I won't give Olympic arms a dime, because of the whole
7.62 x 39 "pistol" debacle they caused, which lead to the
summary banning of steel core ammunition in that
caliber. So they are not a "friend" of gun owners, by any
means.
Esentially what happened was they designed a semiautomatic
" pistol " chambered in that caliber, then they waved it around
at a trade show, the ATF saw it, and then the ATF summarily
banned steel core 7.62 x 39. The ATF considered the pistol "offered
for sale" which thus completed the loop of "AP ammo that can
be used in a handgun", so the ATF was able to justify banning
the ammo on that.
As a result there was much suffering, wailing, and gnashing of teeth,
and there is no steel core ammo for AKs anymore. This locked out
a HUGE surplus market of the stuff.
And this wasn't an innocent mistake on their part either- people from
the gun industry knew that Olympic was going to do this, and they wrote
the company numerous letters trying to get them NOT to do it, as it
would screw up the ammunition market. They IGNORED all these
warnings and went ahead anyways.
http://www.thegunzone.com/762x39.html
Some would counter with "Oh, well so and so makes these pistols,
etc". My reaction to that, is they're hole in the wall companies compared
to Olympic, and likely would have not attracted the ire of the ATF as they're
not going to be going to trade shows and parading the thing
about. And most of the other companies making these AK pistols
nowadays have only appeared recently, well after the olympic fiasco.
Some will also argue "well, you can get a TC contender in XYZ
caliber" etc.... But that's crap logic, considering that the focus/intent
of the garbage ATF rules on the topic mostly focus around guns which
might be used by people of ill intent. (Note, I'm not justifying the
law... I think it sucks.... but the "AP in a handgun" deal is based
on guns likely to be used in crime, and a contender isn't even on the
map as far as that goes.).
-Mike
