8 Feb 02

On "safe" guns, from a friend in South Africa:

"You Americans have come up with some interesting =E2=80=98solutions' to gun= s that=20 actually shoot. We too are in the process of making guns so =E2=80=98safe'=20= that they=20 are little more than ornaments, although our =E2=80=98solutions' are not nea= rly so=20 high-tech as yours. =20 When I am on active duty, they send us out on patrol in the townships. They= =20 insist spare magazines be duck-taped closed. In addition, a cable lock is=20 installed on all rifles! The unit commander (me) carries the keys. The=20 feeble-minded bureaucrats who insist on this, needless to say, don't care to= =20 join us on patrol. Like politicians everywhere, they're only too happy to=20 risk our lives, but never their own.

I, of course, unlock all my troop's guns and de-taped the spare magazines th= e=20 moment we are out of sight. My troopers are always fully loaded and ready=20 for anything. Warriors should always improvise!"

Lesson: As fast as grass eaters invent ways to make our weapons useless (and= =20 us defenseless), we must find ways to work around their =E2=80=98solutions.'= We need=20 to stay always ahead of them in our thinking.

/John =20

8 Feb 02

On "safe" guns, from a friend in South Africa:

"You Americans have come up with some interesting =E2=80=98solutions' to= guns that actually shoot.  We too are in the process of making guns so= =E2=80=98safe' that they are little more than ornaments, although our =E2= =80=98solutions' are not nearly so high-tech as yours.
=20
When I am on active duty, they send us out on patrol in the townships. &= nbsp;They insist spare magazines be duck-taped closed.  In addition, a=20= cable lock is installed on all rifles!  The unit commander (me) carries= the keys.  The feeble-minded bureaucrats who insist on this, needless=20= to say, don't care to join us on patrol.  Like politicians everywhere,=20= they're only too happy to risk our lives, but never their own.

I, of course, unlock all my troop's guns and de-taped the spare magazine= s the moment we are out of sight.  My troopers are always fully loaded=20= and ready for anything.  Warriors should always improvise!"

Lesson: As fast as grass eaters invent ways to make our weapons useless=20= (and us defenseless), we must find ways to work around their =E2=80=98soluti= ons.'  We need to stay always ahead of them in our thinking.

/John  

7 Feb 02

Potential problems with the new locking system on Glock pistols:

"It is doubtful that common solvents or lubricants will have much effect on the S&W lock design, but most pin/tumbler locks, as used in the Glock system, will NOT work properly if bathed in a solvent. Solvent will remove lubricity from internal, moving parts, causing the lock to seize. Similarly, pin/tumbler locks should not be exposed to petroleum based lubricants (which are present in nearly all traditional gun oils) because they leave a gummy residue that can, again, cause the lock to seize."

If the lock is thus frozen in the locked position, the pistol will be rendered sterile until it can be returned to the factory. This is the prime concern with regard to all the "internal" gun locks now being rushed into production by gunmakers.

/John

6 Feb 02

The willfully ignorant reporting the news:

This is from Reuters today:

"US policewoman accidentally shoots boy at school PHILADELPHIA, Feb 6, An off-duty Philadelphia police officer attending a career day at her son's school on Wednesday fired an accidental round from her semiautomatic weapon and it grazed a ten-year-old boy's head, police said.

‘What happened is that during a demonstration for her son's class, a child asked to see her weapon. She pulled it from her holster and it discharged, grazing the child.'

He identified the firearm as a Glock 9mm semiautomatic, which many police departments have abandoned because of problems with the safety catch."

What rubbish! What police departments have "abandoned" the Glock? The fact is, Glock can't produce pistols fast enough to fill police orders. What "safety catch" are these ignoramuses talking about?

As we have come to expect, no relevant details were reported, but we all know that this poorly trained and incompetent police officer had her finger wrapped around the trigger as she produced the pistol and then carelessly allowed it to point in an unsafe direction. Leftist, agenda-driven reporters spontaneously blame the pistol and then invent stories about it to justify their sloppy and casual attitude toward the truth.

These people are a disgrace to their profession.

/John

6 Feb 02

News from the just-completed SHOT Show in Las Vegas from a friend who was there:

"The Colt rep indicated that Colt has never shipped any AR-15 with a SAAMI chamber, even in their Match/Target versions. All Colt barrels are mil-spec, he insisted, and they have never made ‘special' barrels for the civilian market. What he didn't mention is that SAAMI barrels are commonly retrofitted to Colt AR-15s by autonomous gunsmiths, and they are difficult to distinguish externally from the original.

S&W revolvers now all have a built-in locking mechanism. The left sideplate has a small hole that accepts a hollow key. The key rotates 180 degrees to lock or unlock the weapon. In models with exposed hammers, this also causes a metal tab to extend out next to the hammer revealing the status of the locking device. Hammerless models have no such external indicator. Because of the small size of the key and keyhole, unlocking a S&W resolver is a tedious task, requiring exactitude and patience. It is indeed a fine, motor skill. One can forget doing it in the dark or under stress.

Glock pistols, now also incorporate a key lock. Happily, it is optional, at least for now. A key lock device is built into the hollow space behind the magazine well. Unlike S&W, Glock has installed lock cylinders which require individual keys, each being unique to a particular pistol. If one purchases more than one ‘lockable' Glock, he will have to figure out a way to keep the keys straight. As with S&W revolvers, there is a tactile ‘status indicator.' Sadly, it would be another incredible feat of fine motor coordination to unlock a Glock quickly or in the dark, even assuming one could find the right key! In addition, these locks cannot be serviced in the field by Glock armorers. All repairs, lost keys, etc require that the gun to be sent back to the factory.

As a locksmith, I can assure you that, if your Glock or S&W revolver falls into mud, sand, or even lint, and the keyhole becomes clogged, the pistol will be useless (if locked) until the debris can be cleaned out.

Finally, in order to satisfy the new Massachusetts requirement that mandates a ‘loaded chamber indicator' on all firearms, Glock now has a ‘Massachusetts extractor' which is functionally identical to a standard one, but has a knob on the external surface which becomes prominent when a round is chambered."

More to come.

/John

5 Feb 02

This is from a colleague in Atlanta, GA:

"I recently discovered that I've had a broken left thumb for several weeks (long story), and now I suddenly find myself confined to a massive cast that has taken my left hand and forearm completely out of play. I'll have it for a month or two.

I'm extremely pleased that in our classes I learned how to perform both administrative and tactical gun-handling functions one-handed! At the time I learned all this, it seemed idiosyncratic, and I, like many other students, was wondering if this was something anyone ever had to use.

Yet another reminder that one-handed skills are not just for ‘advanced' shooters, and should never be neglected. This experience of mine suggests that, even in basic defensive handgun classes, it is useful to provide a primer on one-handed stoppage reductions, reloads, and one-handed shooting. As I discovered, we're all just one injury away from needing these skills."

Lesson: When it's least expected, you're elected! We should not be spending all our training time practicing only those things that we're already good at. Critical skills, such as one-handed shooting and gun handling, that are, by their nature awkward and clumsy, are important too and need to be learned and drilled regularly.

/John