AR-15 rifle
Dan Z. for TTAG
AR-15 rifle
Dan Z. for TTAG

Tagged “The Slug Gun Doctor,” by one outdoors writer, [gunsmith Dave] Klotz has been written up numerous times over the years in outdoors and gun-related publications, including Shooting Times, Guns and Ammo, Buckmasters and Deer and Deer Hunting and Outdoor Life magazines, along with various newspaper articles. A number of the articles are on display on the walls of his business.

He said he was the first to come up with a fluorescent fiber optic sight for handguns and his scope mount for shotguns has been patented. At one point, Klotz added, he was tapped to help test firearms for the U.S Olympic shooting team to ensure firearms were up to specifications at competitions. …

Today he specializes in long guns (shotguns, rifles, skeet and trap shooting guns and muzzleloaders).

“I stopped doing handguns because of all the requirements of New York State. They’ll drive you nuts,” he said. “And I don’t do assault weapons. I don’t want anything to do with those guns. I don’t believe that citizens need to have them.”

— David Figura in The ‘Slug Gun Doctor’: Well-known CNY gunsmith still going strong at 82

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

101 COMMENTS

  1. Reminds me of the old saying, They won’t come for your deer rifle, first they’ll call it a Sniper Weapon.

    • “They won’t come for your deer rifle, first they’ll call it a Sniper Weapon.”

      And that is *exactly* what it is.

      Expect them to ban long-range shooting, since it may well come in handy one day…

      • I once talked to a bucket head from Canada on a mailing list for long range rifle shooters.

        When I started discussing in the list my sniper rifle, he blathered that “nobody needs a sniper rifle”, to which I replied, “Explain for everyone the functional difference between my sniper rifle and your long range target rifle.”

        There was much shucking and jiving, but no real answer.

        Additionally, on the subject of obedience to oppressive laws/orders, he declared that if the government ordered you into a concentration camp, you had a DUTY to go WITHOUT A FIGHT, since you could “challenge it in court”.

        He later got into a pissing contest with the Canadian firearms registration authorities, who released private correspondence of his to a couple of antagonistic Canadian cops who published them. He then went on a whiny rant about how badly he was being treated. I replied with the famous Niemoller quote, “First they came for the…” His response was essentially, “What the hell does that mean???”

        • Guess I didn’t get the updated version of the Second Amendment. My copy must be the original cut version. Doesn’t contain any stipulations or restrictions regarding:
          –Need;
          –Suitable for sporting purposes;
          –In common use;
          –No full automatic operation;
          –Scary black color
          –Applicable to collective use only;
          –Stops where your touchy feelys begin;
          –If a Liberal doesn’t like it, you can’t have it;
          –Maximum purchases per month;
          –Limited to “x” number of cartridges;
          –Minimum barrel or overall length required;
          –No bump stocks;
          –No pistol grips;
          –No forward vertical grips;
          –No bayonet lugs;
          –No suppressors;
          –No collapsible stocks;
          –Maximum caliber;
          –Minimum number of USA made parts;
          It only says “…..shall not be infringed.”
          I’ll keep my original cut version.

        • “Guess I didn’t get the updated version of the Second Amendment. My copy must be the original cut version. Doesn’t contain any stipulations or restrictions regarding:”

          (Snip)

          –In common use;”

          You really need to become a cheerleader for that phrase, because that’s what getting MSRs declared expressly constitutional is gonna hang on.

          Over 15 million of them out there is a clear definition of “In common use”, according to a recently hired SCOTUS justice in a ruling of his :

          “Judge Kavanaugh Stands By “Common Use” Defense on Assault Weapons

          Supreme Court Nominee stood by his position that a ban on assault weapons is unconstitutional, citing the late Justice Antonin Scalia’s “common use” argument, which Judge Kavanaugh himself used in the 2011 Heller v D.C. case striking down a handgun weapons ban in the District of Columbia.”

          https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4747248/judge-kavanaugh-stands-common-use-defense-assault-weapons

        • Geoff Says “You really need to become a cheerleader for that phrase, because that’s what getting MSRs declared expressly constitutional is gonna hang on.”

          No, he should not, STL’s position is correct.

          “Common use” is a weak position to take, likely because Kavanaugh is weak. Scalia was likely tap dancing for Kennedy, and as a result of the courts “incrementalism”, we now have every anti-2A person quoting this singular line “it is not an unlimited right” to justify every new piece of gun control. To date courts have justified the denial of both open carry AND concealed carry citing that quote.

          The phrase “Common use” is essentially a “chicken and egg” argument. Because there is this capricious X number of a subclassification of firearms, they are allowable. This is a flawed argument as these two examples will show.

          *** Hypothetical scenario one is the SCOTUS could declare the 1934 NFA and 1968 GCA null and void and continue the NFA/GCA probations because they do not have X numbers in circulation. (Only a half million select fire with stamps)

          *** Hypothetical scenario two is a new type of gun is invented (maybe a plasma rifle in 40 watt range), knowing that “common use” is the standard of its legality, it is quickly banned before it can reach the capricious X number. The SCOTUS affirms the ban.

          Therefore, common use is nothing but their usual canard of circular logic used to avoid meaningful action. It is a flawed premise, it will further erode the 2A, and one we should definitely not become a “cheerleader” for.

          Why are the words “common use” so delicious to Kavanaugh, an orginalist mind you, yet the elegance and simplicity of “shall not be infringed” is not?

      • If you want to see the end game of arms bans, look no further than the UK. There, you may, at the pleasure of the state, spend thousands in fees and taxes to store a break action smoothbore at the only shooting club at which you’re allowed to shoot. Carrying a knife in public requires a permit, and the permit is only granted if you need to bring it to and from work (e.g. you are a chef) and only covers the specifc knife in the permit and then only when taking it directly between your work and your home. You must be 18 to buy a plastic spork. No I am not joking about that.

    • Actually, several years ago there was a proposal by some state legislator in (where else) California to ban “sniper rifles”.

      • mr. klotz…

        It Is Not the bill of Needs. It Is The Bill of Rights. Apologize you ratbassturd and promise never to talk out your ignorant behind again or gfy.

    • He appears to be the epitome of a Fudd.
      Probably voted for Biden, another shotgun expert.

      • Welcome to upstate NY, where even our allies are our enemies. He’s not wrong about the NY pistol permitting regime though. I’m working on leaving this place – family, friends, my home… it’s depressing, but it has to happen before FUAC makes it illegal to leave (or the coming national divorce puts me hundreds of miles behind the iron xertain).

    • Reminds me of the old saying:
      “May you live in interesting times…and may the Emperor’s favorite concubine smile at you fondly. ”

      Hard rain’s gonna fall.

    • Reminds me of the Boomer Fudds favorite President Ronnie Reagan.

      -As Gov. of California, Reagan signed the Mulford Act which prohibited the carrying of firearms on your person, in your vehicle and in any public place.
      -As Gov. of Cal. Reagan signed off on a 15-day waiting period for guns.
      -As president he signed into law a ban on ownership of fully automatic rifles.
      -After leaving the presidency he supported the Brady Bill which provided for a 7-day waiting period for guns.
      In 1994 he wrote Congress supporting a ban on assault rifles.

      “I do not believe in taking away the right of the citizen for sporting, for hunting and so forth, or for home defense. But I do believe that an AK-47, a machine gun, is not a sporting weapon or needed for defense of a home.”

      ~Ronald Reagan, at his birthday celebration in 1989.

  2. Klotz – you mean klutz. If you don’t want to buy a gun don’t – that f’n simple. Don’t try to restrict law-abiding citizens of their rights. ‘Shall not be infringed’ was included in the 2nd Amendment on purpose.

  4. From the article –

    “Dave Klotz said his father bought him his first gun when he was a young boy.

    “It was a model 12 Winchester (shotgun),” he said. “One time soon after he came home from work and I had it all apart on the kitchen table. He looked at me, looked at the gun and looked at me again and said, ” ‘When you get it all back together you can have supper.’

    “And I ate supper that night,” he said, smiling.”

    Something tells me Dyspeptic’s Gunsmith’s dad had the same conversation with him in his youth… 😉

  6. Sounds like a typical old guy tired of being branded some sort of whacko by the elitist left. I face attacks all the time from academics and educators because I don’t toe the “chosen line” on firearms that they and the Left has decided is my proper choice at this point in time. I hope as I age I don’t worry more about what some educated idiot thinks of me than those principles I try to live by that made the US the most envied country in the world, ever.

  7. Geriatric Fudd who doesn’t like restrictions that affect him wants more restrictions that affect others.
    I thought Bill Ruger was dead.

    • Shire-Man, I myself am 70 plus in years and am not inclined to live the rest of my life bowing to some damned liberals about anything. Do not understand these idiots. Maybe they should read about the diary entry in Germany that ends in ” now they are knocking on my door “.

  8. Just because Mr. Klotz finds no use for something, he doesn’t think anyone should have one. He’s a closet leftist, a stealth Communist disguised to be a citizen. I can think of many things Mr. Klotz owns and holds dear, that I find no use for and don’t like, say his BMW. I don’t like them so nobody should own one. Obviously he’s a twit. I have no use for twits. Maybe we should send him to North Korea, maybe they can use his skills of sticking a transparent piece of green plastic on a gun and calling it an invention.

  9. “I don’t believe that citizens need to have them.”
    Ok, fine, and I hope he’s right about that.
    But, I’ve got my AR-10 battle rifle in case he’s wrong.

    • “I don’t believe that citizens need to have them.”
      That is his business. What POTG have/don’t have is not his business.
      Klotz is just another, I support the 2nd amendment……..but……butt…

  11. In a free society everyone is entitled to their own opinion, even when it is obviously wrong. I have reached the opposite conclusion: the second amendment only covers weapons of war, hunting and sport guns are optional and can be regulated, but we have a right to first rate military weaponry of all kinds without limitation. So register our future Fudd guns and I will put my Fudd paperwork next to my future 82mm mortar and my future SAW.

  12. One person is against something for personal reasons. Instead of just avoiding it in their own lives, they feel the need to use the power of government to eliminate that’s something for everyone. They seem to lack understanding of the basic concepts of freewill, choice and Freedom.

    Some may understand those concepts and actively try to control others. I suspect the majority is just ignorant.

  13. Anyone remember Dick Metcalf?
    He was an outdoor writer who supported “reasonable gun control”, too. He is no longer a outdoor writer. He was run out of the business. This sounds like a reasonable solution here, as well.
    There is no room for enemies of the 2nd, amongst our ranks. He should open a flower shop or something…

    • Yeah I remember Dick…infamously wrote “let’s talk limits”. May Klutz er klotz get the same treatment. You CAN hunt with an AR! Duh.

  14. And WE dont need idiots who pretend to decide what WE need or want! You either believe in the second or you dont! What you like or dont like doesnt mean squat.

  15. NEED…Where in the fuck does it say NEED in the Bill of Rights. The only NEED is these people NEED to be
    DE-Listed. By all means necessary… PERIOD.

    • Exactly,last I checked it was entitled the Bill Of Rights,Not the bill of needs and while we are on the subject of Constitutional rights, the 2 nd is the right to keep & bear arms.
      When the founders penned the bill of rights they had just defeated the most powerful military in the world at that time.

      Mr. Fudd then said,” I don’t do assault weapons. I don’t want anything to do with those guns. I don’t believe that citizens need to have them.”
      The founders would disagree with Mr. Fudd as they intended citizens to be armed on par with any military in the world,Mr Fudd is just wrong but the braindead Left revel in their ignorance and stupidity.

      • The founders did not defeat the British, if they did, Britian would be under our control, or at least the royals would not be there. We chased them home and mommy wouldn’t let them play with us anymore.

    • As it is a made up term by HCI it doesn’t matter, it’s a civilian disarmament term.not reality.

      • GMB – and the guy you replied to – he didn’t say “assault rifle” – which is a military and legally defined term. The term he uses was “assault weapon” which was indeed invented by hci (they don’t deserve caps).
        And yes this gentleman does indeed need to define the terms he loosely tosses out. Plus as many of the other posters have noted, his beliefs/feelings are irrelevant.

  20. I don’t know why I even bother to read stuff like this, but I did read the linked article. And I still don’t know why I bother. Early morning boredom I suppose.

  22. Never heard of him.

    But, if he lives in NY, then he could be like many New Yorkers who when the Un-SAFE act was passed by the tyrant Cuomo, the next day they all had boating accidents and their assault weapons fell overboard, 12NM off shore.

    • I suppose it’s possible he is covering for his cache, but if so he has no business talking about it.

    • He probably voted for Cuomo and Biden. I read the attached article. If a LEO asked Mr. Klotz to repair a personal AR or a pistol, he would do so without question.

  23. True assault weapons…full auto.,,?
    Many of us wish we could afford and wield those..,and could afford to feed the beasts.
    Remember that muskets used to be the epitome of assault weapons at one time.
    You can call just about anything an assault weapon.
    Is it a weapon? Was it used in an assault? It is an assault weapon.
    Remember: right of the people- shall not be infringed.
    Rights are not needs. Needs basically include food and water and air.
    Let’s get back to personal responsibilities. Let’s hold people accountable for their actions. Let’s stop blaming inanimate objects for criminal activities.
    Anyone else out there agree?

  25. Mr Klotz is entitled to his opinion no matter how statist, stupid, and fudd it is. And we don’t have to read his writings and tell his publisher we will get our informed opinions elsewhere.

    When they toss his hunting guns in the trunk of a car along with other people’s confiscated weapons he can write a nice column about how fair it is because his overlords will insist that’s what he do. I won’t be reading it myself.

  26. what is an assault weapon I am 66 years old and have been using guns? since I was A teenager and have never had one assault me every gun I have used was for hunting or target practice true there are some ugly guns out there but they are all they are the same they put a bullet in the chamber pull the trigger and send a projectile downrange they all shoot one round every time you pull the trigger and every type of gun made has been used for hunting and battle from the flintlock to the Armalite rifle {aka AR15} so the government and press should back off and call them what they are a rifle or handgun no such thing as an assault weapon

  27. What if one were to say to Mr.Klotz, you don’t “need_________ (fill in the blank),, and somehow had the authority to take it away from him, would he still be so cavalier in issuing this disgusting statement.

  28. He just Zumbo’d himself. Either that or he got bit by a liberal zombie while living in New York.

  29. As an avid hand gunner and assault rifle aficionado I don’t see why anyone would need shotguns, rifles, skeet and trap shooting guns and muzzleloaders. Leave those poor deer and pigeons alone. Clay pigeon lives matter too!

  30. This imbecile obviously refuses to understand what a shotgun is and what a shotgun can do. General George Washington was infamous with the British because he advised his troops to load “buck and ball” in their muskets. The larger number of small projectiles in addition to the primary projectile resulted in a much greater hit potential and more casualties. Even if they wounded didn’t die, they were out of the fight.

    General Nathan Bedford Forest was infamous for arming his calvary regiment with double barrel shotguns. They would ride up to the Union lines, unleash a double volley, then chase down the survivors that ran away to cut them down with their swords.

    During WW1, the Germans who were so eager to use poison gas were so incensed by US troops employing shotguns as “trench brooms” that they threatened to summarily execute any prisoners captured with one.

    US troops rediscovered shotguns in Vietnam. Each 00 projectile was about as lethal as a bullet from the Matel-16 rodent rifle, and was better at preparations foliage. A standard buckshot load is nine pellets. A shotgun could unleash far more lead for close quarters combat than the new assault rifle. A spreader choke resulted in a devastating pattern.

    When interviewed in his retirement, General Paul Tibbets expressed some concern about crime. He kept a pump action 12 gauge shotgun for home defense. If a shotgun is lethal enough for the man who had no regrets or remorse about killing 50,000 people at Hiroshima, it isn’t non lethal. Double 00 buckshot has about as much kinetic energy at 50 yards as 5.56mm had at 500-600 yards after being fired from the Mandalay Bay Hotel to the concert grounds.

    FBI-UCR data reveals that back in the 1970s and 1980s, some 1,000 to 2,000 people were being killed with shotguns. Similar numbers of people were getting killed with rifles which were mostly politically correct bolt action and lever action.

    This idiot should talk to the survivors of the Washington Navy Yard massacre, the Capitol Gazette newsroom massacre, and the Sante Fe Texas high school massacre about how benign shotguns are.

    BTW, my screen name is a tribute to the marijuana bootlegging, TactiCoolFool who was misrepresented as a “gun expert” to present perjured testimony about shotguns not being lethal weapons in the case of my marijuana bootlegging tenant who shot at my son.

  32. Semiautomatic weapons have been around for well over a century and now they’re a problem?
    They tried to ‘back the truck up’ of wholesale confiscation with NFA ’34, GCA ’68, etc and have been carving of every damn year since.
    There is no more beach on which to die, we’re down to a lone, eroding square foot and they still want concessions from TPotG?
    Not one more law.
    Not one more rule.
    Not one more survey or study.
    I will not yield, I will not consent, I will not obey.
    “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
    Freedom or fight.

  33. It isn’t the Bill of Needs, Dave, and if you don’t have any use for one fine, don’t buy one. On the other hand they are a) one of the most popular rifles in competitive shooting sports, and b) they aren’t assault weapons as there is no such thing. I think perhaps you’re just trying to keep the cancel culture mob at bay.

  35. We’re in the middle of a leftist coup in the government, the cities are teaming with violent communist revolutionaries, and we’re we have a plague sent to us by China… but no, no one needs an ‘assault weapon’ because some quisling within our rank’s thinks it’s a bad idea to have them.

    Yeah, this guy can go pound sand.

  36. Oh YES we do and the government should pay for all to have with thousands round of ammunition, they allowed this communist socialist Islamist perverts and atheists in this country so now we have to protect ourselves and our country from these Treasonous Traitors that includes those in our government state and federal and our courts

  37. When one boils the Second Amendment down to its base meaning it can be summed up in two words, “Killing Tyrants,” so I would argue the Second Amendment really is focused on weapons of war, weapons that are most suitable for killing tyrants.

  38. I agree with Klotz….. It might be fun to have an “Assault Rifle” but, we probably don’t need one. Most of us are perfectly happy with our AR-15’s, AR-10’s, Civilian AK’s… SKS’, etc.
    Besides, they’re REALLY expensive, require the stupid $200 ATF stamp, a year or more wait to take possession… It’s almost not worth the hassle!
    DEFUND THE ATF! Oh, what the hell? BAN THE ATF!

  39. Let me guess. He’s a lifetime NRA member…

    “I stopped doing handguns because of all the requirements of New York State.”
    That deserves a follow up question, no?

    • Like “How many times a day does he prostrate toward Albany in prayer?”
      Anything less than 5 and they cut a finger off.

  41. He’s not a Fudd, he’s a New Yorker. The latter is far worse than the former. New York is the original source of the disease currently destroying America — and it’s not the Chicom Flu.

    • Wrong!

      It is the diseased Eurotrash who infected America.

      New Yorkers also cite Eurotrash to validate their stupidity.

      • When Dr. Peterson cites those people he calls them “the Damned French.” Certain Enlightenment types. But definitely fucking Euro-trash.

  42. Who the hell cares what this guy (or any other politician) thinks we mere citizens need where guns of any type are concerned? Who died and made him god?

  43. “And I don’t do assault weapons. I don’t want anything to do with those guns. I don’t believe that citizens need to have them.”

    The first photo in the linked article shows him working on a Ruger 10/22 which is defined as an “assault weapon” in the State of Washington.

    Fudd…

  44. To Mr Klohtz – a quote from years ago – “I don’t “need” my AR-15 Rifle any more than Rosa Parks “needed” to sit in the front of the bus. ” Another one -“Assault is a Behavior, not a Gun or Device.”
    My Quote ->True “assault” weapons have a “M” designation. In my 22+ years of Army, not one weapon was designated as an A-R.

    • Want to guess what the rifle was called before it was adopted as the M-16? The Model 01 (often referred to as 601) of the Colt/Armalite AR-15 was select fire and deployed as-is to Vietnam.l and the Air Force. Colt later made other select fire AR-15 models, such as the 614. Prior to 1986, several AR-15s were legally converted to machine guns, or had lightning links or drop in auto seats installed. These are a couple 10s of thousands out of millions of semiautos, but like most things firearms related, ‘always’ and ‘never’ rarely apply.

  45. Someone that’s been around the industry as much as this guy, yet has such a bass-ackward idiotology is a fool. He does not understand the Second Amendment at all. Luckily he is not in charge of deciding for us what we should and should not have. You give anti-gun communists an inch and they never stop. He is under the delusion that his brand of firearm is safe. He’s wrong and he is worse than the ones that are just anti-gun because he’s actually a gun person… more or less. Dupes come in all guises.

  46. I wonder if this clown realizes that members of the military, and the police are also citizens here in the US of A? Maybe he thinks that only illegal aliens, green card holders, and people with permanent residency should be allowed to own to own semi-automatic rifles in the US?

  47. OLD PEOPLE:
    1 eotech optic
    2 magpul sights and stock
    3 mlok rail
    4 titanium nitride barrel and trigger
    5 a2 pistol grip and flash hider and gi mag…
    right on man…right on…

  49. Since there is no agreed upon definition of assault weapon by firearm experts interested in liberty, it is mainly “I know one when is see one”. This ignorant gentleman should be asked if he thought the weapons used by American colonists to ASSAULT the Red Coats, would be considered “assault weapons” by the Red Coats/tyrants/liberals/leftists/New Yorkers/Fudds?

    Furthermore, if we used the precedent of early Americans to fight the Revolutionary War today, we would own tanks, air craft carriers, artillery pieces, A10 Warthogs and who knows what else to control and defeat tyrants on our soil. Evil wishes to control people for evil gains and it must be thwarted by what ever weapon capable of achieving that end.

    Perhaps this gentlemen would prefer living in Britian or North Korea?

  50. Spoken like a TRUE COMMUNIST . . . the AR-15 and it’s derivatives are NOT assault RIFLES. An AIR FORCE general said that we’d be LAUGHED off the BATTLEFIELD with an AR-15. They’re GREAT for HUNTING and SELF DEFENSE. One Enlightened Patriot. Team Trump and His Allies 2020.

  51. 1) “I stopped doing handguns because of all the requirements of New York State. They’ll drive you nuts,” he said.
    2) “And I don’t do assault weapons. I don’t want anything to do with those guns. I don’t believe that citizens need to have them.”

    Imagine writing these two sentences right besides one another and not seeing the contradiction.

  52. …and the lazy, predictable, dopey proggies will wheel this old fart out and say “see?!?!? even he agrees with us!!!! and he’s one of YOU!!!”

    No. He really isn’t. Let him finish out his time on earth in peace. We have no use for him.

  54. “And I don’t do assault weapons. I don’t want anything to do with those guns. I don’t believe that citizens need to have them.”

    Someone needs to tell that Fudd the 10-22 he is pictured with is considered an “assault weapon” by several states, and ALL Gun Controllers.

  55. Citizens don’t care what others think they need. Slaves on the other hand…

    Honestly, if everyone that owned an AR would just do a tour of the capitals, armed, prepared to put down any resistance, we’d hear no more arguments for a generation.
    That’s what it’s going to take, apparently…

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