Smith & Wesson Corp. to Acquire Gemini Technologies
Asset Acquisition Will Add Leading Suppressor Brand to Smith & Wesson Firearms Platform
American Outdoor Brands Corporation (NASDAQ Global Select: AOBC), a leading manufacturer of firearms and a provider of quality accessory products for the shooting, hunting, and rugged outdoor enthusiast, today announced that its firearms business, Smith & Wesson Corp., has agreed to acquire substantially all of the assets of Gemini Technologies, Incorporated (“Gemtech”), a provider of high quality suppressors and accessories for the consumer, law enforcement, and military markets.
James Debney, President and CEO of American Outdoor Brands, said, “Gemtech is widely recognized for producing some of the finest rifle and pistol suppressors in the market. Gemtech’s strong product development capabilities, combined with our experience in brand management and our manufacturing expertise, will help us to efficiently develop both firearms and suppressors, minimizing our time to market for both product categories. We view this acquisition as opportunistic, allowing us to enter the suppressor category, which resonates strongly with our core firearm consumer, at a time when the market is particularly soft. These elements combine to make Gemtech an excellent fit with our long term strategy.”
The company intends to complete the acquisition of Gemtech utilizing cash on hand and expects the transaction to close this summer. Ron Martinez, President of Gemtech, will continue in his leadership role as General Manager, heading up the company’s strong team located in Eagle, Idaho.
NSSF and Manufacturers Try to Help Inform Media of Suppressor Facts
Shockingly, news media remains willfully ignorant and sticks with agenda
A few weeks ago, the National Shooting Sports Foundation and representatives from Daniel Defense and Sig Sauer hosted Washington DC-based media for a suppressor demo day at a range in Manassas, Virginia.
Media members, including those from the Associated Press as shown in the video, had the opportunity to fire suppressed rifles and pistols for themselves and to get an education on suppressor (a.k.a. silencer) basics. Company reps explained how suppressors are not assassin’s tools that enable gun-ninjas to perpetrate undetectable crime but, rather, reduce the report of a firearm from louder-than-a-jet-engine to about-like-a-jack-hammer – helping to get it closer to OSHA hearing-safe levels.
As the Hearing Protection Act gains support from both House and Senate lawmakers (148 in the House and 16 in the Senate), as well as from Second Amendment supporters, we won’t be holding our breath waiting for fact-based reporting from the mainstream media.
Keep pushing, keep writing your reps to support the bill, keep calling out the media and anti-gun politicians on their misunderstandings (or outright lies).
F Stands for Fail: Washington Post Flip-Flops on Suppressors
The Washington Post — in one of its rare reversions to journalism – recently issued a fact check that handed Americans for Responsible Solutions and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) three Pinocchios for overstating the noise-canceling properties of firearm suppressors. “There is little that’s quiet about a firearm with a silencer, unless one also thinks a jackhammer is quiet,” the report concluded.
The context was the debate over the Hearing Protection Act (HPA). This bill would treat suppressors as if they were ordinary firearms for federal regulatory purposes, rather than the current practice of treating their sales as if they were machine guns, which are subject to much more cumbersome rules designed to discourage ownership.
Suppressors’ popularity has increased exponentially in recent years, as firearm owners have embraced the health-promoting and experience-enhancing benefits of their use.
And while they do decrease the report of firearms, they do not, as the Post fact check accurately reported, render them anywhere near “silent.”
Who could possibly argue with technology that can reduce hearing loss associated with firearm use? Certainly not the Washington Post, which in its March 20 fact check stated, “We obviously take no position on whether this proposed law would be good or bad …. “
Obviously. Continue reading
Guess Which Country Just Helped Illustrate the Absurdity of US Suppressor Laws?
TN Man Convicted of Smuggling Suppressors into US Thanks to Lighter Regulation in… England(!?)
Well, this is embarrassing, as far as firearm freedoms go. It’s like having to admit that your Bugatti Veyron got beat around the track by the neighbor kid’s 1989 Honda CRX. Isn’t America supposed to be the bastion of gun rights (or, as anti-gun groups would have you believe, a violent wild west frontier straight from the bloodiest shoot-em-up flick you can find)?
Most proponents of an originalist (or any other common sense) interpretation of the United States Constitution and Bill of rights probably already feel that firearms are too heavily regulated in the US, and none are more highly regulated than Title II weapons that fall under the purview of the National Firearms Act, such as machine guns, silencers, short barreled firearms, and destructive devices. Such items are flat out illegal in a number of states and, where they are legal, ownership involves a number of hurdles, including high prices, payment of a $200 transfer tax, being finger-printed, wait times lasting the better part of a year, and federal registration of the item. “But hey, at least we don’t have European-style gun control, right?”
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE) recently released details of the conviction of a Tennessee man who traveled to England, where some may be surprised to find less restrictive laws, to purchase firearm silencers and smuggle them back into the US, presumably because the draconian laws in place here made them too difficult to obtain. Continue reading
Faux Automatic: Rapid Fire Without a Machine Gun
Before heading to SHOT Show this year, I consulted with a few other female shooters that I know to ask what they were hoping to see new this year. In general, I was surprised to find that they were actually in the same KISS school of thought that I am: something that works well, works consistently, and is not difficult to understand how it works. One thing that did surprise me was more interest in fully automatic firearms than I had expected. I have been fortunate in that I have had the opportunity, on more than one occasion, to shoot automatic weapons. If you have not experienced full-auto mag dumps yourself, to be completely honest, it is even more fun than it looks.
Fully-automatic weapons, or machine guns, are regulated under the National Firearms Act (NFA). The law basically says that the only legal machine guns for civilians are the ones that were lawfully possessed prior to May 19, 1986 and those require payment of a $200 transfer tax, lengthy approval process, and federal registration in the NFRTR. This makes for a very limited supply of weapons that are in circulation, which – as we learned about supply and demand in Economics 101 – drives the price sky high – often into the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. Unless you either join the military or have some pretty cool friends, you may not get the opportunity to shoot a machine gun.
However, a shooter and their ammo (ergo, their money) are easily parted and the firearms industry has come up with some innovative ways to turn a pocket full of money into a hot, smoking pile of spent brass. Thanks to that innovation, there are some legal ways to simulate full-auto firing power. Continue reading
How Silencers Work: A Closer Look at Gun Mufflers
With Silencers About to be Available Over the Counter (Fingers Crossed), Let’s Take a Closer Look at How They Work.
The American people spoke loud and clear last Tuesday when they elected the Republican candidate to the highest political office in the United States in addition as well as holding Republican majorities in both the US House and Senate. The same sentiment echoed across the country, such as in Kentucky, where voters not only flipped the state’s House of Representatives to a Republican majority for the first time in nearly 100 years, but they did it by a landslide 64-35 margin.
Regardless of how many might feel about various positions held by various candidates, it appears that American gun owners are in for what we hope is a good (at least) four year stretch. A major part of President-Elect Trump’s platform was his strong support for Second Amendment Rights. Given the list of pro-RKBA politicians and industry insiders that he has already named to his Second Amendment Coalition, chances are good that we may see some positive movement in the arena of existing and future firearms legislation.
One example of such positive movement is the renewed possibility for passage of the Hearing Protection Act – NRA-backed legislation which would remove silencers (a/k/a suppressors) from the purview of the National Firearms Act (NFA). This was even the ostensible goal of the American Suppressor Association‘s foundation and one that they are still working hard toward. Until the Hearing Protection Act is passed, silencers are still available and legal to own in most states, albeit with the additional hurdles imposed by the recently adopted (and, hopefully, soon to be abolished) ATF Rule 41F.
With dreams of over-the-counter suppressor availability via just a 4473 and NICS background check (and no $200 tax stamp or year-long wait) just on the horizon, let’s take a look at how suppressors work Continue reading
