On the Topic of Guns, Accoutrements, and the Idiots Who ‘Represent’ Us

by JOHN BERNARD February 2, 2013

I have had just about enough of the queue of lambasting idiots whose sole desire is to control every aspect of American's lives. Their bloated exhortations about things they obviously know nothing about has risen to the level of epidemic. What is more troublesome is that there seems to be an unending assortment and number of mixed nuts fully prepared to accept any edict these windbags hand down from their lofty "thrones" in the City of the Dead (DC) while the combined knowledge of both exhorter and audience, if melted down and strained couldn't fill a thimble!

I am sick to the point of retching of listening to the absolute nonsensical sputtering about firearms by those who can't differentiate between a butt stock and a flash suppressor so here is a short lesson in nomenclature to make you sound less stupid:

FIRST, they are not "clips", they are magazines and the semi-automatic AR-15 is not "an assault rifle" any more than a baseball bat, hammer, kitchen knife, scarf, rope, lead pipe, pipe wrench, automobile, hands, feet, stick, screw driver, torch, et al all of which have been used at one time or another to "assault" someone by a deranged person.

The "shoulder thingy that goes up" is a folding butt stock on a very few long guns most notably, the SPAS shotgun which is no longer manufactured. The correct description of what this particular dingbat in Congress was trying to describe, is, an adjustable butt stock. Its crime is making itself available for shooters of varying shapes and sizes - including women for whom many rifles are too large to fire accurately and painlessly.

A bayonet lug is a superfluous piece of equipment - for almost anyone, in or out of uniform and does not contribute to the mental deficiency that denies a person the ability to know it is wrong to kill. A sling swivel is a mounting point for a sling which is used in competition and to carry a rifle over the shoulder for most civilians and while there are some really neat 1, 2 and 3 point slings on the market, no one except a seasoned and well-trained professional has a need for it or would even know how to use it. And NO; it does not make the rifle more lethal or the operator more proficient.

A flash suppressor is not a lethal device. It is used to reduce the light signature of escaping gases from the muzzle of the rifle so the enemy has a more difficult time registering your position and dropping mortars and artillery on your head. Being as there isn't much in the way of danger from ordinance here in the civilian world, it is superfluous. And just because it is superfluous is no reason to ban it. It does not make the rifle more lethal or the operator more proficient. It does, however, make the rifle compliant with long distance rifle matches hosted around the country and at Camp Perry every year.

A pistol grip has sent many a "sensitive anti-gunner" into orbit. Here's the skinny: All things being equal, I prefer a straight stock. Contorting your hand and wrist to accommodate a pistol grip actually take some practice and again, does nothing to make the rifle more lethal or the operator more proficient. So, get over it!

A magazine with any number of rounds is of ZERO use to someone who is not well-trained with the rifle or handgun it supports and no; Newtown doesn't count because at the grand distance of about 25 feet, he could have caused as much damage with a pile of rocks.

Magazines hold cartridges - not bullets! The ammunition that the Military uses does not possess "magical properties" delivering greater lethality. The fact is, military grade ammunition is designed to meet the requirements of the Geneva Conventions which requires full metal jacket bullets to reduce expansion and associated lethality which in turn reduces damage to the flesh, increasing the probability of survival. This also, then makes this ammunition terrible for hunting. In comparison, a hunting bullet, fired from even a bolt action rifle is far more lethal.

Finally; for all of you "sheeple" who mindlessly "feel" your way to decisions that could ultimately eliminate first the 2nd Amendment and eventually, the entire Bill of Rights; get your bloody heads out of the clouds and do a little research so you won't appear to be the blustering idiots you currently sound like. And if you insist on allowing others to represent your sorry opinions of something that is no more than a tool, in the hands of a law abiding citizen, at least get someone who doesn't make the rest of us feel embarrassed to be a member of the same species!

If any of you, left of center would like legitimate questions answered...please feel free to ask them. And no; I will not get drawn into an inane conversation filled with semantics and sensationalism. The fact is, our murder rate isn't even half of what the United Kingdom's is even though there are no more firearms available to their "subjects". Currently the weapon of choice in "merry ole England" is a knife which Parliament is in the process of outlawing.

In this country, last year, 323 people were killed by someone brandishing an AR-15 or AK-47 style, semi-automatic rifle while in that same year, nearly 700 people were killed by a hammer!

 Echo Eight Bravo; Out!