Month: May 2009

Stupid Gun Inventions: The Glock Charging Handle

Posted by Mostly Genius – May 7, 2009

glock charging handleI do not see any point to this at all. Considering that a right handed shooter is going to need rack the slide with his left hand, he either needs to reach across the top of the gun (whereby he could simply grasp the slide and rack it) or the charging handle would need to be on the left side, which isn’t going to help your holstered carry.

This will change the slide weight and provide one more thing for the slide to hang up on while it is cycling. Thus making your reliable gun less reliable for the sake of some edge case where you are injured and can’t rack with your other hand. I guess the inventor of this monstrosity never heard of racking using the rear sight against equipment.

You can buy one here for $70 if you have more money than sense.

Military use of Less-lethal weapons

Posted by Mostly Genius – May 2, 2009

Hell-in-a-handbasket has a post up about the military use of less lethal weapons.

Throughout most of history military weapons development has tried to make them more lethal. Changes to the rules of engagement and media coverage have driven the development of this. Historically, if you attacked the soldiers they would kill you. This has the advantage of eliminating the troublemakers and the disadvantage of creating a lot of animosity among the occupied population. I would say that there is a lot more historical precedent for this plan working than there is for a kinder, gentler, less lethal military.