Burst fire Sat 20070825

Browse the annotated links in the continuation and click on any of interest.

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Steve has started a new Firearm Blog. Check it out. (It's now linked in the sidebar.)

The USA's Common Remotely-Operated Weapons Station (CROWS) is a program that uses smaller RWS options on vehicles like up-armored Hummers, in order to offer them the same benefits as RWS systems on larger vehicles [DID].

Part of long lead time for ammo orders explained: "... another reason suppliers are having a hard time meeting demand is that law enforcement agencies are putting in larger than normal orders to make sure they have ammunition in reserve." [Seatlle Post-Intelligencer]

Prices ramped up late last year as demand grew for the brass and lead used in rounds, Sheneman said. The price of a 50-round box of .40-caliber bullets, which Tracy officers use in their Glock handguns, exploded from $7.65 a year ago to $18 this year, he said. [Recordnet.com]

The virtue that the .50 brings to the law enforcement armory is penetration. .50 caliber rounds — especially the new class of penetrating rounds — will go through materials and barricades that rounds from "normal" law enforcement weapons (handguns, .223 or even .308 rifles, and shotgun slugs) won't. [PoliceOne]

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (CDC WISQARS), between 1999 and 2004, the latest statistics, across the country, an average of 757 people a year die from unintentional gun accidents. This compares to an average of 44,102 car accidents per year. Between 1981 and 2004, the latest statistics, countrywide, the number of unintentional firearms deaths decreased by 65 percent, ranging from 1,900 in 1981 to 620 in 2004. [The Bulletin]

The Danger Room notes Russia is experimenting with water guns

The basic MRAP will not offer protection against EFPs, so the call has now gone out for even better-protected MRAP II. [Danger Room]

Other blog bursts:

Extensive Blue Collar Republican blog burst for Friday.

Murdoc Online Friday Linkzookery.