Another RKBA Hit Piece: ...Semiautomatic rifles such as the AK-47 and AR-15 - commonly called assault rifles - are favorites of the warring drug cartels in Mexico, which get most of their weapons in the U.S. and smuggle them south, says the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, commonly known as ATF. Firearms traffickers find it relatively easy to come to the U.S. and buy the high-powered weapons that fuel the billion-dollar drug-smuggling trade. There are two reasons for that: First, U.S. gun laws are rooted in the Constitution's Second Amendment, which protects the rights of U.S. citizens to keep and bear arms. That make it easier to buy guns here than in Mexico. Second, the principal agency assigned to stop criminal purchases, ATF, is grossly understaffed... (I'll bet that VPC did not have to pay for this ad. F Troops's phony chart of "Firearms of Choice" [enlarge by clicking] erroneously lists the FN Five-seveN pistol as FN-57. While this pistol is presumably valued by Mexican drug gangs for its ability to shoot through police soft body armor, the armor-piercing rounds required to do that are not sold to private citizens in the US.) http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/298845 --- From John Farnam: 22 June 09 News from Israel, from an American Soldier who just returned from R&R there: "The fact that Israel is a country surrounded by terrorism-supporting states was immediately evident upon my arrival! Israeli citizens are openly armed, routinely, carrying handguns and military rifles, in public. No one cares about being 'low-profile' in Israel! I saw lots of Czech CZs and G19s. The rifle I saw carried most by civilians was the M1 Carbine! Military and Police all carry American-made M4s. Most manual safeties I saw were in the 'off' position. I don't know if rounds were chambered or not, but I suspect not. In Israel, they like carrying with chambers empty. Finger/trigger discipline was poor! Security personnel are everywhere, even at entrances to restaurants and hotels. Photographing police officers and military personnel, and installations, is strictly prohibited. Service in the IDF is mandatory for all young Israelis, starting at the age of seventeen. I observed many extremely young-looking IDF personnel, men and women, all carrying M4s in public. Locals I talked with were extremely concerned about what they perceive as abject abandonment by the USA and its current Administration." Comment: Free men bear arms. Let it always be so in Israel, and here! /John (The US provided Israel with lots of M1 Carbines as they became surplus from WWII around the time that Israel was recognized as a nation. They do not appear to have been used by the IDF and a great many were shipped back to the US when the ban on the reimportation of Lend Lease firearms was rescinded, in the early 90's. Israel appears to have set the Carbines aside for civilian use, in their program of allowing military veterans to sign out long guns from police armories. Much of the Israeli firearms doctrine, at least for handguns, derives from the Fairbairn-Sykes system, which was taught to British Commandos and American Rangers in WWII. Unfortunately, the Israelis appear to have fixated on the weakest aspects of that system - empty-chamber carry and keeping the finger on the trigger before acquiring the target and deciding to fire.) 27 June 09 Kahr P380 I used my copy of Kahr's wonderful P380 Pistol at a Course last week in WY. There is nothing not to like! It has useable sights, and a virtuoso trigger. It is no bigger, nor thicker, than a Kel-Tec/LCP. And, it runs! We cycled several hundred rounds of Cor-Bon 90gr HP and DPX through it, and all went through with nary a hiccup. I am currently using the P380 as a backup. It fits perfectly in an Uncle Mike's pocket liner. The only real problem I have is getting it away from my wife! Of all mini-380s currently available, Kahr's tops the List. Recommended! (After becoming disillusioned with my first handgun, a .380 Walther PPK - a pistol that would likely have faded into obscurity had it not been for its fictional James Bond role, I also became less than enthusiastic about the .380 ACP [9x17mm] cartridge. Since the advent of Kahr's 9x19mm pistols, I have argued that I see no need to step down to the power level of the 9x17mm when Kahr offers the more powerful chambering in very manageable pistols that are smaller than many .380's. Recently, however, I was challenged by an older student whose shoulder injury prevents him from raising a handgun to the sighting plane with his dominant hand. He found the straight-backstrap configuration of a pistol to be more ergonomic for him than the curved-backstrap configuration of a revolver. He also found that even when shooting from the half hip and three-quarter hip positions, the recoil from the 9x19mm cartridge was too painful for his injured shoulder. When we tried switching the gun to his non-dominant hand, we found that an old injury to the trigger finger on that side made a conventional double-action trigger impractical and the only single-action pistol I had in 9x19mm has a thumb safety that can only be operated by the right hand. This is one of the few students to whom I would recommend a .380, albeit at the expense of losing the ballistic punch to damage pelvic bone. While his budget is more in line with Kel-Tec's P-3AT, I suspect that the real answer for him would be the Kahr P380, whose short, light-stroke double-action trigger he would be more likely to be able to operate in either hand. Perhaps by the time that he has set aside the extra money for this pistol [a] it will be fully debugged and [b] .380 ammo will again be on the shelves.) -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .