Rosemary's Baby - Declared Gun Owners In Parliament:

 Rosemary McLeod has an opinion: "It worries me that we now have declared gun owners in Parliament"

She admits that she is ignorant about firearms .. as she has only ever touched ONE in her life - a murder weapon.

This writer of fiction - who's main claim to fame is that she dreamed-up and penned the crap TV series GLOSS thinks that guns are responsible for violence and are evil things to be banned.

 I'd be confident that Rosemary has never read the 1983 Firearms Act or the added latest 200 pages of amendments that she says are good for her peace of mind.

I doubt that she knows that decades of 'registration' was ended at the request of NZ Police because they had so neglected their records as to make it "largely useless".

I doubt that she knows or cares that some 12,000 poorly trained UNLICENCED police are regularly issued with prohibited MSSAs and Glock semi-auto pistols.

- Rosemary's glossy but stupid opinion gets published and she is paid by the word count .. 

Link:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/123172884/it-worries-me-that-we-now-have-declared-gun-owners-in-parliament

Marty K.

Nightstand Percussion Pepperbox Revolvers:

The development of 'Percussion Caps' in the 1820's led rapidly to the popularity of a multi-shot type of muzzle loading handgun that was widely made & used for perhaps some 50 years .. this style of self defence "pocket gun" became so popular as to even have it's own  U S  title of 'THE GUN THAT WON THE EAST.'  .. The "Glock" of it's day?

200 years ago - Pepperboxes managed to pack multiple shots - mostly 5 or 6 - into a short Derringer sized weapon. 

The Deringers were usually only single-shot .. but they were quite powerful big bore units whereas the pepper-boxes generally were smaller bores.

 - What killed the pepperbox's onward march - was the fact that the percussion caps they used also quickly made possible the self-contained metallic cartridge - as with William Mason's Model 1873 Single Action Army "Peacemaker" sold by Colts.

Anyway - from around 1830 to the 1860's PEPPERBOX'S worked well for close range self-defence all around the world.

They were muzzle heavy and not at all suited to extended range hunting or target shooting - those guns using a double- action Bar Hammer had little means of aiming other than point'n'shoot ..

Most pepperbox pistols were smooth-bores .. which is fine for general usage ,, bear in mind that the old muskets were reasonably (but variably) accurate out to 100 yards. - I'd suggest that modern calibre revolvers and pistols would function perfectly well as smooth bores at common pistol ranges out to 50 plus yards -  if it were not for U S ATF (BATF & E) regulations that limit ownership of smooth-bore Class 3 cartridge pistols.

 

I'd bet some US Citizens Would Quite Like a 24 or 18 Barrelled 'MARIETTE' Pepperbox to keep loaded on their Night-Stand

.. Given the rules it's easier just to rifle modern cartridge pistol's bores. - and there aren’t any U S Federal controls on the ownership or possession of antique or replica muzzle loading black powder guns because they aren’t legally considered firearms as per 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(3):

Marty K.

Glock G44 'Down-Under' Part II:

Tupperware Goes Rimfire: - Isn't that an awful headline?

Glock G44 Proof Marks.
 

I got my mate "J" to drag-out various cameras and try to detail photograph the G44 - as I have not previously seen any close-up image of it's proclaimed FLUTED CHAMBER .. I was imagining machine broached straight-line grooves running fore & aft that might leave a ribbed impression on the fired brass - Wrong. ...

Something Ribbed For The Weekend Sir?

"Fluting" Shadows The Rifling:

The Austrian G44 Chamber proved hard to image - but it seems to be impressed with a rounded polygonal spiral form .. It looks as if it may have been formed in the same way that the barrel's (rotary hammer forged) GMB (Glock Marksman Barrel) rifling is made.

(There is discussion as to WHY the polygonal rifling was changed to the GMB "Marksman" profile. - It is suggested that the original purpose was to improve 'ballistic identity' of fired bullets & any improved accuracy is a secondary effect.)

I have no complaint about how any Glock shoots or their trigger feel when working - they have all ** shot better than I can ..

** - excepting a very early prototype trial batch G20 10 mm auto that was promptly destroyed-redesigned-replaced.

The new G44 certainly is lighter in the hand than the same sized 9x19mm G19 - you'd have no problem distinguishing the two in the dark - however you won't need to weight down yours with a block of concrete against kiwi Nor-West winds when you rest it .. it's not THAT light ..

However - I also reckon that the two-stage recoil spring is fairly powerful .. certainly not particularly "EZ".

- While in Christchurch at GUN City I bought a 1,000 rounds of Mexican Aguila 40 grain solid point to try through the G44 .. The price was good at about half the cost of U S made ammo - and if they don't sing a tune in the Glock I can spin them out through my Ruger SP 101 revolver.

I have field stripped, cleaned & lubricated the G44 while having a real good look at it .. including the use of a magnet and a powerful magnifying lens to check a mould line below the extractor-ejection port .. The inside of the barrel seemed to have a dirty greasy coating - perhaps factory applied after 'Proof firing'. 

- Several passes with a small patch soaked in Hoppes No.9 later produced a mirror finish bore.

Mould Lines From Injection Moulding Tooling

What a 'Cracker' - SUPERB Tool-making:

I'm guessing that Glock's hybrid slide will be as durable & serviceable as their frames are proving to be .. but as with any other costly manufactured item - I will not leave it laying around exposed to our harsh New Zealand sun or frosts.

Quite a few writers have commented about the rectangular steel insert showing through the slide before the adjustable rear-sight .. Hmm, well MY strong magnet says that rectangular surface feature is not steel but the same polymer as the face. - Just saying.

Now ... IF you are an interested owner of Glock's finest technology and possess an IQ - you may have seen mention of "tactical" 'trigger enhancement kits' or 'upgrade kits' or even the "25 cent Trigger Job" and perhaps have viewed some of the youtube offerings from the bullshit capital of the world .. where there does seem to be an urgent need to enhance, colour, stipple & customize everything you own. - Well I'd like to make a personal statement: 

There is nothing wrong with Glock original equipment or quality control .. THAT is why you bought it in the first place. - This is the most numerous single handgun make used by LAW ENFORCEMENT and MILITARY FORCES in the world. - It is also widely copied by other manufacturers.

Having bought your Glock - the most important issue you need to address is your SAFE GUN HANDLING - CONTROL and thorough PRACTICE following TRAINING.

.. If you really want to strip, fondle and get to know your new companion better - that's fine. If you are careful only to clean & polish parts without removing material you won't do much harm (- but you won't do much good either). 

- You surely don't believe that Glock's engineers somehow selected the wrong strength springs or unsuitable mechanical interfaces?

It is estimated that some 10 Million or more  Glocks of various calibres have been made & sold since 1982.

If you do feel the need to fiddle with your internals - this linked story is well advised:

https://www.shootingillustrated.com/articles/2020/5/3/how-to-do-a-glock-trigger-job/

Link to an "insider" story comparing U S v Austria build Glocks :

http://smallarmssolutions.com/home/glock-austria-vs-glock-usa-made-pistols

Marty K.

Glock G44 Part I - The U S UNDETECTABLE FIREARMS ACT - & Where Is It Made?

 

The recently released Glock G44 .22" rim-fire pistol has a part-polymer slide riding on top of a mainly polymer frame.

The polymer or plastic used - is I think a Nylon 6 injection moulded thermoplastic .. maybe.

The gun writing experts are saying that the polymer slide is designed with it's lower and internal parts built from steel to ensure hard steel sliding on hard steel. - This is unquestionably correct but there is another factor that I have not seen in any review .. U S LAW requires that any firearms contain a minimum of 3.7 ounces of STEEL. They would not like a Plastic Phantastic.

The United States Undetectable Firearms Act of 1988 (18 U.S.C. § 922(p)) makes it illegal to manufacture, import, sell, ship, deliver, possess, transfer, or receive any firearm that is not as detectable by walk-through metal detection as a security exemplar containing 3.7 oz (105 g) of steel, or any firearm with major components that do not generate an accurate image before standard airport imaging technology.

- This was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on November 10, 1988.

- The Glock website specifies that the G44 pistol weighs (no magazine) 358 g | 12.63 oz

- Weight with empty magazine:  415 g | 14.64 oz

The "experts" say that the G44 is made in the Smyrna, Georgia Glock plant and I'd be pretty confident that management there have an accurate set of scales in the QC Dept. - If the G44 had an all polymer slide it might well not meet the minimum steel mass exemplar.

- There is another set of U S ATF regulations that allocates "points" to various features of handgun design - 925(d)(3), BATF`  - and those scores dictate that an Austrian G44 striker-fired hammer-less small calibre pistol fails to rate high enough to be lawfully imported into USA.

- see my earlier piece linked here ..

https://flicense.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-first-generation-terrorist-glock-17.html

Now - for an obvious good reason I'm not about to burn-off the slide's polymer to weigh it's steel insert .. that would be a very silly way to destroy an expensive  $1,200 plus in NZ gun - and for some reason these new 'two-twos' have been very late arriving down-under in New Zealand - despite the NZ Police HQ apparently having type approved a sample months ago.

 - Having read more than a few Made in U S A reviews of the G44 .. I was surprised here in NZ to see that my new G44 is proudly labelled with 'MADE IN AUSTRIA' signage and European Proof Marks CIP over N plus an Austrian Eagle mark .. CIP for Commission internationale permanente pour l'épreuve des armes à feu portatives ("Permanent International Commission for the Proof of Small Arms".

I really like the look of that Glock bevelled "pig snout" plus the largest beaver-tail back-strap seems to fit my long boned hands .. I've found over the years that my hand's shape & size makes it difficult to properly squeeze a grip safety fitted to the rear of pistol grips - such as in a '1911". - when I have a tight grip with proper trigger contact .. the web of my hand does not fully contact or depress a grip safety.

- I'm very much looking forward to testing my new Austrian Glock G44 on range

 .. see Part II.

Marty K.

New Police PROHIBITION & BUY-BACK:

I have received the below e-mail that is presumably meant to communicate information?

On my third reading of it I think it is telling me that NZ Police are classifying & prohibiting a non-firearm as a prohibited firearm? - and that they intend to telephone me requesting I tell the unidentifiable telephone caller details of my endorsed firearms and where I keep them. .. I had thought that the whole point about firearms registration was that it means that the police know exactly what is owned and where it is from the register?

The hi-lited paragraph states that gun owners supported NZ police prohibitions & confiscations last year. This is incorrect - however as law abiding citizens - we COMPLIED. 

This same paragraph states that the buy back was a success .. in what way was it successful - who composes such garbage for promotion by a Government law enforcement agency?

_________________________

Dear Firearms Licence holder

We are emailing you as our records show that you hold a pistol endorsement, and the Government has made changes which may impact on pistol users as some semi-automatic pistols are now prohibited (those greater than 400mm and under 762mm).

These further changes to the Arms Act mean Police is in the process of planning for a new Amnesty and Buy-back.

The support Police received from the firearms community last year was an integral part of the success of the previous Amnesty and Buy-back. So we want to work in partnership with you again.

As part of our planning process for the new Buy-back, we want to establish the volume and location of the newly prohibited semi-automatic pistols and pistol carbine conversion kits that are intended to be handed back for compensation across the country. This is so we can determine the most appropriate and efficient method/s of collection for these items.

To help us do this, we will be calling you in the near future to ask you questions such as:

Do you have a newly prohibited item or pistol carbine conversion kit?

If yes, how many items do you have of each?

Of these items, how many will you seek either compensation, endorsement and/or permit/s for?

In what geographical area are these stored? I:e Town or City

Your communications with us will help directly inform how we manage the collection of firearms in this next buy-back, and also allow us to plan for resourcing our endorsement administration team.

To help you in identifying what may be a newly prohibited item, please view the video on this page and the information below.

A small group of additional firearms are now prohibited. This includes:

·         Semi-automatic pistols (semi-automatic firearms less that 762mm in overall length) that are not “small” semi-automatic pistols.

o   A “small semi-automatic pistol” is a semi-automatic pistol that:

·         Has an overall length of 400 millimetres or less, excluding any silencer, pistol carbine conversion kit, or other muzzle-fitting attachment; and

·         Has a barrel length of 101 millimetres or more; and

·         Is capable of firing specified ammunition (ammunition used on pistol shooting ranges approved by the Commissioner) only at a muzzle velocity of 1,600 feet per second or less; and

·         Is suitable for shooting on a certified pistol range.

(To summarise the description above, in general terms, if the semi-automatic firearm is shorter than 762mm but has an overall length greater than 400mm, (Note: folding and telescopic stocks are measured in their collapsed state), and not currently held on a Prohibited and/or Collector’s Endorsement - Then it is a newly prohibited firearm.) 

Outside of pistols some other firearms are also now prohibited. These are:

·         Centrefire pump-action rifles with a detachable magazine.

o   Note: 0.22 rimfire semi-automatics with magazines of 10 rounds or less remain for the most part out from the definition of prohibited firearm. However, if the firearm has a lower receiver capable of being attached to a centrefire upper receiver resulting in a functioning centrefire firearm, it is prohibited.  

There are also new requirements for lawful possession of a pistol carbine conversion kit (which converts a pistol into a shoulder-fired firearm). This includes kits that are also capable of being used as an air pistol carbine conversion kit. The requirements are:·         In addition to a firearms licence, to possess a pistol carbine conversion kit you also need to have:

o   An endorsement which enables you to lawfully possess a pistol; and

o   Either a permit to import a pistol or a permit to possess a pistol; and

o   Either a permit to import a pistol carbine conversion kit or a permit to possess a pistol carbine conversion kit.

Once we have considered all the information we gather from you and your fellow firearms users, we will plan and finalise our operations.

We look forward to talking to you soon. A member from our National Customer Support Team will call you over the next month.

Kind regards,

 

 

Inspector David Burmeister

Operations Manager – Amnesty & Buyback

Firearms Response Programme

Police National Headquarters

 

E  Support.NCST@police.govt.nz

 

Marty K.

Spring-Guns, Man Traps & Slaves:

 When in the year 1086 William The Conqueror ordered his Great Survey of England and Wales .. The Domesday Book - his tax inspectors concluded that some 10% of the English population were SLAVES. - Not that remarkable really - as even now it is generally usual for the rich & powerful to treat the lower orders as a resource of lesser beings that might be treated ... as stock?

I once knew an old outback man in Australia who's father had cleared the property with bullock teams (Ox) and fire .. when I asked what they did with the oxen that got too old to work - he smiled and answered "Well - put it this way - You don't fall in love with them". - Local Aboriginies were treated as wild predators of stock when their numbers rose ... I was shown cave paintings and bullet holes in the rock walls of a cliff shelter.

Only in 1827 were Spring-Guns and man-traps made illegal in England - up till then poachers, burglars, grave robbers and body snatchers needed a bright moonlight night to avoid a full charge of buckshot from a cemetery piece tripped by a web of wires ..

- Just an OSH hazard of the job

- A mere six years later in 1833 the British Parliament paid 20 Million Pounds Compensation to 3,000 slave-owning families for loss of their property when Slavery was abolished there. - If you are wondering how much that might be today ... the Government borrowed the equivalent of  16.2 billion Pounds that took the British tax-payers 182 years to pay back - making the final instalment just five years ago in 2015.

.. Of course the freed slaves received NO COMPENSATION.

English Man-Trap

The British National Trust now looks after many English Stately Home properties & says that around a third of their properties were built by slaving profiteers ..

In U S - where the Wall Street Stock Market was founded as a SLAVE MARKET ... the 13th Amendment to the Constitution abolishing trade in slaves dates from the later time of 1865.

- A modern 'Cemetery Gun'.

Marty K.

The Sky IS Falling:

In the original folk story - Henny Penny and her friends end up all being eaten by the fox - Despite their being aware that things are not what they should be ...

President Trump is in hospital being treated for a virus that he says doesn't exist ..

that's a Hospital funded by Taxes that he avoids paying ..

Britain has left Europe ..

This years London Marathon is being run VIRTUALLY  except for 20 special 'ELITE' entrants with cardboard spectators ..

The New Zealand Government & Police have introduced 200 Pages of new firearms laws to punish an Australian Racist MURDERER BRENTON TARRANT - who they licensed to kill ..

and New Zealand gun owners and shooters are still arguing about which political hopefuls they'll vote for ..

"I'm not a Doctor ... But I'll be back soon to continue making America great again - we're doing a great job. - It's like a miracle from God .."

The NZ Coalition Of Licensed Firearms Owners COLFO advises licensed firearms owners to PARTY VOTE for act and electorate vote National.

.. If you want to keep any guns.

Marty K.