RIP Will Larson, AKA “IraqGunz”

[NH Shooter]

Very sorry to hear this. He was obviously very knowledgeable and well respected, making every one of his posts worth reading.

RIP

[Greg]

Wow - RIP

I paid attention to what he and Mike Pannone had to say about ARs when I decided to buy one.

[ASH556]

I was fortunate enough to take Will's class twice and shared a few long conversations with him. For however offputting his online presence may have been to some, he was one of the most genuinely kind and gracious humans in-person. He was as passionate as he was (and thus sometimes a bit brusque) because he understood (and tried to make others understand) that lives are on the line when you don't do it right; whether it was staking the castle nut or using sub-standard parts.

The last class I took with him was hosted at the McDonough PD precinct and in the class was their SWAT commander. They dude was all attitude and too cool for school. As well all did, he brought "his" gun to class to practice assembly and disassembly. Turns out "his" gun was a 7.5" seizure abortion. But of course, because he was "Mr. SWAT Guy" he had to have the shortest "coolest-looking" gun. At some point he mentioned to Will that he "sometimes had trouble with it running reliably." Will took the opportunity to teach him and the whole class a lesson. We pulled the handguard and found the gas block to be shifted forward 2-3 inches from it's proper location over the gas port. Apparently someone wanted a longer handguard and not knowing anything about how things work figured the location of the railed gas block on the barrel was purely arbitrary.

Swatty McSwatterson tucked his tail a bit after that.

I (along with many, many others I'm sure) will miss Will in the time we all have left; not so much (although some) for the firearms knowledge, but for the man he was.

Peace, brother!

[CS Tactical]

Rest well Sir...

[einherjarvalk]

Will's death caught me completely off guard. Mike from SOLGW had to deliver the news that he had been hospitalized on day 1 of what is now likely to be the last Semper Paratus Arms armorer's course. We found out about Will's passing later that day as class wrapped up. Even without Will teaching the class, the breadth and depth of the material he had laid out for Mike to teach in his stead was incredible, and I worry we've lost one of the most important yet unsung voices in the gun world this weekend.

With that in mind, for those of you who have taken an SPA armorer's course with Will and still have your notes, would you please PM me anything you have? I don't wish to take the focus away from the personal loss that we as a community experienced this weekend, but I want to try and preserve as much of the knowledge he gave in a coherent, contextualized way, and having notes from other classes that may include things not covered in mine will go a long way towards realizing that goal.

[greyghost]

RIP

So many folks recently....

[TXBK]

I was fortunate enough to take Will's class twice and shared a few long conversations with him. For however offputting his online presence may have been to some, he was one of the most genuinely kind and gracious humans in-person. He was as passionate as he was (and thus sometimes a bit brusque) because he understood (and tried to make others understand) that lives are on the line when you don't do it right; whether it was staking the castle nut or using sub-standard parts.

I think this is a perfect example of how meeting someone in person can help you better understand the intentions/meaning/tones of their online posts and persona. I took Will’s class once, and intended to take it again. I felt he was genuine, passionate, and extremely knowledgeable. I always appreciated his willingness to share his technical knowledge and opinions. He has my complete respect.

I only knew him through taking his class for a couple days, reading his posts on M4C, and occasionally PM’ing him with technical questions (he always responded). But, I will surely miss his presence. He was the only friend that I had on Facebook, and I always enjoyed his posts of all of the historical sites that he visited while driving across the country to and from his classes.

Rest easy, Will.

[SecondsCount]

I am really sad to hear this news.

rob_s came up with the chart but Will was one of the guys that really solidified why a Colt or BCM was better. Because of him I bought a BCM and figured out why the DPMS I had was junk.

I wish I could thank him and hope he is in a better place.