[Icelander]

I have two potential characters who might occupy the role of senior armourer for the organisation as a whole. That involves running the Azazel Arms, a small custom gun shop in Galveston.

The first of the two competitors:

a) John Declan ("J.D.") Griffin
b. November 12, 1940; Galveston, TX.
This son of a local mechanic was tall for his age and tough for any age.
When he was thirteen, he felt he had learned enough welding and machining, so he struck out on his own, informing a local loanshark that the Bellinis could not pay him what he was demanding on their foundry, but that he would assume their debt, free and clear, and all he'd demand was an altered payment schedule, one which would ensure that both men made money.

The club-wielding thug did not appear to be interested in discussions of competitive ratings and rudely paid no attention to Griffin's several point business plan. As it turned out, the thug serviced notice of eviction on Griffin, and by extension, his impromptu clients, with a severe beating.

Never loath, the thirteen year old started to fill a large bucket with diesel oil while he blithely told his bloodied and battered clients to have faith in him and not agree to anything without consulting him first.

As Griffin walked back into the foundry with his heavy bucket in his left hand and a tire iron wrapped in oily cloth in the other, Griffin found welding torch and lit the oilcloth on fire. Placing the full bucket of diesel oil next to the man in charge, the one giving orders to the thug who'd beat him, and moved the burning cloth right next to it.

"I done heard you lot burn down stores where the owner can't pay your bribe money. Get the insurance that way. I don't know if'n it works with varminters on the inside like, that is a to say, will y'all lot count as prior damage to the place or can we count y'all as additional accessories, no matter that there weren't no one asked for ya. I don't reckon it counts either way, seeing as we'll all be burnt up and heading to join Jeebus, leastaways those of us who weren't Popists, Baptists or worse."

Before sticking his burning cloth into the diesel oil, J.D. Griffin looked deep into the eyes of the well-dressed, olive-skinned gentleman at his side.

"Or we could always go with my original proposal, cain't we? I take over the debt, I pay it all, because I'm good for my debt, but I get a readjusted payment schedule because I'll be changing this her old foundry into a modern firearm emporium with custom service."

The shaky and sweating gentleman had many questions for J.D. Griffin, but none of them were about his willingness to touch the burning cloth to the diesel oil. In the end, they shook hands on a deal substantially similar to Griffin's first offer. With a pen in one hand and needing to shake with another, J.D. Griffon dropped the tire iron, and the burning cloth, into the diesel oil. As his now-partner paled and looked for cover, Griffin simply tapped the oily cloth with his shoe and sent it deeper into the diesel oil, where the fire suffocated.

J.D. Griffin had been pretty sure that city boy Houston racketeers don't pump their own gas and certainly don't use it for anything personally, so they'd neither know the difference between diesel and gasoline, nor realize that while fuel fumes burn furiously, submerging a small blaze in diesel oil will simply serve to prevent oxygen from getting to it.

As Kessler came back to the city of his birth after a sojourn in Europe, Africa and Asia which included WWII and the Indochina War, he heard about the little kid who'd backed down Rosario Maceo's most ambitious crew chief. Kessler was amused and did his best to see that there were no repercussions. He also started to patronize the kid, minor jobs of cleaning guns and he like. Kessler was surprised to discover that Griffin knew a lot about gunsmithing, from magazines and from attending every gun show in the neighbourhood and talking to the old farts there until they had nothing more to say.

Kessler will have employed the services of a custom gunsmith in Texas since 1955. At first, as merely a valued client, but then, as his operations expanded, the role for a federally licensed gun dealer who was also a very good craftsman grew into something where you need to trust that person with your life and freedom.

According to Kessler's stories, he ran guns into Cuba after Castro's revolution and in the 1950s, he also moved armaments to many other countries in Latin America, the Caribbean. Africa and Asia. The way he tells it, his burgeoning mobile import-export organisation was talent-scouted by some boys from an agency that shall remain nameless and J.R. Kessler finally ended up serving the country of his birth, albeit without uniform, honour, public acclaim or legal authorization from the NCA.

It's not implausible that J.D. Griffin's personal gunsmithing service grew with him. Nor is it implausible that in 1963, perhaps sensing what was coming, Kessler offered Griffon to use his influence to get him exempt from the draft. Which Griffon declined. He put his store under the temporary management of a trusted employee and then volunteered for the United States Marines.

J.D. Griffin spent the years of 1965-1972 mostly in country, serving as rifleman, armourer, sergeant and anything else the Corps needed from him. When Saigon was abandoned, Griffin felt that everything he had fought for had been given up.

It didn't take much convincing to get Griffin to accept a full-time position in Kesser' organisation, especially as he could keep running his gun store, now with more assistants and expert help. The fact that Griffin became a cross between bodyguard and mercenary didn't bother him either, as he'd learned to forget about navigating by the True North of some idea or institution in his life and preferred to be loyal to his friends and ensure a good life for his family.

In 2018, Griffin is in his 78th year, which makes him, at least in theory, retired. In factual fact, he spends most of his time at Azazel Arms, micro-managing his sons, drinking a lot of bad coffee and kibbitzing with friends he made in more exciting times.

His duties are probably carried out by his eldest son, J.D. Griffin Jr., a charismatic and driven manager, though the middle brother Henry Wyatt Griffin, is actually the best craftsman of the three brothers. Jacky Griffin, the youngest, actually went ahead and joined the US military after 9/11, and is usually away on deployments. Without Elsa Mae Griffin, his unmarried eldest, and Alamo Rose Carter, his middle daughter, it's anyone's guess if Azazel Armaments would turn in any annual statements, let alone stay in the black.

----

The alternative would be an ex-SAS operator from Britain or the Commonwealth, born around 1930, and so ten years older than even Griffin. Kessler's chief of security from 1965 until around 1990 and probably unwilling to retire completely retire. A qualified armorer whose mercenary service was as much arms dealing and education in new weaponry as it was traditional military services.