Posted on 01/02/2013 3:29:20 PM PST by neverdem
Politician after politician have joined the television talking heads in calling for a new “assault weapons ban” patterned after the ten-year Clinton ban that was allowed to lapse in 2004 after Justice Department and private studies concluded it had no impact whatsoever on murder and violent crime rates and had become a symbol of wrong-headed governmental attempts to restrict firearms ownership in this country.
California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein has called for reinstituting the old Clinton ban to outlaw the sale, transfer and possession of such guns in the future while grandfathering those already in the hands of private parties. Others, like New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, have gone so far as to suggest “confiscation” or forced “buy back” programs “to get these weapons off the street.” In the last week dozens of commentators, reporters and politicians have said they support the 2nd Amendment, but would support an “assault weapons” ban because such weapons aren’t used for hunting and have no purpose other than to kill people.
While such suggestions reflect a simple minded and narrow understanding of why the founders included the Second Amendment in our Bill of Rights, they also suggest that those making them neither understand the nature of the firearms they would ban, their popularity or legitimate uses.
Those who would ban what they like to call assault weapons like to portray them as automatic weapons designed for use on the battlefield simply because they look cosmetically like their military counterparts. In fact, they are semi-automatic firearms that are designed and built not for the military, but for the civilian market and function differently than their military counterparts. Were our soldiers outfitted with ARs, they would be at the mercy of every army in the world.
The more than three million Americans who currently own AR-15s must wonder if any of these people know what they’re talking about. These guns are not cheap, but they have been the best-selling long arm in this country for some years. Those three million people didn’t buy have purchased them just to look at or because they are planning to use them to kill their fellow citizens.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation has surveyed the purchasers of AR-15s. The AR-15 is the most commonly used rifle for marksmanship training and competition. Nearly 90% of those who own an AR-15 use it for recreational target shooting; 51% of AR owners are members of shooting clubs and visit the range regularly. The typical AR owner is not a crazed teenage psychopath, but a 35+ year old, married and has some college education.
The popularity of the AR can be traced in part to the fact that it is a semi-automatic version of the rifle used by the men and women of the military. Nearly half of AR owners are veterans, law enforcement officers, or both. It is a configuration they are familiar with and enjoy shooting. My daughter, for example, served two tours in Iraq, one in Afghanistan, and only owns one gun — an AR.
AR 15s are good for hunting. Some buy an AR for home defense and about six percent of buyers are either collectors or varmint hunters. The standard AR is illegal in most states for deer and big game hunting because it is not considered powerful enough to reliably put down deer-sized or larger game, but is used for coyote, wolf and feral pig hunting in many states.
So the evidence tells us that although Sen. Feinstein and her friends may not know it, millions of Americans buy these guns because they like to shoot them and use them lawfully. The fact that a half dozen out of more than three million have been misused after illegally falling into the hands of crazed killers does not seem to be a reason to ban the popular gun according to most Americans asked in a recent USA Today poll.
These guns are not the weapon of choice for this nation’s criminals or killers. Indeed, the FBI found that in 2010, the last year for which data is available, more people were beaten to death than killed with all long guns including these so-called assault weapons.
It is true that the Supreme Court has left the door open for “reasonable” restrictions on firearms sales. There is good reason, for example, to keep guns out of the hands of felons, those who have been adjudicated as mentally incompetent, or unsupervised children. However there is no evidence whatever to suggest that a ban on the AR 15 or other semi-automatic firearms can be constitutionally justified just so politicians can say they have done something to satisfy the natural public desire act in the face of a tragedy like Newtown. A renewal of a juiced up version of the old Clinton “assault weapons” ban would no doubt make Sen. Feinstein and her friends feel good and deny millions of law abiding Americans the right to own and enjoy a gun protected by the Second Amendment,, but would do absolutely nothing to prevent future tragedies.
M14 in boot and M1 in ICT at lejune.
So I was a little early for the black rifles.
Just turn your firing pin over, causing what is called a slam fire = (equals) a dangerous chain of events.
It happened some years ago, what I thought was a clean SKS I had just bought turned out to be packed with cosmoline inside.
Barrel was clear so I proceeded to check it out.
My dumb mistake for not stripping it down first, fortunately for me I had only 5 rounds in the well. I do believe you can get a modified firing pin now and a return spring for it.
But like most firearms I have some I just won’t waste my time and money with, just enough for me to trust it with my life and to use as a stepping stone to procured more advanced weaponry to go beyond what the opposition uses.
thats what irks me, so many want an AR they are begging on many forums, but even a tricked out one is still below the level of what we may have to go up against.
Most people find out about the turned over pin after cleaning the bolt ,and not watching what they’re doing.
More or less what I expected, but I thought it courteous to ask.
I have observed (for what little my observations are worth) that veterans who become recreational shooters in civilian life tend to prefer shooting what they used in the service.
From what I have seen of the deer around central Texas, .223 is big enough for most of them.
The deer up here in Alaska are called moose, best thing against them is a 12 gauge slug. Even up against packs of wolves I would either use some high performance Barnes .223 Triple shocks or just move up a few calibers. After seeing that movie “The Grey” I swore to always carry more than I need in ammo when I head outside. Good excuse to have hi cap mags.
No, it's a man with an AR!!!
-----------------------------------------------------
Friggin' liberals live in such a dream world anything is possible to them. 'Humans are so powerful we can stop the climate from warming or cooling. Humans are so pathetically helpless one man with an AR could wipe out entire cities.' No part of logic, reason, facts or experience is a barrier to constructing the world they choose to live in like a cocoon.
"Arrrrghh, he got me!"
I am sure they do hurt and kill. So do .22 lr rounds. The point is that it’s a very low powered cartridge relative to other rifle cartridges as opposed to the hoodoo scare mongering by the liberals that AR-15s are some kind of mystical super weapon.
Sarcasm’s not your strong suit, huh?
My post was just my little homage to those who have “been there, done that” while mocking those who will argue with them anyway.
My being a jackass it totally incidental ;o)
Post of the day!!!!
Hmm, that may explain a couple of things ..... sounds like The Matrix, except that instead of wicked dominative types imposing the Matrix, the denizens seek the Matrix as a nice, warm place to hole up, sucking their thumbs.
That would fit with the moral and intellectual infantilism liberals constantly display -- including on TV, where we keep seeing this perpetual Miss Superannuated Teeny-Girl stereotype (NCIS, Criminal Minds).
I don't know if that's an idea peculiar to one TV shop (like Yorkin and Lear and their Big Sap Old-Shoe Conservative/"Archie Bunker" stereotype they peddled for years) or if it's something that sort of floats around L.A. and keeps surfacing from time to time, like a turd in a mountain stream.
That's how I see it and those of us who see the real world for what it is are a threat to their warm and fuzzy dream world. Anything that threatens their pretense is what they consider real evil.
OK, for everybody that emailed me over this thread doing what Freepers do best, eating their own, I talked to my husband about my brother’s M1. My husband was a drill instructor and weapons instructor in the army so he knows his guns. He asked me if the rifle fired one time when I pulled the trigger or if it fired multiple times and I told him it fired once. He said it is a semi-auto but a lot of people call them automatics and that was where I misunderstood my brother. He said that my brother would not own illegal guns so he is confident that it was a semi-auto.
Next, I talked to my brother and he said it was a semi-auto M1 30 cal. carbine. He said that he bought it in 1982 to deer hunt with and traded it for a car in 1991. It was not registered. None of us register our guns unless we buy from a dealer, to prevent confiscation. It’s not required here. Nobody that I know of in my family owns any illegal firearms and that made me suspicious about my brother having one. It was my misunderstanding because I call a semi-auto a semi-auto and not everybody does.
I just wanted to explain this to insure all of you that if any Fed or other snoopy cop wants to spend taxpayers money to chase down a LEGAL unregistered firearm that was bought 30 years ago then have at it. They won’t find any here.
Usually when I decide to quit a forum I just stop going there and don’t say anything but I have to this time. I emailed Jim to ask him to remove my membership. I’ve been a member for 12 years and most of the bad attitude from a few of the Freepers I just let go but I’m done letting it go. While I support all of the Conservative values that this site is supposed to stand for, I am sick of the in-fighting. It’s no wonder our side can’t win an election.
If Jim wants to remove my membership or not, I don’t care. I know how to log out. I would like him to leave it long enough for all of you to read this post.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.