The Firearm Blog

Last week Kalashnikov wrote an open letter addressed to the citizens, Prime Minister and President of Russia. He is very unhappy about rumors, presumably in the media, that Izhmash, the company that produces the AK and other military and sporting arms, is in trouble and will close down soon.

He attributes the rumors to foreign nations trying to undermine Russian power and goes on to encourage Russian law enforcement, who use Izhmash firearms, to punish the rumor spreaders.

I translated the letter using Google Translate (originally from the Izhmash website):

Dear Dmitry!
Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich!
Dear fellow citizens!

Today, I appeal to you all a very sad occasion. Nearly half a year stretches harassment plant Izhmash, where I worked for 60 years and I feel proud of our country.

As the country goes unknown to anyone Committee employees and veterans’ Izhmasha. ” It is far from the factory, people acting on behalf izhmashevtsev and say that the plant surviving the last few days.

Those who spread rumors about the collapse of “Izhmash” - issued wishful thinking!

I work with “Izhmashe, and I see that the plant continues to operate normally today. We are actively engaged in fulfilling the state defense order to rearm our Army and international military-technical cooperation. Our hunting weapons demand worldwide. Russian athletes win with our new weapons and new awards. Great honor for us was that the President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev, visiting “Izhmash” in February this year, called it the pride of Russian industry.

There are people who want to cross out all of this, the credibility of the “Izhmashu” in Russia and abroad, deprive him of his orders and thus an opportunity to select and further improve our weapons. They hide behind good goals, good goals but do not reach through lies.

I do not know who it is. But I think the ability to do so only those foreign nations who want to undermine the power of Russia, or banditry groups that want to gain force again, to get the plant for the production of small arms.

I appeal to all our law enforcement agencies. After all, you have to work with us, because you know that without arms “Izhmasha” Our country will not have the great power that it has become in recent years. I ask you to prevent this flow of lies and punish the guilty.

Best regards,
Mikhail Kalashnikov Timofeyevich

S&W have just released a press release saying that they are supplying 7500 M&P9 pistols to the Iraq Military and security forces. I don’t know how long they have been using the pistol. I was not aware they had adopted the M&P9 before reading the press release.

Nichols, added, “In addition to the M&P9s currently used in Iraq, Smith & Wesson firearms have also been used in active duty for the last two years with several security forces in Afghanistan including the Afghanistan National Army and Border Patrol as well as the Afghanistan National Police. To date, over 80,000 Smith & Wesson firearms are currently being used in these two countries. Reports from the field continue to indicate that the firearms are exceeding all expectations in the areas of reliability and durability. We are honored to continue delivering firearms that support men and women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan and we remain committed to supplying high-quality small arms to the military and federal government.”

Smith & Wesson M&P9

Full press release here.

CNET reports that Toronto police have launched a digital cameras for firearms program.

A handgun or assault rifle is worth a $400 Nikon Coolpix S52 and a shotgun nets a $250 Nikon Coolpix P60. The deal includes free photography lessons.

… we all know how effective these programs are.

Barrett has finally published the specs of the M98B. I have updated the blog post about the rifle if you are interested.

ATI have announced the GSG5-PK pistol.

The new GSG-5PK pistol is a .22 Long Rifle HV Caliber with a barrel length of 4.52″, total length of 15.275″ and a total height of 10″. It weighs in at a dainty 5.2 lbs. It has an alloy frame construction and features a magazine safety and click-adjustable target sight. At a MSRP of $549.95, the GSG-5PK pistol is the perfect partner to the original GSG-5 rifle model.

It is basically a GSG5-P (pistol) with a shortened barrel and MP5K style handguard. Some photos (click to expand):

Hat Tip: SayUncle

KABUL, Afghanistan: Afghan national security forces will receive a huge capability and mobility boost throughout the next year with more than 6,000 up-armored vehicles and more than 75,000 M-16 rifles from Combined Security Transition Command Afghanistan.

…

“Accuracy will always be more important than lots of shots,” McPhail said. “They wanted a weapon that doesn’t waste shots. That’s the reason the Afghan government asked for the M-16.”

Do you want fries ammo with that?

More @ Defense Talk

Scott emailed me with information about his new business called PayWithAmmo.com. It is an online marketplace/auction website for firearms and related products and services.

The difference between it and other sites, such as gunbroker.com, is that all transactions are done in ammunition. You can either pay the equivalent dollar value at an exchange rate set with the current price at Ammoman.com or ship 9mm ammunition. The ammunition must be new, brass cased, boxer primed, FMJ and in the designated grain weight (115-124 grains for 9mm ammo).

I asked Scott why he thought this was a better system than using dollars:

All ammo must be new, brass cased, boxer primed, FMJ and for 9mm the bullet must weight between 115 and 124 grains.

The benefit of selling in ammo and not dollars is that ammo is, like gold, is “real” money, that is: 1,000 rounds of 9mm will always be 1,000 rounds of ammo and 1oz of gold is always 1oz of gold; there is no inflation or depreciation. Thus, if a particular rifle is presently valued at 5 thousand rounds of 9mm, all things remaining equal, next year the rifle should still be valued at 5 thousand rounds of 9mm. In dollar value, the rifle has to have “inflated” in price due to inflation, (more dollars needed as value of dollar declined), even if the list price has remained unchanged.

Sites like e-gold cost money as there are storage costs and if someone were to take delivery of the gold, once in their possession, gold has no intrinsic value except as a paperweight.

Pay With Ammo (”PWA”) seeks to provide a solution to those who rather invest in a commodity that has an inherent value, ammo.

The problem is ammo, unlike gold, doesn’t have a ready secondary market to convert back into dollars. Thus, PWA, would like to provide a means for a person who has made a sizable investment in ammo to be able to trade that ammo for goods and services. If PWA takes off, ammo can become a somewhat “liquid” asset that can be used when needed to acquire goods/services.

It is not hard to sell gold and gold does have industrial uses such as in electronics, medicine and jewelry although the demand and price of gold far exceeds that of its industrial uses. On the whole I agree with Scott and I like the concept he has come up with.

I also asked him what happens if an odd number of rounds such as 27 or 219 are the price of a good or service on the website:

Right now, if someone swaps dollars for 10, 20, or even 50 thousand rounds of ammo for personal use, they are pretty much stuck with it. With PWA, however, they can swap a couple thousand rounds for a new gun, accessory or even a service…the options are basically limitless.

If something is priced at less than 500 or 1000 rounds, if someone doesn’t have the ammo on hand and ready to ship, they will just have settle the account in dollars at the daily exchange rate.

I will be keeping my eye on the website to see how it progresses.

The LA Times reports that 16 year old Zac Sunderland, who is currently attempting to sail around the world alone, came across a suspicious ship while on his way to the Cocos Islands. What did he do? After calling his parents on the sat phone he pulled out a gun.

Why security firms are not being contracted to protect shipping in Somalia with arms, I will never know. The Somali government is in talks with a French private security contractor after negotiations failed with a shady US firm but if I were insuring these ships I would demand armed personal onboard or an armed escort.

Thanks to Charlie for the link.

Sebastian, Snowflakes in Hell, breaks down MSBC’s attempt at a gun article.

But the semi-automatic ammunition used in one of the weapons

Sigh, while I get a laugh occasionally most of the time I get frustrated. In this age I find it hard to believe they cannot check their “knowledge” on google to ensure it is correct.

The BBC reports that the North Korean weapon purchases are up from $13 million, during the previous South Korea administration, to $65 million. Weapons are being supplied by China, Russia, Germany, the Slovak Republic and others.

While the supreme leader buys weapons and develops bombs the people are starving and the country relies of food aid.

“The report shows the North has developed its military capacity despite severe food shortages,” Mr Kwon told reporters.

He said more caution should be practised when providing aid to the reclusive, impoverished, communist state.

Ideally the South would like to keep the North fed and intact, to prevent a flood of 20+ million impoverished refugees, and also does not want aid turned into weapons. This is just not possible.

The BBC reports that the “Lord of War’s” extradition hearing in Bangkok’s Criminal Court has begun.

Some interesting details have surfaced. Apparently he was attempting to sell US agents, posing as members of FARC, 700 surface to air missiles and aircraft outfitted with missiles! That is some pretty heavy stuff. Selling AKs by the ton is one thing, surface to air missiles is another story!

The Russian parliament supports Bout and has inferred that there exists a US led conspiracy to damage Russia’s reputation.

The State Duma - the lower house of Russia’s parliament - on Friday adopted a statement in support of Mr Bout, Itar-Tass reports.

“Political motives, attempts to link this issue with the fight against international terrorism and thus damage the interests and reputation of Russia, are present in Bout’s case”, claimed the parliamentarians in the statement.

“It is necessary to intensity efforts aimed at securing the rights of Russian citizen Viktor Bout, prevention of his illegal prosecution and return to his home country, as well as at curbing attempts to use this case against Russia,” the lawmakers said, according to Itar-Tass.

I can’t wait to hear to details that come out of a US trial if he is extradited!

Reuters reports:

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian spending on arms will rise to a record $46.5 billion next year, a senior government official said on Friday, as the Kremlin moves to beef up the armed forces after a conflict in Georgia.

Russian national defence orders will rise to 1.2 trillion roubles ($46.55 billion) in 2009, 70 billion roubles higher than previously planned, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov was shown saying on Russian television.

“We have managed to convince the Finance Ministry that the volume of state defence orders in 2009 will be 70 billion higher than previously planned,” Ivanov told Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

MSPO 2008 International Defence Industry Exhibition was held in Kielce, Poland and ended about an hour ago. I will shortly be posting some of the cool firearms that were displayed, or at least the cool firearms I could find. Not being able to read polish makes it hard to find information.