​Oh Linda! And other cool guns.

You young gunnies might not remember the likes of Wildey, Tec9 and Linda but they represented firearm cool for those of us coming of age in the 80’s. The AR wasn’t really on anyone’s radar other than as a weapon to be avoided due to it’s poor rep in Vietnam: pistol caliber weapons were the rage, rifle calibers were for hunting. Much like the Mac10, these above-mentioned weapons were brandished on TV and in movies and were the object of our firearm lust. Then some crazy laws and lawsuits stomped on the industry and there wasn’t much to excite the soul for a couple of decades, until Obama. (At least that’s the way I remember it, others may have a differing account of recent history.) In my perception, Obama’s inauguration coincided with a massive revival of all things gun, indeed he was Jesus to the gun industry Lazarus. All of a sudden engineers awoke en masse and began producing awesome stuff as well as reviving corpses from the last heyday. Nowadays it’s just too much fun having such a glut of amazing firearms and accessories with our pay-check being virtually the only hindrance to the girth of our personal armories. And so it was with a flutter of the heart that I recently read about Linda’s resurrection! Linda was the rich man’s uzi: she had nice fit and finish, apple pie American looks and a moniker synonymous with gentleman’s razors and cravat wearing scoundrels dueling it out with cutlasses. She was class, but dirty and dangerous too, not unlike that memorable girlfriend from high school who lived in the nice part of town. The guys from the new Wilkinson Arms have done a great job at keeping Linda true to original whilst adding a couple of appropriate features such as the Sten-like heat shield and an ejection port dust cover PLUS the option of an AR stock. I’m assuming they’ve remedied the minor functionality issues of the original Linda also, so all-in-all this promises to be one beautiful reunion. I’m a great fan of PCC’s, and 9mm’s from a 16” barrel deliver quite the punch. Furthermore, using the grip to safeguard the magazine is smart - many a Sten was temporarily immobilized in the heat of combat due to the mag being knocked out of alignment, I knew a British WWII vet growing up who mentioned exactly that. And they’ve replaced the original steel upper/lower with aluminum so hefting it around will be less of an issue for folks who like their weapons light. I also like weapons with names that don't evoke pulp fiction baddies or medieval warlords like so many of todays's offerings (okay, I'm old) though truly it won’t be everyone’s taste and the polymer fans will loathe it. But for us men’s men of a different generation this could be a boyhood fantasy come true. I know Linda’s on my naughty list! AS

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