guns | War Is Boring

Bankrupt Remington gets $65m offer for ammo business- and the bidder might surprise you

Featured WIB culture WIB politics WIB weapons September 10, 2020 0

As long-time firearms and ammunition manufacturer Remington begins to split itself apart amidst what may be its final bankruptcy, a new -albeit familiar- challenger may have stepped up to purchase the munitions side of the house. Columbia, SC-based private equity firm JJE Capital Holdings LLC recently submitted a $65... Read more

Fold Up Your Tiny Gun, Slip It In Your Pocket

WIB history November 29, 2018

Benjamin Loomis was a Civil War veteran and a successful inventor. One of his most interesting patents, from February 1866, is for a folding revolver. From the patent description, it’s obvious that safety was Loomis’s main priority. “The object of my invention is to secure greater compactness and safety... Read more

This Fountain Pen Is a Pistol

WIB history November 28, 2018

In 1954, Sol Harry Gaylord, Jr. and James Tollinger filed a patent for a “fountain pen pistol.” The U.S. government granted the patent to the inventors’ company in July 1958. The pen pistol features a receiver that resembles a fountain pen, but with a short rifled barrel inside. In... Read more

This Mystery Gun Is Very, Very Weird

WIB history November 20, 2018

This unusual, bolt-action, manually-repeating pistol has three tube magazines running along the barrel. We don’t know who made this weapon, nor when or where. Given its general aesthetic and mode of operation, it likely dates from the 1880s. The prototype, which sold at auction in 2010, is in-the-white and... Read more

George Reaben’s ‘Torpedo Crossbow’ Seems Problematic

WIB history November 9, 2018 0

In November 1919 George Birkley Reaben of New York filed a patent for an explosive torpedo that could be fired from a crossbow. Reaben’s patent describes “an arrow which is provided with means for exploding a torpedo upon the arrow striking end foremost the target.” The explosives detonated by... Read more

Pray and Spray With the ‘Special Case’ Briefcase Gun

WIB history October 29, 2018

Gun-maker Heckler & Koch’s Spezialkoffer — “Special Case” — is a clandestine weapon for personal-protection details. Offering the firepower of an MP5K in a concealed package, the Special Case first appeared in the late 1970s and is still available today. While the MP5K is already a compact weapon and... Read more

The Gun That Killed James Garfield

WIB history October 22, 2018

Charles Guiteau used a British Bulldog pistol to kill the 20th president of the United States James Garfield on July 2, 1881 at the busy Baltimore and Potomac Railroad station in Washington, D.C. Guiteau had stalked Garfield for a considerable time. He reportedly believed that killing Garfield, thus elevating Vice... Read more

The Gun That Killed Abraham Lincoln

WIB history October 12, 2018

On April 14, 1865 U.S. president Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by a single shot to the back of the head. The American Civil War had ended just days before with Southern general Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox when John Wilkes Booth, a well-known stage actor, shot Lincoln as the president... Read more

The Gun That Killed John F. Kennedy

WIB history October 11, 2018

On Nov. 22, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald fired two 6.5-millimeter rounds from an Italian Carcano Fucile di Fanteria Mod. 91/38 rifle and killed U.S. president John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was the fourth American president to be assassinated. Oswald, a 24-year-old former Marine, fired from the sixth floor of... Read more

The Guns That Killed Malcolm X

WIB history October 9, 2018

On Feb. 21, 1965, Malcolm X, leader of Muslim Mosque, Inc. and the Organization of Afro-American Unity, was assassinated during an Organization of Afro-American Unity meeting at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan. Malcolm X had been a civil-rights activist and leader of the Black Muslim community in New York City... Read more