[undercoverbrother]

7 years for a new rifle......



http://nationalpost.com/opinion/np-v...g-a-new-weapon

Brand-new C19 rifles, almost 7,000 of them, are to equip the Canadian Rangers, a reserve force of part-time warriors drawn in large part from Canada’s Inuit and Indigenous communities in the far north. The Rangers, 5,000 strong, are Canada’s only real military presence in the region.

Since 1947, the Rangers have been issued Lee-Enfield rifles, specifically, the Lee-Enfield Mk. 4. The Mk. 4 dates back to the 1930s, and was the main battle rifle for Canadian units during the Second World War. The basic design of the rifle is even older, having first entered service with British units in 1895. This is not as bad as it sounds. The basic design of the Lee-Enfield rifle was superb, and it served Canadian soldiers well in two world wars. Further, its continued use in the far north made sense: the rifle remained reliable even in extreme cold and, after the Second World War, the Canadian military had many thousands of surplus Lee-Enfields.