JsARCLIGHT

hmmm, that could be why. I know that I certainly don't subscribe to the "squeeky wheel gets the oil" philosophy, and it's quite possible that some in Toynami's returns dept. don't either. I don't believe in "the squeaky wheel" theory but I sure as hell believe in the "I'm pissed to Kansas and back over your crap ass toy you bastards" theory. If they are going to dick me around like some whiny teenager then I'm going to fire back at them with both barrels. When a company avoids you just because they don't like your tone that is a surefire sign that they have no interest in keeping me as a customer or satisfying their customers. The way to calm a russled customer = treat them kindly and with respect. If they had done that from the beginning they would not have the dogs on them now. Plus a kind member of the board gave me their phone number so now the direct approach begins. The way it is in my mind now they have my toy that I paid for and I want either a good one back or I'm taking $79.99 plus double shipping out of their asses.

Why not just buy a Bushie lower and kit and make your own? I've built every AR I own and when you make it yourself you just love it that much more. I mean, AR's are about as simple to put together as legos, I can walk you though it if you need help.

If anyonre cares (which no one does at this point) Toynazi has yet to ship my replacement. Outside of one short email to stop me from emailing them every hour on the hour I have received bupkis. Wurst... company... everrrrrr!

I've caught the occasional episode and while I can see it's appeal to a few people for me it does nothing. I neither like it nor dislike it. It's just another kid's show with bright colors, things that happen and big explosions. This show is definately not aimed at adults but at the same time it is not aimed at 6 and 7 year olds. It seems to me to be another one of those shows that CN is famous for like Samurai Jack... shows that are smart enough to risk being "over kid's heads" but usually land square in the laps of pre-teens. The show is just edgy enough to be something a parent who normally turns off the Simpsons would let their kid watch. The show is proactive... and edgy-cute... to the max. Like Courage, Samurai Jack and all the other shows CN makes. It's downside may be that the show is not too marketable as the audience it has is probably made up of pre-teens who would not buy toys anymore and crazy sick old people like us who would demand "collector grade all diecast 1/10th scale super articulation" versions of the items in the show. I think it will last about two or three seasons then get replaced in benefit of something else... like all CN shows.

Well if his name is Faruk Aziz Mohamed or something of that ilk he might be right... I was thinking of changing my name to something of the middle eastern nature just to watch the "flower delivery vans" and "ups trucks" stay parked out front of my home every day. Flowers By Irene Edit: and just to be even cuter... Ding dong the ban is dead! Which old ban? The assault weapon ban! Ding dong the A-W-B is dead! And to be even cuter than that, here are some things overheard in our office today: - "did you hear that assault rifle ban ended? Yeah now people can buy machine guns again" - "I bet the terrorists ran out to the gun stores today" and my personal favorite... - "I bet the hicks and bumpkins are having parties all over the heartland tonight"

And that would be any normal DI I ever had the misfortune to cross. I had a DI in basic that gave nicknames to everyone in the training platoon, mine was Pretty Boy. My best friend in Basic's nickname was Too Slow because he did everything too slowly. It was common to hear things like "Pretty Boy! Quit talking to Too Slow and get your ass in gear!" or "Hey One Tooth, aim at the targets not at the berms!" Once you figure out they can't actually hit you or physically harm you it all just becomes white noise... and once you are out of Basic and out of MOS training and "into the field" you never encounter the harshness of a DI ever again. Unless you count by-the-numbers butterbars giving you a hard time or some papercut sergent lording his stripes on you. Once "deployed" you really only see the same group of guys day in and day out, especially if you are in a field unit sitting in a truck trying to find your location on a map in the middle of the night.

To my understanding any device, part or weapon stamped "Law Enforcement Only" must remain in that capacity for the remainder of it's life unless written permission is received from the BATF stating the weapon or magazine can be sold to non LEO personnel legally and said letter or permission form must be present at all times with the equipment when sold. I have seen several weapon receivers (mainly of the AR ilk) that were built as LEO only lowers only to be retasked by the BATF as civilian legal receivers. The catch is that they had to have a permission letter from the BATF to be sold in that capacity and that letter had to accompany the receiver at all times for legal reasons. The same is true of any material stamped "Property of the US Government". More info on LEO mags will most likely trickle out in the following weeks. Everyone needs to remember that the ban ends today but the actual effect that will have on all the nuances of law it created for 10 years may not be fully understood for some time still. When in doubt about Federal weapons regulations go right to the source and ask the horse: call your local BATF office and ask.

While the M1 paratrooper may be an old weapon it still possesses the same killing capacity as any other magazine fed semiautomatic weapon like an AK or an AR. Age of design has nothing to do with it, the Thompson M1 SMG is still one of the premier weapons in it's class and it outdates the M1 carbine by a good 20 years plus. The M1 carbine was also not exclusively fielded in WW2, it was used extensively in the Korean Conflict and Vietnam (it's small size and light weight being ideal for the shorter stature Vietnamese fighters the US was training). No one can say the AWB was not a flawed piece of legislation but the one thing they can say is that it was none too discriminating when it outlined what was and was not an "assault weapon"... those words in and of themselves being an double entendre. Assault Weapon, assault meaning to attack and weapon meaning an impliment you use to attack. Technically every firearm can be an assault weapon... all that differentiates a weapon you use to assault things and a weapon you use to hang towels or hold down papers is the capacity you use it in. Use an AR15 to shoot targets and it is a target rifle, use a MP5 to keep your tax papers from blowing away and it is a paperweight.

Private eyes are really watching you. Wow. Daryl Hall was right!

I have my G21 in my nightstand with one of those combi-mags in it. Only I and my wife know the combination. Every other piece of hardware is downstairs in the basement area in a gunsafe locked behind several tumblers and bolts. If someone breaks in a .45 is all I need to defend the house. If war is declared however then the gunsafe swings wide.

Others already covered the technical side of what the AWB "banned" but the true answer is the AWB ban banned nothing. The intent of the ban was to outlaw weapons that ceratin groups (not naming names, I think the thread is getting a tad too political even though this issue is nothing but politics) considered to look evil. Firearms like hunting rifles and shotguns were not banned even though they have more lethality per shot than any "military" weapon on the market. The AWB in a nutshell was mired in politics with all sides fighting for or against it and when it was finally passed into law ten years ago it was more or less fraught with loopholes and in the end banned nothing... all the weapons it proported to outlaw just reapeared under different names and in different cosmetic configurations. The killing power and capacity for destruction of a post-ban AR15 or AK is exactly the same as it's pre-ban counterparts... the only difference was that it could not have some features on it that some people thought looked scary or that added to the lethality of the weapon. I mean, come on. A bayonet lug? A flash hider? Yeah, those have drastic impact on an AR15's ability to shoot. I, like a few others on here, fear the comming storm. Sure we have "won" this small toss but if certain forces gather in certain places and in certain numbers I think we can kiss any new ground gained on the firearms front goodbye. BOTH sides of the american governmental system have BOTH stated they favor the limitation of possession of certain weapons by citizens. Eventually all the weapons in my gun safe will be outlawed, to me it is only a matter of time. (If anyone would like some links to how we can possibly solve this problem PM me as the board is no place for politics). And as for Chowser's questions I have answers: - the pieces of legislation that govern your ability to own Class III automatic weapons are the 1968 National Firearms Act, the 1986 addendum to that act and the individual state laws in which you live. Those two federal laws established the control of automatic (or as people call them "machine guns") weapons under the authority of the BATF. It is a common misconception that people have that "machine guns" are illegal as they are most certainly not. Under Federal law any citizen of the US who passes certain qualifications and lives in a state that does not restrict the ownership of Class III weapons can legally purchase one. Inquire about it with the BATF, as they are the ones who will process your application. I can help you if you need directions on where to go, what forms to get and how to proceed. Seeing as Chowser is a LEO (Law Enforcement Officer) he is actually in a prime position to get a Class III weapon as he has a certain "advantage" to getting a certain qualification filled easily. Once again, PM me and I can talk you though it... no need to fill up the board with the steps again. - Suppressors (the technical name for a silencer) are Class III items, just like Machine guns, destructive devices (like grenade launchers and cannons), AOW's (a special class of weapon) and Short Barrelled Rifles. They have the same rigamaroo paperwork to jump through and can be had just as easily as any other Class III weapon. - Your last question is actually the tricky one. According to the 1968 and 1986 NFA acts it is illegal for anyone who is not properly licsenced by the BATF to construct or assemble a Class III weapon. The only person legally capable of doing so is someone who holds a Class II permit to manufacture. Then the other drawback to the manufacture of new Class III weapons is that according to the 1986 addendum any weapon made, imported or converted after 1986 cannot legally be owned by a civilian. Weapons made after the cutoff date of 1986 can only be possessed by law enforcement agencies... not people mind you, the actual agency. Which means the department owns the weapon, not you. The only other exception to this is that Class II/III liscenced dealers/makers can hold the weapons in trust while awaiting their eventual sale to a law enforcement agency. That means a Class II/III dealer can have possession of the post 86 weapon but only under the condition that it is pending a transfer to a department or agency who can legally own it. And as usual if anyone has any questions or wants to know how to start the paperwork (or see if they can even qualify to start the paperwork) to get a Class III weapon just PM me and I'll help you any way I can. Just remember that if you think a normal gun permit is "too much trouble" then a BATF Form 4 will send you screaming into the woods.

The American Kalashnikov factory is basically a Saiga factory and has only two lines built to make the Saiga family of shotguns and other post-ban politically correct low capacity hunting and sporting arms. If they were smart they may have already begun building AKM clones under the Saiga name and are preparing them for sale like Colt, Bushmaster, RRA, DPMS, Hesse and all the other domestic manufacturers. I have not heard anything to corroborate that though... most of the major push in de-AWBing the country in the first month or so will be the flood of high capacity magazines into the market. Everywhere I go high caps are listed on pre-sale. Everything from 30 round Colt AR mags to new AK waffles to those kick butt clear aramid Eagle arms AR/Mini mags all the way up to the high cap pistol mags from Glock, Beretta and others. It's like one huge industry wide fire sale is starting up.

Well, when you are talking the Kalishnakov family of weapons you may not see that price drop happen so readily as it will with other American made firearms like the AR series and others. Remember that while the AWB will go away the Presidential order signed by Bush banning any and all imports of Norinco and like made products will create a severe dent in any hopes of getting new AK series weapons into the country at reasonable prices. Your only options for a fast solution would be if domestic build-up companies like Hesse being churning out weapons made from pre-ban parts kits or if Interarms or one of the other importers begin importing Russian or Romanian AK series weapons. The thing to remember is that this ban has been in place for 10 long years and "undoing" it will take more than one week. I know for a fact that many domestic arms makers took the gamble and began building pre-ban weapons months ago in anticipation of the sunset of this law so that the second it vanishes they can begin selling their pre-ban wares at post-ban prices. I have even seen some companies like Beta offering the 100 round C-Mag at unheard of prices on preorder all pending the ban sunset. As for "preban" weapons holding their price, that will go away... but it may take some time. Also remember that a good number of weapons have been out of manufacture for a decade or more thanks to the AWB. Some of the companies that made those guns also no longer exsist, so chances are we may never see some of the old pre-ban weapons remade and sold at cheaper prices. It's funny really how this law decimated the firearms industry and forced several small arms makers out of business, leaving only the massive ones to carry the cost of changing their tooling and revamping their weapons. I wonder if some of those small names will suddenly spring back to life?

I would think someone would make a semiauto collector's version at some point. After all, the SA collector's M60s got snapped up like candy... even at well over 5 grand a pop. Same with the SA collectors 1919 .30 cal machineguns... There is a very large market for "imitation" semi-auto machineguns and other such military gear with collectors. The things would be almost unusable in a crime due to their size and semi auto capacity and the price of those collector's pieces would be so high most street urchins could not afford them to use in a crime anyway... and what self respecting criminal would buy a semi auto collector's piece when most street hoods would just buy a real one anway?

Speaking of the M249 SAW... A while back I saw on the internet, then saw one in person at a gun show, someone took a post-ban Cobray M11 receiver and basically turned it into a immitation SAW! It was weird... it looked like a SAW, it was belt fed like a SAW, but it actually complied with the AWB and would have been legal for the guy who made them to churn them out. The only problem was he built like ten or twelve of them and sent most of them to the BATF for approval. The ones that came back with letters of legality somehow filtered out into private hands and for some reason the guns were never made. I'm left wondering if someone will pick up from that guy's work and make a new semi-auto collector's piece now that the ban is gone?

I was trying to stay away from this thread as Ewilen stated the obvious: There is no reason to keep it going until we get input from the admins or mods. But to me this thread has become a prime example of why politics are best left off the board. Two sides, engaged by accident almost, now seem to not let the other one walk away. The need to "get the last word" or "clear up the last issue" keeps dominating rather than cool heads. If anything this has proven Blaine's point to be correct about politics, even the mere mention or implied meaning mistaken by others spirals out of control. I think we should all step back again and let this die down. Clear out the thread until the mods or admins let us know the answer to the topic of this debate and the root of this comotion: political items in sigs. Until then I quote a bad line from a hall and oates song that is somewhat relavent here: Manic moves and drowsy dreams Or living in the middle between the two extremes Smoking guns hot to the touch Would cool down if we didn't use them so much We're soul alone And soul really matters to me Too much You're out of touch I'm out of time

I myself am not a law enforcement officer but I have many as friends, from beat cops all the way up to the higher ranking supervisors and lieutenants... and through those friends I somehow landed a part time volunteer job as one of the "instructors" at the local SLCPD ERT team training "camp" a few years back. I have been in the army (4 years, 1st armored division in a recon unit and "retired" as a sergent in 92). I hold an unofficial rank of Sergent with the SLCPD (honorary only, just because in order to be an instructor you must hold a rank of sergent or above in the PD so they made me a "paper sergent"... most of the instructors and trainers there are also not actual cops but ex special forces and ex ERT cops). Most of my knowledge and experience with small arms and engagements came from the army and my seeming addiction to police and ERT training (since getting out of the service I have trained at places like Thunder Ranch and other tactical and speical operations centers that allow public and private training). My specialty is small arms instruction and training with an emphasis on carbines, rifles and SMGs and I am an NRA certified instructior (even though the NRA and I do not see eye to eye on a lot of things). Basically since getting out of the army I have lived and breathed firearms for the last about 10 years. Knowing the right people and having the right connections gets me into places and lets me try out and see things that most people have to join the police force to see. I also have several friends in the local gun shop circut here in STL and most of them hold in their possession all manner of Class III weapons from M60's to MP5's to Styer AUGs... heck one guy even has a M2 .50 cal and a Barett sniper rifle. Chances are if the gun has been on the market for a few years I have either seen it, shot it myself or saw someone else shoot or demo it. As for your questions I have seen a few 10mm MP5s but I have not shot one. People have told me they handle like a M10/45 Ingram, quite jumpy but the delayed blow-back roller assist bolt helps take some of the edge off the recoil. As for the .40 S&W MP5 that is the current issue weapon to the SLCPD ERT teams. I have shot them in a few different configurations, my personal favorite being the solid stock with the four position trigger group. The .40 handles just like a 9mil and the extra knockdown power of the smith round gives you better stopping juice. After all, it may be an SMG but we train on single and three shot burst to limit the amount of lead flying around in a breach. As for your questions about law enforcement service, you might want to ask some of the other members of the board who are actual police officers like Gaijin and Chowser. I can only pass on to you information that other policemen have told me about their academy and school training for their jobs as I have no first hand experience. Almost all of the ERT cops that train in our camp are all ex-MP's or Special Forces troops who left the army and got college degrees in criminology. All of them are also veterain beat cops with a minimum of 3 to 5 years street duty before they could become ERT. To hear them tell it you are best off going army or marines and becomming an MP first, letting uncle sam pay for your training and college. Then when you get out that experience will almost automatically get you a nice police gig in the civilian world. But don't let the thrills and spills of ERT teams influence you, the real money and excitement in police work is becoming a detective. And most departments want a college criminology degree mandatory for you to advance to detective. As for marksmanship and training with firearms don't be in a rush to go out and shoot just to get "trigger time". Learning to shoot "right" is the most important thing. I know a lot of people who rushed out, bought a gun and tried to teach themselves how to shoot and in the process learned bad habits that took them years to break... if they did not just give up and shelve the gun out of frustration. While it does take a fair degree of natural skill to be a crack shot, I myself am living proof that practice makes perfect. I am not the world's best shooter but learning from a young age, being exposed to firearms and trained by my father (who was military himself) gave me the right start and fundimentals to move further. Plus as anyone can tell you the army sees to it you can shoot a gun decently, no matter how much you think you suck... and so will any police acacemy. Heck, I could barely keep my rounds on the target as a kid and when I left the army I held a Sharpshooter rating (not the best, but no slouch either).

The 639 and 733 Colt Commando models are nice for their size but beware the painfully loud report they have. They don't call those guns the "loud mouse" for nothing. Having personally shot several 639's and commando models without their suppressors installed I can honestly say one word: ouch. Without hearing protection you will suffer perminant hearing damage with those guns, especially inside buildings. Even with earplugs you start to get a headache after the first few rounds. And the other big "oh crap" with those shorty weapons is the amazing fireball of a muzzle flash that those short barrels generate. Shoot any gun at night and the flash will suprise you, but those tiny carbine barrels put up a meteoric fireball that looks like the sun just landed on the end of your barrel. That is the main reason why most of those super shorty carbines are chambered in 9mm these days. 9mil does not produce the deafening super sonic crack or massive fireball that the 5.56 cartridge does in a short barrel. Plus the 9mil does not suffer the massive range and power loss from being shot out of such a short barrel setup with a low rifle or the rate of fire erraticness. That tiny gas tube on such a short barrel creates what is known as "random fire" on automatic, the weapon fires at a sporadic rate is is very hard to control. Several after market vendors fixed this problem with what is known as a "pigtail" gas tube. It is a rifle length gas tube wound around the barrel under the carbine grips which allows the gas system to cycle as if it was running a full size rifle barrel and it evens out the cycling of the action on full auto. Most commando uppers intended for automatic weapons usually sport that gas setup now. Edit: forgot to add this, For CQB the best weapons on the planet are the H&K MP5 series. Nothing is more reliable or user friendly in tight quarters. I've handled a few of the different styles owned by the SLCPD and they are all the cadillacs of the SMG world. God knows if I had to walk into a tight room that might harbor someone bad I'd want one of those little guys in my mitts.

A1 all the way to the bank. It's the same gun just lighter... and some may say built better. I learned to shoot on my dad's SP1 and when I went through basic in 88 my first issue weapon was a beat to hell A2 but it had A1 triangular grips. When finally in the field I got Battalion to issue me an older CAR-15 that had A1 sights for use in the field and I have never gone back... proud owner of two A1 rifles. As for the M4, it is a nice piece of equipment but the only thing it has going for it is the capability to mount the M203, other than that it is just another shorty CAR rifle. If you want a really remarkable piece of equipment then wait a few more months when Bushmaster unviels their new hybrid carbine. Thing is going to made of zytel, aramid and aluminum and is based on the carbon 15 designs they purchased from pro-ord. They showed a teaser of the hybrid in their last catalog and from all reports I've heard it is feather light and handles like any other AR carbine.

To my understanding their laws are not that restrictive yet. The California law almost exactly mirriors the Omnibus Crime Bill except that instead of limiting the way manufacturers can make weapons the Cali law just forbids any weapons that can be classified as "assault weapons" by having any of the evil features with a detatchable magazine. The Mini-14 and it's like clone the Ranch do not posess any of the "evil" features like pistol grips, bayonet lugs or flash hiders so they are legal as far as I know. Most of my knowledge of the subject comes from an old guns magazine I have that compares the AR15 to the Mini-14 in a side by side shootout... the writer wrote the article (as he put it) for Californians who could not own the "infamous" AR15 and wanted something similair... ... although the Mini-14 is about as similair to the AR series as a rambler wagon is to the mustang. Just because they run the same gas does not make them "alike".

The sad thing is to almost all Californians the Mini-14 is as close to an AR they can get... the Omnibus Crime Bill may be sunsetting but the Kalifornia law it was based on (or vice versa) is not. Poor Kalifornians... perhaps Arnold can do something about that for you guys.

Sigh... I don't know which part of this story upsets me more, the animal cruelty or that it is another case of morons owning firearms. I swear, screw the waiting periods, make people take an IQ and morality test before you hand them the gun.

This is quite funny but I just did some quick internet poking at my usual firearm board stomping grounds and for all intensive purposes the Omnibus Crime Bill is pretty much a thing of the past. Even several news sites are reporting that congress has in effect "given up" on getting it renewed... so unless some massive filibuster or strange quirk of logic occurs in the next day or two the law will sunset and go into history as just another chapter in the world of attempted arms control. For those asking about prices from what I can see the only "hit" the gun market is going to take is on all the inflated prices on "pre-ban" weapons. Now rather than being the only way to have the "evil features" they will just become "old guns". Who wants to buy a 15 year old weapon when they can buy a better quality new one made using modern materials and techniques that has all the same "features"? As for "rushing out and buying" something the only thing on my list is to get the "pre-ban" kit for my SP-10, which special weapons started taking preorders on a month or so back. Edit: another thing to watch is if places like eBay remove their own self-imposed "assault weapon" bans along with the real law... they should as now the things once known as assault weapons become just normal guns again and technically their parts are just like any other gun part sold on eBay. If eBay keeps their little political move going then we'll know for sure the colors they fly.

Actually this is quite funny but the guys in my platoon loved me and my artistic abilities. You quickly become everyone's favorite Corporal when you can draw whatever they wanted on the inside of their LBE vests, on their gear, etc. I remember "my work" got so infamous at one point that battalion sent out a notice to all units that "display of artwork or drawing on your gear is technically defacing it and will be punished". Despite that I spent a whole week painting a shark mouth and eyes on the front of one of the tanks just because a major wanted it. In the military if you can A) tell jokes, B) draw things for your friends or C) buy beers or snacks for your friends you are instant gold.

As for the AWB I know of several retailers and manufacturers who have already started building unstamped pre-ban capacity magazines and pre-ban configuration weapons... several even started taking CC numbers to reserve said items so as soon as the ban walks away the sale of the items will begin. As for the "legal issue" with the ban sunsetting, technically the second after the ban expires any and all things covered by the ban are no longer enforceable so people right and left will be "pre-banning" all their weapons... even though there is no real effective gain in doing so. This "Omnibus Crime Bill" as it is supposed to be called was a very stupid thing to begin with... outlawing weapons based on their looks rather than their lethality was just plain knee-jerk and very "appease the people" sort of move. I myself have never really had an issue with the ban outside of the fact that it technically banned nothing (as all the weapons reappeared weeks later under different names and in new post-ban "politically correct" configurations. I still think a last minute rally in congress with renew it and I also believe that if it does sunset that it will be replaced shortly with an actual bill that really does outlaw the weapons they sort of half-assedly tried to outlaw. I'd like to think that they would have learned from this bill that "banning" weapons is like telling a child they cannot have a piece of cake... it just makes people want them more and the demand actually goes up for those items. Plus if they look at the numbers "assault" weapons barely account for 1% of all homicides in the US (if that, with handguns dominating the numbers at well over 50%). Then again with the election coming up soon I think no politician wants to be known as the one who renewed the ban this soon. The gun people can really get out the vote when they feel "wronged".