Laser guns will replace traditional air pistols in the modern pentathlon at the 2012 London Olympics after a successful trial at the inaugural Youth Olympics.  The technology will reduce the cost of the shooting element of the five-event sport by two thirds, while the improved safety could mean new venues are used.

Full Story – HERE

*Snore* Just when I thought the Olympics couldn’t get any more boring.  At least traditional pellets were susceptible to wind, gravity, etc…

Wake me up when the fencing event using lightsabers, or the current pentathlon guns have their power cranked to blow shit up.

The DARPA “One Shot” program at the Pentagon was originally aimed to give snipers the power to hit a target from 2000 meters away in winds as high as 40 miles per hour. In the first phases of the 3-year-old program, shooters used prototype rifles dressed with lasers and fancy computer hardware to do damage from 1,100 meters away in 18-mile-an-hour winds. The scope-mounted lasers can “see” wind turbulence in the path of the bullet and feed the data to computers, enabling real-time calculation of — and compensation for — the wind-blown trajectory. The agency is looking for 15 ultra precise sniper scopes to put in shooters’ hands by next year.

Full Story – Wired

More info at DARPA – HERE

I wonder when this will be coming to the consumer market?   On second thought, hitting the target every time with no effort would completely take the fun out of shooting.

The article in Wired mentions the cost at $7 million…. that seems like a steal of a deal if they can actually get this type of system to work for that amount of money.  A lot of lives potentially will be saved.

I wish I had one of those badboys to properly commemorate the anniversary.

A great article on Lasers on the BBC news website – HERE

Source: http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2850498

It’s been a while since I was last in a Toys R Us, but if they are starting to carry gun related accessories then I may have to re-visit!

If you get a chance, read some of the reviews.  Some of them are pretty funny!

Maybe in the future a dedicated store for just firearms and accessories?

Hat Tip: Solomon

If life gives you no money for a rail mounted laser:

Improvise!

Released at SHOT show this year, two new guns in the S&W bodyguard series, a .380 pistol and a .38 revolver.

They are kept lightweight through the use of aluminum and polymer and steel.

Very nice commercial.. really highlights the guns and the lasers well.

There is a flash of the girl’s face at 1:00 where she looks a bit too happy for someone that could have been stabbed.  Maybe she realized that she had the upper hand

Some thoughts:

• The integration of the laser into the frames (although real well done in this case), is not my preference.  I’d rather see it as an option.
• Red lasers are so last year! … Don’t they know that green is the new red? Better visibility, greater brightness, and better range with the green.
• Ambidextrous cylinder release on revolver is a great idea
• I don’t like the external non-ambidextrous thumb safety on the pistol.  I prefer safeties you don’t have to remember to disengage (ie. like the internal safeties on Glock pistols).

Hat Tip: TheFirearmBlog

Is SERIOUS BUSINESS according to LaserMax:

Put a sticker on the outside of my gun? Uhhhh I don’t think so.

Full Story: Jay G at MArooned Blog

This is definitely the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard in a while:

UIPM President, Dr h.c. Klaus Schormann stated that “the decision to introduce non-air pistol shooting was the second big step for the sport following the decision in 2008 to change to the combined run/shoot format. This is a significant development in terms of lowering the environmental impact of the sport.”

Source – HERE

It means they are going to be using LASER equipped guns for shooting instead of pellet guns.  For those that don’t know, a laser beam travels in a perfectly straight line ALWAYS and is not affected by wind, gravity, etc.

Pellets are about the size of a couple of grains of rice and are typically made out of lead.  Yea lead isn’t the greatest for the environment, but really… competitors for all over the world are going to be FLYING there to participate.. and they are worried about the environmental impact of a small amount of lead that could be easily recovered and re used?! HA!

I sure hope none of these people smoke, or have a resting heart rate of above 50 beats per minutes… all that pollution could mean the end of the world as we know it.

All these Olympians should head to Disney Land and ride buzz light year to practice.

Obligatory picture of my girlfriend and I on Buzz light year at Disney Land about a month ago:

Faces protected to preserve OPSEC

A PDF with more on non-air pistol shooting – HERE