The Media - and Anti-Gun Politicians - Have Gone Full Potato on Guns

11/8/2017

It is no secret that media and anti-gunners in general don't tell the general public the full truth about guns and gun crime. Some of it may be due to the fact that they don't know the laws on the books currently and have no idea about guns at all. But those who know nothing about guns and gun laws are the ones trying to sway public opinion and the ones writing bills and voting on them to ban guns and gun accessories.

Let's discuss some of the more common things that the media and anti-gun politicians have tossed at the general public. Gun rights advocates know the truth, but the general public is being swayed.

This list is not at all exhaustive.

Scary accessories

Every time there is a shooting, someone brings up scary accessories. And some of them are just made up for effect. Others are greatly exaggerated (like the rest of the gun). We've heard about heat seeking bullets.

Ghost guns.

And many more. Bump stocks have been under fire after the Vegas shooting, an accessory no one thought about until then because they typically don't show up at crime scenes and aren't necessary. "Silencers" (we'll talk about those later). And bad depictions of how actual accessories work, by making up their own scary version of how they work (like CNN's graphic showing how bump stocks work, where they remembered to put a grenade launcher on the gun, but forgot to put a bump stock on it, instead using a standard telescoping stock to show how it works, this way those who don't know any better think every AR-15 they see has a bump stock).

And some media outlet is always going to create something else to scare their viewers or readers. The latest? USA Today is warning us about the dangers of chainsaw bayonets! I wish I was making that up, but I'm not. (Update: USA Today "clarified" that the chainsaw bayonet was not used by the Texas shooter. Not that it is a far fetched unusual modification that isn't commercially available, and only used by about 3 people who took the time to make one themselves).

There is always going to be someone out there who comes up with something they want to try. Has there ever been a chainsaw bayonet? Yes. People have modified chainsaws to fit onto an AR-15. They aren't very practical due to weight and issues getting the chainsaw fired up. But they aren't commercially available to the best of my knowledge. I have never seen a chainsaw bayonet for sale anywhere. And let's be real, with enough ingenuity, you could modify a chainsaw to mount to the front of your car.

The Gun Show (and Online) Loophole

This is one that just won't die. Politicians and the media swear that this loophole exists. Let's touch on online sales first. Part of my last job in a gun store was actually handling online sales (I worked gun shows, too, but that wasn't much different from working in the store). The media and gun grabbers want you to believe that you can go online and buy a gun, then have it sent directly to your house with no background checks.

That just isn't true. One time I sold a gun to a guy online and sent it to his house, all of which was legal. How was that accomplished? It was a musket. It was an actual musket. To be specific, it was a Harper's Ferry musket that had a confederate stamp on it because it was taken and eventually used by the confederate army. It was a black powder rifle that was an antique, and not considered a gun under Federal law.

Online sales - through dealers or auction sites - require that the gun be shipped to an FFL dealer (licensed dealer) near the buyer so they can go in and fill out the paperwork and have their background check done. Any sale that ends with the gun being shipped to someone's house is already illegal. Law on the books illegal.

Gun shows work pretty much the same way. If you are buying, paperwork and background checks are being done. Trust me, I've had the horror of doing background checks via an unreliable cell phone signal in a loud as hell gun show. It has to be done. Some curio dealers don't need a license, but they are generally selling guns the government doesn't classify as a gun, such as the above mentioned musket.

What these people are actually trying to end is private sales. Which brings us to...

86% of Americans, 82% of gun owners favor universal background checks

Universal background checks. They are being deemed as the end of private sales. It is also the end of being able to pass your collection on to your kids - like millions of Americans do - without getting several government agencies and a lot of money involved. Meaning, when I - a gun owner already - was approached by my mom about taking her gun collection because she has become too handicapped to handle them anymore, under this background check system I would not have been able to do that. My mom lives with me because of her handicaps, so I already reside with these guns as well as my own. Since she is living, we could have easily handled it by going to the gun store and doing an in store transfer, costing as much as a new handgun to go through that. But if I had inherited guns after she passed away, they would have had to be confiscated before all of that. Because of the nature of confiscations, it could be years before I see those guns again. No, literally years. And if universal background checks pass, when my mom does eventually pass away, I'll still have to do that. I'll have to allow those firearms to be confiscated - if I haven't already sold them, which one was sold - and go through what could be years of work to get them back. And, as is often the case, they may not be in one piece or in fireable condition when they do come back to me.

Now, this statistic itself.

Fact: Those statistics came from a pair of surveys reported by gun control group Mayors Against Illegal Guns, who has been caught stacking survey responses by polling left-of-center mailing lists.

Source

The other fact is that the poll was worded in their favor. It asked people if they support background checks to purchase a firearm.

Most Americans do. I support background checks on firearms. I don't support putting another background check law on the books that mimics the law already there, nor do I support having to go through these loops for inherited guns when I already have a legally purchased and licensed collection of my own. My mom should be able to give me her gun if she wants to. My mom knows who I am and what I've done. If she didn't, it is on her to refuse me her gun.

It is, basically, a feel good law that brings money to the government and not much else. As I said, it mimics laws already on the books. And the background checks didn't stop the Texas church shooter, did they? They didn't stop the Vegas shooter. They didn't stop a lot of mass shooters.

We need to ban full autos

Done. Next!

Actually, let's be fair. This is a huge deal right now with media and gun grabbers, and people not in the know about guns are all in a tissy about fully automatic weapons, and they really do believe the average AR-15 is a full auto. Because they are being told repeatedly by the media and politicians they trust that they are. Now, the "ghost gun" in the video above appears to be a short barreled rifle. Whether or not it is fully automatic, I couldn't tell you by looking at it from here.

The short barreled rifle is illegal for normal civilian purchase. It requires an expensive tax stamp and background checks that can take one to two years to complete. If you do pass that and get one, that tax stamp needs to be renewed. I believe yearly (correct me if I'm wrong, I forget the time on the stamp). It's a tax.

If the gun is full auto, it's the same. One to two years for the background checks, an expensive tax stamp you have to keep paying on, and then add in the cost of the rifle... with all of this, you still can't buy a brand new one, it has to have been made prior to 1986. For those who don't want to do the math, it means any full auto you purchase can be no younger than 31 years old as of right now. The average price of this at least 31 year old rifle? $20,000. Short barreled rifles and shotguns can be had newer and cheaper. But for those who don't know... shorter barrels mean lower accuracy. And they are still big guns, so concealability is also not increased.

The vast majority of people who apply to own one of these 31 year old rifles are denied. It's actually not very common that a person passes and is given the go ahead to purchase. Most don't make it past the first round, which is getting the local sheriff to sign off on it.

Anyway, the senator's "ghost gun?" If it is fully automatic, it's completely illegal for citizen ownership. Why? It appears to be newer technology, which means the gun isn't 31 years old. Even with those background checks and tax stamps, you still can't buy it. Period.

The NRA has Blood on Their Hands

After every mass shooting, all eyes turn to the NRA. The "gun lobby." Remember, the NRA exists because of the American citizen members. So the "gun lobby" and the "NRA" is us.

The NRA is blamed for all of this despite no mass shooters ever being members of the NRA, and despite NRA members having stopped crimes and shootings, most recently the Texas church shooting.

What they are actually doing is blaming the NRA for doing what it's members are members for - stopping nonsense gun control laws. To hear politicians, you'd think the NRA was a completely stand alone entity with no citizen support at all. But that isn't the case. We join the NRA because they are supposed to prevent repeat gun laws from being added to the books 60 times and still not being enforced, and to stop sweeping gun bans like the useless assault weapons ban and handgun bans that have been proposed. The assault weapons ban was tried. Even the Clinton administration admitted it had zero effect on gun crime. It didn't have the results they had desired. Now we want the NRA to stop them from enacting it again, because it is a do nothing law that requires people to turn in their private and legally owned property, especially if they have never committed a crime with or without that rifle. The gun grabbers have decided expanding it instead would work out better than the first time they tried it.

The NRA works hard to teach gun laws and gun safety. A lot of their programs are teaching programs. And we pay for those, too. The hero in Texas was an NRA instructor. That means he teaches people how to be safe with guns and how to shoot them correctly. The government should be encouraging things like the NRA's Eddie Eagle program to teach kids how to be safe around guns so less accidents occur with our children. They aren't teaching them to shoot, just how to be safe if guns are present. That isn't a bad thing!

"Silencers"

The media and our gun grabbing politicians apparently like shooter movies. Because "silencers" don't exist.

Sound suppressors. That is what they actually are. They are designed to quiet - not silence - a gun. You can't physically do that. Sorry. It's science. You can't silence a huge gun.

The closest thing you can get is a 22 LR, but you'll still hear the sound of the slide as well as the round being fired. No, you can't suppress a revolver unless it is a Nagant revolver. The Nagant revolver's cylinder moves forward to close the gap, thus making it possible to suppress one. Any other revolver won't effectively be suppressed because the explosion from the round comes through the gap.

A suppressor on any other firearm is still loud enough to require hearing protection. A suppressor on a full auto will literally melt. So when Hillary told you the Vegas shooting could have been worse because of "silencers," she was wrong. Very wrong.

And sorry, but the nearly silent shotgun in "No Country for Old Men" simply isn't possible.

As I said, this isn't an exhaustive list, just some of the ones that seem to not want to go away. The media and the gun grabbers have an agenda. You'll hear "no one wants to take your guns" a lot. The fact is, a lot of our politicians would completely ban all guns in a hot minute if they could. They'd call for a confiscation if they could. And gun control is done in small doses. I have said before and will keep saying... it is never enough. Once they get one victory, they don't stop to celebrate; they move to the next gun control.

And your average gun grabbing citizen has gotten more hostile. The last time I mentioned guns on YouTube I got a death threat that was apparently harsh enough for YouTube to remove it themselves before I got to read the whole thing. Dana Loesch had to move her entire family at a moment's notice because of threats. Folks wantonly call for the death of gun owners on social media, as lightly as they talk about their day. Apparently, the act of owning a gun is worthy of the death penalty to these people, regardless of the fact that the vast majority of gun owners have never committed any type of crime.

Take the time to educate. Don't yell and scream... just correct bad information. Convince someone to go to the range with you. Take part in projects like Operation Blazing Sword. Not everyone is going to listen or believe your corrections. But do it anyway. And never let your guard down. It doesn't matter who is in the White House... don't let your guard down.