SITREP: MAY 2002

By Dan Shea

In the April 2002 issue of Small Arms Review we started the series on the Small Arms of the Vietnam War in a special expanded issue. Things got out of hand a bit because we had so many contributions, and this current issue has the second part. We hope to have thoroughly covered much of the material that has not been previously presented, and to have shown some of the unusual weapons as well.

Onward and upward. We had a great SHOT show in Vegas, met lots of our readers, made lots of contacts, and we are preparing for the Orlando SHOT show in February 2003. The advent of the Law Enforcement section of the SHOT show was a major breakthrough, and at 9:01am on opening day, the aisles of the LE section were filled to the point of not having any room to walk. It stayed that way the entire first day, then eased a bit in the second day, in part due to the Superbowl happening that afternoon. Lots of business getting done, lots of new product being shown. We will be bringing you stories on these items in upcoming issues of SAR.

There were many meetings with ATF personnel, including the FAIR trade group’s meeting that had a special presentation on the electronic filing of Form 6s for importation. This is a very interesting procedure, and many of the Class 3 community think that it might be time to do Form 2 and 3 filings electronically. This could help speed up the process considerably.

SAR is still running the military Care package program “Cookies from home for shooters”, and we are having a lot of success with it. Giving packages of free magazines to people is probably not the hardest thing to do, but we feel like we are doing the right thing. If you want us to send a package of about 20 assorted issues of SAR to a friend or relative in a military unit, to hand them out to people who need some good reading, email us with the person’s name, rank and address. We will send them a package right away. We have been getting a lot of email feedback from the units overseas in Kosovo, Bosnia, Germany, Afghanistan, all over the place, from grateful American troops who enjoy getting some good reading. We are also getting some potential future articles on what the small arms in various areas are. Email us at sareview@aol.com with the heading “Military package”, include the name and address, and we will take care of it.

In this issue, you will see an eclectic offering of articles, covering some of the “Through the holes” items that are missed in many modern references to small arms use in the Vietnam War. There are also articles on modern weapons, specifically the very intriguing F2000 weapon system from FN. This “First look” that SAR has from Senior Editor Peter G. Kokalis is the most in depth look that has been taken at this system, and sets a standard for a product review. We hope you enjoy this issue, as always.

– Dan