10 things you might not know about guns

Chicago Tribune ^ | 24 june 2012 | Mark Jacob and Stephan Benzkofer

[rellimpank]

There's a lot of crossfire about guns these days. The Obama administration is under siege over Fast and Furious, a federal sting operation that allowed firearms to go to Mexican drug traffickers and was linked to the slaying of a Border Patrol agent. Meanwhile, Chicago is trying to get a handle on fatal shootings that have fueled an increased homicide rate, and the city and some suburbs are conducting gun buyback events this weekend.

1 Around Christmas 1928, Ernest Hemingway came home to Oak Park to attend his father's funeral and asked his mother if he could have the .32 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver that his father had used to kill himself. A few months later, Hemingway's mother shipped him the handgun, along with a chocolate cake.

[Yorlik803]

Old man Kennedy was a fan of Hitler. Tried everything he could to keep us out of the war. Also a vile Jew hater.
He also had his daughter lobotomized and parked her with the nuns so the family wouldnt be embarrassed by the sight of her.

[Flag_This]

"4 Clement Vallandigham"

Vallandigham was a former Congressman and leader of the secessionist-sympathizing Copperheads. He was banished to TN by Lincoln and he was the inspiration for the short story "Man Without a Country."

He may have accidentally killed himself, but his example convinced the jury of his point and his client was acquitted. Sadly, not enough lawyers are willing to support their clients to this extent.

[Thommas]

2. Nearly half of Americans say a gun is kept in their household. This figure — 47 percent in a Gallup survey last October — was a six-point jump from a year earlier and the highest since 1993. Demographic groups that topped 50 percent included men, Republicans, Southerners, Midwesterners and people who had not gone to college.

This tid-bit from the original article is quite inflammatory. What "demographic groups" consist of is weird enough (damn it, men and no-college-ignoramuses!), but what exactly is the base of the "topped 50 percent" being referenced? The 47%? The 6% increase? The 1993 constituency?

Maybe, if I had gone to journalism school, I could properly parse this mash of text.

[Bender2]

Re: 3 In the infamous Valentine's Day Massacre, Al Capone's henchmen wielded Tommy guns, but the weapon's use by 1920s gangsters likely wasn't as extensive as popular culture and movies would lead us to believe. The gun was quite difficult to use and was dangerous to the shooter if he or she wasn't properly trained. A hooligan with a heavy trigger finger could empty one of those famous 100-round drums in just four seconds.

I don't believe Arnold Schwarzenegger, in his prime... would be strong enough to keep a Thompson from rising him into a backwards, elbow over teakettle somersault if he used "a heavy trigger finger [that] could empty one of those famous 100-round drums in just four seconds."
However, for myself... it is a breeze--

Now, as to "The gun was quite difficult to use and was dangerous to the shooter if he or she wasn't properly trained," that is semi-true even though both Chesty Puller and Audie Murphy believed the Thompson was the best close combat weapon made.

I owned one for better than 40 years... and was able to almost every time keep 2 to 3 round burst in to a 14 x 14 target at 25 yards. Yet firing a full 20 round burst, I could barely keep 4 to 6 on a 35 x 45 police silhouette target paper at 50 yards.

[shooter223]

My mother sent me a chocolate cake for my birthday when I was in Vietnam. (1970) It arrived in surprisingly good condition. Still fresh and almost intact. It will come as no surprise that with a little help, within about 5-6 minutes, there was nothing but an empty box.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Very much so, and both the Post Office and the US military were very proud to do so.

In a very important scene in the movie Battle of the Bulge (1965), “(Col.) Hessler, after presenting General Kohler a (captured) fresh cake which was baked in the United States, argues that capturing (an important city) will severely damage American morale: if the Americans have the fuel and aircraft to fly things as trivial as cake to the front, such an overwhelming defeat may force them to reconsider their chances of winning the war.”

However, just the opposite was true, that since the Americans had the fuel and aircraft to fly things as trivial as cake to the front, their logistical abilities were downright frightening.

The real German tank commander, Col. Joachim Peiper, on whom Hessler was based, would never have made that mistake.

[PAR35]

argues that capturing (an important city) will severely damage American morale: if the Americans have the fuel and aircraft to fly things as trivial as cake to the front, such an overwhelming defeat may force them to reconsider their chances of winning the war.

I always understood that to be sarcasm.

[mfish13]

From what I read, the American military did not use the BAR in WW I as they were afraid the Germans would capture one and copy it.

[BigWillyG]

My Osprey book War in the Trenches says BARs were being used in the trenches by September of 1918. 85,000 were in France by November 11 but most didn’t get to the front before the Armistice.