Dagny Dagger AP Ammo: A Crowdfunding Success!
Austin Jones of Atlas Arms is looking to make obsolete over 30 years of federal firearms regulations, and with the help of generous donors from all over the internet, that goal is closer than ever.
Atlas Arms is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded by Austin Jones, an aerospace engineer with a disdain for federal law, and a history of developing body armor for combat sports and micrometeoroid shielding for soft-bodied spacecraft. Atlas Arms is dedicated to the research and development of ammunition technology, with their first project being the Dagny Dagger. Since the Law Enforcement Officers Protection Act of 1985, armor piercing (AP) ammunition has been illegal to manufacture for private use within the US. But with the completion of its development, the Dagny Dagger will be AP ammunition that is federally legal to manufacture, starting with the ubiquitous 9mm Luger cartridge.
As stated in his demonstration video: Wherever the Dagny Dagger may be present, NIJ Level IIIA soft body armor is just dead weight. Through the use of novel materials and design, Atlas Arms seeks to create legal-to-make armor piercing ammunition that eclipses the capabilities of previous loadings. To this end, he’s developed a new and innovative kind of multi-role projectile: The Armor Penetrating Hollow-Point. The Dagny Dagger is a two-part projectile consisting of a penetrator core and a bonded jacket that functions a bit like a non-discarding sabot. On impact with an armored target the jacket is left behind while the core passes through the armor and into the target behind it. Upon impact with an unarmored target however, the jacket expands and fragments much like a traditional hollow-point bullet.
As cool as the Dagny Dagger is, what’s arguably even more important is the ideology behind it. With the completion of its development, Austin seeks to open-source all the data required to load the Dagger for oneself with their own reloading setups. This is part of what he deems equality under the law. Technology once restricted by the state will come back into the hands of the common man. However, delivering such innovation to the masses is no easy task. Atlas Arms, being a non-profit, is solely funded through donations. Through their crowdfunding campaign on Gun Dynamics, they sought to gain enough money to complete development of the projectile itself and devise methods for the ordinary person to make it.
On October 14th, 2020, this crowdfunding campaign succeeded, with $30,000 raised to fund the development of software and tools (including a 3rd party utility for Defense Distributed’s Ghost Gunner platform) to enable DIY manufacture of the Dagny Dagger projectile. Atlas Arms also plans to go commercial with the Dagny Dagger, seeking to manufacture and sell projectiles and fully loaded cartridges themselves to those that don’t have the time or equipment. The future looks bright for Atlas Arms, but innovation is a never ending march, and support will be needed even beyond this crowdfunding campaign. To that end, Atlas Arms is continuing to accept fiat donations through their Gun Dynamics page, as well as accepting Bitcoin donations through BTCPayServer and PayNyms on their website.
To learn a bit more about the Dagny Dagger, check out our interview with Austin Jones, filmed in the wake of Bear Arms ‘n’ Bitcoin 2020.
To learn more about Atlas Arms and their philosophy, check out their website here.
To donate USD, check out their Gun Dynamics campaign here.
To donate BTC, check out their crypto donation page here.
