Mission statement:

Armed and Safe is a gun rights advocacy blog, with the mission of debunking the "logic" of the enemies of the Constitutionally guaranteed, fundamental human right of the individual to keep and bear arms.

I can be reached at 45superman@gmail.com.You can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/45superman.

Friday, March 07, 2008

The Goldilocks approach to 'gun control'

Back when I started this blog (almost a year and a half ago--time flies), my inspiration was what I saw as a need to counter the lies and distortions of the citizen disarmament advocates. Specifically, the festering effluvia of a website that calls itself the "Gun Guys." For awhile, I wrote about them all the time, with links to the site. Eventually, though, I decided that the ludicrousness of their "arguments" was so obvious that by going to the trouble to debunk it, I was actually giving it more credence than merited.

Something they put up yesterday, however, has provoked me into breaking my own self-imposed rule of not referring to them (I'm not going to provide a link, though--they've quoted me without linking before, so hell with 'em). I refer to their post yesterday that manages to, within a few paragraphs, condemn both the SwissMiniGun and .50 caliber rifles.

The gun industry in America will no doubt support the argument that the miniature revolver is a novelty item for the wealthy. But most citizens of the United States, we are sure, believe that keeping such a deadly “plaything” out of our country is the right thing to do.
Let's talk about how "deadly" this toy is. It fires a 2.34 mm (or .092 caliber) bullet that weighs .128 grams (or in terms more familiar to American shooters, just under 1.98 grains (.22 rimfire bullets are generally between 30 and 40 grains). The muzzle velocity is about 400 feet per second. This translates to a kinetic energy of about .7 foot pounds. Ralphie Parker's Red Ryder BB Gun fired a BB of almost double the caliber (.177), and nearly three times the weight (about 5.73 grains), although at a lower velocity of around 280 feet per second. That makes for a kinetic energy of very nearly 1 foot pound (about .997, to be more exact). Popular BB guns today, like the Crosman, fire 8.2 grain pellets at 625 feet per second, for a KE of about 7.1 foot pounds, or about ten times that of the Mini Gun. Hell--even AirSoft guns (intended for people to shoot each other for recreation) manage almost that much kinetic energy, while paintball guns generate about fourteen times the Mini Gun's muzzle energy. Basically (and much less verbosely), you have a real problem if you're shot in the eye with one of these things, but to actually kill, it would be a hell of a lot easier to use fists and feet.

To the Gun Guys, though, and as Goldilocks would say, "This gun is too small."

Moving along to Papa Bear's gun:
Let the “SwissMiniGun” stay on the other side of the Atlantic. Then let’s begin keeping .50 caliber sniper rifles out of civilian hands as the next step in enhancing our personal and national security.
Obviously, to the Gun Goldilocks, "This gun is too big."

After that, however, is where the Goldilocks analogy breaks down, because to the Gun Guys, no gun is "just right"--they want to ban all of them.

UPDATE: From a comment by Thirdpower, I learn that I'm not the first to notice the Goldilocks angle.

7 comments:

Vinnie said...

If you put all six rounds in a nice tight group it look like a rash.

Then you'd have a rash of shootings.

Thirdpower said...

I'm sure you've seen this:

http://www.scottbieser.com/goldilocks_gungrabber.html

Kurt '45superman' Hofmann said...

Actually, Third, no, I hadn't.

Guess I better put a link up, so (hopefully) I won't be considered a plagiarizer.

Anonymous said...

Vinnie,
If you put all 6 rounds in a tight group you'd have a shooting of rash.

Anonymous said...

Teh Swissminigun can't be imported because of the unconstitutional "sportin purpose" rule.

I'm quite sure that a similar gun could be manufactured here (there is no minumum barrel length on handguns in the US).

They'd never make it on the Massachusettes "ok list" -- imagine the manufacturer submitting a half-dozen of them to authorities to drop onto concrete from 2 meters.

Kurt '45superman' Hofmann said...

They're hugely expensive--something like 6,300 Swiss Francs--before importation taxes (even if they were legal to import here).

I guess they could make a version with a ridiculously long (for the gun) 3" barrel, but make it removable, and include a standard length barrel as an accessory (or sell it separately, if that was the only way to do it legally).

It would still have to be a lot cheaper than it is for them to sell more than a very few.

Anonymous said...

We are the Gun Guys and We have a Political position. Even though we donot understand it or any of the REAL facts about owning a Gun.
But they make so much noise when they go bang. We just wanna wet our trousers.

I mean hey? We allow Government to have Guns only don'tcha know? See what happenes . But that's Okay with Us. Because We really don't know anything. We just like to rant for communism/marxism and everything & anything that is Good.
Like protection from the socialist society of malcontents We've created.