SIGARMS suspending sale of P220 pistol magazines due to Katrina

[Beam Me Up]

This is an email forwarded to me from a friend of mine who is a bit of a gun nut. I don't own one myself but he, very far left of center, is quite into them. This is FYI. I looked at the SIGARMS web site http://www.sigarms.com and do not find any reference to this email (at least not yet).

SIGARMS® is responding to emergency requests from law enforcement in the hurricane ravaged areas of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama and is expediting orders to agencies in those states. Already SIGARMS has shipped extra pistol magazines for the Louisiana State Police who carry the P220 pistol, and at the agency's request will be sending all available remaining P220 magazines. As a result, SIGARMS has suspended sale of the P220 pistol magazines to the commercial market. Commercial sales are expected to resume in October.

Additionally SIGARMS is working closely with officials at the ATF to expedite required paperwork for law enforcement agency transfer of the SG 551 and SG 552 select-fire rifles. Already, SIGARMS has made preparations to ship several hundred rifles to one Louisiana agency.

Due to the magnitude of the emergency facing law enforcement in the region hit by hurricane Katrina and the surrounding states which have taken in thousands of refugees, SIGARMS will give immediate priority to requests from area law enforcement agencies and expedite shipments of firearms, parts and accessories. Agencies in other parts of the country that are sending personnel and supplies to the region will also receive priority status to assist them in their efforts.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause to our commercial dealers and customers. We deeply appreciate your understanding in this matter. Thank you. - SIGARMS

[Gyre]

1. German guns ehhh? Only the best for bushbot stormtroopers.

Whatever happened to "Buy USA"?

[jmowreader]

4. Because American guns aren't competitive in that market?

You have police in your town. Look at the guns they're carrying.

Today's popular police guns are made by Beretta, Heckler & Koch, Glock and SIG-Sauer. Beretta has a US factory in which the horrid M-9 pistol they sell to the Army is made (it's horrid because they had to carve so much metal out of the frame to get the weight to where the Army wanted it that it cracks easily; the Beretta 92 they based the M-9 on is a good gun), but Beretta is Italian, Glock is Austrian and the other two are German.

American gunmakers sell mostly to sport shooters--hunters, target people, competitive shooters--so they build guns sport shooters will like. In Europe, it's hard and expensive to be a sport shooter, so the gunmakers there focus on the military and law enforcement markets and they build guns soldiers and cops will like.

[Greyhound]

10. Police issue Glocks are made in Smyrna GA. n/t

[jmowreader]

11. I wouldn't be surprised if H&K and SIG don't open US plants too

I mean, it makes sense: instead of paying to build guns in Europe, containerize them and ship them to the US, then put them in a warehouse until someone orders some, just open a plant in the US to make guns for this market.

However, the general point of my post remains valid: European-designed guns are more popular with American cops than are American-designed guns.

[yppahemnkm]

13. The Glock company is from Austria

[Greyhound]

16. Yes but, what with the "global economy" and all, does it matter

which country the company is based in?

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

9. LA state police are "bushbot stormtroopers"?

WTF?

[Zynx]

15. Because most quality pistols are foreign?

[sarcasmo]

2. Arms sales direct to the Government and shutting down public sales.

Can you say the easiest way to Martial Law. The public can not buy rounds but the Military and local police can. This has turned into a great practice for the Government.

[jmowreader]

3. This is for one specific gun, not ALL guns

And it's not ammo either, it's the magazines for the ammo. As far as I know, SIGARMS just makes guns.

From what I'm reading, the Louisiana State Police carry the P220 and they need more magazines--for whatever purpose I cannot say. I dunno, if I was a Louisiana state cop, I'd get the feeling that the local citizenry is gonna get pissed off at Bush's armies of compassion (emphasis on "army" not "compassion") and start taking it out on any authority figure they could find, and I'd want to be armed to the teeth if said authority figure was me.

Read down a little farther and you shall see that SIG is "expediting" the transfer of select-fire rifles to law-enforcement agencies in the region. A select-fire rifle is one that will fire in either semiauto or full-auto mode. This, not restriction of supply of a magazine for a cop gun that private citizens generally don't buy because it's really expensive, is the real worry.

[Beam Me Up]

5. Of course the citizens are going to get pissed off. This is what the Feds

WANT. They WANT confrontations between survivors and police. They WANT a reason to extend the reach of martial law. They WANT to create conditions that will have the police firing on citizens. They want to condition us to accepting these things. That is how fascism creeps into a society as it is here.

We now have a form of concentration camp in this country and we are going to have them for the foreseeable future. Yes, they are 'necessary' -- but look at how they are being set up. They will be totally POLICED, essentially prisons with a 'smiley' face.

This is NOT good and any one who isn't getting where this is headed is mentally and emotionally BLIND.

[benburch]

14. You need more magazines when your arming orders change.

Police rarely fire their guns. Your typical cop has one loaded magazine and one spare. In a disaster where there might be armed violence or rioting, their commanders would reasonably order them to carry extra loaded magazines. Taking the time to load bullets in a magazine in a live fire situation can get you dead.

And I think nobody wants to see any dead cops!

[Dolomite]

6. By the time this gets funneled down to Bubba sitting on his bar stool

behind the counter at the local gun shop, the rumor will be -

"SIG won't sell to civilians no more, all I've got left is these few used ones here in the case, and we already are gettin' phone calls from people in their cars yellin' at me: 'Don't sell yer last SIG! I'm comin' right after work and I gots cash!'. We expect Glock and H&K to also close civilian sales within the week. I've already bought ten of each myself."

[RagingInMiami]

7. That reminds me

I need to stock up on bullets for my Colt .45 and my Beretta 9mm. No telling what might happen down here if a hurricane strikes Miami.

[Beam Me Up]

8. Hurricans are nothing compared to what is coming.

This nation is being intentionally lead into a decent into chaos. It may take weeks, months, possibly years, but it is coming. Economically, environmentally, biologically, militarily -- however it gets set up it is coming. What was Iraq yesterday is New Orleans and the South, today. 'Tomorrow' it will be Miami, and Atlanta, and Chicago and LA. It is coming. The 'reason' for a) Martial law, b) a Draft and c) the use of tactical nukes in the Middle East is coming. Nothing short of a counter-coup against the Neo-Con agenda can stop it now. We are WAY beyond 'politics' as usual here.

[RagingInMiami]

12. Trust me

I'm well aware. We are at the breaking point right now. This country is like that levee in New Orleans.

[Greyhound]

17. But do we, as a people, still possess the stones to fight?

I have serious doubts. :banghead: