Second Amendment Blog
Paul Helmke Wouldn’t Know an AK-47 …
Posted by:Sebastian on 
Nov 30th, 2007 | 
Filed under: Anti-Gun Folks
… if he shot himself in the foot with one. The Brady’s are incorrect that Jay Fox had an AK-47:
In last night’s Republican YouTube debate, a questioner submitted this video of himself shooting what looks like an AK-type semi-automatic assault rifle at a target in the desert. In less than two seconds, self-identified NRA Life Member Jay Fox fires off six rounds. (Check the timing of the video yourself.)
It’s not an AK-47. You can see clearly in the screen shots that it’s not:
That’s clearly a monte carlo stock, and not a pistol grip that you’d expect to find on a Kalashnikov.
The magazine lacks the banana shape of the AK-47 magazine. Pretty clearly this is some type of .223 semi-automatic rifle. And, like we’ve been saying, any semi-automatic rifle can fire six shots quickly, even ones that are available, as this firearm would be, in all the states that have assault weapons bans because this firearm is not an assault weapon by any legal definition. And no state bans 10 round magazines.
So Paul may have thought this was a clever “gotcha” moment to introduce his admonishment that gun violence isn’t funny, but it’s another distortion. Besides, what does a guy having some pinking fun with a semi-automatic rifle in the desert have to do with gun violence? Do you think Jay Fox is going to go mow down a school next? This tells you a lot about how these people think.
UPDATE: Turns out Jay Fox is a resident of California, which bans assault weapons. So that rifle is most definitely NOT an assault weapon. Brady wants the entire country to pass a California style ban, yet they are still unhappy with this ordinary semi-automatic rifle’s rate of fire, which any self-loading firearm is capable of. Of course, they say they don’t want to ban all semi-automatic rifles, but do you believe them? I don’t.
UPDATE: I just got an e-mail from Jay Fox. It’s a Kel-Tec SU-16 rifle, which is not an assault weapon, and legal in California. He also mentioned the shotgun in the video was unloaded, and was tossed rather than handed for effect. Hey, it worked didn’t it? His video got picked. I thought it was pretty good.
Related posts (automatically generated):
November 30th, 2007 at 11:42 am
Sebastion, make sure Paul Helmke doesn’t see this video or he’ll go on a crusade against double-action revolvers. After he untangles his panties, of course.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=9LnRtokfXJ4&feature=related
November 30th, 2007 at 11:46 am
And of course we can’t point out this error in the comments section because the Gun-Grabbers will have none of that!
Prolly is a .223, but most .308 Saigas have straight-mags too
Also fun fun note that the Shotgun was a Mossberg 590. Compleat with barrel shroud, 9-shot magazine (AWB declaired 5+ to be High Capacity) and bayonet lug….yet its a pump action, so no AW there.
Tools
November 30th, 2007 at 11:52 am
I was thinking it might be a Saiga, but when he brings the thing around, you can see the front sight and the start of the stock, which doesn’t quite fit for a Saiga. I’m not honestly sure what it is. The resolution sucks. But it’s definitely not an assault weapon.
November 30th, 2007 at 11:53 am
The magazine is also a bit large for a .308 Saiga…. unless they make ones larger than the standard 10 round.
November 30th, 2007 at 11:57 am
The Brady hypocrites don’t even have the honesty to admit they don’t accept comments. The website says, “Sorry, comment limit exceeded for this entry.”
November 30th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
[...] Sebastian says Paul doesn’t know guns. I dunno. It looks like a Saiga to me which would make it a Kalashnikov type rifle. Regardless, it’s not a weapon covered by the various assault weapons bans. The shooter is also from California, which as the assault weapons poor ol’ Paul wants so desperately. [...]
November 30th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
He obviously has never seen footage of Jerry Miculek either!!No doubt he’d find SOMETHING wrong with that as well!!
http://www.jerrymiculek.com/
November 30th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
I thought it looked like one of those PC AR15 rifles to me, with the funny stock and all. Guess this show who are the real gunnies and the real wankers are.
November 30th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
In fact this is what it looks like,http://www.californiarifles.com/images/riflesfull.jpg, at least to me anyhow.
November 30th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
I was going to say su16, but he updated before I got around to it.
Anyway, if CA’s laws aren’t strict enough for the brady campaign, what laws would be? Switching over to the CA regulatory regime on a national level would ban millions of guns. Switching over to a UK style regime would ban hundreds of millions of pistols, rifles and shotguns (not exaggerating even slightly). Such a position seems at odds with their other position stating that they “aren’t looking to ban guns.”
The one good thing (beside the political upheaval it caused) was that when the AWB expired, some people thought that that NFA stuff was legal despite the fact that it hadn’t been banned in the first place. Increased interest in Title II weapons can only be a good thing in the long term.
November 30th, 2007 at 8:21 pm
The SU16CA also accepts M16 magazines, so if you bought your mags before the DPRK ban on ugly black features, those will work. If you’re a fan of the .223 caliber, is lighter than a laptop and just indestructable.
Since Saiga’s are built on an AK platform, it wouldn’t shock me if an actual NRA member and firearms enthusiast mischaracterized a Saiga as an AK, especially with the poor resolution.
MOLON LABE
November 30th, 2007 at 8:27 pm
CA laws aren’t strict enough for the Brady’s because there’s a whole side-list of available AR receivers (and AK receivers) that are not on the “banned” list — and by law are unable to be included on that list — so people are buying and building them, with a few caveats like flash-hiders and non-tele stocks, and the tool-requirement for removing the mag – so how fast can you twirl a nut-driver? How about a powered nut-driver? Check it out, we’re not the European Union…yet.
November 30th, 2007 at 10:54 pm
Actually spinning the castle nut might not be the legal thing to do, there are other workarounds.
December 4th, 2007 at 7:25 pm
I’m pretty sure the rifle was a Ruger Mini 14 .223 with a synthetic stock. I have one and it looks just like mine.
December 4th, 2007 at 9:16 pm
I’m pretty sure you didn’t read the last update ;)