Why do some citizens fear firearms?
Because of blatantly mis-leading garbage like this that comes from the mouth of some Law Enforcement Officers:
5 men arrested as police raid Algiers complex
Wednesday, July 12, 2006Bust turns up drugs, powerful assault rifleBy Trymaine Lee
...
Equipped with a folding bayonet and armor-piercing rounds, the rifle is a cheap and highly effective weapon -- the predecessor of the AK-47 -- that can blast through engine blocks as easily as it can bones, said Louis Faust, one of nearly 20 NOPD tactical officers who arrested five people, including Thomas.
...The SKS sells for as little as $100 in the streets and is highly accurate, Faust said. And the high-caliber ammunition it uses is meant for maximum bodily damage.
Faust said the steel core bullets used in an SKS strike the body then follow bone, so a bullet can "enter your shoulder and come out of your toe."
Obviously, the average citizen isn't an expert in ballistics and ammunition performance. Personally, I didn't know anything about the Samozaryadnyi Karabin sistemi Simonova (SKS) rifle until six months ago. I do now, as I own one.
Unless asked, I promise to not bore you with ballistic statistics comparing the 7.62x39 cartridge to other rifle rounds. Trust me... the scare tactics of "tactical officer" Faust are just that and have no basis in reality. The SKS was designed in 1945 and is not all that accurate, easily deployed, or effective, being chambered for a somewhat ineffectual round.
Any rifle used illegally will obviously cause harm to a human target. We don't need people in authority purposely mis-leading others into believing that a 60 year old rifle, that is really heavy, with an effective range of 75-100 yards is "highly accurate" and is the first choice for gang bangers everywhere to carry on the streets.
This article is permanently linked here.
2 comments
2 Comments:
This is a tough issue for me to decide on, and I really haven't yet. There are alot of gun-related deaths per year, but I doubt that there are figures for deaths/injuries prevented by guns used correctly in home defense. I think there is no excuse to sell assault weapons to civilians.
Good comments, Nick.
Unfortunately, there are no reliable figures for the deaths/injuries prevented by legal guns used in self defense. Strictly those numbers (where good guy shoots bad guy) can somewhat be measured, but experts estimate that at least three times as many incidents go down like this: bad guy approaches good guy with knife, good guy draws legal gun in self defense but never shoots, bad guy runs away, good guy goes home to family. How do you document those numbers when a police report is never filed? Also, can we attribute legal gun ownership/carrying to the steady multi-year decrease in crime in states such as Florida and Texas? Some people think so because criminals hear about the hundreds of thousands of licensed citizens over a number of years and think twice. They instead burglarize unattended vehicles/homes rather than confront people. I certainly think it's a stretch to make that case for Ohio, as only ~70,000 citizens have been licensed since it became legal in 2004. I've said it before though that my major point is, "even if it's shown that legal gun ownership doesn't decrease society's crime rate, it gives me the opportunity to influence the most important statistic of all -- the murder rate of me and my family."
We all know statistics are tricky. If you look into the details, you'll find that anti-gun organizations will do things like call anyone 21 and younger a "child." This means that whenever you hear "350 children were killed by handgun violence in 2005" you have to remember that the vast majority of violent crimes are committed by (and against) 16-25 year-old inner city males.
As for your comment talking about "selling assault weapons to civilians" may I assume that you are refering to the SKS featured in this article? I agree that civilians shouldn't own assault weapons... but we need to be careful as to that definition. Please stay tuned as I've been wanting to discuss a relevant topic for awhile anyway...
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