Letters to SAR: June 2000

BY The Small Arms Review Editorial Staff

Dear SAR

Situation Report March 2000 Issue – As always, you are right on! I have collected firearms all of my adult life – for over thirty five years – and as we become second class citizens in the eyes of those who would destroy the Second Amendment it is time to become politically active. There is little time left. Many people from the President to the media are ready to take away our Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

John de Groseilliers

John, I personally, and everyone that I know at SAR feels just about the same. Complacency is our enemy- and as we move towards the November 2000 elections, we need to be ever vigilant and help reminds our friends to get out and VOTE!

Dear SAR

Have you every heard of anyone converting a 9mm Uzi to full auto, firing from a closed blot? This would be a big improvement! If you haven’t heard of this being done (with your experience with full auto guns) it probably has never been done. Would you write me back on this?

G. Greynolds

Certainly. IMI has manufactured closed bolt Uzi’s in each of the three basic sizes, but it was after the point that the importation was practical, thus most Uzi’s in the United States are open bolt guns. The concern was the first round accuracy loss that is somewhat inherent in open bolt firearms-or rather the perception of it. When your major competition in the LE market is the HK MP5, well, you have a lot of things going against you. The MP5 is a fine LE firearm, and the Uzi doesn’t really compare in that role- my opinion. The opposite can be said for having a mass of soldiers running through the desert- the Uzi is easy to “hand” in combat, and point fire is a proven combat advantage for the Uzi operator- also my opinion. The MP5 series is much more surgical, and very popular with LE users for that reason. This might open up an argument similar to the “9MM or 45” Tastes Great Less Filling wars, but to your question, yes there are closed bolt Uzi designs, but they never really made it to the states in any quantity. – Dan

Dear SAR

I don’t write many complimentary letters, but felt I must express my particular satisfaction with the Feb 2000 issue of SAR. Every article was interesting and well written, I particularly enjoyed the article “Johnson’s boys” I would encourage SAR to include one such firsthand article in every issue. The true life history of those using our most interesting weapons in battle provides us a deeper understanding of the practical use of our weapons. More importantly, articles of this type deepen our gratitude to the brave men who went in harm’s way. We all owe continuing gratitude to Mr. Bardwell for his insight on NFA legal issues. For many of us, the ever changing complexities of gun laws are as interesting as the guns themselves. The always well written article by Captain Monty portray our sport in the positive light it deserves. Reed Knight interview, Gatlings, Industry News, Ma-deuce – – All rounded out what I thought was the best ever SAR.

Norbert N. Smoot

Thanks for the “Up” on this. We need an attaboy every once in a while. I agree that we need to have user perspective stories on small arms, however, we try to keep them to that- related to the small arms. There are other magazines that do a wonderful job of covering the tactics and history of wars. Our job is the guns.

Dear SAR

I just wanted to express how much I enjoyed this particular issue of SAR particularly the section dealing with 50 assembly-disassembly timing etc. I hope in the future you can continue these pictoral breakdown articles in guns such as MG-34’s, MG-15’s and MG-13’s (old German stuff in particular) as it is very hard to find manuals that deal with this stuff. Keep up the good work.

Dave Wright

Dave, we have a lot more planned in the future, and it is our desire that issues of SAR will always be used as a reference for the firearms community. If you have particular firearms you wish to see this done with, please let us know.