For the Road

Not Semi Automatic

RIP Bob

Photo by Oleg Volk

My answers for Piers Morgan

John R. Lott appeared on CNN Wednesday night along with Jeanne Assam.

I tuned in in time to see Jeanne retell part of her story.  After Piers Morgan cut her off, he assaulted Lott with the inquisition

"WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF AN AR-15?"

Then he interrupted with another question

"HOW MANY BULLETS CAN IT FIRE A SECOND?"

When Lott attempted to continue answering the first question Morgan demanded again

"HOW MANY BULLETS DOES THE AR-15 FIRE A SECOND?"

And things went down hill from there (I walked away after setting the DVR)...

Now Lott is an economist who has researched crime statistics. I have no idea if he even owns a gun.   His explanation began that all semi-auto firearms function the same whether they look like a military weapon or not. After that was mostly cross talk.


I will take it upon myself to answer these question to the best of my ability.


"WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF AN AR-15?

To fire a projectile...  same as any other gun. You want more? OK... To fire a projectile while weighing less than other guns of a larger caliber.

"HOW MANY BULLETS DOES THE AR-15 FIRE A SECOND?"

Hell if I know... Typically you refer to the cyclic rate of a fully automatic weapon in rounds per minute ie: a machine gun.  A semi-automatic weapon is the  opposite of a machine gun, as a machine gun continues to cycle when the trigger is held, but a semi-automatic weapon cycles once and stops when the trigger is held. Truth is almost all semi-autos will cycle faster than you can pull the trigger.  Let's just call it 4 rounds a second based entirely off this youtube video.

Good enough... That takes care of Morgan's questions. What about the question he didn't ask? You know the one that might provide a little context for the audience.

How Many Bullet Does A Non-Semi-Automatic Weapon Fire A Second???


How about 4 rounds a second.

Plus a reload in the middle.

But that's not fair... a world record holder against a youtube star.

What we need is a world record holder against a world record holder...

Enter Tom Knapp and his semi-auto shotgun.

With his 12-ga. Semi-Auto Shotgun and extended magazine tube, Tom launched ten clay targets into the air with one hand and shot all ten with individual shots in an unbelievable 2.2 seconds flat.

And the challenger? Tom Knapp and his pump action shotgun.

Tom Knapp, with his pump Shotgun in one hand, threw eight clay targets in the air with his other hand and broke every one of them with individual shots in an amazing 1.87 seconds.

So each shot with a pump shotgun took 0.23 seconds. While each shot with the semi-auto shotgun took 0.22 seconds. Not a very big difference especially when the police take 20 minutes to respond.

 One more question for Piers Morgan. Can you explain this photo???

...

Black Sunday

Bad at Math

So we must ban guns to save lives, but if the police go door to door taking away all those guns how many people will they kill in the process?

There are over 300,000,000 guns in the US now in over 50% of the households.

If it saves only one life...

(Side note Officer Harless is back on the job.)

Black (Gun) Friday

Black Friday 2011 set the record for background checks for gun sales (NICS), a record that stood for one year until Black Friday 2012.

From NSSF:

The November 2012 NSSF-adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figure of 1,525,177 is an increase of 38.5 percent over the NSSF-adjusted NICS figure of 1,101,076 in November 2011. For comparison, the unadjusted November 2012 NICS figure of 1,997,703 reflects a 30.8 percent increase from the unadjusted NICS figure of 1,527,454 in November 2011.

And from Emily Miller on Fox News.

I have my own theory as to why... politics and the election aside, the economy sucks, people are broke and guns were on sale at Walmart.

In fact this is my old theory from last year. From my own research (note: I haven't done any research) at my local Walmart, they began selling long gun again in 2011 after they had been removed for several years. 

I have not found much online about Walmart's gun sales. This WSJ poll is the best information I have found.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is quietly bringing back rifles, shotguns and ammunition to hundreds of U.S. stores as the struggling retail giant seeks to reinvigorate its one-stop shopping appeal and lure more male customers. The world's largest retailer stopped selling hunting rifles and bullets at all but a third of its U.S. stores five years ago, citing diminishing sales. It is now restoring them to hundreds of locations, bringing the total to nearly half of its more than 3,600 U.S. namesake stores, as part of a larger push to restore "heritage categories" of merchandise such as fishing rods and bolts of sewing fabric that it removed in an attempt to go upscale that backfired.

 This year I noted several of the large sporting good chains also ran Black Friday ads for guns at sale prices.

I myself have never bought a gun a at Walmart; I try to support local gun shops, I have bought lots of ammo there. I don't view Walmart as the evil empire. and in the long run it may help the case for gun rights...  After all an "Assault Weapon" can not be much more "in common use" If you can buy it with your groceries.

Black Sunday

...

"I know that you have suffered, lad,
But suffer this awhile:
Whatever makes a soldier sad
Will make a killer smile."