From David Codrea at the War on Guns comes this Virginia Pilot editorial. Go read the whole thing to get a good idea of the irrationality of it. I quote below:
Why did they kill a bill banning the sale of magazines that hold 20 or more rounds of ammunition?So let's just take this little piece apart, shall we? Now, how did the writer of this editorial decide that 20 rounds was enough, but 21 rounds might be too many? You remember revolvers? Most of them had a round count of 6. Since most police carried 6 round revolvers, and 6 rounds was good enough for them, its good enough for the "common people." So, why isn't he railing against any magazine over 6 rounds?
On the other hand, the venerable M1911 pistol, and its variants used for 75 years by the military, had a round count of 7. The military side arm had to be plenty safe to make it "soldier proof" but at the same time, pretty effective to have killed all those enemies during WWII, so yeah, make it 7. But wait a minute, many manufacturers today manage to squeeze in an extra round, so maybe we should outlaw any magazine with a capacity of more that 8 rounds. Hmmm.
Today, the Glock 17 is the most widely used police sidearm in the world, with a magazine capacity of 17 rounds of 9mm Luger. So, maybe a round count of 20 is okay. But surely anyone can dispatch any bad guys with a single round. Isn't that what all the TV shows tell us? So 17 seems excessive somehow.
Say, don't all these examples use different-what do you call them-calibers? Let's see, the typical police revolver used .38 Special. The M1911 used .45 ACP, while the Glock uses 9x19. Is there any difference in the relative stopping power of these different cartridges? Could that affect someone's decision about how many rounds they want in their magazines? How about the circumstances under which they expect to use them? Might target shooting be different than carry? Might militia use be different than hunting? Boy, this round count thing gets pretty complicated.
There is no reason, or reasoning behind a 20 round capacity magazine. The Virginia Pilot just wants to "feel" that it is doing something, anything, to stop something that they will never be able to stop. The most they can do is advise everyone who wishes to be as prepared as possible. Having more guns in the hands of more people who know how to use them will limit, but not eliminate, the damage that criminals and the insane may cause.
"The Virginia Pilot just wants to "feel" that it is doing something, anything, to stop something that they will never be able to stop."
ReplyDeleteAnd therein lies the problem: about 60 years ago, the medical/psychiatric industry - for such it is - convinced society that their feelings are more important than their reasoning ability. Now we've bred three generations to believe that thinking isn't necessary. Something is only bad if it feels bad ... or so they'd like us to believe.
Rev. Paul,
ReplyDeleteStill, there ought to be a test for reasoning ability before someone becomes an "editor." The stuff I have been reading lately looks like an exercise from a junior high school expository writing class. Supposedly, these are written by "authorized journalists" with degrees and all.
Regards,
PolyKahr