet. Anything shorter and you’re not getting - literally! - the best bang for your buck. Just about every pistol ever made has a sub-optimal barrel on it, so longer is better. Being able to fit a mid-size barrel to a tiny pistol is a great idea, especially when the result is still a tiny pistol.
As soon as I can save up the cash I’m buying one of these puppies. 8 shots of 9mm +P HPs will do the job, and then some. In a pistol that almost hides in the palm of your hand.
Read all about it at the Boberg homepage.
I can see only 3 possible downsides for this gun.
The first is that the backstrap to trigger length might be a bit too much for people with really small hands. I don’t have the measurements so I can’t say. The gun will fit most guys, but if you are a petite woman you might want to stick with the Ruger LCP. The LCPs are also very inexpensive, so buy two. One for each hand, then learn how to shoot that way. If you ever need to use them, empty both at your target. Then run, because he just might be very mad.
The second is the cost. The XR9-S is not cheap. It is not a throw away gun like the LCP. It costs more than a Kel-Tec and about the same as a Kahr. Quality always costs. If you admire fine firearms, then this really isn’t an issue.
The third, and possibly damning issue is the old pig-in-a-poke. Boberg is still in startup. The very first production run is just beginning. If you buy now you will be buying blind, shelling out big green for a gun you have never put your hands or eyes on. For me, I’d do this in a heartbeat. I know that the company has been doing R&D on these things for years, and I know that the quality of the first production run guns will make or break the company. I have confidence that the first run guns are going to be utterly perfect before they get out the door. I own a first generation Kimber 1911 Gold Match. To hell with that “cold dead fingers” nonsense - I’m going to be buried with that one. Ain’t never ever never letting it go. And if Boberg goes under, in a decade those pistols are going to be nearly priceless to collectors.
Ok, one more “negative”: this is not a pistol for stupid people. There will be a non-intuitive learning curve: you have to rack the slide TWICE to make sure the gun is unloaded. The old “pull the slide back and lock it open, look in the chamber, then drop the magazine” method used to empty a regular semi-automatic pistol will result in a loaded XR9-S. Better learn to drop the magazine first, then rack the slide. Then rack it again, just to be sure.
UPDATE: I got an email from Arne Boberg. He says it will be just a little while longer, so don’t call in your orders just yet.
Posted by Drew458
on 01/12/2010 at 12:45 PM
Filed Under: • Guns and Gun Control •
• Comments (10)
•
Trackbacks (0) •
Permalink • Wednesday - December 23, 2009
Firearms Sales Slowing?
National Instant Criminal Background Checks were slightly down for November. This doesn’t surprise me; November is typically the heart of the hunting season, and the gun owners are out using the new guns they bought earlier in the year. November is the only month so far in 2009 that hasn’t broken all previous sales records; expect holiday sales in December to put the firearms industry over the top once again. All told, it is estimated that close to 14,000,000 NICS checks will be performed for 2009. That’s a solid 10% gain over 2008, which itself was a 10% gain over 2007, which was in turn a 10% gain over 2006. And 2006 was more than 10% more than 2005. So 2009 is up more than 50% compared to 2005. That’s quite a gain in just 4 years.
The NICS system, now a bit over 11 years old, checks prospective gun buyers to make sure they aren’t criminals or crazy people or other undesirables. And in 11 years and 1 month, this is what they have caught:
5.5 million negative hits from over 107 million checks. That’s just over 5%. And nearly 71% of those hits are from illegal aliens. A miniscule 0.00505% - about 1 in 2000 - were hits relating to the so-called Lautenberg Amendment, which prohibits people charged or convicted of domestic violence from purchasing guns.
Meanwhile, the National Shooting Sports Foundation has taken a look at their own data and shown us the most popular gun purchases by region:
So overall NICS looks like a pretty decent system. But look what NSSF can extract from the same data! If only those records were kept longer, and had more detail, the government would know everything! So ... as always, here we go again. Lautenberg, Bloomberg, and Chucky Shumer are at it again ...
This week Lautenberg introduced a separate bill (S. 2820), calling for NICS firearm transaction records to be retained for 10 years on a person suspected of being a member of a terrorist organization. That, however, is a smokescreen for another provision in the same bill, to retain NICS records of approved firearm transfers for 180 days for other gun buyers.
While Lautenberg introduced S. 2820 in the wake of Ft. Hood (with terrorism fresh on Americans’ minds), gun control supporters have wanted NICS records retained for longer than 24 hours since NICS’ inception. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), a co-sponsor of the Lautenberg bill, argued in favor of a 180-day retention back in 2001. After all, the Brady Act, as passed by Congress, required that NICS “destroy” the records of approved firearm purchases.
Along with the Lautenberg bills described above, gun control supporters are concurrently campaigning for a law to force all private gun sales to be run through NICS. Connecting the dots is a simple task. The goal shared by gun control supporters and by government entities for whom no amount of knowledge about American citizens is too much, is to incrementally increase the amount of information the government possesses on gun owners who, through no fault of their own, end up on a secret government list.
As I said earlier, it never ends. Absolute power corrupts. Absolutely.
Posted by Drew458
on 12/23/2009 at 02:12 PM
Filed Under: • Guns and Gun Control •
• Comments (1)
•
Trackbacks (0) •
Permalink • Five Most Recent Trackbacks:
Amazing aerial images taken by daring Allied pilots on secret missions during WW 2
(1 total trackbacks)
Tracked at Hookers and Booze
peiper over at Barking Moonbat EWS found some absolutely kickass aerial photos from WWII. I grabbed this one because I’m a big fan of the movie A Bridge Too Far.…
On: 11/23/09 03:14
Clear Thinking and Straight Talk
(1 total trackbacks)
Tracked at baldilocks
Let Them Fight or Bring Them Home Read all of it--and tell every American you know to do so. (Thanks to BMEWS) UPDATE: The author of the above blog is…
On: 10/02/09 08:29
A Box With Four Sides
(1 total trackbacks)
Tracked at Macker's World
See, Afghanistan was worth saving. I can't say the same about Pocky-stawn, especially since it possesses nuclear weapons and no thanks to North Korea, China, and AQ Khan. So they…
On: 05/07/09 01:37
Display it with pride
(1 total trackbacks)
Tracked at Macker's World
Take a look at the sidebar and click on the "DHS Certificate" shown. You'll see what Crappy Nappy thinks of those who believe in Limited Government and Constitutional Rights. Therefore,…
On: 04/19/09 10:25
A Bad Time To Call
(1 total trackbacks)
Tracked at Conservatism Today
Drew at Barking Moonbat Early Warning System was in a foul mood as he took a call from a guy with the Republican party while he was doing his taxes…
On: 04/14/09 05:46
DISCLAIMER
THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.
Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:
It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.
- Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
- Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
- Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
- Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere
THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.
Copyright © 2004-2008 Domain Owner
Oh, and here's some kind of visitor flag counter thingy. Hey, all the cool blogs have one, so I should too. The Visitors Online thingy up at the top doesn't count anything, but it looks neat. It had better, since I paid actual money for it.
RSS 2.0 
Atom 
