benEzra
benEzra's JournalOnce again, you show you're after nonviolent gun enthusiasts, NOT violence reduction.
According to the FBI, there were 11,961 murders in the United States in 2014. All rifles *combined* accounted for 248. Two states didn't report their data, so let's increase that to 280 to account for those two. To put that into perspective, ~722 Americans died riding bicycles in 2014.
Of the ~280 murders involving any type of rifle, let's say as many as half involved modern-looking rifles that the prohibitionists want to outlaw. That's ~140 murders in the entire nation..
Out of that ~140, the vast majority are likely from American-made rifles, rather than imports, since American-made rifles account for the bulk of the U.S. rifle market, especially semiautos. But let's say that as many as 25% are imports. That's about 35 murders annually in the entire nation by imported modern-looking semiauto rifles, out of 11,961.
Stop pretending you care about violence. It's the tens of millions of nonviolent, noncriminal owners and enthusiasts that you hate, as demonstrated by your legislative priorities.
Ummmm, aren't those the people you keep saying should have a monopoly of force?
Which is it?
BTW, for an ordinary citizen to possess those machineguns would have been a 10-year Federal felony. Ditto for the concussion grenades, if I read the law right.
They also nixed permits from states that have *stricter* requirements than VA, such as NC.
The net effect of that is to force those carry license holders to open carry while visiting Virginia, which is something I prefer not to do and do not like to be forced to in order to stay legal. Virginia has much less restrictive laws on open carry than NC does.
Also unlike NC, Virginia allows you to keep a gun in your car's glove compartment or console without a carry license, which helps if you're just passing through the state.
Except you can't even own many guns that are popular in mainland Europe, Canada, and even the UK.
You have very little gun freedom left in Australia, and the prohibitionists are now moving to steal what little you have left (such as the recent push to ban 1860's-style lever-actions). No thanks.
Depends on whether the prohibitionists keep pushing for "assault weapon" and magazine bans.
If the ban talk keeps escalating, and ever-more ridiculous proposals keep getting introduced in state legislatures, then gun sales will keep going up and up.
If bans were taken off the table, I think you'd see some slowdown in sales of guns and more sales of optics, other accessories, and target ammo.
Not with the rest of us, either.
I think you've put your finger on the misunderstanding that cost Gore his home state in '00 and Kerry so many blue-collar Dems in '04, and that is that most gun owners Gen-X and younger don't own the same styles of guns that were/are popular with the Baby Boomer generation. So tailoring legislation around straight-stocked rifles, revolvers, and large-caliber single-stack pistols hasn't made sense for 40+ years now; by and large, that's not what we own. I don't expect you necessarily to approve of our choices, but it's good to at least understand the scope of what you're advocating. FWIW, I'm a Gen-X gunnie and casual USPSA competitor,
What Gore/Kerry didn't understand is that banning rifle handgrips that stick out, when the most popular rifles in U.S. homes have handgrips that stick out, is a slap in the face to mainstream rifle owners, not just to fringe types who play dress-up on the weekends. Given that handgrip shape has nothing to do with rifle lethality, and rifles are the least misused of all weapons (all rifles put together kill fewer Americans annually than bicycles), the *only* thing such bans do is harass lawful owners.
Likewise, banning magazines over 10 rounds has much broader impact than you think, given that 15+ round rifle magazines have been mainstream since the 1860s, and most smallish-caliber carbines and full-sized 9mm pistols have used such magazines since the 1930's. Banning anything over 10 rounds would affect 50+ million owners and probably a third of a billion magazines; it's not a fringe thing.
If the NRA membership is 5 million,
then there are about five times as many "assault weapon" owners as there are NRA members, two or three times as many carry license holders as NRA members, and twelve or fifteen times as many owners of over-10-round magazines as there are NRA members.
If the NRA disappeared tomorrow, the backlash against attempts to outlaw the most popular guns and magazines in U.S. homes would not abate; it would just find a different outlet. My money would be on the Second Amendment Foundation at the national level, though most pro-gun advocacy is through state-level organizations (like Grassroots North Carolina in my state, or the Virginia Citizens' Defense League).
Because we don't line babies' cribs with lead bullets,
nor do we cover our baseboards with them or let toddlers teethe on them. If you leave bullets where an infant or toddler could eat them, you will probably find yourself in some trouble at the ER.
Any chance that lead ammo use might be reduced in favor of alternatives was eliminated when the gun control lobby banned the best alternatives to lead as "armor piercing". You can't have it both ways.
Solid copper bullets for handguns and the most popular rifle calibers
are banned by Federal law as armor-piercing, IIRC. Most of the practical alternatives to lead are similarly banned as AP, because they are harder than lead and therefore more penetrative. The virtues of lead are its density, softness, and abundance. Gold would also work, but obviously is cost prohibitive.
Solid copper is used in some big-game hunting loads (e.g. Barnes X-bullet) because it penetrates like crazy, since it doesn't deform much on impact.
Composite projectiles have very short range, as do aluminum projectiles. The old Thunderzap rounds (LE only) were aluminum, as I recall. I wonder if a .357 could drive a lightweight composite or aluminum projectile fast enough to penetrate NIJ IIIA armor; I know the Groupe d'Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale (that famously took down the Air France hijackers in the '90s, among other things) used to use .357's with AP bullets.
You dredged up a story from eleven YEARS ago?
Since that was written, at least a hundred million new guns were purchased by U.S. gun owners, and the murder rate dropped. The "assault weapon ban" expired, and rifle murders dropped. Now, eleven years later, the U.S. murder rate is at historic lows.
It's ironic that even back in 2004 in that article, gun control advocates acknowledged that modern-looking rifles weren't a crime problem, even though rifle crime was higher then than it is now. Though that hasn't stopped you guys from trying to outlaw them...
Profile Information
Gender: MaleHometown: Eastern North Carolina
Home country: United States
Current location: Eastern NC
Member since: Wed Dec 1, 2004, 04:09 PM
Number of posts: 12,148
