Beretta Holdings is expanding its holdings in the United Kingdom. Yep, the world’s oldest guncompany is acquiring one of the foremost brands in British gun making: Holland & Holland.
We’re told Beretta Holdings had been looking at acquiring a “premium luxury brand” and H&H with its rich history, manufacturing capabilities, premium products- and loyal customer base- checks that box. According to Pietro Gussalli Beretta, the acquisition is “a great achievement for the Beretta family, further increasing the Group’s international footprint.”
The deal also includes Holland & Holland’s Shooting Ground in West London.
An old expression says “numbers don’t lie.” The numbers for NICS checks in January have once again proved eye-opening. The adjusted NICS numbers for January of 2021 are seventy-five point-two percent (75.2%) higher than January 2020.
If you think in “Top 10” lists, here’s some perspective: three of the Top 10 weeks and one Top 10 single day record happened in January.
The total number of NSSF-adjusted NICS checks for January: 2,052,130.
While the NSSF-adjusted numbers aren’t a direct corollary for firearms sales, they do give a reading of current market conditions.
The market is still smoking hot.
Guns, politicians’ statements notwithstanding, appear to have moved from “optional” to “mandatory” for many Americans.
As the NSSF’s Director of Public Affairs, Mark Oliva observes: It can’t be discounted that many of these background checks for the purchase of a firearm are attributed to threats by the Biden Administration to enact the most radical and far-reaching gun control agenda ever proposed.”
Further, he says, “Americans continue to buy firearms at a blistering pace. That’s undoubtedly connected to President Joe Biden’s plans to attack the firearms industry.” The attack he says, “started with freezing the publishing of the Office of the Controller of the Currency’s ‘Fair Access’ banking rule.”
The rule’s publication was designed to codify prohibitions against “Operation Choke Point” type discrimination against “unacceptable” industry groups (including the gun business) my major banks.
President Biden-then candidate Biden- promised to pursue repeal of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, to “weaponize” the ATF, revoke licenses for minor clerical errors, and ban entire classes of firearms from ownership.
It’s no secret he also favors either outlawing AR-15 style rifles entirely, or taxing their owners for the “privilege” of owning magazines for them.
As Oliva points out, “January’s NICS figures clearly spell out that the demand of law-abiding Americans to purchase firearms isn’t abating. It’s growing.”
“Americans,” he says, “are claiming their Second Amendment rights to provide for their own safety in record numbers.”
We’re already seeing the introduction of a number of proposed gun laws, both at state and national levels.
The firearms industry, despite what politicians might tell you, continues its efforts to keep guns out of the wrong hands.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation has rolled out a new webpage, Share Center, to let people outside the shooting sports and gun industry understand just how involved those efforts really are.
Visit it. Learn how to explain those efforts to non-gun owners. Share it with friends.
With the influx of first-time gun owners, we’re looking at a good news/bad news scenario.
The good news? There are plenty of new gun owners out there.
The bad? Many of them have never owned a gun before. And that lack of familiarity has to potential to cause injury to themselves or others.
Yesterday, we carried the announcement of Glock Professional’s course designed to get new Glock owners started on the right foot. Since then, I had the chance to spend a few minutes talking with longtime Glock instructor and employee Chris Edwards about their new Brilliance in the Basics Course.
For Edwards, the course is the recognition that “we have some new gun owners that don’t know anything about their new guns.”
He means that quite literally.
So Edwards and the other members of the Glock Professional group put their collective experiences and expertise into developing what is a literal square one program.
According to Edwards, it starts with the most basic instruction-even before the basic rules of firearms safety.
The new course’s safety briefing covers unboxing your new gun.
Edwards and other instructors had noticed that new owners have a tendency to put their finger inside the trigger guard when picking up a gun. “We teach them,” he says, “from the very beginning the only safe place for your trigger finger - if you’re not preparing to shoot - is straight and outside the trigger guard.”
From there, Brilliance in the Basics takes the new owner through basics like loading a magazine to basic shooting instruction. It concludes with something that I’ve never seen in any instructional course- cleaning your new firearm.
In keeping with the basic theme, this course talks about the safe way to carry a pistol (the holster), but doesn’t expect the new shooters to present, fire and then return their gun to a holster.
“We want them to learn the basics,” Edwards explains, “absorbing the basics of shooting accurately is a lot. The holster introduces a whole new list of things to learn.”
To facilitate the basic education, students generally won’t shoot their own new purchases. Instead, they’ll learn on the Glock 44 - the company’s new .22 rimfire.
“It’s far easier for a new shooter,” Edwards explains, “the basics are much easier to absorb and retain in a .22 rimfire than even a 9mm. Reducing recoil and noise makes it less intimidating for new shooters, and the basics of making a good shot are no different for any caliber.”
“I’m gratified at how the course has turned out,” he told me, “the NRA and others have great basic shooting programs, but I don’t know another manufacturer who teaches new customers how to go from the new gun in the box to how to shoot and maintain their gun safely.”
Neither do I.
At this point, the courses will all be taught at Glock’s facilities Smyrna, Georgia. You can learn more about it at www.GLOCKTraining.com
— Jim Shepherd