For various reasons, a number of my Facebook Friends have beliefs about what causes gun massacres that are very different than mine, and some of them write posts and re-post posts that they believe support their POV. I choose to refrain from responding to such posts in the hope of gaining insight as to why they believe what they do.
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: I am NOT a gun expert. I’m hoping this blog/diary post will attract the input of those in the DK community who are.
As we’ve all seen by now, some 2A zealots try to invalidate the opinions of gun regulation advocates with claims that the latter literally don’t know what they are talking about, beginning with the very definitions of such terms as “assault rifle” and “weapon of war”.
This person’s FB post makes a related argument: Liberals don’t know that semi-auto rifles every bit as deadly as the AK-47 and AR-15 have existed for over a century! Thus, it can’t be their availability that’s causing the present epidemic of mass shooting...
Here’s what my FBF posted on his page:
Here’s a fun history lesson!
A hundred and twelve years ago, in 1907...our great grandparents were first able to buy the rifle pictured: the semi-auto Winchester Model 1907.
This is a gun they could buy from a Sears catalogue and have delivered via US Post. It was/ is a semi-automatic, high powered centerfire rifle, with detachable, high capacity magazine.
About 400,000 of these were produced before WW2. Civilians had hundreds of thousands of these semi-auto rifles for 40 years, while US soldiers were still being issued old fashioned bolt action rifles.
The 1907 fired just as fast as an AR15 or AK47 [emphasis added] and the bullet (.351 Winchester) was actually larger than those fired by the more modern looking weapons.
The ONLY functional difference between the 1907 and a controversial and much feared AR15 is the modern black plastic stock.
To summarize:
The semi auto, so-called "assault rifle" is 110 years old. It isnt new in any way.
The semi auto rifle was not a weapon of war. The government MADE IT a weapon of war 40 years after civilians had them.
The semi-auto can be safely owned by civilians. The proof is that literally 3 generations of adults owned and used them responsibly and no one ever even noticed.
[snip]
It always amazes people when I tell them the AK-47 has been around since...1947. The AR-15 has been around since the mid-50s. The Uzi came out just a couple years before the AR-15. The 1911 was introduced in 1911, although it was a modification of a gun that was introduced in 1905. About the only "new" thing in firearms has been the use of plastics, which Glock started doing in 1983, but H&K first did it in 1970, and Remington was doing it 10+ years earlier. Pretty much every modern centerfire handgun is based on either the 1911 or the Walther P38, both of which have been around for just over, and just under, 100 years, respectively.
Guns really haven't changed much in design in almost a century. They're machined better, made of better materials, and plastic has gone from a novelty to a staple, but we're long overdue for a real revolution in gun design. So if guns haven't changed, what has?
The poster goes on to accuse “evil liberalism” of allowing the changes in society that now motivates crazy people to attempt mass slaughter.
But that dubious line of cause-and-effect is NOT why I’m venturing out of my usual Lurker Mode here on DK (although I am not shy about Recommending diaries and posts by people who are nimbler of finger than I who type thoughts that are similar to mine, long before I’ve finished reading through everyone’s Comments).
No, what I want to get input about is the veracity of the poster’s assertion that the 1907 is every bit as deadly as the AKs and ARs. Aside from greater overall weight (read: amount of plastic vs metal and wood), are there any reasons why a wannabe mass murderer wouldn’t be able to kill as many people with a Winchester 1907 as with a “modern sporting rifle”?
Specifically:
Can a Winchester 1907 pump out bullets just as fast and as accurately as an AK or an AR or an Uzi?
How damaging are the bullets it fires (.351 Winchester) compared to the .223 ammo used by the AR-15 and its close kin?
(Can somebody supply links to articles by first responders that compare the damage done by AR-15 bullets to those used in other commonly available rifles and shotguns and sidearms and such?)