The NFA Review Channel carefully crafted what they call their “Case of Mayhem” that includes select-fire, SBR, SBS, suppressors and more.
Contents, LtoR: MK18 MOD0 with AAC M42K, SEA Bears Bark 20G SBS, Glock17c with JNC select fire sear, and a Dakota Tactical D54R-N with select fire trigger pack and Silencerco Omega 9K, if you are curious.
The case is a Pelican 1750 with customized B&W Kaizen foam.
Stencil on the outside could be Krylon, color chit unknown.
So in California, which has had an assault weapon ban going all the way back to 1989 and yet still have mass-shootings with California-compliant firearms, lawmakers tried to pass over 20 legislative actions on increased gun control this session.
A baker’s dozen of these made it through the legislature in Dem-heavy votes of which Gov. Jerry Brown signed 7 into law and returned five with vetoes.
Since gun rights groups and Republican lawmakers couldn’t derail these, a group of gun owners on a gun forum (Calguns) got together and decided, “Let’s try for a ballot referendum to repeal these…”
And that’s exactly what they are doing.
With a pressing deadline of Sept.29, they are trying to get 450,000 signatures on 7 different propositions. Of course, California has 13 million gun owners, which by definition should all be capable of registering to vote, so it’s not far-fetched.
I’ve spoken with the man behind the effort, a San Diego tech company executive, and it’s a hail Mary play with a lot of spunk behind it.
Sure, you know the M134 Minigun, but how about the hand-held XM556 Microgun that tips the scales at about one-fifth the weight?
The Minigun, which weighs in at about 85 pounds in its traditional format and fires 7.62x51mm NATO about as fast as a fat kid can go through a stack of twinkees, is well-known and loved among those who ain’t got time to bleed. However, Empty Shell LLC of Spring, Texas went all-in on a tiny little variant of the Mingun that they like to call the XM556 Microgun.
And it only weighs 16 pounds, but still rips out green tip at 2,000 rounds per minute.
Back in 1976, the Ford Administration approved the Arms Export Control Act as part of the NDAA which gave the State Department the juice to regulate foreign military weapon sales and transfers. Part of this, under the later International Traffic in Arms Regulations, led State to put the kibosh on commercial sales of things like night vision gear and suppressors , citing they were defense articles.
This means that while countries like Norway, Finland, New Zealand and the UK have lax laws on the sale of “silencers” for sporting and target purposes, U.S. firms like SilencerCo, Gemtech and Surefire can sell all they want to the Royal Marines or the Norwegian Army, but not to good old gameskeeper Mr. Thatcher or hunter Mr. Johansson– even though local laws are cool with it.
I did speak to several inside the beltway and the suppressor industry about that last week, and a new legislation, the logically named Suppressor Export Act, to change the regs.
Photo: ATF
For the purposes of the National Firearms Act, the ATF interprets the term “Destructive Device” for Title II weapons to mean:
A missile having an explosive or incendiary charge of more than 1/4 oz.
Any type of weapon by whatever name known which will, or which may readily be converted to expel a projectile, by the action of an explosive or other propellant, the barrel or barrels of which have a bore greater than one-half inch in diameter.
A combination of parts designed and intended for use in converting a device into a destructive device and from which a destructive device can be readily assembled.
This means everything from a Sherman tank with a working 75mm gun (as well as each shell, if it is explosive) to the .55 caliber Boys anti-tank rifle (if functional and still in the original caliber) to the infamous ‘Street Sweeper’ shotgun, is considered a DD by the ATF and falls into the title 2/NFA realm, which requires tax stamps and typically storage in an approved explosives magazine.
As of Febuary 2015, the ATF’s Firearms Commerce Report, which gives the public a rare glimpse into the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record, contained 2,446,984 registered DDs nationwide. The super high numbers largely come from registered artillery shells and grenades.
For comparison, there are only 792,282 suppressors, the next most common NFA item.
Further, these items are very rarely used in crime. The only one incident I can think of is when a Canadian gang (!) from Montreal stole two Lahti 20mm anti-tank guns in 1965 and spent over two hours battering a bank vault door in a quiet New York town with them. And again, these were crooks with stolen guns a half-century ago. So there is that
Enter TXMGO…
And there is a shop in the Lone Star state; Texas Machine-Gun & Ordnance, a Type 10, Manufacturer of Destructive Devices FFL; and Type 20, Manufacturer of Explosives FEL, who is pushing the envelope on these items such as selling an NFA Legal Molotov Cocktail on Gunbroker for $125.
Photo: Gunbroker
“This is not something you just buy over-the-counter. It transfers in full compliance with NFA laws, its owner is explicitly registered with the ATF, will take 5-6 months to get after a detailed background check, and payment of a $200 transfer tax. Service includes custom laser engraving and S/N,” reads the auction.
So in other words, a legal Molotov, complete with registration with the feds, for $400~ after taxes, shipping and fees. Of course you can build your own for like $4, but it wouldn’t be all legal like.
“People thinking that novelty Destructive Devices such as a Molotov Cocktail or a pipebomb, is in any way related to the 2nd Amendment, or have some sort of practical purpose are terribly mistaken. This is about grown men, having fun,” notes TXMGO.
The shop found itself the victim of lots of digital mudslinging after they showed up at a gun show selling $150 clock pipebombs (without explosives, needing a BATFE Form 1 to complete, making it, like the Molotov, a $400 legal endeavor), a fake improvised Claymore that was not for sale and a “Martyr Creation” suicide vest with 31lbs of high explosives and 14lbs of nails.
Photo: TFB
TXMGO has used similar vests on blow up dolls in online videos to show them off.
Photo: TXMGO
The Firearm Blog ran the piece first as “Idiot Sells Pipebombs and Suicide Vests at Gun Show Legally” then changed it to a more sedate “Selling Pipebombs and Suicide Vests at a Gun Show in Houston” calling TXMGO out on the stunt as being the equivalent of “that guy.”
To which TFB allowed a rebuttal from Sean with TXMGO who said in part the company is trying to shake up the industry, is doing everything legal, is not part of a fringe group, and has some neato things they are working on:
While everyone is getting all wound up on the 100% legal, NFA registered pipebombs we are selling as novelty items; they missed the reusable Molotov Cocktail, affordably priced 60mm mortar, recoilless rifle, and other projects we are working on to bring something new to market for the law-abiding citizen. This is in addition to us working to build a facility for us to offer people the chance to come and literally blow shit up, and shoot exotic weaponry.
Which in the end, provided its all perfectly legal, the government gets their tax and gives their blessing, isn’t really a big deal, is it?
At SHOT Show this year I had a chance to throw some knives and hawks on range day and did so like shit. They were SOGs and, while I can make the excuse I wasn’t used to them and prefer my own edged weapons which I do throw much better, I still did miserably.
However, I also did it right behind Josh Waldron, the co-founder and CEO of SilencerCo, the company that is like the Glock of suppressors. How big are they? They ship 10,000 cans a month, which is more than most suppressor makers ship in a year.
I had a chance last week to catch back to up him without the tomahawks and talk about various states dropping prohibitions against private suppressor ownership (42 states now allow it), hunting with suppressors (39 now allow it, up from 22 in 2011), potential deregulation of suppressors from NFA requirements via the Hearing Protection Act, and the impact that ATF 41F is going to have on trusts and CLEO requirements.
“We’re trying to make guns sexy again because they always really have been in this country,” Waldron said. “It’s been part of the fabric of the culture here but we want to make sure that that continues and so we’re trying to revive that.”
In the 1970s the springboks of the South African Army were facing a tough uphill fight against Cuban/Soviet/Warsaw pact backed rebels coming out of Angola that were well supplied and well funded. They also had a shit government in the apartheid regime that made it an international pariah.
With their standard medium machine gun being the FN MAG58 (which was cut off from import)…
That’s M240 to us…
…as well as earlier WWII era Mk1 and Mk2 BREN guns that had been modded with R1 flashiders, rebarreled to 7.62×51 and set up for FAL mags wearing out, the SADF needed an in-house gun.
Dem combat shorts and tactical basketball shoes, doe
This led to the Denel (Vektor) produced SS-77 machine gun designed by Richard Joseph Smith and Lazlo Soregi, named for the two inventor’s last initial and the prototype acceptance year.
Reverse engineered from the Soviet PK with a few twists and “Nato’d up” in 7.62x51mm, the gun is hearty and, at 21 pounds sans belt due to the use of composites over the more traditional Warsaw Pact wood furniture, isn’t that chunky when compared to the competition.
The PK is/was well used and loved throughout Africa :
Mmmmm, just look at all that 7.62x54R…A PK-equipped Ugandan soldier tracking down Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) fugitive leaders takes position behind a machine gun at a forest bordering Central African Republic (CAR), South Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo, near river Chinko, (File photo).
So the SS77 just made sense and has proven just as popular as the FN MAG and the PK in certain circles.
However, they just aren’t seen in the U.S. much– which meant when the BATFE found one in the storage locker of a dead Albuquerque meth dealer and suspected murderer (Walter White, is that you?) last year it was just odd.
Oh yeah, and to further twist the tale, the gun was stolen from an gun dealer in 2009 by the FFL holder’s sister who happened to be the grandkid of a former Truman cabinet member and long-time senator.
Funny how the world works.
Josh, a 4Chan user, finally got his ATF Form 1 approved and commenced to building a single shot 20mm cannon project that just screams recoil pad.
As the builder has a stockpile of 90 rounds of M55A2 TP, the same stuff used in the electrically fired Vulcan 20mm cannon, the NFA defined destructive device uses an electrical system constructed of two CR123V batteries and a boost converter that pumps juice into a 320uf flash photo capacitor to trigger the primers.
I just wanted to share my abomination that I will attempt to test-fire tomorrow. This firearm is a rudimentary single-shot 20x102mm (20mm Vulcan) Destructive Device I built myself on an ATF Form 1. Every single part on here (minus the barrel (but including rear threading & muzzle brake), tripod, pintle, and traverse/elevation mechanism) I built myself, by hand. No CNC parts, nothing off-she-shelf except for a few bolts from the hardware store. The gun is not yet finished, but far enough along for it’s first prototype test-fire. I plan to do this tomorrow, at a family gathering out on the girlfriend’s property.
The final project is estimated to be about 45 pounds in weight and run just over 5 feet long. But hey, its a single shot Vulcan 20mm. Plus, keep in mind that the ammo is only required to be registered if it has 1/4oz or more explosive in the projectile – these rounds are inert solids, so no paperwork necessary other than on the cannon itself.
Check out the remote test fire below against a poor defenseless Kyocera EcoSys FS-4020 laser printer.
Dat recoil.
When I was at an ASA shoot in Nashville back in April, I first heard about this and have been researching this for a bit. Its a little personal to me as I learned to shoot in the scouts and have taught rifle marksmanship at several local camps off and on for the past decade.-CE
Scouts in Maine are getting a chance to participate in the shooting sports with an increased level of safety on behalf of new suppressors, rifles and ammunition contributed free of charge.
This spring, the Boy Scouts of America’s Pine Tree Council, which serves ten counties in central Maine, took possession of a windfall of gear with the help of gun rights groups and the shooting industry. That equipment is allowing the scouts at Camp William Hinds, a 280 acre facility in the state’s Sebago Lakes Region, to use suppressor-equipped rifles, pistols and shotguns during its week-long summer camps this year.
The equipment came from a variety of vendors to include Sturm, Ruger & Company, which chipped in eight American Rimfire .22 rifles with threaded barrels; a local federal firearms license holder, Furlong Custom Creations, who handled the transfer paperwork; and two suppressor companies, Gemtech and SilencerCo, who contributed both devices and ammunition.
Venture Scouts, aged 14 and up, are using suppressor-equipped Smith and Wesson 22s in their pistol course. (Photo: Gemtech)
Super-short AR-15 guns that legally fall under the ATF’s definition of a pistol have been around for decades. However, in recent years these guns have been given a phenomenal jump in popularity due to the Bureau’s approval of a number of non-buttstock braces that can be fitted to these handguns to give the user the ability to fire the gun from a more supported position. We take a look at some of the better designs on the market.
According to the National Firearms Act of 1934 (the NFA), arms that the government thought to be too dangerous for over the counter sales, such as machine guns, suppressors, and short barreled rifles and shotguns, were regulated with an obscene $200 tax and special requirements to obtain one of these registered devices. When you take into account that $200 in 1934 is some $3500 in today’s dollars, you can see why this was thought so unachievable.
In regulating short-barreled rifles, the NFA states that any rifle less than 26-inches overall had to be registered and so regulated. However, as long as a pistol did not have a buttstock, and was made from the beginning as a handgun, it could be shorter than this requirement. That’s where these braces come in at..
Read the rest in my column at University of Guns.com