Category: All About Guns
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — In Tennessee, you can buy and sell short-barrel shotguns and rifles—SB2628 made it legal earlier this year.
“We work in a gun shop and I am a firearms trainer,” said Blaise Lane, High Caliber Weaponry and Training director of operations. “So, I am hugely supportive of the Second Amendment and everyone’s ability to own firearms for self-defense, for sporting and any other requirement that they would have firearms for.”
High Caliber is a gun store in Nashville. Lane said there’s nothing wrong with the new law—it just doesn’t do anything. “Currently, it doesn’t change anything,” he said.
That’s because there’s already a federal law called the National Firearms Act (NFA) in place that’s allowed short-barrel guns since 1934.
In fact, Lane and his employees say the new law has probably caused more confusion than clarity.
“It’s a show bill,” he said. “The Tennessee legislature will already be prepared, should the NFA get abolished.”
The debate about guns has been prominent throughout the country the last few years. Critics of this new law say the bill’s passage is regressive despite the lack of effect.
“I believe it’s a step in the wrong direction because it’s slowly pushing the envelope and making it potentially easier to end some of the restrictions,” Silent No Longer Tennessee director, Greta McClain, said. “Which, some people call them restrictions, I call them safeguards.”
McClain, a former Metro Nashville police officer, also talked about her own personal experience with short-barrel guns.
“When I was with the police department, I was shot at three times by a man with a sawed-off shotgun. He was, at most, 15 feet away from me and missed,” she said. “So, the concern that I have, and I’m sure a lot of people have, is if somebody thinks that it’s appropriate for them to use deadly force, there’s just as much likelihood that they’re going to hit innocent bystanders as they are whomever they’re aiming at.”
McClain is referring to the notion that sawed-off shotguns are considerably less accurate.
Naturally, the Tennessee Firearms Association disagrees with McClain’s thoughts on the law.
“I think it is a step in the right direction,” director John Harris said. “It sends a message of the public policy that at least some of the legislators are holding at this point.”
But Harris did agree that the new law created uncertainty. “What it, unfortunately, has done is create some confusion in the public about whether or not a person still needs to go out and, if they acquire one, pay the federal tax and comply.”
Currently, to buy a short-barrel gun, you have to pay a $200 fee for taxes, file NFA paperwork, and send in your fingerprints for a background check.
Now, Harris and Lane both say they’ve had people tell them they can bypass those regulations with the new law in place, but that is not the case.
Harris went a step further in his criticism of gun laws in Tennessee. “Oh, they’re an absolute mess, they’re a disaster,” he said. “The laws should be simple enough that the average person, the average police officer, the average district attorney, the average judge, the average juror, the average person all agree, without having to look it up, what the law allows or prohibits.”
The Tower of London is a cool place to learn about the history of England. In the center there is the White Tower. It houses the Royal Armouries collection as well as gifts given to the Crown. As one of the Yeomen Warders (the Beefeater guards) had said: “I say gifted, but usually at the end of a blade or gun”
Along side historic armour, there is a nice collection of early and modern firearms in the exhibit. Here are some that caught my eye.
This is the Holy Water Sprinkler. This combination mace and gun was recorded among Henry VIII’s possessions in 1547.There are three barrels along the outside of the the spike. The touch holes are at the base of the head. In the 17th century it was nicknamed “King Henry ye 8ths Walking Staff”. And in the 18th century the story was embellished that Henry carried this while patrolling London at night and testing the city’s guards.
Henry VIII took a keen interest in firearm development. Examples of gun shields were excavated from the sunken Mary Rose, possibly indicating that Henry armed his warships with these. The guns were breech-loaders using a pre-loaded iron cartridge and fired with a match cord.
Mace and wheel lock pistol.
The armoury has a few wheel lock pistols. This one is double barreled and suspected to be made by Peter Danner.
Gorgeous intricate detail.
This display is sponsored by Swarovski.
The shotgun is called the “Raven Gun”. It was ordered by the Trustees of the Armouries from gunmaker David McKay Brown. Famous jeweler, silversmith, and engraver Malcolm Appleby was commissioned to decorate the gun. The engravings feature Ravens, the traditional guardians of the Tower.
This jeweled revolver is a customized .357 Magnum with red gold, red enamel and diamond decoration. It was ordered by a client from a North London jeweler. It was never claimed and was handed to the Metropolitan Police under the 1997 buy-in program. It was transferred to the Royal Armouries in October 2006.
“Tiffany Revolver”. Smith and Wesson donated this revolver back in 1989 and the Trustees of the Armouries commissioned Tiffany and Co. decorate it. The leaves represent the 5 different woods used in gun-making.
This jeweled Sig Sauer was commissioned by an individual with blue enamel panels, white gold, and 1,517 diamonds!!! Just like the red gold revolver, this gun was bought by the Metropolitan Police back in 1997. Important or unusual firearms, purchased in that 1997 scheme, were offered to suitable museums. The rest were destroyed.
Gold plated Sterling MK4
German Borchardt Model 1893.
This Hi-power Browning clone was made by FMAP-DGFM in the 1970s. This particular gun was a presentation gift and was notoriously used in a murder in London several years later.
This dragon display is a nod to the past. As a show of British military strength, they would make displays from masses of weapons.
Royal Armouries Head of Creative Programmes, Karen Whitting dreamed up the idea for the mighty beast, inspired by the small figures of a dragon and a hydra in the scale model of the Grand Storehouse. Working with the creative team at Haley Sharpe Design a concept drawing was produced which York-based Paragon Creative have brought wonderfully to life.
The dragon consists of over 2,672 items including:
- 8 breastplates
- 6 muskets
- 22 antique pistols
- 40 shields and bucklers
- 4 swords
- 4 pairs of pauldrons
- 4 pairs of gauntlets
- 4 bronze mortars
- 8 kettle helmets
- 4 Enfield rifles
- 2 bronze canons
- 20 bayonets
- 15 pollaxes
- 10 mail vests
- 4 horse shaffrons
- 26 telescopes
- 2,000 gold and silver coins
- 30m of chain
- 400 ‘rubies’
- 1 replica Henry VIII necklace
- 50 replica trial plates
- 1 set of keys
Here are some stubby cannons.
A display of flintlocks.
The Tower of London is a very interesting place and their exhibit is amazing.
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A SSG-69
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A Gun Pic Dump
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Some 1911 break anyone?
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Running the 1918 Chauchat
There are an estimated 120 African hippos loose in Colombia’s labyrinthine waterways today. The name hippopotamus has Greek origins. Literally translated the word means, “river horse.” The animal’s genus is Hippopotamidae.
Hippos are omnivores, meaning they eat most anything they can catch. A fully grown male hippopotamus can weigh upwards of 3,300 pounds. Hippos look sweet and cuddly. They’re not. An adult hippo can run at 30 mph and is legendarily mean-tempered. Hippos are one of the most dangerous animals in Africa, accounting for some 500 dead Africans per annum.
Around the world hippos are considered threatened. However, the hippos in Colombia have no natural predators and are breeding like enormous toothy bunnies. If active culling is not introduced the population should reach 1,400 animals by 2034.
A handful of big males have been castrated and released thus far, but, as one might imagine, this is a fairly onerous chore. It apparently costs around $50,000 to castrate a single hippo. Considering the technical challenges it still seems to me that professional hippo castrators are grossly underpaid.
These 120 animals all descended from a single male and three female specimens purchased in New Orleans in the late 1980s by Pablo Escobar. When he wasn’t collecting exotic animals, Escobar ran the Medellin cartel, the most ruthless and successful of the sundry Colombian drug organizations. How the world rid itself of Pablo is a story most sordid.
The Man
Pablo Escobar was born in December of 1949 in Rionegro, Antioquia, Colombia, the third of seven children. His dad was a farmer and his mom an elementary school teacher. Some people are born with a sweet tooth or a proclivity for sports. Pablo Escobar was born without a conscience.
As a teenager, Escobar would steal gravestones and sand them down flat for resale. He made money in high school by selling counterfeit high school diplomas. Escobar and his buddies stole cars, smuggled cigarettes, and peddled fake lottery tickets. In the early 1970s, Pablo kidnapped a local Medellin executive and returned him in exchange for a $100,000 ransom. This was clearly where the real money was. By his 26th birthday, Pablo Escobar had three million dollars in a local bank.
Seeing the meteoric rise in demand for cocaine in the US, Escobar organized to meet it. By the early 80’s Pablo was seriously rich. He bought 7,000 acres of prime land in Antioquia for $63 million and built Hacienda Napoles, his luxury estate. The facility included a bull ring, an ample lake, a sculpture garden, and a functioning zoo. That’s where the hippos came from.
When he felt threatened Pablo took human life with wanton abandon. In 1985 the Colombian Supreme Court was reconsidering the extradition treaties between Colombia and the United States. Escobar was displeased, so he bankrolled an attack on the court that ultimately killed fully half of the Supreme Court justices.
On the surface Escobar maintained a Robin Hood-style life, giving generously to local charities and infrastructure projects. Such generosity bought him the loyalty of locals that was to be invaluable later while he was on the run. However, along the way, he also murdered some 4,000 people.
Some of his targets were police officials he had terminated via professional sicarios (hitmen). He undertook a sprawling bombing campaign as well. Eventually, Escobar successfully lobbied the Colombian Constituent Assembly to amend the Constitution to prevent extradition to the United States. With this legislative adjustment in the bag, Pablo Escobar surrendered to authorities along with a pledge to desist all criminal activity.
Escobar was remanded to a luxury prison of his own construction called La Catedral. This facility included a football pitch, a bar, a Jacuzzi, a giant dollhouse, and a waterfall. However, it became obvious that Escobar was still running his cartel’s activities while technically incarcerated, so he was ordered moved to a more conventional facility. On July 22, 1992, Escobar escaped during the transfer.
The Hunt
A dedicated unit of Colombian special operators called the Search Bloc was formed for the sole purpose of hunting down Pablo Escobar. The Search Bloc enjoyed the support of the US Joint Special Operations Command. Delta and DevGru instructors trained the Search Bloc in advanced close combat techniques.
In addition to the Search Bloc, Escobar was hounded by a vigilante mob known as Los Pepes. This was short for Los Peseguidos por Pablo Escobar or “People Persecuted by Pablo Escobar.” These guys were flat-out terrifying. Before the dust settled they had murdered some 300 of Pablo’s associates to include his lawyer and a variety of family members. They also destroyed a great deal of the Medellin cartel’s physical property.
By early December 1993, Pablo Escobar had been on the run for sixteen months. Guided by dedicated direction finding assets tracking his radio phone, the Search Bloc closed in on the flat where he was hiding out. Eight Search Bloc operators stormed the apartment with ample backup troops pulling up in support. Escobar and his bodyguard, nicknamed “The Lemon,” piled out a back window and fled across the rooftops. Both men were cut down like dogs. When the Search Bloc shooters got to his body they found Pablo Escobar, the richest most powerful criminal in the world, dead from a gunshot wound to the right ear.
The Guns
This resulted in quite the famous photograph that showed the Search Bloc operators posing around Escobar’s cooling corpse like some recently-bagged whitetail. Studying this photo demonstrates an eclectic array of small arms. As their operations were brief, frenetic, and typically executed in heavily built-up areas, weapon and ammo commonality would not be as important as might be the case in an austere field environment away from resupply.
The rank and file shooters carried license-produced Israeli Galil assault rifles made in Colombia by INDUMIL. First fielded in 1972, the Galil was a hybrid design that incorporated the action of the AKM, the 5.56mm chambering of the M16, and the side-folding buttstock of the FN FAL. The first prototypes were actually built on milled Valmet receivers illicitly smuggled into Israel during the developmental process.
One shooter carries what looks like a Mini-Uzi. Introduced to Israeli Special Forces troops in 1954, the full-sized stamped steel 9mm Uzi submachine gun helped carry the fledgling Jewish state through some of its darkest days immediately after independence. The Mini-Uzi utilizes the same fire controls and magazine but is markedly more compact. It also sports a spunkier 950+ rpm rate of fire as a result.
One Colombian operator carries a Model 653 Colt Commando assault rifle. A precursor to the modern M4, the Model 653 features a thin-profile 14.5-inch barrel and standard round handguards. His 653 sports a pair of magazines taped side by side.
The shooter in the foreground confounded me. At first brush, I thought his rifle was perhaps a chopped FN FAL. The dual magazines appear to be .30-caliber, and the side-folding stock looks about right. However, there appears to be a charging handle of some sort on the right, and the front sight/gas block arrangement doesn’t seem quite right for an FAL. If nothing else the FAL has its charging handle on the left. What do you think? Post your thoughts in the comments section below, and let’s figure this out together.
The Rest of the Story
At the apex of his power, Pablo Escobar’s Medellin drug cartel was bringing in $420 million per week, or around $6 million each day. With a net worth of about $25 billion, Escobar was one of the richest men on the planet. In the late 1980’s he offered to pay off Colombia’s $10 billion national debt in exchange for exemption from any extradition treaties with the US. In 1992 while on the run with his family Pablo actually physically burned $2 million in cash keeping his daughter warm.
Escobar had more cash money than he could ever spend. He stashed it in warehouses and buried it in fields. Around 10% or $2.1 billion was written off annually as misplaced, destroyed by the weather, or eaten by rats.
Escobar built local hospitals, housing projects, and soccer stadiums for the poor of Medellin. He was elected to the Colombian Congress in 1982 but forced out by a justice minister who exposed his illegal dealings. Escobar had the minister killed.
Escobar’s solution to his life’s many challenges was summed up in his motto “Plata o Plumo.” This literally translates to “Silver or Lead.” If he could not bribe his way to a solution then he had those responsible killed. In 1989 his cartel planted a bomb on board an aircraft carrying a suspected informant. 100 people perished in the crash.
Pablo Escobar died the day after his 44th birthday. To this day nobody is really sure who fired the fatal shot. However, his son Juan Pablo reported later that his dad had told him many times that he would never allow himself to be captured alive. Should his arrest be imminent his plan was to shoot himself through his right ear. Escobar’s recently-fired SIG SAUER handgun was indeed found on the roof alongside his body when the Search Bloc reached his corpse.
