Rich, Black, Flunking
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009
I would go & pretend that I was on Safari and the Cat was a Lion. (I really hate Cats by the Way!)
It was a Glorious time while it lasted.
(Photo: DW.com)
A German court ruled last week that gun manufacturer Heckler & Koch will not be required to compensate Berlin for what the German military claimed were faulty G36 infantry rifles.
German soldiers in the Middle East have been reporting since 2010 that the rifles fail to shoot straight in hot weather or when the barrels become hot after extended periods of rapid firing, according to a report from Reuters.
Anecdotal evidence of the weapon’s inaccuracy was confirmed in a 2015 study by the Fraunhofer Institute for High-Speed Dynamics, according to German media outlet DW. The study revealed that the G36’s observed hit rate at a distance of 100 meters drops to just 7 percent in temperatures over 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit).
Despite this evidence, the court ruled in Heckler & Koch’s favor because the company’s firearms still complied with the specifications the government originally requested in its original order—20 years ago. Germany has been using the G36 since 1996, at which time the military was performing few if any operations in the Middle East. Now, as the sites of engagement have changed, the rifle’s performance has suffered under the much hotter conditions.
“The fact that the requirements for a weapon change over the course of 20 years is normal,” said Sebastian Schulte, a defense analyst and Germany correspondent for a military magazine Jane’s Defense Weekly. “A weapon is just a tool, like a hammer or a drill, and if the conditions on the construction site change, then you have to review the tool.”
The G36 was designed in the late 80s when its likeliest use appeared to be in Central Europe, fending off a Soviet invasion. “In other words, for a specific scenario under the climatic conditions you have in Europe,” said Schulte. “If you then take the rifle to Afghanistan, as the [German military] did, starting in 2002, then, of course, you have different operational and climatic conditions.”
The court found that Heckler & Koch met the specifications set out in the original purchase contracts and passed the quality and acceptance specifications. So even though the rifles failed in combat, the court ruled, the company did not violate the terms of its agreement.
Understandably, the German government remains unconvinced. The German defense ministry told Reuters it plans to appeal the ruling.
“If the court bases today’s decision on the same dubious arguments as it gave before the summer, then the relevant government office will appeal,” a ministry spokesman said.
Heckler & Koch, meanwhile, said it still plans to participate in the competition for Germany’s next rifle contract, which should be awarded in the next two years.
“We make the world’s best assault rifle. Many armies in the western world use our weapons. We are already looking forward to the German army’s assault rifle tender, in which we will again prove our performance,” the company said in a statement.
On Thursday of this week, more than 70,000 New York pistol permit holders woke up as felons. Law-breakers.
What was their crime? They didn’t register their handguns with the state. Now, why on God’s green earth would they have to do that?
Emperor Gov. Andrew Cuomo rammed through the NY Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act in 2013. This insidious law requires pistol permit holders to register their handguns and recertify their licenses every five years. Failure to do so is a Class E felony.
The objective was clear. Build a massive central database of every handgun owner in New York. Not only who they are and where they live, but what handguns they have in their possession. Hmmm. Why would a government want to know which citizens are armed? I’ll leave you to answer that.
“We’ll have for the first time a statewide handgun database that will allow the state, allow local officials to check periodically,” Cuomo said while pitching the SAFE Act, adding, “You don’t want criminals and people who are mentally ill to have guns.”
Just to be clear, the trooper in the video above says that criminal possession of a firearm is “a misdemeanor,” not a felony. Well, according to this screenshot from the SAFE Act, it is a Class E Felony. Goes to show you that even law enforcement is confused about what is what. I also like how he said there’s a “good chance” if you missed the deadline that your permit will be revoked. Contradicts the messaging that you won’t be penalized for late registration. Right. You’ll just lose your permit altogether.
Right, because violent criminals and murderous madmen register their firearms. And to catch these evildoers, all police are going to have to do is consult this handy-dandy database. Crime fighting at its finest.
For over 370,000 New Yorkers, all of whom were issued a permit before the rollout of the SAFE Act, the deadline to recertify was Jan. 31, 2018. This past Wednesday. Estimates suggest that only 300,000 followed through with the mandate. Meaning, approximately 70,000 or more did not.
SEE ALSO: This New York Senator Has Vowed to Kill the Hearing Protection Act
To calm the nerves of worried gun owners, state police have said they will not prosecute those who “unknowingly” missed the deadline.
“The state police are not going to penalize those people who fail to recertify unknowingly by the deadline,” saidBeau Duffy, Director of Public Information for New York State Police.
“What we’re going to do is continue to accept recertifications past the deadline,” he added. “We want to make sure everyone is aware and has the opportunity to recertify so we can have the best records possible.”
Okay, so the state police aren’t going to punish people for “unknowingly” missing the deadline — at least for now. But what about the county judges and officers in charge of issuing permits? Don’t forget, New York is a May-Issue state. Permits are issued at the discretion of county judges – not state police. How will these county officials respond to those who missed the deadline? Will they start pulling permits?
“It’s in the law but I don’t want to speculate how they’re going to move forward on it,” Duffy said. “It would be up to each office to make that decision.”
Let’s unpack that. Duffy has no idea how your local county official is going to respond. That judge may revoke your permit. He may not. Glad we cleared that up.
To state the obvious. This is a disaster. The whole thing. And I didn’t even say how much it’s costing taxpayers. You ready for this? $28 million, according to NPR. Wow! Talk about a giant waste of money.
My favorite aspect of this whole SNAFU is this answer on the Q&A page of SafeAct.NY.Gov. The question reads: Will permit holders’ guns be confiscated if they can’t prove they recertified?
The Answer:
To be clear, the State Police will not be confiscating weapons from those permit holders who fail to recertify by January 31st. This provision was never intended to be a “Gotcha” for pistol permit holders. It was included in the law that was passed by the legislature and signed by the Governor in order to update the accuracy of both state and local records. To that end, the State Police will continue to accept recertifications throughout 2018 while we continue to update the database.
What a lie! This whole system is a “gotcha” scheme. As Cuomo said, it’s for police to “check periodically…” What are they checking for if not to confiscate guns from those who shouldn’t have them?
Watch what happens down the road. Two or three years from now. State police will be checking the list regularly for people with expired licenses. Why? Because they’re felons under the law. They are guilty of criminal possession of a firearm. Consequently, their guns will have to be seized.
H&K – The Protest is Over: USMC fields M27 IAR — SHOT Show 2018
H&K had some small announcements for SHOT Show 2018, as well as a big one. First things, first — let’s talk about the rifle.
USMC Shoots H&K
The protest period has ended, which means H&K has officially received the contract for the USMC to replace the M4 carbines.
The H&K model selected is the M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle, a derivative of the famous H&K 416. The M27 features a 16-inch barrel. This is important for the velocity needed to make 5.56 lethal at that range.
It is nice to see the Jarheads getting some nice toys, and some thought put into small arms.
SPECS:
- Cartridge: 5.56 NATO
- Barrel length: 16 in.
- Weight: 7.9 lbs.
- Gas-operated fully automatic
- Unit price: $3,000
- Overall length: 33 in. – 36.3 in.
- Manufacturer: H&K
H&K Moves to GA
The biggest news is a new H&K factory being built in Georgia, not far from Fort Benning. H&K USA will be designing and building guns directly for the US market in the US now, a huge step.
H&K has always had a small but fanatical following, at least in the US. But all the guns they sold were basically military models changed to meet civilian legal requirements. It was a huge deal the first time H&K built a pistol with a US-style magazine release.
Now, we can look forward to weapons built specific to the US market, our preferred styles are taken into account. This is going to be nothing but positive for H&K, and I can’t wait to see the first one stamped “ Made in Georgia”.
For more information about H&K, click here.
Isegoria
From the ancient Greek for equality in freedom of speech; an eclectic mix of thoughts, large and small
Well-to-do black parents in Shaker Heights invited Nigerian-born UC Berkeley Anthropology Professor John Ogbu to study why their children were dramatically underperforming in school — and they did not like what he found:
It wasn’t socioeconomics, school funding, or racism, that accounted for the students’ poor academic performance; it was their own attitudes, and those of their parents.
Ogbu concluded that the average black student in Shaker Heights put little effort into schoolwork and was part of a peer culture that looked down on academic success as “acting white.”
Although he noted that other factors also play a role, and doesn’t deny that there may be anti black sentiment in the district, he concluded that discrimination alone could not explain the gap.
“The black parents feel it is their role to move to Shaker Heights, pay the higher taxes so their kids could graduate from Shaker, and that’s where their role stops,” Ogbu says during an interview at his home in the Oakland hills.
“They believe the school system should take care of the rest. They didn’t supervise their children that much. They didn’t make sure their children did their homework. That’s not how other ethnic groups think.”
Ogbu sees a tremendous difference between voluntaryand involuntary immigrants:
“Blacks say Standard English is being imposed on them,” he says. “That’s not what the Chinese say, or the Ibo from Nigeria. You come from the outside and you know you have to learn Standard English, or you won’t do well in school.
And you don’t say whites are imposing on you. The Indians and blacks say, ‘Whites took away our language and forced us to learn their language. They caused the problem.’”
Ogbu’s own experience underlines this distinction:
The son of parents who couldn’t read, he grew up in a remote Nigerian village with no roads. His father had three wives and seventeen children with those women. Ogbu has a difficult time explaining his own academic success, which has earned him numerous accolades throughout his career. He did both undergraduate and graduate work at Berkeley and has never left.
When pressed, he says he believes his own success primarily stems from being a voluntary immigrant who knew that no matter how many hurdles he had to overcome in the United States, his new life was an improvement over a hut in Nigeria with no running water.
Involuntary immigrants don’t think that way, he says. They have no separate homeland to compare things to, yet see the academic demands made of them as robbing them of their culture. Ogbu would like to see involuntary immigrants, such as the black families in Shaker Heights, think more like voluntary immigrants. In doing that, he says, they’d understand that meeting academic challenges does not “displace your identity.”
That is one massive piece of steel there in the form of the bolt!
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Winchester Model 71
Now I owned one of these Fine Old School Guns a while ago. But as you have no doubt guessed by now. It’s gone! So let us take a break while I kick myself again. OUCH, Okay I am back!
Okay now here is what I have learned from the rifle.
They are very hard to find and get ammo for it. A lot of times in a situation like this. I have to go to the internet. In Order to feed this Puppy. 
This round has a good punch & I would use it against anything walking in North America.
Also as is with all Winchester Lever Actions. The major weak point of this rifle.
Is the rear sight. I myself had to put on an aftermarket Peep Sight.
Which made all the difference in my patterns to a much higher level.
Here is some more Information below.
Thanks
Grumpy
The Model 71 is a slightly modified version of the 1886, chambered exclusively in .348, and rarely .33 WCF & .45-70. It was the only rifle ever chambered in .348 (other than 400 rifles chambered for the .348 in the Cimarron 1885 Hi-Wall in 2005-06). The Model 71 is an interesting gun to begin with, and this one even more so because of the pre-WWII production (2nd Year), only 4 guns were made the first year.
Winchester Model 71
| Winchester Model 71 | |
|---|---|
| Type | Lever-action rifle |
| Place of origin | United States |
| Production history | |
| Manufacturer | Winchester, Browning |
| Produced | Winchester: 1935 to 1958, Browning: 1987 (limited edition) |
| Specifications | |
| Cartridge | .348 Winchester |
| Action | Lever-action |
The Winchester Model 71 was a lever-action rifle introduced in 1935[1] and discontinued in 1958.
Description[edit]
A slightly modified version of the Browning designed Winchester Model 1886, it was only chambered for the .348 Winchester round; except for an extremely rare .45-70 Government and .33 WCF it was also (other than 400 rifles chambered for the .348 in the Cimarron 1885 Hi-Wall in 2005-06) the only firearm that ever used that cartridge. The Model 71 was conceived as a replacement for both the Model 1886 and Model 1895 as a complement to the Winchester Model 70 bolt-action rifle and to replace a raft of cartridges (the .33 Winchester, the .45-70, the .35 Winchester, and the .405 Winchester) with just one (the .348 Winchester).[2] The rifle and cartridge were very effective against any North American big game in heavy timber, including the great bears, if using the 250-grain (16 g) bullet. It was once very popular for hunting in Canada and Alaska.
Unfortunately, economics caused the rifle to be very expensive, and with less costly lever action rifles available in common and fairly powerful rounds such as .35 Remington, and the growing popularity of cheap bolt-actions in military and Magnum chamberings, the Winchester 71 with its excellent but unique cartridge was destined for commercial oblivion. The .348 was also the only 34 caliber cartridge ever made by an American manufacturer and essentially the first short magnum cartridge, making it a little problematic for handloaders, as there was never a wide selection of 34 caliber bullets.
Cartridges of the World remarks that factory ammunition was available in 150, 200 and 250-grain (16 g) weights. Only the 200-grain (13 g) weight is still available in factory ammunition.
Browning re-issued the Model 71 as a limited edition in the mid 1980s. The Winchester and Browning versions showed very high degrees of craftsmanship.
As of August, 2013, the Winchester Repeating Arms website again lists model 71s as available, new from the factory.
The Winchester Model 71 still has a loyal following for what is arguably “the finest big bore lever gun that has ever been” as well as being used as a strong and solid platform for various ‘wildcat’ projects.
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