There are plenty of phrases that make gun owners cringe. These include calling a magazine a clip, calling cartridges bullets, and using the phrase “MIL/LEO only”. MIL/LEO stands for military and law enforcement officer. This means the company that produces the firearm will not sell it to the average Joe but will limit it to military and law enforcement customers. It’s a phrase we hate to see.
The World of MIL/LEO Guns
Lots and lots of guns are locked behind this phrase purely because of the law. Various gun control efforts have made it difficult to own particular guns and accessories, and other efforts have made it impossible. I don’t plan to publish an entire list of machine guns we can’t own due to the Hughes Amendment. Rather, I want to focus on companies that produce a wide variety of firearms for the civilian market but have locked a few options behind the MIL/LEO barrier.
Ruger PC SBR
Ruger’s Pistol Caliber Carbine has been a big success. The little carbine comes in numerous configurations, including a standard rifle variant, a Charger pistol variant, and numerous tactical models. Ruger has taken the Charger model, slapped a stock on it, and boom, we have the Ruger PC SBR.
This 9mm carbine features a 6.5-inch barrel that’s detachable from the weapon. The already short gun gets a lot smaller when you remove the barrel and handguard. The PC SBR features a Magpul six-position stock with a stock tube that makes it easy to swap stocks. I’m amazed Ruger didn’t use a folding option and create an extremely handy and easily stowable weapon.
The PC SBR keeps the Charger’s layout but just has a stock. Up front, we have a short M-LOK handguard and a threaded barrel that’s begging for a suppressor. The top of the gun is optics-ready. The magazine can be swapped to Glock mags, or you can use Ruger magazines. Why Rugeronly sells the PC SBR to MIL/LEO customers is beyond me. They sell NFA items like suppressed Ruger 10/22s, so that’s not the problem.
Maybe it’s a suspected lack of interest. Why produce SBRs when a shooter can buy a Charger, file a Form 1, and produce one? That’d be my best guess, and it’s making me think the PC SBR would be a handy little gun.
The Mossberg 590M Breacher
Mossberg got a little crazy and decided to produce a magazine-fed variant of the Mossberg 590 series and called it the 590M series. They produced a Plain Jane model, a tactical model with Ghost ring sights and a rail, and a Shockwave variant. The guns are neat,. The magazines hold anywhere from five to twenty rounds! Best of all, they are reliable and easy to use.
Mossberg recently got a small contract to produce the 590M in a highly specialized configuration for a foreign customer. Specifically a custom out of the United Kingdom, likely a special operations force.
The gun features an uber-short barrel with a breacher choke. The pump handle is petite, and M-LOK is covered with a nice handguard that offers a shield to prevent your hand from flying in front of the barrel.
The gun has a standard pistol grip. To make it easy to use the safety, which is traditionally a Mossberg tang, they completely redesigned it. Instead, it’s an AR-type safety that allows the shooter’s thumb to manipulate it with a breaching grip. Mossberg fenced the safety to prevent accidental manipulation when the weapon is slung.
The gun is super small, but since it uses a magazine, the capacity isn’t limited to two rounds in the tube. This MIL/LEO only breacher gun is a radical redesign of Mossberg’s guns. I wouldn’t be super surprised if Mossberg brought this one to the civilian market. They’ve done numerous SBS shotguns in the past.
S&W AXE
I’m flabbergasted that S&W locks the AXE behind a MIL/LEO wall. It’s an AR-15, which S&W produces tons of. It’s not an SBR and comes with a 16.1-inch long barrel. To be fair, it’s a soft MIL/LEO wall because these guns can be found on occasion in the civilian market. The AXE looks like any other AR-15.
It’s a carbine with a collapsing stock, an M-LOK handguard, a flat top upper, and it’s semi-auto only. So what’s so special about it? Well, it wears a Gemtech GVAX Suppressor Optimized Upper Receiver Group. This upper features a novel barrel profile designed to help balance the rifle when it’s equipped with a suppressor.
The AXE also features a novel gas system that’s designed to reduce back pressure significantly when used with a can. Suppressors can create this effect of gas on the face. Having a redesigned gas system is a very nice touch. S&W built a fully ambidextrous lower, which is a brilliant touch. Then we have little features like Magpul furniture, a Radian Raptor charging handle, and a Gemtech flash suppressor.
Suppressors have never been more popular. S&W is missing out by only selling this rifle to MIL/LEO customers and forcing the average Joe to pay a marked-up premium for the few AXEs that leak out. Do you know how awesome it would be to say, “And my AXE!” and be referring to a suppressed AR?
Remington 870 MCS
America loves the 870, and Americans have made it one of the most popular pump-action shotguns in the world. It’s used for hunting everything from rabbits to deer. It plays home defense shotgun, tactical shotgun, and more. There are tons of variants and one gets locked behind the MIL/LEO curtain and it’s the 870 MCS.
MCS stands for Modular Combat Shotgun, and they took the name Modular to the next level. The MCS isn’t just one shotgun but an entire kit. Imagine a Pelican box full of shotgun parts. The 870 MCS comes with three barrel options, three magazine capacities, three sight options, and two stock designs.
Shooters can configure the shotgun into a breaching gun with a 10-inch barrel and pistol grip with a three-round tube. It can be a short barrel fighting gun with a 14-inch barrel, a five-round tube, and stock. In its largest configuration, it can wear an 18-inch barrel with a six-round tube. The 870 MCS can best be described as extravagant.
I also want to describe one as mine! It’s such a neat system, and while it would require a tax stamp, it only needs one stamp. The 870 MCS series has never sold to the average Joe, but kits have leaked out, and boy, the rarity drives the price sky-high! Maybe the new Remington will be a bit more progressive.
Glock 46: A Unique MIL/LEO
Glock makes Glocks, and they are all very Glock-like. The basic Glock pistol uses a short recoil-operated design with a polymer frame and an overall very simple layout. The only thing that changes is the size and caliber, but other than that, they are all basically identical. Outside of the Glock 18 and a couple of .380s banned from import by the GCA, they are all available to the average person.
Except for the Glock 46. The Glock 46 looks a lot like your typical Glock. It’s a compact, 9mm gun that could be confused for a Glock 19 if you didn’t look closely enough. However, the Glock 46 ditches the standard short recoil system for a rotating barrel design. The Glock 46’s rotating barrel isn’t new. Browning designed one over a century ago, and guns from Beretta and Grand Power have leaned on the system.
The benefits are twofold. First, it reduces felt recoil. The gun has less upward muzzle rise. Second, in a Glock it allows you to take apart the pistol without dry firing the gun. This isn’t a big deal, but it seemed to be a requirement of a MIL/LEO contract Glock aimed to fill. Specifically a German police contract.
The police of Saxony-Anhalt chose the weapon and issued 8,600 Glock 46s. Glock has never shown an interest in importing the weapon or in making sales to anyone outside of Germany. Glock fans would eat it up. It represents Glock doing something different, but perhaps there is a fear of messing up the simplicity of the Glock brand and diluting what a Glock is in the United States.
READ MORE: The Best Snub Nose Revolvers
The MIL/LEO Barrier
The MIL/LEO barrier can be a frustrating one. It’s difficult to jump over, and in many cases, it’s needless. Most of the guns on this list could be acquired with nothing more than a tax stamp. For others, they wouldn’t even need that! Are there any other neat MIL/LEO guns I should add? Let me know below, I’ll be scouring Guns America for an 870 MCS kit.
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