Where NICS appeals go to die

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Part of the Brady Bill, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) went live at the tail-end of 1998 and since then they have processed 289 million checks. Most go through in under a minute.

I can remember working at a sporting good store for a few years moonlighting from my day job in my 20s and performing hundreds of checks in that time period. However, every now and then, you would get a “delay” while they are making a decision that requires more than a simple look-see. These come back later as either a “proceed” or a “denied.”

While there have been 1.5 million denials over the past 20 years, that doesn’t mean 1.5 million people who shouldn’t have a gun were kept from getting one.

In a lot of cases, guys with a spotty record will shop around and run a check several times over several years. Then again, there are a good many legit mixups, especially on people with common names. Odds are, if your name is Bill Johnson, there are probably a few prohibited firearms possessors that share your moniker, and it can jack up your profile– seems far-fetched but remember, this is the federal government here.

A lot of denials are appealed by those who were told to buzz off and, when the FBI eventually figures out where the mistake is, they fix it and the person gets greenlighted to buy a gun.

The problem is, appeals for denials have been glacial since 2015 due to understaffing at NICS, which means people who were refused for no reason can’t often get their record corrected.

I spoke with a pair of lawyers representing five plaintiffs (and 100 more pending) in a federal lawsuit who are in just a such a pickle. In covering the case for Guns.com, I have gotten several emails from readers who have similar problems, leading me to think this may be more widespread than people know.

More on the case here

Remember that time B-1Bs simulated dropping Quickstrike mines in a Baltic op?

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The Russians are sure to be a fan of the ongoing BALTOPS excercise which has seen, among other things, the Truman Strike Group including Carrier Air Wing One (CVW) 1, embarked aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) and B-1B’s sent from CONUS.

Speaking of which, how about those mines:

“In flight footage featuring drop of Navy Quickstrike Mine as well as taxi take off and landing. Two B-1B Lancers assigned to Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, dropped 12 inert Mark 62 Quickstrike mines while participating in BALTOPS 2018 which is an annual, multinational exercise designed to enhance interoperability and demonstrate NATO and partner force resolve to defend the Baltic Region. The Lancers were assigned to the 345th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron and sortied from RAF Fairford, England, June 2, 2018. (Video by Senior Airman Shawn White, 7th Bomb Wing Public Affairs)”

Sailors from the Navy Munitions Command Atlantic Unit at Charleston Air Force Base, S.C., worked with members of the 7th Munitions Squadron to build the mines using Navy kits and Air Force practise bombs.

According to the Navy: The Quickstrike is a family of shallow water, aircraft laid mines used primarily against surface and subsurface craft. Quickstrike versions Mark 62 and Mark 63 are converted general purpose 500-pound and 1000-pound bombs, respectively. The Mark 65 is a 2,000-pound mine, which utilizes a thin-walled mine case, rather than a bomb body.

Mines can be used to deny an enemy access to specific areas or channelize the enemy into specific areas. Sea mines have been used by the U.S. Navy since the Revolutionary War. Mines have been used with significant effect in the Civil War and both World Wars. The most effective use of mines by the United States was against the Japanese Empire in World War II. U.S. aircraft laid over 12,000 mines in Japanese shipping routes and harbor approaches, sinking 650 Japanese ships and totally disrupting all of their maritime shipping.

Some stills:

A U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer assigned to the 345th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron takes off in support of Exercise Baltic Operations at RAF Fairford, England, June 2, 2018 (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Emily Copeland)

U.S. Air Force Airmen assigned to the 345th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron align 12 inert Mark 62 Quickstrike mines on a munitions assembly conveyor during Exercise Baltic Operations at RAF Fairford, England, May 31, 2018. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Emily Copeland)

Warning tag is displayed on an inert Mark 62 Quickstrike mine firing mechanism for Exercise Baltic Operations at RAF Fairford, England, May 31, 2018. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Emily Copeland)

Spec Ops dropping in with a snazzy light-interfacing holster

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SureFire’s MasterFire is a rapid-deploy holster designed specifically to interface with most railed handguns equipped with a SureFire H-Series (XH15, X300UH, X400UH) weapon mounted light and an optional Ryder suppressor without dismounting the latter. The holster’s light activation switch can be set to automatically activate the weapon light and/or mounted laser when the handgun is drawn.

And according to SF, they have been used in a night combat jump…

More in my column at Guns.com.

Packing non-carriers with stern-sitters, an enduring idea now new again

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Below we see an “Artist Conception of the Short Takeoff and Vertical Landing (STOVL) fighter concept, developed by the David W. Taylor Naval Ship and Research and Development Center, in various stages of flight and recovery positions near the 325-foot small waterplane area twin hull ship (SWATH),” received February 1981.

 U.S. Navy Photograph now in the collections of the National Archives. 428-GX-KN-31380:

Interestingly enough, DARPA has been working on a tail-sitter for the past several years, known as the Tern project.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency produced this concept art of a vertical take-off and landing capable maritime drone system as part of its earlier (TERN) program.

And it could wind up being the Marines’ new MUX drone, meant to be a poor man’s E2 Hawkeye/EF-18G Growler for use from LPDs and LHA/Ds.

More on that at The Drive

That’s a whole lotta diesel

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This great view shows 11 vessels of Submarine Squadron Five (nine submarines including a missile-slinger, a submarine rescue vessel, and a submarine tender) moored side by side for a change of command ceremony at San Diego, California. CPT. Eugene B. Fluckey, USN, Medal of Honor recipient (and holder of four Navy Crosses), relieved CPT. Francis B. Scanland, USN, as Commander, SUBRONFIVE on August 1, 1955.

“Lucky Fluckey” went on to teach at Annapolis and become ComSubPac before he retired as a RADM in 1972 and went on to run an orphanage, which is a lot like commanding a subron.

330-PS-7599 (USN 681919)

Just a decade after WWII, the photo is filled with various war vets of the Tench, Balao, and Gato-classes that have been modified in the GUPPY/Fleet Snorkel program to one degree or another.

Nested alongside the Fulton-class submarine tender USS Nereus (AS 17) are: the cruise missile submarine USS Tunny (SSG 282) with her distinctive Regulus I hangar aft of her sail, as well as the fleet subs USS Cusk (SS 348), USS Carbonero (SS 337), USS Tilefish (SS 307), USS Spinax (SS 489), USS Rock (SS 274), USS Remora (SS 487), USS Catfish (SS 339), and USS Volador (SS 490), and the Chanticleer-class submarine rescue vessel, USS Florikan (ASR 9).

While most of the above were scrapped by the early-1970s, Florikan was only decommissioned on 2 August 1991, some 36 years and a day after the photo was taken. She went on to linger in Suisun Bay mothballs until 2010 when she was sold for scrap.

That’s one big porcupine, 74 years back

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Aerial view of the super-dreadnought USS Iowa (BB-61) underway, 10 June 1944.

At the time her armament consisted of 9x 16″/50 cal Mark 7 guns in three triple turrets, 20x 5″/38 Mark 12 guns in 10 dual mounts, an impressive 80x 40mm/56 cal Bofors anti-aircraft guns in a score of quad mounts, and 49x 20mm/70 Oerlikon cannon, for a total of about 158 large caliber guns of all size– which is a whole lotta lead in anyone’s book.

 

Joubert’s Welsh trench sword

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Thomas Scott-Ellis, 8th Lord Howard de Walden, was a polymath who had ridden with the 10th Hussars in the Boer War and was always ready for a fight.

From the National Trust

Tommy’s enormous range of interests included: documenting heraldry as a medieval historian, editing Burke’s Peerage, competing in the 1908 Olympics at speed boat racing (the only time this has ever been an Olympic event), horse racing, sailing, hawking, golfing, flying, model-boating, writing libretti for operas (with music by his friend Joseph Holbrooke) and writing both pageants and pantomimes for his six children and their friends – he did the lot!

When the Great War came, Lord Walden became involved with the 9th Batt., Royal Welsh Fusiliers, and as can be expected, began searching for a blade that set his Welshmen apart.

That’s where antiques dealer, arms collector and scholar Felix Joubert of Chelsea came in. The so-called Welsh sword was a trench dagger that Joubert said was based on the traditional “Welsh cleddyd” (or cledd), but this has been ruled out as just so much window dressing to appeal to Lord Walden.

Welsh Knife with scabbard (WEA 785) The ‘Welsh Knife’ was designed in 1916 by the sculptor and armourer Felix Joubert and patented by him, as a ‘new or improved trench knife’. It was allegedly based on an ancient Welsh weapon, although the existence of such a distinctly Welsh mediæval sword has since been disproved. An unknown, but limited, number of Welsh Knives were manufactured by the Wilkinson Sword Company, Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30001257

The pommel is heavy and pointed, the hand guard folds flat against the blade for sheathing and the ricasso is inscribed “Dros Urddas Cymru”, Welsh for “For the honour of Wales”

The blade was some 17.6-inches long, leading to a two-foot long, 36-ounce weapon.

Joubert’s Welsh sword trench knife, patent drawing. Note the folding mechanism

He patented the blade in 1916 (GB108741) and it was produced by both Wilkinson (who apparently made 200) and locally in France by firm(s) unknown. Originally only for use by bombers (grenadiers), trench-pirates and machine gun crew, it was later issued to most officers and ranks of 9th RWF.

They were reportedly “used with great effect in a raid at Messines Ridge, 5 June 1917.”

From the Royal Armories

As noted by the Royal Armories, “The ‘Welsh knife’ inspired the design of the Smatchet fighting knife of The Second World War by the renowned hand-to-hand combat expert and innovator, Lieutenant-Colonel William E. Fairbairn.”

Behold, the famous Fairbairn Smatchet…or is it a Welsh cleddyd?

The Welsh trench swords are widely reproduced by Windlass in India as well as others, while the Smatchet is even more common.

The Red Devils Return to Normandy after 74 years, complete with invasion stripes

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A U.S. Air Force A-10C Thunderbolt II assigned to the 127th Wing, Michigan Air National Guard flies over Normandy painted with non-standard markings in honor of the 100th Anniversary of the Red Devils of the 107th Fighter Squadron.

From the Michigan Air Guard:

The Red Devils of the 107th Fighter Squadron flew over northern France Sunday, as part of the official ceremony to mark the 74th anniversary of D-Day, the massive Allied invasion of the European mainland in World War II. The successful invasion ultimately led to Allied victory over the Axis Powers. In 1944, the 107th, then designated as a Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron, flew several hundred reconnaissance missions over the beaches of Normandy, France, allowing the Allied High Command to plan an invasion path. In 2018 – flying their first mission in France since World War II – two 107th pilots escorted in group of nine C-130 Hercules and similar aircraft from multiple nations as they dropped about 500 paratroops near Sainte-Mere-Eglise, France, the same town where paratroopers landed as part of D-Day.

The 107th provided more than 9,000 intelligence photos to the Allied High Command in the weeks before D-Day. The photos showed hundreds, perhaps thousands, of defensive positions along the beach, placed by the army of Nazi Germany in advance of the expected invasion. More than 1,600 U.S. soldiers died during the D-Day invasions. Though highly costly in terms of human sacrifice, the invasion allowed Allied forces to gain a foothold on the European mainland and begin the march to victory in the war. Thirteen 107th pilots were shot down and killed in action during World War II. Three others who were shot down spent part of the war as a Prisoner of War.

The Regulars, minus their horses, 120 years on

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Via the Third Cavalry Museum:

Dismounted 3d Cavalry troopers train for operations at Tampa, Florida, prior to embarking for Cuba. 8 June 1898, during the Spanish American War.

Look at all those saddle ring Krag rifles. Coupled with the bedrolls and broad campaign hats, you would think these men closer to Civil War troopers under Gen. Sheridan than ready to fight a colonial war against the rinds of the Spanish Empire.

As a twist of fate, the 3rd, along with four other Regular Army cavalry regiments (including the segregated black 10th Cav) and the Rough Riders of the 1st Volunteer Cavalry, was under the command of Maj. Gen (of Volunteers) Joesph Wheeler (USMA 1859). Prior to that command, Wheeler had been a Lt. Gen. in the Confederate Army of all things, so the sight of so many blue-coated cavalrymen, who shipped to Cuba without their horses due to a lack of transport, had to be familiar in a way.

The magic in a C&R SBR

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Rock Island has a Winchester 1892 with a curiously short barrel up for grabs at auction this month. The particular M92 is chambered in .44-40 WCF and has seen some hard use over the past century or so and surely has some stories to tell. The saddle ring carbine, SN#746457, was made in 1914, according to Winchester, and is specifically listed by the ATF by serial number as a curio and relic, which makes its 15-inch Trapper barrel a very interesting exception to National Firearms Act regulations on short-barreled rifles adopted some 20 years after it was made.

Just a small number of Winchester lever guns with 14-, 15- and 16-inch barrels were produced at the factory. Intended for use as handy brush guns for outdoorsmen such as sustenance hunters in heavy scrub or trappers checking lines, such models picked up the Trapper moniker. Most were exported overseas as they were especially popular in South America, making those still in the states even more collectible. Like five-figure collectible if in great shape with a good provenance. RIA is valuing this one, in OF-fair condition, at between $3,000 and $4,500.

Stop me before I dip into my future third ex-wife’s alimony…

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