This ain’t a law, it’s a shopping list

Crazy, Forward!, Gah., I'm from the government, news, politics, weapons 5 Responses »

Jan 252013

Banned Weapons List 2013 – Over 150 Guns Outlawed if Dianne Feinstein’s Legislation Passes

Rifles:

AK, AK-47, AK47S, AK-74, AKM, AKS, ARM, MAK90, MISR, NHM90, NHM91, Rock River Arms LAR-47, SA85, SA93, Vector Arms AK-47, VEPR, WASR-10, and WUM, IZHMASH Saiga AK, MAADI AK47, and ARM, Norinco 56S, 56S2, 84S, and 86S, Poly Technologies AK47 and AKS, All AR types, including the following: AR-10, AR-15, Armalite M15 22LR Carbine, ARmalite M15-T, Barett REC7, Beretta AR-70, Colt Match Target Rifles, DoubleStar AR rifles, DPMS Tactical rifles, Heckler and Koch MR556, Olympic rms, Remington R-15 rifles, Rock River Arms LAR-15, Sig Sauer SIG516 rifles, Smith & Wesson M&P15 Rifles, Stag Arms AR rifles, Sturm, Ruger & Co. SR 556 rifles; Barrett M107A1; Barrett M82A1, Beretta CX4 STorm; Calico Liberty Series; CETME Sporter; Daewoo K-1, K-2, Max 1, Max 2, AR 100 and AR 110C; Fabrique Nationale/FN Herstal FAL, LAR, 22 FNC, 308 Match, L1A1 Sporter, PS90, SCAR, and FS2000, Feather Industries AT-9, Galil Model AR and Model ARM; High Point Carbine; Hk-91, HK-93, Hk-94, HK-PSG-1 and HK USC; Kel-Tec Sub-200, SU-16, and RFB; SIG AMT, SIG PE-57, Sig Sauer SG 550 and Sig Sauer SG551; Springfield Armory SAR-48; Steyr AUG; Sturm, Ruger Mini-14 Tactical Rife M-14/20CF; All thompson rifles including the following: Thompson M1SB, Thompson T1100D, Thompson T150D, Thompson T1BSB, Thompson TM1, Tompson TM1C, UMAREX UZI Rifle; UZI Mini Carbine, UZI Model A Carbine, ad UZI Model B Carbine, Valmet M62S, M71S, and M78; Vector Arms UZI Type; Weaver Arms Nighthawk; Wilkinson Arms Linda Carbine.

Pistols:

All AK-47 Types including the following: Centurion 39AK pistol, Draco AK-47 pistol, HCR AK-47 pistol, IO Inc. Hellpup AK-47 pistol, Krinkov pistol, Mini Draco AK-47 pistol, Yugo Krebs Krink postol; All AR-15 types including the following: American Spirit AR-15 pistol, Bushmaster Carbon 15 pistol, Rock River Arms LAR 15 pistol; Calico Liberty pistols; DSA SA58 PKP FAL pistol; Encom MP5 and MP-45; Heckler and Koch model SP-89 pistol; The following MAC types: MAC-10, MAC-11; Masterpiece Arms MPA A930 mini pistol, MPA460 pistol, MPA Tactical Pistol, and Mini Tactical Pistol; Military Armament Corp. Ingram M-11, Velocity Arms VMAC; Sig Sauer p556 pistol; Sites Spectre; All thomspon types including the following: Thompson TA510D, Thompson TA5; All UZI types including Micro-UZI

Shotguns:

Franchi LAW-12 and SPAS 12; All IZHMASH Saiga 12 types, including the following: IZHMASH saiga 12, IZHMASH saiga 12S, IZHMASH saiga 12S EXP-01, IZHMASH saiga12K, IZHMASH saiga12K-030, IZHMASH saiga 12K-040 Taktika; Streetsweeper; Striker 12

Bad PR for GEICO and Reed Exhibitions

blather, dumbassery, Forward!, Gah., history, news, Obamazombies, politics, weapons, ಠ_ಠ No Responses »

Jan 242013

Gun Manufacturer Auto Policy Cancelled Because He Is In Firearm Business

“The reason for cancellation is your vehicle […] does not meet our underwriting guidelines because it is used in conjunction with a company that deals in the weapons industry“

Note that there is a dearth of hard data as yet, so there may be more to the story. It’s a little unclear what the “weapons industry” has to do with auto insurance. Apparently the former policy holder made gun parts, a perfectly legal profession. But GEICO seems to have a problem with that. Presumably they’d also have a problem if you worked at a gun shop, or repaired guns, or worked at a sporting goods store.

——————

And Reed Exhibitions, the British company that caved to craven political cowardice in banning AR-15’s and similar standard firearms from from the Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show scheduled for February 2-10 in Harrisburg, PA, has decided to postpone the whole show. This was no doubt brought on by the fact that a lot of the vendors decided to boycott the ESOS… as of today, 307 vendors, including (IIUIC) all of the big ones, have decided to bail. This is all-round bad news… lots of people have spent lots of money preparing for the show, including, no doubt, very many small family businesses and individuals. This may well cause some serious hardships. But the blame for that all falls squarely on Reed, who decided that Scary Black Guns “would distract from the theme of hunting and fishing, disrupting the broader experience of our guests,” something that apparently hasn’t been a problem in previous years.

Further: the National Shooting Sports Foundation owns the SHOT show in Vegas, which is a ginormous gun industry trade show… managed by Reed. The NSSF is not happy with Reed’s actions with the ESOS, and it looks like they may be ending their relationship with Reed.

Because of Reed’s recent actions, NSSF is considering all options regarding the management of future SHOT Shows.

This sort of thing is not new, of course. Back in 2000 Smith & Wesson sold out to the Clinton administration, with the result that the firearms industry as a whole and firearms owners were incensed and slowed down business with S&W. At the time S&W was owned by a British company (what the hell *is* it with Brits messing with American firearms???), Tomkins PLC; the result of a 40% drop in sales led Tomkins to sell S&W in 2001 to an American company, Saf-T-Hammer. But while this was an improvement, S&W was a damaged company that had had to shut down several facilities.

The lesson: think before you decide to screw with gun owners.

Atomic Cannon

awesomeness, blather, drawings, history, nukes, weapons, youtube 12 Responses »

Jan 242013

Let’s face it… a gun that shoots a nuclear shell = AWESOME.

[youtube 5N0Balj2tLw]

The M65 280mm “atomic cannon” was an early 1950’s weapon designed for a single purpose: to lob 15 kiloton nuclear shells at invading Soviet forces in Germany. It was kind of a doomed concept… it was a massive piece of equipment that, while technically mobile, would in practice have been a largely fixed emplacement. Range was good by cannon standards, but terrible by “bomb carried by an airplane” standards, which is why it went away in only a few years.

It fired a live nuclear shell a grand total of once, the Upshot-Knothole-Grable test of May 25, 1953, producing some of the most impressive and iconic images from the nuclear weapons race. The shell was a gun-type bomb, similar in concept to the Little Boy bomb. This was used because the bomb was narrower in diameter than an equivalent implosion device (importance since it had to fit in an 11-inch diameter cannon shell), but it resulted in a lower performing explosive than if it were an implosion device.

Drawing of a smaller gun-type nuclear artillery shell via, of all things, Greenpeace. Apparently they got their mitts on a British nuclear weapon manual some time back, and decided that the thing to do to help prevent nuclear proliferation was to post bits of it online. Thanks!

[youtube IXCWgqBSH8Q]

This image from the Los Alamos National Lab webpage may technically not be all that impressive, but the appearance of apparently normal “stuff,” namely the power pole, lines and transformers, gives the image a creepy vibe often missing from shots of nuclear explosions.

This page HERE has a number of good photos of the cannon and its tractors, as well as selling a good PDF of AutoCAD layout drawings of the beast.

Meanwhile, in Utah…

blather, news, politics, Utah, weapons 2 Responses »

Jan 232013

While New York and Massachusetts and the like are falling all over themselves to strip their subjects of more and more rights, in Utah we’re seeing this:

Proposal: No permit needed to carry concealed weapon in Utah

——–

Utah bill would do away with need for concealed-gun permit

In short, this would make Utah a “Constitutional Carry” state, like Vermont. While this is undeniably the more Constitutionally proper approach, it does have some practical concerns. Primary, at least to me, is that a Utahn might grow up under Constitutional Carry, and then make the mistake of leaving the state. Even though many states recognize the Utah concealed carry permit, if you don’t *have* a permit, suddenly you’d be in legal trouble.

Also: CCW permit holders have a statistically significant lower crime rate than non-permit holders. Even the virulently hoplophobic “Violence Policy Center” supports this fact. (There approximately 8,590,000 CCW holders in the US; the VPC claims 499 “Total people killed by concealed carry killers,” from May 2007 to the present. This works out to very roughly 84 people killed by CCW’ers per year, out of a population of 8.5 million… a killing rate of 0.98 per 100,000 per year. The US as a whole has a murder rate of 4.8 per 100,000; event the vaunted Brits come in at 1.2). But if Utah goes to a Constitutional carry, then those stats go out the window; every gangbanger with a gat will now be counted as a “legal concealed carry” type by the political hoplophobes.

—-

Fun fact: Chicago has a population of 2.7 million, of whom essentially none are legal CCW holders. In 2012, Chicagoans killed more people than the three-times larger population of CCW’ers killed in nearly six years. This means that your average CCW’er is 18 times less likely to shoot you for no good reason than the average Chicagoan.

Utah? Awesome!

awesomeness, news, politics, Utah, weapons 1 Response »

Jan 202013

While New York and Massachusetts are racing to the bottom in their drive to strip their citizens of even so much as an old-fashioned six-shooter (proposed ban on magazines that hold more than five rounds), Utah produces this:

UTAH SHERIFFS’ ASSOCIATION  STAND ON 2ND AMENDMENT AND  PRESIDENTIAL EXECUTIVE ORDERS

We respect the Office of the President of the United States of America. But, make no mistake, as the duly-elected sheriffs of our respective counties, we will enforce the rights guaranteed to our citizens by the Constitution. No federal official will be permitted to descend upon our constituents and take from them what the Bill of Rights-in particular Amendment II-has given them. We, like you, swore a solemn oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and we are prepared to trade our lives for the preservation of its traditional interpretation.

Now imagine the heads of the BATF and the FBI taking as principled a stand to defend the rights of the people.

From THIS news report, the sheriffs of 28 of 29 Utah counties have signed this, with only the Salt Lake County sheriff not (unsurprising, in the Red State of Utah, Salt Lake City keeps electing Democrats to Mayor and the state legislature and whatnot).

And HERE is a list of sheriffs from across the country who have done similar.

Erm… what state are Lexington & Concord in???

Crazy, Forward!, Gah., history, I'm from the government, news, politics, weapons, ಠ_ಠ 6 Responses »

Jan 202013

Massachusetts State Representative David Linsky has proffered a bill that would, and I quote:

Section 3

Removes Assault Weapon Ban loophole by banning private transfer of pre-1994 assault weapon; requires them to be stored at gun clubs or shooting ranges, or transferred to law enforcement.

There is of course much more. But I found this bit to be especially historic.

Well, lookit that.

blather, news, weapons 6 Responses »

Jan 192013

Turns out Arsenal Firearms is actually going ahead with production and sales of their AF2011-a1 double-barreled .45 semi-auto pistol. I mentioned it here most of a year ago; you can now preorder. For the low, low price of four-and-a-half grand.

I remain at a bit of a loss as to how this is legal in the US. It would seem a single trigger pull would result in two rounds going of, which would put this thing in the same Class III category with machine guns.

On the other hand… I wonder how hard it could really be for a good gunsmith to create a single-barreled pistol that had two magazines as this one does. The two mags would either cycle alternately, or they’d cycle sequentially. Either way, two slim 10-round magazines side-by-side in the grip would seem to nicely get around the current fad of “high capacity magazine” bans.

And nobody freaked out

blather, news, politics, Utah, weapons 3 Responses »

Jan 182013

Well, nobody local.

Man raises questions after carrying rifle into JC Penney

Short form: a guy does his shopping in a Riverdale, Utah, JC Penney with a pistol on his hip, an AR-15 on his back. Some people are disturbed, but nobody freaks out and calls the cops; the business doesn’t boot him out.

But then there’re the commenters on Fark, many of whom *do* freak out. A damned fine thread title, though…

Law-abiding citizen carries rifle into department store, minds own business, fails to murder anyone. It might take some effort, but we can all still feel threatened and outraged

And so it begins…

Crazy, Forward!, I'm from the government, news, politics, weapons, ಠ_ಠ 3 Responses »

Jan 162013

Rep. Israel to Introduce Legislation to Prohibit 3-D Printed High-Capacity Magazines Along with Plastic Guns

Washington, D.C.— Today, Congressman Steve Israel (D-Huntington [New York]) called for a renewal of a revamped Undetectable Firearms Act that includes the ban of 3-D printed, plastic high-capacity magazines. The existing ban on plastic guns expires this year and does not clearly cover magazines. This past weekend, Defense Distributed, a group of homemade gun enthusiasts used a 3-D printer to print and test an ammunition magazine for an AR semi-automatic rifle, loading and firing 86 rounds from the 30-round clip.

The only way to control this would be to control 3D printers… and to control the Internet. Hang on to your shorts, kiddies…

23 Executive Orders

Forward!, I'm from the government, news, Obamazombies, politics, weapons 4 Responses »

Jan 162013

Obama signed 23 executive orders today. Various news sources have reported that fact, but don’t generally seem too interested in describing those orders. Most seem to be pretty meaningless political theater. (NOTE: a few could, with some minimal effort, be problematic… #4, #7, #15)

Here’s the list:

1. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system.

2. Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system.

3. Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system.

4. Direct the Attorney General to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks.

5. Propose rulemaking to give law enforcement the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun.

6. Publish a letter from ATF to federally licensed gun dealers providing guidance on how to run background checks for private sellers.

7. Launch a national safe and responsible gun ownership campaign.

8. Review safety standards for gun locks and gun safes (Consumer Product Safety Commission).

9. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations.

10. Release a DOJ report analyzing information on lost and stolen guns and make it widely available to law enforcement.

11. Nominate an ATF director.

12. Provide law enforcement, first responders, and school officials with proper training for active shooter situations.

13. Maximize enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime.

14. Issue a Presidential Memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence.

15. Direct the Attorney General to issue a report on the availability and most effective use of new gun safety technologies and challenge the private sector to develop innovative technologies.

16. Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes.

17. Release a letter to health care providers clarifying that no federal law prohibits them from reporting threats of violence to law enforcement authorities.

18. Provide incentives for schools to hire school resource officers.

19. Develop model emergency response plans for schools, houses of worship and institutions of higher education.

20. Release a letter to state health officials clarifying the scope of mental health services that Medicaid plans must cover.

21. Finalize regulations clarifying essential health benefits and parity requirements within ACA exchanges.

22. Commit to finalizing mental health parity regulations.

23. Launch a national dialogue led by Secretaries Sebelius and Duncan on mental health.

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