The SHOT Show, our largest firearms industry trade show, is underway today. Glock just announced their new 30S .45 caliber pistol. It combines the wide-body short frame of the Glock 30SF with the narrow slide of their model 36, in the same caliber. It was reportedly created at the request of LAPD detectives. It’s a cool little gun: I’ve had my pre-announcement sample since November, and it has run hundreds of rounds with perfect functioning. I even won an IDPA match in the CDP division, shooting against full size 1911 .45s, with it in Jacksonville, Florida last month.
And, in accompanying news, if you live in New York you may never actually see one unless a policeman shows you his or you go out of state, because it’s designed for a ten-shot magazine and accepts the thirteen-round magazine of its big brother model in the same caliber, the Glock 21. Today’s newswires announce that the NY state legislature is about to be willingly ramrodded by longtime anti-gun Governor Cuomo into passing a law that will restrict magazine capacity to seven cartridges. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/01/14/gun-laws-may-soon-be-even-tighter-in-new-york-get-the-details-on-states-tenative-gun-control-deal/. It’s the most Draconian gun law – and more so, in some ways – since the handgun bans of Chicago and the District of Columbia, both of which stood for a very long time before being struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States in Heller v. District of Columbia in 2008 and McDonald, et. al. v. City of Chicago in 2010.
There are still details of the new legislation to be seen and analyzed. But, in the name of stamping out evil, high capacity, high-powered “assault weapons” this legislation will take away the great majority of semiautomatic pistols and rifles. It can in theory take away every .22 rifle except single shot models, since the tube magazine versions all hold more than ten of the stubby little .22 cartridges, and the box magazine types are all capable of taking a more-than-seven-round magazine.
The old, retired GI’s or Marine’s 1911 .45 service pistol is now banned: they all accept commonly available eight-and ten-round mags, and longer ones that go back to World War I. More recent generations of American armed service personnel who bought the Beretta 92, the civilian version of the M9 service pistol they were trained on, are SOL; no less-than-ten-round magazine has ever been manufactured for that gun in its standard configuration, and they can all accept the longer ones.
In an ironic highlight to the cluelessness that has so long driven the gun-banning movement, we have the picture here of vehemently anti-gun New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg holding one of the AR15s he and the Governor want to ban their constituents from owning. He apparently thinks it’s the epitome of the super-lethal death-dealing assault weapon.
Look carefully at the ejection port and compare it to the Smith & Wesson M&P 15-22 pictured below.
The rifle Bloomberg is holding has an ejection port far too short to handle a .223/5.56mm rifle round, itself so weak that most states forbid its use for deer hunting. The Bloomberg AR15 appears to be chambered for .22 Long Rifle, a target-shooter’s cartridge generally considered so feeble as to be inhumane for hunting anything much bigger than a squirrel, a rabbit, or a close-range groundhog.
Click the link in the body of text above, and scroll down to the photo of Mayor Bloomberg holding what appears to be an AR15 rifle. Carefully examine the ejection port on the right side of the rifle in his hands. Now, compare to the .22 rimfire S&W M&P15-22, below. Note the remarkable similarity. Now, go to the picture under the one just below…
…and here, note standard S&W M&P15 with proper ejection port and bolt for .223 caliber/5.56mm. It appears that Hizzoner’s exemplar of a deadly assault rifle is in fact chambered for the little .22 rimfire cartridge.
California Ammo Sales Registration and Mag Ban Bill Revealed
California State Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner has introduced California Assembly Bill AB-48. It’s now headed to committee. The bill attempts to close “loopholes” in the Golden State’s unconstitutionally restrictive firearms laws. For example, at the moment, a shooter can lend or borrow a 30-round magazine at a 3Gun competition—-so long as the other person is on site. Skinner’s skinned that cat . . .
Except as specified, existing law makes it a crime to manufacture, import, keep for sale, offer or expose for sale, or give or lend any large-capacity magazine, and makes a large-capacity magazine a nuisance. Existing law defines “large-capacity magazine” to mean any ammunition feeding device with the capacity to accept more than 10 rounds but excludes, in pertinent part, a feeding device that has been permanently altered so that the magazine cannot accommodate more than 10 rounds.
Then there’s the “issue” of shooters, dealers and other People of the Gun modifying non-California-legal magazines to California-legal 10-round magazine magazines (via a block, or something similar). This would be verboten under the new law, unless, maybe, you pin the magazine shut. Which of course makes it irreparable. Here’s the language:
This bill would make it a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of not more than $1,000 or imprisonment in a county jail not to exceed 6 months, or by both that fine and imprisonment, to knowingly manufacture, import, keep for sale, offer or expose for sale, or give or lend any device that is capable of converting an ammunition feeding device into a large-capacity magazine. The bill would revise the definition of “large-capacity magazine” to mean any ammunition feeding device with the capacity to accept more than 10 rounds, including a readily restorable, as defined, disassembled large-capacity magazine, and an oversize magazine body that appears to hold in excess of 10 rounds. The bill would make related, conforming changes. By creating a new crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
Here’s a new one: springs and ammunition magazines that look big would be illegal. The law prohibits . . .
. . . a readily restorable disassembled large-capacity magazine and an oversize magazine body that appears to hold in excess of 10 rounds. A magazine body is not a large-capacity magazine if it is only of sufficient size to accommodate no more than 10 rounds of ammunition and the internal working parts of the magazine, including the follower and spring.”
I guess they are scarier than small magazines? Parts kits are also now illegal, and well since you have to have a non serviceable magazine anyway, well you get the whole point.
30301.
(a) Anyone in this state, prior to selling, transferring, or otherwise furnishing ammunition to an individual or business entity in this state or any other state, shall do all of the following:
(1) Require proper identification from the purchaser in the form of a driver’s license or other photographic identification issued by a state or the federal government.
(2) Be an authorized firearms dealer, pursuant to Section 26500.
(3) Submit a report to the Department of Justice for all of the transactions, in a manner to be determined by the department.
(b) The Department of Justice shall alert local law enforcement entities in the community in which the purchaser resides if the purchaser obtains more than ____ rounds within a five-day period and the purchaser is an individual and not an authorized firearms dealer. The department is not required to alert local law enforcement of sales of ammunition made to peace officers.
So how many rounds do you reckon Californians will be compelled to report to the DOJ? One hundred? Fifty? Ten?
From the looks of it, if I were to go into the local gun store and buy one bullet, they need to inform the DOJ. Now what would the purpose be? Do they need to wait until they hear something back in order to actually process the order for my one bullet? If I provided false information then what? Does any of this make sense at all? I like the bit about allowing LEO’s to buy all the ammo they want. I guess they are special.
Skinner’s bill would also prohibit anyone other than an authorized firearms dealer from selling ammunition. They’d have to report the sales to the Department of Justice. If the authorized ammo dealer fails to make the required report or knowingly makes a report with false or fictitious information they’re guilty of a misdemeanor. By creating a new crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
The one upside to all this: I don’t see the original idea of making it illegal to sell ammunition online, although if the online dealer is not an FFL, and doesn’t follow procedure, then what? Are they going to charge out of state sellers with California state laws?
Never mind, ’cause . . .
“It shouldn’t be so easy to buy bullets, the very thing that makes a gun deadly,” Skinner told bloomberg.com. “While we have numerous safeguards in place to purchase a gun, it’s easier today to buy bullets than to buy alcohol, cigarettes or some cold medicines.”
Mas,
Even though the Glock 30S wasn’t the main focus of you article, I have a question about it and Glocks in general if you are inclined to reply.
I looked at a Glock 30S today at a local store and I really liked it. For the most part, I really like Glocks. I especially like the trigger when compared to other striker fired pistols, and I like the fact that Glocks are not cluttered up with things like a grip safety and loaded chamber indicator.
The only thing I don’t care for is the angle of the grip to the barrel. I think a 1911, Browning high power, Springfield XD, and S&W M&P all point much better.
I gather that you are a big fan of both Glocks and 1911’s. In you mind is the grip angle a big deal? Is the less-pointable aspect of the Glock outweighed by the other positive features of the Glock? Any comments would be appreciated.
Cheers!
Lysander, it’s our body shapes and our habituation which seem to mostly determine what “points best” for us. As the old TV commercial said about something else, “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.” If you like small polymer-frame .45s, what your telling me indicates that you should be looking for the Compact versions of the Smith & Wesson M&P and the Springfield Armory XD series in .45 caliber.
best,
Mas
Thanks, Mas.