was doing some light-ish research into shotguns in the US...

was doing some light-ish research into shotguns in the US overnight - some estimates have 350 million weapons in the hands of Americans, both old and new - of that number it is estimated that 21% are shotguns - all guesstimates to be sure, but the best figures available atm..

many a consumer shotgun retails for about say US$350

then I revisited the Maul on the company website, and watched the firing video from 2009 again..

then I hoovered up some stats -- there are some 1.4 million active personnel in the US armed forces, and some 850,000 standing by in the reserves, together with approximately 800,000 police across all forces and agencies, (some 14,000 odd different agencies) --- you start to see a very large professional market --- of professional troops and police, there are over 3 million personnel requiring firearms

and adding to the above demand, you have the general population of over 311 million private citizens

from the 2004 national firearms survey, which was only as good as those prepared to admit to gun ownership, some 38% of households owned one or more firearms, where 60% of privately held gun stock is said to be 'long guns' - rifles and shotguns

then of course you have to factor in the rest of the world's demand for shotguns... too big an analysis for me to attempt

over the last 15 years the US military has bought something in the vicinity of 50-60,000 shotguns of various manufacture - maybe that figure is conservative - and most of that supply weighs 2.72 - 3.17 kg per shotgun... the Maul weighs less than 1 kg, and can be mounted onto an assault rifle... which begs the question - how much of the old stock needs replacing - all of it?

Canada for instance, has already publicly recognised the need and announced it will be replacing its small arms, and using Metal Storm 'to-boot' -- and now with less-than-lethal becoming de rigeuer everywhere, having a weapon that does both lethal and less-than-lethal seems like a no brainer...

the point here after ploughing through these stats, was to me that the Maul will be the game changing product for MST -- it sought of reminded of the 1980s when the cool tool for street thugs across the world was the 'must have' Uzi - I see the Maul as the new 'must have', being demanded by combat troops, police, and private citizens, for the power it punches from such a light weight and compact design

used in pistol grip configuration, or with a shoulder stock, or fixed to the belly of an assault rifle, this 12 gauge appears to cater to every personal choice

however, though there appears to be this huge opportunity to appeal to many different types of shotgun demand in the US, we as shareholders need to be interested in what form of manufacturing deal the company can come up with, with the likes of Colt

it's great to see huge numbers already using shotguns, and great to predict that the Maul will win new converts to using this weapon, but how many Mauls will we actually be able to produce each year, and will we be able to keep up sufficient ammunition supplies... ?

so I am eagerly awaiting the next detailed announcement concerning developments with Colt - Colt have the long history and know their market, though will they want to aim high with production volumes, or seek a scalable approach..?

so many known unknowns at the moment, but we all should look forward to some very interesting commercialisation announcements after the capital restructuring has been completed circa 30 May


good luck