The Firearm Blog

Today Gunvendor.com, a new firearm auction site, was launched. It is good to see some competition in the online gun auction market.

I asked the founder Mike and David to tell us a bit about themselves:

My name is Mike Burkard and my partner is David Valle. I am an entrepreneur with a background in importing / online sales / marketing / Jewelry & Diamond Business. David is ex Navy and extremely passionate about firearms. We saw a need for a more user friendly place to buy and sell guns. We wanted to make it easy to list and

buy. Our “Gunfinder” we modeled as a cross between eBay’s Item specifics and on autotrader.com . You can select the Manufacturer, Style, Condition, Caliber, and other Firearm specifics. It is all organized in a homogeneous way. On the other auction sites, if some one post a listing for “ar15″ and a buyer searches “ar-15″ they will not see that listing in the results. Also we wanted to be able to filter out all of the accessories and other items when customers were searching for a specific gun.

Another great thing we have in development is, promoting local business. When a user logs into his account. He will have the option of displaying items that are listed by different sellers near his location. This and the ability to search the gun finder by zip code is a great option for people not wanting to have there items shipped to an FFL and deal in person.

We are also working on streamlining the firearm purchase procedure,

They have at least 100 auctions on right now.

NCIS contract calls for over 2,000 pistols to replace the aging fleet of refurbished M11 (SIG P228) pistols purchased more than 15 years ago. The contract represents the first “new” pistol procurement for NCIS agents since the agency’s inception. The new P229 and P239 models will be chambered in .40S&W and fitted with SIG SAUER’S exclusive DAK™ trigger system.

SIG SAUER P239 (photo from wikipedia)

The press release is after the jump:

Continue Reading »

If you have been following this blog you know the Chinese have been in the news recently.

A Chinese ship carrying 3 million rounds of 7.62×39mm and 1500 RPG rounds destined for land locked Zimbabwe tried to offload in the South African port of Durban.

Robert Mugabe’s Zanu (PF) party have been arming militias to drive out farmers and terrorize opposition supporters since the election they probably lost (but refuse to announce the results). Despite this the South African Defence Secretary approved the shipment: “This is a normal transaction between two sovereign states and we don’t have to interfere”. Not that surprising since the South African president openly supports Robert Mugabe.

Luckily for the people of Zimbabwe the dock workers have refused to offload the cargo.

Read the article here.

Poster from SearAndHammer.com

(and yes … I am aware this post does violate my non political rule

President-Elect Dmitry Medvedev visited the Dubna Institute for Nuclear Research yesterday:

It has all the aesthetics of Russian pistols

I wonder what that is.

I first saw the image here. Confirmed it was not a fake here.

The Chinese reported that Tibetan monks have been hoarding vast quantities of arms …

“In the past two days, local police found three rifles, 571 bullets, 10kg of dynamite, five detonators and 38 satellite receivers in 11 key monasteries in Jone and Xiahe counties, and Hezuo City in Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture,” Xinhua reported.

I would not call 571 rounds a “cache” and for all we know they could be .22LR or guns kept from any of the past centuries wars. Satellite receivers probably means GPS devices.

I think the majority of the readers of this blog have more arms in their safe than all monks in China.

Citizens are not allowed to own firearms in China. Foreigners will be allowed to bring in their firearms in for the Olympics.

More at BBC

Italian police caught gangsters trying to purchase half a million AK-47s from Norinco (the Chinese state arms exporter) on behalf of a Libyan.

Apparently they were only purchasing 10 million round of ammo. Thats 50 20 rounds per gun - less than two one magazines worth.

They obviously did not watch that educational firm “Lord of War” which made it clear to all would be rebels that guns need
ammo.

Yuri Orlov (Nicolas Cage) negotiating the
purchase (theft) of Ukrainian AKs in “Lord of War”

More at GunPundit

Market Watch has listed SWHC (S&W) as …

“misleading earnings,” a situation where a company appears to have growing profits but where statements and footnotes in filings shows that the real bottom line is falling.

Beware.

.

Mad Ogre thinks so:

We just got in our latest order of rifles from Marlin. Everyone of them has extremely shoddy wood on them. The fitting of wood to metal and even just the finish on the wood is something I’d expect on a Puma. Overlaps, gaps, uneven and unfinished cuts, pitting, and splintering. This is a huge departure from what I am used to seeing from Marlin. The wood its self is also disappointing. but I can deal with less than steller lumber.

More here.

UDPATE: Jovian Thunderbolt has more on the topic

Hat Tip: Freedom Sight

The National Research Council have published a report advising against a national database of “unique” markings made by firearms on bullets and brass.

“Ballistics testing is only as useful as the number of images in the database,” Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., said while pushing for the database in 2002.

Actually, the opposite is true, today’s report said. The larger the database, the more errors the computer will return.

Under the current system, the computer might find 10 possible matches for a single bullet and there’s a good chance one of them will be confirmed. After adding more than 1 million guns to the database each year, the same system might produce hundreds of possible matches.

Comparing rimfire brass. Photo from forensicmag.com.

More here.

From GeorgiaPacking.org

The inventor of the Akins Accelerator, the replacement stock for a Ruger 10/22 that allows controlled bump firing, is suing the United States over the BATFE’s ruling that the Accelerator wasn’t a machine gun, but now is. Here’s the complaint.

If you have not been following the saga: the ATF initially approved the sale for the stock, then sometime later declared that it converted a rifle into a machine gun.

Hat Tip: SaysUncle.com

From Reuters

He said the Colt Cobra revolver used by Jack Ruby to kill Oswald in 1963, just days after Oswald was arrested for assassinating Kennedy, could fetch several million dollars alone. The initials of detectives who handled the gun are scratched on it.

Personally I would not want to own a murder weapon, be it a gun, knife, stick etc.

Military.com reported a few days ago that the entire Iraqi army is moving to the M16A2 and M4. Some Iraqi units have been using M16s since May last year. The move was originally announced last April.

So far, the U.S. military has helped the Iraqi army purchase 43,000 rifles - a mix of full-stock M-16A2s and compact M-4 carbines. Another 50,000 rifles are currently on order, and the objective is to outfit the entire Iraqi army with 165,000 American rifles in a one-for-one replacement of the AK-47.

“Our goal is to give every Iraqi soldier an M-16A2 or an M-4,” Scott said. “And as the Iraqi army grows, we will adjust.” - Military.com

Reasons given are logistical and that the M16 is a superior and more reliable weapon. Many think it is superior but few would say more reliable. It is easier to see the logistical benefits. I imagine training will also be easier.

The big advantage is that the rifles can be easily traced. Mexico has gone down this route by using a weapon they themselves designed. If a FX-05 “Xiuhcoatl” ends up in the hands of a drug runner, the Mexican army will know where to find the culprit who supplied it.

Last year it was reported that then an Iraqi soldier gets issued an M16 he is finger printed, undergoes a digital retina scan, and is photographed with the rifle serial number. The information is then transfered into a central database.

The weapon exchange is just the first step in a five-day program of instruction for the Iraqis. However, new rifles are not handed out in a one-for-one swap. Coalition Forces assign each IA recruit a weapon using a high-tech, biometric issue system.

Verified against a master list and having tuned in his old rifle, the IA soldier and his new M-16 continue on to one of ten biometric stations, where he is finger printed, undergoes a digital retinal scan and is photographed with the M16’s serial number. Officials then transfer the information to a database in Baghdad, to ensure accountability and to prevent the weapon from ending up in the wrong hands. - Blackanthem Military News

The BAT (Biometrics Automated Toolset) in Iraq

The DOD Biometric Task Force

My thoughts on the move to the M16

The move of course also sends money to American factories. It makes sense as hundreds of millions have been spent on arms for the Iraqi army. At the end of last year Iraq’s defence Minister Abdul-Qadir al-Obaidi announced a US$230 million deal with Serbia for what is likely to be rifles, machine guns, explosives and ammo.

Serbia has signed a US$230m (£116m) deal with Iraq to sell weapons and military equipment, the defence ministry said yesterday.

It did not specify the weapons but Serbian military experts believe they include Serbian-made assault rifles, machine guns, anti-tank weapons, ammunition and explosives. - IRAQ UPDATES

Training with M16s in Iraq. May 2007. US Army photo.

Unfortunately for the rest of us who do not own shares in ammunition manufacturers the supply of 5.56mm to yet another army at war, and who will be at war for a long time, means the price is only going to go up and up.

What does not make sense is why they do not supply them with the gas piston AR variants. Politics would be my guess. I think they had enough media attention over the body armor, they don’t want to be accused of issuing the Iraqi superior rifles.

Iraqi Army soldier loading
5.56mm ammo.

AKRON, Ohio (AP) - Akron police say a robbery attempt had more than a whiff of failure. They accuse a man of trying to stick two people up outside a video store with a bottle of cologne that had been colored black with a marking pen and resembled a gun.

More here.

UPI reports that after a German news report H&K have cut ties with Blackwater. The report said Blackwater and H&K have a “strategic partnership” and that Blackwater employees have used H&K firearms. Blackwater offered some H&K training courses, still seen on their website, and it is hardly surprising that some blackwater employees were using H&K firearms.

Deutsche Welle said Tuesday that the revelations stirred criticism among some German politicians who said they were aghast at Blackwater’s controversial role in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“It is scandalous and unacceptable that a German arms company cooperates with such a lawless mercenary troop,” declared Green Party lawmaker Hans Christian Strobele.

Hat Tip: Danger Zone.