I'll bet the guy in front would agree that is a stupid question...
Posted on 10/31/2003 5:58:27 AM PST by Long Cut
The ArmaLite® Post-PostBan ™ Rifle Program
Fact: Unless reauthorized or replaced with a worse program, the Assault Weapon Act of 1994 will expire in September, 2004.
Possible outcomes are:
“Reauthorization,” i.e. no change in the law.
Replacement with a worse law, even to the possibility that production is halted.
Expiration of the law.
Expiration for only a short time, and then be reauthorization or worse.
The AW Ban is a cosmetic law, and we’d all like to own rifles without the blemishes that it established. If the law expires, there’s plenty of time to wait for a new rifle with “pre-ban” characteristics. If any of the other three outcomes occur, a delay could be a real mistake. The purpose of the PPB program is to prepare purchasers for any outcome.
The program offers customers a way to avoid the risk of delay, yet also have the benefits of a change in law. The opportunity is provided by the design of ArmaLite’s® 2003 rifles.
1. Beginning immediately, ArmaLite® 2003 rifles (with a pinned muzzle brake, or none installed) ship with a certificate that will provide customers a pin-on flash suppressor and installation instructions at no charge. Unless earlier legislation makes it illegal for customers to install the device, flash suppressors will ship in summer 2004 to allow time to get the rifle modified even if there’s an opportunity of only a few days.
Until the law changes, the flash suppressor will provide a reminder to every customer that it is essential to get out the vote in 2004.
2. For customers who wish to go an extra step and install a bayonet lug, ArmaLite® will continue to sell pin-on sight bases with bayonet lugs, and will provide installation instructions for gunsmiths. All ArmaLite® clamping front sight bases are easily removable, with no pin-holes in the barrel, so pin-on bases can be easily installed.
3. For customers who wish to be able to convert their rifle to a “Pre-Ban” configuration immediately upon expiration, ArmaLite® will produce and sell AR-10™ collapsing buttstocks (the AR-10™ requires a special collapsing buttstock). It is likely that prompt installation of such a buttstock will allow customers to make other changes at a more leisurely pace.
Installation of options 2 and 3 both are already available for law enforcement customers (with proper rifle markings). Civil customers must await a change in the law, and flash suppressors, bayonet lugs, and collapsing stocks will all be accompanied by clear information about the law to prevent a violation.
4. Pre-2003 rifles with pinned front sight bases or threaded-pinned-welded brakes, or customers who wish threaded brakes on 2003 models instead of pinned ones, require gunsmith or factory replacement of those parts. ArmaLite® offers the components for sale, and will perform conversions at normal shop charges.
Mark A. Westrom
President
Absolutely - and I've had excellent luck with Armalite products and service, and would not hesitate to recommend any of their gear.
IMO Armalite makes the best production AR's available.
Alone I can't do anything about it except to protest; and my meager money donations to the Repubos probably doesn't mean much to them, they could get along without it; but I don't think they can afford to piss off several million of their base voters. And if they have any smarts at all, they will know that they can't win without this base.
If those 'distinguished gentlemen' are no different then the RAT-commies on the other aside of the aisle, then let's get it right up front and go to plan B.
I'll bet the guy in front would agree that is a stupid question...
Chris W. Cox, Executive Director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, sent the following to members of Congress in response to a "Dear Colleague" letter from Representatives John Conyers and Carolyn McCarthy seeking cosponsorship of their "Assault Weapons Ban and Law Enforcement Protection Act of 2003."
March 25, 2003
Dear Member of Congress:
You may have received a "Dear Colleague" letter dated March 10 from Representatives John Conyers and Carolyn McCarthy seeking your cosponsorship of the so-called "Assault Weapons Ban and Law Enforcement Protection Act of 2003."
Unfortunately the letter repeated many of the tired falsehoods—as well as made some new claims—that were used to deliberately mislead Members of Congress and the public when the current misguided law was enacted by a narrow margin in 1994 as part of an omnibus crime bill (P.L. 103-322). Please consider these facts:
The U.S. House of Representatives voted to repeal this law less than two years after its passage (H.R. 125 on March 22, 1996), a clear indication that while Congress supported the Omnibus Crime Bill of 1994 there was not support for this ill-conceived gun ban. The House vote to repeal the Clinton gun ban was 239-173, including 56 Democrats.
The ban has done nothing for public safety. An Urban Institute study mandated by the original law stated, "At best, the assault weapons ban can only have a limited effect on total gun murders, because the banned weapons and magazines were never involved in more than a modest fraction of all gun murders." Neither that study nor two follow-up studies by the same authors found the law to have any effect on attacks against police officers.
The only "evidence" for criminal misuse … was a lie. Advocates of the ban irresponsibly propagated figures from Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) trace data, ignoring the Congressional Research Service’s warning that: Firearms selected for tracing do not constitute a random sample and cannot be considered representative of the larger universe of all firearms used by criminals, or of any subset of that universe. As a result, data from the tracing system may not be appropriate for drawing inferences such as which makes or models of firearms are used for illicit purposes.
Literally dozens of studies by criminologists, journalists and federal, state and local law enforcement agencies have found that these guns are involved in only about one percent of crimes – both before and after the ban was adopted.
There is nothing "unique" or dangerous about the characteristics of the guns that were banned. The law prohibits the manufacture of semiautomatic firearms with two or more features such as pistol grips, barrel shrouds and bayonet lugs; yet no advocate of the ban has ever proven the relevance of those characteristics to criminal activity. That hasn’t stopped anti-gun proponents who want to expand these provisions even further.
True assault weapons were banned in 1934, not in 1994. True assault weapons – machine guns or firearms capable of fully automatic fire – were effectively banned through the passage of the National Firearms Act in 1934. The firearms banned in the Clinton Crime Bill were semi-automatic guns that look, but do not function, like actual assault weapons. These firearms only fire one round per trigger pull, are incapable of continuous fire, and thus should not be considered assault weapons.
As usual, gun-ban activists are going back on their word. The "grandfather clause," allowing possession of existing firearms, was included to ease fears that new restrictions would be imposed on those who already owned these guns. As Senator Diane Feinstein stated on the Senate floor, “everything that is legally in possession is essentially grandfathered . . . All guns, lawfully possessed before the date of enactment, are exempt from this legislation.” (November 9, 1993) Now they want to abandon that promise by banning even more legitimate firearms.
Gun-ban Members have a much broader agenda. This ban was first promoted by an anti-gun activist who was frustrated by his movement’s inability to ban handguns. It was expanded by Senator Feinstein, who told “60 Minutes” that if she’d had enough votes she would have sought to “ban them all [guns].” And it was supported by the Washington Post, which admitted, “No one should have any illusions about what was accomplished [by the ban]. Assault weapons play a part in only a small percentage of crime. The provision is mainly symbolic; its virtue will be, if it turns out to be as hoped, a stepping stone to broader gun control.”
The call by Reps. Conyers’ and McCarthy for further restrictions on the transfer of legally owned guns between law-abiding citizens, and for controls on sales of gun parts, confirms their broader agenda. We urge you to ignore their call for more restrictive legislation. Instead we ask for your support of common sense, rational proposals to reduce crime while protecting the constitutional rights of law-abiding American citizens. At this time in our nation’s history, we need serious solutions to real problems, not empty rhetoric that makes Americans less safe and does nothing to reduce crime. As always, if you have any questions or need additional information about this issue, please call NRA Federal Affairs.
Sincerely, Chris W. Cox Executive Director NRA Institute for Legislative Action -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For more information read Chris W. Cox's article "Mr. and Mrs. America, turn them all in." Posted: 3/25/2003
Light wheeled armoured vehicles begin at around 10 grand. You can get a tracked amphibian at around 25 K. It goes up from there. Polish T55Ls with a 100mm main gun start at around $9000, FOB the Polish port of Stettin; shipping will cost about that much again. Shermans/ $150,000, Centurions/$95,000, M41/ $105,000- and most WWII Allied vehicles are available; some Axis vehicles are also around but there's a high demand for them; the Czech T38 is probably the most practical, though there's an early WWII Panzer II coming on the market.
Check *here*, and *here*, and *here.
So far as hunting goes, I do know of one paraplegic who hunts from a British Ferret. But most private sector armoured car/ tank gunners are more inclined toward target shooting. At a half-mile or so.
Actually, the .223 round is an excellent small-game round. In 1966 while teaching tank gunnery to rookie National Guard tank crews, we had four deer run across the target line at Steele's tank gunnery range at Fort Knox. We immediately got a cease fire from the safety officer in the range tower, who then began to designate fire missions....tank 66, take the one on the left, six-three, the one on the right...six niner, take the buck in the middle, seven-three, get the doe with him. On my command, one five round burst co-ax each....
Our .30 Browning coaxial machineguns were in the same .30-06 cartridge as the '03 Springfield or the M1 Garand rifle, and if full-jacketed ball ammo is likely less useful for the project at hand that day, we were firing two short bursts...and we had 10x telescopic gunner's sights....
We ate good in the messhall that night.
Just because.
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