Exactly one week ago, on October 6th, Federal Premium laid off 200 more employees. Employees were notified of this through group meetings that were held on Thursday, October 5th and Friday, October 6th. The layoffs affect 190 hourly workers from the factory floor and 10 jobs from Federal Premium’s human resources, IT and legal departments who were on salary. All the affected employees were offered severance packages and outplacement assistance.

Supposedly debuting mid next week, additional details about the Smith & Wesson M&P 2.0 is leaking from every social media crack and crevasse. Prices are set (estimated) at just under $500 MSRP with night sights adding another $100. New features include a rough textured finish and a lighter, crisper trigger pull with a better reset. Like the previous version, the 2.0 will be offered with and without a manual safety and in both the best pistol caliber in the world as well as the worst (that means 9mm and 40 S&W).

We reported just 2 days ago that Gunbroker.com had decided to delete and effectively ban all auctions of SlideFire, BumpFire and similarly related stocks from their website. Now, in an attempt to follow suit with their industry comrades, the NRA (National Rifle Association) and NSSF (National Shooting Sports Foundation), they have reversed their decision and will allow such auctions to exist.

I am going to do something that may frustrate and annoy the majority of our readers. By giving you just a small tidbit of information with no images, specifications or associated details as supporting documentation, I will leave you all hanging on the edge of a 9mm-wide cliff. Sourced from a major (and trusted) friend, we just came across some leaked information indicating that Smith and Wesson will be releasing a Shield 2 point 0 pistol – presumably in a matter of days.

At this point, there’s little need for us to explain what a bump-fire stock is ( but if you need a refresher, feel free to click here). TFB has been covering the industry standard bump-fire stock, the Slidefire SSAR-15,  since at least 2010 which you’ll note at that time retailed for $319.

If you have been wanting to purchase a Slidefire, Bumpfire or similarly related stock because of recent events in the US you may have tried searching online. One of the most popular sites where people buy, sell and research pricing for products related to the firearm’s industry is Gunbroker.com among others. If you have been finding it difficult to find much, if any at all on Gunbroker, there is a reason why.

Tonight on TFBTV: A Saturday Night Special (feature) as we take a look at the brand new Smith & Wesson M&P Compact 2.0. This gun is an upgrade to the S&W M&P Compact 1.0 and it’s gunning for the Glock 19’s sport as the most revered 15+1 9mm compact pistol on the market. Fortunately, James has not only the M&P9c 2.0, but the M&P 9 Compact 1.0 and the Gen5 Glock 19 to compare against the 2.0. In this special episode, James evaluates these three guns – size, weight, trigger, ergonomics, mechanics, price, and more.

Bass Pro Shops has been in the process of attempting to purchase Cabela’s for quite some time. That deal finally has come to a close to the tune of roughly $4 billion. Many employees of Cabela’s were informed this would occur through informal meetings on Friday, September 22nd. Now the general public is privileged to the knowledge of the completed sale as well.

A post by Facebook’s Tap Rack Bang on Thursday shows a pistol cartridge allegedly inserted into the buttstock of a Winchester 1200 or 1300 shotgun. The true intention or mishap isn’t yet known, but the incident was allegedly reported to BATFE and a local police department. The original incident reportedly took place the second week of September.

The US Army’s program to field a new standard-issue 7.62mm caliber rifle is dead in the water, it seems. Multiple anonymous sources have informed TFB that the Interim Combat Service Rifle program has been cancelled as part of a massive review of US Army small arms programs. The program was officially announced on August 4th, and lasted just over a month before its cancellation.

A day after a dramatic product release that included “firearms” toting shooters carrying silencers moderators across the border into California, SilencerCo has announced that they are suspending sales to some states in the face of pending legal challenges. If you haven’t heard, the Maxim 50 is a muzzleloading rifle that includes a permanently attached silencer which theoretically should not fall under federal firearms laws. The company took to social media today to announce the news to customers:

I do not like reporting bad news – there’s plenty of it everywhere else in the world, why does it need to creep into one activity that I do primarily for fun. In any event, as confirmed by multiple industry sources, Smith and Wesson has fired Rob Martinez as CEO of Gemtech effective immediately. It is rumored that Mark Thompson, CFO, will hold an interim leadership position at Gemtech

Several models of rifles from manufacturer SIG Sauer are now being recalled, the company announced in a release Friday. The issue stemmed from a problem in the heat treatment of the hammer of SIG’s two-staged trigger used in the SIG716 DMR, SIG516 Carbon Fiber, and SIGM400 Predator models. SIG’s release claimed that over time, this flawed heat treatment could cause a malfunction “creating a significant safety hazard”. Therefore, SIG is issuing a mandatory recall on these models, so that their trigger assemblies can be replaced, free of charge. According to the release, no law enforcement guns are affected by the recall.

It looks like someone over at Apex let the cat out of the bag a bit early! OK, we might have compromising photos of someone within Apex that we swore would never get out as long as they played ball. The Apex Grade Barrel and update for on the M&P M2.0 Forward set trigger wasn’t due to be released til tomorrow, but we managed to get it a bit early to show you guys first.

The effort to deregulate of silencers has reached an important milestone: The Hearing Protection Act has made it out of committee, and been incorporated as part of another larger bill. House Resolution 3668 – the Sportsmen Heritage and Recreational Enhancement (SHARE) Act – has been introduced to the House floor with a new subsection, Title XV, Hearing Protection. The new subsection provides for the change in classification of silencers from NFA items to standard firearms such as long guns, just like the HPA. Its text is reproduced at the bottom of this post.

On top of the Smith & Wesson M2.0 being leaked, a couple of new Surefire lights were leaked in the same photo. It looks like the upcoming Surefire XH35 and XC-1B lights are going to be revealed soon because Surefire reposted the photo of the new pistol with confirmation that the new lights are legit.

It looks like Smith & Wesson is planning to throw down with the Glock 19 in some good ol’ fashioned fisticuffs. The brand new M2.0 Compact seems to check just about every box that the Glock 19 does, AND it has more features than the Austrian wonder pistol.

In this episode of TFBTV, James meets with Walker, the sales director for FIME Group (importer of the Rex Zero 1), and Marin, the head of development at Arex, too discuss two new pistols.

Knight’s Armament Company announced via their Facebook page Wednesday that all proceeds from their KAC Gear Labor Day sale would be would donated to Hurricane Harvey relief efforts, as well as a matched contribution by the company. Knight’s has partnered with TripleG Relief out of Prosper, Texas and ChiveNation. Sale prices are reportedly in the 20-50% range, and free shipping is included. The sale is live from September 1st to 5th, 2017.

According to a press release issued earlier today by Heckler & Koch, the Chairman of the Executive Board and Chief Executive Officer of parent company H&K AG Norbert Scheuch has been terminated from his position by the supervisory board. The release also stated that Wolfgang Hesse, the current sole Executive Board member, would be taking over operations for Heckler & Koch until Scheuch’s replacement can be appointed.

Finally, the firearms industry’s best-worst kept secret is now official. We no longer have to use hushed voices or sneak into the shadows to discuss finger grooves and ambidextrous slide release stop levers (ok, I never did either of those things). The Gen5 GLOCK pistols are set to be released publicly in both G17 and G19 models in a matter of days. And by some devine blessing from the 9mm gods, TFB is lucky enough to have two sets of the new handguns for review.

The first of the week I was informed that James “Marco” Marcotuli had stepped down as CEO of Remington Outdoors. Marco did not make this decision easily but in the end, personal matters dictated his action to leave Remington.

Yes, it’s real. The hotly anticipated fifth generation of GLOCK pistols is set to become publicly available in a matter of days. For die hard fans like myself, most of the features of the new Gen5 G17 and G19 models will come as little surprise – they are all found on the heavily reported ‘M’ line of government contract pistols we have all seen ad naseum over the past year. So, if you are on the edge of your seat, waiting for a ultra-dramatic reveal of a carbine, single stack G19 or a G43-sized .40S&W, you are just going to have to simmer down and adjust your expectations.

In this very special episode of TFBTV, James has the privilege of introducing you the Glock’s new Generation 5 series of pistols. James was asked to visit Glock Headquarters in Smyrna, Georgia and shoot a case of ammunition through the new Gen. 5 Glock 17 and 19 at the Glock Operator Course over a two day period. In addition to functional and cosmetic changes, the Glock Gen. 5 has increased it’s reliability and service life, and James’ experience was no exception, as he and representatives from a number of other outlets shot thousands of rounds through the Gen. 5 Glocks without cleaning them, and they proved utterly reliable over the course period.

Earlier this year US SOCOM submitted an RFI for a new PDW. Nathaniel F. wrote an article about it back in March.

Without rule changes, regulation amendments, politicians or legislation, a partnership between the U.S. government and a small private industry group has dramatically changed the process in which National Firearms Act (NFA) controlled items are transferred between individuals and entities. There is now a system in place within the BATFE’s NFA DIvision, that will allow nearly everyone who files a Form 4 to transfer controlled items, such as silencers, a genuine chance at receiving approved forms in a few short months. Alongside the ATF, three silencer industry stalwarts spearheaded the best modernization of the registry in 83 years: Dead Air Armament, GEMTECH and Silencer Shop.

The SIG Sauer P320 – scion of the Army’s new M17 MHS pistol – is the only handgun out of eleven different weapons to fail a comprehensive test released today by Omaha Outdoors. The testing protocol involved dropping the handguns at different angles with a primed case in the chamber (no bullet or propellant). None of the ten other handguns – which included four Glocks, two H&Ks, two S&Ws and a 1911 – tested after the P320 fired when dropped. The video released by Omaha Outdoors describing the tests is embedded below:

There have been many comments left on our P320 hammer test video that dispute the validity of the test I performed with a hammer. I hate to tell you guys, but that was never supposed to be a scientific test. The reality of the matter is that I am flat out not set up for lab quality testing for failures with firearms, nor do I want to be.

Colt Introduces the Colt Trooper® Patrol Carbine