SITREP

By Dan Shea

I want to welcome everyone to Knob Creek, where this issue of SAR will be handed out at the front entrance on Friday and Saturday. Hopefully, we’ll have good weather again, not too hot, not too cold, maybe a bit damp at night to keep the fire hazard and dust down and nice and sunny during the day. Like I said – hopefully. I look forward to meeting with people at the Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot and Show every April and October, and since we moved to Nevada it has turned into one heck of a drive, but we keep doing it. I have to confess to being a bit punch-drunk from the long drive and the pounding of the guns, the long hours on the gravel, etc., but it is still great to see everyone.

Speaking of civilian sport shooting of machine guns, one of the things that has happened over the last month is that the state of Michigan has finally agreed that the citizens of Michigan can receive any transferable machine gun in transfer on a Form 4, not just the ones on the Curio & Relics list. That brings us down to only one state that is C&R machine gun restricted. There was an initial flood of interest from the Michigan residents who were paying attention, lots of transfers were started, then the whole process bogged down and ATF had to wait for their legal branch to OK the process. In the middle of February, the approval came down and transfers of machine guns were starting to be approved on Form 4s. Still up in the air, however, is the status of registered sound suppressors for firearms (silencers). The discussion is on, and Michigan residents who are interested in such things are pretty focused on getting ATF Legal to allow transfers on these as well. We are hopeful – whenever American citizens can get a give-back on gun laws, it has to be a good day.

In this issue, we have some fun with collecting and shooting; a bit of a break from our recent concentration on the current military firearms developments. We always try and balance the issue so there’s something for everyone, but considering that this issue is going to Knob Creek and the NRA Show, we did something on Bowling Ball Mortars as well as the collectible feature on Maxims that Robert Segel is displaying at the NRA Show.

I read Ted Avallone’s article on the LARC M19-A BB machine gun and just had to have it in this issue. It seems like it brings out the fascinated twelve-year-old in all of the people who have read it so far, and I don’t ever want to forget that feeling. We hope you enjoy it, and in this world of seriousness and tribulation, we at SAR hope that you remember to go have some safe fun at the range, and to take some kids along so they can share the fascinating history and technology of class 3 weapons.

– Dan