Category: Arms & Munitions ID

Firearm with 3D-printed frame recovered following police shooting in California

G. Hays & N.R. Jenzen-Jones On 18 June 2020, at approximately 1752 local time, 18-year-old Andres Guardado was fatally shot by a deputy from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) after allegedly drawing a firearm. The shooting took place in the 400 block of Redondo Beach Boulevard, in the unincorporated Gardena area, outside Los

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Multiple 3D-printed Firearms Seized in Sydney, Australia

G. Hays On Tuesday 11 August 2020, police in New South Wales, Australia executed a search warrant on a home in the Sydney suburb of St Marys following a yearlong investigation into the manufacture and supply of 3D-printed firearms to criminals across Sydney’s west. At the home, investigators arrested a 29-year-old man who was charged

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Greek Elviemek prototype CS grenade

Kristóf Nagy & Paulos Skontzos Riot control agents (RCA)—colloquially described as ‘tear gas’—were introduced to the Hellenic Police in the 1960s, following the experience of members of their designated riot control units, Monades Apokatastasis Taksis (‘Units for the Reinstatement of Order’; MAT), who experienced the potential of such agents during training courses in the United

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Early Colt SP1 self-loading rifle in Venezuela

Pedro Pérez & Jonathan Ferguson An early Colt SP1 (Sporting Purpose model 1) rifle was recovered from a criminal group in Venezuela in the early hours of 21 November 2019.  A task force composed of personnel from Cuerpo de Investigaciones Científicas Penales y Criminalísticas (‘Scientific Penal and Criminal Investigations Corps’; CICPC) and Comando Nacional Antiextorsión

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Recoilless Weapons in Confined Spaces

Ryan Scheiblein Recoilless weapons are direct-fire guns distinguished by a system of operation in which propellant gases (or another counter-mass such as a powder or liquid) are expelled from the rear of the barrel in order to offset the recoil generated by forward momentum of the projectile. Many recoilless weapons have smoothbore barrels; however, several

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Polymer 3D-printed barrel successfully tested

G. Hays Following on from the release of the FGC-9 (see ARES Research Report No. 8 for details), development in the area of 3D-printed firearms components has been rapidly progressing. Recently, this was expressed in the testing of another novel semi-automatic firearm, in this case a .22 LR AR-style ‘pistol’ featuring a barrel entirely printed

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ARES releases Research Report 9: Menace or Myth?

Armament Research Services (ARES) is very pleased to announce the release of Research Report No. 9, Menace or Myth? A Closer Look at the “Cop-killer” 5.7 × 28 mm Cartridge. This latest research report investigates the myths and misconceptions surrounding the FN Herstal 5.7 × 28 mm cartridge, assessing the technical characteristics of both the

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Luty Sub-machine Guns: past, present & future

Chloe Tousignant Philip A. Luty was a British designer of homemade firearms. Whilst he did not consider himself an activist, he held strong beliefs in favour of universal firearms ownership and expressed these via his website and other platforms. As a

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Toronto Police seize PKC Glock with 3D-printed frame

Ivan T. In April 2020, the Toronto Police Service seized what appears to be a Glock-type self-loading pistol. To the non-specialist, this may appear to be a modified factory-made Glock handgun, but it is in fact a craft-produced firearm constructed using a 3D-printed frame. It is most likely to be what is known as a

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ARES Releases Research Report 8: Desktop Firearms

Armament Research Services (ARES) is very pleased to announce the release of our latest Research Report, Desktop Firearms: Emergent Small Arms Craft Production Technologies. The report examines the range of emergent technologies which are influencing the craft-production of small arms by individuals, and the effects these are having on the types of weapons that can

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