About that gun show loophole…

Back in the 1980s when I was an FFL licensed dealer, ammo manufacturer and gunsmith; a few people actually invented and marketed this concept, and a few silly cop shops and a few silly individuals actually purchased and implemented it.

Some were simple magnetic devices that operated from a magnet in a ring. Others were electronic, although I forget what the (un) locking mechanism was.

Batteries failed at inopportune times, Magnetic rings didn’t happen to be on the hand when bad guys broke in. Good people died because of it..

And while the concept might save lives of good guys who get disarmed in a fight, there is no way that a retrofitted firearm couldn’t be ‘unretrofitted’ in minutes, so that wouldn’t prevent crimes from being committed with stolen firearms.

LegendHasIt on May 17, 2013 at 6:45 PM

Even earlier, in the Seventies, some (redacted) tried to sell the magnetic ring version to several of our local PDs here. Trouble was, it consistently failed to work when the batteries in the revolver’s butt got weak. And since the default was “fire”, that meant that it would probably work if the perp tried to use the revolver on the officer.

By comparison, we solved the problem on the multi-county level by teaching weapon retention techniques. I.E., if perp tries to grab the sidearm, instead of pulling away, thrust forward with it like a knife. A gun barrel punch in the guts hurts. (Squeezing the trigger at the same time is optional.)

Probably the best solution was, and is, the Smith & Wesson autos with the magazine safety. If you’re about to lose control of the weapon, hit the mag release. It drops out, and the perp can’t fire the round in the chamber. I carried a 645 on duty for years for just that reason. Plus, I’d already come to appreciate the feature on my backup, a P-35 High Power.

I’ve always held that a second loaded gun is the fastest reload there is. And it should have a decently large magazine capacity. The reason being that if you’re in a situation where you need that “fast reload”, there’s a good chance you’re up against multiple assailants. And reloading either the primary or the backup might be a practical impossibility, because you’re in one of those situations in which, as the old river pilot’s saying goes,

th’ music be playin’ faster’n ye kin dance to

cheers

eon

eon on May 17, 2013 at 8:51 PM

I say we go the whole “Dredd” route….IIRC, when a baddie tried to use the rookie’s gun on her, it exploded, taking off the baddie’s arm! I’dd prefer that I think…

Also, can anyone explain how the Judge’s weapons worked? I’m puzzled how one small ammunition module could produce such a plethora and multiplicity of rounds…..

JFKY on May 17, 2013 at 7:31 PM

Multiplicity, yes; plethora, no. The Lawgiver was based on an idea they apparently snitched from the original novel Logan’s Run by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson, written back in the Sixties.

Never mind the (stupid) movie and (stupider) TV show. The original Sandman Gun was a six-shot revolver, with a cylinder that could be replaced like the magazine in an automatic. Old idea, that; the Remington and Adams revolvers had that feature, and came with spare cylinders, back in percussion days. Watch the Clint Eastwood movie Pale Rider to see the Preacher (Clint) use that feature of the Remington 1861 Army (metallic-cartridge conversion) to “speedload” during the final gunfight.

The Sandman revolver held four types of rounds;

Tangler; fired a ‘net’ of very tough fibers that entangled the target.

Gas; trank round.

Ripper; Basically a Glaser prefragmented round, except with an actual explosive charge in it. Nasty.

Homer; an infra-red homer like a Sidewinder air-to-air missile, with a Ripper “warhead”. It homed on the exact heat of a human body, 98.6 degrees F.

A set of buttons on the grip let the Sandman select the round. Usual load was two Gas, one Tangler, two Ripper, one Homer.

The Lawgiver worked on a similar setup. a triple-stack magazine held three types of round; baton (rubber bullet), standard (armor-piercing), and explosive. The Judge selected the round he or she wanted by either flipping a lever on the side (in the comics) or by voice command (in the movie). The Lawgiver was also selective-fire in the comics; trouble was, once you’d selected the type of round (say, HE), and squeezed the trigger, the gun would cheerfully fire just that type on full-auto. Leaving you without that selection until you ejected that mag and put in a full one.

The mechanism inside apparently worked like the dual-feed on some automatic cannon like the old West German Gepard Flakpanzer anti-aircraft tank (dual Oerlikon/Contraves 35mm, firing 850 rounds per minute per barrel- nasty). That setup lets the gunner shift from, say, proximity-fuzed anti-aircraft to armor-piercing HE, if while he’s on overwatch for enemy tactical air an enemy tank suddenly pops over the next rise and bears down on him. Personally, I have my doubts about anything that sophisticated working consistently in a pistol, even one the size and weight of a freakin’ .50 Desert Eagle.

To add to the hilarity, the lower “box” on the movie version was apparently supposed to be some kind of grenade launcher, which was why when Dredd (Stallone) said “grenade”, its barrel extended, and it fired instead of the “regular” barrel. If you watched the “reimagined” Battlestar Galactica on Sci-Fi Channel, that funky little streamlined widget under the nose of their FN Five-SeveN pistols was supposed to be the same deal.

The problem with any version of the Lawgiver is that at best, its “multistack” magazine will only be able to hold about five or six rounds of any one type of ammo, total of fifteen to eighteen rounds. That’s about what most modern 9mm service pistols hold, and supposedly in Dredd’s Mega-City One a high-capacity 9mm isn’t a big enough gun, with enough firepower, to be survivable. Hence all the Judge firepower.

Maybe what they really need is more range time. I’ve found it can work wonders. Especially with classes of recruits who only know pistols, rifles, and shotguns from…TV cop shows.

(Yes, I’ve trained such. It was emphatically not an experience to calm one’s nerves.)

cheers

eon

eon on May 17, 2013 at 9:25 PM