The CQB ASSASSIN is a hybrid muzzle device designed to effectively reduce muzzle rise, felt recoil, and redistribute the flash signature. But wait, there’s more! “CQB stands for “close quarters battle”, the spiked feature was designed specifically for the protection of military and law enforcement operators in a close quarters battle situation where less than lethal force may need to be applied to an enemy combatant. Extreme caution must be exercised when handling and installing this device as it is intended to cause bodily harm.” Am I the only one that gets a little squirmy thinking about that? In what situation can you imagine that “stabbing someone with your pointy muzzle device” is going to be your best or only option? . . .
An artist in the UK named Nick Veasey decided he’d x-ray several different “famous” guns (mostly from the silver screen), in an effort to “deglamourise” them and show they’re just killing machines. From where I’m sitting, the photos had less than the desired effect, as mechanical things and how they work are fascinating to me. So, we have these, an M16 above and an M60 below (click to embiggen), and another dozen or so over at The Daily Mail.
A Florida man was arrested and charged with impersonating a law enforcement officer and improper exhibition of a firearm after attempting to use a badge and gun to obtain a discount at Dunkin’ Donuts. Twice. While the gun was carried with a legal permit, the badge belonged to the man’s deceased father, who was a cop in New Jersey. After the first incident, donut shop management notified police, and the erstwhile officer was arrested when he came back the next day for seconds. The Daily Mail has video, but sadly no sound, and says that “Fox News reported local police officers say they are not entitled to discounts and don’t ask for them.” [h/t: SA]
MAIG has lost another member this week as Oro Valley, Arizona mayor Satish Hiremath resigned under what the Arizona Daily Star calls “pressure” from a gun rights group. His email statement to the Star read, in part, “I am aware of the efforts of members of Arizona’s criminal justice community and our state Legislature, and I support their direction. It is apparent that MAIG differs from the focus of our state leaders, which is consistent with my views. Therefore, I am forwarding my resignation to the Mayors Against Illegal Guns along with my recommendation that the group focus its efforts on what I believe was the original premise to deal with ‘illegal guns.'”
The motorized mule is back again in a short video that describes some more of its capabilities, including “leader-follow” mode and autonomous “go-to waypoint” mode. This thing still fascinates me.
Those x-ray shots are pretty cool. Do you think he’d sell prints?
They are cool. But it looks like they are loaded, isn’t that against the law in the UK? Did he have an encounter with local law enforcement for having these guns.
He probably traveled to the U.S. to do the project.
FTA: “The weapons were sourced from an armorer who provides guns to the cinema industry and were delivered to Veasey’s studio in Maidstone, Kent, by two handlers in an armoured van.”
http://www.xrayguns.com/Our_shirts.html
dude sells shirts with xrayed guns on them. i have his M16 shirt and love it!!!
and there are images floating around the internet of X-rayed silencers. great way to see into the design of sealed cans.
On that note, I thought it was interesting that the “silenced” PPK he x-rayed was wearing a dummy silencer. The x-ray shows no baffles, it’s just a tube in a tube.
I’m not surprised – it’s a prop gun.
Exactly what I was thinking!
Now that is a nice muzzle. If they can do something about the increased sound signature im in.
Yeaaeah… if less than lethal force is what is reasonable at the time, I don’t think using the bang end of your gun as a prod is responsible. Seems like it’s a product aimed at the kind of people who need tacticool everything… uzi pens, glock key chains, etc.
Glad the guy got busted impersonating, although usually laws require more than just flashing a badge. Reminds me of those “CCW” badge folks. Going someplace, not in uniform, and flashing a badge to try and score freebies? Yeah, there’s a reason the guy got the real po-po called on him, that isn’t kosher.
I figured out the muzzle break thingy! You know in the movies all the time when they run out of ammo and throw the gun at the guy chasing them?
brake, muzzle brake.
I laughed at the Daily Mail thing. A hundred comments calling them stupid, and then, “This article is now closed for comments.”
I’ll bet some editor got a talking to.
“Quit posting these bad-ass cut-aways of guns!”
It’s a shame, there were so many corrections I could have posted, like the fact that they pictured a UMP9 and called it a UMP45, or that the associated movie screen grab actually showed a G36.
Yikes!
Tapping someone with that thing would likely be bad. Since it IS attached to a ‘deadly weapon’, hitting someone could be construed as assault with a deadly weapon.
Some lib DA would likely jump all over that.
In military usage? There are folks here who are more familiar with ROE.
OK, now I got it. That mule thing reminds me of a welsh corgi dog.
It really would be an assault weapon then wouldnt it 😀
I don’t see the point in the muzzle devise with spikes, the points aren’t long enough to cause anything more than superficial damage.
It’s deep enough to cause bleeding, but not deep enough to cause vital damage that will incapacitate.
So, now some random (possible drug addict) person is bleeding all over the place, or possibly all over you, during a fight.
Call you say blood born pathogens?
Call=can
Born = borne
It looks more like a boring bit for woodworking. If you twist it enough while applying pressure it could bore a large lethal hole.
Pain compliance tool.
Yeah, this exactly. When I read ROHC’s comment, I was already headed to the bottom to say this. The problem is that if it’s that sharp, you’ve moved beyond “pain compliance” and into “physical injury.” That’s a problem for me. Using a kubotan or just a compliance hold to induce, well, compliance is fine, but it doesn’t result in injuries that you can see a day or even an hour later. Poke somebody with that thing, and you’ll see it for a week or more if you break the skin. That’s too far, imo.
Being shot, stabbed, pepper sprayed, and beaten with bludgeoning tools (bats, batons, etc.) can’t guarantee compliance via pain. So, I don’t put much stock in 1/8 inch long spikes.
Under the physical effects of adrenaline, let alone drugs, pain may not be a factor.
Hmm.. I believe the firearm with the bullets that go “pew pew pew” is the official “pain compliance tool” in any situation.
I’ll “stick” with M7 or M9 bayonet on my AR, thank you very much. However, that is a cool looking gizmo.
Extreme caution must be exercised when handling and installing this device as it is intended to cause bodily harm.”
That says all you need to know about this thing.
That copy is mall ninja dog whistling at its best.
“Dude! This thing is so wicked dangerous that I might hurt myself installing it? It must be mine!”
That muzzle device looks like just the thing for getting the last olive from the jar…
+1000
I don’t like olives, but I like midget pickles, so yeah.
If they made it bigger it would be a nice way to turn old barrels into maces.
It’s not “less THAN lethal”, it’s “less lethal”. As in, less likely to kill, not won’t kill. You can easily (albeit accidentally) kill someone with a taser or beanbag round. And on top of that, I can’t quite see the wisdom of using a name like “Assassin” for a “less lethal” piece of gear.
I’ve seen the argument pronounced the other way as well, though. It’s about intent. Most people would agree that bullets are intended to be lethal, and yet people survive them all the time. Bean bag shotguns and rubber bullets and tasers (and whatever else) are not designed or intended or used with the intention of them being lethal. Yes, people have died from them, but those are outliers. Far more people have not died from bullets with their intended lethality than have died from less than lethal products.
Less than lethal products are designed for situations where lethal force is not warranted, but conventional tactics are not inducing compliance.
Just don’t shoot them in the eye…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Victoria_Snelgrove
“Less Lethal” products seem to me very much like football helmets – they have developed to such an extent that they invite abuse, resulting in unintended levels of injury.
Nick Veasey may be a wizard with x-ray photography — I’ll give him that — but aside from his visual talent, he seems to be a blithering idiot. It’s a condition that afflicts a lot of people who call themselves artists.
I can see how that muzzle brake could come in handy if you’re out of ammo with an enemy within arm’s reach. It may not be lethal, but you could put enough hurt on someone to make them reconsider their most recent decisions, and maybe give yourself enough space to reload. But I can also see what kind of gift a gizmo like that (with a name like that) would be to a bloody-minded prosecutor. No thanks.
“It’s a condition that afflicts a lot of people who call themselves artists.”
It afflicts even more who don’t, but thank you for your insight, Mr. Kettle.
Regards,
Mr. Black
spikes on Muzzle Brake = Mall Ninja.
It would look cool on my Walther P22, lol.
I wonder if they make a 50cal version? hehe.
The mechanical mule is a cool idea, but I wonder if they are conflating autonomous navigation with legged propulsion. Maybe its “brain” could be mounted in a much simpler wheeled or tracked chassis. Are they testing its cross-country mobility vs. non-legged robots with the same intelligence? Or have they just fallen in love with legged robots after watching the Transformer movies once too often?
I think the advantage in this method is speed and ability to recover. A wheeled or even tracked vehicle might be faster than the mule’s legs over flat and/or relatively open ground, but when it comes to obstacles, I think this method would be faster. Also, factor in the gyroscopic ability of this method to “recover” from upsets, like if it slips or falls, whereas once a tracked or wheeled vehicle starts to slip or tumble, you basically have to wait until it comes to rest before you upright it and try again. Like a person climbing, it’s possible that if this thing’s “foot” slipped and slid down a foot or so, it could just reorient and continue climbing, just like you would if your foot slipped.
I’d be really interested to see a test where they managed to induce a full-on rollover, to see if it could recover. Let’s say it did slip completely and tumbled to the bottom of a hill and ended up on its side. Could it recover on its own and restart the climb, or would it require outside intervention to right it? You’ll notice it does have a largely round, barrel-like shape, so I think they may have that in mind, but I haven’t yet seen a video that shows that ability.
This is a solution to a problem that has already been solved.
http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc113/124cav/Untitled-3.jpg
You can ride it, it can fuel itself off of local forage, etc.
Except donkeys and mules are generally only good for about 20% of their body weight (some say max 30%). That means your payload is determined by the size of the animal, and since even the biggest donkeys and mules top out around 1000#, the max is 250-300#. I don’t know a lot about pack animals, but I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t want to weigh them down with 250# every single day. They say this thing goes to 400#, and it does it day in, day out, without fatigue.
If you don’t mind the smell of a Donkey, you might be interested in Camels or Dromedaries. they can pack quite a bit more. The only downside is they smell really, really bad and bite.
“The sign said, ‘BEWARE THE CAMEL SPITS’, and I was.”
When I see things like that, or the wagon trains and stuff in the old westerns, I wonder, do they carry along hundreds of gallons of water, or do they depend on finding water just lying around somewhere along the way?
Your route was determined by the distance your pack animals could travel in a day, and where water could be found.
Is it wrong that I want the pointy muzzle device just because people in CA, MA, NY, and other assorted hellholes cannot have one?
Those prints are awesome, stupid stupid british subjects.
I have the M16 x-ray as my computer wallpaper.
I love how the marketing droids just LOVE to spin everyone up. Now HDLS SWAT cops have turned into “law enforcement operators.” To me that conjures up someone who did a bad, wound up on the Bow and Arrow Squad, and is answering phone calls for the station. Law enforcement operators. Bullsh1t.
I see what you did there with the acronym. I chuckled.
Great, just what we need. A muzzle thingy that goes up.
I always cringe a little at the phrase “military and law enforcement” as a marketing ploy… I haven’t been around that long, but aside from butt stocks, rail covers, and maybe a BUIS, as far as private mods, Ive never seen anyone on active duty (legitimately without their first sergeant saying something) remove their A2 flash hider to install something else (other than the SOF guys with the surefire and KAC hiders for their cans and limited thread on for conventional guys) military and law enforcement operate in such different capacities, lumping them together only serves the purpose of more police militarization. I wish “law enforcement” would die from the vernacular and be replaced with “peace officer” and “policing” I know its just word smithing, but anything seems like it would help in not turning Barney Fife into Commando Joe…
Weren’t these developed for use against zombies?
Hasn’t anyone realized maybe the sharp muzzle thingy is designed to discourage the bad guy from grabbing the muzzle?
Okay, I’ll bite. Of all the people here who’ve ever been in a gun battle of any length, have any of you EVER had someone grab your muzzle? Have any of you ever witnessed or heard from a reliable witness anyone having their muzzle grabbed by an enemy? I’ve heard about it during different training environments…but that’s about it.
Furthermore, if I was going to grab someone’s barrel, I think I’d instinctively reach behind the muzzle, so that if the gun fired while I was deflecting it, it wouldn’t go through my hand. Now that I think about it, I wouldn’t be as likely to “grab” the muzzle as I would be to “deflect” it, like a kung-fu move deflecting an incoming punch. Blade of the hand or back of the arm, sweeping up and to the right or left.
I say all this HSLD stuff from the comfort of my couch with my cheeto-stained fingers, of course.
A firefight with semi and full auto weapons leads to very hot weapons. If the action is so hot that your weapon is being muzzle grabbed before you can fire or reload, the weapon will burn the skin right off bare digits.
On the old m16 the handgaurds got hot enough to be uncomfortable in very quick order.
Now, manuvering thru a house with a cold weapon is another matter.
@BC,
We were taught a few ways to cause pain and distress if someone attempted to grab our rifles, back in the days when public order training was a live issue: it was not unheard of for troops in Northern Ireland to have folk attempt to wrestle their rifles away, particularly in L1A1 days (no three-point sling in those days). You’re not really supposed to shoot unarmed opponents, and letting them take your rifle so your oppo can shoot them (not unarmed *now*, are you, Sonny Jim?) isn’t that good for community relations either.
So, a few techniques of causing pain and minor contusions without lethal injury were taught, and at least occasionally used. (If they grab near the muzzle, rip the bayonet lug through their hand – that sort of thing). Pretty niche, and I doubt we’d have modified the weapons with a tacticool gizzit like that muzzle brake. I sort of wonder if they’ll end up with more fitted on airsoft weapons rhan real ones…
Sigh.
All I can think of when I see that robomule is a reanimated headless steer carcass.
“Autonomy?” =:-O When the machines select their own targets, it’s all over.
Paging John Connor!
Navy SEALs are trained to administer muzzle strikes in certain situations when an unarmed person is advancing on them. The technique is used before firing a shot, not when ammunition is expended.
So this muzzle brake just causes puncture wounds instead of bruising.
That’s good enough for me. Any time a product (or in this case a tactic) is associated with the NAVY SEALS I whip out my credit card and start dialing…
That muzzle brake looks like it would absolutely shred the insides of a foam rifle case. Not to mention get caught on literally everything. No thanks, I’ll stick with my A2.
: In what situation can you imagine that “stabbing someone with your pointy muzzle device” is going to be your best or only option? . . .”
It will come in VERY useful AFTER the badgemonkeys have everyone at the raid sight wrapped up
in cuffs and leg chains. THEN they can use this device the same way they use TASER devices….as
an effective interrogation tool. The Spanish Inquisition did not die, did not end and did not become less cruel…..it put on blue and a badge and moved to America.
I’m going to try and develop a front sight post that can be removed and used as a throwing star, maybe I can integrate a set of brass knuckles into the buttstock…can anyone figure out how I can hang a pair of nunchucks on an AR platform?
From what I’ve seen of nunchucks and people with nunchucks, if you’re dextrous enough and quick enough to use nunchucks without hurting yourself, you wouldn’t need the nunchucks.
Why would you name anything less lethal an “Assassin”?
However there is so much more wrong with that product that the name doesn’t really matter.
The only benefit I see to that muzzle thingy is that it looks kewl and futuristic.
TO Matt in FL:
I have a suggestion for a rule: When you use a new (to noobs like me) acronym, please define it, m’kay?
Usually I can JFG it, but I get:
HDLS: hereditary diffuse leukoencephalopathy with spheroids
HDLS: High-density lipoproteins
HSLD: High-Speed Low-Drag
HSLD: Home School Legal Defense
HSLD: Homeland Security Leadership Development (degree)
HSLD: Humanist and Secularist Liberal Democrats
I’m guessing High-Speed Low-Drag, but I see nothing above that has either of those characteristics.
Maybe I took too much HLSD as a youth. Or not enough. 😉
I think I’d just go with a bayonet if I wanted to inflict pain on someone/thing with the muzzle of my rifle. It does look kinda nifty though, by that I mean if I saw one on someone’s gun I’d say, “that’s pretty cool bro, what’d that set you back?” But I’d certainly never ever buy one.
“CQB stands for “close quarters battle”, the spiked feature was designed specifically for the protection of military and law enforcement operators in a close quarters battle situation where less than lethal force may need to be applied to an enemy combatant.”
Why do they exclude “civilian” use? I know I’m nitpicking, but don’t phrases like this simply add fuel to gun opponents by specifically separating “military”, “law enforcement” and “civilian”?
You’ll poke/shoot your eye out kid.
On the xrays, I found it fascinating that the lenses in the scopes (Anschutz and the M14 EBR) had such a high sectional density.
CQB stabby brake uses:
-Zombies (obvsly)
-Army of Darkness time travel situation where ammo is scarce, as is gas for your chainsaw arm.
-Medieval Times jousting tournament and you forgot your lance
-Shooting out tires- bad idea. Shredding tires- awesome
-Training aid for idiots who like to scratch their heads w/ gun muzzles.
-“Oh, it can core a apple” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22oCaiccz3w
-Bayonet lugs? We don’t need no steenkin bayonet lugs!
–NinjAR-15
“But wait, there’s more! “CQB stands for “close quarters battle”, the spiked feature was designed specifically for the protection of military and law enforcement operators in a close quarters battle situation where less than lethal force may need to be applied to an enemy combatant. Extreme caution must be exercised when handling and installing this device as it is intended to cause bodily harm.”
OOOH, OOOH, I have a device just like that which fits on the end of my M-1 Garand – plus, it is removable for use as a can opener and kindling cutting tool. It’s called a BAYONET, and it definitely is useful in “close quarters battle situations.” So is the steel buttplate on the other end of the Garand.
Admittedly, there is a fine line between a lethal use of the bayonet and a “less than lethal” use, but I will guarantee that both ends of a Garand are intended to cause grave bodily harm. With or without ammo.
Back end of a rapidly ascending/descending Garand would be much more to the point. I’d be happier with the mule if you could load a casualty on it for autonomous or follow me return to a casualty rally point.
was always taught to use an impact weapon if you needed it , might damage your gun.
that being said, Sound “fix bayonets”:
” Sound “fix bayonets”:”
Just curious – why did they issue broken bayonets? ;-P
The Walking Dead, duh.
I suppose it would work OK for fence-poking duty, though a smooth spike would probably be better, which is why they use that method. It’s both longer and less likely to get hung up.
Am I the only one that gets a little squirmy thinking about that? In what situation can you imagine that “stabbing someone with your pointy muzzle device” is going to be your best or only option? . . .
Here is a hypothetical for you:
Imagine your working with some team, and your job is to clear a building. Let’s say it is SWAT team. The idea is to use less lethal force, unless absolutely necessary. You stack up; it’s go time. Your working your way through the building. Some assailant comes form the side and grabs your rifle, in an attempt to disarm you. He has no visible weapons. Playing tug of war isn’t going to do you any good. So what do you do? How about giving the typical reverse force into their direction trick. Shove that muzzle into their chest/stomach. My guess is you will cause a bit of pain whilst throwing them on their ass.
Also, though it might cause more pain, I don’t imagine a pointy muzzle will make a significant difference.
“Some assailant comes form the side and grabs your rifle, in an attempt to disarm you. He has no visible weapons.”
If he’s in the path of that brakonet, then he’s in the path of a 5.56.
An “assailant” trying to wrest your gun away from you is seconds away from shooting you. Don’t let it get to that.
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