The AR-15 Is More Than A Gun. It’s A Gadget
” In the past two decades, the AR-15 has evolved into an open, modular gun platform that’s infinitely hackable and accessorizable. With only a few simple tools and no gunsmithing expertise, an AR-15 can be heavily modified, or even assembled from scratch, from widely available parts to suit the fancy and fantasy of each individual user. In this respect, the AR-15 is the world’s first “maker” gun, and this is why its appeal extends well beyond the military enthusiasts that many anti-gun types presume make up its core demographic.”
” This is the gun-as-gadget, a relatively new consumer phenomenon born from the unholy union of the post-9/11 national security state and America’s decades-old obsession with hackable, high-performance hardware. From muscle cars to motorbikes to ultra-high-wattage stereo systems, Americans love to take their toys way over the top, and for all its deadliness and terrifying power, the AR-15 is a terrifically fun toy. “‘
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Category: Weaponry
Colt Intros The Mustang XSP Pocket Pistol

” Colt’s Manufacturing Company LLC, one of the world’s leading designers, developers and manufacturers of firearms, is proud to introduce the newest member of the Colt Mustang family, the polymer framed Mustang XSP.
Like its predecessors, the classic Colt Mustang and Mustang Pocketlite, the XSP is sure to become a popular option for concealed carry.
While some basic features of the Mustang Pocketlite, such as size, magazine and slide, continue in the Mustang XSP, numerous changes to the new model reflect customer sentiment. This includes upgrading the front sight on the XSP to a dovetailed design that is more visible to the user. The slide serrations on the XSP have been enhanced to offer an improved grip when working the slide. The XSP also features ambidextrous safeties, rather than the typical single sided safety. Two additional changes are an integral 3/8” accessory rail below the dust cover, and a squared off trigger guard that will allow for easy mounting of lasers and lights to enhance personal protection capabilities.”
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Happy Birthday Carlos Hathcock

The Story of Legendary Sniper Carlos Hathcock
” When retired Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant Carlos Hathcock II died at the age of 57 on Feb. 26, 1999, his legend had long since chiseled its way into the pantheon of Marine Corps history.
He’d served almost 20 years in the Corps, including two tours as a sniper during the Vietnam War. A killer more deadly and silent than Hathcock finally had him in the cross hairs and pulled the trigger, ending his extraordinary life.
The medical term for that stealthy, relentless force is multiple sclerosis, a slow, progressive terminal malady that attacks the central nervous system. MS can cause paralysis, spasms and the loss of coordination and muscle control.

Then Cpl. Carlos Hathcock (far left) being awarded the 1965 Wimbledon Cup.
This trophy is given to the winner of the 1000 yard shooting match.
Carlos Hathcock (1942 – 1999)
” was a US Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant who served as a sniper in the Vietnam War. With 93 confirmed kills, he was the 4th most effective sniper in American history, trailing behind Adelbert F Waldron (109), Charles Mawhinney (103), and Eric R England (98). His exploits, both as a courageous soldier and a sniper, made him a legend in the Marine Corps. Hathcock became a major developer of the United States Marine Corps Sniper training program. Not only was Carlos extremely lethal as a sniper, but he was also a brave marine; he was awarded the Silver Star for his act in 1969 of saving the lives of seven fellow Marines after the amphibious tractor on which they were riding struck a mine. Hathcock was knocked unconscious, but awoke in time to race back through the flames to save his comrades.
Carlos Hathcock was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, on May 20, 1942. Since his parents had separated, he lived with his grandmother in the country where he grew up. At a young age, Carlos learned to use a rifle, which his father had brought from Europe after World War II. Then, he would hunt wild animals to help feed his poor family.
In 1959, at the age of 17, Carlos Hathcock joined the Marine Corps. Before being shipped to Vietnam, he showed his natural skills as a marksman on the rifle range at Camp Pendleton where he was undergoing recruit training, winning the Pacific Division rifle championship while he was deployed in Hawaii as a member of Company E, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines. In 1966, he was sent to Vietnam and became a sniper after Captain Edward J. Land Jr. had pushed the Marines into raising snipers in every platoon.” “
Interview Parts 1-3

More Videos
Further Reading
Bob Tuley - Carlos Hathcock Sniper Biography
Carlos Norman “Gunny” Hathcock II (1942–1999) – Encyclopedia …
Carlos Hathcock - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Carlos Hathcock Biography | WordExplorer.com
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Is Tracking Point’s Precision Guided Firearm the Future…
Published on Jan 22, 2013
” This new shooting system takes fighter jet technology and applies it to long-range shooting. Here’s how it works. First the shooter tags his target. Then the scope takes a ballistic formula accounting for distance, wind, elevation, temperature and a wide variety of other factors and tracks the target. The system only allows the shooter to fire when the reticle (or in this case an ‘x’) is in proper position to hit the target.”
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Glock 30S Compact 45 ACP Semi-Automatic Pistol
” The latest variation of the Glock design is featured here: the 30S. To create the 30S, what Glock did was take their Model 30SF (Short Frame) and put a Model 36 slide on top. This is an oversimplification, but that is pretty much the result. The slide measures only one inch in thickness, which is about one-eighth of an inch thinner (.12 inch to be exact) than the slide on the Models 21 and 30. This does not seem like a lot, but on a carry gun, it makes a big difference. The 30S is also quite a bit lighter in weight than the Model 30, by over three ounces. Making the 30S resulted in a compact 45 ACP double-stack (like the Model 30) with a slide that is no wider than a Model 19, 23, or 36, and is much better for a concealed-carry gun than are the Models 30, 30SF, and 30 Gen4 pistols.
In addition, I am glad that Glock used the SF style of frame, as it fits my hand much better, even though I wear an extra-large size glove. I really like the feel of this Model 30S pistol. It holds ten rounds in the magazine, for a total loaded capacity of eleven, in a package that is very close to the size of a Model 19 9mm. I like it. The magazines supplied with this 30S are the extended style, which gives purchase to the little finger, instead of leaving it hanging off the bottom. The 30S can also use Model 30 and Model 21 magazines. The 30S uses a captured multi-spring system, similar to the spring setup on the Gen4 pistols. The barrel is slightly slimmer than the Model 30 barrel, and the two will not interchange.”
Lots More At The Link
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3D Printing Is Way Scarier Than Plastic Guns
” Ever the publicity hound, Sen. Chuck Schumer, who obviously has no idea what additive manufacturing actually is, came out big and strong against “stomach-churning” 3D printed plastic guns last week.
This naive, sensationalist rant so misunderstands the issue, I almost don’t know where to start. He goes on to inform the public that because these guns are made of plastic, they are undetectable, so he must introduce legislation that will make it illegal to possess an undetectable or an untraceable weapon. This is like putting a “Band-Aid on a heart attack.” Sen. Schumer simply doesn’t understand what he is dealing with. In fact, most of us don’t.
Now that you know what a 3D printer is, you must also understand that 3D printers are not limited to printing in plastic. There are 3D printers that print in wood (a mixture of wood particles and binding agent that dries as wood) ceramic, carbon fiber, bronze, iron, steel, cellulose, human tissue (certain body parts for human transplant are grown using 3D printed frameworks) … there are limitations to the range of additive manufacturing materials, but the technology is evolving rapidly.
As for guns … CAD/CAM files (the computer files that 3D printers transform into physical objects one layer at a time) for the .45 caliber M1911 or the 1911A-1 single-action, semi-automatic pistol have been online for years. In fact, you can find all kinds of CAD/CAMs for all kinds of gun parts, bomb parts, bazooka parts, rocket launcher parts and other deadly weapons online. These are computer files, like songs or movies or documents or images, they cannot be protected or digitally rights managed (DRM) any better than the entertainment industry has done with its intellectual property. A file is a file is a file, if someone wants to copy it – it will be copied. You can’t tell what the file contains unless you open it and, most importantly, there is no way to ban or prohibit the transfer of files. In this case, the genie is out of the bottle, you can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube, the ship has sailed – the files are out there.
Plastic guns? Seriously. How about guns printed in steel, guns printed in carbon fiber, guns printed in, you name it – there’s a 3D printer that can print in the medium. In a world of 3D printers, there is no such thing as gun control – people who are so inclined will print all the guns and ammo they need – untraceable, no serial numbers, no markings about point of origin, no trade marks, nothing! “
HT/Instapundit
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Related articles
- 100,000 People Have Already Downloaded 3D-Printed Gun Plans. So What? (gizmodo.com)
- 3D Printing is Way Scarier Than Plastic Guns (righttruth.typepad.com)
- US Senator Calls For Regulation of 3D Printers (zeropaid.com)
- Working gun can be made by anyone using a 3D printer (independent.co.uk)
- guardian tecnologia: 3D-printed guns: State Department orders firm to remove blueprints from web (guardian.co.uk)
- Shots fired from world’s first 3D-printed handgun (guardian.co.uk)
- Pirate3D Buccaneer to Offer 3D Printing on the Cheap (technabob.com)
- The 3D printing revolution (abc.net.au)
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SIG-MPX Introduction Video Version 2
” Introducing the SIG MPX, a machine pistol that redefines the category.
This video contains updated information on the SIG MPX Carbine version. It shows how to convert it to fully suppressed model with the optional MPX Silencer kit. Place the tube over the muzzle brake and install the nut to convert to a suppressor.
This new version also show the LE carry bag and the discreet deployment bag that are available options to carry the SIG MPX.
See our website for more information… Http://www.sigsauer.com/mpx“
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Lijian Stealth Drone Prepares For Test Flight

” A newly designed Chinese stealth drone is ready for its first flight test after completing its taxi test last December at an unknown airfield in the southeastern province of Jiangxi, reports Duowei News, an outlet operated by overseas Chinese.
The prototype means China is ahead of several nations in the development of stealth drones, including Britain. Russia, India, Sweden, Italy, Iran and Israel, which also have their own stealth unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) programs.”
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Ban On Displaying Guns At City Museums Should Be Lifted, Ald. Burke Says
“ The city’s most powerful alderman — Edward Burke (14th) — introduced an ordinance at Wednesday’s City Council meeting that would allow Chicago museums to display unloaded firearms for historical purposes.
Currently, city museums are prohibited from lawfully displaying firearms of historic value, according to the city’s long-standing gun ordinance.
Burke said Wednesday he recently learned of the “anomaly in the city code.”
“Museums are caught in a dilemma that if they have in their collections artifacts that can be defined as firearms, even though there’s historical significance to the memento, they can’t be registered in the city and can’t be displayed,” Burke said.
Burke cited the example of Major General William P. Levine, one of the very first American soldiers to liberate the Dachau concentration camp during World War II.”
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Chinese Girl Soldier Throws Grenade Like A Girl, Almost Gets Blown Away

” As the “Sandlot” character great American Ham Porter once hollered across the green fields of Los Angeles, this Chinese trooper throws grenades “like a girl.” “
” Fortunately for this less-than-athletic Chinese woman, another soldier was on hand to toss her ass before it became grass.”
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Gutenberg’s Rifle: The Downloadable Firearm Is Almost Real

See video of the Wiki Weapon firing here .
” It’s an oppressive spring afternoon in Austin, Texas. Low clouds threaten to unleash a gullywasher. After a couple of emails and phone calls I’m at an apartment complex off to the west of the University of Texas campus. A pair of young men pull up and pop the lid on the trunk of their car. One pulls a flat metal case from the trunk and I jokingly ask, “Is that a gun or a guitar?”
The lead man could blend in with the musicians and hipsters all over Austin who recently dominated the city during SXSW, but he isn’t one and what he has in the case is an instrument, but it’s not musical.
The man with the strange rifle is Cody Wilson, 25, the co-director of Defense Distributed. That’s the group that in the past year has gone from not even existing to being on the verge of changing everything.
Or nothing. The fact is, neither Wilson nor anyone else knows what effect realizing his idea will have. But we’re very close to finding out.
Defense Distributed is about to create the world’s first fully functional, fully printed gun. The wikiweapon will be real.
We go into his apartment and he shows me around. It’s a typical male college student’s place — he’s a law student at UT — a bit messy and unkempt. Up in his bedroom he has a huge American flag on one wall and the famous “Come and Take It” flag opposite. It’s a replica of the flag that flew at Gonzales, Texas, on October 2, 1835 when Texians dared the Mexican army to retrieve a cannon.”
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Related articles
- That 3D-Printed Handgun You’ve Been Waiting For Is Here (reason.com)
- Cody Wilson: 3D-printable guns are just the start, 3D-printable guns are just the start, says Cody Wilson (guardian.co.uk)
- Bitcoin helps fund world’s first 3D-printed gun, now test fired and available for download (21stcenturywire.com)
- Re: Cody Wilson set to release world’s first printable 3D gun (forum.prisonplanet.com)
- Highly criticized 3D printable gun test fired successfully in Austin on Saturday (thescoopblog.dallasnews.com)
- First 3D-Printed Gun Fired (foxnews.com)
- The first 3D printed gun is here – and politicians really want to outlaw it (venturebeat.com)
- 3D Printed Guns (Documentary) (disclose.tv)
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The M16 (Assault Rifle) – Modern Marvels – History Channel Documentary
” The M16 rifle, officially designated Rifle, Caliber 5.56 mm, M16, is the United States military version of the AR-15 rifle. The rifle was adapted for semi-automatic, three-round burst, and full-automatic fire. Colt purchased the rights to the AR-15 from ArmaLite, and currently uses that designation only for semi-automatic versions of the rifle. The M16 fires the 5.56×45mm NATO cartridge. The rifle entered United States Army service and was deployed for jungle warfare operations in South Vietnam in 1963, becoming the U.S. military’s standard service rifle of the Vietnam War by 1969, replacing the M14 rifle in that role. The U.S. Army retained the M14 in CONUS, Europe, and South Korea until 1970. Since the Vietnam War, the M16 rifle family has been the primary service rifle of the U.S. armed forces.
The M16 has also been widely adopted by other militaries around the world. Total worldwide production of M16s has been approximately 8 million, making it the most-produced firearm of its caliber. In 2010, the M16 began to be phased out in the U.S. Army and is being supplemented by the M4 carbine, which is itself a shortened derivative of the M16A2.
The history of the m16 that held the 5.56mmx45mm round. Talks about the development of the firearm through the vietnam era to modern day.”
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Russian Bombers Buzz U.S. Territory — Again

” Russian strategic bombers conducted flights near the U.S. defense zone close to northern Alaska and the Aleutian Islands last week, Moscow’s latest incident of nuclear saber-rattling against the United States, according to defense and military officials.
Two Bear H nuclear-capable bombers were detected flying into the military’s Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone near the Aleutians, where a strategic-missile-defense radar is located, and along Alaska’s North Slope by the Arctic and Chukchi seas on April 28 and 29, military officials told the Washington Free Beacon.
Lt. Cmdr. Bill Lewis, a spokesman with the U.S. Northern Command, confirmed a U.S. fighter intercept of the bombers but declined to provide details.
“Two U.S. F-22’s from Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, were launched and visually identified Russian aircraft on the night of April 28, as the Russian air force flew standard out-of-area flights near Alaska,” Lt. Cmdr. Lewis said. The bombers did not enter U.S. airspace, he said.
What ever happened to that new beginning in our relations with the Russians and all of that talk of “Smart Diplomacy” ?
” It was the fifth incident of Russian strategic bombers flying against the United States since June, when bombers were intercepted near Alaska during a large-scale strategic nuclear exercise that Russian military officials said involved practice strikes against U.S. missile defense sites in Alaska.
Less than a month later, on July 4, two more Bears flew the closest to the Northern California coast that Russian aircraft have flown since the days of the Cold War.
Then in February, two Bears circled Guam, a U.S. territory and key military hub in the Pacific. Additionally, Backfire strategic bombers flew simulated strikes against U.S. missile defenses and bases in Japan last month.”
Putin must have forgotten Obama’s promise to have more “leeway” after the election .
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NRA Convention: Armed Citizen Project Gives Guns To The Less Fortunate
” Guns.com is at the NRA convention in Houston, Texas, this weekend and we ran into the Armed Citizen Project, a group that seeks to provide means of self defense for residents in high risk neighborhoods, one shotgun at a time. Check out their project at armedcitizenproject.com.”
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Another 5 Handguns You Have To Shoot Before You Die (VIDEOS)
” Ever since the first single shot pistol was crafted centuries ago, people have just dug handguns. In the intervening half millennium, thousands of designs have come forth and a few have risen above all others. Last year Guns.com brought you eight to shoot before you die. Here are five more that just have to pass through your hands before you head to that great gun show in the sky.”
1. Remington New Army
Remington 1858.
” The world that was the antebellum period in United States was one of rapid industrial expansion and in the 1850s firearms makers were stumbling all over themselves to produce the next great gun to roll off the line. One such gunmaker was Fordyce Beals. After studying the factory process for S&W and Colt revolvers, he came up with a design that was significantly improved in function and production. His design, patented and licensed to Remington in 1858, used a solid frame design that included a top strap that went over the cylinder. This was stronger, more durable, allowed the user to swap cylinders out easily and added a layer of safety to the user if the cap and ball revolver chain fired.”
See the rest here …
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WSJ: U.S. Beefs Up Super Bomb To Wipe Out Iran Nuke Site

” The Pentagon has beefed up its biggest “bunker buster” bomb so it can destroy Iran’s most heavily armed and protected nuclear site, U.S. officials said.
The administration believes the enhanced Massive Ordnance Penetrator, the Pentagon’s largest conventional bomb, will decrease the chances Israel will launch a unilateral bombing campaign against Iran, at least for this year and maybe next year too, the officials told The Wall Street Journal.”
” The upgraded MOP, a precision-guided, 30,000-pound behemoth, is designed to destroy Iran’s deep-underground Fordo uranium-enrichment plant south of Tehran, near the holy city of Qom. “
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Richardson’s Philippine Guerrilla Gun: A Gun To Get A Gun
” Americans have long been a fan of shotguns, pumps, semi-autos, over and unders, you name it, we love em. One red-blooded American even ran into an interesting one while doing a little Wolverines-style combat in the Philippines and thought it would catch on back home once the smoke cleared. His name was Richardson, and his idea is best known as the Philippine Guerrilla Gun.
Who was Richardson?
Iliff D. “Rich” Richardson was born the son of a Methodist minister in 1918. He learned basic survival skills as part of Boy Scout Troop 92 in Los Angeles, and attended Compton Junior College in the 1930s before joining the Navy in 1940. Stationed in the Philippines when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Rich was assigned to PT-34, an ‘expendable’ 77-foot plywood motor torpedo boat. After the craft was sunk in April 1942 by Japanese aircraft, Rich and the remaining crew went ashore and fought first with the US Army then later with Philippine guerrillas once the main US force at Corregidor surrendered.”
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