#Handgun

In the state of Maryland firearms are rather heavily regulated. In fact, the state keeps a registry of handguns which may be purchased by residents. According to Maryland law residents are only allowed to buy handguns manufactured after January 1, 1985 – and those guns must also be listed on the Maryland Handgun Roster. (Interesting sidenote: up until this year the state also required FFLs to turn over the spent casing supplied by manufacturers with new guns to the Department of State Police Crime Laboratory upon the sale, rental, or transfer of said firearm. The practice was discontinued in 2015 after being deemed ineffective.)

After criticizing the Army’s Modular Handgun System program last week, Army Chief of Staff Mark Milley spoke again about the program, further refining his desire to select not just any new pistol, but specifically to piggyback Army purchases of new handguns onto  SOCOM procurement of the Glock 19. Via SoldierSystems.net:

Lighting company Streamlight is coming out with their TLR lights in Flat Dark Earth as opposed to the usual black that they and many other light companies have usually coated their lights with. Specifically this will be on their TLR-1 HL lights, and their TLR-6 which is for the Glock 42, and 43 model handguns. There will also be two different coatings, a traditional Flat Dark Earth, and a Flat Dark Earth Brown. The Brown color almost seems to give off a little more glare than the FDE version, but it might actually be darker. It is hard to tell from pictures. The purpose behind this move appears to be from consumer demand, which I can only fathom that customers want lights to match their FDE handguns. I think the reason why light companies have taken so long to get around to this is that there isn’t really a tactical advantage with having a colored light. If the purpose of a light is to be using it in the dark, then before the actuation of the light, having it black would make it blend in with the night better, whereas any other lighter color might give the position of the shooter away. The original PEQ devices were all black, but then they switched to FDE in the later versions of the AN/PEQ15, and all of the AN/PEQ16 series. Either way, I’m interested to see if this trend takes off, as I personally favor Streamlight handgun lights over Surefire ones for their ruggedness, even stopping a .38 round in one instance.

The Army Chief of Staff General Mark Milley spoke yesterday at the Future of War Conference, and criticized the Modular Handgun System program for the degree of bureaucracy and red tape it takes for the Pentagon to select a new pistol for the Army. Milley rightly pointed out that not only are handguns hardly the forefront weapons of modern battle, but that they are a very mature technology, so selecting a new one should be very straightforward and inexpensive. From Military.com:

Steyr has introduced a new rimfire pistol to the European shooting market at IWA 2016. The pistol, aptly dubbed the “RFP” (which I imagine stands for Rim Fire Pistol), shares similar styling and its polymer framed construction with Steyr’s M9 and M40 centerfire handgun, but differs in some significant features. Unlike the M9 series, it features a magazine safety which blocks movement of the trigger if the magazine is removed. Also unlike its centerfire stablemates, the RFP is external hammer fired not striker-fired and features an ambidextrous safety-decocker, which may be a hint that US importation of the RFP is imminent.

I don’t usually read The Daily Mail for its authentic and informative stories about the world, but some pretty interesting stuff does sometimes come out of it. Such as this story about a British parish council chairman in Suffolk who amassed over five hundred firearms in his house. We a story earlier back about an American in California who had thousands of firearms confiscated from him when he died, and in a similar case, this British gentleman passed away before any legal ramifications could be had for him. Comparing gun ownership in Britain to the U.S., that’s alot of firearms! Apparently most of them were illegally owned, but I’ve got a hunch that there might be more to the story than this. This might be a long stretch, but I’m willing to hedge a small bet, that the overwhelming majority of these “firearms” were actually deactivated. Although the problem is that I can’t see any evidence to support this in the pictures, and it doesn’t say so throughout the article. What makes me say this, is that the guy has over five hundred firearms, but apparently not a single round of live ammunition. The report claims that there were “200,000” rounds of ammunition also found, but in all the pictures of this “ammunition”, they either show just bullets without shells, or shells without bullets/powder/primers. Knowing English gun laws are extremely strict, I wouldn’t put it past the police to simply say these were firearms, because maybe they had been deactivated in the 1990s or so, but hadn’t followed any of the additional deactivation laws. For more information on this, see my article on the London Proof House. But essentially, Britain has passed a number of deactivated firearms laws, and with each law, the deactivated firearm has to be brought up to standard, by filling the barrel with lead, or slotting the chamber, or any other such method. Maybe this guy had all these deactivated guns, and just got tired of following each new law, and thus simply didn’t. Because I can’t see how even illegally, one has a huge amount of firearm

Browning has announced the release of the suppressor ready versions of their unique “85%” sized 1911 .22LR handguns. The handguns are available in two sizes, “full” and “compact”; which I put in quotes as they not not quite the same size as their parent platform. The full size comes equipped with a 4.25″ barrel and the compact in at a 3.625″. Both barrels are threaded 1/2×28″, common to the .22 caliber.

The Desert Eagle has been around for decades now and has gained a reputation as not just a sizable pistol but a big one – big as in, take-no-prisoners. Over the years it’s one through various incarnations and a few models, but what many people think of when they hear “Desert Eagle” comes chambered in .50 AE. New for 2016, from Magnum Research, is another big, bad pistol: the Magnum Research Mark XIX Apocalyptic Desert Eagle.

It seems the Norwegian military is in financial trouble! The Norwegian Ministry of Defense has issued a statement saying that they will no longer be able to equip officers and other personnel with both a rifle and pistol, and therefore pistols issued to such personnel should be turned in immediately. According to an article in AftenPosten, machine translated below:

Shopping for a new handgun is often a chore for those familiar with the market, and downright bewildering for those just being introduced to it. What should I buy, a striker-fired, hammer fired, DA/SA, SAO, DAO, semiautomatic, or revolver? Caliber? Is 9mm good enough, or do I need something with a “4”?

This video came out in 2012, so it has been out for a while, but this is the first time I’ve come across it. I can’t find much information about it, other than it is called the “Thunder” and appears to have been made by a company called Triple Action LLC, which is an FFL based out of Logan, Utah. The project must have been a local gunsmith put together without any serial production. It must have been created as an attempt to say, “Why not?”, along the lines of the AK50 project. The thing is so massive, it looks like it requires a breech block similar to a recoilless rifle or artillery cannon just to load. It includes a massive compensator, and iron sights. Why they even bothered with a compensator on a cartridge so large in something like a handgun is quite beyond me. But it certainly falls into the novelty category, like this German .50 BMG handgun, and there couldn’t have been many made. It seems to have been premiered at SHOT a couple years back, or a similar industry function, because of the photos on the internet with the function in the background. I would almost be concerned about the safety of the hand cannon, letting off a .50 BMG round in front of your face with nothing but a chunk of steel between you and the cartridge. That, or literally breaking your wrists.

The organizer of Shoot Las Vegas mentioned this story while driving us out to Pro Gun Club for our full auto shoot.

Smith & Wesson’s big announcement at the show was something concealed carriers have been asking after for years now: An M&P Bodyguard 380 with no manual thumb safety. This would perhaps have been a much bigger announcement than it was, had the company released the product in 2012, rather than 2016. The fact is that those looking for a pocket .380 handgun – those who just can’t live with a nigh-useless manual safety, that is – have so many options to choose from at this point that the safety-less Bodyguard won’t be terribly exciting news for most.

Heizer Defense makers of the single shot PS1 pocket shotgun and the single shot pocket pistol chambered in 7.62x39mm released their first semi-auto pistol at the 2016 SHOW Shot. Their new PKO-45 semi-automatic pistol is made in the USA and chambered in .45ACP and is marketed towards the conceal carry market. It’s pretty thin and flat at just .8 inches wide. All the controls are flat and very flush with the pistol making it very snag free. Heizer Defense actually claims their new PKO-45 pistol is the slimmest semi-auto on the market.

Adaptive Tactical had a number of interesting products available for SHOT 2016. The first one is a sort of replacement pump for the Mossberg and Remington pump action shotguns. It is a polymer wraparound pump that incorporates picatinny rails on the top and on the sides of the wraparound section, while including a rearward and a forward handstop while operating the pump action. It being a wraparound pump, it includes an empty space through which a shooter can still fully acquire the front bead, while having the ability to mount a light, or even an optic on top of it. It is called the Wraptor Forend, and retails for $49.99.