Can we all agree we are not all in agreement? It would be a start.
A primer for those who are debating the gun issue without any actual knowledge or experience.
Guns kill people, people kill people, cars kill people, stupidity kills people. We all die.
In 1956 I was five and my 57 year old maternal grandmother gave me the rules on guns: A, those guns are mine, leave them alone, B, all my guns are always loaded, leave them alone, C, I use those guns to keep me and mine safe from anything trying to hurt or kill us. Grandma lived on a 100 acre horse/cow/sheep/chicken farm just outside of town. The land now has houses, a school and a public park.
She also summed up 95% of criminal law for me when I was going to start kindergarten. Keep your hands to yourself, and if it isn’t yours, leave it alone.
Dad shot his .22 pistol at a ¾ inch plywood. He showed me the cross section and how many layers of skull that bullet would penetrate. I was five.
Guns are machines that throw rocks. The development of gun technology mirrors the development of all our technology. We went from muzzle loader muskets in 1776 to the AR-15 platform in Vietnam to current date. We went from muzzle loader pistols in 1776 to six shot revolvers in 1873, to 17+ shot semi-auto plastic fantastic handguns today.
The core principle for development is speed and capacity. How fast does it shoot, how much can it hold.
All semi-auto firearms are a technological development where the machine ejects and inserts the cartridge, replacing the bolt, lever, or hand ejector technologies. The rate of fire is determined by how fast the machine cycles and how quickly the shooter pulls the trigger. The volume of rounds fired depends on the size of the magazine and how quickly the operator can reload magazines.
The .223 Remington is a rifle cartridge developed in 1957 as part of the search for a new military assault rifle. The winner of that competition was the AR-15 with the .223 Remington based upon rate of fire and rate of failure per 1,000 rounds fired. The cartridge, the platform and the mythology have all been created during my lifetime.
Oregon allows hunting deer with a .223 center fire cartridge using a semi-auto rifle with a magazine capacity of 5, internal or detachable. There is your sensible gun regulation. Magazine capacity of 5. I would add, no more than four loaded magazines in possession in public. You are welcome to load your tote with as many boxes of loose rounds as you want. Good exercise.
Limiting magazine capacity was part of the ’90’s assault rifle ban. It was the law of the land for 10 years. We were regulating magazine capacity as recently as 2004 when the reThuglicons refused to extend the limits. It is not a new concept. It worked.
I was shooting competitively in the 90’s and through 2011 when my neck went bad. I was at the range all the time with people who shot a lot. I own a reloader. I have made over 200,000 rifle and pistol rounds and sent the lead down range. I have repetitive motion injuries. Those people had mixed emotions about the ban, but most were against it. We all agreed, if you had a 10 round magazine in your gun, with three 10 round back-ups, and I had four 17 round magazines, I had the advantage, by far.
I would love to question any rabid AR proponent about why they believe having more than five rounds in their magazine, with one additional round in the chamber, is insufficient. Insufficient for what? 21 rounds available with three magazine changes not enough for what?
I would like to compare the right to own and carry firearms with the right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness, the right to live free of threat of unreasonable assault by anyone armed with military weapons. The right to send my granddaughters to school free from the worry some unhinged maniac is going to visit the school armed well enough to assault the police station. In our society we balance those rights, and regulate behavior.
My firearm of choice for Western Oregon deer hunting is the 1894 Winchester. 20” barrel, lever action. Shoots the .45 Colt pistol cartridge, an original black powder round. 15 rounds in the barrel, but I put a plug in to limit it to five for hunting. One shot for each lever cycle. My firearm for carry with my arthritic hands is a Smith and Wesson six shot .38 revolver, technology from the late 1800’s into the early 1900’s. When I pick those up I am well armed, and safe from most threats in our world. Just not a maniac with an AR-15 and unlimited 30 round magazines.
The immediate public safety threat would be reduced because the police would retain the high capacity magazines, and have a tactical advantage. If you are going to argue that citizens have equal rights to weapons with law enforcement, you are a moron. If you argue you need to retain unlimited fire power to keep the government in check, you are an insurrectionist. You are probably a tRum[ite, but I repeat myself. I would like to make carry of more than four five round long gun magazines in public a felony, and incarcerated violators for 18-24 months under current sentencing guidelines.
What about buy-backs of high capacity magazines? Debatable. Did we buy out all the alcohol inventory when we instituted prohibition? I am not against it, I just want a policy debate.