Posted on 02/23/2018 1:08:12 PM PST by fwdude
Everyone should agree to ban AR-15s. That was the conclusion of a recent article in the Atlantic magazine by a radiologist who was shocked by the bodily damage revealed in a CT scan of one of the victims of the mass murder at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
The first tip-off that this was an emotion-driven, rather than fact-based argument was that this expert doctor admitted he had seen a grand total of two wounds with that “specific pattern of injury” in his entire medical experience.
The second tip-off that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about was his foolish – and wrong – claim: “AR-15 rifles is the common denominator in many mass shootings.”
The cold, hard facts from the FBI, sans emotive hand-wringing, are that rifles of any type are one of the least-used murder weapons in the U.S. The vast majority of U.S. murders are committed with handguns, not rifles.
As Sean Davis reports in the Federalist, the FBI says only 2.2 percent of murders in the U.S. over the last five years were committed with rifles. And the AR-15 amounted to only a fraction of the 2.2 percent.
In fact, shotguns accounted for 2.1 percent of murders. Shall we ban them too?
But wait. That’s not all. Knives were used in 11.9 percent of all murders. That’s five times more than all rifles.
In fact, more people are killed by hands, fists or feet (5.1 percent) than with all types of rifles, let alone AR-15s. No one will propose banning hands, fists and feet. It’s already illegal to use them that way.
If all rifles were outlawed, it might stop a tiny fraction of murders, or not, but it certainly wouldn’t keep lawbreakers from obtaining the banned rifles. That’s why we call them lawbreakers.
Why hasn’t it occurred to this doctor and the Left’s wannabe gun banners that they could save far more lives by outlawing knives? Because it would be ridiculous. Just like banning AR-15s.
Obviously, even banning all rifles would not “drastically reduce the incidence of mass murders,” as this ill-informed doctor contends. But hey, why worry about facts when emotions are in play?
As wiser, if less emotional, people note every time there’s a mass shooting, “Evil cannot be regulated away.”
Someone intent on murder, and on murder on a large scale, will not be deterred by laws or by bans. Notice the acid attacks and vehicular slaughter in Europe where guns are heavily restricted. And, oh yeah, they still use illegally obtained guns there too.
The admittedly pro-gun website, Extrano’s Alley, notes that the percentage of criminals who legally buy a gun and commit a crime with it is probably “a fraction of one percent of those who commit a gun-related crime.”
“[T]he overwhelming majority of professional criminals will use stolen ‘street guns’ that are cheap but very definitely illegal.”
Repeated studies indicate only 6 to 8 percent of all murders are committed with weapons legally purchased by the killer, bought from dealers after filling out extensive paperwork, providing identification and submitting to FBI background checks. Most of those murders are domestic violence, crimes of passion or committed by insane people.
Professional criminals, who account for the other 90 percent-plus, buy their guns on the street avoiding the legal niceties.
If you want to look for commonality in the reason these murderers murder, look at their upbringing, who they associate with, their family life or lack of it. Or as Ron Paul points out, “at least ten high profile mass shootings have been committed by individuals who ‘were either on — or just recently coming off of — psychiatric medications.’ The young killer in Florida was no different. According to his aunt, he had been on these medications to treat mental problems.”
Next you might want to check for what these murderers don’t have. Ask how many of them were professing Christians?
Finally, for those who think it’s America’s cowboy gun culture that’s the culprit, think again. Wait just a minute, you might protest, aren’t there are about 33,000 gun deaths a year in the U.S.?
But more than two-thirds of those are suicides and accidents, not murders. In 2011, of the 8,583 actual gun murders, a scant 323 were committed with all varieties of rifles, including bolt-action and hunting rifles.
That’s 323 in a nation of 326,000,000. Even then, only a fraction of the 323 were committed with what wannabe gun banners call “assault rifles.”
An editorial in Investor’s Business Daily reports: “…. a study of global mass-shooting incidents from 2009 to 2015 by the Crime Prevention Research Center, headed by economist John Lott, shows the U.S. doesn’t lead the world in mass shootings.”
Got that? The U.S. doesn’t lead the world.
“In fact, it doesn’t even make the top 10, when measured by death rate per million population from mass public shootings,” the editorial notes.
Norway leads the world with a mass shooting death rate of 1.888 per million. No. 2 is Serbia, at 0.381, followed by France, Macedonia, Albania, Slovakia, Finland, Belgium and Czech Republic follow. All of them among the Left’s European darlings.
The U.S. comes in at No. 11, with a death rate of 0.089.
To top it off, there were also 27% more casualties from 2009 to 2015 per mass shooting incident in the European Union than in the U.S. Allow me to reiterate: The U.S. DOESN’T lead the world.
But in 2016 didn’t Barack Obama tearfully complain that “we are the only advanced country on Earth that sees this kind of mass violence erupt with this kind of frequency. It doesn’t happen in other advanced countries. It’s not even close.”
Are you surprised he was wrong? Do you think he was misinformed? Or do you suspect he intended to misinform you? Why would he do that? But why do some people insist “AR-15 rifles is the common denominator in many mass shootings”? In both cases the appeal was emotional – and the facts wrong.
Bottom line: government bans and restrictions on guns (see those European darlings) won’t change what’s wrong with the hearts and minds of vicious evil doers determined to commit murder. Until those hearts are changed, the best defense is to be armed. Virtually no mass murders with any type of weapon are committed in places where the targets are armed. Evil doers are not crazy. They don’t go hunting where they have reason to believe they will be killed in self-defense by their intended “victims.”
Arm school guards and teachers with guns, and teach them to use them. Then post this notice on the marquee and on every classroom door: “We are armed for self-defense.” It’s guaranteed to dissuade mass murderers who will go elsewhere to find a gun-free zone.
Don’t forget the Virginia Tech shooter.
He just used two handguns, one of which was a .22 which is NOT a powerful round, and he killed 32 people!
The AR is not unique in that it can kill a lot of people quickly.
A Rem 870 pump action shotgun with 00 Buck, and a little practice and a big pocket or backpack of ammo... Oh wait,,, ban them too??? The thing is they want to ban them all. They just are not honest enough to admit it.
The problem is the psycho shooter who would do it, a law system out of touch with the people seeing the problem person long before the shooting, and a school system with gun phobia, unwilling to entertain the idea of “hardening” our schools like we have our banks, jewelry stores, airports and other government buildings.
“...NOT A SCARY BLACK “ASSAULT RIFLE”/M1-A/...7.62 x 51mm/Weight: 8.8 pounds ...” [Vlad The Inhaler, Post 2]
“...The MI-Garand is a work of art.” [cpdiii, Post 20]
“You should have added a picture of the Ruger mini 14, Ranch model. ...” [circlecity, Post 27]
Would be curious to know where Vlad came by the image of a left-hand M1A. Seen some other rifles like that - on film only. Has anyone fired the SOCOM 16? I’ve fired HK-91s, with barrel lengths a tenth shy of 18 inches. I’d expect a 16-inch to be rather more unpleasant. Couldn’t speak to accuracy.
John C Garand’s brainchild was an amazing accomplishment 90 years ago, and can still hold its own today - despite the meddlings of the Ordnance Corps, and senior officers who were sure they knew everything modern combat would bring. Initial design notes suggest that Mr Garand himself envisioned an arm of about 25 cal, with 1/3 to 1/2 of the barrel exposed ahead of the forend, and a detachable box magazine: much closer to Ruger’s Mini-14 than US Rifle, Cal 30, M1.
Two major disappointments attended the M1:
1. It did not chamber 276 Pedersen
2. The Ordnance Corps labored for 12 years but came up with nothing better than the M14
A 276 Garand would have been less burdensome and less punishing; developmental models on display at the Museum of the National Armory at Springfield held a 10-round clip. 25 percent more firepower. Retaining 30-06 was not Douglas MacArthur’s best decision.
The M14 weighed as much, loaded, as the M1 and was longer. Underengineered to meet weight constraints, still too light to be controlled in full-auto. Undeniably accurate, less stout than contemporary designs. FAL and G3 were as good or better in every other attribute, save perhaps triggers. AR-10 was late in coming to the party, but field reports on the earliest production models have awarded it high marks, over a surprisingly long stretch of years. It’s worth noting that Eugene Stoner preferred 30 cal; he left ArmaLite before his rifle was downsized to a 22 centerfire.
Mini-14 used the moving-cylinder, fixed-piston configuration of Degtyarev’s DP-28 light machine gun, but the mass distribution was not too good - hence the early models’ reputation for poor accuracy. It took Ruger about 30 years to sort it all out. Every other design detail reinforces the claim of some authorities, that the Mini-14 is “the M14 as it ought to have been.”
And the Tsarnaev brothers killed how many with just a pressure cooker?
I have a very nice M-1 carbine with several 30 rd. magazines.......
Doesn’t the Mini 14 have a big brother chambered in 7.62X39? Was a full auto version ever produced?
mark
Circumstances would determine. I wouldn’t want to lug a wooden stocked M1A to far. Figured out what’s wrong with that image....it’s reversed. Unless SA’s making lefties.
The Mini-30. Don’t know about full auto.
Thanks. It is still a very potent weapon. Range, velocity, accuracy, choices of bullets, and reliability.
If I could have only 1 rifle, it would be my choice.
Most of the time I shoot my 30-30, it’s cheap to shoot if you reload.
and completely silent!
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