Except for the gas ring wear test (explained there), not bad at all.


7 Things Every AR-15 Owner Needs to Know How to Do.

While driving to an open shooting position on a recent range trip, I saw AR-15 type firearms in every bay as I looked around. Some bays had as many as 10 different varieties of the AR-15 platform rifle. I saw another local gunsmith test firing the fruits of his labors.

I watched a group of 20-somethings challenge each other on a timed course of fire. I observed a dad helping his daughter to hold the gun up while she shot ground-mounted clay pigeons. I even saw a married man in what appeared to be his 60’s trying to tell his wife how to pull the charging handle back.

The common theme in what I saw was this — all of these people had different reasons for purchasing their version of America’s most popular rifle. And none of them appeared to have had any standardized training in their use, care, accessories, or capabilities.

While looking for some common ground, I made a list of seven skills that every AR owner should know.

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Trends in Active Killer Interdiction by Armed Citizens

A lot of active killers are stopped by armed citizens despite what the mainstream media hides from you.  The Crime Prevention Research Center estimates that 34% of active killer attacks are stopped by armed citizens, a much different number than what is declared by the FBI crime statistics.  Even the FBI, however, points out that most such attacks happen in gun free zones.  The truth is, many such attacks have even been stopped through unarmed resistance, but the success rate of armed interdiction is much higher, at over 90% success rate for the citizen.  

The fact is that we now have a fairly extensive list of incidents in which rampaging killers, armed with long guns, have been stopped by armed citizens on the scene who are armed with handguns.  Many question the ability to stop a bad guy with superior weaponry if you are armed with only your carry pistol at the time, but this is not a hypothetical question of “can it be done.”  Rather, it has been done, many times, and the armed citizen prevails the vast majority of the time.  While the perpetrator may be armed with a rifle, and may be wearing body armor, the lesser-armed citizen still has the ultimate advantage of surprise, and typically prevails.  So, the debate over whether or not it can be done can be put to rest.  Rather, we should focus on the lessons learned and the trends apparent in such incidents.  

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N Announces Two New 5.7x28mm Personal Defense and Training Cartridges

Fans of 5.7x28mm chambered guns — and there are more of you out there every day — now have more to choose from ammo-wise thanks to two new rounds announced today by FN. Their new DFNS 30-grain and GUNR 40-grain rounds give those of you shooting the FN Five-seveNRuger-5.7Smith & Wesson M&P 5.7PSA Rock and other guns more options and more options is a good thing. Here’s FN’s press release . . .

FN America, LLC, the creator of the 5.7x28mm cartridge, is pleased to announce the release of two new options to customers who own 5.7-chambered firearms – FN DFNS for personal protection and FN GUNR for training and range use.

FN now offers a total of four 5.7 loads available to the U.S. consumer market with offerings ranging from training, sport shooting, small game hunting and personal defense.

“Since the NATO standardization of 5.7x28mm, there has been tremendous growth in the category and we recognized the need for reliable defensive ammunition and affordable ball ammunition for training, which is why we’re pleased to introduce the FN DFNS personal protection and FN GUNR training loads,” said Chris Cole, Vice President of Sales for FN America, LLC. “FN has spent many years perfecting the design and manufacturing process for 5.7x28mm ammunition to ensure that no matter which FN 5.7 cartridge you load, it will function reliably and deliver the superior accuracy that 5.7 is known for. Our customers and 5.7 enthusiasts alike can depend on FN DFNS and GUNR to deliver equally against that promise.”

 FN DFNS (SS200)

FN DFNS (SS200) is the first 5.7x28mm ammunition perfected for personal protection and delivers safe, reliable performance. FN DFNS is capable of achieving an average of approximately 2,067 feet-per-second while delivering approximately 286 foot-pounds of energy from the muzzle. The unique 30-grain jacketed hollow point bullet contains a copper-tin powdered core designed to expend energy quickly and efficiently while cycling reliably. DFNS has been certified by independent testing to meet the FBI’s ammunition testing protocol to ensure that this high-performance round delivers accuracy and consistent expansion.

FN GUNR (SS201)

The all-new FN GUNR (SS201) 5.7x28mm training round puts new training targets in reach for 5.7 owners. The 40-grain full metal jacketed cartridge features a high-quality brass construction with boxer primer and is designed to achieve an average of 1870 feet-per-second. The FN GUNR delivers extremely low felt recoil, improved accuracy at extended ranges and reliable feeding across all 5.7-chambered firearms and is considered comparable in performance to FN’s other sporting loads.

FN 5.7x28mm ammunition is now available in 50-round individual boxes or 500-round bulk pack cases and new retail packaging for FN’s legacy rounds will be introduced in the coming year.

How Common Is The AR-15

he AR-15 is one of the most common rifles in the world and has a large, diverse user base. Its success is due to many things, such as its adaptability, modular design, and reliability. They have subjected the AR platform to a great deal of abuse in a variety of environments, and it continues to perform exceedingly well.

How Many AR-15s Are in The United States

The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) estimated that there are over 24 million Modern Sporting Rifles (MSR) in the United States, which include AR and AK-style rifles. Some estimates have the overall number of firearms in the US, including handguns, at over 400 million.

Why is an AR-15 a Popular Gun?

The AR-15 is a popular choice among everyday gun owners for various purposes, including sporting events, home defense, and recreational shooting.

The AR-15 is a modular design, and because of that, you can customize and upgrade parts easily. The flexibility to personalize the rifle to suit the needs of each shooter is a big reason for its widespread popularity. You can use the same base gun for sports shooting, competitions, and personal protection.

How Common is an AR-15?

The Washington Post did a survey at the end of 2022 and estimated that 31% of adults own a firearm; out of that, 20% owned an AR-15-style rifle. That’s 6% of the adult population.

“The data suggests that, with a US population of 260.8 million adults, about 16 million Americans own an AR-15.”

The AR-15 accounted for only 1.2% of all sales in 1990 but jumped to 23.4% in 2020.

 

In Common Use

Recently, the term “in common use has come up.” The Supreme Court determined that the Second Amendment protects firearms “in common use” by “law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes” in its historic DC v. Heller ruling. The court ruled that if the gun is “in common use,” it is covered under the Second Amendment.

 

In March, the president of Everytown for Gun Safety, John Feinblatt, tweeted, “1 in 4 guns sold in America is an AR-15. 1 in 20 Americans owns an AR-15.” His organization is anti-gun, and you would think his numbers would support the claim that AR’s are not in common use, but they appear to do just the opposite.

If one out of every four guns made is an AR and one in twenty people owns one, it seems common. Its widespread popularity makes it one of the most recognizable and commonly owned rifles worldwide. The AR-15 is arguably the most popular rifle in America.

Gun Hobbyists (and Liberty) Win Big in Court
Fifth Circuit judges slap the ATF for making up illegal rules against homemade guns.

The Biden administration’s scheme to threaten the public with tightened gun-control regulations by reinterpreting laws to mean what they never meant in the past is running into some speed bumps. Stumbling over one of those obstacles is an attempt by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to define unfinished firearm frames and receivers—functionally, paperweights—as firearms for the purpose of regulating homemade “ghost guns.” The courts aren’t buying the government’s argument and on November 9 delivered another slap to regulators and the White House.

Law Doesn’t Mean What You Claim It Means

“The agency rule at issue here flouts clear statutory text and exceeds the legislatively-imposed limits on agency authority in the name of public policy,” wrote Judge Kurt D. Engelhardt for three judges of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in ruling on VanDerStok v. Garland. “Because Congress has neither authorized the expansion of firearm regulation nor permitted the criminalization of previously lawful conduct, the proposed rule constitutes unlawful agency action, in direct contravention of the legislature’s will.”

Specifically, the court addressed portions of the ATF’s new “frame and receiver” rule which reinterpreted existing law, particularly elements of the Gun Control Act of 1968. The rule would extend the ATF’s reach and allow the government to restrict home construction of firearms in ways that the Biden White House wants as part of a crusade against so-called “ghost guns” but hasn’t been able to get through Congress.

In particular, the new ATF rule redefines firearms terms to incorporate modern devices that work differently than designs that were common when the law was written. The rule also treats unfinished parts that must be drilled, milled, and assembled by hobbyists to become working mechanisms—often called “80 percent receivers”—as if they are completed firearms. It additionally targets parts kits that can be combined with finished frames and receivers to make functioning guns. As I wrote last year, the rule’s language is “clear as mud” in seeking to subject as much activity as possible to regulation.

“The Final Rule is limitless,” wrote concurring Judge Andrew S. Oldham who agreed with the majority “without qualification” but wrote separately because he considered his colleagues insufficiently brutal to the ATF. “It purports to regulate any piece of metal or plastic that has been machined beyond its primordial state for fear that it might one day be turned into a gun, a gun frame, or a gun receiver. And it doesn’t stop regulating the metal or plastic until it’s melted back down to ooze.”

That was much the reaction of U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor who vacated the entire ATF rule in June. The appeals court panel upholds the district court’s findings, though it returns the case to the district “for further consideration of the remedy, considering this Court’s holding on the merits.” That might mean an outcome short of vacating the entirety of the rule, though Oldham’s concurrence suggests he prefers something rather more drastic to slap down the ATF for its presumption.

The ATF Gets an Earful

In fact, none of the Fifth Circuit judges were impressed by the ATF’s arguments.

“Both a ‘frame’ and a ‘receiver’ had set, well-known definitions at the time of the enactment of the GCA in 1968,” the court notes of the ATF’s efforts to extend its remit over unfinished components. “As written, the Final Rule states that the phrase ‘frame or receiver’ includes things that are admittedly not yet frames or receivers but that can easily become frames or receivers—in other words: parts… Such a proposition defies logic: ‘a part cannot be both not yet a receiver and a receiver at the same time.'”

The judges are equally scathing when it comes to the ATF’s efforts to regulate kits used by DIY hobbyists.

“Notably, the [privately made firearms] that play a central role in the Final Rule were not unknown at the time of the GCA’s—or, for that matter, its predecessors’— enactment,” they write, citing “The American Tradition of Self-Made Arms,” by Jospeh G.S. Greenlee, an article published this year in St. Mary’s Law Journal. “And in perfect accord with the historic tradition of at-home gunmaking, Congress made it exceedingly clear when enacting the GCA that ‘this title is not intended to discourage or eliminate the private ownership or use of firearms by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes.'”

“ATF’s Final Rule alters this understanding by adding significant requirements for those engaged in private gun-making activities,” they add.

“The Government argues that ATF has historically regulated parts that are not yet frames or receivers as frames or receivers, thus making the Final Rule a valid extension of past agency practice,” the court continues. “Simply because ATF may have acted outside of its clear statutory limits in the past does not mandate a decision in its favor today.”

That’s doesn’t mean the Biden administration and the ATF have no recourse if they want to further restrict firearms or regulate popular gun-related hobbies.

“ATF, in promulgating its Final Rule, attempted to take on the mantle of Congress to ‘do something’ with respect to gun control,” the court cautions. “But it is not the province of an executive agency to write laws for our nation. That vital duty, for better or for worse, lies solely with the legislature.”

“This is yet another massive victory against ATF and a huge blow to the Biden Administration’s gun control agenda,” commented Cody J. Wisniewski, the Firearms Policy Coalition Action Foundation General Counsel and counsel for plaintiffs. “ATF has no authority to make law, and the Biden Administration cannot circumvent Congress and the rights of the People through federal agency rulemakings–a point the Fifth Circuit just reiterated. We look forward to defending this win and to continuing to deliver additional victories to the People in the future.”

Despite the Fifth Circuit decision, the ATF rule remains in effect while the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether to take up the case, as per an August 8 order by Justice Samuel Alito.

Another Overreach Slapped Down

In a separate but related ruling, another court slapped down the ATF’s effort to redefine pistol braces as shoulder stocks, rendering firearms so equipped as short-barreled rifles under the National Firearms Act (NFA). Braces are intended to help disabled shooters more accurately handle weapons one-handed, but many designs very closely resemble shoulder stocks. That doesn’t matter, noted the court.

“Some form of protest can be expected when constitutional rights are allegedly infringed,” wrote Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, in acknowledging that many braces are used as stocks by people opposed to stringent firearms regulation. But Kacsmaryk observed that the braces are in “common use” and so enjoy constitutional protection. He added that the proposed rule was not a logical outgrowth of existing law and, in keeping with a recent Fifth Circuit ruling, “must be set aside as unlawful.”

Ultimately, government officials are failing in their efforts to end-run Congress by jamming through restrictive new gun policies as regulatory “reinterpretations” of old statutes. If they want to threaten more people with penalties for owning and using firearms, they’ll have to do so through the hard work of legislating.

‘Ghost Guns’ Rule Exceeds ATF Authority, Appeals Court Holds

A federal appeals court Thursday tossed part of a rule targeting build-at-home “ghost guns” in a case advocates brought, holding the regulation exceeds “limits on agency authority in the name of public policy.”

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed in part and vacated in part a lower court ruling that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives final “frame or receiver” rule targeting privately made firearms without serial numbers conflicts with the Gun Control Act.

“ATF, in promulgating its Final Rule, attempted to take on the mantle of Congress to ‘do something’ with respect to gun control. But it is not the province of an executive agency to write laws for our nation. That vital duty, for better or for worse, lies solely with the legislature,” Judge Kurt D. Engelhardt wrote for the court.

ATF must operate within the statutory text’s limits until Congress acts, the judge said. “The Final Rule impermissibly exceeds those limits, such that ATF has essentially rewritten the law,” Engelhardt said.

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How Far We’ve Come

As many of you know, I am a life-long student of the history of the American West, especially the lawmen and outlaws. Just yesterday, I read a piece about a frontier lawman, in this case Wyatt Earp, pulling his handgun and hitting a troublemaker over the head. In fact, this “buffaloing”, as they called it was quite common and considered a proper response to certain threats and conduct.

Of course, back in those days the old single actions that most folks carried were robust enough to take such abuse. The more modern double-action revolvers and semi-automatics could be more easily damaged and possibly cause a negligent discharge. The only time I saw someone hit with a gun was when a fellow officer hit a thug over the head with his DA revolver, causing the gun to discharge and wound two bystanders.

In time, courts and juries began to take a dim view of using the handgun as a club. And our good, modern training, with an emphasis on safety, along with modern less-lethal options like OC spray and tasers, has pretty much caused the practice to be a thing of the past.

Another thing that a western historian will notice is the old-time practice of leaning on the butt of a rifle or shotgun with the muzzle resting in the dirt, possibly allowing foreign objects to get into the bore of the gun. Even worse are the photos of individuals resting the gun muzzle on the toe of their boot. Sadly, in more recent times, it has been the practice of some shotgun competitors; something that I hope is currently being discouraged. Years ago, I had a friend who had a horribly mangled right hand from resting it on the muzzle of his loaded .410 shotgun; it’s a wonder that he had a hand at all.

In my own case, as a young officer, I attended numerous law enforcement firearm classes. One thing that they had in common was the fact that no one said anything about keeping your finger off the trigger, much less keeping it out of the trigger guard entirely. To my knowledge, the first that this was emphasized was in conjunction with Jeff Cooper’s Modern Technique of the Pistol in the late 1970s. We now call it Gunsite’s Rule #3, the Golden Rule, and there is no telling how many negligent discharges and injuries this training has prevented.

Sadly, the old-time handgun men had to learn the hard way what worked and what didn’t work, what was safe and what wasn’t. In the interim, the National Rifle Association began to put gun safety into the forefront of all firearms training and individual firearms instructors have followed suit. Nowadays, just about any firearms class you attend begins with a safety lecture and that is exactly as it should be.

We certainly can, and should, enjoy the history, stories, and photos of our frontier days. But we should also take time to be thankful and mindful of the great advances that have been made in terms of gun safety. A lot of the old-time gunmen might have lived a lot longer if they had had the same training that is available to the modern shooter.

1.3 MILLION SOLD: NATIONAL GUN SALES UP 20 PERCENT LAST MONTH

No matter how you stack it, the numbers for October 2023 show a significant jump in gun sales nationwide.

Last month was the third-highest October on record in terms of federal background checks for gun transfers since the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System was established over 20 years ago.

When the numbers for last month were adjusted by the National Shooting Sports Foundation to remove gun permit checks and rechecks, the adjusted figure stands at 1,370,719, a 20-percent increase from the September 2023 tally of 1,141,847. Even when compared in a more apples-to-apples sense to the October 2022 NSSF-adjusted NICS figure of 1,265,311, it is an 8.3 percent bump.

“Once again, 1.3 million background checks for firearm sales at retail demonstrate the value Americans place on their Second Amendment rights,” Mark Oliva, NSSF’s director of public affairs, told Guns.com in an email on Wednesday. “This is telling, given the stark reminders of the importance of the Second Amendment protecting the right for law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms and protect themselves and their loved ones.”

Further, last month’s figures mark the 51st in a row where such checks soared past the 1-million mark.

It should be noted that the federal background check numbers do not include private gun sales in most states or cases where a carry permit is used as an alternative to the background check requirements of the 1994 Brady Law, which allows the transfer of a firearm over the counter by a federal firearms license holder without first performing a NICS check. Over 20 states accept personal concealed carry permits or licenses as Brady exemptions.

Likewise, the figures do not capture privately made firearms.

SCOTUS Grants Cert to Bump Stock Case

The Supreme Court will decide whether the Trump administration’s ban on bump stocks, implemented by the ATF in 2018 after the Route 91 music festival shootings in Las Vegas, was a proper exercise of agency authority or an overreach on the part of the administration. On Friday the Court granted cert in a case known as Garland v. Cargill; one of several cases that have been bouncing around the lower courts since the ban was first put in place.

The Court’s granting of the case wasn’t exactly a surprise, for a couple of reasons. The Solicitor General had sought Supreme Court review, but there are also splits in the federal appellate courts over the legality of the ban. The Fifth Circuit has ruled the bump stock ban was improperly put into effect, while the D.C. Circuit, Sixth Circuit, and Tenth Circuit have all allowed the ban to remain in effect.

The question before the Court is whether a bump stock can be considered a “machine gun” under the statutory definition provided by the National Firearms Act; “any weapon which shoots, is designed to shoot, or can be readily restored to shoot, automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger. The term shall also include the frame or receiver of any such weapon, any part designed and intended solely and exclusively, or combination of parts designed and intended, for use in converting a weapon into a machinegun, and any combination of parts from which a machinegun can be assembled if such parts are in the possession or under the control of a person.”

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NY’s Door-to-Door Crusade Against Homemade Guns Backfires, Unintentional Masterclass in Ghost-Gunsmithing

New York State declared war on citizens making their own firearms. To crack down on privately manufactured firearms (PMF), the New York State Police (NYSP) are showing up in force at people’s doors. The reason for the informal visit seems to be an inquiry related to purchased pistol parts from the website eBay. Ammoland News has learned from Law Enforcement Sources that the New York Police Department released a “ghost gun” handbook explaining PMFs and how to identify them.

Two weeks ago, NYSP “Ghost Gun” Team members began visiting citizens in the New York City area requesting information about parts purchased from eBay. The parts were purchased from multiple sellers across the auction platform.

Most disturbing, the officers had printouts of everything purchased by the individuals from the website, leading to the question of how the State Police came into possesion the item list.

AmmoLand News spoke to several of the residents that the State Police visited. None of the individuals allowed the police to inspect their firearms. The officers would state, “We know what you have.” When the residents still refused to hand over any information, the State Police let them know they could turn in anything violating New York law to the State Police. None of the residents we spoke to were threatened with legal action, and the interactions were between five and fifteen minutes.

Could eBay be handing over private transaction information to the police?

Since the task force had a complete list of the items purchased on eBay, eBay is the most likely source for the information. AmmoLand News reached out to both the New York State Police and eBay, but neither would confirm or deny what information was shared.  All interactions AmmoLand News was able to track down are from the greater New York City area. We also have not identified any visits within the city’s five boroughs.

At the same time the New York State Police are going door to door, the New York Police Department (NYPD) released a handbook to identify “ghost guns.”

This guide was leaked to AmmoLand News but is now being widely circulated across the internet.

Ghost Guns: Past, Present, and Future NYPD Intelligence Division Major Case Field Intelligence Team
Ghost Guns: Past, Present, and Future NYPD Intelligence Division Major Case Field Intelligence Team

The guide lists a gun’s parts and gives an example of a lower receiver. According to the guide, “all lower receivers need to be serialized” because the federal government considers them firearms. Next to this statement is a picture of an 80% AR-15 receiver. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Final Rule on frame and receiver is very clear on this topic.

The ATF has never and still does not consider 80% AR-15 receivers to be firearms.

The document also incorrectly states that all lower receivers must be serialized under federal law. Once again, the document is incorrect. The ATF says a frame or receiver must only be serialized when transferred. According to federal law, it is legal to have an unserialized firearm unless it previously had a serial number. Many are concerned that these inconsistencies between the law and the guide could lead to false arrests. AmmoLand News contacted the individual contacts listed in the document to see if the misinformation would be corrected, but none responded.

In addition to those retailers, the guide also covers the Ghost Gunner. The Ghost Gunner is a tabletop CNC machine that allows users to mill a firearm. It also lists the sites that sell the device and shows a picture of the founder of Ghost Gunner and Defense Distributed, Cody Wilson. The document references Defcad, which is another Defense Distributed project.

AmmoLand News spoke to Cody Wilson, who found the New York Police Department handbook to identify “ghost guns” document hilarious. He believes it is an excellent advertisement for his company.

“New York has produced the best getting started guide on the market,” Wilson said. “We will be emailing it to all of our customers.”

The document also explains how to 3D print a gun. It breaks down the printers needed, including the Creality Ender 3, and lists the filament types. It also gives an overview of the most popular slicing software. A current bill in the New York Legislature would require background checks to purchase a 3D printer.

The document also lists the most popular sites for downloading “gun CAD” files. Even if someone were to download the files, they would be unable to turn that 3D-printed model into a working firearm without certain parts. Fortunately for the building community, the NYPD documentation lists the parts and links to sites selling everything a person could use to finish the homemade firearm.

Oh No! Crypto!

The documentation touches on Glock switches purchased off of Chinese sites. These are auto sears and turn a regular Glock into a machine gun. In addition to auto sears, the document also worries about importing solvent traps to make suppressors.

The handbook also states they will attempt to get postal data to track shipments. The NYPD will also try to get Micro Center and Amazon data to track 3D printers and supply purchases. The police attend gun shows in other states to follow the selling of firearms parts.

The document also states that many who print guns are involved in cryptocurrency. The NYPD points to several gun-part retailers that accept BitCoin as a payment option. Many non-gun sites accept cryptocurrency as payment.

It also lists items to look for when executing a search warrant. These include packages, pre-paid credit cards, invoices, gun parts, storage locker keys, 3D printers, flash drives, cell phones, and micro SD cards.

The NYPD will offer a one-hour class to officers to help them identify PMFs. The content of the class has yet to be released, but when made available by the department, AmmoLand News will publish it.

Neither the NYPD, NYSP, nor eBay responded to requests for comment for this story.

LEAKED: Ghost Guns: Past, Present, and Future NYPD Intelligence Division Major Case Field Intelligence

US Halts Exports Of Most Civilian Firearms And Ammunition For 90 Days

Now the US has halted the exports of a lot of civilian firearms and ammunition for a total of 90 days citing national security. It has been claimed that the halts are going to cover most of the guns and ammunition that can be purchased in the United States gun store. This news has been officially claimed by Johanna Reeves who is a lawyer who specializes in export controls and firearms with the law firm Reeves and Dola in Washington, D.C. This is a very shocking announcement which has been made by a lawyer. Now to know everything that the lawyer has shared with us, read this entire article without missing anything.

According to the Commerce Department, the United States has officially stopped issuing export licenses for most civilian firearms and ammunition for a total of 90 days for all non-government users. Commerce Department officially claimed this statement on 27th October 2023, Friday, citing national security and foreign policy interests. The Commerce Department (CD) has not given more details regarding the pause as it also includes shotguns and optical sights. However, the CD has claimed that the review is going to assess the risk of the firearms that are being diverted to the activities and entities that have promoted regional instability, fueled criminal activities, and violated human rights.

On Friday, The Commerce Department declined to give any statement on the posting on its website. A famous lawyer who specializes in export control and firearms with the law firm Reeves and Dola in Washington, D.C., Johanna Reeves has officially given a statement in which she has claimed that the halt covers most of the ammunition and funds that can be purchased from the United States gun stores. She has also claimed that she has never seen the Commerce Department taking a sweeping action like this. They might have some individual country policies but there is nothing like this.

According to the experts, the license exports for Israel Ukraine, and some other close allies are going to be exempted from the temporary halt in the exports. The US companies that sell the firearms are Strum Ruger & Co., Vista Outdoor, and Smith & Wesson Brands they might face a big impact because of the ban on exports. The exporters can submit, the license requests at the time of the pause but the requests are going to be held without the action till the pause is lifted.

This is Federal, CCI, and Remington ammo.


Vista Outdoor to sell sporting products unit in $1.91 bln deal, cuts sales forecast

Oct 16 (Reuters) – Vista Outdoor (VSTO.N) said on Monday it would sell its sporting products business in a $1.91 billion deal, although its shares tumbled about 20% in early trading after it cut its full-year sales forecast.

The all-cash sale of the sporting products unit, which includes its guns and ammunition business, to privately held Czechoslovak Group a.s. (CSG) is expected to close next calendar year, Vista Outdoor said.

The outdoor recreation and shooting sports products maker also lowered its fiscal 2024 revenue forecast, citing tight consumer spending on its big-ticket discretionary goods in the face of higher interest rates.

“The reduction in sales from our previous guidance coupled with pricing and promotional pressures across our categories is driving down profitability,” said Vista’s CFO Andy Keegan.

Vista now expects revenue to range between $2.73 billion and $2.86 billion for the year ending March 2024, compared with its previous forecast of $2.85 billion to $2.95 billion.

Earlier this month, Vista spun off its outdoor products segment, which includes helmets and water bottles, into a separate publicly traded company called Revelyst as part of its previously announced plan.

Vista said in a call with analysts and investors that the separation of its sporting and outdoor goods units will be formalized at the closing of its deal with CSG.

Czech-based CSG has seen its revenue and profits rise since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as demand for heavy military equipment and ammunition to ship to Ukraine soared.

It had a consolidated revenue of 25 billion Czech crowns ($1.07 billion) in 2022 and has been on the lookout for more acquisitions since it took a 70% stake in Italian small-calibre ammunition maker Fiocchi Munizioni last December.

CSG said it plans to take $1.11 billion of debt financing to fund the deal with Vista Outdoor.

Reports: Army’s Lake City Ammunition Plant Cancels Commercial Ammunition Contracts

Last year we reported that Susan Rice the Biden administration, as part of its unrelenting war on guns and those who own them, was moving to cut off civilian sales of ammunition produced at the Army’s Lake City ammunition plant in Independence, Missouri. Lake City cranks out as much as 30% of the commercial .223/5.56 ammunition sold in this country.

As the NSSF remarked at the time . . .

This policy to deny the sale of excess ammunition not only would freeze over 30 percent of the 5.56 mm/.223 caliber ammunition used by law-abiding gun owners, it risks the ammunition industry’s ability to surge production capacity for national defense if the costs to maintain the present workforce isn’t recouped through sales to the civilian market.

While we couldn’t get Winchester (who operates the plant under contract with the Army) to comment on the situation, the report was well-sourced by those with direct knowledge of what was happening at the time. We obviously were on to something because the White House went so far as issuing a non-denial denial of the report.

A good measure of how real the threat by the administration was at the time might have been that 50 members of Congress issued a call to the administration to walk back the policy. The BidenBots apparently concluded at the time that the anti-gun juice wasn’t worth the political squeeze and Lake City continued producing for the civilian market.

However, we started hearing from a number of people late this week that Lake City had moved to cancel all of its commercial contracts. We’ve also been told that distributor supplies of .223/5.56 had begun to be drained, as a result of the move by Lake City and in anticipation of higher civilian ammunition demand following last week’s terrorist attacks in Israel. Then Staple Defense published this report.

Lake City typically sells off its excess capacity ammo, over and above the military’s needs,  to keep its operations fully running and employees on the payroll. If, as it appears, these latest reports are accurate, the reason this time may have less due to the administration’s desire to jack up domestic ammo costs (thus sticking it to civilian gun owners) than it is to anticipation by the US military that its needs may be increasing in the very near future.

Given U.S. support for Ukraine, a new war breaking out in Israel, and other potential points of instability, the Lake City move may portend more bad things in the offing. And one of them may be scarcer, more expensive ammo for your AR-15.

Watch this space.

Woman killed in explosion at Hornady plant west of Grand Island

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (KSNB) – One woman died and two men were injured Friday morning in an explosion at a Hornady Manufacturing plant west of Grand Island.

Hall County Attorney Marty Klein said the explosion happened in a chemical compound building at the Hornady plant at 8350 West Old Potash Highway, a Wood River address. That site is about four miles northwest of Alda on the site of the old Cornhusker Army Ammunition Plant.

Klein did not identify the victims, but did say that one of the men showed symptoms of a concussion and the other showed symptoms related to breathing dust and fumes. Klein said neither of the injuries to the men were considered life-threatening.

Klein said the Hall County Sheriff’s office and the State Fire Marshal were on the scene early Friday afternoon to continue investigating the explosion.

Crews from at least four local fire departments were called to the scene just before 10 a.m. Friday.

Hall County Emergency Manager Jon Rosenlund confirms that Cairo, Wood River, Alda and Grand Island Rural Fire Departments as well as the Hall County Sheriff’s Office were called to the scene. A Grand Island fire department ambulance was also dispatched.

A Local4 reporter on the scene reported that the property had been blocked off

Hornady Manufacturing is a long-time Grand Island business which makes bullets and ammunition.
Local4 contacted Hornady Manufacturing for comment and we are awaiting a response.

Biden Signs Law Restoring Funding to Hunter Safety Programs in Schools

Congress and President Joe Biden have undone a mess of their own making.

On Friday, Biden signed the Protecting Hunting Heritage and Education Act into law. Congress passed the law nearly unanimously. The legislation restores funding for school hunting and archery training courses.

“The benefits of hunter education and archery programs should be fully recognized as these classes teach future generations the important skills of public safety, confidence, and comradery,” Representative Richard Hudson (R., N.C.), who sponsored the bill, said in a statement.

The law amends 2022’s Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) to clarify that grants from the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act can be spent on hunting and archery programs. The overwhelming bipartisan support for funding firearms and archery training in schools demonstrates, at least, that the floor of support for hunting remains pretty high in American politics.

The law stems from a dispute in the BSCA’s language about whether federal funds can be spent on weapons training. In April, the Department of Education published an official guide that said it couldn’t spend money on programs that provide “to any person a dangerous weapon or training in the use of a dangerous weapon.” Federal law specifically labels any object capable of “causing death or serious bodily injury, except that such term does not include a pocket knife with a blade of less than 2½ inches in length” as a dangerous weapon.

In August, the Education Department told Fox21 it considered hunting, archery, and sports shooting programs ineligible for funding under the statutory language.

The Department’s interpretation of the BSCA was condemned by a bipartisan group of lawmakers, including many who’d voted for the bill. 18 Senators, including eight Democrats and an Independent, sent a letter to the Department in September arguing they never intended the funding language to be interpreted that way. They demanded funding for school hunting and archery programs be reinstated.

“The intent of section 13401 of BSCA was to preclude these funds from being used to purchase dangerous weapons for school staff or to train school staff in the use of dangerous weapons, with the recognition that ESEA funds should support student achievement, educational enrichment programs, and student well-being,” they wrote. “Other federal funds appropriated in the BSCA were intended to support evidence-based school safety and protective measures.”

Another bipartisan group of Senators sent a letter to the leaders of the Senate Appropriations Committee asking them to create a legislative fix if the Department didn’t change its mind. Between the two letters, the effort garnered support from a dozen Democrats, nine Republicans, and an Independent.

Representative Hudson, who called the Department’s interpretation of the language an “attempt to push their radical agenda on our children,” introduced his legislative fix in the House. That bill quickly gained bipartisan support and passed by a vote of 424 to 1. The Senate agreed to it unanimously. Now, President Biden has signed it into law.

“[T]he President supports a legislative solution to ensure ESEA funding can be used for valuable school enrichment programs, such as hunter safety and archery,” Stefanie Feldman, Director of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, tweeted after the House took up the bill.

Smith & Wesson says goodbye to Massachusetts, hello to Tennessee
Bay State known to have some of the country’s strictest gun laws

Gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson hosted a grand opening of its new Tennessee headquarters Saturday after moving from its longtime home in Massachusetts to a more gun-friendly state.

The company built a new 650,000-square feet headquarters in Maryville, Tennessee, as part of a $125 million relocation plan announced in 2021. Tours were offered at the new facility on Saturday.

The gunmaker had been located in Springfield, Massachusetts, since the mid-19th century, but company officials have said legislative proposals in that state would prohibit them from manufacturing certain weapons. Massachusetts is known to have some of the country’s strictest gun laws.

Smith & Wesson President and CEO Mark Smith spoke at the event Saturday, which drew a large crowd to the new facility, The Daily Times reported.

“From where I stand, the next 170 years of Smith & Wesson are looking pretty good,” Smith said. “It is something special here in Tennessee.”

He cited a welcoming regulatory environment and close collaboration with the Tennessee state government as a crucial piece of the plan to relocate. The company has said the new facility would create hundreds of jobs.

Tennessee has moved to loosen gun restrictions in recent years under Republican leadership. In 2021, the state passed a law to allow most adults 21 and older to carry handguns without a permit that requires first clearing a state-level background check and training.