OK, I wanted the topic to be fully descriptive, and this post is a hybrid of "Handguns" and "Legal/Political".
Today I received an American Handgunner Issue (Jan/Feb 2000) which highlights FN's "Five Seven" by a cover picture and lengthy write up. As you may know, this pistol is not new, but it's still kind of novel to most. It shoots a round which is basically a .224 Boz lengthened by about 3mm (to 28mm). It's called "5.7 x 28", I think, and it fires a .224, 31 gr bullet at about 1,950 fps. It holds 21 rounds of this cartridge. Pretty cool and seems to be well made.
Well, here is how the article begins:
"A radically new pistol/cartridge combination graces the cover of [this issue]. The gun was developed as part of a military weapons system and is also available to law enforcement. For reasons that will become obvious, neither the gun nor the ammunition will ever be sold to civilians or even to individual officers." The the article goes on to describe how the pistol's (and it's sister carbine's) purpose is to defeat soft body armor and kevlar helmets. It describes briefly at one point the infamous "LA bank robber shootout". The weapon bridges the gap between traditional pistol-caliber carbines/SMGs and the .223 rifles/carbines, blah, blah, blah...
Ok, now I'm steaming. Two things. First of all, after reading the article, only one thing is obvious to me - There isn't one reason on earth why any law-abiding citizen should not be allowed to buy/own one; in fact, I can see a significantly important reason why civilians and LEOs alike can and should want to own and use one - precisely for use against bodya-armored VTAs such as the LA bank robbers. Why should SWAT teams be the only ones able to defend their lives against such rogue VTA's? Are citizens' and beat cops' lives not as important?
Secondly, regarding the legal aspect, I cannot see anything remotely illegal under current laws in the US (in free states, that is) about selling/buying/owning/carrying/using one of these weapons. It doesn't violate the weight limit for handguns. There is no such thing as a "velocity limit", as far as I'm aware. I can understand why FN may choose to limit sales to police/military, because of simple profitability concerns, but owning or converting a pistol to this or a similar round would not violate federal laws, would it?
Today I received an American Handgunner Issue (Jan/Feb 2000) which highlights FN's "Five Seven" by a cover picture and lengthy write up. As you may know, this pistol is not new, but it's still kind of novel to most. It shoots a round which is basically a .224 Boz lengthened by about 3mm (to 28mm). It's called "5.7 x 28", I think, and it fires a .224, 31 gr bullet at about 1,950 fps. It holds 21 rounds of this cartridge. Pretty cool and seems to be well made.
Well, here is how the article begins:
"A radically new pistol/cartridge combination graces the cover of [this issue]. The gun was developed as part of a military weapons system and is also available to law enforcement. For reasons that will become obvious, neither the gun nor the ammunition will ever be sold to civilians or even to individual officers." The the article goes on to describe how the pistol's (and it's sister carbine's) purpose is to defeat soft body armor and kevlar helmets. It describes briefly at one point the infamous "LA bank robber shootout". The weapon bridges the gap between traditional pistol-caliber carbines/SMGs and the .223 rifles/carbines, blah, blah, blah...
Ok, now I'm steaming. Two things. First of all, after reading the article, only one thing is obvious to me - There isn't one reason on earth why any law-abiding citizen should not be allowed to buy/own one; in fact, I can see a significantly important reason why civilians and LEOs alike can and should want to own and use one - precisely for use against bodya-armored VTAs such as the LA bank robbers. Why should SWAT teams be the only ones able to defend their lives against such rogue VTA's? Are citizens' and beat cops' lives not as important?
Secondly, regarding the legal aspect, I cannot see anything remotely illegal under current laws in the US (in free states, that is) about selling/buying/owning/carrying/using one of these weapons. It doesn't violate the weight limit for handguns. There is no such thing as a "velocity limit", as far as I'm aware. I can understand why FN may choose to limit sales to police/military, because of simple profitability concerns, but owning or converting a pistol to this or a similar round would not violate federal laws, would it?