The U.S. Marine Corps led the way.  At the time I said this:

Recall that I told you “that Rock River Arms, Knights Armament, LaRue Tactical and Daniel Defense isn’t the Colt produced under milspec for the Army and Marine Corps (these are all superior to the Colt M-16 and M-4)?”  And recall that John Jay and I have both discussed Milspec and what it does (and doesn’t) mean?

It should also be pointed out that there are many things that can be tweaked on the Stoner platform (Milspec design) that can make it much more reliable than the Colt.

Fouling in the M4 is not the problem. The problem is weak springs (buffer and extractor), as well as light buffer weights (H vs. H2 or H3). With the abovementioned drop-in parts, the M4 is as reliable as any weapon I have ever fired, and I have fired probably every military-issue assault rifle fielded worldwide in the last 60 years as a Special Forces Weapons Sergeant (18B). An additional benefit of the heavier spring/weight combo is that it transmits the energy impulse of the firing cycle to the shoulder over a longer duration, lowering the amount of foot pounds per second and dramatically reducing the perceived recoil. Follow-on shots are easier to make effectively, and much faster, especially at 50 meters and beyond.

I reliably fired 2400 rounds (80 magazines) on a bone dry gun, and I would bet that is a lot more than any soldier or other armed professional will ever come close to firing without any lubrication whatsoever. So, disregard the fouling myth and install a better buffer spring, H2 buffer, enhanced extractor spring and a Crane O-ring (all end user drop-in parts). With normal (read “not excessive”) lubrication and maintenance, properly-built AR-15/M4 type rifles with carbine gas systems will astound you with their reliability and shootability.

The high quality AR-15 manufacturers know all of this and generally make their parts better than Milspec.  But now the Army wants in on the game.

The Army is asking the gun industry to build new components for its soldiers’ primary weapon — the M4 carbine — a move that experts say is a tacit admission that the service has been supplying a flawed rifle that lacks the precision of commercially available guns.

At a recent Capitol Hill hearing, an Army general acknowledged that the M4’s magazine has been responsible for the gun jamming during firefights.

On the federal government’s FedBizOpps.gov website, the Army announced a “market survey” for gunmakers to produce a set of enhancements to essentially create a new model — the “M4A1+.” It would include a modular trigger, a new type of rail fitted around a “free floating” barrel and other parts. The upgrade is supposed to improve the rifle’s accuracy and reliability.

The Army last year took the significant step of beginning to convert the basic M4 into the special operations version, the M4A1, with a heavier barrel designed to better withstand the heat of rapid fire.

The Washington Times reported in 2014 on confidential prewar tests that showed the barrel was prone to overheating. The Times also quoted active-duty soldiers who said the M4 is inferior based on their experience in battle. A Green Beret said he takes the extraordinary step of rebuilding his M4A1 on the battlefield by using components from other gunmakers — technically a violation of Army regulations.

Retired Army Maj. Gen. Robert Scales, an artillery officer and decorated Vietnam combatant, is one of the M4’s most vocal critics. He also believes the 5.56 mm M855A1 ammunition — an environmentally sensitive, or “green,” round — is wrong for the gun.

Gen. Scales said the Army’s new solicitation is further proof of the carbine’s shortfalls.

“It’s another attempt by the Army to make the M4 look good,” he said. “If the Army wants to improve the M4, fine. But it’s not a weapon suitable for high-intensity, close combat in extremes against an enemy who is basically matching us in weapons performance in a close fight. Everybody knows the weapon has flaws.”

Mr. Scales said the M4’s basic shortfall is that it uses gas, or direct, impingement to extract and expel its shells as opposed to a piston system. A piston firing mechanism is in the prolific AK-47, which runs cleaner and cooler but is considered slightly less accurate.

This article is a complete mess.  It goes from things that we’ve discussed before that should be obvious (such as a floated barrel to avoid interference with [natural frequency] barrel harmonics by fixed points), to old battle philosophy (such as the notion that Solders and Marines today shoot Carbines fully automatic as if they are some sort of area suppression weapon like a SAW – seriously, this is thirty or forty year old battle tactics, the stuff of Vietnam rather than the professionally trained fighters of the twenty first century).

It ends (for me, simply because I couldn’t bring myself to read any more) when that loud mouth, washed up old coot General Scales started begging for the piston system again.  Good grief.  He weighs in against the Eugene Stoner platform for CQB, which is ironically the situation in which it is the best weapon on earth by far.  My message is clear.  Just stop.  The main stream media needs to stop being a day late to the story.  We’ve already worked this one over until it’s bloody.  General Scales needs to go home and stop advocating for whatever armament company he’s working for today.  The Marine Corps and Army need to stop telling the world what they are going to do about non-existent problems with their weapons.  They have diarrhea of the mouth.  Wanat and Kamdesh were not caused by weapons problems.  They were caused by the idiot general who deployed Platoon-size U.S. forces to ensconce themselves in valleys to fight off Battalion-size Taliban forces who had the high ground.

But what does need to happen is with the Marine Corps and Army.  The procedures need to change to allow the armorers the freedom and latitude to arm the men with the weapons they need.  If they want Magpul magazines (with the no-tilt follower), then they should get them instead of the ridiculous Milspec magazines with the follower that binds and sticks (yea, it’s happened to me too).  If a free floated barrel is better (and it is), then change the Military specifications to allow a free floated barrel and replace them all.  If stronger buffer springs are better, then replace them all.  Just go do it.  Adapt, improvise and overcome.  Don’t be bureaucratic pointy-heads.

And something needs to happen with Patriots too.  We should all learn from the intransigence of the Army and Marine Corps.  If there is a better part, buy it.  Test it.  Work your weapons systems.  Learn them.  Practice with them.  Procedures are good insofar as they help you.  If they become a hindrance, defenestrate them.  You control them – they do not control you.

And by the way, around these parts we speak the name of Eugene Stoner with hushed reverence.  Do otherwise at your peril.

Prior:

Army And Marine Corps On M855 Ammunition

Marines To Get Rifle Makeovers

Blaming The Gun For The Battle Losses

The Reliability Of The Eugene Stoner Design

Newsweek:

Fatma Muge Gocek, now a professor of sociology at the University of Michigan, did not learn about the massacre of Armenian civilians as a student growing up in Turkey but began researching the topic after moving to the U.S. Her book Denial of Violence: Ottoman Past, Turkish Present and Collective Violence Against the Armenians 1789-2009 was published in November.

But such outspoken deviation from the official line does not come without its dangers. According to Boghossian, Turks who do so can be prosecuted under Turkish Penal Code 301, which makes it a crime to insult “Turkishness.” In the past, the code has been used against those who refer to the events of 1915 as “genocide.”

As for leaders outside of Turkey, there are other reasons to avoid the term that so riles the country, even if the violence itself is not downplayed. These reasons, as in the case of Obama’s avoidance of the term, are geopolitical: Turkey is seen as a key NATO ally. During the Cold War, Marsoobian notes, it was an important ally against the Soviet Union. Now Turkey is crucial in the fight against ISIS.

Obama famously promised as a presidential candidate in 2008 to use the g-word: “Armenian genocide is not an allegation, a personal opinion or a point of view, but rather a widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence. The facts are undeniable,” he said at the time. “As president I will recognize the Armenian genocide.”

Yet he did not use the word in his remarks on Thursday, calling the events Meds Yeghern (an Armenian term roughly translated as “the Great Catastrophe”) instead and disappointing Armenian-Americans who have been lobbying for recognition of the genocide committed against their ancestors for years.

Newsweek is soft-selling Obama’s treachery by pointing to NATO membership (NATO is powerless and Turkey has never done a thing as member of NATO) and being a so-called “ally” in the fight against ISIS (an ally which doesn’t exist in a fight that is not occurring).  This has been going on for a while.

And it’s important to remember the framework in which the genocide occurred.

The government made a point of disarming Armenians and sent police into villages to search for and confiscate any guns. The father of my grandfather was charged with having firearms and was imprisoned. They never saw him again.

ISIS also imposed gun control immediately upon takeover of the terrain under its control.  Totalitarians fear weapons as the only threat to their supremacy.  Do not ever allow yours to be confiscated.  The next step is enslavement and death.

David Codrea:

… we’ve seen time and again that the end game is one of total citizen disarmament. You don’t have to take my word for it — take the words of the gun-grabbers. This is why any degree of “compromise” is such a foolish game for gun rights supporters to play — the antis will cheerfully swallow up any concessions you make and then use ceded ground as a beachhead from which to launch their next incursion. To give an inch makes as much sense as throwing a scrap of meat to a circling pack of hyenas and then expecting them to be satisfied and to leave you in peace.

Yep.  We’ve seen gun grabbers express honesty before, believe it or not.

Via Mike Vanderboegh, the GOP Senators who voted to confirm Loretta Lynch are complicit.  Yes they are.  Not a single one of them can be trusted.

Yes, Uncle, I wear my clothing bare in spots too carrying knives and guns.  My pockets are torn up in places.  Hey, I have a solution to the gun problem.  Open carry, and work for a culture that’s okay with that.

Watch Mike Vanderboegh’s Colorado speech.

Fortune:

Doug, who runs the website smartgunz.com, asks us not to use his last name or to identify the town where he works. “I’m just in Nebraska,” he says. “What’s on the website,” he continues, “that’s the information that can be given out. I just want to see where it’s going to go. Take baby steps. Move forward as it progresses.”

A lifetime National Rifle Association member, Doug earns his living as a gunsmith and licensed firearms dealer, selling pistols, revolvers, assault rifles, and machine guns to law enforcement and other qualified customers.

That’s all ho-hum. But smartgunz.com is sensitive stuff, so Doug wants to insulate his mainstream business from it.

Is he dealing in contraband? Peddling vice?

No. Doug is selling the Armatix iP1, a semiautomatic pistol developed by the renowned weapons designer and executive Ernst Mauch. During his more than 30 years with his prior employer, Germany’s Heckler & Koch …

So it starts oh so secretive, with the roll-in to H&K who supplies LEOs, armed forces, and so on.  It’s breathtaking, all this secrecy, or that’s what the author intends.  But remember H&K’s we hate you, no, we mean it, we really hate you attitude towards anyone but LEOs.  As for Doug, I couldn’t care less what he does or what he sells.  The market will determine whether he is successful or not.  I didn’t know about his web site and have no reason ever to visit it.

How out of touch the author is comes clear in this paragraph:

Additionally, the hope is that smart guns could reduce the toll of murdered police officers, killed when their service revolvers are wrested away from them. (From 2004 to 2013, according to FBI statistics, 33 police officers were murdered with their own weapons.)

Now I love me a wheel gun and carry one every day, but find a LEO who still carries a “service revolver.”  No, really, it’s a serious question – find me one.  I bet you can’t.  They all carry semi-auto plastic frame guns now.  If I was a LEO they would have to grant special dispensation to carry a 1911.

If Armatix can persuade such a unit to adopt the iP9, the world will change.

“I’ve never been more optimistic about personalized guns than I am now,” says Stephen Teret, the founding director of the Johns Hopkins University Center for Gun Policy and Research, who has been pushing for safer gun designs for more than 30 years. “It’s going to happen. And the American gun companies can either get on board or they can become Kodak.”

Breathless!  “The world will change!”  You can read the rest of the article on your own time.  The article asks of smart guns, “They’re ready, are we?”  But that isn’t what they really mean.  What they really meant to ask is when America will be ready to have smart guns crammed down our throats by regulation?

The reality is that if there was a demand for smart guns, they would already have a significant market share.  There isn’t, and they don’t.  It all has nothing whatsoever to do with the NRA or NSSF.  As for whether we will allow “smart guns” to be mandated, I can’t think of a better way to foment civil war focusing on 4GW.  The Fortune author wasn’t thinking about that when he asked if we’re ready, was he?  So we might ask the author, are you ready?

David Codrea:

Proprietors of a mine at the center of a land use dispute called for a Thursday protest at the Medford District Bureau of Land Management office while they attempt to serve papers, the Sugar Pine Mine announced Sunday. The mine has recently come under increased media scrutiny after member of Oath Keepers, current and retired military, law enforcement and public service personnel who have sworn not to obey unconstitutional orders, including orders to disarm the American people, arrived on premises at the request of the owners to provide security.

I expect to see more and more of this sort of thing, and it will turn from easy, clear-headed skirmishes to more complex and difficult operations in the future.  I suspect that in ten years we will all yearn for the easy, peaceful, fat years.

Kurt Hofmann:

Given Netanyahu’s apparent at least tacit tolerance–if not active approval–of such highly restrictive gun laws, when he speaks of “self-defense,” he is talking about the national government’s ability to defend the country from outside threats. He is not referring to individual citizens defending themselves and their families from violent criminals, and is certainly not referring to the people’s ability to resist a government that seeks to slip the leash of the constitutional limits on its power.

Yes, while I admire Netanyahu’s stance and strength on many issues (especially in light of the sniveling, cowardly pussy we currently have for a president), I have noted his collectivist stance on guns, and I find it repulsive.  Unfortunately it will limit my support and advocacy for a Netanyahu administration to the bare minimum (he’s better than the alternatives who are mostly communists).

Joe Manchin admits that he lied during his campaign for election and his “support” for gun rights.  But anyone with two brain cells knew that about him then and knows it now.

Robbery using an AK-47.  I’ve heard all about how those who open carry rifles are idiots, clowns, and people simply trying to make a statement while really being asses.  Yep, I’ve heard that for a while now, to the point that it has gotten old.  But are we reaching a point in America where we will need to carry a rifle around because the bad guys have rifles?  A pistol doesn’t compare to a rifle, unless you’re Jerry Miculek or Rob Leatham.

The Washington Post:

“Daesh has M16s and M4s, and we only have Kalashnikovs,” said another police officer, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State. He said he had fled his home in Ramadi’s Soufiyah neighborhood with his wife and 1-year-old child. “I don’t think I will ever see my house again.”

In the eyes of the Iraqi Police, the Stoner platform wins.  In my eyes too.

The Hill:

Police in Washington, D.C., have been referred materials for a possible investigation into two Republican congressmen who posed for a picture with an assault rifle in a House office building.

Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) last week tweeted a picture of himself and Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), the leader of the House’s Benghazi investigation, holding an AR-15.

Having the AR-15 in the District could be a violation of the city’s strict gun laws, and the city attorney general’s office has referred the matter to police, a spokesman told The Hill.

“The matter has been referred to the Metropolitan Police Department for further investigation,” he said.

Buck said in the tweet the assault rifle is his and the picture was taken after Gowdy “stopped by.”

Buck told The Hill the rifle is “inoperable” and that he received approval from U.S. Capitol Police to bring it to his office, where it is on display in a locked case.

“I have a very patriotic AR-15 hanging in my office. It hangs directly above my Second Amendment flag,” Buck said.

“While safety protocols call for all guns to be treated as if they are loaded, this one isn’t. Further, a close inspection of the only public photo of the rifle will show that the bolt carrier assembly is not in the rifle; it is in fact in Colorado.”

“It is a beautiful, patriotic paper weight,” he added.

If it’s a paperweight, it’s useless.  Get one that works.  And both Congressmen should have told the D.C. attorney general to blow it out his ass.

David Codrea:

Admitting that legislation it passed Monday will not stop violent crime, Cleveland politicians instead came up with excuses for imposing it on citizens anyway, Northeast Ohio Media Group reported. All but one Council member, Zack Reed, voted in favor of the new edicts, which in many areas duplicate state law, but supposedly will allow the city to keep resulting fines.

Whether any such coveted revenues will outweigh further legal costs the city will face is a question taxpayers should be asking their representatives who insisted on reopening an issue presumably already settled in the courts.

Yea, duplication of laws came immediately to mind when I read about this legislation.  Take note that there is a nexus between this sort of thing and the requirement to get CLEOs to approve of gun permits, even in “shall-issue” states like my own of North Carolina, where the permitting process costs a non-trivial amount of money.  A source of revenue, it is.

Mike Vanderboegh has returned safely home.  Good.  Here is his speech.

TREASON TO A GOVERNMENT BASED UPON TREASON TO ITS OWN FOUNDING DOCUMENT IS NO TREASON AT ALL! It is merely obedience to God and the truest expression of the inalienable and natural rights to life, liberty and property that HE gave us. It is also an act of fidelity to the rule of law and the Founders’ constitutional republic. Anyone who tells you differently is selling something.

Read it all here.

Via WRSA, this from Spiegel:

The spies were to find out as much as possible about the target towns: Who lived there, who was in charge, which families were religious, which Islamic school of religious jurisprudence they belonged to, how many mosques there were, who the imam was, how many wives and children he had and how old they were. Other details included what the imam’s sermons were like, whether he was more open to the Sufi, or mystical variant of Islam, whether he sided with the opposition or the regime, and what his position was on jihad. Bakr also wanted answers to questions like: Does the imam earn a salary? If so, who pays it? Who appoints him? Finally: How many people in the village are champions of democracy?

The agents were supposed to function as seismic signal waves, sent out to track down the tiniest cracks, as well as age-old faults within the deep layers of society — in short, any information that could be used to divide and subjugate the local population. The informants included former intelligence spies, but also regime opponents who had quarreled with one of the rebel groups. Some were also young men and adolescents who needed money or found the work exciting. Most of the men on Bakr’s list of informants, such as those from Tal Rifaat, were in their early twenties, but some were as young as 16 or 17.

The plans also include areas like finance, schools, daycare, the media and transportation. But there is a constantly recurring, core theme, which is meticulously addressed in organizational charts and lists of responsibilities and reporting requirements: surveillance, espionage, murder and kidnapping.

You listen to me very carefully.  This is coming to America.  In addition to the flood of illegals across the Southern border for whom we will have to provide SNAP and medical care, along with an increasingly totalitarian government who wants to control every aspect of our lives, we will soon face totalitarian Islam unlike anything we have ever seen up close.  Be prepared.  Listen to me.  Be prepared.  If you’re not prepared now, then get prepared – immediately.

Reader John Stock writes with the following question:

A Remington 722 (barrel date 01-1956) with its original trigger.  I know enough to keep it
flushed out with lighter fluid, but I am concerned that’s not a real fix.  What is your opinion of
Remington’s “fix” of the Walker trigger?  Is Remington’s recall fix adequate, or is an
after-market trigger a better solution?  And if so, which one do you like?

A Remington 721 (barrel date 04-1948) with a Canjar set trigger.  The sear looks the same
as the Walker trigger on the 722 (with the two-bar sear/safety visible), and is as easily
exposed to debris, but I have no idea what the mechanism inside looks like, or whether it is
as susceptible to unintentional release as is the Walker trigger.  Do you have any knowledge
of this trigger and its relative risk?

Any wisdom you can share with me will be much appreciated.

I feel completely inadequate to provide advice and counsel on this, except to say that Remington claims that the problems have to do with “excess bonding agent,” a claim I deem unlikely (or said another way, I doubt that this is the only problem).  If I’m not mistaken, their fix had to do with polishing or resurfacing some component, but my memory may be faulty here.

Please weigh in with comments on the Walker Fire Control system for reader John.

In Defense In Depth In Firearms Design And Operation, I explained:

This is why I have always been an advocate of professional engineering registration for firearms designers.  It has nothing to do with supposed qualifications to become a PE, but the legal liability associated with the license.  I can speak from experience.  This legal liability means something special and particular, and you want it in firearms design, whether you know it or not.

You want to follow all of the rules of safety, but you also want firearms that operate as intended because of the fidelity of the design.  Malfunctions because of poor design or fabrication aren’t acceptable, because this defeats the design and operational philosophy of defense in depth.  Yes, follow the rules, and yes, you should be able to rely on well designed products.

It isn’t “either-or.”  It is “both-and.”

And we are presented with an example that precisely demonstrates what I said.

Winchester Repeating Arms has issued a recall on some of its SXP-model 12-gauge shotguns that the company says may fire while the discharge is being closed.

A YouTube video is making its way around the Internet showing a gun owner seemingly demonstrating the flaw with the gun’s safety on, although Winchester has not officially confirmed that the video is related (see video below).

Winchester issued the following recall:

“Winchester Repeating Arms has discovered that a limited number of SXP (3½-inch chamber) shotguns (also called the Super X Pump) may, under certain circumstances, unintentionally discharge while closing the action. Failure to return any affected shotguns for inspection and/or repair may create a risk of harm, including serious personal injury or death.

“If you own one of the following firearms, please immediately contact our Winchester Consumer Administrative Center to find out if your firearm is affected and should be returned. Please be prepared to provide the serial number of your firearm.”

Guns listed under the recall include are the Waterfowl Hunter (26- or 28-inch barrel), Black Shadow (26- or 28-inch barrel), Turkey Hunter (24-inch barrel) and Long Beard (24-inch barrel).

The relevant video is below.

It’s best that Winchester is getting on top of this and issuing the recall.  I hope they take full responsibility for the design deficiency.  It would be more than Remington did with the 700 series trigger problems.

MintPress News:

The dashboard and body camera footage has now been released in the fatal shooting of Jeanetta Riley. Riley, 35, was shot and killed by Sandpoint, Idaho police after they were called to a hospital where she had been treated for mental health problems.

The department has cleared its officers “of any criminal wrongdoing,” claiming that they followed all proper procedures when they chose to use an AR-15 assault rifle on the mentally ill, pregnant woman who was holding a knife outside of the hospital.

The officers could have used less-than-lethal weapons, like a taser, but instead they chose not only a firearm, but an AR-15 when they approached her outside of Bonner General Hospital.

The police can be heard on the video telling Riley to show her hands.

Riley, obviously mentally distressed, replied: “f*** you” and “bring it on!”

After shots ran out, the officer ran to Riley but instead of applying first aid, he cuffed her.
The policeman is then heard running to Ms Riley, lying injured in the road.

Bonner County prosecutor Barry McHugh said: “Officers were faced with a quickly evolving set of circumstances that left them convinced the Ms Riley had the intent to use the knife to do them great bodily harm and had the ability to do so.”

Ms Riley’s ex-husband, Dana Maddox, is suing the city for $1 million, as the officers ended his wife’s life as well as her pregnancy with Maddox’s daughter.

The autopsy report reveals that Riley was shot in the chest and hit in the liver as well as her shoulder, back and heart. The Magic Valley Times News explains that “Five shots were fired during the confrontation, three of which came from Valenzuela’s AR-15 rifle and two of which came from Ziegler’s .40-caliber Glock pistol.”

Hey, I have an idea for the cowards in this department.  How about using OC spray and letting her surrender peaceably (as she surely would have)?  Or better yet, how about talking to her?  What’s wrong with talking?