Tag Archives: national rifle association

Glock Upheaval: Rumors Fly on Discontinued Models, New V Series Guns

A Gen 5 Glock 21 MOS, which is not California-compliant. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

Word swept across the gun universe on Monday that Glock may be changing everything known and loved about its catalog. Here’s what we found out.

What we know: One of the largest Glock retailers, Lenny Magill’s Glockstore, announced on social media that, “We have received news that as of November 30th all Glocks are discontinued except 43, 43X, 48X. All Glocks will be replaced with new Glock ‘V Models.’ These will have changes that prevent switch conversions. At launch, all will be non-MOS. No pricing changes.”

Why should we take that seriously? We’ve known Magill for over a decade, and he is a solid fixture in the gun industry. A sort of impossibly tanned and sagacious Glock All-father. He has probably sold more Glocks than anyone, and his views on the brand are consistently accurate.

Verification: When looking for validation on rumors in the firearms industry, especially when it comes to the notoriously tight-lipped Glock, it’s akin to “checking the hot sheets” in “Men in Black.” A bit of success came from Glock Talk, one of the largest public Glock communities in the country. A thread there includes a screenshot purportedly from gun wholesaler Lipsey’s, detailing that “On November 30, Glock will stop shipments on all Gen 3, Gen 5, Gen 5 MOS,” with the slimline G43X, G43X MOS, G48, and G48 MOS remaining active. This jibes with McGill’s harbinger of looming Glock upheaval.

The screenshot further details, “In December 2025, Glock will begin shipping V Series. Pricing will be consistent with current Gen 5 structure,” with models to include 17 (V), 19 (V), 23 (V), 23 (V) MOS, 45 (V), 19X (V), 20 (V) MOS, 21 (V) MOS, 26 (V), and 44 (V). “Changes to V series include internal slide and trigger improvements. Current Glock Performance triggers will not function in V-series guns.”

Thus:

What Glock is saying: We reached out to our contacts at Glock early Monday to clarify the reports of discontinuations and the new V models, as well as to ask for a statement. By Tuesday morning, we still hadn’t received any response.

Background: The sale of Glocks to consumers in California, which has some 13 million gun owners, is banned after July 2026, under a new law adopted by the Democrat-controlled state government. While the currently dormant law is already under legal challenge, like-minded states are sure to pursue similar laws. Glock is also fighting lawsuits from progressive-led cities like Seattle and Chicago, as well as a multi-state lawsuit led by New Jersey and Minnesota, focused on the possibility that the company’s guns can be illegally converted to fire full auto. Possession of such switches or devices, unless registered, is illegal under federal law and has been for decades.

Has Glock tried to address this already? Glock added an element to the rear of the Gen 5 series slide and frame, which makes inserting an illegal switch or chip harder, akin to how some AR-15 makers utilize “high shelf” lowers. However, California hasn’t approved any Gen 5 Glocks for consumer sale in the state, and the new law bars an anti-switch block molded into the rear of the frame or slide by the manufacturer, seemingly ruling out any possible Gen 6 gun with a more robust block.

A Gen 3 G19, left, compared to a Gen 5 G21, right.
A Gen 3 G19, left, compared to a Gen 5 G21, right. See the difference? (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

As some of the citations over the new V series guns specifically mention that “Glock Performance triggers will not function in V series guns,” it’s likely the company is pivoting away from using a so-called “cruciform trigger bar,” which is specifically mentioned in the text of the new law. No cruciform trigger bar = not subject to the new law. As Glock has no shortage of new patents secured in the past several years on novel trigger and frame lock-up systems, this move may have been a long time coming.

Our take: Looks like current “classic” Glock models may become a little scarce after November, or at least command a higher cost (remember, there are millions in circulation), with New Glock models shipping in December. Purists will scoff, but sales of the new guns will probably be brisk, as every new Glock generation has seen in the past.

Will it stop anti-gun politicians backed by gun control organizations with deep pockets from backing a new bill to ban another firearm over arbitrary features? Most assuredly not.

Good news is: there were 11.4 million hunters in 2016. Bad news is: there were 12.5 in 2006

A report compiled twice per decade by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows increases nationally in wildlife watching and fishing, but declines in the number of hunters.

The survey, the 13th conducted by the USFWS since 1955, showed marked increases in the numbers of Americans engaged in observing and photographing wildlife and in fishing when compared to the 2011 data, but over the past decade, the number of hunters has dropped by more than 1 million– even as the general population is on the rise.

More in my column at Guns.com.

The best smart gun on the market is easily hacked

The German Armatix iP1 pistol, a personalized handgun design (smart gun), has gotten a lot of flack since it was introduced. While I bumped into the inventor (a guy who came up with a bunch of innovations while working for HK over the years) at a range a couple years ago, and have called, written and emailed Armatix at both their California office and in Germany for months, they won’t talk to me. Also, even though I have tried my best, I have never been able to handle one.

I did talk to a guy who had one in his possession for a long time in 2015 and he wasn’t impressed– telling me with an RF detector he could find the signal, turn it on and off, replicate it and do it all remotely as well as straight up hot wire it by taking the rear portion of the grip off and bypassing the electronic lock altogether, so that if someone who steals the firearm can simply take the back strap off, splice two wires, and the entire “smart” mechanism is disabled.

Well, low and behold, fast forward two years and a security researcher told Wired he was able to jam the radio frequency band (916.5Mhz) and prevent the gun from firing when it should, extend the authentication radius of its RFID puddle, and even defeat the electromagnetic locking system altogether with a simple $15 magnet placed near the breechblock. (More on that here).

So I sent that to the trade organization for the firearms industry to find out what they thought of it.

Their response in my column at Guns.com

Hearing Protection Act ‘alive and well’

Cutaway of the Maxim Model 15 “silencer” on a 1903 mockup.

Since 1934, the federal government has treated devices designed to muffle or suppress the report of firearms as Title II devices that required registration under the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record and mandated transfers that included a $200 tax stamp. The HPA would repeal this requirement and treat suppressors as firearms – which would allow them to be transferred through regular federal firearms license holders to anyone not prohibited from possessing them after the buyer passes an FBI instant background check.

We spoke with industry insiders about the Hearing Protection Act on the eve of the 146th National Rifle Association Annual Meetings and Exhibits in Atlanta last week, who argued the measure has a fighting chance.

More in my column at Guns.com

Could the NICS appeals backlog be next?

With signs that a historic swell in gun sales and associated background checks may be tapering, the federal government may soon tackle a logjam of denial appeals.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System is currently working voluntary appeals dating back to August 2015 — for individuals denied 18 months ago. However, it hasn’t always been like that. In September 2015, the average delay was three months.

The change came when the nearly 70 examiners dedicated to appeals were reassigned to assist in running initial criminal background checks because of surges in gun sales in October 2015. Since then the delay has grown, despite executive action to expand NICS’s workforce to meet increasingly robust sales figures, leaving appeals to stagnate.

But that could all be changing.

More in my column at Guns.com.

Hearing Protection Act ‘thwips’ past 100 sponsors in the House

ruger-10-22-rifle-with-armtac-monotube-integral-suppressor-and-hogue-overmold-stock-brand-new-assemblies-975-00

A bill that would remove suppressors and silencers from National Firearm Act regulations is picking up momentum on Capitol Hill.

The Duncan-Carter Hearing Protection Act was introduced by GOP sponsors U.S. Rep. Jeff Duncan of South Carolina and Rep. John Carter of Texas last month and aims to deregulate suppressors as a safety measure to help promote their use in protecting hearing. Enrolled as H.R. 367, the measure picked up its 100th co-sponsor last week.

More in my column at Guns.com.

Get ready for homemade suppressors if HPA passes (but not in every state)

oil-filter-suppressor

With the possible removal of silencers/suppressors from National Firearms Act control, a number of legal questions around the devices emerge.

The current mechanism for change, H.R.3799 — the Hearing Protection Act — is stuck in the U.S. House but would likely see a stronger reboot in the next Congress in 2017. If a new bill gains enough momentum to make it through Capitol Hill and onto the waiting desk of President Trump, it would leave a few things undecided if signed into law with its current language.

I spoke with Adam Kraut, an attorney specializing in Second Amendment rights and NFA issues in particular, about just what could be in store.

More in my column at Guns.com.

NFA deregulation of suppressors a very real prospect for 2017

Firing the 03 Springfield with the Maxim silencer, 1910. From left to right Hiram Maxim, Lieut. Col. Richard J. Goodman, and Capt. Earl D Church

Firing the 03 Springfield with the Maxim silencer, 1910. From left to right Hiram Maxim, Lieut. Col. Richard J. Goodman, and Capt. Earl D Church

A Republican trifecta in Washington next year will likely see action on a bill to remove firearm suppressors from National Firearms Act regulation after 82 years.

The Hearing Protection Act was introduced last October by U.S. Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz., and currently has 78 bipartisan co-sponsors from 34 states. Since then, the HPA has been among the top 10 most-viewed bills on Congress.gov almost every week since it was introduced.

However, with a slim Republican majority in the Senate unable to override a near-certain veto from President Obama, the bill has been in doldrums.

Now, with the White House under new management next year, advocates for the measure feel signs are looking up and will likely return to the next Congress with a fresh mandate.

“Imagine for a second that we lived in a world where you had to pay a $200 tax to buy a pair of earplugs,” Knox Williams, president of the American Suppressor Association, the industry trade group for the devices, told me on Wednesday. “Now, imagine that even after paying that tax you still had to wait 8 months before you could bring your earplugs home with you. As silly as that sounds, it’s the world we live in with suppressors in the NFA.”

Maybe not any more…

(More in my column at Guns.com)

Armatix, redux

the-new-armatix-ip9-smart-gun-will-be-headed-to-the-states-in-2017

After a rocky start, the niche German firearms company specializing in personalized handguns (i.e. “smart guns”) is bringing a 9mm version and a vow they are not aiming “to replace conventional guns.”

The company’s first offering burst on to the scene in early 2014 with the iP1, a $1,300 .22LR that needed to pair to an RFID-equipped wrist watch to be able to fire. Armatix convinced firearms dealers in California and Maryland to offer the gun on a limited basis but both stores quickly recoiled after backlash from the Second Amendment community without selling any.

Although officials in states with sticky smart gun mandates held the iP1 would not trigger their dormant law, the company was left with 5,000 unsold high-dollar pistols and began to shift course towards a potentially more acceptable 9mm version marketed to police.

Then in 2015, news came that the small 30-employee company parted ways with Ernst Mauch, the engineer who helped found the thus-far unsuccessful venture and entered into Chapter 11-style corporate restructuring even as their chief executive in the U.S.  publicly gaffed on firearms safety and the National Rifle Association tested the gun and found it lacking. (No agenda there, right?)

Now, Armatix’s current CEO and President Wolfgang Tweraser is ready to move forward with their iP9 9mm gun which will be available in mid-2017 along with the legacy iP1.

More in my column at Guns.com

Bringing the Second Amendment to the hood

The Black Lives Matter movement has embraced gun control and allied with anti-gun groups while their leadership has very publicly painted the group as non-violent and non-confrontational.

Not affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement, 29-year-old community leader Maj Toure is a gun owner and a card-carrying member of the National Rifle Association and believes that the right to keep and bear arms is fundamental. And he is bringing that message, without any outside support, to the black community through outreach and free firearms training conducted by certified instructors.

I had a chance to talk with Toure this month about his Black Guns Matter group, his vision, and why it’s needed. In short, he wants to replace more gun regulations, buybacks and rhetoric with firearms training, education, and concealed carry permits.

black guns matter

“Charlton Heston said it – you basically got to pry this out of my cold, dead hand. I’m not going down that way because we are citizens, Americans,” Toure told me. “We are citizens. We have the right to exercise the Second Amendment and anyone that’s tryin’ to infringe on that is not only in violation of the Constitution but they’re also just a dick.”

I told him he needed to put that remark on a T-shirt.

More in my column at Guns.com

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