Here’s the Dallas Morning News from October 21, 2017:
Note that the center of the front page is devoted to the “firearms” category and the locals interviewed are against a ban on bump stocks. Wandering around the Fort Worth Stockyards I noticed a young lady wearing a “Keep Calm and Reload” T-shirt, complete with silhouette of a rifle. I decided to talk to ask some locals how they felt about this issue. Did they agree with a New England gun enthusiast’s statement “Bump stocks are ultra gay. I don’t know anyone who has one or wants one”?
A moderate by Texas standards (he owns fewer than 10 guns) indicated some support for a ban on bump stocks: “You can’t hit the side of a barn with one of those things.” Why didn’t he have dozens of guns? “You need to go to the range and practice. You need to clean them.” Why didn’t he have zero guns? “Well, when you need a gun you need one.”
[Note that bump stocks will be illegal in my home state, going forward: “Massachusetts House approves ban on bump stocks” (boston.com) The vote was 151-3 and, sadly, the journalists didn’t interview the three who voted against the ban. I would love to hear their attempt to explain their vote to an urban journalist!]
Like it or not, the reality is that the USA is a gun totting and gun loving nation with 350 million guns in private hands. We have more guns than we have people in our country. The continued widespread ownership of firearms is guaranteed by the US Constitution. As much as Liberals will like a gun free society it is not going to happen because Liberals are not the majority, much less a two-thirds majority, and hence do not have the votes to repeal the 2nd Amendment. Even if you did succeed, an 80% compliance rate with disarmament laws will leave 70 million guns all in the hands of criminals. Are you safer then? Regardless of where you stand on the gun control debate this is the reality you must recognize. The Gun Genie has never been in the bottle since our nation’s founding and you are not going to get it in there.
On the bump stock issue. Bump stocks are a novelty which basically help you pull the trigger very quickly. It does not actually create an automatic weapon since one bullet is fire for every pull of the trigger. The downside to that using one is that it is impossible to shoot accurately with a bump stock because it’s operation requires that the rifle recoil around loosely of the stock and the grip. It’s availability or the lack thereof will not prevent a person from achieving automatic fire if that is what he seeks.
If you are not gun savvy, let me educate you… All semi-automatic firearms will be fully automatic save for ONE component called the “DISCONNECTOR”. When you pull the trigger, the hammer falls, strikes the firing pin and sets off a round. When the gun’s action cycles, it cocks the hammer back. At this point, if you keep the trigger pulled the should hammer should fall and strike the next round off! That is how it’ll work in machine guns. The only reason the hammer does not fall is because there is this component call the DISCONNECTOR which catches the hammer preventing it from falling. If you release the trigger, two things happen — the trigger catches hammer then the disconnector releases its grasp (in that order). This is how you get a Semi-Auto firearm!
It takes 5 minutes to remove the DISCONNECTOR. It is illegal of course, but I don’t think gang bangers, bank robbers, terrorists, mass murderers wanna be and all the other undesirables ready to commit murder one many times over care about trivial gun laws concerning triggers.
So, let’s face it. We are going to have to face scum with automatic firing weapons in the future. We are not going have criminals with guns — a lot of guns. Laws won’t prevent it; if laws could Liberal strongholds like Chicago, D.C and Oakland with the most restrictive gun laws won’t be the gun crime capitals of the nation.
America and Guns are inseparable. Like it or not we are living with this reality. Laws, however, can be made to allow lawful citizens to carry a gun and have a chance at defending themselves. Laws can be made to ban “GUN FREE ZONES” which turn everyone into sheep for the slaughter unless airport style entry screening, a secured perimeter and armed guards are provided. Laws can be made to get shooting and gun handling classes into our public schools so our gun totting population knows how to shoot and how to handle a gun properly.
Philg, when are you moving to Texas from opressive Massachustes?
Like it or not, the reality is that the USA is a gun totting and gun loving nation with 350 million guns in private hands. We have more guns than we have people in our country. The continued widespread ownership of firearms is guaranteed by the US Constitution. As much as Liberals will like a gun free society it is not going to happen because Liberals are not the majority, much less a two-thirds majority, and hence do not have the votes to repeal the 2nd Amendment. Even if you did succeed, an 80% compliance rate with disarmament laws will leave 70 million guns all in the hands of criminals. Are you safer then? Regardless of where you stand on the gun control debate this is the reality you must recognize. The Gun Genie has never been in the bottle since our nation’s founding and you are not going to get it in there.
On the bump stock issue… Bump stocks are a novelty which basically help you pull the trigger very quickly. It does not actually create an automatic weapon since one bullet is fired for every pull of the trigger. The downside to using one is that it is impossible to shoot accurately with a bump stock as it’s operation requires that the rifle recoil around loosely of the stock and the grip. Its availability, or the lack thereof, will not prevent a person from achieving automatic fire if that is what he seeks.
If you are not gun savvy, let me educate you… All semi-automatic firearms will be fully automatic save for ONE component called the “DISCONNECTOR”. When you pull the trigger, the hammer falls, strikes the firing pin and sets off a round. When the gun’s action cycles, it cocks the hammer back. At this point, if you keep the trigger pulled the should hammer should fall again and strike the next round off! That is how it’ll work in machine guns. The only reason the hammer does not fall (again) when you keep the trigger depressed is because there is this component called the DISCONNECTOR which catches the hammer preventing it from falling. When you release the trigger, two things happen — the trigger takes over in catching the hammer as the DISCONNECTOR releases it. This is how you get a Semi-Auto firearm!
It takes 5 minutes to remove the DISCONNECTOR. It is illegal, of course, to create an automatic firearm. But, I don’t think gang bangers, bank robbers, terrorists, mass murderers wannabe and all the other undesirables – ready to commit murder one many times – over care about trivial gun laws concerning triggers.
So, let’s face it. We are going to have to face scums with automatic firing weapons in the future. We are going to have criminals with guns — a lot of guns. Gun Control Laws won’t prevent it. If Gun Control Laws could, Liberal strongholds like Chicago, D.C and Oakland with the most restrictive gun laws in the nation won’t be the shooting capitals of the nation.
America and Guns are inseparable. Like it or not we will have to live with this reality. Laws, however, can be made to allow lawful citizens to carry a gun and have a chance at defending themselves. Laws can be made to ban “GUN FREE ZONES” which turn everyone into sheep for the slaughter unless airport style entry screening, a secured perimeter and armed guards are provided. Laws can be made to get shooting and gun handling classes into our public schools so our gun totting population knows how to shoot and how to handle a gun properly. It’s time to arm the good guys!
You can make a bump stock with 2 rubber bands, or a rubber band and a strong enough spring. Passing laws against bump stocks are thus quite moronic.
So, let’s face it. We are going to have to face scums with automatic firing weapons in the future. We are going to have criminals with guns — a lot of guns.
You may be right about that, but it’s quite a grim conclusion.
Laws can be made to ban “GUN FREE ZONES” which turn everyone into sheep for the slaughter unless airport style entry screening, a secured perimeter and armed guards are provided. Laws can be made to get shooting and gun handling classes into our public schools so our gun totting population knows how to shoot and how to handle a gun properly. It’s time to arm the good guys!
It sounds unlikely that this sort of thing would benefit the people in the Las Vegas situation. Also, if the public schools trained every single American how to use a gun, that would probably just increase the amount of gun deaths, much of which are suicides, accidents, or within families.
“It sounds unlikely that this sort of thing would benefit the people in the Las Vegas situation.” There are rather rare situations when possession of a firearm is of no help, for example when facing M1 Abrams tank. las vegas situation is not one of them. Reportedly the hotel choosen by the murderer had “no guns” policy which prevented even mild resistance to the shooter. For sure posessing firearms by victims would be of no handicap for them.