My passion for firearms began with an illustrated encyclopedia of weapons my older brother bought when I was a teenager. I found myself fascinated by the brutish yet refined mechanical workings of the firearms contained therein and, perhaps to an even greater degree, the stories surrounding them. It made it worth enduring the torture of my brother each time he realized the book had gone missing. (Note: I still love him dearly.)
This same strangely stubborn obsession continues today, where I can now employ my training as a storyteller to bring these tales-of-the-gun, and their more practical applications, to others. While my special areas of interest are modern handguns and bullpup rifles, I can never say no to a firearm or a story that really captures my imagination.
Firearms Industry Newcomer in the Running to Replace the Army’s M4A1 CarbineThough it might seem unlikely, a plucky newcomer in the firearms world is generating buzz in its bid to replace the military’s iconic M4A1 carbine. Maryland-based Adcor has entered the BEAR, short for Brown Enhanced Automatic Rifle, into the U.S Army’s Individual Carbine (IC) competition, which was put forward by Program Executive Office Soldier (an [...]
California Town Bucks Trend and Opens Up to Gun StoresWith a 4-1 vote to allow gun stores in the town’s small commercial area, Mammoth Lakes, CA proved last Friday that even in states where restrictions on firearms are heavy, common sense can still prevail. The small resort town, which as of 2010 had a population of around 8,200, is located in the Eastern Sierras [...]
Blind New Jersey Man Finally Given Back Firearms CollectionLast Friday a state judge ruled that Steve Hopler, a 49-year-old legally blind New Jersey man, is to have his gun collection returned to him from the Rockaway Township police. This latest ruling is one in only a string of legal scuffles over the enthusiastic collector’s Second Amendment rights. Hopler’s troubles started three years after [...]
CNBC and the Battle Over the Remington 700While Remington and CNBC scuffle in the mainstream media over ostensible issues with the fire control group used in the 870 and several other long guns, it’s equally important that consumers are given the chance to look back at the company’s last major public relations issue brought on by CNBC: the 2010 accusation that, for [...]
The SA80 Rifle: Britain’s Prodigal SonIt looks like the disjointed love-child of an AK-47 and the AR-18. Its original iteration was notorious for relentless jams in inclement conditions. It has been adopted for service by fewer countries than the number of fingers on a hand. And it will cost you close to $3,000 to own its clone-cousin, the PL-85, in [...]
STG-556: The Last American AUGNow that Microtech Small Arms Research (more commonly referred to as MSAR) has passed the sixth month anniversary of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy and appears to be, by all accounts, completely defunct, a retrospective is in order for the company’s sole and decidedly polarizing firearm, the STG-556. MSAR and the STG-556′s origins MSAR was originally [...]
