Uzi

The Uzi has always fascinated me. Especially since Entebbe (I believe many of the Israeli rescuers carried Uzis). I don’t have one. Don’t need one. Can’t afford one. Want one.

It’s my understanding that the original had a fixed firing pin which was really just a protrusion on the front of the bolt. The bolt held open, out of battery and when the trigger was pulled, the bolt traveled forward, stripping a round from the magazine and chambering it. As the bolt slammed into battery, the fixed firing pin hit the primer firing the round and the empty was ejected by blow-back action. Simple. Genius.

I read someone, maybe Mas Ayoob, who said untrained shooters were put off by the inertia of the bolt moving PRIOR to the first shot and it threw off aim for the first shots (full auto). Consequently, a more ‘standard’ closed bolt with a traveling firing pin design was adopted. Correct me if I’m wrong.

But recently I read something that made me think they were saying that ‘open bolt’ designs are not legal (maybe over-applying NFA again?). So, even if you wanted, you couldn’t buy an original design Uzi. Also, I guess what’s the point of an open bolt design if it’s not full auto.

Tell me what I don’t know about Uzis.

You are correct, the ATF doesn't like open bolt designs, they're too easy to convert to full auto.  The tec9/tec22 had to be redesigned to a closed bolt design to satisfy the ATF.