JsARCLIGHT

No, you legally cannot do that without propper permissions and licenses. The only legal way to get a weapon in any state involves going to gun dealer and filling out the federally required NICS background check sheet (mandated by the Brady Law) and after you are approved you can buy a gun. Most states have laws stating that you as a private citizen can sell a long gun (rifle) to another citizen of your home state in that home state with no NICS check but that is the one and only time that is true. You may purchase weapons from out of state and have them shipped to your local gun shop for you to pick up after submitting the above paperwork as long as the gun is legal to import to your state (looking at you again Kalifornia). Check all local laws before trying to buy a gun as they vary from state to state. Some states like Kalifornia make you jump through more hoops than a trained poodle to own even a simple long gun. Edit to add: I forgot about the one type of gun that requires no license whatsoever: BB guns and Black Powder guns. Those you can order through the mail or over the internet and have them sent right to your front door with no background checks at all. (please note: Airsoft is a toy not a gun)

Ok, where to start... 1) a recent presidential order put in place last year bans any and all imports of firearms from the Chinese exporter known as Norinco. They where the ones brining over all the Chinese semi-auto AK variants... hence you will not be seeing very many of them from now on. This also explains the rise in imports of Romanian guns, people can't get the Norinco models so they buy the Romak ones instead for about the same price. 2) the reason that Chinese AK at your local shop is over a grand is most likely because it is a pre-ban weapon. Pre-ban weapons go for much, much more than new post-ban ones. (See #3 for more explaination) 3) in late 1994 congress passed a law called the Omnibus Crime Bill which outlaws the building, importing and production of what have come to be known as "Assault Weapons". What constitues an assault weapon you ask? Funny you should ask because technically any weapon used to attack another person is technically a weapon used in an assault... thus it is an "assault" weapon. But our knowledgeable and all wise government has seen to it to classify certain guns as "assault" weapons based on their physical characteristics and not their actual capacity to assault people. By rule of law an "assault" weapon is any weapon that has the ability to accept a detactchable magazine and possesses any two of the following features: - a pistol grip that protrudes "conspicuously" from the bottom of the action (actual verbage in the law) - a bayonet lug or provisions to accept a bayonet - a threaded barrel capable of attaching a flash hider - a folding or telescoping stock - a grenade launcher or special barrel attachment to support the use of rifle grenades So basically if you remove the threaded barrel and bayonet lug and have a non-telescoping or folding stock then you have a post-ban AK that is exactly the same as it's pre-ban brother in ability... just missing a few hood ornamnets. Bascially the only way AK model rifles were affected by the ban is that A) they can no longer be called an AK, MAK or other "evil" name listed on the law and B ) they cannot have any of the "evil" features... that is about it. If you ask me the only difference between a pre-ban and a post-ban Kalishnakov clone is about $700. Unless you just have to have that clunky folding stock buy a post-ban. Quality on Soviet Bloc stuff is all about the same anyway, AK's are all notorious for loose tollerances and sloppy workmanship. The only way to get a good one is to somehow get an original Ismash Armory model made in the Soviet Union and those are some of the highest priced pre-bans on the market.

My votes for worst Sci-Fi movies of all time: Made in the last ten years or so - Battlefield Earth - Godzilla (the American one with femme boy Mathew Broderick) - The Core - Armageddon - Lost in Space Made in the '80s and back - Mutants on the Bounty - Vindicator - Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone - Metalstorm: the Destruction of Jared Syn - Saturn 3 - Outland I can probably think of more after a while but these are the ones that you just want to kick the entire cast, crew and front office in the piece for... I mean really, really hurt the people that made these movies.

You know me, Bsu... I will walk a mile out of my way to sucker punch Colt in the ding ding.

Special Weapons are crap, nuff said. They basically bought up a bunch of H&K's parts seconds and demilled guns and then cobbled them together with a mish-mash of low quality US made parts (to get around the crime bill) and made them into a bunch of sorta working guns which they are selling for outrageous prices. Their logic is that you are getting mostly German H&K parts... so by that logic you should pay mostly German H&K prices... yeah... right... I have known three people who have bought Special Weapons guns... all three had serious issues right out of the box. Everything from constant jams to shoddy build quality to finishes that wash off with one cleaning. Weapons lore comes into play once again: if you want a H&K just bite the bullet buy a real H&K product. All these knock-offs running around tend to be low quality clones at best and pure crap on average. The old addage of you get what you pay for comes into play with firearms a lot. Only on some very very rare occasions can a "knock off" gun maker match or better the original maker in quality... unless the original maker is a total f#ck up out of the gate like Colt.

The AR15 always seems to get a raw deal... you can't compare an AR15 to a M14 or a FN-FAL, they are different weapons made from different military doctrines. Just because the military retired the M14 in favor of the M16 does not make them similair guns. The AR15/M16 is a low caliber superlight short range suppression weapon that had a rediculously high rate of fire designed to allow a soldier to carry tons of ammo and lay down huge volleys of fire in close quarters engagements... basically it was a gun designed to fight the kind of war in Vietnam that we needed it to fight. The M14 and everything that came before it was part of the old army doctrine of long range accuracy with a heavy slug that will cut a man in half... that sort of weapon was pretty much useless in a close quarters man war like 'Nam. I prefer the AR15 to the M1A just because it is so light and nible I can hit snap targets with it with ease rather than trying to swing that phone pole of a gun around and then get my sight picture back when it discharges... but that is personal preference. I prefer the lighter faster AR15 to the heaver more powerful M1A... but they are not in the same family any more so they cannot be compared apples to apples. There is a reason why the armed forces still has a lot of M14s in active duty right now, they fill a different role that the M16A2 cannot: the long range accuracy weapon. But when it comes down to warfare (for which both weapons where made) almost all real engagements and kills come within 200 yards and they come from suppressive fire or combined fields of fire. New machines for a new era of close combat warfare. What does all this mean to the civilain shooter? Absolutely dick. Buy whichever rifle you feel comfortable shooting and you can afford the cost of the weapon and it's upkeep.

Being the proud owner of several ARs, I must say that they are very different weapons than the Ruger Minis... they just shoot the same caliber of ammo and most people lump them together as being two sides of the same coin. A quality AR15 will set you back a lot of money compared to a Mini but there are more accessories at cheaper prices... such as mags, stocks and grips. If possible try to shoot either of them before buying as the proof if you will like them or not is in the use... ... unless you are in Kalifornia, then kiss your dreams of a legal affordable AR15 goodbye right now... 'cause we all know those evil, evil assault rifles can kill you ten times faster than a Ruger Mini-14... that has the same caliber... and the same rate of fire... and the same magazine capacity... and the same features... yet is still legal in Kalifornia...

I have shot my fair share of Ruger Minis and Autos... they are all about the same. I was never a fan of the Ruger Mini 14 action myself... it is basically a teeny tiny copy of the M1A/M14 action and design (with subtle changes). Remember that the Mini-14 comes in several differet "flavors" at the moment such as the classic Mini 14, the stainless and the all weather. You can also lump the derivative Ruger Ranch rifle in this pile as it is based off of Mini-14 design and shares a lot of things in common (but notice that the Ranch is a totally different rifle and will not accept some of the parts the Minis take). Then you have your Mini-30 which is the same thing as the 14 just chambered in the eastern bloc 7.62x39. Here is my pro/con opinion of the Rugers: Pros: - compared to most AR15s (the rifle most people compare the Mini to) they are cheap and relatively easy to get ahold of - they have a wide variety of aftermarket parts and accessories - they are light, easy to use and quite reliable - ammo is cheap (for all makes) - if you live in Kalifornia then the Mini-14 is as close to a decent rifle as you can legally get for less than a grand Cons: - Mini-14 magazines are more expensive on average than their AR15 brothers - I have heard of people having problems with the finish wearing badly on some of the models - Some people have a hard time with the military style peep apeture so you might want to switch it out for one of the aftermarket notch style if you have trouble with accuracy - getting a good scope mount is expensive, the cheap scope mounts have a tendancy to wiggle loose durring shooting My Opinion: While the Minis are good, stable guns they are very pedestrian in their common configurations and are a bit "classic" and stodgy for some people. They seem to marry the old wood stocked hunting rifle of yesteryear with the modern high capacity self loading assault rifle of today but in the process the gun does neither well. Some of the more rare pre-ban versions of the Mini like the Police issued ones and the carbines with their unique side-folding metal stocks and pistol grips can be great investment pieces and a blast to shoot. Even more fun are the rare automatic versions. My verdict is: if you don't like the AR15 or feel put off by their "evil looks" like some people are, the Minis are the next step on the ladder. Dependable, rugged and accurate they will make you happy... if you like their looks and feel.

Speaking of Macross II songs... who here did not want to blow their brains out when they first heard that fork on a chalkboard of a final song in the english dubbed version? Sheeeeeeit, who was that woman sleeping with to get that job? I am still personally embarrassed for the english language version people every time I so much as think about that song.

Wasn't there a cheap FPS that came out this year that pulled a Wolfenstien on World War One? They called it like "Iron Reign" or some crap like that. It was only on the shelves for like a week... it was definately a World War One computer game but it was one of those warped "what if?" games. Edit: Found it. The game is called Iron Storm and it contains levels of crap that a johnny on the spot could not contain. Basically the premise was that World War One did not end in 1918 and that it still went on... into the freaking '60s! The game is about as realistic to WW1 as Quake III is to actual combat. Avoid at all costs.

Slapping people in the head is hard to do when they are sitting across the office from you... but a good toss on a pencil will clear the cubicles and hit them.

World War ONE? Gameplay: Player characters wait in a trench for the whistle to blow. When whistle blows they go "over the top" and charge the opposing side's trench. Those that somehow survive the lewis and maxim fire can fight it out until they are driven back. Repeat ad nauseum.

Bah you kids today with your online games, pac man and dan fogelburg... I say nuts to all them MMORPG games, LAN is the only way to play. I like to play the people I know in the same room so's I can yell at them and throw pencils. Seriously though, what is the percentage of decent MMORPG games to the really lame, bug infested, dead in a year ones?

The VF-1... To me there are no more valkyries after the VF-1, just "changes on the original".

Wooo! Max reopens the topic so I can brag too! My home system: - Asus mother with a New Pent 4 HT 3 gig processor - 1 gig DDR RAM - SB Audigy 2 sound card for output - ATI Raedon 9800 Pro graphics card - Denon receiver and speakers with 6.1 Dolby Digital for sound - New Dell 21" trini monitor - Bigass hard drive, DVD and CDRW drives - one happy owner

Here is my line of logic on this: - Super packs contain all missles, Strike packs contain a mix of missles and cannon which gives a bit more versatility to the pilot - That added versatility comes at a cost, not neccessarily money cost but it takes a certain skill level to use. Missles are sort of "fire and forget" whereas a fixed inline cannon requires a lot of skill to use propperly. - I still think that the advanced avionics and equipment package the DYRL VF-1S is equipped with is the only thing the Strike cannon can mate to, hence you only see them on VF-1S models in the movie. - who better to field an expensive piece of hardware that requires a skilled operator to use than a squad commander? - one "drawback" to the Super packs is that when you are out of missles you are out of missles, the energy cannon on the Strike pack can recharge and fire several times. (one last point of order KYQ is that the Strike packs only appear in the DYRL movie whereas the Super packs appear in both the movie and the TV series)

It could just be me but aren't "callsigns" a fairly modern western military thing? I don't believe I've ever heard of other eastern countries using "callsigns" with their pilots until they got "westernized". Like back in WW2 (the great granddaddy of Japanese military basis in most of these anime shows) Japanese fighter pilots took their "callsigns" from their unit and number like "Lotus 12" or "Sparrow 8"... they never had made up (and IMHO dorky) callsign names like "iceman", "maverick" or "goose".

To be honest we are expecting too much from Star Wars. I was also an original "saw it in the theaters" kid when I was like 7 or 8 and I loved it. I loved it all the way up to the new movies came out. Yes, I even liked the original Droids and Ewoks cartoons... you want to know why? Because I was a kid back then. My tastes where simple. There was not the myriad of different entertainment options floating around that there are today. You want to know why the "new" Star Wars sucks? Because I am viewing it through the rose colored glasses of a 33 year old man and not an 8 year old boy anymore. In my book the new Clone Wars cartoon is nothing more than a simple kid's show akin to it's great granddaddies Droids, Ewoks and the now infamous Holiday Special... if you view it in that context then it is just a lighthearted romp in the world of Star Wars, not too deep to loose the core audience (the KIDS) and not too simple and stupid to alienate the die hards (the 33 year olds watching a children's cartoon show like me). For all we know this cartoon will be reveared years from now as the second Holiday Special and people will rue the day it was made... or perhaps it will somehow trancend it's simple genre and presentation and suprise us all. I agree with those that said the show will most likely be much better viewed on a DVD all at once, and as I said already my only real complaint at the moment is about the length of the show not of it's content. I do not like the new movies but the more I get bombarded with them the more I realize what they are and the more I accept them. As with anything I will watch this series as much as I can catch it (the length and timing of the episodes make it hard for us businessmen to run home from school and watch cartoons) and I might have to DL and watch most of the shows from the website. We also need to remember the show is being handled by the guy who does Samurai Jack which means we already know the shows will be long on style and short on substance.

My only complaint is with the "toy commercial" style of presentation. COME ON, 5 minute episodes? Give me a break! That isn't enough time to even catch one if you happen to be channel surfing.

Wow, that guy sure seems to specialize in eastern bloc stuff... been a while since I saw a Romak Dragonov clone.

GP Mk. III you say? What do you need to know about it? I'm not sure what you need a schematic of it for (those are sometimes hard to find for specific guns), do you mean something more like an owners/operation manual? Those can be had from the manufacturer for free usually for almost any make of gun, I'd say drop Colt a line and see what they can scare you up. As for care and maintenance, the owner's manual should cover that in pretty good detail once you get it (if they have one they can send you for that particular model). I'd say jump over to the guns thread and ask this question in there as the mods will most likely lock this thread.

I have never seen an actual "Torky 40" in person (and have heard they are quite rare) but I've heard good things about them... mainly historical things like the Germans dropping their Mausers in favor of the Torky 40s on the eastern front because captured ammo was everywhere and the rifle was just as accurate as the K-98 but was magazine fed and had a higher rate of fire. I'm not so sure if that is true or not as on the flip side of the coin the soviets had a bear of a time with that rifle as it was difficult and costly to manufacture and required a certain "skill set" to use that most army conscripts could not be bothered with to learn in a crunch.

I'll have to check if those clips (notice they are not "magazines") are exportable from the US by typical shnooks like me. If they are I can buy up a fleet of them at a local gun show and ship them to you at cost. Down here they are as common as air and almost as cheap.

From what I gathered the ending was a mish-mash of themes, leaving us with several feelings on what the "truth" was: Truth #1) The city was nothing more than a fabrication, a TV show for some unseen audience that began 40 years ago... all the characters were players on a stage made to exsist in the present. The bizzare flashbacks, flash forwards and a few flash sideways were glimpses not of memories but of other shows that happened on that same stage in the past. This point is driven home by the somewhat retroactive ending with everything "back to the way it started" as if the show was begging again for a second run. Truth #2) The city was actually the remains of one that fell in a cataclysmic war 40 years ago by unknown forces only to somehow rise from the ashes , in the process loosing their memories so the horrible events would never happen again. Truth #3) (my personal favorite) the writers wanted to get artsy with it and threw in a ton of unresolved elements just to make us wonder what the hell was going on in the first place just so they could shoehorn a season three in later on down the line. I myself do not like the Big O. It is a very self-absorbed show that doesn't do much to heighten the genre and to me reeks of Japanese Batman the Animated Series ripoff with a few big robots thrown in for good measure. They never explained anything and when the show ends it is no wonder everyone is lost. They introduced too many themes with not enough development or character depth to support those themes and the show just... is. It spins it's metaphysical wheels and goes nowhere other than shaking in place. Makes me wonder why I watched it in the first place... oh yeah, I remember now... I thought it was going somewhere.

This thread still lives! Ha haaaaa! Anyway I finished the last part of my required CCW training today at the range with my trusty Glock 27. Got two whole mags in the 9 ring from 15 yards, I was second in the class for being most accurate. Needless to say I passed the course with almost all 100%s... now if they would just hurry up the litigation with the law I'll be a happy legal carrier just like everyone else in those other politically incorrect 44 states.