That Was the Week that Was: 2012 Week 04

That was the week that was, week four. In which the WeaponsMan crew looks back and asks that musical question, “What the hell were we thinking?”

1. We began with the now-standard Sunday non-post and invitation to submit suggestions.
2. On this day in 1776, the New Hampshire legislature was buying guns. That was probably not what George III and Lord North wanted to hear. 236 years later, New Hampshire (and 49 other states) are still buying guns, and it creeps George’s successors in DC out.
3. What happened to the Mk-16 SCAR? The tale of “a good rifle, but not better enough for the money.”
4. We bust the myth of gun-theft rings targeting gun-sports events.
5. We explain why most of our posts are long, in the post that’s the exception.
6. Who invented the detachable magazine we know so well? We make a case for Hugo Borchardt (later, we’ll discover that it was probably James P. Lee. But Borchardt shipped his gun with spare magazines; there is that).
7. We explain how some 60- and 70-year old M1 rifles and carbines became the focus of a turf fight between the White House, which wants the old guns melted down, and Congress, which wants them imported and sold off.
8. Weapons Website of the Week: Forgotten Weapons.com. Awesome photographs, intriguing weapons.
9. This week, most of the nation celebrated the Navy SEALs. Not in Nre York, where Bloomberg’s Blue Shirts threw one in the nuthouse.
10. We take the world’s most immature military-affairs journolist[sic] and smash his face through a plate-glass window. Virtually, of course.
11. Snipers get a chance to own their own M-24 SWS. How cool is that?
12. We explain how the Army needs to quit wringing its hands and deal with the Great Benning Hog Infestation. Mmmmm bacon.
13. Keith aka “Jack” Idema Reported Dead. Alive, he brought great discredit on the Special Forces Regiment.
14. PBS tells us we’re too dumb for enign… egin… that applied science stuff. They would know.
15. SF wanted – Down Under.
16. First Detachable Magazine – traced to James Paris Lee, a prolific designer of about 100 to 120 years ago. Borchardt still had some firsts with his, though.
17. The BBC looks into the psychology of snipers and sees a Devil there.
18. The Special Operations Truths. The touchstone and essence of what SOF is and does.
19. We explain the difference between the 5.56mm and .223 rounds and chambers.[UPDATE: this much-postponed post has been postponed again. We regret the inconvenience).
20. Not a love triangle exactly: the MP, the scorned woman, the .380. That’ll leave a mark.
21. Saturday Matinee: Black Hawk Down. A third person shooter, as it were.
22. This weekend wrapup