As Crusher Bob has already pointed out, we're talking about two different BARs. The modern BAR is a semi-automatic hunting rifle somewhat similar to the aformentioned Benelli R1.

Considering the R1 is capable of that, I can't see why they wouldn't take advantage of that design feature. But I guess anything is possible. It would probably be significantly cheaper otherwise.

I haven't seen anything official from Beretta yet, so I'm not sure exactly how they're going to hock it. I would assume that they're not going to push it too hard at the military/police market, at least here in the US. It's just too different. Because of that crossbolt safety alone it would get balked at. I think it's more likely that they'll go after the civilian market that's currently dominated by the AR15.

I think the $600 thing was total speculation, someone's wishful thinking. I haven't seen any official price on it, but $600 US seems pretty friggin' low considering the R1 lists for $1,080. The Rx4 couldn't compete at the R1 price, but it could in the $800-900 range, which would seem more reasonable to me.

It's my next door neighbor's actually, but I've put at least 400 rounds though it over a few years. He says that aside from polishing up the trigger group contact surfaces, it's stock. What's funny is that he has the PT92 and a Beretta 96 Inox. GFPD allows him to carry the 96 on duty, but not the Taurus. Friggin' silly.

sure about that? a lot of departments are moving away from 9mm in favor of .40S&W after hearing overpenetration horror stories.

I'm grouping like a pie plate at 50 feet on a good day, I need to practice more but it's cold in ohio and i go to an outdoor range. On my beretta I polished the contact surfaces, feed ramp, should polish the inside of the feed lips, hmm.

hey look at this shotgun, at 23mm it's pretty close to the XM-29's 25mm cannon, that would be a lot easier to adapt into an underbarrel weapon. not every day you see an anti-vehicular shotgun, super sized for trolls maybe.
http://crypticsubterranean.blogspot.com/20...23-shotgun.html

I'm pretty sure. The 92FS was their issue piece before the Glock 22 and they still use both. They're allowed to carry 9x19mm, .40 S&W or .45 ACP, but some pistols are no-nos. They can't carry 1911s or Taurus PTs or CZ75s (among others, I'm sure), but they can carry Berettas, Glocks, and S&Ws. I asked him why that was a few years ago, he told me he wasn't sure who makes the decision. Maybe I'll ask him again.

Yes

http://www.rt66.com/~korteng/SmallArms/mk2rifle.htm

Plenty of rifles can be modified to fire grenades. This is the first shotgn that I've seen for that task. I'm not sure how useful it would be. A combat shotgun is a close range weapon. A grenade launcher is best at longer ranges. At the closest safe ranges a hand thrown grenade is faster and, of course, there is the potential to blow oneself up if firing at something that is too close.

I really don't want police officers accidently getting caught in the radius of their own fragmentation grenades.

Whether your local cops can carry 1911s or not, I don't know. It depends entirely upon the department's policy. Some departments, such as LAPD, allow their tactical teams to use the 1911, but their regular patrol officers cannot. According to my neighbor (who has been with the local PD for 19 years) they do not allow the 1911 (and they have no dedicated tactical team). The same goes for the sherriff's office. It's not uncommon, actually.

In its pre-Series 80 form, the 1911 is was not drop-safe. If you drop most 1911s hard enough on the muzzle with a round in the chamber, they will fire. (Pretty much deserves a "duh", but accidents do happen and designs that prevent this from happening have come along since.)

Some companies have modified the original 1911 design to include a drop safety. Colt's Series 80 pistols included a trigger-actuated firing pin block safety. More recently, Kimber and S&W have resurrected a patent from the 1930s for a grip safety-actuated firing pin block (Swartz safety), so those pistols are potentially just as safe as any other auto on the market. Unfortunately, the 1911 has earned an "unsafe" reputation that has proven difficult to wash away.

sadly not so uncommon, and from that quoted list of weapon it looks like cocked and locked carry is forbidden, even something that merely allows for the possibility of cocked and locked carry.

springfield armory made titanium firing pins standard so as to reduce inertia (I'm might not be saying that correctly knowing all the physics people on this board, my apologies).

Did they? I didn't know that. Not the best fix in the world, but one that probably works fairly well. And yes, reducing inertia (through a reduction of mass) would be the point.

I don't want police officers to have frag grenades. Ever.

If 80's cop movies have taught me nothing is that good police officers blow stuff up and kill people. The more and bigger stuff blown up and the more and more important people killed the better the police officier is. Fragmentation grenades accomplish the blowing up and the killing at the same time. It isn't as effective as catapulting a flaming bad guy into a propane truck with extreme force, but it is more portable that a catapult and a propane truck.

Well, it is also usefull for clearing rooms when faced with armed opposition. Also, the North Hollywood shootout would have been over much more quickly if the officiers use hand grenades.

They are also fairly useful in hostage situations. Instead of trying to storm a fortified position just lob in a few lethal grenades and take out both the hostage takers and the hostages in one attack. Such methods would certainly reinforce the concept of a no-negotiations policy.

Yep. If you always kill all the hostages as a matter of policy fewer criminals will attempt to take hostages and fewer citizens will complacently allow themselves to become hostages.

No, it wouldn't have. It's my understanding that any body armor that could stop 9x19mm reliably would pretty much shrug off grenade fragments.

Siege is right. These guys cut up level III armor vests and wrapped themselves in it from head to toe. Maybe if you got a couple of fragments into an exposed joint it might slow them down.

Level III-A, surely?

Whatever. It's not like I'm rushing to look it up on wikipedia.

We need to form a squad around this. AH is the automatic leader.