I have been a gun owner since I was 12 years old. I got my 20 gouge single shot Savage shot gun for Christmas. I never missed a Pheasant for the next two years. When I was 14, I got my first 30-30 Winchester for my birthday. In that year, I got my first buck. As you can guess, I have been into guns and hunting since as long as I can remember. I now own a few more guns that are mostly family hand-me-downs. I value these guns as very personal family connections that I plan to hand down to my children or great grandchildren. Along with those guns, I plan on including some important personal family history. I think that my involvement with guns is similar to many of those who built this country with sweat and physical labor. I am disappointed that many people don't understand or have a personal appreciation of the roll that gun have played in the history and building of "our" country.
A lot of my friends own guns. Many are not hunters, but are part of our history and collect guns to show their appreciation for that history. We are talking about collectors who have hundreds of historic guns. Many are over 100 years old and many don't even work. It is my observation that collectors who own more than 100 guns are the least likely to be involved in some kind of shooting. It is the person who only owns "one" gun that we have to be concerned about.
I have been following the gun debate and have some observations. Exactly what is an "assault" rifle?
I have a 1903 Springfield that was used as a military rifle in WWI. It is a bolt action that shoots the 30-06 shell. I also have an M1 Gurand that was used in WWII. It is a semiautomatic. Both of these rifles were used by our troops in battle to "assault" the enemy. Are they "assault" weapons? You tell me! My M1 has a "clip" that holds only 8 shots. If it held more, would it then be an "assault" weapon?
Here is what I think happened to change things. A Russian mechanic by the name of Kalashnikov figured out that if he raised the sights on a rifle by about 3" it would align the barrel to the shooter's shoulder. This would prevent the barrel from kicking up with each shot and thus make the second shot more accurate. He did one more thing too. That was to design a shell that had much more tapper rather than using an existing shell with little tapper. This made his new rifle much less prone to jamming. His ideas were so much better that most new gun manufacturers adopted his new design concepts. Some of the names are the familiar AR15 types. These are "not" automatics. They are semiautomatics like my 80 years old M1 mentioned above.
Some retailers claim that they will no longer sell amo for "assault" weapons, but what is an "assault" weapon amo? I don't know and nor does anyone else who knows anything about guns. Are you starting to see the problem?
When I was a junior in high school, I had saved up enough to buy a Browning 16 ga semiautomatic shot gun. Was it an "assault" gun? It had a "plug" that allowed it to only hold 3 shots. Are you starting to see that those who want to ban guns have almost no real experience or knowledge about guns. That's the problem!
PS---The most common weapon used to kill people in the USA is "not" a gun. Most people are killed by "blunt trauma" by being assaulted by some by some kind of "club" or "fist". If that is the case, why is there so much focus on guns? In England, knives are used for most murders. Do we want to make knives illegal here?
PS--Here is an interesting point. One of the Presidential candidates claimed that the military assault weapons shoot some kind of special high speed of amo that instantly kills. What he did not explain was that high speed amo has been around a very long time. Most are higher speed than the military round.
Caliber Year introduced
270 1925
220 Swift 1935
243 1950
223 1964 (military)
I own a 270 bolt action that I purchased in 1950. All the above calibers are available in the 1903 Springfield bolt action rifle. The Remington 740 semi automatic that is equal to any assault rifle in rate of fire was introduced in 1955 in the 270 caliber.
A lot of my friends own guns. Many are not hunters, but are part of our history and collect guns to show their appreciation for that history. We are talking about collectors who have hundreds of historic guns. Many are over 100 years old and many don't even work. It is my observation that collectors who own more than 100 guns are the least likely to be involved in some kind of shooting. It is the person who only owns "one" gun that we have to be concerned about.
I have been following the gun debate and have some observations. Exactly what is an "assault" rifle?
I have a 1903 Springfield that was used as a military rifle in WWI. It is a bolt action that shoots the 30-06 shell. I also have an M1 Gurand that was used in WWII. It is a semiautomatic. Both of these rifles were used by our troops in battle to "assault" the enemy. Are they "assault" weapons? You tell me! My M1 has a "clip" that holds only 8 shots. If it held more, would it then be an "assault" weapon?
Here is what I think happened to change things. A Russian mechanic by the name of Kalashnikov figured out that if he raised the sights on a rifle by about 3" it would align the barrel to the shooter's shoulder. This would prevent the barrel from kicking up with each shot and thus make the second shot more accurate. He did one more thing too. That was to design a shell that had much more tapper rather than using an existing shell with little tapper. This made his new rifle much less prone to jamming. His ideas were so much better that most new gun manufacturers adopted his new design concepts. Some of the names are the familiar AR15 types. These are "not" automatics. They are semiautomatics like my 80 years old M1 mentioned above.
Some retailers claim that they will no longer sell amo for "assault" weapons, but what is an "assault" weapon amo? I don't know and nor does anyone else who knows anything about guns. Are you starting to see the problem?
When I was a junior in high school, I had saved up enough to buy a Browning 16 ga semiautomatic shot gun. Was it an "assault" gun? It had a "plug" that allowed it to only hold 3 shots. Are you starting to see that those who want to ban guns have almost no real experience or knowledge about guns. That's the problem!
PS---The most common weapon used to kill people in the USA is "not" a gun. Most people are killed by "blunt trauma" by being assaulted by some by some kind of "club" or "fist". If that is the case, why is there so much focus on guns? In England, knives are used for most murders. Do we want to make knives illegal here?
PS--Here is an interesting point. One of the Presidential candidates claimed that the military assault weapons shoot some kind of special high speed of amo that instantly kills. What he did not explain was that high speed amo has been around a very long time. Most are higher speed than the military round.
Caliber Year introduced
270 1925
220 Swift 1935
243 1950
223 1964 (military)
I own a 270 bolt action that I purchased in 1950. All the above calibers are available in the 1903 Springfield bolt action rifle. The Remington 740 semi automatic that is equal to any assault rifle in rate of fire was introduced in 1955 in the 270 caliber.
