Posted on 09/17/2012 6:59:03 AM PDT by Salgak
Getting Guns Right
by Michael Z. Williamson
Once again lately, firearms are in the news.
This seems odd. The news is about the unusual, and after 700 or more years in use, firearms are hardly unusual. In America, they've been a vital part of the culture since its inception. Yet we're still debating the subject, and the media almost always gets its facts wrong.
At its basic level, a firearm is a piston engine. A propellant is ignited and powers a projectile down a bore. Instead of working a crank, it is forced out in a chosen direction. The impact energy is simple to calculate, being only a matter of mass and velocity. The terminal effects of certain projectile designs on tissue are more complex, but plenty of data and tests exist, and modern computer models can predict the outcome quite well. Nor do most media stories even touch on this, instead dumbing the entire subject down to good guns, operated by agents of the government, and bad guns, identical guns operated by anyone else, described with various inaccurate epithets intended to stir emotion.
Mike holding gunIn fiction, both on TV and to a lesser extent in literature, the portrayals are often eye-rollingly cliché. In alleged "news," they are so awful as to beggar belief.
One can very easily find a TV show or movie where some citizen, at risk, decides to get a gun, or some criminal element pretends to be such. In multiple cases, bad screenwriters and directors copied each others' mistakes and have said person go into a gun store in Chicago to buy a handgun. The clerk says, "Well, there's supposed to be a five day waiting period, but you've got an honest face."
This is just ridiculous.
(Excerpt) Read more at baen.com ...
Also:
Michael Z. Williamson is retired from the U.S. military, having served twenty-five years in the U.S. Army and the U.S. Air Force. He was deployed for Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Desert Fox. Williamson is a state-ranked competitive shooter in combat rifle and combat pistol. He has consulted on military matters, weapons and disaster preparedness for Discovery Channel and Outdoor Channel productions and is Editor-at-Large for Survivalblog, with 300,000 weekly readers. In addition, Williamson tests and reviews firearms and gear for manufacturers. Williamsons books set in his Freehold Universe include Freehold, Better to Beg Forgiveness, and Do Unto Others, and latest entry When Diplomacy Fails.
Nicely done.
Excellent Article ... Mad Mike has a way with words
TT
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