Report: 40 Percent of Surging Gun Sales Are to First-Time Buyers

Breitbart ^ | July 16 2020 | AWR HAWKINS

[knighthawk]

Amid the surge in gun sales that began in March and continues even now, the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) estimates 40 percent of sales are going to first-time gun buyers.

A report by the Wall Street Journal cites the NSSF estimate, noting that the FBI “processed 7.8 million background checks for gun purchases from March to June.”

The report pointed out that handguns make up the predominant portion of firearms being purchased, and that “nearly two handguns, commonly used for self-protection, are being sold for every rifle or shotgun.”

[schurmann]

“...lies peddled by the MSM are incredible... There is nothing you can legally do at a gun show you cannot do elsewhere...AR-15s and AK-47s (...real ones are fully automatic...what we buy on the civilian market are not) are not “powerful”. They fire an intermediate cartridge that is WAY weaker than what your great grandpappy fired out of his Springfield rifle in WWI, namely the 30-06... No military in the world sends its troops into battle with AR-15s or any other semi automatic rifle as their main rifle... at least 50 years or so...” [FLT-bird, post 31]

Good work: best summary so far, of the ways the media and anti-gun folks deceive the ignorant.

But more than one rifle has been designated “AR-15” - ArmaLite named their first 22 centerfire that. An experimental item for military tests, it was a scaled-down version of their AR-10, which had chambered 7.62 NATO. At the time (late 1950s), ArmaLite had no manufacturing facilities, so when the military establishment showed increased interest, production was licensed to Colt’s, together with intellectual property rights to the name “AR-15.”

After some field tests and interservice political maneuvering, factions within the US Army decided to acquire some. After yet more fiddling, a modified version was adopted as XM16E1 (if my memory is accurate).

In the meantime Colt’s developed a semi-only version for the civilian market. It was marked “AR-15” on the left side of the lower receiver and “MODEL SP1” lower down just above the serial number.

The military spent decades moving away from “full-power” cartridges of World War One, but the process was neither speedy nor straightforward. US Army Ordnance spent the 1920s (and the early 1930s) developing a semiauto rifle; as did every other combatant of the war, they were forced to admit that cartridges such as 30-06 were overpowered for most missions and engagement ranges. A 7mm round was developed that was smaller and less powerful: 276 Pedersen. It did not survive the lean years of the 1930s.

World War Two reinforced the conclusions drawn after World War One, but the Army’s ordnance establishment insisted on adopting a new cartridge with power identical to 30-06, 7.62x51mm NATO. Caused no end of troubles with the other NATO countries.

And the standard-issue rifle the ordnance establishment selected to replace the M1 Garand became problematic in its own way: the M14. Essentially a light-duty Garand with a detachable box magazine, it sported a selector switch and was capable of full-auto fire at a rate of 750 rds/min. Some have called it an “assault rifle” but it never was: cartridge was way too big. Controllability was so poor that most were issued with selector locks preventing full-auto operation. Attempts to make a light machine gun out of it fared no better: it fired from a closed bolt, cyclic rate was too high, no quick-change barrel. Production was terminated early and the M16A1 was adopted as standard in 1968.

When it comes to real AK-47s, the Red Army can’t get any either. The original was replaced in 1959 or so by the AKM, an updated version with a stamped receiver and some other changes. Most semi-only clones copy the AKM.