The Firearm Blog

Advocate posted this comment on my blog post about the H&K / ATI lawsuit ...

I really think its important to remember that they sued over trademark and trade dress infringement ... not patent infringement. Very different things.

Add to that the fact that ATI openly claimed it to be a MP5 lookalike:

Add to that the fact that HK can absolutely smother them in legal fees and you have a no win situation for ATI.

Love them or hate them i feel HK had the legal right to pursue this course.

... i’m just glad i got my gsg-5 long ago

I had forgotten about that advertisement.

Because Australians are not allowed semi-automatic guns, rifle manufacturers make some interesting bolt and pump action conversions of AR-15s, AKs and other rifles for the Australian market.

H&K produce a special version of their SL8, itself a consumer friendly version of the G36, for the Australian market called the R8. It functions as a bolt action. The rifle is not manufactured with a gas system, that is then blocked to make it single shot, as other single shot conversions have been.

H&K R8

Last year H&K Australia were informed that they could not longer import the R8 because it is duplicates a military rifle. They are pissed because as you can see below it barely resembles the G36. The R8 receivers and barrels were never capable of functioning as a semi-auto (or at least that is what they claim).

Earlier in the year H&K again entered into proceeding to get it reclassified.

Many thanks to Ben for sending me the documents relating to the story.

Not long ago I blogged about A.R.M.S having won a lawsuit against Troy and jdun1911 mentioned in the comments that they were also involved in a lawsuit against LaRue Tactical. Mark LaRue posted this open letter at AR15.com ...

Guys,

As some of you know, we are under litigation attack by A.R.M.S. (Dick Swan) for using the numerals 1 and 7 in our LT-170 mount part number. He filed for and last spring outrageously got a trademark on "#17" and then he sued us. IIRC, he also trademarked 7.62, 5.56, 50BMG, etc., etc.

I'm more than a little perturbed.

One of his interrogatories (sic) is what evidence I have of soldiers ever having an A.R.M.S. mount fail on them. Ask and ye shall receive.

I know a gent that says that roughly 20% of the A.R.M.S. mounts have to be replaced before he can run the guys in his sniper course. Says they come in flopping in one way or the other, levers loose, roll pins shot, whatever. And these are the ones that are left of the ones that haven't already been replaced.

I have replaced numerous busted A.R.M.S. units in the past, and have heard more stories than I can count ... the gist of one story - "busted levers on square ranges crunching under the boots of trainees" ...

So, I am officially offering to replace/exchange any in-op/broken A.R.M.S. mounts for the LaRue product that best fits as a replacement.

I'll do it even at the unit level. If your team has a bucket full of dead A.R.M.S. mounts of any sort laying around, then put them to good use. I am aware that due to NSN numbers, many are the failed units are likely sh*tcanned and a replacement bought (with taxpayer money). Either way, I don't care how many ... besides, it won't be nothing compared to the attorney bills we are incurring weekly.

I do ask that some sort of note be written that says what the problem is, i.e. broken levers, loosened roll pins, stripped-out threads, etc.

Let me know about any and all A.R.M.S failures you know about ... even if you threw them away, no worries, please let me know about it here.

We may have to spend $100,000 dollars to fend off this attack, and that's money we can't buy equipment with, money we can't hire more folks with, money shot to hell.

Any help from you guys will be much appreciated.

v/r

Mark LaRue

Obviously this is only from the point of view of LaRue Tactical, but I still thought it was worth posting.

Many thanks to Kevin for emailing me the link.

This comes straight from the I-never-thought-I-would-ever-blog-this department. Press TV reports:

> Saudis will be able to buy handguns and other personal firearms openly for the first time, the country's interior ministry has anounced.

> ...

> The move is aimed at reining in the widespread illegal ownership of handguns and assault weapons, a Saudi official said.

Hat Tip damien @ The High Road.us

The lawsuit between ATI and H&K has been settled. Ed reports ...

Production and importation of the original design GSG-5 ceased as of Oct, 8, 2009 with the signing of the agreement. The remaining inventory now in the USA can be sold by ATI, all distributors and dealers. ATI currently has GSG-5's in stock.

Read the full press release over at at Ed's blog.

The GSG-5. If you want one, buy it NOW.

I am no lawyer but there are a couple of clauses from the Montana Firearms Freedom Act and how I interpret them.

Section 3 states

(4) “Manufactured” means that a firearm, a firearm accessory, or ammunition has been created from basic materials for functional usefulness, including but not limited to forging, casting, machining, or other processes for working materials.

So unfortunately it looks like 90 / 80 / 70% finished receivers imported into Montana and completed will not be considered “Made in Montana”.

This also means Montanans will not be allowed to chop down their rifle barrel or add a foregrip to their handgun without running a foul of the BATFE, unless the gun was made in Montana.

Section 5 (restrictions) states:

(2) a firearm that has a bore diameter greater than 1 1/2 inches and that uses smokeless powder, not black powder, as a propellant;

What this means is that while 20mm rifles/cannons are not going to be classified as destructive devices if made in Montana, and we may even seen 30mm cannons manufactured there. That will be exciting!

1.5″ is equal to 38.1 millimeters so unfortunately 40mm RPGs will not be legal due to the caliber restriction

A big thanks to Jay for the info about the Act.

My understanding of Australian guns law is that unless you are a farmer, professional shooter (such as professional competition shooter or professional pest hunter) or collector you are only allowed paintballs markers, air guns and non-semi-automatic rimfire/centerfire rifles and shotguns (pump action shotguns are subject to same restrictions as semi-auto shotguns). Pistols can only be owned by target shooters and the caliber is restricted in most cases to .38 (9mm).

Things just got worse for our Australian gun owning brethren:

The Federal Government will change import regulations to tighten controls on firearms that have a “military-style appearance”.

…

Mr Debus said that there was “absolutely no reason” for anyone to own a shotgun that looked like a semi-automatic rifle.

Now any rifle, shotgun or even paintball marker looks like a semi-automatic is will be destroyed by customs. This will limit the import of pump-action rifles into the country. Apparently they have been importing the Romanian pump-action AK pattered PAR-3/PAR-1 rifle.

From the above article. Looks like a
AU legal PAR-3 or PAR-1 (top).

I am sure they will ban the pump action Remington 7600 rifle pistol grip and M4 style stock as well. I believe the 7600 is popular in Australia. The politicians must have forgotten to ban pump action rifles.

Quite a while ago I came across Abhijeet Singh’s webpage discussing the history of Indian gun laws since when India was a British colony. I meant to blog it but forgot about it until I was reminded of it by the recent Mumbai attacks.

This changed towards the mid to late 1980s, when the Government, citing domestic insurgency as the reason, put a complete stop to all small arms imports. The fact that there is no documented evidence of any terrorists ever having used licensed weapons to commit an act of terror on Indian soil seems to be of no consequence to our Government.

The prices of (legal & licensed) imported weapons have been on an upward spiral ever since – beating the share market and gold in terms of pure return on investment. Even the shoddy domestically produced guns suddenly seem to have found a market. Also since the Government now had a near monopoly on (even half-way decent) arms & ammunition for the civilian market, they started turning the screws by pricing their crude public sector products (ammunition, rifles, shotguns & small quantities of handguns) at ridiculously high rates – products that frankly, given a choice no one would ever purchase.

…

“Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest.” — Mahatma Gandhi (An Autobiography OR The story of my experiments with truth, by M.K. Gandhi, p.238)

From a historical point of view I find gun laws around the world fascinating. Whenever I get the chance I tend to ask foreigners about their gun laws. I get a lot of emails from overseas readers so I get plenty of opportunities.

More at Gun Ownership in India.

Defense Industry daily reports that the Marines have procured 7750 LAWs (M72A7) from Nammo Talley Defense for a total of $15.5 million (which works out to be $2000/unit).

Nammo Talley Defense, Inc. in Mesa, AZ received a $15.5 million firm-fixed-price contract for 7,750 LAW M72A7 portable rockets from Marine Corps Systems Command in Quantico, VA, in order to replenish stockpiles.

The short (unextended length of 0.67 m) low cost and low weight (5.5 lbs) 66mm one-shot rocket system is useful in urban environments against buildings and lightly armored vehicles, such as those found in Iraq/Afghanistan.

M72 LAW

Over the past 10 years the Swiss conscript army have had 4300 firearms lost or stolen from their homes (the army issues firearms to citizens to keep at home). Although it should be pointed out that an estimated 1.5 million army firearms are in circulation.

In that year 82 rifles were stolen from an army depot in Marly in French-speaking Switzerland, bringing the 2006 total to 84 rifles plus 15 pistols.

Endrich told the Swiss news agency that the army did not keep statistics that made a distinction between lost or stolen weapons. Those that simply disappear are categorised as lost, he said.

Under Swiss law, all able-bodied men aged 20-30 are conscripted for about three months and are issued with a rifle. They are required to do up to four weeks of army service a year until they have served 260 days or are aged 34.

Throughout this time they keep the rifles – but no ammunition – at home. According to some estimates there could be as many as 1.5 million army weapons in circulation.

SIG SG 550: Swiss standard service rifle

More here.

A very interesting thread over at rec.guns.

The best answer to the question is by Mark Crispin

# Is there a legal way for me to buy guns for self-defense and/or
# recreational plinking?

The US government has a long series of FAQs on this question here:
http://www.atf.gov/firearms/faq/faq2.htm#r

Short answer: probably no.

Longer answer:

Non-immigrant aliens (which includes tourists) in the USA are generally
prohibited from possessing firearms.
With the proper US export paperwork and home country import paperwork, you
may purchase firearms in the USA. However, the firearms must be shipped
by the seller to your home country; you can not accept delivery of your
firearms in the USA.

There are certain exceptions to this prohibition. The easiest way for a
non-immigrant alien to legally possess firearms in the USA is to obtain a
hunting license from any state. This license must not be allowed to
expire, as it effectively serves as your alien firearms possession
license.

There are also state requirements. For example, Washington State has no
licensing requirement for citizens to possess firearms, but does require
aliens to obtain a Washington State alien firearm license. Only two
states (Alaska and Vermont) permit carrying a concealed pistol without a
license.

Even after you obtain a state hunting license, you won’t be able to
purchase and take possession of a firearm in the USA due to the transient
nature of your vis
it. The ATF web page above has detail about the
requirements.
However, with your hunting license, you can borrow someone’s firearms for
plinking, hunting, etc. You probably will not be able to get a license
to carry a concealed handgun.

I’m sorry that we’re so unfriendly to visits these days. Blame cretins
who decided to take out their rage against the world by coming to the USA
and killing Americans.

One of the most notorious of these incidents happened on the Long Island
Rail Road in New York State in 1993. A Jamaican lunatic named Colin
Fergunson killed six people and wounded nineteen others, claiming that it
was justified by “Black rage” against his White and Asian victims. In the
aftermath we gained one of the most anti-gun members of Congress.

Read the whole discussion here.

Alleged Russian arms dealer, Viktor Anatoljevich Bout, 41(C), is escorted by Thai commandos as he arrives Thai Royal Police headquarters in Bangkok, Thailand, 07 March 2008. Viktor Bout, dubbed the ‘Merchant of Death‘ one of the world’s most notorious weapons traffickers arrested in Bangkok on 06 March 2008 with arms dealing in Thailand.

The charges Bout faces in the US stem from a sting operation in which he and an accomplice agreed to sell weapons to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which is designated a terrorist organisation in the United States, police said

The Yuri Orlov the arms dealer in the movie Lord of War was loosely based on Viktor Bout.

Hat Tip: MP.net

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.

Snow Wolf Commando Unit (Beijing Special Police) are premier Chinese SWAT unit and will be the behind the scenes at the Olympics.

The QBZ-95 rifle

Type 79 SMG (7.62×25mm)

If is interesting to see the Type 79. Gun.ru:

Type 79 submachine gun is rather unusual for its class as it is very lightweight and uses locked breech, gas operated action instead of more traditional (for SMG) blowback action. This weapon was (and probably still is) widely used by PAP (Chinese police).

If the SAS can do it …

No doubt these guys will be quelling the protests against Chinese policy that could break out.

A lot more photos here.