AK advice. Memes. Faux Pax. Have fun folks. You all have Holiday Toys to go and play with so watch this real quick and then go do that.
$25 Million in CDC Funds for Gun Violence Research
Under new legislation passed by the House of Representatives, and expected to quickly pass the Senate and be signed into law by President Trump, $25 million has been allocated for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study gun violence.
This is the first time in 20 years that the feds are funding gun violence research — and it comes at the right time as, according to the CDC, nearly 40,000 people died of gun-related injuries in 2017 alone. – The Hill, Dr. Marc Siegel
And it is here that Dr. Siegel’s piece drifts into ‘why’ it took 20 years to fund the CDC for research. Dr. Siegel couldn’t be bothered to enumerate that even a basic breakdown of those deaths into suicide (majority), homicide, accident, and justified. Four simple datasets that begin to tell us more of what we can do to reduce that 40,000 number.
In data collection and study we must be specific and it becomes clear that Dr. Siegel has made up his mind.
It has always disturbed me that here in the U.S., where there is no assault rifle ban and where copycat shootings fueled by internet and social-media anger abound, the Centers for Disease Control did not have the funding to study the phenomena and make recommendations over which is the chicken and which is the egg, in terms of gun violence.
There is an effective assault rifle ban, Dr. Siegel. It was signed in 1934, updated in 1968, and closed in finality in 1986. These acts, the National Firearms Act, the Gun Control Act, and the Firearm Owners Protection Act have banned the new production of assault rifles (and all select fire weapons since they qualify as machineguns) since 1986 and their transfer between persons is taxed and monitored by the ATF and FBI. Every single one legally in anyone’s hands is taxed and registered at an atrocious inconvenience of time.
But no, you of course meant assault weapons, or the new term in Virginia assault firearms. Terms so nebulous they can be made to mean whatever it is the officiate considered scary at the time. You don’t mean to reference the fact that only ~1% of the 40,000 deaths you wish the CDC to begin studying are homicides committed with those ‘assault’ weapons (generously granting that the majority of rifle deaths occurred using a modern semi-auto) and that none of them were with assault rifles (believe me, we would have heard that one to no end) and that handguns will continue to account for the supermajority of firearm deaths, especially homicides.
It’s that ‘which is the chicken and which is the egg’ comment that really sinks any objectivity I could ascribe to you lauding the CDC’s data gathering. Homicide and suicide aren’t ‘the chicken and the egg’, those are problems among the human condition that have existed millenia before Samuel Colt and John Moses Browning. Those problems were ancient when Christ walked the earth. Problems so old they are addressed in the Old Testament, in times far more violent than our modern existence.
But sure, Dr. Siegel, let’s oversimplify a complex series of social problems that cover emotional, financial, and political motives into ‘Well… what came first, the gun or murder?’
The killing of another human being for gain is Cain and Abel, Book of Genesis, level old. And that’s just one of the earlier times it was written down as a lesson of what not to do, scholars date the Book of Genesis at 10th Century to 5th Century BC as the sources aligned. Personal firearms and the right to own them? 1789 here in the states.
So we have an ancient social problem and a comparatively brand new technology. I think I’ve completed the ‘which came first’ question analysis, I will expect my check from the CDC.
Honestly I’m glad the CDC is getting funding for research. More data, well collected, allows us to find solutions and locate areas for more direct study. Those 40,000 deaths have a broad range of causative factors. More so, likely, than the comparative number of automotive deaths. I want any significant cause of death in society to be as well understood as we can make it, the more we understand something the more we can work to solve that which is reasonable to solve.
What I don’t want to see, and what I have little faith that I won’t see but I could be surprised, is a generalization of causative factors we already know and that data just be cherry picked over by politicos who think the answer to every behavior problem is prohibition.
We will see.
In other words, is the gun merely the tool, or is it the cause of mass shootings?
Your language here betrays you, Dr. The objective term would be mass killings, and that is an old problem too. It sounds, very much, like you have your mind made up before a dollar of this $25,000,000 is spent, Dr. Siegel. Sloppy terminology, broad generalization, with a touch of mischaracterization of data common among ban proponents.
As goes the Reformation so goes the Origin.
FosTecH, like Franklin Armory, made a ‘firearm’ that blatantly challenged the definitions the ATF must work with under the NFA and the GCA. This could always come back to bite them but I do applaud their efforts in highlighting the NFA absurdity.
The Origin-12 SBV was just such a firearm. The SBV’s are now NFA regulated SBS/DD items and must exist under an AOW stamp or SBS stamp. The receivers, in the opinion of the ATF, must all be redone and the originals destroyed.
FosTecH has news on this front
In short, if you own an Origin SBV (not a regular Origin shotgun) you must swap the current illegal firearm with an NFA variant or a non-NFA Origin 12. FosTecH is assisting owners in this transition as much as feasible to get everyone who patronized FosTecH and their neat 12 gauge weapon compliant under the NFA/GCA.
This is, however, a process that will take a long time. If you would rather not wait there is the option to dispose of the firearm.
Again, this ruling only applies to SBV ‘firearm’ models of the Origin 12 and not regular shotguns or anything already under the auspices of the NFA that has been taxed and stamped.
Opinion
Short version. The NFA and GCA are obsolete headaches for everyone involved.
Longer version. The NFA and GCA are rulesbooks that the ATF desperately want updated and that politicos are terrified to touch. This means that the Federal LE branch charged with minding the dusty tomes and the rules within them are working out of 1934 and 1968 for the most part and innovators within the firearm industry are under no such limitation… until they are because that is what a review determined.
This costs the time and money of the businesses involved, the time and money of the ATF, and most of it is because politicians don’t want to push the needle.
If we want it to end we must put in the long efforts toward legislation like the Home Defense and Competitive Shooting Act. Get firearms off the NFA , dismantle it until it can be removed from the duties of the ATF. Dismantle the ATF until its duties can be folded under the FBI. It’s not like the jobs themselves are going much of anywhere, the ATF/FBI/ABCDEFG agents and employees are always going to have work to do. But think of the increase in spend efficiency when they don’t have to waste time on stuff like this because… it’s just a gun. Not a SBS/GCA/EIEIO or whatever else the 34’/68′ rulebook is close enough to.
Russia is just not having a good time…
The previous bad news from the origin nation of the AK regarded their lone aircraft carrier… which was basically just burning down in service at that moment.
And now they have lost one of their 5th Generation fighter aircraft. One of ten.
From Military.com
MOSCOW (AP) — Russian officials say a top-of-the-line fighter jet has crashed on a training mission but that its pilot bailed out safely.
Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation said in a statement Tuesday that the Su-57 fighter came down during a training flight near Komsomolsk-on-Amur in the country’s far east. It said the plane’s pilot safely ejected and there was no damage on the ground.
The SU-57 was the Russian answer to the F-22 Raptor air superiority fighter.
The F-22 first flew in 1997 and proved an impressive, if expensive, airframe. The project was scaled back during GWOT as we found our fleet of F-15’s, F-16’s, and F/A-18’s still up to the tasks of air superiority and Close Air Support. The capabilities of the 22 were underutilized and maintenance, especially of its stealth, was expensive.
The Su-57 first flew in 2010. The aim was to give Russia, and any commercial customers, near peer capabilities to the F-22 and the now far more widely produced F-35. But there are (were) only 10 planes produced. Now there are 9.
Signed contracts say the Russians should have 76 fighters by 2028. The US has 187 fleet F-22’s by comparison and is set to field 2,663 F-35’s. Completion of delivery of the F-35 will be 2037. Giving the U.S. about a 37:1 5th Generation fighter advantage if the Russians did not produce more planes for their air force from 2028-3037. The Su-57 has flown combat in Syria as has the F-35 against ISIS targets.
Franklin Armory Responds to the ATF Classification
For those curious, the ATF issued an opinion letter on the classification of the Reformation ‘straight rifling’ firearm that made it into a Gun Control Act Short Barrel Shotgun. It is the first of its kind in the classification and their have been no rules yet formalized to keep transferring the Reformation, with the exception of between most FFL’s.
Deception or Ignorance… it does not much matter.
The future reloaded
The title of a Sacramento story this morning that attempts (poorly) to explain to the public the technology behind our favorite piece of haunted hysterics… the ‘Ghost Gun‘
The shooting happened so fast that three off-duty officers rushing toward it couldn’t make a difference.
Last month at Saugus High School, California’s 21st mass shooting since 1982 left two victims dead and three wounded among the brushy hills of Santa Clarita. With a trio of officers heading straight into that chaos, the causalities were a jarring reminder of how fast tragedy comes once a gun starts firing. The campus has high fences and security cameras, but it’s not one of the 3% of American schools that currently use metal detectors. But even if it had taken that precaution, it may not have been enough.
If the student had gone through the detector (that was not there), yes they could have made a difference. But let’s break down all the things that would have to go in favor of security for it to have mattered. Because it could just have easily failed to make the difference.
- Student would have had to attempt to go through the detector, knowing the detectors are there.
- Security would have to properly screen when the detector went off and not miss a concealed firearm, an event that happens all the time (Check the TSA’s failure rate)
- If the prior two events didn’t occur the officers in place to respond would have to be in position to directly observe the student, recognize he was pulling a weapon, and respond themselves in a manner to effectively intercede…
In manufacturing, it is called stacking tolerances. The amount of error that can be allowed in a given part of a system before a failure of the system occurs that must be additionally calculated with the errors in all the other parts. This is all when individual parts are, technically, correct.
The security systems, any system, has only so much latitude that it can influence in favor of successful intervention or dissuading a motivated perpetrator. Those are its tolerances. Each more complicated item you add to that system can only work within its capabilities and influence in its limited sphere.
You get to a point where your system is so stacked to only work successfully in such a limited manner that it fails. This leaves people wondering why it was there, and what failed, in the first place? The very basic reaction to this is to add additional complexity, further limiting the specificity of system but biasing those who know of the system’s existence to believing its coverage far greater than is reality.
We see that bias in full swing with this article and its author’s either confusion… or perhaps deliberate obfuscation.
Not only do ghost guns exist outside conventional safety measures—background checks, restraining orders, general traceability—a new customized breed can now be made almost entirely of plastic. Some are forged by advanced computer numerical control milling machines, while other versions have been made with 3D printers. At least some of them have already slipped through metal detectors. In fact, investigative journalists report having been able to sneak a 3D-printed gun through the security system for the Israeli parliament—twice.
We go into a dramatic mix of misplaced information after the opening about the high school shooting and its use of a ‘Ghost Gun’ in a school without detectors. That shooting occurred with a 80% receiver finished into a 1911. A 1911 is almost all metal parts, the 80% receivers are generally aluminum or steel, not polymer. Even if it had been polymer the majority of the gun would have been steel and therefore detectable by screening machines that, I repeat, were not at the school to begin with if the student had gone through them with the gun at all… Yeah this one is quiet the rabbit hole folks.
The article has steered from the tragedy of a disturbed student attacking classmates in close proximity to law enforcement, to the fact detectors were not present to find the 1911 (if he would have passed through them to begin with), to the fact it was a 80% receiver 1911 and didn’t have a serial number, to the fact that 3D printing is a viable technology now and that security screening is still and will always be imperfect.
But all of that is written to lead you to the problem being identified as, ‘Ghost Gun’ and not individual system limitations for security. By the end of the paragraph you would think the student in California had printed some untraceable device that used stealth materials to slip in and kill his classmates before killing himself. A technology that has been used to sneak guns into an ally’s parliament chambers!
You are left with no notion that the only difference between the gun he used and any other handgun bought from a store is that no one put a number on the side. That’s it, the only physical difference. Every other part of the security net requires perfect social interactions to work, that includes the person committing violence doing what we want and walking into our security screen, something that person or persons are actively trying to avoid.
No one wants to say that good safety systems aren’t foolproof. They don’t want to acknowledge the realities that those tolerances exist and a lot of things must go how we want them to go for our safety systems to work.
But… Why bother with that when we can demonize a technology no one will understand, especially not from that explanation…
No one wants to hear, “There is nothing we could have done, at that point.” No one wants the public acknowledgement that the power to commit or prevent an act is so weighted in the hands of the perpetrators and that our measures against such will always be imperfect. They want to equate the acknowledgement of that with a refusal to do anything. If it is a refusal, it’s easy to blame someone for it.
If it’s impossible… then what? Do the best we can?
Yes. But making it the best requires recognizing the hard truths. That’s not something many are willing to do.
That Old Henry Rifle
As the holidays come around, I get to remember a yearly tradition between my brother and sister and I. As kids, we shared a Henry 22 LR lever-action rifle. We loved it, and after we grew up, it started this tradition of traveling from home to home. While over the times the time we swapped guns has changed depending on what someone’s doing, the tradition of exchanging the rifle starts on Christmas or Thanksgiving. When we come together for the holidays, the guns get broken out, and we shoot and plink. That’s when someone else takes the old Henry home.
This year I ended up with it. It’s been a few years since I’ve loaded the old gun and went shooting, but today that changed. I have forgotten how much fun this gun is. I’m a little bigger now, and this gun is a lot smaller than I remember. The loop barely fits my hand, and the length of pull is a bit short, but man does this gun shoot.
While the Ruger 10/22 might be the AR of the rimfire world, the Henry is a much more stylish piece. This lever-action gun harkens back to the old days of spaghetti westerns and gives you a bit different rimfire experience.
The Henry
The Henry brand is well known for their well made and easy shooting lever-action rifles. They’ve also produced the AR 7 for some time and even some lever-action shotguns. The Henry 22 LR rifle, known as the Classic Lever Action Model H001, is a classic gun. It’s still produced to this day, and over a million have been sold. The Henry rifle is affordable. It often costs less than 300 bucks and is a little cooler than your basic semi-auto 22 LR rifle.
The gun is also capable of handling most different types of rimfire 22. It can reliably cycle Long Rifle, Long, and Short. With long rifle, the gun can hold 15 rounds, in 22 long it can hold 17 rounds, and in 22 Short, you can squeeze in 21 rounds. The magazine is, of course, a tube that sits under the barrel as with original Henry designs.
The magazine tube is loaded through the top of the tube, and a spring-loaded plunger locks it down and ensures the rounds feed as the lever is worked. The barrel is 18.5 inches long, and it weighs just a touch over 5 pounds.
My gun originally came with open sights all around if I remember, and somewhere along the way, someone added a hooded front sight. That also seems to be a factory option for these rifles. The top of the receiver has a groove to allow for mounting optics too, but this has always been an iron sight gun as far as I know.
Ergonomics
Do you know what I love about this gun? They didn’t over safety it to a ridiculous degree. The Heritage revolvers are great, but a single action revolver with a manual safety is a bit much. The Henry H001 is as simple as it gets when it comes to gun design.
You have a lever, a trigger, and a hammer, and that is it. There is no safety beyond the action opened and an empty chamber. There is a half-cock position in the hammer’s motion. To decock the gun, you have to hold the hammer and guide it down slowly.
The lever moves remarkably smooth. Without a doubt, 15 years of ownership and thousands of rounds downrange have likely smoothed it up, but to be fair, Henry rifles are also already very smooth. With a proper grip, your thumb has no issue finding the hammer to decock it safely with it pointed downrange.
The loading design doesn’t allow you to feed the gun rounds as you shoot. To load the gun, you’ll have to stop shooting, remove the plunger, and drop some shots in. No shoot two, load two with the Henry rifle.
Range Time with the Henry
The trigger is delightful. It’s super short, very light, and is perfect for accurate shooting. The little Henry’s trigger is, without a doubt, one of the better rimfire triggers. It makes it easy to shoot, especially for kid shooters looking to learn accurately.
As you’d imagine, this gun has no recoil. Not even a touch of it. It barely moves when mounted to your shoulder, and that’s perfect for new shooters. The satisfaction manually operating the action is second to none. It’s like pumping a shotgun in terms of cool factor. From the motion to the noise, it makes it’s a satisfying experience all around.
The open sights are more than sufficient for the 22 LR and the plinking this gun is designed for. They are slightly adjustable, but I doubt that’s ever been done with our rifle. It shoots plenty straight in my experience. You can smack the cherry off a cigarette at ten paces. That used to be a standard contest between the family; the same goes for how fast we could shoot all 15 rounds with the manually operated action.
We channeled our inner Rifleman and would try to work the action and pull the trigger as fast as we could without missing a Pepsi can.
It’s a great small game getter, and many a squirrel and rabbit have been turned to stew because of this rifle. I took it out today and lit up a ten-inch steel gong over and over and was greeted with that nostalgic feeling of handling my old Henry.
This Old Henry
It’s such a fun gun to shoot, and as a Christmas present, it’s lasted my family nearly 15 years. We’ve shot thousands of rounds through it, and I doubt we stick to a proper maintenance schedule with the gun. Yet it still goes bang, and it still shoots true round after round. This is a fantastic rifle and one I love shooting still. It’s given me the desire for a larger, more powerful lever gun.
A Wish on Christmas Eve
From our families to yours, we wish you all the peace, love, and good tidings that are to be had. It’s a time to slow down, reflect, and take joy in the greatest aspects of human nature. Rekindle our generosity and kindness, refresh from our weariness, and remember that the struggles and challenges we face do not eclipse any selflessness.
It isn’t the easiest time of year and it seemed not to creep in upon us this year, but bull-rushed as soon as the leftovers from Thanksgiving were cleared.
It has been a pleasure, this 2019, to write and express my observations of the community here and for everyone who enjoys reading it, I thank you personally. My writers thank you too. You give us a reason to use this as a creative outlet and go find new things to try each year, and we’re looking forward to doing that starting at SHOT 2020.
We’re all on vacation. And I hope that everyone reading this can find just a moment of genuine relaxation in the tumult that won’t ebb until 8 days from today.
For those traveling this Christmas Eve, stay frosty, don’t rush, you have all the time in the world to arrive alive. For those staying put, hosting, or staying in to unwind, don’t worry to much and do the good you can with what you have. For the guests, be the good guest and improve the experience of those you’re with.
Be kind, folks. We can pick up all the insanity right where we left it later.
Now if you will all excuse me, I smell cookies.
“I think we’ve got the majority of these guns in.”
“If people still own these guns after Dec. 20, they face up to five years in jail. They run the risk of losing their freedom. That’s why I just do not believe there are 170,000 — I think we’ve got the majority of these guns in,” Nash said.
I won’t call those famous last words, Stuart Nash is unlikely to die over them or be terminated from his position as Minister of Police in New Zealand but not believing your estimates just to make yourself feel better seems highly naive for a top cop.
Civil non-compliance seems to be a foreign concept to Mr. Nash. He has full faith, at least publicly, that the ill used owners who were given an assessed value, not a refund, for their firearms complied in majority. And that isn’t a group likely to out themselves after feeling so ill used. So I tend to believe the pessimistic numbers from a practices and planning standpoint. I’m going to assume, as a theoretical officer of New Zealand law enforcement, that more of the arms still exist in circulation than less.
This doesn’t play well for public confidence though, so saying things like, ‘majority’ or ‘most of them’, gives the MoP and his subordinates an easy out for any future failure of this policy and its ill use of the former owners. Any future arrest and sentence under the ban will need to be coordinated to make another charge the principle offense, or used sparingly as any overuse against violators will begin to look far more despotic than the policy currently is.
All in all, despite Nash’s confidence, real or feigned, this has almost certainly expanded an underground arms market within the nation. Illegally armed individuals will mostly consist of non-compliant average citizens, not terrorists or gang affiliated criminals.
And after all of this, even if Nash’s optimistic number is spot on, that leaves tens of thousands still in circulation. With only one needing to fall into misuse for the whole scheme to come to naught.
The NGSW as we approach SHOT 2020
I’m tired of politics for the moment and it’s Christmas Eve Eve so we are going back to my favorite tech topic of the moment, the Next Generation Squad Weapon.
Task & Purpose does a rundown on all three guns… well mostly the Textron… with a little on the Sig Sauer and a mention of the General Dynamics. They drift into the .338 general purpose machine gun development too. It’s not the best.
HOWEVER!
They show why the Textron rifle looks so goofy on the outside, as there is a lot going on the interior. The telescoping ammunition and the mechanics inside that run the system are near Rube Goldberg levels of complexity and that really gives me pause. But it has made it this far and FN, a known leader in the small arms space, didn’t.
I guess we’ll see. Jumbled and a little jumping around but this is the best look inside the Textron we have seen to date.
Virginia Breaks 100 Gun Sanctuaries
Virginia, the state that was strategically targeted by Bloombergians to flip urban centers to then chase ravenously after “common sense gun control” has responded from the ground up in a big way. Most of the state has told Governor Northram to pound sand.
After winning the state through those densely populated and easily manipulated urban centers Northram chose to target “assault firearms” and “militia training”, ostensibly to prevent violence but with language so broad it can mean whatever they damn well please. Just about every “modern” firearm (Post WW1) is on the chopping block and any variation of training could be targeted as well. We are just talking about classes like IWI’s Tavor I (which you should go take) or Sentinel Concept’s Handgun or Red Dot Handgun. The law could target every basic concealed carry class mandated by the state to get a Virginia permit or any martial arts class down to your kids karate.
It’s every workplace’s anemic ‘active shooter’ policy (that won’t include any form of violent push back against the killer in its curriculum, because that’s scary) turned up to 11 and made into a crime. Result? Nobody in their right mind would teach in Virginia due to the liability, exactly like Northram’s team wanted.
Now there is now a ‘grandfather’ provision in the law to try and appease the grumpy Virginians, but we’ve known how that trick goes for awhile. Eventually, like California, they take it away when something else inevitably happens in this nation of roughly 330,000,000 people.
So, like I said yesterday, Virginia is the place to pay attention to.
The Impeachment
I’ve steered clear of this political topic up until this point. Mostly because… the impeachment of Donald Trump doesn’t directly have a lot to do with firearms and 2nd Amendment rights. The Donald is mostly a fair weather friend of the 2A for political reasons and we saw that when it came to bumpstocks.
So what does the impeachment mean in a more 20,000 ft altitude view of things and how does that relate to gun rights?
Well… probably pretty status quo.
Let’s break it down.
The sitting President has been impeached by a less than 100% party line vote in the House of Representatives over two articles with less than clear ties to actual crimes on under US law. Compare that to the two acquitted formal charges against President Clinton for Perjury and Obstruction of Justice, both with clear statutes under law, and the Trump case looks far murkier.
So from a practical procedural standpoint we’re likely to end up with the same result as the Clinton impeachment but with an even more partisan taste left in everyone’s mouths. The Senate was split 50/50 on Clinton, and that only on one charge with the other charge being 55/45 for acquittal.
The Senate this time is likely to give a war stronger showing for acquittal if the party lines hold steady. The absolute most the Democrats are likely to pull off is 47 out of 67 necessary votes, and given the uncertainty and defections in the House they’re not likely to to even get that. It’s possible, depending on the electoral circumstances and how the trial goes, that the conviction vote doesn’t even hit 40 for either charge.
And with the House holding the articles from the Senate until a ‘favorable situation’ can be worked out after the holiday break, the process looks more and more like the political stunt and less and less like the solemn constitutional duty the Democrats claim to have been carrying out in defense of the nation at its principles.
Talk about a house divided. Literally the House divided. Even the Dems were divided and mostly had to be pushed into position like taking an all cats holiday picture. Still a few decided, nope not gonna ride this one down.
What’s this stunt going to get them?
I have no idea what they see gaining out of this that will not be taken away in an election year campaign that will capitalize on every weakness in the Democrat’s case.
The obviously partisan nature of the proceedings overshadows any validity they ever had because the Democrats have been after impeachment vocally from the opening months of the Trump presidency. There is no way this couldn’t look like a partisan attack and yet they brought the weak case to its partisan fruition and have spent enormous political capital to do so.
And add to that the atrociously biased optics of withholding the articles from the Senate… if this was so important the message you would want to send is The Avatar of the House banging down the chamber door of the Senate because this thing is so urgent and so egregious that the Senate must act swiftly! Instead they are sitting on it and playing a game of ‘We aren’t partisan! They are!’
All this for…
No appreciable gain for any candidate they are running for President and putting all their up for reelection House members on dangerous ground unless they have very hardcore bases. Copy and paste that for Senators that go along with the House. They’re putting all their chips on ‘Orange Man Bad’ and their evidence is ‘well, we said so.’
They also get… energized opposition base with a full drum magazine of political ammunition that will play like sweet resonating justice.
Even with the the blindfolded dartboard approach that finally stuck a point, after three years and multiple attempts, it is far from a bullseye and all but that small hardcore base are kinda tired of it.
All this sets up the potential for huge Republican gains in Congress along with the first reelected impeached President of the United States, potentially with greater gains than his run against Hillary Clinton. Especially likely if no one comes out of the Democrat field looking like a voice of reason and unity, a move that would alienate and dishearten their dwindling vocal base because ‘how dare you ever agree with a Republican.’
What does it mean for the 2A?
Like I said above, status quo more than likely. The 2nd has been making steady gains in small arenas and taking losses in locations where it wasn’t all that surprising, if disappointing. Virginia is the hot zone right now and we’re going to take a more critical momentum gauge from the efforts there than broader national stage where gun rights get swallowed up as a minor issue unless they are contentiously in the spotlight due to recent events.
But if we get the House back and gains in the Senate, a likely event unless Republicans royally screw the PR pooch, we could see and pressure for momentum on items like the Home Defense and Competitive Shooting Act, which would make us happy and a lot of ATF agent’s jobs much much easier.
So the impeachment is an arena where we have to see what settles and what we have to work with after it all settles. The Republican electorate could get down with having a field day welcoming all the Moderates and disillusioned Democrats to the more sane looking party at the moment.
But we will see, there’s a lot of election season to go… oh boy…
New Zealand Buyback Ends… with the gift of… Hope?
I would much prefer objective security to hope but we all knew where this was going when it started and that prohibition would never deliver.
From The Guardian:
Under the very encouraging headline of ‘Gun Buyback Won’t Change Things Overnight’ we open with a declaration that, because the ban now exists and the buyback was a thing, this is a success.
*Looks back at prohibition era America at the success*
Okay, now that we have clearly defined success as having ‘done the thing’, not actively measurably improving the nation’s security because that ‘can’t be done overnight’ (translation: this doesn’t actually work like we promised it does) here we are.
The primary aim of the buyback is prevention of future mass killings by taking these guns out of society and compensating the previous owners. Prevention is a poor servant and a hard master.
This has never worked. It fails the minute anyone has the competence to try regardless of motivation. And that horrible butchering of a quote, often attributed to George Washington but with origins far earlier, is a warning about the dangers of government power.
“Government is not reason, it is not eloquence,—it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant, and a fearful master; never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.”
Huge political capital and up to NZ$200m (US$130m) are being spent by government in return for a success that will be revealed by an absence of negative events, by continued safety and trust within communities and other intangible benefits.
“Intangible benefits…, a success that will be revealed…” that’s what the world loves. Just a promise that this was a good thing. The absence of negative events is another good one. The New Zealand attacker wanted this exact thing to play out so whatever nut came after him could knock the whole thing down again. This will take 1… 1 negative event!
$130 Million US spent on a hope that nobody in the entire future of New Zealand decides to get violent.
Buybacks have been shown to work when they are part of a package of measures and the arms bill, currently going through parliament, is an important part of that package. Police commitment to the often invisible work of building trust and de-escalation of conflict without themselves using firearms will be crucial.
I’ll skip the whole ‘buybacks work’ angle, The UK and Australian stats speak to that being a highly optimistic way to say nobody has gotten that violent since, but it could totally happen again at any time. Building of trust? De-escalation? Which of those items would have de-radicalized the Christchurch shooter? Which of those will prevent all of those who may follow him? The policy laid out must be 100% effective to be considered a success and it cannot be so. It’s feels like we haven’t tried real socialism… I mean gun control, yet.
Domestic violence prevention is also important as mass killings often start in the home. A secret service report in the United States also found that most school shooters had been victims of bullying and had a history of disciplinary problems.
You mean this one?
Yes, it also highlights unemployment/underemployment as a problem. It also highlights higher education as a common factor. It shows that Islamic tied killers are statistically the youngest. It, along with another informative report from the FBI, bracket any number of factors shared by perpetrators of mass violence.
Paranoia, delusions of grandeur, a lot of spare time, predominantly male, some with substance abuse, some with arrest records, some… some.. some. Mass violence is a complex planned emotive response and its reduction in frequency, early intervention, and response too it during and after is hard. The confidence and hope has no logical fondation and must use a very convoluted look at data to give the impression that it does.
New Zealand hopes this will work.
Most gun buybacks are small and local and take in in fewer than 1000 firearms, compared to an estimated 300m small arms worldwide in the hands of civilians. Such small buybacks do not make a difference to violent crime or suicides but Los Angeles police, among others, continue to run them year after year. This is because they empower local people to support gun control and give hope to their communities.
… 300 million worldwide? Estimates of just the United States range from about 393 to 660 million. Double that for a rough worldwide estimate of private arms. If it isn’t a billion it is damn close.
And then in the next line, the very next line, you give away the secret sauce. They don’t work but LAPD, among others, keeps doing them anyway. Because hope is apparently a logical course of action. Let’s underplay and ignore the inconvenient fact that there are precursor signs we could pay attention to, but nowhere near guarantee an individual attack prevention, and instead just play on hope.
Gun advocates insist that all licensed firearms owners are law-abiding citizens – they just won’t be obeying this law. History suggests however that changing the law is a very effective approach to changing behaviour. This will not happen at once and it won’t happen overnight.
True story. Ask the Germans how that went in the 1930’s, ask the Jews too. Law does not equate to right action or effective action.
But, looking back, it is highly probable the buyback will be seen as the beginning of real change toward a gun culture that supports a safe and peaceful New Zealand.
Everyone just ignore the UK right now… just don’t look over there… those are knives and other weapons and that violence doesn’t count against peacefulness, they have turn in bins. Definitely don’t look at their overall violent crime rates. Remember we are trying to prevent low probability highly complicated effective violent attacks through hope.
As for “safe and peaceful” New Zealand is better and worse than the US depending on which stat you look at. Homicide? New Zealand is safer per capita. Assault? New Zealand is worse. Total Crime per capita? New Zealand is worse. So judge ‘safe’ and ‘peacful’ how you will but New Zealand’s stats look a lot like the UK’s with lower homicide and homicide by firearm but higher overall crime and a higher assault rate.
47? 74? Not Dyslexia. Yes, Different AKs
I found this video from Brandon Herrera this morning and it was worth the share.
It’s a common mistake to call any and every AK pattern rifle an AK47 and while AK and AR are categories of firearms an AK47 really only covers the original AK47 types and the AKM. Just as every AR-15 is not an M4, not every AK is an AK47.
In fact a great many are not AK47s, most common among a mass produced and immense number of variations is the AKM, the stamped steel receiver update of the 47. As you get further away from Russia and the Soviet heartland you see more changes away from that centralized AKM pattern if the rifles used were produced domestically. If the nation bought rifles the usually bought boatloads of AKMs.
Around 1974 the Soviet Union was seeing the advantages of NATO’s switch to the lightweight, longer effective range, more accurate 5.56x45mm for their assault rifles and followed that logic train with the 5.45x39mm round. The AK74 was built around it as a whole system improvement on the AKM and highlights the manufacturing improvements as well as the increased effectiveness of the rifles.
The 74 didn’t disseminate the way the 47 did though. Nations who had bought arms from China or Russia just kept the cheap stockpiles of 7.62×39 weapons and 5.45×39 weapons became associated with more professional military services on the international stage. The AK47 became the weapon of ad hoc militias, guerillas, and third world armies while the lightweight higher velocity 5.45 weapons were the purview of modern soldiers.
A few nations, like Poland, that had been using the 47 in Eastern Europe kept the AK design, but in 5.56 as NATO members. In overall performance regards it is generally assumed that 5.56 AK pattern weapons are slightly less durable, reliable, and desirable than their 5.45 “true AK” siblings. This, in my opinion, is mostly fueled by the different Fanboi camps and not based in an overabundance of fact.
Franklin Armory Reformation – a ‘Non NFA’ Short Barreled Shotgun, yes that’s a new thing
Open Letter Regarding the Franklin Armory Reformation Firearm
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has received questions from industry members and the general public regarding a new type of firearm produced by the Franklin Armory®. This firearm, known as the “Reformation”, utilizes a barrel that is produced with straight lands and grooves. This design contrasts with conventional rifling, in which the barrel’s lands and grooves are spiral or twisted, and are designed to impart a spin onto the projectile.
The ATF Firearms and Ammunition Technology Division (FATD) has examined the Reformation firearm for purposes of classification under the applicable provisions of the Gun Control Act (GCA) and the National Firearms Act (NFA). During this examination, FATD determined that the straight lands and grooves incorporated into the barrel design of the Reformation do not impart a spin onto a projectile when fired through the barrel. Consequently, the Reformation is not a “rifle” as that term is defined in the GCA and NFA. Moreover, because the Reformation is not chambered for shotgun shells, it is not a shotgun as defined in the NFA. Given these determinations, the Reformation is classified as a shotgun that is subject only to the provisions of the GCA (i.e., it is not a weapon subject to the provisions of the NFA).
Under the provisions of the GCA, if a Reformation firearm is equipped with a barrel that is less than 18-inches in overall length, that firearm is classified to be a short-barreled shotgun (SBS). When a Reformation is configured as a GCA/SBS, specific provisions of the GCA apply to the transfer of that firearm from a Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL) to a non-licensee, and to the transport of that firearm by a non-licensee in interstate or foreign commerce. These provisions are:
- 18 U.S.C. § 922(a)(4) requires that an individual wishing to transport an SBS in interstate or foreign commerce obtain approval by the Attorney General to transport the firearm.
- 18 U.S.C. § 922(b)(4) requires authorization from the Attorney General consistent with public safety and necessity prior to the sale or delivery of an SBS to an individual by an FFL.
The Attorney General has delegated the authority for approval of requests pursuant to these sections to ATF.
The Franklin Armory Reformation is the first firearm produced and sold by an FFL that ATF has classified as a GCA/SBS. Because GCA/SBS firearms have not previously been available in the marketplace, existing federal firearm regulations do not provide a mechanism to process or approve requests from FFLs for approval to transfer a GCA/SBS to a non-licensee pursuant to section 922 (b)(4) or requests from non-licensees to transport a GCA/SBS pursuant to section 922(a)(4).
ATF is currently developing the procedures and forms to address this new type of firearm. Once promulgated, these new procedures and forms will provide the mechanism necessary for FFL holders and owners of GCA/SBS firearms to request the statutorily required approvals. Until such time, you should be aware of the following:
- An FFL may lawfully sell/transfer a GCA/SBS, such as the Reformation, to the holder of an appropriate FFL (a GCA/SBS cannot be transferred to the holder of a type 06 or type 03 FFL).
- No mechanism currently exists for ATF to authorize a request from an FFL to transfer a GCA/SBS, such as the Reformation, to a non-licensee. Therefore, until ATF is able to promulgate a procedure for processing and approving such requests, an FFL may not lawfully transfer a Reformation configured as a GCA/SBS to a non-licensee.
- No mechanism currently exists for an unlicensed individual who possesses a GCA/SBS, such as the Reformation, to submit a request and receive approval to transport the GCA/SBS across state lines. Therefore, until ATF is able to promulgate a procedure for processing and approving such requests, the possessor or owner of a GCA/SBS, such as the Reformation, may not lawfully transport the firearm across state lines.
Any questions pertaining to this Open Letter may be sent to the Firearms Industry Programs Branch at FIPB@atf.gov or (202) 648-7190.
What?
In short. The Franklin Armory Reformation the first in a classification of Gun Control Act ‘shotguns’. It does not meet the criteria of a shotgun under the National Firearms Act so the NFA does not apply. The Gun Control Act does apply and the provisions outlined above specifically control the ownership, movement, and transport of Reformations.
As a shotgun under the GCA they are required to have an 18″ barrel, most Reformations produced to date do not, if any at all. Any with a barrel under 18″ is a Short Barreled Shotgun. But only under the provisions of the GCA, not the NFA.
What this means is there is no rulebook on the handling of GCA/SBS firearms and Reformations are currently stuck in place until the ATF figures out how to handle their transfer since the law states the Attorney General must allow said transfer and the AG delegated that to the ATF.
So, to any who own a Franklin Armory Reformation. That is a stuck firearm right now. It cannot be bought, sold (except to appropriate FFLs), or transported out of state. If you happen to have one with an 18″ barrel you’re fine, that’s just a shotgun, but if I recall correctly those don’t exist.
Confused yet? Yep, me too.