Month: June 2019

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Stag Arms Leaving Connecticut

June 8, 2019 by 1 Comment

The Stag Arms’ Board of Directors announced that they plan to relocate the company out of New Britain, CT. The new location has not been finalized yet.

The full text of the announcement was posted on Facebook:

Today, Stag Arms announced that its Board of Directors has decided to relocate the company from its current facility in New Britain, CT, as part of its strategic initiative to significantly improve the overall customer experience. The location of Stag’s new headquarters has not been finalized but the Board has narrowed down the options to a short list of vibrant communities where there is significant support for the firearms industry.

Stag Arms President, Anthony Ash, stated: “Not since the founding of our Company in 2003 have there been so many great things happening at once. We began our journey with a commitment to bring customers innovative products with uncompromising quality through 100% American Made components. We pioneered the left-handed Modern Sporting Rifle and from Day 1 we have backed all of our rifles with Infinite Shot Barrel and Lifetime Transferable Warranties. Our recent release of our newest product line of PXCs, Stag’s innovative multiple pistol caliber AR, continues the tradition.”

Mr. Ash further stated, “Stag is creating a seamless, integrated value chain that will incorporate best practices from design and engineering, to manufacturing, omni-channel customer engagement, fulfillment, and service. The pieces are in place and we are ready to transition production and fulfillment operations immediately from a narrow facility-based approach in New Britain to a distributed eco-system.”

The Board expects to finalize the location of the headquarters in the next few months and the company then will begin the process of relocating sales and remaining back office functions to the new headquarters location.

Back in 2013 Stag almost moved to either Houston or Myrtle Beach, SC. Then company CEO Mark Malkowski made the decision to remain in Connecticut due to expense involved with the move. You may also remember that PTR Industries left the same area of Connecticut about that time for Aynor, SC.

Ownership of Stag Arms changed hands in 2016 due to running afoul of BATFE regulations. Malkowski and Stag pleaded guilty to charges involving unregistered machine guns. As part of the plea deal, Malkowski was forced to sell the company and was banned from the industry. White Wolf Capital bought Stag Arms and added it to their portfolio which also included Ballistic Advantage, VG6 Precision, and Aero-Precision.

New Britain town officials were not surprised by the announcement.

New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart said the announcement “comes as no surprise.”

“We have known for many years that Stag has been courted by other states following the passage of more stringent gun laws here in Connecticut,” she said in an emailed statement. “Quite frankly, I’m surprised it took this long.”

While none of the potential locations have been named, I’m going out on a limb here and saying it won’t be Tacoma, Washington which is the home of Aero-Precision given the recent changes in Washington State gun laws. More likely, is a relocation nearer to Ballistic Advantage which is in a suburb of Orlando, FL.

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D-Day: The Largest Seaborne Invasion In World History

June 6, 2019 by 3 Comments

If you’ve followed this blog for any amount of time, you know I love infographics. I found a very appropriate one that helps put June 6, 1944, D-Day, the invasion of Normandy into perspective.

I found this infographic on The Sitrep and it came from a BBC guide to D-Day.

Stephen Green gives another perspective on the numbers involved.

I want you to imagine picking up every resident of a medium-sized city, everything they’ll need to eat and drink and rest for a few days, any vehicles they might need, gasoline, of course, plus lots of guns and ammo — did I mention this was a hunting trip? — and then moving them all in a few short hours a distance of anywhere from 30 to 125 miles or so.

Now imagine you have to move all those people and all that stuff partly by air, but mostly across heavy seas in foul weather.

Under enemy fire.

I should also mention that if you messed up any of the big details, a lot of your people are going to die, and then you’re going to have to figure out how to move them all back without getting too many more of them killed.

And all that is just the beginning. Because once you’ve done all that, those men on that “hunting trip” are going to have to take and widen a beachhead big enough and secure enough that you can rebuild (or build from scratch!) the ports and roads necessary to bring another million men over… plus all the additional stuff all those additional men will need.

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South African R2 With Updated Furniture

June 5, 2019 by

Ian McCollum of Forgotten Weapons just released a video of the South African Defence Forces R2 rifle with its modified furniture. The R2 was originally a Portuguese made G-3 rifle purchased by the SADF for use by second-line troops and the South West Africa Territorial Force.

South West Africa is the former name for the modern country of Namibia. The country was a South African “protectorate” under a League of Nations mandate after World War One. This mandate was abolished in 1966 by the United Nations but the South Africans held on in whole or in part until 1990.

Getting back to the R2, there were problems with the handguards due to the climate of the region. Ian writes this about it.

The Portuguese hand guards and buttstocks were found to be unsatisfactory, however. In the heat and harsh ultraviolet radiation of South West Africa (now Namibia) in particular, the plastic would shrink and lose its fit, leading to the guns being called “rattlers” by the SADF troops. The fix this, the American firm of Choate Machine & Tool was contracted to make new hand guards based on the H&K export pattern – wider and longer and with fittings for a bipod. New stocks were also made, duplicating the shape of the R1/FAL stock.

Given the similarities of the G-3 and R2 with the currently produced PTR-91, it would be very interesting to see if you could find some of these Choate Machine handguards and stocks to use on a PTR-91. I like the looks of the Choate handguards and stocks better than the originals. While I don’t own a PTR-91, I do own a boatload of magazines for it because they were a dollar or less at the time. One of these days I’ll finally get around to obtaining a rifle to use with those magazines!

As always, Ian has produced an informative and interesting short video.

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Mortality, Google Searches, And What The Media Reports

June 4, 2019 by 2 Comments

I came across a very interesting infographic that compares actual causes of death, what people find in Google searches, and how the media treats the various causes of death. The media was represented by examining coverage in the New York Times and the UK’s Guardian for the period 1999 to 2016.

If you only relied upon the media, you would believe that over 50% of deaths were the result of either terrorism or homicide and that very few were due to heart disease. The reality is that heart disease followed by cancer are the first and second causes of death in the US. Moreover, the two combine to account for almost 60% of deaths.

This comes from OurWorldInData and you can get the data behind these charts here. You can read more analysis of the data here.

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Rachel Malone – Three Myths About Suppressors

June 4, 2019 by

Given President Trump’s foolish remarks about suppressors, it is time again to take apart the myths about suppressors. My friend and fellow co-host of the Polite Society Podcast Rachel Malone does just that in the video below. Rachel, by the way, it the GOA Director for Texas and fights for gun rights on a daily basis. She is a trainer and musician.

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Northam Doesn’t Want To Let A Crisis Go To Waste

June 4, 2019 by 1 Comment

When Gov. Ralph Northam (D-VA) isn’t trying to figure out if it was actually him in the picture wearing the Klan hood, he is pushing gun control. Now he is taking a page from the Rahm Emanuel playbook and calling a special legislative session of the Virginia General Assembly to push for more gun control after the murders in Virginia Beach.

From the Roanoke Times:

Northam was joined by Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax and Attorney General Mark Herring, all Democrats, at a news conference with other Democratic leaders to challenge the Republicans who control the General Assembly and have repeatedly stifled efforts to consider any form of gun control.

“It’s time for decisive action,” Northam said. “Let Virginia show the nation that we can respond to tragedy with decisive action.”

Most gun-control bills have failed in previous sessions of the legislature, including those that would broaden the ability of local governments to limit firearms in public buildings, mandate universal background checks, limit purchases to one handgun per month and allow authorities to seize the weapons of a person found to be a threat to themselves or others. The bills have usually been killed in committee and not progressed to the full legislature for a vote.

Northam said he wants the General Assembly to debate and vote on the bills.

“These are common sense pieces of legislation we have introduced them year after year,” he said. “They have never received a fair hearing. … I want these pieces of common sense gun safety legislation to get to the floor and let these individuals elected by you, the people, to come to the floor and cast their vote.”

Gun control activists are also calling for a ban on “high capacity magazines” (sic). Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment (R-James City County) said in an interview that “none of the failed legislation met standards for merits, practical application, and efficacy.” That said, Norment might be open to restricting magazines to 10 rounds.

Specifically, Norment said he expects the General Assembly to tackle large-capacity or extended magazines.

“An extended magazine is optical, but does it change the outcome, I’m not sure, but it’s something the citizens like this would say at least it’s an incremental effort to do something,” Norment said. “At least that is an issue that it’s very easy to resolve.”

Norment did vote against a similar ban earlier this year in committee. Those pushing for a mag ban ought to view Joe Huffman’s video on reload times made after Gabby Giffords was shot in Tucson.

As to Northam’s proposals, let’s examine whether they would have done anything to have stopped the murders in Virginia Beach.

Limiting firearms in municipal buildings? The killer was a municipal employee of Virginia Beach and had access to secured sections of the municipal building. He would have also known how to avoid any metal detection devices.

Universal background checks? The guy passed background checks on both of his firearms.

Limit purchases to one handgun per month?  He bought one handgun in 2016 and the other in 2018.

Red flag law? The killer had no history of violent actions, interacted normally with another employee in a bathroom before starting his killing spree, had no disciplinary problems at work, and had received a satisfactory evaluation on his last performance evaluation at work.

Finally, with regard to President Trump and his “I don’t like them” attitude towards suppressors, the killer purchased his suppressor legally. That means he bought a highly regulated product, paid a $200 tax, had to submit fingerprints and pictures, and go through a BATFE background check while waiting probably 6-9 months before taking possession of his suppressor.

Virginia gun owners have a fight on their hands if they don’t want to become the New Jersey of the South. When the Republican Majority Leader is waffling on standard capacity magazines, it is time to start to put the pressure on.

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What Michael Bloomberg Bought With Pocket Change

June 3, 2019 by

Mark Johnson (R-NC) is the Superintendent of Public Instruction for the State of North Carolina. When he beat incumbent June Atkinson in 2016, he became the first Republican elected to that position in over 100 years. In his role as Superintendent of Public Instruction, he has control over the public schools in the state including their policies and their curriculum.

Despite being a Republican, Johnson has always been somewhat suspect in my estimation. When the Republican receives a donation from Michael Bloomberg, I am suspicious. I wrote in 2016 about how this made me feel wary of him. I found it interesting that Bloomberg contributed $5,100 to him and nothing to Democrat June Atkinson who was a strong supporter of Common Core. Bloomberg’s daughter Emma also contributed another $100 to Johnson. I noted that contributions like this come with implicit strings attached.

Johnson started to show his true colors back in 2018 when he opposed allowing teachers with the requisite training from being armed. Johnson said at the time, he wanted firearms on campus restricted to “these trained, uniformed law-enforcement professionals who courageously choose a career protecting citizens from violent threats.”

As bad as that was, it wasn’t too far out of the mainstream even for a Republican. His latest move, on the other hand, involves partnering with anti-gun group Sandy Hook Promise to set up an anonymous reporting system. The system will involve a mobile app with the tips monitored by volunteers with Sandy Hook Promise.

NC State Superintendent Mark Johnson announced today that the state education agency has contracted with Sandy Hook Promise (SHP) to provide a statewide Say Something Anonymous Reporting System in the 2019-20 school year. The Say Something program, including an anonymous mobile tip app, is a school safety program designed to change and save lives by teaching students, educators, and administrators how to recognize the signs and signals of those who may be at risk of hurting themselves or others and to anonymously report this information through the mobile tip app, the website or the telephone crisis hotline.


“Students play a critical role in helping to keep schools safe,” Johnson said. “They may see and hear concerns that adults need to know about but may be reluctant to report it. With the Say Something program, middle and high school students will better understand what warning signs to look for and when and how to report important tips through an app. Making this app available will be an important part of our efforts to make schools safer.” “We are proud and eager to work with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction to train students across the state to ‘know the signs’ of potential violence and report them to a trusted adult via the Say Something Anonymous Reporting System,” said Nicole Hockley, co-founder and managing director of Sandy Hook Promise, and mother of Dylan, who was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy. “With these comprehensive violence prevention systems in place, North Carolina schools will be safer, protecting millions of lives and empowering youth to be upstanders in their communities.”


Through the Say Something program, students, parents, educators and others can download the app and share school safety concerns with school administrators and school resource officers at schools, who will respond appropriately. More than 5,100 schools nationwide are currently using Sandy Hook Promise’s anonymous reporting system. North Carolina will be the second statewide partnership for Sandy Hook Promise, with implementation of an anonymous reporting system that will encourage student participation in protecting themselves and their peers.

 According to the Raleigh News and Observer, the 2018 state budget allocated $5 million to fund the project. It is estimated that it will cost about $650,000 per year to run it. While the release from Johnson and Sandy Hook Promise wasn’t explicit about this, the N&O reports that the “command center” will be staffed by Sandy Hook Promise and not local NC law enforcement.

An anonymous reporting system with no connection to local law enforcement is an invitation for abuse. I see a lot of kids getting back at other teens for imagined slights, I see “swatting“, and I see innocent people getting killed. This is “pre-crime” brought to the schools of North Carolina and civil liberties be damned. That is what Michael Bloomberg bought with his pocket change.