The shortened version of the M1A, the SOCOM 16 features a 16″ barrel with a distinct muzzle brake and front sight. All aftermarket stocks designed for the full size M1A will work with the SOCOM 16, with this example wearing the VLTOR Improved Modstock System. Several companies offer similar stock systems or chassis kits to help modernize the ergonomics of the aging platform. Ironically it often means incorporating AR-15 stocks and pistol grips; parts that are technically the further evolution of the rifle that replaced the M14 back in the Vietnam War, the M16. (GRH)
A U.S made semi-automatic rifle chambered in .223 Remington, the M96 is based on the Stoner 63, however it is not an exact clone. Originally offered in several barrel lengths and even a Bren-style top-fed magazine configuration, the M96 was produced for only a few years before Robinson Armament began focusing on their XCR rifles. The lack of spare parts has made many of the original M96 rifles more collector pieces and safe queens rather than daily use range guns. Even though production ended in 2005, Robinson Armament as of 2019, has mentioned potentially bringing the M96 back into their product lineup with improvements. (GRH)
It looks like a tactical potato but this side mounted foregrip is making a big splash in the firearms community. Designed with input from special operations members as well as physicians, the Ryker Grip is biomechanically optimized for increased shooting performance. Many gear reviewers nonchalantly mocked and commented on it’s odd if not comical shape, but after testing it, pretty much everyone agreed it adds significant gains. The designer of the Ryker Grip mentions that the larger the caliber you shoot, the more noticeable the positives changes are in speed, control and accuracy. This is one of those accessories that necessitates trying it hands on to see if it actually lives up to the hype. (GRH)
A rare member of the Raging series of revolvers from Taurus, the Raging Hornet is chambered in the somewhat uncommon and obscure .22 Hornet. With an 8 round cylinder, it featured the distinct 10″ ventilated slab-side style barrel. It was not ported like other Raging revolvers in larger calibers. Exact production numbers are unknown, leading some people to wonder why Taurus would create these massive revolvers in bizarre caliber choices. The Raging Hornet’s sibling in the lineup was the Raging Bee, chambered in arguably more questionable caliber of .218 Bee. Curiously, the one Raging revolver that may have been a slight success was the one that never got past the prototype stage; the Raging 223, which was chambered in .223 Remington. (GRH)
Romanian built semi-automatic rifle chambered in 7.62x54mmR, the PSL-54 is often compared to the more famous Russian SVD Dragunov. Though they share a similar silhouette, they share almost no parts compatibility aside from being able to use the same side-rail optics. Being a stamped receivers as opposed to a milled receiver, the PSL is easier to manufacture, requiring less machining than its Russian counterpart. When they originally hit the U.S civilian market, they were often marketed and even labeled as Dragunovs; a somewhat misleading attempt by importers to cash in on a famous name. You could at one point snag one of the Century imports for around $650 before they suddenly disappeared from importation for several years. Only recently have they come back but at almost double the price. (GRH)
Although it bears the name of the legendary German gun manufacturer, the 512 was actually produced by the Italian shotgun manufacturer Franchi. H&K had commissioned Franchi to design and build it, while they handled the marketing and sales to law enforcement agencies. It was not intended to be for the civilian market, however a contract overrun meant a handful did end up being sold outside of the LEO market. Franchi is famously known for producing the SPAS-12 and you can see certain similarities between it and the 512. It features a very similar receiver layout, push-button safety, oversized release, and most notably the diverter muzzle device. This turns the shotgun’s normal circular pattern into more of a squashed oval, effectively spreading the pellets in a wider oblong pattern. Depending where you get your info, there are less than 300 of these shotguns in the U.S, making them extremely rare and collectable. (GRH)
the US gun lobby really needs to stop telling lies about australia for the sake of scaring people.
• no, ted cruz, rape incidences did not rise after we introduced stricter gun control measures.
• rifles, shotguns and handguns are actually legal to possess here. the biggest changes we introduced in the national firearms agreement were, amongst other things, a 28-day waiting period for a gun license, a national firearm registry, and compulsory secure storage for guns. ammunition must be stored separately to the weapon.
• people are required to have a “genuine reason” for possessing firearms to obtain a license here. that means most people with gun licenses are hunters, work for the government to cull invasive species of animals, etc.
• our rate of gun homicide has halved since the introduction of the agreement (as of 2012, it’s 30 a year).
•we have had no mass shootings since.
tl;dr you actually don’t have to take away people’s guns to achieve something like this. people need to stop freaking out about it.
A question that few people seem to be asking about Enough Is Enough and the March for Our Lives is: Why now? Or to paraphrase a question that some people soon will be asking: How is the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School different from other school shootings?
There’s #MeToo and #Time’sUp, of course. These may have inspired advocates of other liberal causes like gun control. But just three weeks earlier, a 15-year old in Benton, Kentucky brought a handgun to school and started shooting – 2 dead, 18 injured. The incident evoked only the usual responses, nothing more.
Here’s my hunch: when I first saw the kids in Parkland speaking out, organizing, demanding that adults do something, I immediately thought of a sociology book that had nothing to do with guns –Unequal Childhoodsby Annette Lareau published in 2003.
These high-schoolers, I thought, are the children of “concerted cultivation.” That was the term Lareau used for the middle-class approach to raising kids. It’s not just that middle-class parents cultivate the child’s talents, providing them with private coaches and organized activities. There is less separation of the child’s world and the adult world. Parents pay attention to children and take them seriously, and the children learn how to deal with adults and with institutions run by adults.
One consequence is the notorious sense of “entitlement” that older people find so distressing in millennials. Here is how Lareau put it:
This kind of training developed in Alexander and other middle-class children a sense of entitlement. They felt they had a right to weigh in with an opinion, to make special requests, to pass judgment on others, and to offer advice to adults. They expected to receive attention and to be taken very seriously.
It is this sense of entitlement – the teenager’s sense that she is entitled to have some effect on the forces that affect her life – that made possible the initial protests by the students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. And once word of that protest spread, it was this same sense of entitlement, these same assumptions about their place in the world, that made so many other high school students join the movement.
Conservatives just could not believe that kids could or should be so adept at mounting an effective movement or that they could or should speak intelligently about political issues. So right-wing commentary insisted that the students were paid “crisis actors” or pawns of various forces of evil – adult anti-gun activists, the media, or the “deep state.” They also claimed that the students were “rude” and that they did not have standing to raise the issue of gun control.
[the students] say that they shouldn’t be able to own guns even though they can go to war, but they think that they should be able to make laws. None of this makes any sense at all. (See the excerpts in the transcript here.)
In a way, Fox and their friends are hauling out the old notion that children should know their place. But the motivation isn’t some newfound independence, it’s middle-class values. As Lareau says, concerted cultivation makes children far more dependent on parents than does the “natural growth” parenting more common in working-class families. Besides, foreign visitors since the early days of the republic have remarked on the independence of American children. What’s new, and what is so upsetting to exponents of older ideas, is how parents themselves have taught teenagers to demand that they have a say in the decisions that shape their lives.
Today students across the country are walking out of school to protest violence and demand gun control reform. Where do Americans stand on this issue, and have their views changed over time? Government policy makes it difficult to research gun violence in the United States, but we do have some trend data from the General Social Survey that offers important context about how Americans view this issue.
For over forty years, the GSS has been asking its respondents whether they “favor or oppose a law which would require a person to obtain a police permit before he or she could buy a gun”—a simple measure to take the temperature on basic support for gun control. Compared to other controversial social policies, there is actually widespread and consistent support for this kind of gun control.
In light of the Second Amendment, however, the U.S. has a reputation for having a strong pro-gun culture. Is this true? It turns out there has been a dramatic shift in the proportion of respondents who report even having a gun in their homes. Despite this trend, gun sales are still high, suggesting that those sales are concentrated among people who already own a gun.
Recent controversies over gun control can make it seem like the nation is deeply and evenly divided. These data provide an important reminder that gun control is actually pretty popular, even though views on the issue have become more politically polarized over time.
Inspired by demographic facts you should know cold, “What’s Trending?” is a post series at Sociological Images featuring quick looks at what’s up, what’s down, and what sociologists have to say about it.
Ryan Larson is a graduate student from the Department of Sociology, University of Minnesota – Twin Cities. He studies crime, punishment, and quantitative methodology. He is a member of the Graduate Editorial Board of The Society Pages, and his work has appeared in Poetics, Contexts, and Sociological Perspectives.
Evan Stewart is a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at the University of Minnesota. You can follow him on Twitter.
