Snowflakes in Hell

I sold two of my collection in a private sale.  My Romanian SKS, and a CM-11, both to my friend Jason.   The CM-11 I never shoot.  To tell the truth, I aquired it back when I first started buying guns because I thought it looked scary enough that it might eventually get banned, in which case I could cash in.  Maybe I sold it too soon, but I could no longer justify the room it was taking up in my safe, for something I never shot.  Jason has a full auto M-11, and the uppers on the full auto and semi-auto versions are interchangeable, so he can use it.

This is the first time I’ve sold part of my collection.  I plan to aquire a new SKS with my C&R license.  The CM-11 sale was just making room in my safe.  The one complication is that the SKS is C&R eligible, and although I acquired it before licensing, I’m selling it post licensing, so I’m not sure whether I record it in my bound book.  I have to call the ATF to find out for sure.  I have seven days to find out.  I’m pretty sure the answer is no, I just have to record the disposition in my personal firearms record.

Either way, my current plan is to get a Yugoslavian SKS, and a Nagant revolver.  Later, hopefully, I can get an M1 Carbine, and M1 Garand.

Bruce is asking blogs not to show the deranged loser’s picture.  I’ll go one more and not even mention his name as anything other than deranged loser, deranged killer, psycho boy, mass killer, or other such unfriendly invective.

Happy Patriots Day. The day when folks in Massachusetts get a day off work to celebrate having completely forgotten who they are.

There are two things I can see the anti-gun groups, the media, and the politicans pushing out of this.   The first is another law limiting magazine capacity.   The other is stricter mental health screening for gun purchasers.

Magazine Capacity Limitations

They tried this in 1994.  Even if they removed grandfathering, there are a lot of magazines floating around out there that exceed ten rounds, and virtually all magazines exceed five.  Magazines are currently completely unregulated.  There is no way a law banning them will have even minimal compliance.  Magazines exceeding the limit will continue to be common and available, even if Congress bans them.

It also doesn’t take long to change a magazine.  As this killer must have done several times while he was systematically executing his classmates.  Would it have really made a difference if he had needed to carry three ten round magazines rather than two fifteen round magazines?  I doubt this would have altered the end result.  In fact, I can’t really see any situation where magazine capacity limits would save lives.  Magazines are just too easy to change.

More Mental Health Screening for Purchase

It’ll inevitably be proposed that gun purchasers go through more rigorous mental health screening.   Except proposals requiring physician signoff, references, or making anyone who’s had mental health treatment a prohibited person.  This one could be the one we have to worry about the most, because people will more easily see the relationship between the current tragedy and the proposal.   But keep in mind that millions of people are treated every year my the mental health profession, and only a small fraction of them are truly dangerous.  Ever taken anti-depressants?  Want to be a prohibited person because you one saw a psychiatrist?  Do you want your neighbors being consulted and asked if they think it’s OK for you to have a gun?  I Don’t either.  This is a massive invasion of privacy, and we can’t stand for it.  I would also note that Canada does have these strict requirements, and so does Massachusetts.   But it didn’t stop mass killers from committing their acts there.

…every day it seems:

Feinstein may be clueless about the content of her ban. However, the picture book story isn’t about her. It’s about the drafting of the California state AW ban, after the Stockton murders.

The drafters did indeed look at a picture book (Gun Digest, I think) and just pick out guns based on appearance.

That’s why California (and copycat jurisdictions like Denver) banned the “Encom CM-55,” which doesn’t exist. The CM-55 was made by another company, but the words “Encom” and “CM-55″ appeared on the same page, and so the stupid drafters thought they referred to a single gun.

It’s also how they banned the non-existent “H-93″ rifle — because Gun Digest had a typo “H” instead of “HK” which the California legislature blindly copied.

I had heard that, but always figured it was just a story. They actually did go through the magazine and pick out scary looking guns? Unbelievable.

If there’s one thing I’ve noticed in responding to the new calls for gun control in response to the Virginia Tech tragedy, among people both on the internet and off, it’s that most people’s perceptions of the issue are woefully uninformed. It’s shocking to me how many advocates of gun control don’t even know the most basic things about firearms. Even the queen of the gun control herself, Carolyn McCarthy, didn’t know what a barrel shroud was, even though her bill, H.R.1022, bans firearms that have them.

The basic problem we have is that a large portion of the general public, especially in more urbanized areas, have absolutely no experience or knowledge of firearms themselves. So when folks like the Brady’s and their friends in the media report that the Walther P22 is a high powered killing machine, they have no basis in knowledge that would raise doubt about the veracity of that statement. We on the gun blogosphere may giggle at the idea, but a lot of people genuinely don’t know any better.

We bear the burden of a population that’s easily mislead because it doesn’t have first hand knowledge of firearms, and doesn’t really care too much about self-defense issues, the right to keep and bear arms, target shooting, hunting, or any of the other things we talk about here. That is the core of our problem. The fact that the media is ignorant and doesn’t even try to hide their overt hostility towards guns and shooters is a big problem too, but if people were better educated on our issue, they’d know the media were ignorant and misleading.

That’s why I think the best thing we can do to help ourselves is to educate people we know, and try to at least give them a bit of familiarity, so they can identify media hysterics when they see it. Try to get someone to the range, especially someone who has never shot before. The best anecdote to the bullshit being spewed by the anti-gun crowd and their accomplices in the media is direct first hand experience with firearms. Take the opportunity to not just entertain, but to educate.

One of the things I like to do is take someone clay shooting. Aside from being a lot of fun, it introduces people to the shotgun. Later, when I take them over to the target range, I’ll let them shoot an AR-15 or an AK-47. They can see these scary looking weapons but neat holes in the paper, and fire a single shot with each pull of the trigger, just like any other self-loading gun. If you have access to a plinking range, let them shoot water jugs with it. Let them do the same with a pistol. Then let them do it with your shotgun. Most people are quickly shocked by how much damage a shotgun does to targets. That’s often a good opportunity to point out that at close ranges, the shotgun is probably the most lethal firearm ever devised by man, and yet it has common sporting uses, and very few people believe it ought to be banned. Even in largely gun-free Britain, shotguns are still lawful to own, with a proper shotgun certificate from the police. In my experience, if you can get someone to the range, they aren’t likely to adopt the idea that we ought to ban shotguns too.

We will never go back to being a society where the majority has a reasonable familiarity with firearms. Thanks to technology and laws surrounding the issue, it’s become much more complicated than it was a century ago. But it’s important to do what we can. If we can at least, each of us, make a few people understand that a .22 caliber target pistol isn’t a high powered killing machine, and realize the media is full of crap when they hear that, we’re doing ourselves a favor. Most people don’t appreciate being mislead and lied to, and when it comes to guns, they get that all the time.