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NY SAFE Act legal ar15.com courtesy nationalreview.com

The abomination above, which likely looks familiar to our embattled brethren in California, is a prototype for a new style of AR-15 that is purported to be NY SAFE Act legal. It has a fixed stock and no pistol grip, which makes it 150,000% less lethal than a conventional AR. Although you can’t see the muzzle, you can be assured that it also doesn’t have a deadly flash hider, the mere presence of which would have rendered the rifle immediately and irreversibly lethal to anyone within a 50-foot radius. Just to put a nice cap on the rank stupidity of this entire exercise, I offer the following, which was at the top of the comment section when I read the story: “The ban on flash suppressors was there for good reason.” Of course, he doesn’t offer what that reason was. [h/t DR] Read on . . .

Your Lockdown of the Day™ comes from Gladstone, Missouri, and this one makes sense. Police received reports at about 1 p.m. Friday of shots fired in the vicinity of Linden West Elementary School. When police arrived and located the home where the gunshots were heard, directly across the street from the school, another round of gunshots could be heard coming from inside the house. Linden West Elementary was placed on lockdown in the interim, and the kids were moved to the gymnasium on the northeast side, putting the bulk of the building between them and the idiot. The man “barricaded himself inside the home” (which I think means the door was locked and he wouldn’t come out) for some four hours. His mother told police that he’d purchased two “AK-47 style assault rifles” and a large amount of ammunition, and was heavily intoxicated. After about four hours without contact, he surrendered himself about 6 p.m. without incident. His blood alcohol level was tested and found to be .261. He’s been charged with multiple felonies and is being held on $250,000 bond. [h/t JA]

LEGISLATIVE ALERT – The Kansas legislature will be considering House Bill 2473 on Tuesday, a bill which would make it legal to open carry throughout the state, striking down any municipal laws that prevent it. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Jim Howell, got some pushback from Democrat Rep. Louis Ruiz, who was concerned about people carrying who have been drinking. So Howell added an amendment that would prohibit possession by people who are under the influence. That provision is already in place for concealed carry permits in the state. But now he’s getting flack from Republican representatives, who are concerned that someone who had a drink and was attacked would be prevented from using a gun for self defense. Once again, I’m glad I live in Florida. You can drink while carrying, you just can’t have a loaded gun in your hand if you’re “impaired.” However, that doesn’t apply if you’re acting in self-defense. Seems to cover all the bases. Somebody ought to send the Kansas lawmakers a copy of the Florida statute.

When all else fails, plead stupidity and throw yourself on the mercy of the court. A 37-year old man in Dublin, Ireland was arrested on the way to a party and found to be carrying 300 euros worth of cocaine. A subsequent search of his home turned up three blank-firing pistols and 400 rounds of ammunition for them. He told gardaí he’d bought the guns from a “junkie” five years ago, and later told the judge that he bought them “to play around with them” and he wasn’t aware they were illegal. Telling the judge he had “a stupid, infantile interest in guns” and that he was like “a kid with a toy,” he plead for mercy. The judge sentenced him to three years in prison, suspended, on the condition that he “keeps the peace and be of good behaviour” for that period.

A fire broke out at the Winchester ammunition plant in East Alton, Illinois, northeast of St. Louis, at about 3:30 a.m. on Sunday. It was reported by a passerby who saw the flames and called authorities. Firefighters say the blaze occurred in a maintenance building, exploding some propane cylinders, but the cylinders were isolated from more dangerous materials. They did not state a cause, but said that it was large enough that seven departments came to help put it out. [h/t KM]

Jerry Miculek has an answer to California Senator Kevin de León, and his “30 caliber magazine clip.”

The funny part is that’s actually one of the least stupid things I’ve seen hanging off an AR. (See the lead photo.)

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67 COMMENTS

  1. Yep. Even if I wanted an AR(I don’t) while I live in CA I will not buy one. An abortion like that might be legal here, but I’d be ashamed to be seen in public with it.

    • That particular format is called a “featureless” build. I am no expert on the law pertaining to ARs, but the idea is that if you have only one “evil” feature, then your gun is legal. Evil features include pistol grips, bayonet lugs, flash hiders, and regular magazine releases. by eliminating the pistol grip, this rifle does not need to have a “bullet button,” a device invented to comply with the California mandate that magazines have to be “fixed” and removable only with the use of a “tool.” the bullet button uses an unexpended round as a tool to release the magazine. The downside to a bullet button is that it takes one extra step to swap mags.

      The foregoing is subject to change. Claiming that the AR law in California was intended to ban all AR style rifles with removable mags, Senator Yee has a bill pending that will require that all AK and AR variants have fixed, nonremoveable magazines (i.e., internal mags that can be reloaded only by popping a pin). Ultimately, his goal (and the goal of De Leon and others) is to ban the EBR entirely.

      • Here in NY the magazine release is not a feature, but a qualifier for the feature test.

        An assault weapon (rifle category) is: a rifle with a detachable magazine and one feature.

        There are full-feature ARs that have a device forcing it to a fixed magazine. Although we haven’t received confirmation from the NYSP (which we never will on anything…), we have received legal advice from the lawyers fighting the SAFE Law (not the NYSRPA that lost the Federal case; the Tresmonds and friends that filed a state case).

    • You can buy any standard AR-15 firearm in California, they just have non-detachable magazines.

      This is accomplished by requiring a tool to be used to release the magazine, often called a bullet button. If such a tool is required to release the magazine, then the rifle is exempt from being tested as a misnamed assault rifle.

      Just like many people can quickly change a tire, practice in releasing the magazine using a tool can lead to quite rapid magazine releases. Have the tool available on your finger, press the tip into the bullet button with your shooting hand, in pretty much the same motion as a regular release, and the magazine will release.

      I have many Modern Sporting Rifles in California.

      Also, remember, that rimfire is exempt for the laws in question, so a lower used for a rimfire does not have to have bullet button.

    • That stock is the alternative to the Bullet Button. It’s an either or deal since invoking the “scary black gun” law hinges upon whether or not you need a tool to remove the magazine. (I am not a lawyer but all my friends who are say I should have been one.)

    • I actually like the looks of that stock, it is the fore end that needs to be changed to match, then it can star in a future Science fiction movie.

      I would never own one of course, since I don’t live in a quite so retarded state and it looks pretty uncomfortable to actually use.

      • I’ve never fired one, but I have had the opportunity to handle one pretty extensively at the LGS.

        It’s far more comfortable than it looks. In fact, if the price were reasonable, I’d buy one, not because it’s featureless, but to compare how well it handles compared to a traditional layout. It looks very awkward, but I found it to be actually pretty natural to shoulder and get your hand into the proper position.

    • Interesting. I live in CA and I’ve never seen an AR like that anywhere. Mine, and everyone else’s that I have seen, has a folding stock, a pistol grip, and a either a flash hider or a compensator.

      Always amazes me how people who don’t live here seem to know everything about everything to do with CA.

      • Kevin De Leon doesn’t know, or intentionally conflates the difference between a polymer lower or a 3D printed plastic pistol. If he doesn’t know, he won’t learn either, because he is a dyed-in-the-wool grabber, and he wants to get ALL the guns.

        The statistics are equally unimportant. As far as I know, an “80% lower” build has been used in exactly one mass shooting spree in the state by a mentally disturbed young man who shot his father and brother, torched their house, and then went shooting at a local college. (As regular readers here remember, he was also carrying a .44 cal black powder revolver). Because there was one crime, that is enough in his mind, and he has proposed a bill to require that 80% lowers be obtainable only through an FFL, that the buyer apply for and receive a serial number from the DOJ, and that the number be etched into the lower before starting the build. [Deleon is also a member of the group pushing for permits (and background checks) for purchases of ammunition in a face to face transaction at a gunstore.

  2. I’m sorry but “.30 caliber clip” does not make me laugh. It’s a deliberately ignorant statement by a Communist, but it isn’t funny to me.

    “Thing that goes up” is funny however.

    • What’s not funny is that these clowns know just as much about everything else they impose on us as they do firearms.

    • The piece duct-taped to the magazine was in fact a .30 caliber clip for an M1 Garand. (Although technically the ammunition was 30-06 – .30 caliber, NOT the clip itself). The stupid quote from the politician was regarding a 30 Magazine clip that could fire 30 bullets in 1/2 second. Now THAT’S funny, right there.

  3. Strange day today. First I heard on the radio about an explosion at a ball bearing plant somewhere (I thought that only happened on Hogan’s Heroes) and now a fire at an ammunition plant. Stay safe, boys.

    • I was a teenager living on a farm 2 miles from Lake City Ammo Plant when a bunker blew in the ’80s (pro-tip – smoking next to a bunker full of powder = bad). I thought the Russians had nuked Kansas City (see ’80s). The sky flashed bright red from horizon to horizon and it seemed like it stayed that way for several minutes. I still remember it vividly.

  4. It’s ugly, but not as ugly as the nail fungus ads I’m constantly subjected to on TTAG. Taking a break from the site to rest my gag reflex.

    Out

  5. I looked up stocks like that while doing some rifle research. God awful ugly. Because Chicago is dumb, but the rest of Illinois is okay-ish, we now have some funny rules.
    Chicago’s ban on ‘assault rifles’, which uses a removable magazine + one feature test as well as an extensive list of named rifles, means that a normal MSR is out. However, because Illinois’ carry law also preempts local legislation of handguns and ammunition, Chicago’s extensive list of forbidden AK/AR pistols holds no water.
    So I find myself thinking about whether to get an MSR style ‘handgun’ or a Mini-14 (unthreaded barrel, because you can’t buy a threading die at a hardware store and screw on a piece of pipe filled with cotton batting to make your own muffler, and it’s for the children).

  6. You guys are way behind on this. SAFE Act compliant ARs have been around for months. I built one myself, perfectly legally, back in September 2013.

    I now have three New York legal semi-auto rifles, a Stag 6H, which I named “Bite Me” because the 1:8 24″ bull barrel gives it sharp teeth. My modified M&P 15 I named “Andy,” after my favorite human in the Toy Story films. And finally, I have “Mike” the Mini 14.

    I love taking “Bite Me,” “Andy” and “Mike” to the range for some fun shooting times.

  7. Has the PDRCA (People’s Democratic Republic of California) banned the Mini 14? Seems that a Mini 14 would be a much better option than that abortion.

    • Nope, pretty sure it is still legal at least in its original configuration. Add a black “tactical” stock with a pistol grip and you might have a problem. But again, I’m no expert on this AR stuff.

    • Yep, Mini-14, M1A, and similar still legal in CA, bone factory stock, with 10-round magazine only of course. Unless you owned the higher capacity magazines before the 1994 AW ban, then they are legal too.

      On an AR platform, all evil features are legal IF you have a “fixed” magazine, which is implemented via a Bullet Button. Plus the usual 10 round magazine limit, unless you owned them pre-ban as above. And as Mark N mentioned above, Sen. Yee has a state bill (SB47) to make the Bullet Button illegal as well. So that will be swell.

  8. Kevin de Léon is a boob. I’m sorry he doesn’t represent my district, because if he did, I could vote against him.

  9. Even if HSB2473 passes, it won’t change anything from a practical standpoint in Wichita. Local LEO SOP will still be face full of concrete first, questions later.

  10. I’m a foreigner and not a lawyer so that Kansas issue makes me ask a question.

    You see, where I live, the books make an exception for things like justified self-defence and emergency situations. Sure, you are not allowed to carry while under the influence of alcohol or various substances. And you *will* get into trouble if you ever get into a DGU after downing a few. But if the DGU would be justified if you were sober, it remains justified even if you are discovered to be not exactly sober. Yes, your action will come under even greater scrutiny. But your right to defend yourself with a gun does not go away when you’re drunk.

    And if you pull your gun out of your safe and use it to defend your home even though you’re inebriated, you are in the clear, because you broke no law prior to being attacked and your right to protect yourself trumps the requirement for you to be sober while using/carrying a gun.

    Similarly, you’re not allowed to kick in other people’s door and enter BUT if somebody’s house is on fire and you have to kick in their door and enter in order to save them, or even if you have to kick in *other* people’s door and enter their property so you can save those who are in grave danger, your actions are considered legal because protection of life trumps protection of property or other “weaker” laws.

    Doesn’t Kansas have similar laws on the books? Or couldn’t such provisions be incorporated into the proposed law?

  11. No one checks their sources anymore. That AR-15 image and story were originally published in March of 2012. Thanks for the great scoop!

    • I was sent a version of that story (with that same photo) by at least a half-dozen different people, as well as finding it through other avenues myself. All of them were published within the last week. I’m not sure how deep you expect me to look, but if I’ve got 6-8 outlets all publishing a similar story (and not a single one dated 2012), I’m going to assume it’s a recent story, not something from two years ago.

      We routinely get sent tips that are repostings of stories from months to years earlier, but it’s usually almost immediately apparent once you go a layer or two deep investigating. That was not true in this case. Sorry if I duplicated something you’d already seen, but it was new to me (and apparently to a lot of other people).

      • When I say “no one checks”, I don’t mean, “Matt doesn’t check”. I meant that rarely does anyone seem to dig out a proper source.

        I was wrong on that date, thought: it’s May 2013. Here’s how I found out (for future reference)…

        You sourced National Review. National Review sourced Clash Daily. Clash Daily sourced Guns N Freedom. Guns N Freedom sourced the Times Union. Here is the original article: http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Gun-design-legal-deadly-4549130.php

        So much gets lost in translation. The 30 seconds that it takes to check the details of these articles – in order to ensure that the information isn’t recycled fifteen times – is worth the time spent. The information may still be relevant, but it’s misrepresented by the phrase, “a prototype for a new style of AR-15”.

        I would like to see my favorite blogs be more quick to put these re-hashed, stumbled-upon stories in their place (and, in doing so, still get the traffic they so whoringly crave). No doubt someone saw a “suggested” link on Facebook or in an ad campaign, and reposted it without thinking. Now it’s a wildfire until someone takes the time to look a layer or two down.

        • Thanks for the backtrack. So that’s my mistake. Usually I do exactly what you did, which is follow the story until it runs out of backlinks. It usually only takes 2-3 layers deep to hit bottom. In this case it took four, and when I hit Guns ‘n’ Freedom I stopped. Lesson learned. It looks like he was, wittingly or unwittingly, the one that published the “old story.”

          For what it’s worth, I’m usually the guy that does exactly what you just did. I’ve actually indirectly killed at least two, and I think three of Robert’s posts after he wrote them, because I followed the links and found it was a super old story. I’d tell him, and he’d curse under his breath and delete the whole thing. On the surface, they all looked recent, but they weren’t.

          I appreciate you keeping me honest. I’m usually really, really picky about details, often too much so. Because of that, I’m usually initially defensive when someone calls me out (because usually I did the research and I know I’m right), but it’s good to reminded to be humble every once in a while. Keeps me grounded.

          The “prototype for a new style of AR-15” phrase wasn’t mine, it was lifted all the way back to the original story. Again, my mistake.

          What’s the best way to put the rehashed stories in their place? To note them, and note that they’re old, or to simply ignore them once I discover they’re old? (I usually go for the latter.)

          Thanks again for reading.

        • Since you asked (and I appreciate you being so amenable to my borderline trolling), my suggestion is to find your own angle to the original story that justifies bringing it back up. As a fellow blogger, I personally see nothing wrong with prefacing a story as “old news” to the readers. No one can very well complain when you present a new reason to discuss it, can they?

          Also: I met Dan and Robert at SHOT. I don’t know your face, so if you were there I apologize for not shaking your hand. I was nervous as it was. I will be at the Texas festival in November – hope to network some more with your staff, and maybe accept a slap to the head for being a turd here and there.

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