Shown above is the newest piece of genuis to emerge from Kel-Tec firearms.  Called the RFB (Rifle, Forward ejecting, Bullpup) this .308 (7.62x51 Nato) rifle is a whopping 26 1/4 inches long while featuring a 16 1/2 inch barrel.  The bullpup layout has long been controversial, namely because the ejection path often meant that the weapon would only be suitable for right handed shooters.  Kel-Tec following in the footsteps of FN figured that the best solution to the proble was to simply to use a tube paralell to the barrel and push the empties down it and out the front.  The amazing thing about this rifle is not however its ejection system, but rather its size.  It is smaller than many .223 (5.56 Nato) bullpups like the SA-80, FA-MAS or FN-2000.  The mold of large calibers coming in large packages is undone with this rifle, and that promises interesting posibilities for the future.(Kel-Tec has hinted at 6.5 Grendel and 6.8 SPC chamberings at some later date.)

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     Some guns become famous, some infamous, but a rare handful become iconic, and one of those is the SMLE or Short Magazine Lee Enfield aka smelly to the Brit and Commonwealth soldiers that carried her.  The melding of an American designed action courtesy of John Parrish Lee and rifling developed at RSA Enfield the rifle went through dozens of variations.  The one seen here is perhaps the definitive version.  Offically Rifle No.4 Mk. I, this gun saw a refinement of every aspect of the rifle, from the stock arrangement, sights, bayonet mounting system and bolt assembly with it unique interchangable bolt heads to control headspace.  Firing the equally iconic .303 round the SMLE made a fine reputation among its users, their allies and enemies, no mean feat.  After world war one someone noted that the Germans built the best sporting rifle, the Americans the best target rifle and the British the best battle rifle.

     This beauty was built by BSA Shirley in 1944 and came to me a number of years ago from the racks of a local gunshop.  She is a fine shooter and all matching except for a few Savage made parts she picked up during a postwar FTR (Factory Through Repair)  Ammo is handloaded match grade, using CCI large rifle primers, 55 grains of Varget powder in Winchester brass driving a 173 grain Sierra MatchKing hollow point.

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From AP via Fox News

     WASHINGTON —  District of Columbia officials said Monday they plan to petition the Supreme Court as they seek to defend the city's 30-year-old ban on most handguns.

     A federal appeals court panel struck down the law in March, rejecting the city's argument that the Second Amendment right to bear arms applied only to militias. The full appeals court refused to reconsider the decision in May. The law has remained in effect during the appeals process.

 Read it all here

     So D.C. goes for another bite of their losing apple, not surprising.  They fear that they will be looking at a mountain of lawsuits and massive settlements if they lose.  When the 2^nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the D.C. handgun ban was unconstitutional they effectively threw out all convictions under it since it went into affect in the 1970's.  What is even more disgusting than that is that they Mayor of D.C. is claiming that this piece of $h!t law has actually saved lives.  This when D.C. consistently has one of the highest murder rates and overall violent crime rates in the U.S.

     One of three things is going to happen here, the least likely is that D.C. wins on appeal.  The current court os decidedly conservative, and given that on conctitutional issues to which the U.S. government is not party to it is routine for the court to ask for the position of the U.S. from the solicitor general.  The current position is that the second amendment is an individual right and subject to the protection that entails.  Furthermore this case could well see the 2^nd amendment incorparted through the equal protection clause of the fourtteenth amendment, meaning that similar state laws would be struck down.  Even of that is not the case it will force those state to modify their laws to come into compliance with the standards the court will set for what is constituional.  The second option is D.C. loses yet again, this is probably what will happen (results detailed above) if it actually gets Cert**.  But the two scenarios above will only happe if the SCOTUS* agrees to hear the case, if they allow the 2^nd circuit ruling to stand is a victory, but a smaller one in that it means that SCOTUS agrees with the lower court ruling and finds no reason to reopen the matter, but the ruling will only be enforcable as precident in the 2^nd district, but it still sends a clear message to the other districts as to thinking of the court.  Now to watch and wait.

NRA  Go check it out, and join, they help make lawsuits like this possible.

*SCOTUS=Supreme Court Of The United States

**Cert.=Certiari, Latin for to hear, menaing that the court agrees to hear the case.  The Supreme Court hears only a couple hundred cases a year out of thousands of petitions.

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     I don't know what it is, but even though I own a couple of automatic pistols there is something that just draws me to revolvers.  Wether it is the simple elegance of their form and function, ruggedness and reliability or just that unidentifiable it that they have.  Some of the wheelguns I own are strictly utilitarian, like my Ruger GP-100, a strong modern design rendered in stainless steel.  But this gun has a different appeal, this Colt Police Positve Special was likely made in the late fifties from a design that dated back to the turn of the century and remained basically unaltered untill it was dropped in the mid seventies.  Made with lots of hand fitting and a fine hand polish this gun marks in many ways the end of an era.  An era when craftsmanship in the builing of revolvers was a necessity.

     While many today lament the end of such attention I certainly don't.  Modern production methods allow for parts to made with tolerances were impossible to conceive of in a era before computers and robotic manufacturing.  Metal alloys are stronger and more durable, coatings and finishes are more restitant to wear, sight are more precise, and reliabillity is at an all time high.  The craftsman maybe gone from the hardfitting* lines of modern gunmakers.  But his passing ushered in era of affordable, reliable and accurate firearms.

Additional photo below the fold.

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     There are few things that I enjoy more than anime and manga, one of them just happens to be guns.  Yeah I loves me some firepower, and I own quite a bit too.  For now I will avoid the long drawn out political diatribes and just show some glorious American* engineering and know how.

     This particular specimen is an M-1 Garand, or more properly US Rifle, Caliber 30, M-1.  She was made in early 1955 at the Springfield armory in Springfield Mass. and came to me as a USGI service grade from the CMP.

      Follow the link above to learn how to purchase M-1 Garand's, M-1903 Springfields and M-1 Carbines from the CMP.

*And yes I know that John Garand was a canadian.

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