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On December 17, 1944, the German armored spearhead of Kampfgruppe Pieper overran the U.S. 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion at a crossroads in Belgium during the opening of the Battle of the Bulge. The lightly armed Americans—mostly with M1 carbines—were quickly overwhelmed and forced to surrender. The name of the field they were herded into will live in infamy. It was there, at Malmedy, that 86 American prisoners of war were executed by the Germans. In this American Rifleman Television segment we are at that hallowed ground, and we continue on to the exact spot that Kamfgruppe Pieper was stopped by the men of the U.S. 30th Infantry and the 82nd Airborne Divisions.
American troops took a healthy interest in Axis small arms during World War II. Sometimes they were simply looking to collect a war trophy. On other occasions, GIs and Marines looked to use those firearms against their former owners.
Politics is something most of us only step into because we must. We’d rather smile in the warm autumn sun as we help a son or daughter, or grandson or granddaughter, break their first clay or plink steel with their first .22 rifle.
The DOJ Office of Legal Counsel recently released an opinion concluding that the federal ban on licensed firearms dealers selling handguns to 18-20-year-old U.S. citizens is unconstitutional.
Following World War I, Czechoslovakia needed to equip its new army, and one of its priorities was to select a service sidearm, which ultimately became the vz.27.