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NSSF Applauds U.S. House of Representatives Introduction of Freedom Financing Act
Legislation Protects Firearms Industry from Corporate Discrimination
The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the firearms industry trade association, applauded the introduction of H.R. 2079, the Freedom Financing Act in the U.S. House of Representatives by Congressman Roger Williams (R-Texas). The legislation would ensure large financial institutions cannot deny service to certain constitutionally-protected industries that are fully compliant with all laws and statutes.
“Americans must be reassured their tax dollars aren’t weaponized by corporate institutions attempting to eliminate a lawful industry that has become politically-disfavored by boardroom bureaucrats,” said Lawrence G. Keane, Senior Vice President and General Counsel for the National Shooting Sports Foundation. “Congressman Williams’s leadership is crucial to ensure banks which have enjoyed bailouts and insurance programs funded by taxpayers aren’t allowed to benefit from these protections while purposefully discriminating against the industry that provides the means for Second Amendment rights. These policies are debated and created by the elected officials Americans vote to represent their interests, not by faceless corporate boards representing the interest of the few. We applaud Congressman Williams for his clear vision in correcting this abuse of American trust and taxpayer dollars.”
The Freedom Financing Act focuses on the most egregious examples of legal commerce being banned through corporate policy that target firearms manufacturers, distributors, importers and retailers. Because the intent is not to force financial institutions to do business with certain industries – but rather to ensure that legal commerce is not prohibited – this legislation exempts financial institutions with less than $10 billion in assets.
The firearms industry has opposed moves by Bank of America, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase when they published policies to deny financial services to AR-15 manufacturers and retailers to adopt restrictive sales policies, products that are legal under federal law for ownership and commonly-owned, with more than 16 million modern sporting rifles in private ownership today. Public policy is the responsibility of elected leaders and not dictated by a select few of unaccountable corporate boardroom bureaucrats. Policies to discriminate a lawful industry are a threat to American’s ability to choose the firearms that best meet their needs for self-defense, hunting and recreational target shooting.
South Carolina Department of Public Safety Selects FN15 Patrol Carbine
FN America, LLC is pleased to announce that South Carolina Department of Public Safety has selected the FN 15 Patrol Carbine to meet the requirements of their Highway Patrol, State Transport and Protective Services officers. FN law enforcement distributor, Amchar Wholesale, has delivered an initial quantity of 300 carbines to the agency with planned orders for an additional 300 units through 2020.
“The FN 15 Patrol Carbine, designed and produced in FN’s South Carolina production facility, was a natural fit for its home state’s public safety officers,” said Bucky Mills, Senior Director of Law Enforcement Sales for FN America, LLC. “FN’s proven track record of producing government-issue M4-style carbines and our ability to offer the agency a carbine that they could custom-build to meet their exact requirements provided them the opportunity to have a quality rifle unique to their agency with a cost-efficient price structure.”
The FN 15 Patrol Carbine can easily be configured based on the needs of the individual agency directly from the FN production facility, based in Columbia, South Carolina. When selecting the FN 15 Patrol Carbine, agencies start with an affordably-priced base rifle equipped with a Magpul MOE hand guard with M-LOK, 16-inch button-broached barrel with fixed front sights, 12-o’clock picatinny rail for optics or sights, and lower receiver with ambidextrous selector. From there, agencies can configure with options for various types of slings, sights, magazines, rear stocks and accessory rails.
M&P® M2.0 Compact Pistol Selected as 2019 American Rifleman Handgun of the Year
M&P M2.0 Compact wins 2019 NRA Publications Golden Bullseye Award
Smith & Wesson Corp. today announced that it’s M&P M2.0 Compact pistol has won the NRA Publications’ 2019 American Rifleman Handgun of the Year. The M&P M2.0 Compact pistol incorporates the popular M&P M2.0 feature set, including an aggressively-textured grip; four interchangeable palmswell grip inserts; a light, crisp M2.0 trigger; and a 15 round magazine capacity. Designed for personal protection, the M&P M2.0 Compact pistol series, available in 9mm, .40 S&W and .45 AUTO, has expanded to include both a 4″ and 3.6″ barrel version in a variety of configurations.
Jan Mladek, General Manager of Smith & Wesson and M&P brands, said, “We are honored that the M&P M2.0 Compact pistol has been selected as the 2019 American Rifleman Handgun of the Year. This is the first time we’ve offered a compact M&P pistol in 9mm with a 15 round magazine in this size, and it has been very well received by our consumers. The M&P M2.0 Compact pistol delivers a compact carry advantage, building upon the popularity of the M&P M2.0 platform and feature set.”
To qualify for a NRA Golden Bullseye Award, products must be reliable, innovative in design and function, and perceived as a value to the purchaser. Winners of a Golden Bullseye Award are selected by a seven-member committee of NRA Publications staff members with more than a century of collective experience in the shooting and hunting industry. The 2019 Golden Bullseye Awards will be presented during the 2019 NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Read the American Rifleman review here.
Hudson Manufacturing Files for Bankruptcy
Maker of Hudson H9 Pistol Files Chapter 7 Bankruptcy
According to several sources, including bankruptcy information site InfoRuptcy, Hudson Manufacturing has submitted filings for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
The New Wonder Pistol
When we met with Cy and Lauren Hudson in the past about their ambitious venture into producing the new H9 pistol, they were genuinely passionate about the project and, personally, seemed like nice people.
To be sure, the demo Hudson pistols that we shot did shoot well but, for the life of us, we could not really figure out the buzz around it. At the SHOT Show product announcement and shooting bays, the crowd of firearms industry New Media folks around the Hudson booth was a hundred people deep, all clamoring to catch a glimpse of the new pistol or get their hands on it.
Truthfully, we had questions about how well an expensive new, unproven, funny looking, and heavy (2.5+ lbs loaded) steel framed pistol would fare breaking into a market trending toward smaller, lighter carry pistols. Yet they continued to innovate, making design changes and, a year after the H9’s introduction, releasing a half-pound lighter aluminum H9A variant. With all of that work involved, they would certainly need to find a lot of buyers for the $1100 pistol to remain viable.
Troubles Begin
According to Josh Supnick’s H9 Owners site, it looks like major issues started in Summer of 2018 when Hudson announced that they would be fabricating their own slides for new models instead of having the third party H9 slide manufacturer make them. The other company put the kibosh on their relationship and stopped making the original H9 slides for Hudson, leaving the company unable to meet production demand.
During all of this, Hudson was also having tolerance issues with the H9 grip modules, causing functionality problems with pistols that had already made it out to customers. The company stopped shipping new pistols and started dealing with more and more warranty claims on those that had shipped.
In August 2018, contract manufacturer Cambridge Valley Machining filed suit over Hudson’s failure to pay for a portion of the nearly $1.7M order for H9 grips, barrels, and other parts. Hudson counter-filed stating that the breach was on CVM’s end as they had failed to provide adequate product, causing them to not be able to sell the pistols to generate revenue to pay for the order.
By fall, Hudson did not even have enough parts on hand to complete those warranty repairs, could not fulfill existing orders (to the tune of more than a million dollars), and could not secure investors or companies to license the design.
Production staff, and then front office staff, were laid off. After launching the original H9 at the 2017 SHOT Show and the lighter H9A at the 2018 SHOT Show, they company had planned to exhibit at the 2019 SHOT Show but visitors were greeted by an empty Hudson booth.
Hudson had disappeared from Twitter by August 2018 and abandoned their Facebook page by December.
RIP Hudson Mfg
The latest nail in Hudson’s coffin came last week when they filed for Chapter 7 liquidation bankruptcy – a process through which remaining assets are sold to pay back creditors.
The repayment of those creditors looks like it might be about as likely as all of the H9 owners with pistols in for warranty work receiving back their repaired pistols (or receiving them at all).
The bankruptcy filing claims that Hudson is anywhere from $10 million to $50 million in debt while having only $50,000 in assets. The list of creditors to Hudson Manufacturing runs 18 pages in the filings.
NSSF Praises U.S. House Bipartisan Target Practice and Marksmanship Training Support Act
Legislation Frees Funds for State Range Construction
The National Shooting Sports Foundation® (NSSF®), the firearms industry trade association, praised the introduction of H.R. 1222, the Target Practice and Marksmanship Training Support Act of 2019 in the U.S House of Representatives. The bipartisan bill was authored by Reps. Ron Kind (D-Wis.) and Rob Bishop (R-Utah).
“This is crucial legislation that would provide state fish and game agencies more flexibility to use Pittman-Robertson excise taxes dollars raised from the sale of firearms and ammunition to enhance existing public shooting ranges and to build new ones to meet the growing need for additional places for target shooters to participate in their sport,” said Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel. “Public shooting ranges provide hunters a place to sight in rifles and shotguns before hunting seasons, for people to take firearm safety and hunter education courses and, for recreational target shooters to enjoy their sport. NSSF thanks Congressmen Kind and Bishop for recognizing the critical need and providing solutions to benefit recreational shooters and conservation.”
This legislation has been introduced in previous Congressional sessions, where it received overwhelming bipartisan support, but was never advanced to the president. The funds are derived from an existing excise taxes paid by firearms and ammunition manufacturers since 1937, with almost $12.1 billion raised for wildlife conservation supported by the sale of these products.
States are permitted to use some of those funds for hunter education courses and for public shooting ranges under a restrictive formula that has largely discouraged state agencies from building and enhancing public shooting ranges. The legislation would provide states greater flexibility on their ability to use Pittman-Robertson excise tax funds by increasing the cap of federal funds accrued for the creation and maintenance of shooting ranges from 75 to 90 percent. This means states could begin work on range facilities with 10 percent matching funds, instead of the current 25 percent. It would also enable excise funds to be made available and accrue for five years for land acquisition or range construction.
Target shooters are largely responsible for the funds derived through excise taxes from the sale of firearms and ammunition products. That money is directly responsible for habitat conservation, recreational shooting and wildlife management, making gun owners, hunters and manufacturers largest financial supporters of wildlife conservation throughout the United States. The development of new ranges will help encourage participation in hunting and the shooting sports, ensuring wildlife conservation funding through the Pittman-Robertson Act will continue for generations to come.
Hi Point Changes Up Their Pistol Line. Finally.
Aside from being big, bulky, heavy, and ugly (all true), one of the main beefs that people have with the budget-friendly firearm brand HiPoint is the low capacity (also true). Their line of pistols and pistol caliber carbines have always featured a limited capacity single stack magazine despite the wide grips. That changes now.
For two decades, the Model C9 – a blowback operated polymer-framed 9mm pistol with Zamak slide – has been the company’s flagship handgun. Throughout that time, the Hi-Point product line has seen precious few changes aside from the addition of new calibers and cosmetic features. This includes the stock flush-fit 8-round magazine capacity that C9 owners have always been limited by.
At SHOT Show 2019 in Las Vegas, the Ohio-based company introduced their latest pistol offering – a higher capacity 9mm with a few new features that will be appreciated by those who don’t immediately turn up their nose at the inexpensive firearms. Hi-Point is quick to point out that the new handgun is not just a tweaked version of their existing pistols but, rather, is an entirely new firearm with a more contemporary design that they say will stick with the company’s affordable pricing structure.
Currently in what they are calling a “stealth prototype” phase, the company had 3D printed rapid prototypes on display in their booth to demonstrate the size and features of the new pistol, which boasts a higher capacity magazine, threaded barrel, improved slide and grip geometry. Continue reading
