US Made Kalashnikovs

RWC Group is the exclusive importer of Izhmash-made Kalashnikov rifles and carbines. After President Obama imposed economic sanctions on the arms sector of the Russian economy including Concern Kalashnikov, they were between a rock and a hard place. The sanctions meant no more Saiga rifles or shotguns and no more 922(r) compliant AKs could be imported.

Fast forward to this year’s SHOT Show. They announced the formation of Kalashnikov USA would begin production of AK-47s in the United States. According to their press release, the US manufactured products will be available during the second quarter of 2015.

From MarketWatch:

RWC Group, the licensed importer for the Kalashnikov company, revealed at the popular Las Vegas gun exposition known as SHOT Show this week that it would form a new company known as Kalashnikov USA to manufacture the weapon. The company is currently negotiating with three U.S. states to locate a production plant, with the rifles possibly rolling off the lines as early as the second quarter of this year, Jim Kelly, the new production manager of Kalashnikov USA, told the website OutdoorHub.com.

 According to an update in the story by Matt Korovesis at OutdoorHub.com, Concern Kalashnikov will not be working directly with either RWC Group or Kalashnikov USA on the new US made rifles and carbine.

The YouTube channel of the AK Operators Union, Local 47-74, had an interview with Rob Young of Kalashnikov USA at the SHOT Show which they published on Wednesday.

Day Two Of Project Gunwalker At Lynch’s Confirmation Hearings

The second day of the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings for Loretta Lynch featured nine witnesses who touched upon a number of things. There were the “Loretta was a great US Attorney and I felt fortunate to work with her comments” from attorney David Barlow and former FBI Assistant Director in Charge Janice Fedaryck. There was the “Loretta comes from a good Baptist family” testimony by Rev. Dr. Clarence Newsome. There was the testimony from law professor Stephen Legomsky that said he was “the” expert on immigration law and Obama’s actions on making illegal aliens legal was OK with him.

Then there was what I consider the meat of the day:  the witnesses who described just bad the Department of Justice has gotten, how it has screwed people over, and how it has looked the other way at the abuses of power by the White House. Catherine Englebrecht of True the Vote described how the dogs of war were unleashed on her when she filed applications for non-profit status for two organizations. These “dogs of war” include the IRS, OSHA, the FBI, and BATFE. Sheriff David Clarke of Milwaukee discussed how the Department of Justice under Eric Holder was actively hostile to local law enforcement. He discussed how Holder and DOJ made the situation in Ferguson, Missouri worse by inserting itself where it had no business. Professor Nicholas Rosenkranz of Georgetown and the Cato Institute spoke about the role of the Attorney General in providing legal advice to the President and how Eric Holder has failed in this regard.

Then there was the testimony of Sharyl Attkisson and Professor Jonathan Turley. They were the bookends, so to speak, as they began and ended the testimony for the day. Leading off was Ms. Attkisson who described how she had been targeted by the Justice Department for her factually accurate reporting on
Operation Fast and Furious (among other things).

When I reported on factual contradictions in the administration’s accounts
regarding Fast and Furious, pushback included a frenzied campaign with White
House officials trying to chill the reporting by calling and emailing my superiors and
colleagues, and using surrogate bloggers to advance false claims. One White House
official got so mad, he angrily cussed me out.

The Justice Department used its authority over building security to handpick
reporters allowed to attend a Fast and Furious briefing, refusing to clear me into the
public Justice Department building.

Advocates had to file a lawsuit to obtain public information about Fast and Furious
improperly withheld under executive privilege. Documents recently released show
emails in which taxpayer paid White House and Justice Department press officials
complained that I was “out of control,” and vowed to call my bosses to try to stop my
reporting.

Let me emphasize that my reporting was factually indisputable. Government
officials weren’t angry because I was doing my job poorly. They were panicked
because I was doing my job well.

While the testimony of Ms. Attkisson was damning, I think the testimony of Prof. Jonathan Turley of George Washington University was even more damning of the Justice Department under Eric Holder. Turley admitted he voted for Obama and supported many of the Administration’s policies. Turley is a DC insider. He appears on Sunday morning talk shows, he writes op-eds, he goes to the insider cocktail parties, and he rubs elbows with the powers that be.

Turley submitted a 26-page written testimony accusing the Justice Department of being the architect of the effort to expand the power of the presidency beyond what was Constitutional. He says that they actively attempt to block legislative authority and Congressional oversight. The most egregious example of this, in Turley’s opinion, and the one that best captures the obstruction of Congress in recent years is Operation Fast and Furious. Turley devotes seven pages of his testimony to it.

However, the controversy that best captures the obstruction of Congress in recent years is
the response of the Obama Administration in the Fast and Furious investigation. The
reason that Fast and Furious is particularly illustrative is for a couple of salient factors.
First, no one (not even General Holder) defends the Fast and Furious operation, which
proved as lethal as it was moronic. It is a prototypical example of a program that is
legitimately a focus of congressional oversight authority. A federal agency was
responsible for facilitating the acquisition of powerful weapons by criminal gangs,
including weapons later used to kill United States Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in
December 2010. Congress has investigated not only the “gunwalking” operation, but
also what it saw as concealment and obstruction, by the Administration, in its efforts to
investigate the operation. Second, Congress had ample reason to expand its investigation
after the Justice Department sent a letter on February 4, 2011 stating categorically that no
gunwalking had taken place. It was not until December 2011 that Attorney General Holder informed Congress that it had been given false information and the letter was
formally withdrawn. Congress responded by expanding the investigation into the false
information given to it by the Executive Branch and the months of delay before Congress
was informed of the misrepresentation of the facts underlying Fast and Furious. Finally,
the position of the Justice Department on withholding documents has, in my view, been
facially invalid and lacking in any credible good-faith interpretation of the executive
privilege.

Turley goes on to say that one of the most troubling aspects of the Justice Department’s behavior has been its refusal to prosecute the House of Representative’s contempt citation against Eric Holder.

One of the most troubling aspects of the Fast
and Furious
investigation was not just the withholding of non-privileged material but the
later refusal of the Justice Department to submit the alleged violation to a grand jury—
despite a historic vote of the House of Representatives finding General Holder in
contempt. The decision to block any prosecution was a violation of a long-standing agreement between the branches and represents a serious affront to the institutional
authority of this body.

He goes on to attack the Obama Administration’s circular reasoning cited for withholding requested documents saying “I have had criminal defense clients
who would only envy such an ability to cite the basis for a criminal charge as the defense
to a criminal charge.”

I don’t think any of the testimony given in day two of the hearings will derail Ms. Lynch’s confirmation as the next Attorney General. I really have no doubt that she will be confirmed. I see this testimony as more an airing of grievances and an attempt to put the Administration on notice that a Republican-majority Senate – unlike the Democratic-majority Senate run by Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) – is watching them.

One Way To Objectively Assess Popularity Of New Products

I will admit that I didn’t get to the SHOT Show New Product Center. I did go to their Showcase but that was much different. Nonetheless, the New Product Center was fairly crowded when I went past it. The NSSF was able to track which products in the New Product Center generated the most interest. They might not have been my choices but it appears that they were the most popular with those who participated.

Quality Cartridge – A SHOT Show Find

If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it many times. The small out-of-the-way booths at SHOT Show are where you find the really cool stuff. So it was as my brother-in-law Larry and I were walking around the first floor of the SHOT Show. We came across this small booth that was displaying a number of old or unusual cartridges. As you can see from the photo below it was not a very fancy booth with custom-made display featuring lots of graphics (and it is not a professional photo!).

However, what Quality Cartridge lacked in graphics they made up for with the breadth and depth of the brass they make. In my conversation with Pete Cardona I found that they make brass for darn near any rare, unusual, obsolete, or wildcat cartridge that you can think of. Have grandpa’s old Remington Model 8 in .30 Remington but can’t find brass for it? Or you have a pistol in 10mm Centaur? Now you can get the brass you need and at a reasonable, if not cheap, price.

Quality Cartridge is located in Hollywood, Maryland and sells their brass through their website as well as through Midway USA and Graf and Sons. They have both rifle and handgun brass but do not offer loaded cartridges. However, they do have a list of custom reloaders who can meet your needs.

You can email them here. Or contact them at:

Quality Cartridge

301-373-3719 ph/fax

PO Box 445
Hollywood, MD 20636

Project Gunwalker Makes It Into Loretta Lynch’s Confirmation Hearing

Project Gunwalker aka Operation Fast and Furious was mentioned today as the confirmation hearings for Loretta Lynch to become the 83rd Attorney General began. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) had this to say in his opening statement:

The Department’s own Inspector General listed as one of its top management challenges:
“Restoring Confidence in the Integrity, Fairness, and Accountability of the Department.”

He cited several examples, including the Department falsely denying basic facts in the Fast and
Furious controversy. The Inspector General concluded this “resulted in an erosion of trust in the
Department.”

In that fiasco, our government knowingly allowed firearms to fall into the hands of international
gun traffickers.

And it led to the death of a Border Patrol Agent, Brian Terry.

And then, after Congress called on the leadership of the Department to account for this foolish
operation, what did they do?

Did they apologize to the family and rush to uncover the truth?

Quite the opposite.

They denied, spun and hid the facts from Congress and the American people.

They bullied and intimidated whistleblowers, members of the press, and anyone who had the
audacity to investigate and uncover the truth.

 You can listen to this in the live video of Lynch’s hearings at the 25:00 to 26:09 marks.

While it won’t bring back the lives of Brian Terry and Jaime Zapata, I’m glad Sen. Grassley at least hasn’t forgotten them and what was a proximate cause of their deaths.

They Don’t Respect The Second Amendment Nor The First

We’ve known for a long time that Josh Horwitz, Ladd Everitt, and the rest of the ne’er do wells at the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (sic) have no respect for the Second Amendment. Now it appears that they are trying to silence journalist Emily Miller for using her First Amendment rights. They have started a petition on their website with an additional link on Facebook asking Fox-DC WTTG to fire Emily Miller because she spoke at a Virginia Citizens Defense League rally.

Screen Cap from CSGV.org

CSGV goes on to list their set of grievances against Emily including that she testified before the DC City Council, appeared at the VCDL rally, and that she told her story about the roadblocks she encountered getting a handgun in the District in a book. They accuse her of violating the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics.

Josh, Ladd, and the rest of their ilk are pathetic losers who live in a make-believe world believing that government should have the monopoly on violence. They denigrate and castigate women like Emily or paraplegics like Kurt Hofmann who only want to provide for their own self-defense. As I said a couple of years ago, they are totalitarian thugs and need to be called out on it.

For another perspective on their actions, see Dave Workman’s Examiner column.

UPDATE: Someone has started a Don’t Fire Emily petition on Change.org. You can find it here. I signed and I would hope you would do so as well.

Senate Judiciary Committee Confirmation Hearings On Loretta Lynch

Loretta Lynch, the US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, is President Obama’s nominee to succeed the despicable Eric Holder as Attorney General. The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold hearings on her nomination starting tomorrow at 10am. The committee is now headed by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA).

The committee has released its witness list. Looking it over there are some very interesting names on the list such as Sharyl Attkisson, Catherine Engelbrecht of True the Vote, and Sheriff David Clarke of Milwaukee. You have to wonder if they will discuss Operation Fast and Furious, the hacking of Attkisson’s computer, the targeting of conservative non-profits by the Obama Administration, the vilification of law enforcement by Holder, and other such topics. I would also note that Professors Rosenkranz and Turley both are affiliated with the libertarian Cato Institute.

The full list is below:

Witnesses


Panel I


Loretta Lynch
U.S. Attorney For The Eastern District Of New York
U.S. Department of Justice
Brooklyn , NY


Panel II


Sharyl Attkisson
Investigative Journalist


David Barlow
Partner
Sidley Austin LLP


David A. Clarke, Jr.
Sheriff
Milwaukee County, Wisconsin


Catherine Engelbrecht
Founder
True The Vote


Janice K. Fedarcyk
Fedarcyk Consulting LLC


Stephen H. Legomsky
John S. Lehmann University Professor
School of Law at Washington University


The Reverend Doctor Clarence Newsome
Cincinnati , OH


Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz
Professor Of Law, Georgetown University Law Center
Senior Fellow in Constitutional Studies Cato Institute


Johnathan Turley
Professor, J.B. And Maurice C. Shapiro Chair Of Public Interest Law
Georgetown Law School Senior Fellow in Constitutional Studies Cato Institute
Washington , DC

SHOT Show – Zenith Firearms

I happened to stop by Zenith Firearms late on Friday afternoon. They are an importer of Turkish-made firearms. A couple of things caught my eye. First was a G-3 clone that will take the H&K G-3/Cetme magazines. I’d say it is aimed directly at the PTR-91 clones. The second was a very MP5-ish pistol in 9mm. It looked very nice.

The Turks are definitely working hard to make inroads into the US market. Savage is importing a couple of very nice over/under shotguns under their Stevens brand. The wood on those was beautiful Turkish walnut and the price was even better – in the $600 range.

Below is an interview with Zenith Firearms done by the NSSF. I got a chance to talk with Andy Eckert and he was a nice guy.

SHOT Show Attendance Was Second-Highest Ever

According to a release from the NSSF, this year’s SHOT Show had the second-highest attendance ever.

Long a bellwether for the industry’s prospects, the SHOT Show brings together buyers and sellers from the United States and more than 100 countries. Total attendance for the 2015 SHOT Show was nearly 64,000, second only to last year’s record-setting event, where nearly 67,000 came through the turnstiles. Lower attendance reflected strengthened pre-screening of attendees to enhance the overall experience of both exhibitors and buyers.

“We know from long experience that attendance at the SHOT Show is a reflection of the state of our industry,” said Chris Dolnack, NSSF Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer. “This second highest attendance is in keeping with what we saw in the past year — that our industry is in good health and that manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers have a positive outlook for this year.”

I’d certainly believe it. The main hallways were always crowded and the flow of the crowd at the end of the day towards the Venetian Hotel was like a river.

The show brings big money to Las Vegas.

The SHOT Show, the fifth largest trade show in Las Vegas, pumps nearly $90 million in non-gaming revenue into the Las Vegas economy.

Those in Nevada who would push the universal background check initiative such as Wynn Resorts co-founder Elaine Wynn should keep this in mind. The firearms industry does have other options besides Las Vegas to hold the SHOT Show. While it is a popular destination for many in the industry, there are other places. I think the NSSF should start making it clear that a vote for universal background checks will come with consequences.

The SHOT Show is about business. On my flight home I sat across from Don Keadle of J.E.K. Wholesale. His company develops 37mm and 40mm grenade, less than lethal, and tear gas launchers. This was the first show they attended and it was very worthwhile. Don said the guys in the shop were going to hate him because they would be working seven days a week. He had received enough orders by the end of the first day to have made the trip profitable. Others I spoke with such as a dealer from Lubbock, Texas said he had placed a number of orders at the show. All in all I take this as good for the industry and good for the US economy.