If you drop the vowel devoid STNGR name into Google right now you will find… free float handguards.
Sharp looking ones too. But those aren’t the glasses you were looking for. Never fear, you are in the correct place, just click on the STNGR Edge tab and you’ll find yourself where you originally expected to be.
The company’s new branch, STNGR Edge, is entering the ballistic eyewear market and they are proud of their product.
I recall another company using a truck and tire to demonstrate durability about 12 years ago.
I have a set of the Alpine’s, and they are among the best glasses I’ve had the chance yet to use.
The Alpine’s frame comfortably wraps around the eyes, the bridge of the nose, and with enough support around the sides of the head and ears that they won’t slip off while looking at odd angles. They sit closer and shield the eye more completely than several competing frames, important for protecting against off angle debris, slag, or fragmentation coming from a high, low, or wide angle.
Z87+
The ANSI/IESA or American National Standards Institute/International Safety Equipment Association have a book of tests and standards for an encyclopedic sized collection of safety equipment. The passages were are concerned with though are those referencing the Z87+ marking.
Impact rated protectors must meet the established high mass and high velocity tests, and defined, continuous lateral coverage is now mandatory. Those protectors satisfying the requirements will carry the Z87+ mark on both the lens and the frame or housing. Compliant prescription products will be marked with Z87-2+. – ANSI Z87.1
The Z87+ indicates a non-prescription high velocity impact standard and a required amount of coverage for the wearer’s eye. The tests are similar to the MIL-PRF 32432 Ballistic Fragmentation standard but the military’s has a more stringent (higher energy) standard than Z87.1.
A Z87+ set of eye protection is designed to protect against a wide variety of flying high speed hazards. Fragmentation from a steel target impact, unburnt powder, dirt, sand, spall, etc.
The Lenses
The STNGR lens selection has both mirrored and matte options. Their clarity is exceptional. From the front the glasses present a typical high quality mirrored image but from the back you can see the amber coloring in use for popular eye visibility eyewear.
Glare and brightness are reduced while detail and color acuity remain very high. Even in the reduced lighting of an indoor range, dawn, or dusk, the STNGR’s are more usable than most darkened lenses by a substantial margin.
In short, I like them.
They’re my daily riders, my range wear until it’s dark, and in the month of dropping, scratch opportunities, getting sat on, and all the other hazards a pair of glasses faces there is no sign of detrimental deterioration. No loose screws, no degrading rubber or polymer due to sweat or sunlight, no damage to lens or frame (I haven’t run them over with a truck yet, but I might.)
Short Version: USCCA will be crafting policies that cover defense in ERPO claims.
Longer version: USCCA employees in customer care were using a managerial approved response to the question about ‘Red Flag’ legal defense. These responses did not reach Tim’s level and he will be making training corrections and formulating a policy product to address coverage.
So, does USCCA support ‘Red Flag‘ laws? Their President & Founder certainly doesn’t and he is taking steps to be certain that is understood company wide.
The SA80 has had a storied history. Until the A2 iteration, with the help of H&K, the rifle had very serious reliability issues. But early in its development that actually wasn’t the case. See here, the XL60.
Before the U.S. swung NATO the way they did in small arms development the Brits were working on a bullpup that would eventually be broken enough to become the SA80/L85 first iteration. But prior to that the XL60 prototype rifles they were developing actually worked alright.
The problem with giving a bunch of good engineers an engineering problem that they have no practical experience with (IE: small arms development) is that they just do not possess the familiarity to think of the small items like ergonomics against web gear or how it will run when snow gets packed into the space behind the trigger guard.
GAT will be on the ground in sunny (hopefully) Indianapolis covering the National Rifle Association’s Annual Meeting 2019.
The NRA’s fallout with Ackerman McQueen in the weeks leading up to the massive trade show has shifted attentions and interests in that direction. I believe that the NRA is likely to avoid most public commentary and will keep its slugging match with Ack-Mac as quiet as the massive organization can.
That won’t keep its members from asking though and it may well see a shift in the members voting for the NRA’s Board. As we find the info we will share it, however I don’t expect to run into it on the NRAAM floor.
The NRAAM show itself will be full of products and while no one has been dropping anything super shiny (or at least that I’ve seen hinted at) we should see updates on several of the developments from SHOT.
On April 10, 2019, New Zealand MPs voted almost unanimously to pass draconian gun control laws in the aftermath of the Christchurch mosque shooting. As a result, “military-style semiautomatic firearms” are now banned. New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardem stated she would be signing the legislation into law, claiming “these weapons were designed to kill.”
The fact is these firearms were designed for civilian recreational shooting, and the original military version of these weapons that are fully automatic (true assault rifles) were designed to wound enemy soldiers in war, which tactically is better than killing because it ties up more enemy troops.
The facts surrounding the shooting have also been plagued by misinformation and deliberate media disinformation. Here is another view based on facts that have been hard to extract from the mainstream press.
On March 15, 2019 an Australian man suffering from mass shooting derangement syndrome undertook a terrorist attack at two Islamic mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, during Friday Prayer. The attack resulted in 50 dead and at least 40 wounded. Although the man has been described as a right-wing, white supremacist by the internationalist and mainstream liberal media, the reality is that the mass shooter could best be categorized as inhabiting the far left of the political spectrum.
The Islamophobic mass shooter described himself as an eco-fascist, which according to Wikipedia, places him among those who favor “totalitarian government requiring individuals to sacrifice their own interest to the ‘organic whole of nature’ and which would rely on militarism, expansionism, and possibly racism to defend the land.” Obviously, this is far-left totalitarian stuff rather than traditional conservatism or right-wing libertarian philosophy. Two New Zealand nationalist, anti-immigration groups quickly condemned the attack. Nevertheless, MI5 in Great Britain is investigating possible links between the deranged killer and far-right British organizations.
The media have also made a lot out of the killer’s alleged support for Donald Trump as a “symbol of white identity,” but it neglected to follow through with the fact that the terrorist also admitted that he did not support Trump as a leader or his policies. Be that as it may, Trump was cited as somehow being responsible for the shooting. Moreover, in the terrorist’s 73-page manifesto, the deranged killer stated that with the shooting he hoped to encourage drastic gun control laws and thereby cause a race war in America!
Returning to New Zealand, the new drastic gun control laws passed by its parliament represent a massive knee-jerk response to the shooting. New Zealand already has strict gun control laws. The single dissenter in parliament called the knee-jerk action “an exercise in political theater,” but it is much worse than that: Thousands of citizens will have to surrender their semi-automatic firearms, a characterization that could be interpreted to include just about all firearms, except for single shot rifles and shotguns. Citizens have until September to comply with the new law or face penalties that include a two to ten-year incarceration.
The deranged madman wanted to promote incendiary gun control laws in America that would result in mayhem; instead he caused drastic gun laws to pass in his own country, and they passed without any opposition [Ed: he was Australian].
We can thank our Founding Fathers for their foresight in drafting our constitution for our American Republic and warning us about the shortcomings of a mass democracy in which the passions of the majority can be aroused in the heat of the moment to pass draconian laws that trample individual rights and promote tyrannical government in the name of safety.
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— Miguel A. Faria, Jr., M.D. is a retired Clinical Professor of Neurosurgery and Adjunct Professor of Medical History at Mercer University School of Medicine. He is Associate Editor in Chief and World Affairs Editor of Surgical Neurology International. He served on the CDC’s Injury Research Grant Review Committee.
New Jersey is no bastion of gun rights. But, the state fees involved could have been termed as ‘modest’.
$27 would net you the firearm ID card, the permit to own, and the concealed carry license, about the cost of seeing the new Avengers Endgame movie. With my own state’s fee for the concealed pistol license being far higher I can, at the least, appreciate a state who is not taxing people out of ownership.
Governor Philip Murphy is seeking to change that in an “effort” to tackle gun violence and reduce the flow of illegal firearms…
How, precisely, changing the combined total fee on a legal purchase and carry from an inconvenient yet modest $27.00 to $550.00 is going to reduce the number of illegal firearms is beyond me.
By taxing the constitutional right beyond the reach of anyone with tight finances you are effectively encouraging people to seek options that don’t comply with New Jersey law, but that are cost effective within their means. Furthermore the Governor doesn’t appear to have the authority to earmark any money from the licenses for gun violence prevention efforts, the tax increase will be general funds.
The price to carry a conventional Glock handgun in New Jersey would double. Even at a screaming deal most handguns would become a 4 figure expenditure on anyone’s budget, with somewhere between 30-50% of those dollars going the state… not increasing the quality of the firearm, getting better training, or buying quality ammunition for protection (an already expensive prospect in NJ due to their braindead ban on hollow points), no… the state of New Jersey will take the dollars with the promise (an empty promise since the funds cannot be marked for a program) that they will be used to combat gun violence.
There is an obvious goal here, less New Jersey citizens carrying. That won’t be the result in this case, it will be less residents carrying legally. Taxing the right further and further away from the financially strapped, who also are often the more vulnerable demographic living in lower income higher crime regions, will just put more pressure on them to ignore the law as the choice becomes personal safety or cough up an extra few hundred dollars for licensing.
Perhaps the goal is elitism? Only those who can afford access to the right should exercise it, maybe? Jersey only wants the well off well armed?
“Of course it isn’t!”, I can fathom the retort. But what is the net effect?
If I place the cost of entering legally into owning and carrying a firearm so much higher than cost of the hardware and training, far above the administrative fees to process licenses, the only things I effectively encourage are a combination of elitism and legal circumvention.
What possible influence is believed to be exercised on the armed street level enforcer who didn’t care to get the licenses at $27 now that it will be $550? None. A group who does not care to be taxed or follow a rule set won’t start just because you made it more expensive.
There is an influence that will be recognized, that of far less likely legally armed targets in the law abiding New Jersey populous. Perhaps that’s Governor Murphy’s goal? If so, it’s far more likely to achieve that one then the stated.
Screen captures of conversations with the concealed carry insurance company seem to show a company policy of support for Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) or ‘Red Flag’ laws.
Direct messages from inquiring customers and prospective insurance seekers seem to indicate the company is supporting the controversial laws.
The crux of the whole issue behind ERPO legislation is that it precludes due process to the target of the ERPO. An individual targeted, rightly or not, by an ERPO must prove their innocence, not have the state prove their guilt, in order for their constitutional rights to be uninfringed.
“Take the guns first. Go through due process second.” -President Donald Trump commenting on ERPO legislation in relation to school safety
This is a startling item from USCCA, a company built on providing funding for legal defense in proper use of force situations and in protecting gun rights as a whole. In reality it is probably a more likely scenario that a false accusation is leveled and a client would need their insurance to help in their legal defense and restoration of their rights.
If an individual is to be deprived of their rights it is imperative their legal defense be properly exercised. Human beings can be spiteful and vindictive creatures, just remember back on the “SWATing” phenomenon where false serious police calls were made against gamers that competitors didn’t like, or similar petty situations.
These calls have resulted in deaths.
Now this same vindictiveness has a new avenue of attack that can circumvent a person’s legal right to their defense.
Responses from USCCA representatives are heartily in support of the laws.
“If you are not presenting to be a danger to yourself or others and are acting lawfully, there should be no reason to be concerned your firearms would be temporarily confiscated from you.” – USCCA response.
The classic “if you aren’t doing anything wrong there is no need to worry” answer.
Except that there is always a reason to worry in a situation where you have no legal recourse after a magic word is said. Someone only has to lay the claim that they ‘feel’ you are risk to yourself or others. The ERPO’s are formulated to be as immediately actionable as they can so that means immediate confiscation, for your own good. All the time, effort, reputation damage, and cost of recovering your firearms after the fact… not their problem.
As someone who has had to pick up a firearm from law enforcement (stolen and recovered) it is not a process that is quick, painless, or costless. It’s an enormous undertaking and the indication from USCCA’s messages is you are on your own if you get ‘flagged’.
While the messages from USCCA’s staff say one thing the President, Tim Schmidt, has a differing response.
ERPO ‘Red Flag’ Defense — I’ve recently discovered that some USCCA members are concerned with the recent passing of ‘Red Flag’ or Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) laws. I’ve also seen responses from USCCA / Delta Defense staff to social media posts & inquiries regarding these laws.
Needless to say, ‘Red Flag’ & ERPO laws make me very nervous. I’m sure these laws are designed to protect innocent people. But in my opinion, they allow for the confiscation of firearms without adequate due process and force citizens to prove their innocence rather than forcing the state to prove that a person is guilty. Furthermore, it would be far too easy to abuse these laws. Imagine losing your right to own a gun because someone with an axe to grind simply claims that you’re a danger.
It is for these reasons that I want every USCCA member to know and understand that we will always have your back if you’re ever in an unfounded ‘Red Flag’ or ERPO situation. As responsibly armed Americans, we will always be under attack from the forces of evil who wish to take guns away from ALL law-abiding Americans.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Timothy J. Schmidt Sr. President & Founder – USCCA
Tim indicates the laws make him “very nervous” but he is sure the laws are designed to protect innocent people.
ERPO ‘Red Flag’ laws do have good intentions, but there’s an old saying about a road paved with good intentions… and that road’s destination.
In the USCCA President’s opinion the law does not provide adequate due process. “…I want every USCCA member to know and understand that we will always have your back…” is all well and good as a comment but it is not consistent with the company’s response to questions about the insurance policy that USCCA offers.
In a follow on post responding to comments continuing to ask questions, Schmidt has indicated he intends to offer greater detail. Whether this will result in specific provisions and inclusions within the policies offered by USCCA to its customers is unknown, but I would venture a guess as likely.
I was recently scrolling through 3 year old photos and came across this one.
Pediatrician Coming Through
It reminded me of the time I DNF’d a 3-Gun match. For those not familiar, DNF stands for “Did Not Finish”, and it is the acronym which stands in place of one’s score at the end of the match.
There are many and varied reasons that competitors may DNF a match. Sometimes there is catastrophic equipment failure. Sometimes there is injury. (I know people who’ve blown out knees and ankles running around obstacles in 3-Gun). But my reason was … I Quit.
Yep. I was a Quitter, and I have no regrets about it. Let me tell you the story of my being a quitter.
For competition I’ve been mostly a pistol shooter. I was not a huge 3-Gunner, but had shot maybe 6 matches previously – a couple of which were set up specifically to get more women into shooting these matches. I drove by myself to Iowa, to Kentucky, to Atlanta and to Louisiana all to shoot 3-Gun.
I had paid about $150 to register for this particular match. Like most of these matches, it was not local to me and thus required that I take a Friday off work for travel and also required that I spend several hundred dollars in hotel and travel expenses. I am not a sponsored shooter. I wear a T-shirt, not a jersey, and I pay out of my own pocket. I’m including this information so that you know that there is powerful motivation to continue the mission when there is significant financial outlay like that.
The match was seven stages long in one day. Anyone who has shot 3-Gun knows that seven stages in one day is pretty ambitious. There is a lot of time spent in re-setting between each shooter. There is often a par time for each stage that you can’t go over, in order to help keep things moving, but it’s still a slow process and there is often a wait between stages.
This day was very hot and humid with temps in the 90’s (in Pennsylvania, not Georgia). My squad was on its fourth stage of the day, but was over five hours into the match and we hadn’t gotten our lunch break in the shade yet.
I had drained the three 24-ounce bottles of water that I had packed. But I hadn’t needed to use the portajohn in five hours. I ate a granola bar I had packed. I used a wet bandana on my face and neck. But I still started to feel woozy and “out of it” while waiting for my turn on the stage.
My doctor brain and common sense finally prevailed. I was experiencing heat stress and dehydration and knew I had to remove myself. I hated to. I had spent a buttload of money to shoot this match. There were a bunch of younger people than me that I kinda wanted to prove that I could keep up with. I had my personal pride and my pink trimmed rifle to stand up for.
But I felt like crap, and regardless of financial investment and personal pride issues, safety still came first. I told the RO that I was withdrawing due to the heat and to DNF me. I was so disappointed I wanted to cry. But I figured that would be a waste of perfectly good body water content.
Certainly training and preparation are important components in making sure that one is ready for competition. Making sure your gear is maintained, zeroing with the right ammo, practicing at match distances are examples of such preparation.
But heat… Heat and humidity are not always conditions one can train for. Those of you who worked long hours in desert conditions courtesy of Uncle Sam understand the concept of hydration. I’m a physician. I thought I did too. I packed what I thought was an abundance of water. It wasn’t enough. I’m an over-fifty age female, and not exactly in top physical condition, so that probably didn’t help either.
I had already paid for my lunch ticket as part of the match fee, so I packed up my gear and dragged my wagon back to the lunch pavilion. I got a plate and some more bottles of liquids and sat in the shade.
I started to feel a little better, and as my squad mates dribbled in for lunch after they finished that stage I started feeling like a wimp and a whiner. They managed to handle it, why couldn’t I?
But I made the right decision for my own health and well-being, and the safety of others. Pushing on until I passed-out with firearm-in-hand would have been an extremely bad move. Better to feel like a wimp than to need the EMS squad or to endanger others.
This is TMI but, I still didn’t need to pee until I got back to the hotel about two hours later, and it would not have passed the Gunsite bathroom color chart test. I was dehydrated and there was no two ways about it.
An Example of a Urine Color Chart
With Summer approaching, this is my gentle reminder that using firearms requires a clear head in order to maintain safety. One should never handle firearms while impaired in any way and that includes physical illness, heat stress, emotional turmoil, or anything else that means that your head isn’t entirely in the game.
Because absent a war zone it IS a game – only a game – and your safety and the safety of everyone around you is more important than a mere score or a prize table walk. If you don’t feel right, swallow your pride and take yourself out. Inform someone else about how you are feeling so they can keep an eye on you if needed. Find shade or an air conditioned car. Pound water and electrolyte solutions until you have to pee. But for the love of all that is holy, please do not keep on shooting. Know your limits.
Thanks for listening.
*Drags soapbox back to the corner and sits back down*
If you haven’t seen the story, various elements of the media are between scratching their heads or complete hysterics, as they wonder just how a “teenager” of 18 years could purchase a shotgun in Colorado.
If you read that and are saying to yourself, “Because she’s 18 and has no disqualifying record.” you would have used a basis of logic that seems to escape many.
For context, the story we are discussing is that of Sol Pais, a Florida teen with a published digital trail concluding on a dangerous obsession with the Columbine school shooting.
The conclusion arrived at by authorities was that she was a high risk of commiting a copycat shooting and had possibly set out to do just that.
She made her way to Colorado, purchased a shotgun at a dealer (NICS check and all), and by all current reports then took her own life instead of commiting the attack authorities feared.
Schools were secured in the region until the clear was given.
So what’s the kerfuffle about?
How was a 18 year old Floridian girl able to buy a shotgun in Colorado, because Florida changed its age requirement to 21?
No, not ‘how come the fears of her probable copycat attack could not be flagged in NICS after, say, examination by a judge?’ It is how could an 18 year old buy a shotgun out of state when her home state requires her to be 21.
This has since become a game of finger pointing. Some of the inquiring body are referencing a passage stating that an out of state dealer must comply with their state laws and those of the purchasers residency as well.
Generally, a firearm may not lawfully be sold by a licensee to a nonlicensee who resides in a State other than the State in which the seller’s licensed premises is located. However, the sale may be made if the firearm is shipped to a licensee whose business is in the purchaser’s State of residence and the purchaser takes delivery of the firearm from the licensee in his or her State of residence. In addition, a licensee may sell a rifle or shotgun to a person who is not a resident of the State where the licensee’s business premises is located in an over–the–counter transaction, provided the transaction complies with State law in the State where the licensee is located and in the State where the purchaser resides. [Emphasis added]
Last Reviewed September 10, 2015
The passage seems to indicate the burden of knowledge is on the seller to be up to date on all 50 states various gun laws.
The ATF, however, have declared the transaction was legal and that the FFL in Colorado is not at fault in any way. Reasonable, in my opinion.
Florida’s law appears to effect only its residents while in state. They will apparently sell long guns to persons 18-20 who are not Florida residents and thus Florida residents purchasing out of state may not be subject to the in state restriction, just the normal federal ones.
It is entirely unreasonable, in my view, for an FFL to be the accountable entity for the legislative quagmire that constitutes the mass of the entire nation’s firearm regulations. That burden should be on the FBI and their NICS system or the equivalent state systems to flag noncompliance with the law and form the basis, when necessary, for arrest, prosecution, or any other intervention.
The FFL should be accountable for accurately transmitting the provided information for the check and on their recognizance for the warning signs of criminal activity, especially per any information that they get from local LE organizations, the ATF, or the FBI. They are not legal experts on the intricacies of interstate firearms law on the state by state level, they are federal dealers.
In short, the overly complex, overregulated, and poorly meshed layers of legalise make it a nightmare to navigate the rules and try to remain in the right of them all while trying to conduct business and check due diligence.
So who’s fault is it a disturbed eighteen year old, a legal adult who can vote, drive, purchase, make medical decisions, and has all the adult self sovereignty an eighteen year old legally possess to include buying a firearm, bought a firearm?
Hers.
Ultimately the responsibility for her actions was hers. If anyone else holds a degree of liability for what might have happened, it would be those who manage the information system designed to warn FFL’s of those persons who should not be buying a firearm.
The 1980s were a wonderful time for guns. Something was different back then. It was an odd time when we were transitioning from WW2 designs to the modern guns we see now. I wanted to gather some of my favorite guns of the 1980s. I looked at both pop culture and actual use by police and military forces and gathered my Top 5!
Beretta 92 Series
There are several models of the Beretta 92 and I’m including the entire series. From the 92S to 92F and 92FS and so on and so forth. The life of this series started in 1975 and continues to this day with the Beretta M9A3. The Beretta has a very distinct appearance and the design helped usher in the age of the wonder 9.
In the United States, the gun was extremely popular, especially with police and military forces. The Beretta 92 was adopted by the LAPD, INS, the Border Patrol, and most famously the United States Armed forces as the M9.
In fiction, the gun was everywhere. My earliest memory of it was the film Kuffs, where the main character requests, “a really big gun that holds a lot of bullets.” That little movie is nothing compared to its appearances in massive blockbusters like Die Hard and Lethal Weapon. These films made the gun a legend.
Colt Python
The Colt Python was created all the way back in 1955 and it remained a staple of Colt’s revolvers for decades. The guns now fetch a premium due to the fact Colt hasn’t produced them in forever. The gun has always been popular and in the 1980s it was THE revolver. The Florida Highway Patrol, the Colorado State Patrol, and Georgia State Patrol all notably issued the gun throughout the 1980s.
The Colt Python was also notably a status symbol in the LAPD before being replaced by our already listed Beretta 92. The Python is an aggressive looking revolver with a big ribbed barrel. It was and still is a finely crafted precision gun.
The Colt Python was and is a cultural icon too. Back in the day, it was immensely popular in films likely due to its aggressive looks and how distinct it was. We saw John Candy carry one, as well as Burt Reynolds, Judge Reinhold, Don Johnson, and even Roddy Piper rocked one in They Live. As far as guns of the 1980s go I couldn’t leave a revolver off the list.
UZI
The Uzi is another series of weapons that come in a variety of sizes and configurations. This covers all of them because in the 80s they were everywhere. The Uzi is a 9mm submachine gun developed domestically for Israeli defense forces. However, the SMG was widely exported in the 1980s and adopted around the world. The Uzi was originally adopted in 1950, but it made the 80s roar. IMI, who owns the Uzi, has made over 2 billion from its exports.
One of the most famous photos out there is a Secret Service Agent covering Press Secretary James Brady, after an attempted assassination, with an Uzi. The Uzi has been produced in full size, compact, and micro variants. There are also semi-auto carbines and pistols out for the civilian market.
Courtesy of Guns.com
In films and media, the Uzi has been everywhere. The Uzi was wielded by Arnold as a robotic killing machine, as well as Chuck Norris in Delta Force and dual-wielded Uzi pistols in Invasion USA. It made appearances in Lethal Weapon, RoboCop, Miami Vice, Magnum, P.I., and dozens of other tv shows and movies of the 1980s. This makes the Uzi one of the premier guns of the decade.
Mini 14
The Mini 14 is a totally 80s rifle. It was created in 1973 and saw its heyday in the 1980s. As a semi-auto 223 caliber rifle, the Mini 14 featured a wooden stock traditional rifle design. In function, it was similar to the AR15 rifle, but the wood stocks made its appearance far more conventional. The Mini 14 is interesting because it found itself on both sides of the law often in the 1980s.
Courtesy NBC
The San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department adopted the Mini-14 after a shoot-out that claimed a Deputy’s life. In France, the Mini 14 has been adopted by federal police forces and still serve to this day. The Mini 14 was later adopted by forces in Brazil, Haiti, and Bermuda. The Mini 14 was also used in the deadly 1986 Miami Shootout with the FBI.
In film and television, the Mini 14 was famously wielded by the A-Team, to effectively miss everything they shot at ever. The gun was also seen in Death Wish, Commando, and Mad Max 3. The Mini-14 survives today for those who want a wood stocked AR alternative.
MP5
THE choice for Gun of the 80s is the MP5. To me, the Cold War was defined by two weapons, the AKM and the MP5. The MP5 was produced at just the right time. We saw a rise in terrorism and therefore a commensurate rise in counter-terror teams. These teams needed a lightweight, low recoiling, easy to handle submachine gun.
At that time the selection of SMGs consisted mostly of bulky, heavy, and open bolt. Open bolt guns have compromised reliability due to the design and conventional wisdom says open bolts don’t breach doors. The MP5 comes along with its closed bolt design, lightweight, and plenty handy. Who can forget the photos of the SAS lads breaching the Iranian Embassy armed with MP5s.
In the 1980s the MP5 took root everywhere. Almost every Federal Police service issued the gun, as well as hundreds, possibly thousands, of SWAT teams around the country. Additionally, the MP5 is in use by over a dozen different countries. The gun was everywhere, and of course made it to Hollywood.
“Ho, Ho, Ho, Now I have a Machine Gun,” an immortal phrase from an immortal movie that starred both the Beretta 92 and the MP5. It was a little flick called Die Hard. The gun also found itself in Lethal Weapon 2, Tango and Cash, and dozens of other films in a number of different configurations. The MP5 by HK earned its place as one of my favorites and a true gun of the 1980s.
Notable Contenders
If this was an article based solely on pop culture use two guns would reign supreme, the MAC series and the TEC 9. Both were heavily used in movies and TV shows of the time, often the choice for the bad guy and their henchman.
These guns ruled the airwaves and gave Diane Feinstein nightmares. However, the extent that was used for crime is difficult to actually know. The MAC was used in a few high profile crimes, as was the TEC 9 and its derivatives. According to the NY Times, the vast majority of weapons seized during the Cocaine wars were MAC style guns, however no information on exact numbers in provided.
These sub guns absolutely dominated TV shows and movies, and to an extent, this has shaped their perception in both popular media and the gun world. As far as guns of the 1980s go it loses out only because of its rare use in real life.
Guns of the 1980s
The 1980s were an fascinating time in both guns being issued and how guns were being portrayed in the media. The result in part was a constantly changing firearms law landscape. They were the cutting edge and now a nostalgic reminiscence.
I’m a cautious person when it comes to buying guns, or at least first generation guns. Something happens when a good gun concept reaches mass production, somehow little fairies come in and ruin things. I usually wait a minute and see what is what. This has kept me from buying IO AKs, the R51, and the CZ P10 C. Until now anyway.
I love CZ firearms and own several and constantly suggest CZs to my friends and family who are looking for something new. I was cautious with the P10 C for a few reasons. Outside of just being a new gun the P10 C was a striker fired gun that is coming from a company known for hammer fired guns. I waited until this year to finally purchase one after ready nothing but good reviews.
I found the CZ P10 C Suppressor Ready Model for a screaming good deal at my local gun store. The gun features a sand colored frame CZ Calls Urban Grey, an extended and threaded barrel, 17 round extended magazines and suppressor height night sights.
The P10 C isn’t the first striker fired CZ. I’m sure some of us remember the CZ 100, but many do not. It failed with very few people wanting a true DAO striker fired design. It’s certainly their most successful.
The P10 C Specs
The CZ P10 C is basically the Glock 19 of CZ firearms. The C stands for compact and as we’ve seen the there is now a Full sized and Subcompact model. The gun has the following specs:
4.61-inch barrel
Overall Length 8 inches
Weighs 26 ounces
17 round capacity
MSRP 559.00
It’s very Glock 19 in size, but the threaded barrel adds a little more to the gun. It will fit the majority of Glock 19 holsters and I found this true with my NSR Appendix holster.
P10 C Ergonomics
If CZ is renowned for one thing its ergonomics. Their guns are ergonomic powerhouses and the P10 C is no different. The P10 C has an excellent grip angle and a well-rounded grip overall. The P10 C is an incredibly comfortable gun and CZ has always been a master of making great grips.
The grip itself is aggressively stippled and you will start to feel it after a short period of shooting. The stippling is not painful, but present.
It’s best described as aggressive.
It’s almost like CZ saw all those bubba’s defacing Glock grips with stippling and said, “We don’t want any part of that.” So they gave us aggressive stippling from the get go.
The rear beaver tail is more of a shelf. Kinda like Glock, but extended like the 80 percent lower Glocks from Polymer 80.
CZ Also went and made all the control ambidextrous. This is truly ambidextrous and not just a magazine release that can be switched back and forth. Both your magazine release and slide lock are ambidextrous.
Both the magazine release and the slide lock are very small. The magazine release is also very stiff and requires some force to activate. Hopefully it will smooth out over time. I personally wished they went with the same slide lock on the P09/07 series.
This model is placed more rearward and my thumbs sit on top of it, this results in the slide failing to lock after the last shot is fired due to my thumb placement. The slide lock is super skinny and hard to press downward overall.
The slide features aggressive serrations on both the front and rear of the slide. They are nice and easy to grip and the slide itself is much larger than previous CZ’s. CZ abandoned the slide in frame design with the P10 C which is an interesting decision.
The gun also includes two extra back straps to customize the gun’s size to your hand.
The Trigger
The trigger is a semi-flat design and is placed pretty far rearward. This makes it easy to reach for people with small hands. The design incorporates a trigger safety that is pinch-free so far.
The trigger pull is short, concise, and light. The trigger breaks very crisply and has an ultra short reset. This is one of the finer stock trigger on the market, surpassing other plastic fantastics from Glock and SIG. It’s nearly on par with the Walther PPQ, a gun which i consider to have the finest trigger of all polymer striker fired guns.
The trigger is excellent and very comfortable. The short reset makes it easy to fall into a fast pattern of fire, regain sight picture, fire, etc. It’s easy to dump a magazine into one ragged hole. The trigger pull comes in at about 4.5 pounds and it’s consistent.
Range Time
As you’d expect this 9mm has very little recoil and is quite controllable. On my first outing, I found myself surprised how quickly I adapted myself to the gun. Before the first magazine was empty I was backing up further and further to see how far I could consistently ring steel.
My small popper was the perfect target. I got back to 60 yards and was still ringing steel more than I was missing in a standard standing position. The sights are excellent and the front sight is very thin and makes it possible to still see a small target at this range.
The gun is very enjoyable to shoot and from round 1 I was hitting exactly where I was aiming. It’s a well put together design that incorporates a number of design features that meshes together very well.
The trigger, the sights, and the cold hammer forged barrel make this a very accurate gun. The grip helps with recoil control and you can easily make one ragged hole very quickly with little practice.
I was able to shoot the iHack drill clean with the 3 second par time on my first day with this gun. If you don’t know that drill requires you to shoot 3 shots, on 3 targets, in 3 seconds. The iHack is a modified drill of the Hackathorn head shot standards. This uses 2 inch circles as targets and can be quite challenging.
Admittedly I didn’t get the par time down until the third time I ran the drill. Still, for my first day with the gun I was quite pleased with it.
Final Thoughts
The CZ P10 C is a fantastic little gun and one that I am admittedly impressed by. CZ has found a way to go against their typical grain with a successful striker fired design that isn’t just good compared to similar guns, but surpasses them in many ways. Right now these guns seem to be selling at a low price to make room for Optic’s ready models so I’d jump on one if you can.
Knight’s Armament Company wins the U.S. Army’s solicitation to supplement and replace the M24 with a new and radical “Big Army” shift in weapons employment. The designation, M110 SASS, Semi-Automatic Sniper System.
Semi-autos had been employed with success in a precision role in Iraq and Afghanistan to this point but all of those solutions were shoe horned into place. The M14’s chopped and restocked into an EBR Chassis, the M16A1’s turned into Mk12 SPR’s, and the small inventory of Mk11’s had all proven the concept of 7.62x51mm Sniper/Support rifle in working theory.
Knight’s job was to make that theory into a single cohesive working unit. They were successful.
Image via Wikipedia, USMC Shooter with an M110 and suppressor
Between the contract win in September 2005 and it’s ground debut in April 2008 (Task Force Fury), Knight’s set about making the most accurate and durable product they could to the military’s requirements.
As an Armament Corps. tech I have a little insider information on why certain features were chosen or added. Many were practical reasons, the barrel system is optimized to produce the required accuracy at sustained rates of fire that other systems simply couldn’t produce (M14).
Some were because “it was in the paperwork”, there are features in the buttstock for example that were put there or not put there just to make weight. They are then swapped with a superior part in a Product Improvement Program (PIP) because then they don’t have to conform to a weight requirement. Government at its finest.
11 years after hitting the ground in Afghanistan the M110 has “technically” been replaced by the M110A1, an H&K product.
But that technicality hasn’t stopped their purchase. The M110 in its precision glory is still a rifle to be reckoned with and will be for years to come.
Getting an M110
Can a non government consumer acquire an M110?
Yes, but with a minor catch…
The M110’s are DoD contract rifles and nearly every single rifle, and thus every part, Knight’s builds goes straight to the waiting arms of DoD procurement, and from there to the unit that is in need of it.
“But… you’re shooting an M110 in that picture?” -An acute observationalist
Yes.
The M110 is a Knight’s SR-25 variant, like the Mk11 before it, and an SR25 lower can be built out into a parts complete M110. But the civilian lower will be marked SR25 unless you get the markings altered yourself.
Operation Parts and their FFL arm, Small Arm Sales, is the premier consumer level dealer for Knight’s Armament. If you want a KAC product this is the place to look, and if you don’t see it then ask for it.
Starting with an in stock SR-25, Operation Parts strips the whole receiver bare. The proper 5R barrel, gas block, URX Rail, and stock are all ordered and assembled onto the bare gun. Proper FDE coating is applied and…
SR-25 marked receiver. The only other “inauthentic” part is the use of a Geissele mount for the Mk 4 Leupold Scope instead of a KAC mount.
Viola! The 20″ Semi-Automatic Sniper System.
Like most new things the M110 system had its detractors, critics, and a few of its own problems. An issue arose resulting in the general rumor that the rifle was ‘finicky’ and dirt averse. A poorly reported on DoD solicitation in 2011 seemed to confirm all those rumors.
It wasn’t the case. The M110’s were working fine in their role. The accurate direct gas rifles were delivering in their intended niche and their users were largely pleased. What the memo and solicitation were about was lighter, more mobile, more compact variants of the gun retaining most of the capabilities. A CSASS. (More on that to come)
The number one complaint from my own battalion’s Scout Snipers was that, for a rifle that we had been told was designed to “blend” with a Marine Corps squad, it was the wrong color. Observers looking at a squad imbedded sniper team could pick out snipers rolling with M110’s just as easily as anyone rolling with M40’s, the rifle looked different. So that wasn’t a legitimate selling point.
It’s higher rate of fire and accuracy certainly were.
Sustained Accuracy Defined
The M110 is required to fire M118LR 175gr (now replaced largely by MK 316, a more all climate friendly 175gr variant) in a 1.1 inch or smaller grouping at 300ft (100 yards) using three 10 shot groups with the suppressor on or off. Additionally requirements stated an Average Mean Radius (AMR) of .68 inches using 5 seperate 5 shot groups. The rifle is truly accurate.
“1.1 inches? That’s not minute of angle? My X brand rifle is sub-MOA! The military is stupid.” -Somebody with an X brand rifle
Sorry to bust the bubble, but your “sub-moa” gun probably isn’t. Not in the true sense. Almost any rifle can print a sub 1″ 3 round group, it’s not a statistically significant measure of accuracy. Can the rifle do that with 10 rounds? Can it do so consistently?
This one can. The heat sunk heavy 5R rifled barrel has a maximum acceptable accuracy of 1.1″ using a 30 round measure.
Even using the comparably terrible M80 ball the M110 is still incredibly precise. I was printing sustained groups under 2″.
As SOCOM and others start playing around with high accuracy rounds like 6.5 Creedmoor I would honestly not be surprised if the we see a selection of 6.5 or another ballistically superior variant. Especially considering that they can make the conversion with only a barrel change and updating any literature to the new rounds effective range and ballistics.
But for the moment the 7.62’s are the standard and ammunition is abundant and affordable. Federal M80 ball from Widener’s and Sig’s 168gr and 175gr Match kept the M110 fed and happy.
Drawbacks?
A few. The M110 represents the pinnacle of the .308/7.62 AR platform as a rugged precision instrument… in 2008. The rapid pace of change has left the M110, like the M16A4 and M4/M4A1, as a weapon system with a technical data package that is becoming more obsolescent as time progresses.
Can that be corrected? Certainly, it wouldn’t require a tremendous effort either and we could very well see that from the military. However that is a tremendous additional spend on a product that works as advertised.
It isn’t a compact or light weight system. 15lbs in use (depending on optics) and 20 rounds of 7.62 in a mag is more than twice the weight of the same in 5.56.
This isn’t a ridiculous or unuseable weight, the M249 is heavier, the M16 with an underbarrel grenade launcher is comparable.
46.5″ in length with suppressor certainly qualifies it as a longarm and runs into the constraints that longer rifles do, especially in a CQC situation. But there are solutions for that too, offset irons or RDS.
The M110 is brilliant at the things it can do. There are simply things that it was not designed to do. It is a precision rifle first that can be utilized as a battle rifle at need, not a precise battle rifle.
For personal use, it’s easily one of the more costly investments you can make. It can have a 5 figure buy in price, especially considering putting good glass on it.
For that investment though you own thestandard of the AR-10 derived precision rifle systems. The collectable nature of such a significant milestone in the history of sniping also appeals highly.
It might not be for everyone, but for anyone wanting to chase such a rifle down for the inventory it is well worth the tag.
In the past, guns were seen as fairly ordinary implements for fighting and hunting, even though most aristocracies reserved them for themselves and their armies. Then English common law supported the ownership of firearms by the people, and the American constitution enshrined the natural right of defense by protecting the right to keep and bear arms in the Second Amendment.
However, times are changing, and so are gun politics. For some people, they are taking a turn for the better. Others think that they are taking a turn for the worst. However, as the debate is getting more and more heated, gun sales are also changing based on these politics.
Politics and Gun Control
Politics can be described in several ways. It can be about the activities associated with a country’s governance, such as the debate between two parties contesting for power. At the same time, politics also involve the activity of improving a particular person’s or group’s status and power from within an organization.
National politics is about discussing what’s good or bad for the country–and every party comes with its own suggestions for improvement. Gun control is no exception from to this–-and its rising popularity has made it a very controversial aspect of American politics.
After the alarming number of school shootings that took place in recent years, activists have begun raising their voices. Students need to be protected and when a gun-related threat appears within the walls of the school, those who are inside need to be ready.
For this reason, President Trump suggested that at least some teachers should be allowed to carry guns in school. Some instructors have always carried concealed guns, but this suggestion aimed to make the carrying less “concealed”. This way, any potential shooter would know that if they attempted anything, they would also meet with trouble along the way.
This suggestion was not well accepted everywhere. While some schools did adopt this policy, they were met with complaints from some parents. For instance, a lawsuit was filed by parents against the Tamaqua Area School Board, claiming that this new policy would endanger the community and, obviously, their children.
Despite the controversies, America remains the leader of the world’s gun industry.
The Spike in Gun Sales
Whenever a threat to gun ownership arises, gun stock prices seem to be go ing up. This also happens with large shootings, such as at Orlando’s Pulsenightclub or the Las Vegas massacre of 2017.
These spikes in gun prices are so predictable now that investors are betting on them with each incident. The more the gun debate goes on, the more the gun popularity will grow, and increasing numbers of people will purchase guns. Gun prices also reflect performance and versatility–with more efficient guns being made every year.
This has been a pattern for quite some time, as gun sales rose consistently when Barack Obama was still President. Demand went down with the election of President Trump in 2017 who campaigned on his support of the Second Amendment. Despite this, with every new even, interest in guns spikes.
Restrictions and Gun Sales
Let’s talk a bit about restrictions. The more restrictions there are, the more interest may grow in the product, though it may be more difficult to increase sales. These Sales will generally depend on the states where the gun law is present. Where gun laws are more flexible, gun sales will respond more readily.
To continue with the example about armed teachers, more and more schools are encouraging their teachers to carry. It is believed that this might reduce the number of school shootings, as the shooters will be too afraid to attack those schools. As more teachers purchase guns, gun ownership would further grow.
Politics also caused reflects decreased popularity of one-gun-a-month laws. Where these laws are in effect, people can only purchase one gun each month. The number of murders didn’t decline, but sales took a big hit. When the laws are absent or repealed, gun sales move higher.
Gun politics, to an extent, raise fear in the hearts of people–which links it directly to influences gun sales. Surveys show that the biggest reason people purchase firearms now is for self-protection. People are afraid for their life, for their property, for their well-being – which strengthens gun sales.
At the same time, there is quite a political conflict expressed as fear for (and seeking to protect) one’s life and fear of guns putting lives at greater risk. Some believe that they should have the untrammeled right to bear arms for their own protection, others believe that making guns illegal would end gun violence. Interestingly, both positions tend to drive gun sales upward.
Final Thoughts
Gun sales are responsive to gun politics, and gun politics are influenced by gun sales. It’s a curious but obvious circle. The more guns are sold, the more opposition to their sales may mount—and the more guns then get sold.
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—Jay Chambers is a Texas business owner, archer, shooter and survivalist. He believes in free speech, resiliency and self-sufficiency in an increasingly unpredictable world.
Welcome to Part 4 of “A Pediatrician Builds her Own AR” or #soeasyapediatriciancandoit, brought to you by Aero Precision and Ballistic Advantage.
To briefly recap, Part 1 of this series covered the ordering of parts and tools, Part 2 covered the receiving and preparation, and Part 3 covered the Lower build. Which brings us to today’s installment – the Upper build.
Like the lower receiver, the Aero Precision M5 upper receiver was very smoothly finished. No burrs or sharp edges. The cerakoting was beautiful. Being able to run my hand along the rail without getting snagged is an important feature for me. I don’t want to have to wear work gloves just to handle my rifle or go shooting. My upper arrived with the forward assist and the ejection port dust cover already installed, so that was less work and fewer springs for me to mess with.
For the barrel on this hunting gun I chose an 18” Ballistic Advantage Tactical Government Midlength AR308 Barrel. Although I liked the look of the heavy fluted stainless barrels, this one was significantly lighter. If I’m hauling this gun around the woods – even with a sling – even a half pound makes a lot of difference over a day of stalking. I also ordered the low profile gas block and gas tube while I was at it.
I’m going to start off the barrel install story with the admission that I had to ask for help with this part, although I still did all the work myself. A friend from the gun club had a set of .308 go/no-go head spacing gauges, and offered to show me how to use them so I didn’t have to buy my own. I gratefully took him up on the offer.
Go/No-Go gauges for .308Learning how to use headspace gauges.
I learned a few things during that visit to his shop and the go/no-go gauges procedure was interesting. Somewhere in there he also pulled out a paint can of what looked like military surplus peanut butter. We applied a dollop to the barrel threads to get me started on the next part at home. This “peanut butter” was really labeled “Grease, auto & artillery”, and it saved me buying a tube of my own grease.
No, it’s not peanut butter.
Though I attempted to get my barrel nut tightened sufficiently with my clamp-on vise at home, my vise just wasn’t strong enough to keep things from twisting while I was using the torque wrench and my Geissele reaction rod.
So that friend invited me to come back down a few days after the head spacing trip, so that I could use his heavy bench vise. He does his own barrel machining and precision match rifle construction, so he has every tool and piece of equipment imaginable.
I still did the work myself while he supervised. He also offered advice and did some teaching. I learned about leverage in that shop. I had brought my own torque wrench (delivered by the Amazon Fairy the previous day) so that I was using as much of my own equipment as possible. With an 18-inch handle I had plenty of leverage to turn that barrel nut. Being a female with wrist/hand issues didn’t matter much – leverage did most of the work for me – as long as I was using the right vise. Now I think I have to get myself one of those vises.
Using a suitable vise.
The barrel install thus accomplished, we moved on to the gas tube. I had already pinned the gas tube to the block at home, so my friend just helped steady the the lined-up gas tube while I tightened the set screws. It does sometimes help to have a third hand, especially when one is inexperienced.
The handguard I chose, the 15” Atlas R-One is another fantastic Aero product. This aluminum free-float handguard is very light, and like the rail on the Aero upper receiver, the integrated rail is nicely finished and not at all sharp. The wedge-shaped nuts and double-ended bolt made the handguard install uneventful. I finished turning the little wrench that was included in the package and was like, “That’s it? Wow.”
That’s all there was to it.
For the muzzle I chose the VG6 Epsilon 7.62, a muzzle break model in the VG6 line up. I wanted maximum possible recoil reduction for my .308 rifle. I’m not really recoil sensitive, but why beat myself up if I don’t have to?
The VG6 brake installed easily, just like the videos said it would. Though I admit to being initially a bit confused by the logo being on the bottom and not the top of the brake, the videos confirmed that I had done it correctly.
The underside of the muzzle brake
I was almost finished and was excitedly putting the bolt and charging handle into the upper when I discovered a problem – I had somehow accidentally ordered an AR15 charging handle, instead of an AR10, so it didn’t fit. *Head. Desk.*
The size difference between AR10 and AR15 charging handles.
I called around locally, but that part wasn’t in stock. So I ordered online with 2-day delivery. Aero Precision’s website was sold out of the ones I was interested in, so I ordered from Midway instead.
I was ridiculously happy that this was the only major screw-up I had with this build. Granted, it cost me more money, but I can either put the other charging handle on an existing AR15 in my safe, or save it for the next build.
Now… I said I “was” happy about that being the only screw up? Well… Murphy heard me… so that was before I accidentally dropped the BCG onto a concrete floor and bent the gas key. Yes. I did that. I can’t believe I did something so stupid (well – yes I can actually). And I only figured out it was bent when it wouldn’t mate up with the gas tube again.
Insert Profanity
Remember kids – just because something is made of steel and designed to take abuse, doesn’t mean that you can’t still do something stupid. That one is totally on fumble-fingered me. I’m going to call it a “learning experience”. But I have to get myself a replacement, and that delays the test-shooting.
Now I’m waiting for either 1) my friend to be able to repair the damaged gas key, 2) me to order a replacement for the gas key, or 3) me to order a replacement for the entire carrier housing before I can proceed to the test shoot. I know. I’m sorry. Please be patient with the newb. I’m disappointed too.
Stay tuned for the final installment of my gun-building saga where I actually get to shoot this gun! (Soon, I hope!)
Oh, this should be good. The analytical and well reasoned opinion of Lucian K. Truscott IV on “gun nuts” vs reasonable “gun owners”
I consider myself a reasonable fellow. Proceed, Lucian.
Woe be unto the innocent bystander, or even the less-than-innocent liberal wuss Salon columnist, if you raise your hand and say something . . . anything . . . about guns and gun ownership. Boy, are the gun nuts ever ready for you!
Well if what you say has some holes in the logic I feel an obligation to note that, sir. The more ludicrous and unreasonable the more we must insist you pump the brakes.
The first thing they accuse you of is wanting to ban guns, all guns. You want to take their guns away! Or the government does.
That’s been true for decades and the government would be the enforcement method. Apple and Amazon certainly aren’t going to go taking products from customers.
Or somebody does. I mean, look at the reaction of the NRA to something as sane as the recent ban on bump stocks
, which take an “ordinary” (if such a thing can be called ordinary) semiautomatic assault rifle and turn it into a fully-automatic weapon.
No it doesn’t. The Obama administration ATF could not justify removing them as an approved device because mechanically they make it easier to fire faster (not consistently or accurately) but still just semiautomatic. Your finger is also capable of working the trigger quickly. The bump stock is a gimmick device.
You’d think they were coming to take guns away from gun owners, when in fact, it’s an utterly defensible ban on a device that converts a legal gun into an illegal weapon of mass destruction.
Did we not just cover the fact that they were legal and were not found to constitute building a machine gun? It didn’t make them illegal or weapons of mass destruction, unless there’s H-bomb edition bump stock somewhere that made it past the proliferation bans?
I want to chalk this up to hyperbole but you seem genuine, if entirely inaccurate.
The shooter in Las Vegas had bump stocks on nearly all of the 24 guns that were found in his room at the Mandalay Bay hotel after he killed 58 concert-goers and wounded over 400. Bump stocks are what enabled him to fire more than 1,000 rounds down on the crowd across the street from his hotel room.
Okay… Hard facts time.
A semi-wealthy Vegas regular decides he’s going out in a blaze of infamy. Bought a bunch of guns, bump stocks, and a window view of a packed concert venue, one that he had thoroughly scouted. Some of this should be ringing bells in long distance ambush tactics.
No, we have no motive beyond him deciding to do this. What truly terrifies us is that this is beyond our power to stop. It is. We can investigate. We can respond to threats and information about threats. We can perform our due diligence but preventing a violent attack, with certainty, in a free society (or any society) is impossible.
No rule would have prevented this attack, nor complicated it particularly, and segments of society cannot accept that. So they blissfully choose not to. A faux righteous anger towards anyone so brazen as to highlight the glaring flaws in the “common sense” utopiavision solutions to deadly serious problems is also common.
This was act was choice, a devastating one that the security present were not prepared to respond to. In a perfect world they wouldn’t need to consider such an atrocity. In a perfect world there wouldn’t need to be security, period.
Second hard fact: Nobody but the SME’s want to admit it but the bump stock use probably saved lives. Unwieldy and unaimed automatic fire is not effective.
Note: The concert crowd was over 300 meters away
The density of the crowd contributed most to the effectiveness of the attack and death/injury figure. The long roaring rips of unstable bump stock assisted fire could not be individually targeted. The crowd’s occupied area itself was the target.
A single equipped counter sniper police officer with a rifle could have accurately broken the attack at the ranges involved. A small team of them even more quickly. These wouldn’t have to be officers of a SWAT training standard either, just aware of the situation and recently drilled to deal with a long ambush. This is a drill I ran with Marines for years, especially as we worked for up for an Afghanistan deployment (cancelled). Its adaptation to the security and LEO’s at a venue isn’t rocket science.
A hunting rifle could have produced a higher lethality figure. It would do so with fewer rounds fired as hunting ammo has greater wounding potential at distance. More powerful rounds designed to stop medium and large game, like bears, elk, and moose at distance.
If you listen to the NRA, you would think that banning bump-stocks is the first step on a slippery slope to disarming America.
Again, it was the NRA’s idea. It absolutely is the “slippery slope” because it won’t work. Therefore the next time a mass casualty event occurs we will have to ban more firearms because it didn’t work.
I’ve said it before and I will say it again, the ONLY meaningful ban arithmetically would be a total ban and confiscation of firearms. It could never be effective enough to justify. Bataclan Theatre, France.
It’s bullshit, of course, as are many of the so-called “arguments” you get from gun nuts. I heard from one lunatic last week who used the old automobile straw man: cars kill, so what are you saying, we should ban cars, too? Wow. You got me there.
We do, actually. Automobiles contribute to far more funerals and injuries than rifles do. Automobiles can even be used as both assault weapons and weapons of mass destruction.
168 Dead, 680 injured. 324 buildings damaged. Method of attack: Rental Truck and Chemistry. Motive for attack: Ruby Ridge and Waco,TX. Civilian deaths at Government Agency hands
Then they go after you for mis-using, or mis-interpreting gun language.
Definitions, specificity, and attention to detail are vitally important in the process of forming effective laws, procedures, and responses. You being an ignoramus is absolutely a reason to ignore you.
How much your opinion matters is directly correlative to how deep your understanding actually is on a topic. You have demonstrated no reason for your opinion to matter, Mr. Truscott.
Define an “assault weapon!” AR-15 style rifles aren’t “assault weapons” because they don’t have “select fire.”
Correct. Assault weapon is a misnomer. An assault rifle, by definition, is a select fire rifle in an intermediate chambering.
On and on they go, down the rabbit hole of military-macho-gun-speak.
Nomenclature. A topic a West Point graduate should be familiar with.
One recent “review” in Tactical Life Magazine of something called the CMMG MkG Banshee AR Pistol described it as having such features as “Radial-Delayed blowback operating system . . . ambidextrous charging handles, sling plates and safeties as well as Tailhook Mod 2 arm braces from Gear Head Works . . . a five-inch, 4140 chrome-moly barrel with .578×28-tpi muzzle threading for devices like suppressors, and a knurled thread protector . . . a full-length top rail, M-LOK slots on the sides and a hand stop on the bottom.” My goodness! You would think that would be enough stuff for any self-respecting assault weapon! But no! There is more! “CMMG then installs a mil-spec-style single-stage trigger as well as a Magpul MOE pistol grip.”
Whew. I wouldn’t have an assault weapon with anything less. Have a look at this thing. I’m sure the gun nuts will weigh in, assuring us that this is a fine weapon for hunting small game, or self-defense, or target shooting or whatever. But really…this?
You have no idea what you just said, no clue. Everything you copied from Tactical Life you mean to portray as terrifying, overpowered, and with murderous intent. Projectionism, probably. Not a single thing in that descriptive paragraph registered in your head as a functional device.
If I say, “use of the accelerator or gas pedal has been directly linked to nearly all traffic fatalities and injuries”, I am 100% correct. But the terms accelerator or gas pedal put the image of a device in your mind, not some nebulous mass carnage cause. 34,439 deaths (2016), 2,177,000 injured, 5,065,000 damage incidents, by the way
That list is just parts. Parts.
From top to bottom in that apparently terrifying paragraph:
Radial Delayed Blowback: the method of assuring the chamber stays safely sealed that also makes the gun safer to control and more comfortable to shoot
Ambidextrous CH: Left and right hand friendly
Sling Plate: Left and right hand friendly for a sling
Safety: Left and right hand friendly safety switch
Tailhook Mod 2 Brace: The brand/type of a pistol part on a pistol, a popular one. Aids in safe control of the gun.
5″ Barrel: 5 inches of pistol barrel. Slightly shorter than a Glock 34.
4140 Chrome-moly barrel: The grade of steel used in the barrel, a common one. Listing the grade is done mostly because everyone else does it and it adds validity and accountability to the product.
Knurled Thread protector: little screw on thing that protects the barrel’s threads because threads can become damaged easily.
Full length top rail: You put sights here
M-LOK rail: Magpul designed attachment method handguard. Like LEGO or K’NEX
Mil-spec trigger: Trigger with a break weight of between 6-9 lbs of pressure. Least expensive, most common, mass produced trigger for AR style firearms.
This is what this amounts to: what items are or are not in this firearm and what material.
Culminating on feigned or genuine terror/outrage on the trigger is quite strange… I honestly rather it be feigned because genuine reaches a level of ignorance that validates every poor lost second lieutenant stereotype, especially from an academy grad.
I don’t care what they say. That’s not a civilian weapon.
Yes it is. The military has very little use for a weapon like this, and B&T won that contract. This won’t be widely issued either, niche PSD use only.
B&T’s contract winner for the SCW contract, the APC9K
That’s a weapon designed for use by the military to kill human beings.
Not for the military, but yes guns are lethal when they cause lethal trauma to a body. Weapons are, by definition, built to project force. Lethal force.
The thing costs $1,249.95. It is, of course, sold on the open market to any civilian who walks in with the scratch to buy one.
After a Federal background check and complying with all state regulations regarding pistol purchase to include licensure, registration, and waiting periods. Or is checked thoroughly by the ATF under the regulations of the National Firearms Act for an SBR, waiting the better part of a year to be cleared for the purchase, then must ask the permission of that agency to move the weapon.
The people who buy weapons like this are, strictly speaking, gun nuts.
I prefer to identify as a cashew cannonade, thank you.
Their sense of embarrassment when the way gun nuts talk about these things in gun magazines and on-line forums is obvious to all outsiders, though. All that worshiping at the altar of descriptions of killing power. Car nuts use similar language in car magazines when they talk about the capabilities of sports cars, talking about limited slip differentials and how many G’s it pulled on the skid pad. It’s vaguely adolescent and a little embarrassing when it’s pulled out of context, and I read the car magazines and love cars and I’ve indulged in that stuff since, yes, I was an adolescent . . . and I still do.
Embarrassment?
But car nuts aren’t gushing over a machine designed for killing. Gun nuts are. And that’s the essential difference, isn’t it? To talk about the efficacy of guns is to talk about how good they are at killing.
And yet the car, despite not being a weapon, is the far more lethal instrument by body count. Imagine if someone deliberately used one as a weapon?!
2016, Nice France, 86 Dead 434 Injured.
Oh, but trucks aren’t built to kill. So the staggering body count deliberately wracked up by one doesn’t count? It’s higher than Vegas, by the way. An attack on another crowded event.
That’s what they’re doing when they advertise the things and review them in gun magazines. They’re essentially bragging about what wonderful killing machines they are. In the context of the military, that’s a useful thing to know. If you’re in the military, and you’re going to use a gun like the MkG Banshee AR Pistol, or any of the other assault weapons for that matter, you should care about how good they do their job, because you’re going to use them in situations where someone may be shooting at you, and you want to shoot back as efficiently and accurately as you can so you don’t get killed.
“…you should care about how good they do their job, because you’re going to use them in situations where someone may be shooting at you, and you want to shoot back as efficiently and accurately as you can so you don’t get killed.”
That! There! Lucian, you nailed it!
But less than one percent of our population is in the military.
Sad fact, but that is what a professional military results in with a nation our size.
The rest of us are civilians, and these things are being marketed and sold to civilians.
Have civilians never been shot at? Never been in mortal danger of life ending violence? Remember that thing you just said?
They use of the term “tactical” to yank at the heartstrings of arm-chair warriors, to make them feel like they’re buying something big and powerful. “Tactical” is a purely macho word. It’s used to appeal to gun nuts. Sadly, it seems to be working.
Tactical: Calculated, planned, strategic, prudent, politic, diplomatic, shrewd, judicious, cunning. -Relating to or constituting actions carefully planned to gain a specific end.
Yes tactical is a term associated closely with the military, the military use tactics to complete its missions. You are not required to be a serving member to use tactics though, that isn’t a rule.
The simple fact about people who buy and own guns is that they are buying a device that can be used to project power at a significant distance away from themselves. That’s what guns do.
Yes, that is entirely the point. It also means physical size, health, and relative strength are not the de facto determinant factors in a potentially deadly attack. Women, the elderly, physically disabled persons, outnumbered persons, now all have a force equalization option.
Even a pistol can be used to hit something or someone across a room, or across a street, or outside of your house when you’re inside.
Yep and remember that this is a pistol, or a pistol force equivalent. It has exactly the terminal ballistic energy and lethality a 5″ 9mm pistol generates. It even uses the same magazines as the Glock pistols. It’s just far easier to control and shoot accurately with, little things that happen to be important when your life’s on the line.
They talk all the time about the “stopping power” of guns.
That is a dated marketing troupe, terminal ballistics is a multifaceted topic dependant on a myriad of factors so it was oversimplified into the term “stopping power”.
And that’s it in a nutshell. A gun stops things. It can be used to stop an intruder from entering your house.
Defensive use of force. A fundamental human right.
Unfortunately, guns are used every day not only to stop burglaries or other kinds of crimes, they are used to stop arguments, or marriages, or in the cases of Parkland and Las Vegas and New Zealand and Sandy Hook and Pittsburgh and so many other places, guns are used to stop the lives of people the shooters simply don’t like, or to make “political” statements, or to satisfy some dark unknowable craving.
1,138,534 – Estimated number of defensive gun uses in the U.S. annually based on CDC data. The 20 additional studies referenced in the paper by Kleck range from 600,000 to 6.1 Million uses. The most recent listed (2017, Pew Research) put the number at 2.6 Million.
The purpose of a gun is not to craft a clever rebuttal to win an argument.
No, its purpose is to survive a lethal fight.
It’s to end that argument right now and for good.
No, its purpose is to survive a lethal fight.
A gun isn’t designed to achieve the divorce a court can grant to end a marriage. A gun can be used to end that marriage right this minute by killing a spouse, and guns are used for that purpose all the time.
Spousal Homicide, Family Violence Statistics, DOJ (2002): 787
81% Female victim, 19% Male victim.
Spouses as a percentage of annual homicides with any reported relationship between perpetrator and victim: 8.6% Note: 9,102 of 16,204 total murders (2002) had a listed perpetrator/victim relationship established, the others had no relationship reported.
It is 1,446 times more likely for a gun to be used defensively than as a lethal divorce alternative.
Guns can be fired at paper targets on a shooting range, of course, but they are designed to kill, and they do just that more than 30,000 times a year in homicides and suicides and mass shootings and accidents every single year.
In 2013, there were 73,505 nonfatal firearm injuries (23.2 injuries per 100,000 persons),[5][6] and 33,636 deaths due to “injury by firearms” (10.6 deaths per 100,000 persons).[7] These deaths included 21,175 suicides,[7] 11,208 homicides,[8] 505 deaths due to accidental or negligent discharge of a firearm, and 281 deaths due to firearms use with “undetermined intent”.[7] -Gun Violence in the US, Wikipedia Summary -Total deaths and injuries combined: 107,141
It is 10 times more likely that a firearm is used for defense, as “rare” as that is, than homicide, suicide, injury, or accident combined. This number includes the deaths and injuries caused during defensive use which, by rights, should be excluded.
Oh and did we gloss over the fact that rifles, of which of “Assault Weapons” is a subset, are a single digit percentage contributor to homicides?
2012 Weapon – Rifle: 298 Knife: 1,604
2013 Weapon – Rifle: 285 Knife: 1,490
2014 Weapon – Rifle: 258 Knife: 1,595
Rifles as percentage of total homicides
2012: 2.3%
2013: 2.3%
2014: 2.1%
So even as you try to narratively invalidate the shooting sports by giving them a sentence on what you can do with a gun, “of course”. You conveniently overlook the fact that defensive gun use is far more prevalent and other lawful uses are magnitudes more common than defensive use.
Highlighting the fact that a weapon is, in fact, a weapon and therefore it can be used to kill is just reiterating the entire point of defensively having a weapon, that it can kill if you need it to. Sometimes that’s the remaining option.
That firearms, like tools throughout history, are at times used for wrongful and harmful intent is a tragic consequence of always having a segment of the population that will self justify lethal force to accomplish their ends. Whether that end is gain, gratification, terror, or retribution doesn’t much matter at the time the event.
What will matter in that moment is your ability and capacity to do something about it.
Of course, gun nuts scream and yell all the time that they need their guns for “self-defense.”
That’s the argument the Supreme Court bought in District of Columbia v. Heller, which specifically allowed guns to be kept loaded and ready for use in people’s homes. The pro-gun lobby made the argument that you need a loaded, unlocked gun to defend yourself, and the Supreme Court agreed and located that right in the Second Amendment to the Constitution when for more than 200 years, that right had not been recognized in that manner before.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…” “The right of the People to Keep and Bear Arms shall not be infringed.”
Self evident truth, my friend.
According to an analysis of figures from the National Crime Victimization Survey quoted by NPR, Americans protected themselves with a gun during the commission of a crime 0.9 percent of crimes from 2007 to 2011. So there is evidence that guns have been used by gun owners to defend themselves and their property. But it’s not the reason so many people in this country own guns.
It’s not?
Seems like it is.
There are an estimated 393 million guns in the United States, according to the Washington Post. There are more guns than people in this country.
I’ve seen estimates as high as 610 million actually. I wonder what the person to knife ratio is?
I am a gun owner.
This does not validate your opinion with any sort of expertise, sir.
My guns are locked away in a storage locker right now. I own a 12 gauge Remington pump-action shotgun, a .32 revolver, a .38 revolver, a .22 bolt action rifle I inherited from my grandmother, and a .177 bolt action rifle my brother gave me. I’ve never owned a semiautomatic weapon. Not even one. The last one I shot was an M-14 in the Army in 1965.
Ok.
I come from a military family.
This doesn’t mean anything validating either. Holding two military MOS’s myself I can attest and would in any court and to God Almighty that Veteran status does not, confer expertise with firearms. It grants a closer and more professional exposure to handling and characteristics, but not expertise. The military does not require expertise, it requires proficiency. The Armament Corps, one of my MOS’s, are much more likely to be subject matter experts yet even within those ranks expertise isn’t required so long as you can follow a maintenance manual.
You would think a family of Army officers would have owned a lot of guns.
No, not in my experience.
You’d be wrong. My father owned the 12 gauge pump-action shotgun I inherited from him and the .45 caliber Army-issue Colt pistol he inherited from his father. My grandfather, a four-star general, owned two guns: the .45 pistol he gave to my father in 1951 when he left for the war in Korea, and the German Luger taken from Field Marshal Albert Kesslering, commander of Nazi forces against whom grandpa had campaigned the Fifth Army in Italy.
That’s it.
Cool. Especially Kesslering’s pistol. Still not validating expertise.
I was raised to understand that guns are designed and manufactured to kill.
So was I.
I was trained in the Army on multiple guns, and I was trained to use them to kill.
Mission of the Marine Rifle Squad: Locate, close with, and destroy the enemy by fire and maneuver or repel enemy assault by fire and close combat. 0311, Infantry Rifleman. I can play that card too.
That’s what they are for. Killing. Guns like the assault rifles used by the Las Vegas shooter, or the shooter in Parkland, or Sandy Hook, or Pittsburgh, or New Zealand, are civilian guns that are designed to kill more people faster.
I thought they were military guns? That was the argument a few paragraphs ago.
That’s what the gun nuts don’t want to admit. These military-style
Back to military!
weapons may be legal, but they are high powered,
A nonsense argument coming from you. That Banshee you maligned earlier has a fraction of the power of your 12 gauge pump. The terminal ballistics will be exactly those of a 5″ barreled 9mm handgun of any sort.
rapid-firing, efficient killing machines.
If you want to own one of these things, you’re a gun nut, not a gun owner. There’s a difference.
Timothy McVeigh must’ve been a rental truck and chemistry nut
Thank you, Lucian. Your invalid opinion is noted and properly filed.
Now then, I’m going to go build an AR because reading this filled me with a spite for ignorance and bombastic attitudes.
Ahh. Feeling better already. Aero and Daniel Defense combo via Operation Parts
