Bob has a post up showing how the gun lobby puppet-blogs claim to be blogging for a common-ground. First up they only talk Brady and Joyce boilerplate, and while they claim they are not blogging directly for the organization they are members of, and their commentary is their personal words only, you’ll be hard pressed to find stated differences of opinion or independent discussion with commentators. And while they talk common ground and compromise, they seem to have nothing of the sort to offer.
Frankly I think the blogs are a fishing expedition (maybe phising, because it IS a scam afterall). they are looking to see where WE are willing to compromise. In 1994 the Federal Assault Weapons ban passed with bipartisan support. Why? Well guns like the AR-15, and Kalashnikov rifle weren’t terribly common in the civilian world. there were semi-auto rifles, but they were military surplus guns like the M1 Carbine and M1 Garand, as well as various auto-loading hunting guns. The ban didn’t touch these guns. Also Guns like the Glock 17 and Beretta 92 were gaining popularity, but they hadn’t yet surplanted the common workhorse handguns at the time that were guns like the M1911, various revolvers like the S&W Model 10, and the Colt Detective special, and Python, or the massive stable of H&R revolvers, or the Walther P38, PP, and PPK, or the many FN Browning auto-pistols, and their colt copies. Really the only “High Capacity” pistol that had been around, and in wide circulation at the time was the Browning Hi-Power, and its standard capacity of 13 rounds.
It also appeared the the vast majority of gun owners in America were hunters, who were comfortable with walnut stock bolt-actions, and magazine restrictions.
So there it went, a Pistol grip was considered a “Dangerous Feature” and was distinguished from the more traditional stock of the rifles of the time (They later made up their reasons for this restriction by citing some nonsense of “Spraying from the hip” which makes no sense to anybody who has ever held one of these guns) They added bayonet lugs, even tho it invoked jokes of “Drive-by-bayonettings”, but made sure it wasn’t a disqualifier alone. You’d hate to vilify those M1 Carbines, and M1 Garands, people might start questioning the law. There was talk of grenade launchers, but they didn’t clarify that they weren’t the ones you’re thinking of.
The list goes on and on, but along with confusion on what semi-auto vs. Full-auto meant, overall the gun owning community of 1994 agreed that we didn’t really NEED guns like AR-15s floating around…I mean its not like you can shoot ducks with them, and it would do more harm than good to “Machine Gun” a deer.
To some extent the ban was a GOOD thing, as it woke up many shooters. Some people decided that if something was going to be illegal tomorrow, they might as well buy a few today. People started shooting guns like the AR-15 and found that not only are they fun to shoot, but they’re pretty darn accurate. The modular industry has even gone so far as to build variants specifically for hunting.
Also hunters have noticed that things like lead ammo bans, and bans on “Armor piercing” ammo, as well as restrictions on who can hold an 01 FFL has lead to great harm to their sport even in its traditional sense.
This has lead groups like the Brady Campaign down a trail of tears of major political losses, and massive budget shortfalls. Also it has often landed them in severe disadvantages when speaking with their former darlings in the media.
I suspect these new blogs are an attempt to fish for the new Gun-owner preferred ban. Maybe they can get us to complain about “Armor Piercing ammo”, or maybe lead in the water supply, or maybe they can get us to admit its no big deal if we have to go into an FFL to buy and sell our guns. Or how about things like this notice how this guy passes off the 15 round magazine (one that was restricted by the previous ban) as a contrast to the 33 round magazine. Maybe we like our 15 or 17 round magazines, but we might be willing to give up our 20 and 30s?
Of course if this is the plan it’s backfired! Instead of us offering more of our freedom, we have stood unified that we’re done giving, and now is the time to take back our rights. The only consistent statement for a new law would be opening up the NICS system to the general population, taking power away from the FFLs, and giving it to us.
And they point out that they are not interested in compromise, and aren’t interested in saving lives, or making us safer. They say they aren’t here to ban guns…..because they don’t want to take ALL the guns….of course they won’t say which guns they think are OK to use….
Good work, and keep fighting.
It’s interesting . . . I really have no experience with the “traditional” firearms-owning community.
My stepfather is down in Dallas for a family reunion-type event. They’re all telling stories of older relatives and the Days of Yore. One of the stories involves shooting practice — in the backyard — while, of course, drinking. The point of the story was actually about needling a veteran until he showed them he could still shoot . . . but my mind froze up on the “drinking and shooting” part.
I don’t know if I’ve ever met a person who would mix firearms and alcohol. I’m quite sure I’ve never been shooting with one!
I was once picking up our remnants in a sand pit in Maine when another group showed up. We talked for an bit and compared guns…then the guy with the beer showed up. We left quickly.
It still exists, but generally in isolation from the current climate.
Personally, I think in many ways, the AWB saved us, simply because it woke up so many people who were complacent, or hadn’t really thought about the issue beyond “they won’t take our guns away”.
I 100% agree. There aren’t many gun racks that don’t have an AR or AK in them or some othere politically incorrect rifle (Like my FAL), there are a lot of “High Capacity” guns in holsters and night stands these days, and there are a lot more people who understand the 2nd Amendment is not about ducks and deer. So much that even the Antis don’t off spout their rhetoric of “you can’t hunt with X” (Not only because its irrelevant, but because, its not true. I’m making plans to take a deer with my FAL this fall, and many people hunt with the AR platform, so many that is may have displaced the Rem 700 and the Winchester M70, as well as the Winchester ’93 as the most common hunting gun)
Of course I say this in bittersweet terms, because I still live under the AWB here in Mass. Hopefully some day it will be repealed here, either by popular demand, or by constitutional law…
I’m one of them…..I had no desire to own an AR until they started talking about how evil they were. My thought process was basically “this thing is just your basic autoloader that fell out of an ugly tree and hit all the branches on the way down”.
That’s what the wife says about my FAL. She has interesting tastes. Handguns must be silver or black. Bright colors and wood is ugly to her. Long guns are just the opposite, she likes wood and blue steel.
I love her, but she’s wrong, and my FAL will be beautiful once I put a proper stock and OD Green sling on it! 😀
I knew a guy once with an FAL that he had coated a royal purple that he called his “purple people eater”. I should point out that I put as many evil assault rifle features on my AR as possible….I have no earthly use for a bayonet lug, but it has one. Same with the flash hider.
My FAL is ban compliant. I’ll be installing a pistol grip on it really soon because the thumbhole stock on this gun interferes with the function of the gun, but the muzzle is crowned (I dislike brakes, I’d prefer a flash suppressor, but I have my one “evil” feature) so it complies.
When I get out from under the ban I’d like to get another as an 18″ Paratrooper….maybe with a birdcage hider in an homage to The FN in Heat. 🙂
AWB sure did kick us in the tail and get us moving. During the ban, it shaped purchase decisions because some mags were punitively expensive. $20-40 for an AR mag, $80-100 for a glock mag, $120-150 for para or STI… Manufacturers drifted from the full size guns to subcompacts that tucked in 10+1. The manufactures sucessfully defined a new market, and sales took off.
But now that most of us (sorry weerd) can buy whatever we want, opportunites have opened back up. And magazines are dirt cheap now they they are available. Back during the ban, it was cool to have one or two full cap magazines. But people see bargains and opportunity – and remeber the past – so people certainly are stocking up. No scratch that , people have been stocking up since 9/15/04.
Combine that with some major leage advancements in information and communications, and now it’s no sweat to buy a $70 AR lower (or a few , they are cheap) and just tuck them away as long term builds. And today it’s possible to build a $400 AR and feed it with $7 mags. More adventurous folks are building AKs starting with sheetmetal JUST BECAUSE uncle sam wouldn’t allow those rifles to be imported.
This is a good age to be a gunny. A ten year ban was long enough to get our ranks aligned, and increased in number. 300 million people, 270 million guns.
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