From cbcox at ilstu.edu Tue Oct 17 09:54:15 2000
No "anti-gun" argument or proposal I know of includes
hunting weapons (rifles and shotguns).
Divide and conquer is a good approach, I'd say. Consider the AK-47, dreaded "assault rifle" [whatever that is] of nightmarish proportions (and on it's way to becoming extinct like it's Chinese brother the SKS in California; as the saying goes: California is the breeding ground of gun laws, so your state will find a way to remove them from citizen hands as soon as they can figure out how California did it).
Here's a review:
http://www.ak-47.net/ak47/akru/ak47.html
Scary, huh?
Compare and contrast to the (US-made!) Ruger Mini-30 in this review:
http://www.ruger-firearms.com/rfpages/centerfire_autotext.html
Which one is "evil" ...?
These two rifles are nearly identical in their ability to kill an animal, four-legged or two. Being semi-automatic, they each could probably take out a schoolyard full of children in minutes, limited only by the shooter's abilty to stay focussed (they say the difference between a bad day and True Evil is whether you reload).
The round they use (7.62x39mm) is perfect for for short-range small-to-mid size deer and will consequently pierce any current body armor in use by US police forces.
So now you know of "one" such proposal -- okay?
And I don't know any serious person (not counting some
National Rifle Association leaders and members in the
category of serious person) who advocates making bazookas
or atomic artillery generally available in the corner
market. The debate is essentially over hand guns -- or,
more narrowly yet, over carrying handguns (concealed or
unconcealed) in public.
Bazookas are "way over the line" of what has become the one useful distinction to come from the last century of discussion: it is "crew-serviced" and is thus not anything that would be of "personal use" -- the more interesting area of discussion these days is a .50 caliber rifle, a perfectly useful single-person weapon that has, by the way, never been used in the US to kill a human.
The debate, such as it is, is quite clearly about more than just handguns. AR-15s (the semi-auto civilian version for the military select-fire M-16), using the even smaller.223 cartridge has just about been obliterated from the California sunshine. Nevermind that the Ruger Mini-14 (ref above, same page) uses the same cartridge and enjoys wide use "on ranches" and is "ideal for carrying ... in a pickup truck" ...
http://caag.state.ca.us/firearms/regagunfaqs.html
Note that this is the first time we've seen private civilian ownership of the "main battle rifle" of the US Army's infantry restricted -- exactly the weapon you could justify owning if you were a 2nd Ammendment enthusiast, the personal weapon of choice in a militia callup: a personal rifle.
Exactly the kind of rifle that you've never seen a proposal to limit.
The M-1 of WWI is collected heavily, the M1A (civilian, semi-auto version of the M-14) from WWII and Korea is in wide circulation. Both have much larger caliber and much great "killing power" than the AR-15, but for one reason or another, the AK-47 and the AR-15 have been singled out as "looking evil" ...
I would be concerned by any proposal to place stingent
limits on the possession of shotguns.
Interestingly, "shotguns" are a carveout from the original NFA (National Firearms Act) which would have otherwise prohibited most of them because of the caliber size.
I do not own a weapon, but back in the late '60s when there
was some reason to fear vigilante action against me, I did
consider purchasing a shotgun. It is the only useful weapon
for self-defense by anyone not trained in weapons and
fearful of such attack in his/her home.
Is your home the only place you believe you have a right to self-defense? A shotgun won't help you on the street.
As a personal opinon, anyone who keeps a loaded handgun in
the house is a fool. Such a weapon is most apt to be used
against some member of the household.
I'm glad you prefaced that with "opinion" and not fact; because it's no more true than the claim that there are aligators living in the sewers of NYC.
/jordan