Les Jones

Guns > Thursday Gun Links #19

Kim du Toit has a photographic review of the world's battle cartridges of the last century. We're talking major shrinkage.

mASS Backwards points to a little something extra for Massachusetts gun buyers.

SayUncle discovers that someone at the Chicago Tribune has realized the pointlessness of the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban.

New eBay rules on firearms-related auctions.

BATF rules for transferring firearms. Transfers within a state don't require a Federal firearms license (FFL).

Publicola has a good set of gun links. It's amazing how much good gun-related material is on the net.

Speaking of which, Jeff has the original weekly gun links, with his check on the bias.

Shotguns

And now the shotgun feature I promised.

Shotguns are often used in non-conventional roles. This Mossberg is used to project rescue lines.

The gun at right is a "master key," a shotgun attached to an M4/M16 rifle. The shotgun rounds are used to blast the hinges off of a door from the outside.

This is a great discussion of shotgun speed reloads. Check Zak Smith's pictures and this AVI movie.

Saiga shotguns are odd birds: semi-automatic shotguns based on the AK47 action. You can ask Guy how he likes his. (Say Uncle had the same links this morning, oddly enough. Or not so oddly, since we were looking at Saigas two weeks ago at the gun show, and we both know Guy.)

Knoxx has some of the most unusual shotgun accessories I've ever seen, including a 10-round drum magazine and a recoil-reducing folding stock.

Gun Movies and a Review of Thief (1981)

This Highroad thread looks at movies with good gunplay. Heat, Unforgiven, Usual Suspects, and Way of the Gun are all good movies that will appeal to shooters. I'm still trying to find a copy of Equilibrium.

Based on this thread on The High Road, I rented Thief over Memorial Day weekend. James Caan's performance as a thief who won't be told what to do by anyone is powerful and convincing as a punch in the gut.

Other casting decisions are, uh, less deft. A fresh-faced Jim Belushi early in his career plays a dim Italian wiseguy. Country music star Willie Nelson is cast as a prison-bound mobster. Nelson delivers his lines like he's reading them for the first time off an index card taped to James Caan's forehead.

Michael Mann wrote and directed Thief early in his career. More than a decade later he wrote and directed Heat, with a better cast and a stronger vision. Heat fans will notice the similarities in the two movies.

• A heart-to-heart conversation in a coffee shop.
• The police installing tracking devices in the crook's cars.
• A robbery assisted by intelligence, power saws, and wrecking bars.
• A dramatic scene with the bad guy drilling into a safe.
• A whispered, death bed conversation.
• Odd casting of music celebrities (though Tone Loc and Henry Rollins in Heat acquit themselves much better than Willie Nelson).
• The word "penologist," for Pete's sake.
• A criminal with a strong will who takes revenge at all costs.

As far as gun play, it's of small quantity but high quality. If you're a fan of James Caan or Heat, you shouldn't miss it.

Gun Pic of the Week: the Armalite AR-17 Shotgun

I didn't even know Armalite made shotguns. Armalite, of course, is best-known for the AR-15 assault rifle, and maybe the AR-7 Air Force survival rifle. The AR-17 was their attempt to enter the sporting shotgun market. The gun is made from aluminum, with a plastic stock. Here's a history and a review from someone who owns one.

Posted by lesjones