MILLER: Dispelling gun myths

There is evil in the world, and the face of it was seen Monday when James Holmes made his first court appearance since he allegedly killed 12 innocent people at a showing of the Batman movie “The Dark Knight Rises” in Aurora, Colo. As he sat with demonic-looking dyed-orange hair and bizarre facial expressions, it was hard to conceive of any law that could thwart such a maniac intent on mass murder.

That hasn’t stopped those on the left from seizing this tragedy to call for more gun-control laws. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat, author of the expired assault-weapons ban, said on Fox News Sunday that firearms like the AR-15 the Colorado shooter used are “weapons of war” that “are only going to be used to kill people in close combat. That’s the purpose of that weapon.”

Though it is one of the most popular rifles sold to civilians, the AR-15 is rarely used in crimes, presumably because it’s not readily concealed. The most recent FBI figures show just 358 of the 8,775 murders by firearm in 2010 involved rifles of any type. By comparison, 745 people were beaten to death with only hands that year, but no one has called for outlawing fists.

Mrs. Feinstein joins notorious gun-grabbers like New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg in seeking to vilify guns based on their appearance, not their performance. The AR-15 series was designed to look like the military’s M-16, but it is semi-automatic. That means it fires only one round when the trigger is pulled, and that round is no more powerful than any shot by an ordinary hunting rifle.

The left applies the scary term “assault weapons” to play on emotional responses, but it isn’t working anymore. More Americans oppose banning so-called “assault rifles” (53 percent) than

Just remember this:

The same liberals who say they do not want to take away all our firearms, just those incorrectly named “assault weapons” are the same liberals who say conservative talk is “hate speech”.

Liberals hope to outlaw conservatism.

The MSM love to vilify the scary black varmint rifle, but are factually bankrupt. It is not a super powerful death ray. It is a single shot rodent rifle, not powerful enough to reliably stop medium or large game animals.

The media specifically abuses the term "high-power" which may have been used historically to distinguish small bore (rim fire) class competition from long range rifle (high-power military patterned bolt guns). It is now synonymous with long range rifle competition which typically uses a substantially less powerful modern service rifle cartridge -- 5.56Nato or .223Rem (equiv with minor dimensional differences) which hunters use to eradicate varmints. We should be thankful that the Aurora miscreant did not employ grand dad's rifle, the less scary M1 Garand:

This is real battle rifle capable of impressive range and penetration. Its 8-round enbloc clip is quick to reload, and multiple victims would have fallen from a single shot, not to mention the likely carnage in the theaters next door.

The 100-round drum the media has been beating on proved to be unreliable (as usual) and jammed after a few rounds. He was NOT wearing body armor, but simply an accessory vest--functionally equiv to the one depicted above-- to hold magazines (and possibly HG and hydration system).

Addendum: I do not mean to disparage Olek Volk in any way. He was kind enough to provide the above image which I am using to illustrate a point. See his (My Garand) for an imformative expose on this formidable weapon of yesteryear.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.