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- UZI
-
- A favorite with elite strike
- forces and executive protection
- units world-wide, the Uzi
- submachine gun is one of those
- designs that's been around for
- years (40+) for the simple
- reason that no more recent
- design has substantially
- improved upon it. While not
- really a "handgun" per se, we've
- included it in this deck as the
- most widely-recognized offspring
- of that bastardized breed of
- firearm which fires pistol
- ammunition in full-auto mode
- (i.e., one pull of the trigger
- fires multiple rounds) from a
- carbine-sized, collapsible-stock
- platform. Whew. The Germans
- invented the genre' with the
- Bergmann MP18 (in 1918) and
- thoroughly realized the
- potential with Hugo Schmeisser's
- outstanding MP38. Ironically,
- it was a member of the ethnic
- group the Nazis tried to
- eradicate who perfected the
- concept. His name was Uziel
- Gal, a major in the fledgling
- Israeli Army, and his "Uzi"
- submachine gun appeared in 1952.
-
-
- The Uzi incorporated a
- number of design improvements
- over the classic Schmeisser-type
- sub-gun. A feed mechanism that
- housed the clip within the
- handgrip (after the fashion of
- ordinary semi-auto pistols)
- allowed for better balance and
- improved firing characteristics,
- while the bolt and recoil spring
- telescoped around the barrel,
- making it possible to house the
- whole tamale in a substantially
- shorter wrapper. Early Uzi's
- were fitted with removable
- wooden stocks; later models
- employed collapsible metal
- arrangements.
-
- 9mm has, from the beginning,
- been ("..and ever shall be...")
- the caliber of choice for
- sub-guns. Its combination of
- comparatively mild recoil and
- medium-sized bullet (9mm = .38
- caliber) is seemingly the ideal
- combination for a "spray and
- pray" approach to close-range,
- alley-clearing target
- engagement.
-
- If it weren't for the fact
- that the sub-gun is a dying
- breed (it's been superceeded by
- the assault rifle, a.k.a.
- AK-47), it would be interesting
- to see what might happen in
- light of the current surge of
- interest in the .40 S & W round,
- which has made strong inroads
- into traditionally sacrosanct
- 9mm markets - especially in the
- U.S. law enforcement community.
- Whether or not sub-guns ever
- appear in the great-and-mighty
- "centimeter bore," they will
- certainly never appear in any
- great numbers, because they are
- no longer a necessary tool
- except in very specialized
- executive protection scenarios.
-
-