Thoughts On Current Gun Control Efforts
Guest post by Ol' Remus at Woodpile Report.As Napoleon said, never interrupt an enemy when he's making an error. Gun control activists are taking a tall dive into a blue pool, not realizing the rocks are only a few inches below the surface. AR-15 platform guns are the de facto home defense and sporting arm, yet they argue a return to another era. They've been told times have passed them by but they continue to weld themselves to the past, not even knowing bolt-action hunting rifles were originally state of the art weapons of war. It's understandable. They live in a chat-cocoon and say things like, "clips that hold twenty bullets", which to knowledgeable ears sounds like, "them thar fancy shootin irons what reloads their own selves right out of a little box." Yet somehow they're qualified to tell others what they "need." What's next, gas lights? Vacuum tube computers?
Urban voting blocs are used to weilding command and control based on a steady input of spoon-fed misinformation. They think semi-auto rifles are some fantastic Superweapon Of Tomorrow, not understanding the AR-15 is well over fifty years old, the AK-47 even older. They'd be surprised to learn Mexico's first semi-auto was the Mondragón of 1887—yes, 1887—a capable arm in 7mm Mauser typically equipped with a 20-round magazine. Over a million were made. It was still in service sixty years later when the first AK-47 was issued—in 1947, duh—and even saw use in the Viet Nam War. 1887, the year Doc Holliday died and the Sherlock Holmes stories were born. Civil War veterans were around 40 years old. Grover Cleveland was president. Space Age technology it ain't.
Nor do they understand a modestly equipped garage shop could turn out a half dozen good quality AK-like guns per day, with a late start and a long lunch. Hint: they were designed for just that. Pakistani mountain villagers can do it. STEN Guns and the like, even easier. Moonshiners make whiskey every day too, with no help from industrial distillers. Prohibitions don't work, won't work and never have worked. But just to be sure, let's see how the War on Drugs is doing. It's going on eighty years now and =>1000s CONVICTED 1000s<=. We must be down to our very last Reefer Madman by now, and if not, a redoubling of effort is indicated.
Nor do they understand the 5.56 NATO is but a variation of the elderly .222, a mid-range varmint round of no particular distinction, certainly not the dazzling super-killer of journalist's imagination. An ammo prohibition? Dream on, Zeppelin fans. Aside from the billions of rounds on hand, deep-drawing cartridge brass was a mature technology in Lincoln's time. Which would be before electric lights and even the "easy availability" of modern steel. While it's not trivial, it's something a cottage industry could handle.
The 9mm cartridge, of 1902 by the way, is particularly unchallenging. It's what the Uzi uses for one, and the 9mm launches bullets twice as heavy as the AR-15 does. Oh my! Cast lead bullets—bullets are the thingy that comes whizzing out of the barrel, Spanky—work just fine in most any cartridge. And common match heads are near enough to primer powder. Magazines? Rollforming by preference, but standard equipment will suffice. And so on. It's all antique technology. The future they fear and loathe arrived before their parents were born. But shhh, let them cling to their crank-start car mentality. It seems to comfort them.
They've been told and told, yet they chose to take this swan dive. So far they're having a great time. You may want to avert your eyes when they smack against reality.
Reprinted with permission from Woodpile Report.