Because I don’t make people cranky enough, I thought I’d take a quick few minutes and get myself in trouble about guns.<\/p>\n
There are three newsworthy topic in the gun world this week: the expiration of the ‘Assault Weapons’ ban, the recent lawsuit settlement by Bushmaster, the manufacturer of the rifle used by the DC snipers, and Bulls-Eye Shooting Supply, the store from which it was stolen (or sold without documentation), and The Governator’s signing of the ban on .50 caliber rifles here in California.<\/p>\n
Let’s start with the first one and upset both sides in the assault weapon contremps.First, for those indignant because the ban wasn’t renewed (the LA Time Editorial was entitled ‘Blood on the NRA’s Hands’, so I’d say indignant is a mild term), the reality is that there are far more serious health problems facing children than guns (go look at this old post<\/a> of mine), and note that within the universe of violence using guns, there are far more pressing issues with far more consequences than banning certain semiautomatic weapons – while allowing virtually identical ones to be freely sold. <\/p>\n Next, for those who are feeling kinda smug because the ban was really about ‘ugly guns’ – could you explain to me why it is that assault teams don’t all use Winchester Model 94’s? I mean if there really are no characteristics of a MP-5 or an AR-15 that make it better suited to combat than a deer rifle…<\/p>\n There are two basic problems with the ban.<\/p>\n One is that it is, on a basic level, irrelevant. Hardly any crimes are committed with assault weapons – or even were when they were easily available. In terms of firepower, the claim is usually made that they are especially designed to pierce police body armor. This is stupid and false. <\/p>\n The bigger issue is that it’s virtually impossible to define an ‘assault weapon’ with any exactitude, which meant that guns that have the exact same functional characteristics, but were different in several accessories or cosmetic features could be freely sold, and were. <\/p>\n Let’s talk gun stuff.<\/p>\n There are two characteristics of any weapon – one is the caliber (technically, the diameter of the barrel, but in general use the kind of cartridge it feeds), and the other is the mechanical system built around that caliber.<\/p>\n As an example, let’s take a gun that I own – a Savage 10FCM Scout. It’s a bolt-action rifle, designed as a knockoff of Col. Jeff Cooper’s pet (and pricey) Steyr Scout. (For those who criticize me for being cheap, note that at the final exam\/shootoff in my General Rifle class at API,the top three finishers were: Savage Scout (not me), Savage Scout (me), M1 Garand – with eight Steyrs and an M-14 who finished behind us. It’s not about the weapon…)<\/p>\n It came in three calibers when I bought mine; .223, .308, and 7mm.<\/p>\n Note that .223 is the 5.56 NATO standard, and .308 is the 7.62 NATO standard – the same ammunition, literally, as is used in a M-4 automatic rifle or a M-60 military machine gun. Ballistically, with minor exceptions, barrel length and powder load will determine the effects of the bullet that goes downrange, meaning that a gun like mine will have the virtually the same effect as a similar caliber military weapon.<\/p>\n These guns are semi-automatic (not automatic, which means they fire more than one bullet each time the trigger is pulled), which means they can shoot relatively rapidly.<\/p>\n But on assault courses, competent shooters wielding old-fashioned cowboy guns like Winchester Model 94’s can compete with the scores (time + accuracy) of people using CAR and MP-5 semi-automatics. So do we ban guns like these too? Because in truth, they are just as dangerous.<\/p>\n Now let’s talk law stuff.<\/p>\n The federal definition looks like this:<\/p>\n DEFINITION OF SEMIAUTOMATIC ASSAULT WEAPON- Which means that the definition doesn’t effect the meaningful elements of the weapon’s design – i.e. I could have a semiautomatic rifle with a detachable magazine and a pistol grip, and it would be legal, but add a bayonet mount or flash suppressor and suddenly it’s illegal. The term of art for those is ‘pre-ban’ and post-ban’. Go to a gun sales site like Guns America<\/a> and do a search for those terms. That’s why they had to include the typical models in the exhaustive list in the beginning of the definition. <\/p>\n So the law was both functionally worthless and legally flawed.<\/p>\n It’s an example of the kind of lawmaking I talk about<\/a> like this: <\/p>\n bq.. “I’ve always believed that one of the key problems in our system of government is that we all confuse passing laws with making changes.<\/p>\n As anyone who’s ever managed people knows, there’s a world of difference between sending memos (or policy and procedures documents) and changing employee behavior.<\/i>”<\/p>\n p. But pistol-packing antigun Senator Dianne Feinstein got some great photo ops out of it.<\/p>\n I’ve said in the past that we have a significant problem with violence using guns in this country, and that we ought to do something about it.<\/p>\n What to do is the problem.<\/p>\n We also have a Constitution that directly guarantees me and the rest of us the right to own guns and indirectly to do other things – like ride motorcycles, eat pizza, drink Cognac, or watch reality TV – which may or may not be good for us or for the body politic. <\/p>\n Halfwitted regulation that has no meaningful impact on the stated problem, and where resources and political capital are burned that could be used to solve real problems gain us nothing at all. In fact, they are a net loss, because they spend the legitimacy<\/a> of our society and government far too freely to no end.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I thought I’d take a quick few minutes and get myself in trouble about guns. Let’s start by upsetting both sides in the assault weapon contremps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nSection 921(a) of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the
\nfollowing new paragraph:
\n(30) The term semiautomatic assault weapon’ means–
\n(A) any of the firearms, or copies or duplicates of the
\nfirearms in any caliber, known as–
\n(i) Norinco, Mitchell, and Poly Technologies Avtomat
\nKalashnikovs (all models);
\n(ii) Action Arms Israeli Military Industries UZI and
\nGalil;
\n(iii) Beretta Ar70 (SC-70);
\n(iv) Colt AR-15;
\n(v) Fabrique National FN\/FAL, FN\/LAR, and FNC;
\n(vi) SWD M-10, M-11, M-11\/9, and M-12;
\n(vii) Steyr AUG;
\n(viii) INTRATEC TEC-9, TEC-DC9 and TEC-22; and
\n(ix) revolving cylinder shotguns, such as (or similar
\nto) the Street Sweeper and Striker 12;
\n(B) a semiautomatic rifle that has an ability to accept a
\ndetachable magazine and has at least 2 of–
\n(i) a folding or telescoping stock;
\n(ii) a pistol grip that protrudes conspicuously beneath
\nthe action of the weapon;
\n(iii) a bayonet mount;
\n(iv) a flash suppressor or threaded barrel designed to
\naccommodate a flash suppressor; and
\n(v) a grenade launcher;
\n(C) a semiautomatic pistol that has an ability to accept a
\ndetachable magazine and has at least 2 of–
\n(i) an ammunition magazine that attaches to the pistol
\noutside of the pistol grip;
\n(ii) a threaded barrel capable of accepting a barrel
\nextender, flash suppressor, forward handgrip, or silencer;
\n(iii) a shroud that is attached to, or partially or
\ncompletely encircles, the barrel and that permits the
\nshooter to hold the firearm with the nontrigger hand
\nwithout being burned;
\n(iv) a manufactured weight of 50 ounces or more when the
\npistol is unloaded; and
\n(v) a semiautomatic version of an automatic firearm; and
\n(D) a semiautomatic shotgun that has at least 2 of–
\n(i) a folding or telescoping stock;
\n(ii) a pistol grip that protrudes conspicuously beneath
\nthe action of the weapon;
\n(iii) a fixed magazine capacity in excess of 5 rounds; and
\n(iv) an ability to accept a detachable magazine.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n