Viewpoints

BELLEVUE, Wash. – Legislation introduced June 22 by veteran anti-gun New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg is designed to expand his gun prohibition agenda under the cloak of national security, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation (Nasdaq: SWHC), parent company of Smith & Wesson Corp., today announced financial results for the fiscal year and the fourth fiscal quarter ended April 30, 2009.

NEW YORK -- When the New York Times is unhappy about guns, gun owners are usually laughing. See the paper's editorial, 'Politics of the Gun.' The bleating from the paper's gun haters will make any CCL holder guffaw. In that editorial, the NYT said:

Each of the cases now at the Court or on the way focuses focus singly, or mainly, on whether the Second Amendment individual right to have a gun for self-defense at home restricts gun control laws at the state and local government level, not just federal laws. It is an issue the Justices mentioned but did not decide in their rulng last Term in District of Columbia v. Heller, recognizing the new individual right “to keep and bear arms” at least in some private surroundings.

We promised GT readers an update on the A- grade we gave the Savage 30-06 AccuStock reviewed in the June issue. Last month, we said, 'The Savage 111FCNS 30-06 Springfield was easy to use, comparatively comfortable to shoot, easy to operate and easy to shoot well.…' But the grip cap fell off the gun—leaving a gaping hole—which didn’t affect function, but which certainly affected our perception of the gun’s quality. We added that, 'We’d buy this Savage; it very much deserves and gets this A-. If we get the stock resolved satisfactorily, we’ll let you know and bump that up to an A.'

We promised GT readers an update on the A- grade we gave the Savage 30-06 AccuStock reviewed in the June issue. Last month, we said, 'The Savage 111FCNS 30-06 Springfield was easy to use, comparatively comfortable to shoot, easy to operate and easy to shoot well.…' But the grip cap fell off the gun—leaving a gaping hole—which didn’t affect function, but which certainly affected our perception of the gun’s quality. We added that, 'We’d buy this Savage; it very much deserves and gets this A-. If we get the stock resolved satisfactorily, we’ll let you know and bump that up to an A.'

Regarding your test and D grade of the Fulton Armory UPR in the May issue, we received the rifle back and test-fired it without doing anything to it. That is, we simply took it out of the shipping box, ran a patch down the bore to clear any potential obstruction and then just shot it. Shot it with the mag Roger Eckstine received, and with some mags off the shelf, with round counts of 4, 9, and 19. We even shot it with one additional round forced into the mag (10 in the 9-round mag, 20 in the 19-round mag), and we even held it loosely (not against a hard backstop like a shoulder) which can cause short-stroking in semiautos), and still it fired every round, every way, flawlessly. Not a single malfunction. Not one. The rifle has not been disassembled, cleaned, lubed, nothing. I have instructed that it remain this way—untouched—so we can test it again, and again. For a rifle that reportedly functioned so poorly it could not even be used to complete your testing, a rifle that performed so horribly that you failed it in a public venue (by dropping it from the test) without any communication/question/elucidation as to possible causes from the manufacturer is simply incomprehensible to me.

Regarding your test and D grade of the Fulton Armory UPR in the May issue, we received the rifle back and test-fired it without doing anything to it. That is, we simply took it out of the shipping box, ran a patch down the bore to clear any potential obstruction and then just shot it. Shot it with the mag Roger Eckstine received, and with some mags off the shelf, with round counts of 4, 9, and 19. We even shot it with one additional round forced into the mag (10 in the 9-round mag, 20 in the 19-round mag), and we even held it loosely (not against a hard backstop like a shoulder) which can cause short-stroking in semiautos), and still it fired every round, every way, flawlessly. Not a single malfunction. Not one. The rifle has not been disassembled, cleaned, lubed, nothing. I have instructed that it remain this way—untouched—so we can test it again, and again. For a rifle that reportedly functioned so poorly it could not even be used to complete your testing, a rifle that performed so horribly that you failed it in a public venue (by dropping it from the test) without any communication/question/elucidation as to possible causes from the manufacturer is simply incomprehensible to me.

MOSCOW -- Irina Aervitz, vice president of the Federal News Service in Washington, had an interesting piece about Russian handgun ownership in the Moscow News newspaper. She wrote:

Louis Navellier has written on MSN Money: President Obama's nomination of federal appeals court Judge Sonia Sotomayor to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter heralds yet another victory for gun-makers. Yes, you read that right.

Charter Arms has released an explanation about why the company’s new rimless-ammunition firing revolver is not yet out.

Gov. Ritter vetoes bill that would have allowed some people with permits to carry concealed weapons to skip additional background checks each time they buy a gun.