2002
|
The LAPD chose a slightly modified and specially marked ("LAPD SWAT CUSTOM II") version of the Kimber Custom TLE II as the standard issue for its SWAT unit.
NATO began to conduct a series of tests with the intention of standardizing a PDW cartridge as a replacement for the 9x19mm Parabellum cartridge. The T194 training round didn't even last the year.
Hornady introduced the .17 HMR.
Web-based "gun shows" began appearing on the internet. Typically, these do not charge the high table rent fees that dealers at traditional shows pay, instead charging only either a low listing fee and/or a small commission-on-sale to list an item, with actual transfer of any gun being handled by a local licensed dealer for a small fee. The web-based "shows" also do not charge shoppers the admission for browsing that traditional shows do.
After four years of development, Grand Power SRO in Slovakia began producing the Grand Power K100.
The Front Sight Firearms Training Institute closed its Bakersfield, California facility and moved all operations to their Nye County, Nevada location.
Savage Arms developed the AccuTrigger.
January
- January 16 — An armed student and another armed bystander ruin the day of a would-be spree shooter at a Virginia law school.
February
- February 15 — Smith & Wesson Corp., recently acquired by from Tompkins PLC (whose kowtowing to the Clinton administration had led gun owners to boycott S&W products en masse), becomes the Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation.
March
- March 3 — Four Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers are gunned down in Mayerthorpe, Alberta, Canada. It is deadliest day in Canadian law enforcement in over 120 years.
- March 18 — Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda (started on March 2) ends after killing 500 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters with 11 allied troop fatalities. The battle also saw Canadian snipers Arron Perry and Rob Furlong both break Carlos Hathcock's longstanding record for the longest sniper kill in history.
April
- April 4 — Cost of the Canadian Firearms Program more than triples. The tab for implementing the registry rises to $629 million, according to an audit of the registry: $2 million to help police enforce legislation, at least $60 million for public-relations programs, including television commercials ($18 million of which went to ad agency GroupAction, which received millions in sponsorship scandal contracts) and $227 million in computer costs. Complicated application forms slow processing times and drive costs higher. Then there is $332 million for other programming costs, including money to pay staff to process the forms.
June
- June 10 — Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., a group overseeing the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, files a lawsuit against the Canadian federal government, arguing that the long gun registry goes against an understanding that Inuit would be able to hunt, trap and fish without licensing or fees.
August
- August 9 — Longtime civil rights activist and Second Amendment advocate Charlton Heston publicly announced he was diagnosed with symptoms consistent with Alzheimer's disease.
- August 29 — Hurricane Katrina makes landfall along the U.S. Gulf Coast.
September
- September 7 — Uziel Gal passed away at the age of 79, after a year-long battle with cancer.
October
- October 2 — The Beltway sniper attacks begin in Maryland, extending over three weeks.
- Smith and Wesson announced that they were getting into the bicycle business.
December
- December 5 — In the case of Silveira v. Lockyer, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit showed just how dumb judges can be by not being able to figure out that the Second Amendment is an individual right
- The Auditor-General of Canada, Sheila Fraser, reported that the Canadian long gun registry project was running vastly above initial cost estimates (500 times more, to be precise).
