SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – A federal appeals court on Friday upheld Illinois‘ prohibition on high-power semiautomatic weapons, refusing to put a hold on the law adopted in response to the mass killing of seven people at a 2022 parade in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park.
A three-judge panel of the 7th District U.S. Court of Appeals voted 2-1 on the issue.
“There is a long tradition, unchanged from the time when the Second Amendment was added to the Constitution, supporting a distinction between weapons and accessories designed for military or law-enforcement use and weapons designed for personal use,” Judge Diane Wood said in the opinion. “The legislation now before us respects and relies on that distinction.”
Ed Sullivan, a lobbyist for the Illinois State Rifle Association, said gun-rights advocates were not surprised by the decision, given the court’s political makeup, though only one of the three judges was appointed by a Democratic president. Sullivan said it’s likely that plaintiffs in one or more of the multiple cases consolidated in Friday’s opinion would seek a U.S. Supreme Court review, where he predicted victory.
At least eight other states and the District of Columbia have some sort of prohibition on semiautomatic weapons.
The law, adopted by a lame-duck session of the Legislature in January, prohibits the possession, manufacture or sale of semiautomatic rifles and high-capacity magazines. It takes effect Jan. 1, 2024.
Known as the Protect Illinois Communities Act, it bans dozens of specific brands or types of rifles and handguns, .50-caliber guns, attachments and rapid-firing devices. No rifle will be allowed to accommodate more than 10 rounds, with a 15-round limit for handguns.
Those who own such guns and accessories when the law was enacted have to register them, including serial numbers, with the Illinois State Police. That process began Oct. 1.
The Illinois Supreme Court upheld the law on a 4-3 decision in August.
“The Protect Illinois Communities Act is a commonsense law that will keep Illinoisans safe,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said in a statement. “Despite constant attacks by the gun lobby that puts ideology over people’s lives, here in Illinois we have stood up and said ‘no more’ to weapons of war on our streets.”
Gun rights advocates have argued that it’s illogical to define semiautomatic guns as only suitable for the military. They say there are myriad reasons a homeowner would choose to protect family and property with an AR-15 as opposed to a handgun. And such semiautomatic weapons are the choice of many gun owners for sport shooting and hunting, they say.
Further, they note protections the U.S. Supreme Court issued in its June 2022 decision in a case known as Bruen for guns in “common use.” The AR-15 is one, they say, given the millions in U.S. households today. But the court noted that the gun’s popularity rocketed when the 10-year federal assault-weapon ban expired in 2004.
“Most of the AR-15s now in use were manufactured in the past two decades,” Wood wrote. “Thus, if we looked to numbers alone, the federal ban would have been constitutional before 2004 but unconstitutional thereafter.”
The House sponsor of the legislation, Rep. Bob Morgan, a Democrat from the Chicago suburb of Deerfield who attended the Highland Park 4th of July parade where the deadly shooting occurred, praised the decision and joined Pritzker in calling for congressional action.
“This law has already prevented the sales of thousands of assault weapons and high capacity magazines in Illinois, making our state safer,” Morgan said. “We must renew our calls for a nationwide ban on assault weapons and high capacity magazines in order to make mass shootings a thing of the past.”
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PPSh-41
Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, one of the world centers of gunmaking was the Belgian city of Liège, which sits on the banks of the Meuse River in the country’s Wallonia region. Today, this city still remains a prominent part of the worldwide firearm industry, as it still is the home of one of the world’s most-recognized gunmakers, Fabrique Nationale.
But FN is one of the last surviving remnants of what was once a diverse and thriving gun trade that produced everything from common military muskets to some of the finest sporting arms of the age. One of the longest-lived companies producing fine guns in Liège was the firm of Auguste Francotte, founded in the early years of the 19th century.
The cover page of A. Francotte’s 1990 catalog illustrates the company’s traditional approach to fine sporting arms. American Rifleman archives.
Like many Belgians in Liège, Francotte got his start in military guns, but turned to the production of fine sporting arms, which were produced by a highly skilled team of gunsmiths using traditional techniques. This traditional approach to gunmaking would remain a hallmark of the company and would continue to be the primary method by which Francotte sporting arms were made until the turn of the 21st century.
Remarkably, the Liège firm of A. Francotte would outlast many other Belgian makers, despite its adherence to traditional methods of manufacture. For much of the 19th century, guns were made by hand, with parts produced and fitted together by individual workers and gunsmiths into one-of-a-kind examples made to a general pattern. These parts could not interchange with parts in other guns, but by the end of the 19th century, production processes changed to meet the demands of military and commercial customers.
Even in the 1990s, Francotte’s gunsmiths used tools and techniques that were more familiar at the turn of the 19th century rather than the turn of the 21st century, as shown in the company’s marketing material. From American Rifleman archives.
In 1889, an order placed by the Belgian government for 150,000 Mauser rifles led more than a dozen Liege manufacturers to band together, creating Fabrique Nationale d’Armes de Guerre, literally translating to “National Factory of Weapons of War.” Francotte was one of these 18 companies to contribute towards the modernization of Liège armsmaking, but when it came to its own arms production, processes remained traditional and slow.
Despite this, a market clearly remained for Francotte’s products, as the company outlasted other Belgian makers that folded as the 20th century unfolded. American Rifleman tested one of Francotte’s fine side-by-side shotguns in January 1991, noting that “the only failing we could find was that the Francotte doesn’t fit any pocketbooks here.” At the time, this “entry-level” Francotte sporting arm carried a suggested price of $18,000.
Whereas modern makers offered specific models of arms, Francotte remained entirely traditional. Each gun was crafted to the unique requirements of its owner, who could specify the type of action, caliber or gauge, style and length of barrels and any number of options and embellishments. While a basic Francotte could be had for $18,000, guns with custom features and engraving could cost as much as $80,000 in the early 1990s.
As expensive as the guns could be, by the end of the millennium, Francotte was still producing about 100 fine sporting arms a year, but the business struggled. By the mid-20th century, competition from other makers who could produce finely built, yet more affordable, arms put pressure on the business. The Francotte family sold the company in 1973, but fierce competition from builders in England and Italy continued to hamper sales. By the end of the 1990s, only three employees remained.
Even up to the company’s dissolution, Francotte’s marketing materials illustrated the skill with which its team of gunsmiths and engravers could approach fine arms manufacture, as illustrated by the hand-engraved game scene shown above. From American Rifleman archives.
In November 1998, Tom Derksen, a Dutch entrepreneur and former professor of psychology, was an avid hunter who bought the Francotte firm in an attempt to save it from dissolution. In 1998, Derksen told the Dutch-language magazine Trends that staffing had increased to nine employees, and that he was optimistic about the future of the company.
“The demand for handcrafted shotguns is increasing every year,” he told the publication (translated from the original Dutch). “You can compare the trend with that in the watch or car industry. There, too, you see an increasing demand for increasingly beautiful, increasingly exclusive products.”
Despite Derksen’s optimism and the modernization of Francotte’s production, which had begun to incorporate machine-made parts into its traditional system of production, by 2001, the company had closed its doors, leaving a legacy of fine sporting arms that still graces the collections of hunters and sport shooters around the world.
Categories
The Guns of Bonnie and Clyde
The Real Bonnie and Clyde
“Bonnie and Clyde were pretty lookin’ people. But I can tell you, people, they were the devil’s children.” Georgie Fame, The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde
She was petite and pretty; he had boyish good looks. But their attractiveness belied a violent and criminal nature unmatched by any couple in American history. By the time the pair had met their violent end in 1934, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow had been suspected or accused of several killings, robberies, kidnappings, and a laundry list of petty crimes.
What Kind of Guns Did Bonnie & Clyde Use?
Early Life and Crimes
Clyde Barrow preferred carrying the Colt Model 1911 semi-auto pistol chambered in .45 ACP.
Nothing in Bonnie or Clyde’s backgrounds gave any indications of the extreme violence that would be their trademark as young adults.
Barrow was born into a poor farming family in Ellis County, Texas in 1909. His first arrest (for car theft) came when he was 17. Over the next few years, he would commit a variety of crimes that would eventually land him in state prison. He was paroled after two years and picked up where he had left off—robbing gas stations and grocery stores.
Bonnie Parker was born in Rowena, Texas in 1910. Although she was reportedly bright and a good student, Bonnie dropped out of school at the age of 15 and married her high school sweetheart. The marriage was short-lived, and when she met Barrow in 1930, she fell in love with him. Bonnie spent a few months in prison for a failed store robbery, so when they were both free of prison, they began their criminal careers in earnest.
Bonnie and Clyde: Folk Heroes or Villians?
The Barrow gang loved the concealability of sawn-off Remington Model 11 shotguns during robberies.
While the crime spree lasted only two years, over that short period, the duo teamed with various accomplices to rob several banks and stores across a five-state area—Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Louisiana, and Missouri. They were responsible for the deaths of thirteen law enforcement officers and civilians.
Early on, the couple enlisted several family members and friends into what would be called the Barrow Gang. Included in the gang were Barrow’s brother Buck and his wife, Blanche. W.D. Jones, Henry Methvin, and Raymond Hamilton, Barrow’s childhood buddy, were also among the criminals.
While much of the public in the mid-west acknowledged that the Barrow Gang was filled with dangerous outlaws, they also considered them to be folk heroes. After all, they reasoned, the gang was robbing those same banks that were foreclosing on so many Depression-era farmers. They saw Barrow and his cohorts as Robin-Hood figures instead of the cold-blooded killers they were.
Guns Of Bonnie and Clyde: Firepower Arsenal
The Barrow gang daringly robbed armories to pick up powerful .30 caliber Browning Automatic Rifles (BAR).
The Barrow Gang got involved in two shootouts with police, escaping both because of the massive firepower they displayed. Clyde’s extensive weapon collection began when a friend gave him two Browning Automatic Rifles (BARs), which had been taken from a Missouri National Guard Armory. The BAR gave him the firepower he wanted, while the .30-caliber rounds it fired could penetrate the body of an automobile.
Barrow would go on to rob two armories himself, adding more BARs, shotguns, Colt 1911 pistols, M1917 revolvers, and plenty of ammunition to his collection. He and his gang also added weapons by robbing hardware stores and taking guns from police and bank guards they had either killed or kidnapped.
While Clyde favored the BAR—and got the lion’s share of press attention from it—Bonnie was never far from her shotgun. Her choice was a Remington semiautomatic short-barrel Model 11 with the stock cut off just behind the pistol grip. The couple had several photos taken with her wielding the shotgun playfully.
Bonnie and Clyde Death: Sudden and Brutal
Legend has it, Bonnie concealed a .38 Colt Detective Special, taped to her thigh when authorities ambushed and killed her.
“The future’s uncertain and the end is always near.” Jim Morrison, The Doors
Bonnie and Clyde were living on borrowed time. The Texas Department of Corrections had hired former Texas Ranger Captain Frank A. Hamer to hunt down the Barrow Gang. Hamer then gathered two Dallas County Sheriff’s Deputies, a Bienville Parish Sheriff and his deputy, plus another retired Texas Ranger, Maney Gault, to assist him.
Like many of the gangsters from the 1930s, Bonnie and Clyde’s relatively short crime spree was about to come to a bloody end. After studying Barrow’s movements carefully, Hamer was able to predict where the outlaw would travel next. The ex-Ranger surmised that the gang was due for a visit to Henry Methvin’s father near Bienville Parish, Louisiana and set a trap for them.
Hamer and Gault approached Ivy Methvin with a proposition: Help us to kill Bonnie and Clyde, and we’ll go easy on your son. He agreed, and set up the ambush on May 23, 1934, along a country road. Hamer asked Ivy to park his truck along the route. He jacked up the truck with the wheel removed. When Barrow slowed down to ask if he could help his friend’s father, the lawmen opened fire.
The Guns That Killed Bonnie and Clyde
Frank Hamer never even considered the possibility of taking Parker and Barrow alive, so he armed himself with a .30-caliber Remington Model 8 rifle. His men wielded a .35-caliber Model 8, a Model 94 Winchester, a .25-caliber Model 8, and a BAR. Some of them were armed with Remington Model 11 shotguns. And all of them carried handguns.
The first shots from the automatic rifles struck Clyde in the head, and he died instantly. The men emptied their rifles and continued to fire on the car with the shotguns. As the vehicle continued to drift down the road, the men also used their pistols as the smoking car ran into a ditch.
Hamer and his men had fired more than 130 rounds into the 1930 Ford. 17 of them struck Bonnie while another 27 hit Clyde. The guns of Bonnie and Clyde were recovered. Bonnie’s Model 11 shotgun was on the floor near her feet. She taped a .38 Colt Detective Special revolver to her thigh, and the agents found a Colt .25 automatic in her purse. Some say Clyde was carrying a 1911 pistol, but others insist it was a .45-auto M1909 Colt revolver.
The Legend of Bonnie and Clyde
The six-shot M1917 revolver in .45 ACP served as a powerful handgun in both World Wars.
“They both robbed and killed until both of them died. So goes the Legend of Bonnie and Clyde.” Merle Haggard, The Legend Of Bonnie and Clyde
Bonnie and Clyde remain alive today in some ways. 85 years after their demise, thanks to the movies, books, songs, and even a Broadway show dedicated to their story. And most of these glorify two ruthless killers who were seemingly bereft of conscience and never hesitated to murder those who stood in their way.
Part of the continuing obsession with the pair is explained by the producers of the latest Bonnie and Clyde film. The Highwaymen, a Netflix production, tells their story from the perspectives of Frank Hamer and Maney Gault. Says screenwriter John Fusco, “Nothing was as engaging as Bonnie and Clyde. The media glamorized the pair because of the Bonnie element — lovers on the run outside of society just really attracted the public.” And it still does today.
Starting with a Smith & Wesson Model 66 Bowen builds this
exquisite double action .327 Federal Magnum.
All of the dedicated sixgunners in my acquaintance have several things in common. Certainly not the least of which is having spent much time during their younger years staring at pictures of custom sixguns in Elmer Keith’s book Sixguns. Many of us have searched out his old articles from the 1920s and 1930s found in the American Rifleman. Early in our marriage, Dot and I had some tough times. I was attending college full time and working full time to provide for Dot and our three little kids. One of the many things which helped to keep me going was to be able to look at those pictures and dream of someday. Someday – when I would actually have such sixguns I could call my own.
All of the men and establishments connected with Elmer Keith and his custom sixguns, such as Harold Croft, E.F. Sedgley, J.D. O’Meara, Neal Houchins, King Gunsight Co. and the Gun Re-Blue Co., were long gone before us I could ever afford anything close to the work they provided. That’s the downside. The wonderful upside is the fact we have a dozen or more custom sixgunsmiths plying their trade today who are every bit as good, and probably even better.
At the top of this list is a southern gentleman, a man I am proud to have as a friend and fellow Shootist, Hamilton Bowen. Hamilton is not only a superb sixgunsmith he is also one of the most articulate fellows one is likely to encounter, and both of these skills are evident in his book The Custom Revolver. Add in the fact that he also has a superb sense of humor and has a book not only highly informative but oh so wonderfully readable. Education, which is enjoyable and painless seems, to last much longer.
Hamilton’s formal education consists of majoring in history and English in college, then graduating from Trinidad Gunsmithing School, and in recent years, actually graduating from law school. All of these combined affect his outlook on life as well as his custom gunsmithing, and he is especially driven by his love of history, which is reflected in some of his custom sixguns inspired by the old classics. Who else but Hamilton would use a Ruger Redhawk to build a modern version of the S&W 1917 double action revolver of World War I?
Obviously Hamilton has also been captivated by those old custom sixguns of Elmer Keith and Harold Croft. He has carried out many of Croft’s lightweight sixgun ideas on single actions such as hollowed out recoil shields and loading gates; also stepped down shapes on frames all of which reduce weight.
Hamiton Bowen uses the Ruger 50th Anniversary Model .357 Blackhawk as
the platform for this exquisite .327 Federal conversion.
Both of these Bowen .327 Federal Magnum conversions started life
as Ruger .32 Magnum Single-Sixes.
The New Guy
I first met Hamilton in the mid-1980s when he was just getting started. At a Shootist Holiday I experienced two of his first custom sixguns. They were not only a first for me, I would bet they were the first examples built by anyone.
One was a .500 Linebaugh on a Ruger Redhawk while the other was a .44 Special on a Ruger Security-Six or GP100, can’t remember which at this late date. Hamilton was also the first, at least as far as I know, to match up Dan Wesson Heavyweight barrels with Ruger Redhawks.
In recent years Ruger has finally offered a 4″ Redhawk chambered in either a .45 Colt or .44 Magnum. Many years ago Hamilton, seeing the value of a Redhawk as a Perfect Packin’ Pistol, began offering the Alpine Redhawk with a 4″ barrel, round butt and special sights.
Innovation is a key word at Bowen Classic Arms. When something desirable isn’t available, Hamilton simply builds it himself. An example of this is his adjustable rear sight for Ruger sixguns. These are offered in both a Heavy-Duty Field sight as well as a version with finer click adjustments. Testimonial to how good these sights are is the fact several other sixgunsmiths are offering them with their custom work.
In addition to these sights Hamilton also offers high visibility sights for S&W J-frames. I also believe Hamilton was the first sixgunsmith in modern times to start putting lanyard rings on revolvers. There exists many a sad tale of sixguns lost by those on horseback, hiking in rough country, even canoeing. Something as simple as a lanyard ring and cord used properly can prevent the loss of a valuable sixgun.
One of the most practical custom sixguns is a Ruger Three-Screw .357 Blackhawk converted to .44 Special. By starting with either a Flap-Top Ruger as produced from 1955 to 1962 or the Old Model of 1963 to 1972, one winds up with a Colt Single Action-sized .44 Special with adjustable sights and a virtually indestructible action. Hamilton has done several of these for me, including a matched pair of 45/8″ blued versions stag-stocked, and a matte blue finished heavy-duty hard country, packin’ pistol. My Long Range Bowen .44 Special wears a 71/2″ barrel. These are certainly some of the finest .44 Specials in existence.
One of the best investments I ever made was to provide two Colt Single Actions for Hamilton to use as the first examples of the greatest of the classic single action sixguns for him to experiment with. I provided the guns; he provided the work. At the onset of this project he warned me things may not turn out right, but I had seen enough of his work to know I was in good hands.
Those two Colt Single Actions are now fitted with custom barrels and unfluted custom cylinders. One is a 51/2″ .41 Special with standard sights, and it was only the first of my Bowen .41s. He has since converted a 4″ S&W Model 586 to a double action only .41 and has also used a Ruger Flat-Top .357 to build an exquisite 45/8″ .41 Special complete with case colored frame and set off with mouthwatering fancy walnut stocks by my friend Tedd Adamovich of BluMagnum. Sixguns do not come any better looking, or shooting, than this one.
Ruger’s 45/8″ .32 Magnum Single-Six compared to Hamilton Bowen’s .327 Federal conversion.
Keith Brown duplicates the Combat Magnum stocks of the 1950s in fancy walnut.
Hamilton Bowen’s 71/2″ .327 Federal on a Ruger Single-Six; note the Bowen
rear sight, Bisley hammer, and Turnbull case coloring
Ruger’s 50th Anniversary Model .357 is large enough to allow a conversion
using both .327 Federal and .32-20 cylinders.
The .327 Magnum
With the advent of the .327 Federal Magnum, Hamilton has what can be considered a modernized .32-20 to work with to build some very beautiful and practical single action sixguns. This new cartridge is just enough shorter than the .32-20 so the New Model Ruger Single-Six can be used as the basic platform for building a 21st century version of the 19th century varmint sixgun; the .327 Federal can do everything the .32-20 can do and does it with stronger brass.
It has been my good pleasure for the past month to work with a pair of Bowen Custom Arms Single-Sixes. Hamilton starts with a Ruger Single-Six in .32 Magnum which he says “are in my view, the natural home for the .327 in a single-action. The cylinder diameter is adequate for six-shots and only has to be longer. No receiver modifications are necessary. Factory ammo will work fine as well as most suitable cast bullets.”
The two are basically the same except for the barrels. Hamilton and I both like 71/2″ barrels on classic-style single-actions. For me 71/2″ single actions balance the best and are the easiest to shoot. The 71/2″ .327 Single-Six conversion features a line-bored cylinder, which is both fluted and black powder chamfered; the latter is one example of Hamilton’s appreciation for history as this is the way the early Colt Single Actions had their cylinders radiused on the front edge.
Of course, the action is totally tuned, trigger pull set at just a hair over three pounds, a Bisley hammer is fitted, the frame is color cased by Turnbull, a steel ejector rod housing is installed, an oversized locking base pin fitted, and a BCA heavy-duty rear field sight is matched up with a serrated front ramp sight. A final touch, and one which makes this an all steel sixgun, is the fitting of an XR3 grip frame and Black Eagle grips from a Ruger 50th Anniversary Model. This latest rendition of the XR3 feels exceptionally comfortable in my hands and works well for .44 Special and .45 Colt loads also.
Hamilton’s second .327 Single-Six is virtually the same except for the barrel. Hamilton’s use of Dan Wesson barrels on Redhawks was mentioned earlier; this time he uses a Smith & Wesson barrel to give this little Single-Six a totally different look and feel. Starting with a ribbed K22 barrel, Hamilton machines off the underlug, re-bores it to .327, cuts it to 45/8″, and installs it along with a steel ejector rod housing. Custom sixgunsmiths in the period between the two world wars often fitted ribbed barrel to Colt Single Actions; this one matches up beautifully with the Single-Six frame. On this little .327 the front sight is an undercut post and a really nice touch is the installation of a lanyard ring.
Above & Below: Targets shot using .32 Magnum ammo in Bowen’s 45/8″ .327
Federal Single-Six exhibits the versatiltiy of this little sixgun.
Factory ammo tested in the Bowen sixguns included Speer 115 GD, American Eagle 100 FP, and Federal 85 JHP in .327 Federal and Black Hills .32 Magnum 85 JHP.
Bowen’s .327 conversions will handle .32 S&W, .32 S&W Long, .32 H&R Magnum, and .327 Federal, and with an extra cylinder, .32-20.
Two More
Along with the two Single-Sixes, I received two other .327 conversions destined to go to two of Hamilton’s customers. One of the best sixguns to come along in this still relatively new century has been Ruger’s 50th Anniversary .357 Magnum Blackhawk. It is the same size as the original Ruger .357 Blackhawk, uses the original sized XR3 grip frame, and is all steel. Hamilton uses this platform for a dual cylindered .32-20 and .327 Federal.
To easily distinguish between the two chamberings the .32-20 is fluted while the .327 cylinder is not; both are expertly fitted to the frame, which has a 51/2″ Douglas barrel. The front sight is a tapered post on a ramp and is matched up with one of Hamilton’s heavy-duty field rear sights. The hammer and frame are case colored by Turnbull, a locking large knurled head base pin is fitted, the action is tightened and tuned, and the trigger pull set at 21/2 pounds.
Finally we come to Hamilton’s double action .327 Federal. This conversion starts with a 4″ Model 617 .22 barrel which is re-bored and the full under-lugged barrel is fitted to a Model 66-2 frame which then receives a Model 617 cylinder chambered to .327 Federal Magnum. Everything is tightened and tuned, the single action trigger pull set at three pounds, and an undercut front post of the proper height fitted to the ramp on the Model 617 barrel. There was a time when Smith & Wesson produced usable target stocks and especially so for the K-Frames; those days are long gone. However, this .327 conversion wears a pair of exquisite “diamond” Smith & Wesson Target stocks not by Smith & Wesson but rather are perfect recreations of original S&W .357 Combat Magnum stocks carried out in fancy walnut by stockmaker Keith Brown, who not only duplicates early Smith & Wesson Target and Magna stocks but classic Roper and Kearsarge pre-War stocks as well. A great sixgun deserves great stocks and Keith Brown simply makes great stocks! That’s why Hamilton uses them.
For more info: Bowen Classic Arms, (865) 984-3583, www.bowenclassicarms.com; Federal Cartridge Co., www.federalcartridge.com; Keith Brown