New rifle styles coming into the US

[The Grand Inquisitor]

Today I was at a gunshop and I narrowed down what I wanted to buy between a nice, new CETME, and a new Romanian AK-74. While I eventually went with the CETME, I will probably buy the AK74 at some point in the future, but I started to think about the the two rifles and the larger picture with modern military style rifles available to us here in the 50 states (well, perhaps 47 or so states). It seems that the vast bulk of battle rifles in this country are generally AR, AK, FAL, SKS, and some other variations on those themes, but really not a whole hell of a lot else.

Well, it is true that there is a whole vast universive of weapons out there, but class III weapons hardly exist in the same world as us peasants who pay $30,000 for our cars, not our guns.

Now that the AWB is dead, I'm hoping that more gun owners start to think about new things out there; I'm really hoping people start to get excited about the rumors about FN and HK building plants in this country so that maybe they would actually do so, and we could have some new styles in the stream of sport shooters in this country (Yes! Believe it or not Sir or Madame, there is more to shooting than hunting shotguns and .22 rifles) which would hopefully generate steam that people would write their congress men and women and hopefully kill some of the idiototic import bans that are keeping an AMAZING flow of European and Asian rifles coming here.

Well, maybe it is all a pipe dream, but we should all make a little noise and maybe DSA will make that AUG clone they said they are not, maybe FN will build that factory, and maybe, JUST MAYBE, the average Joe and Jane out there will see that rifle sports can be great fun without shooting deer.

 

[mordrid52]

HK is building a new factory in Columbus. You can read about it at http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/7016001.htm

Whether or not they are going to build civilian G36s is another matter.

 

[swingset]

HK has stated publicly they have no plans to build civilian rifles.

Apparently making money is not a mission statement for the Germans.

However, Sig has showed interestin building the excellent Sig 55x series here in the states, and if that happens start saving - they'll be expensive and worth it.

Ohio Rapid Fire is working on a domestic FNC IIRC.

 

[Kenneth Lew]

I would seriously doubt that there will be huge capital investment in producing civilian versions of military firearms for one important reason, no one wants to gamble on politics.

HK (from its past history of customer service) could care less about the civilian market due to its overwhelming popularity in the military/law enforcement market. If HK really cared about customer service, they would get off their ass and produce more gas piston chamber scrapers for the P7 pistols. I've waited for some for over a year and ended up paying DOUBLE the going rate to get some. Heck even Smith & Wesson has better service than that.

Kenneth Lew

 

[Marko Kloos]

The folks at H&K won't give you the time of day if your caller ID doesn't say "U.S.Government", or "XYZ Police Department".

Their new factory is there to crank out rifles for the anticipated XM-8 contract, and that's that.

 

[Das Pferd]

Remeber that the AWB only dealt with guns made in the US, it has no affect on imports. That is a seperate issue. I really dont see any new rifles comeing into the US just because the AWB died.

 

[SunBear]

It was pointed out to me recently that the XM-8 has not been through any COMPETITIVE testing and evaluation and if it is adopted under those circumstances there would probably be a truckload of lawsuits from folks like Colt. FN, etc.. I don't think they're building a factory just to produce their new HKM4 improved gas system for the AR platform. It may be that under the militarys new Rapid Fielding Initiative they can adopt the XM-8 without competition.

 

[mordrid52]

Remeber that the AWB only dealt with guns made in the US, it has no affect on imports. That is a seperate issue. I really dont see any new rifles comeing into the US just because the AWB died.

If the rifle is built in the U.S. with U.S. parts, then no import laws apply. That is what people are hoping for. At the very least, companies could just manufacture enough U.S. parts to make an imported rifle pass muster under the import laws.

 

[Houndawg]

FN already has a plant here. It's where they build the M16A2, M16A4, M249, and M240B.

 

[Black Snowman]

AWB lapsing has brought about a civi version of the P90 since it would be even more silly as a 10 round, semi-auto, 16" plinker and unsaleable at it's huge price tag. At least it's a 45 round, semi-auto, 16" plinker making it viable for civi consumption since it hasn't taking the LEO/Counterterrorist world by storm as they had hoped.

 

[Number 6]

Here are some designs that are not ARs, AKs, or FALs. While they are not cheap they are not nearly as expensive as a class 3 firearm.

http://www.robarm.com/xcrtm_modular_weapon_system.htm

http://www.robarm.com/mainpage.htm

http://www.armalite.com/sales/catalog/rifles/ar180b.htm

http://www.ohiorapidfire.com/hk.htm

http://www.bushmaster.com/shopping/m17s/

 

[Das Pferd]

If the rifle is built in the U.S. with U.S. parts, then no import laws apply. That is what people are hoping for. At the very least, companies could just manufacture enough U.S. parts to make an imported rifle pass muster under the import laws.

I completely agree.

However this would not change the business aspect of a company introducing a new model here. They could do the same thing during the ban yet not many did. So the death of the AWB really will have no affect on new styles being imported into the US.