So here’s this anti who has sadly concluded gun owners may have a point about one thing…
The 300 million guns that are in private hands aren’t going away; I can’t think of any law or incentive program that would suddenly make the disappear. When Australia decided to crack down on gun laws, it managed only to repurchase 600,000.
So as odious as it sounds, the argument that “criminals are going to get guns” is a valid one. Closing the private sale loophole might make it harder, as would common enforcement across states, but let’s face it: These instruments of hunting, aggression, and self-defense are here among us.
But oh! Oh! He’s got the answer! (Seriously, I’m not making this up.)
Ammunition degrades because the gunpower inside of it does not last forever in the compressed state that it lives. The accuracy of a bullet declines slowly over time. Heat is especially bad for ammunition of all types. The more times you chamber a round, the likelier it will degrade. For most people, the decline in accuracy is mitigated somewhat by the fact that they never use their firearms for self-defense purposes. But it really can be a problem in the long-run. And that’s why ammo manufacturers are even more profitable than gun manufacturers.
Because ammunition is gun food, if we can starve the guns a bit, or change the way ammunition sales are regulated and controlled, perhaps we can change the way guns are used.
Remington. Winchester. Speer. Hornady. These are the lions of the business. Let’s put aside the cartridges used for hunting and sporting. Those are easily identifiable. We can exclude them from this exercise.
If we can figure out a reasonable way to limit both the number of bullets that someone can buy as well as the type of magazine that allows them to shoot an unreasonable amount of bullets in a single session,
Einstein goes on to list his “reasonable” ways, which will sound quite familiar. I wouldn’t be the one to shatter his peaceful little dreams by telling him a major source of battle rifle ammo is decades old before it ever hits American shores, and that it works just fine. Or that any properly-stored ammo, left unfired, will easily outlive its owner. Not to mention the small matter of (shhh!) reloading. I really don’t know what gave this brainiac the notion that ammunition will be going away any time sooner than the guns that make it go bang.
Where he got the idea that “(t)he accuracy of a bullet declines slowly over time,” I’d truly love to know. I imagine it would be entertaining.
H/T to Sipsey Street.
I do avoid shooting 19th Century black powder cartridge loads…
I have some .45ACP from the ’40s that is a bit unreliable, and some Pakistani .303 that will hang fire in cold weather. Makes you concentrate on the shot just that much more.
Poor guy. Maybe someone oughta tell him that ammo pretty much has the shelf life of Twinkies. Or better.
I had some 7.62x54R out a few months ago. 50 years old. Went bang every time and was reasonably accurate. Well within acceptable mil surp. range. Still managed to put a mice dent in a hardened plate at 300 yds.
This internet myth that ammo has a short shelf life has always amused a guy who spent his misspent youth in the 80s ditching school and shooting dads Garand with ammo dated in the 40s.
A may be a bit unreasonable to expect people that are delusional from fear, paranoia, and complete ignorance to have arguments that exist within the confines of reality. I keep expecting to hear one of the more rabid anti’s to start talking about how, with only a few hours of practice, someone could snipe at folk from half a mile away with a 9mm pistol.
Hmm, overseas I fed my M2HB thousands of rounds of ammo dating from WWII. 1943 headstamp on the API, some later date on the APIT rounds, I don’t recall when they were made. The only malf I ever had was due to a loose link: the round worked out backward enough to jam the gun. Check your belts, people.
The 40mm grenades I used in my M203 were late Vietnam era manufacture. The smokes sucked, due to highly variable propelling charges, but the HEDP grenades were very consistent and dead on target.
Plus thousands of rounds stateside. Most of my non-5.56mm surplus is older than me, and some of it is older than my dad.
But anyway. Ignoring all the other fantasyland idiocy, he also suggests exempting sporting and hunting ammunition from this little ban of his. That just shows a complete failure to connect the dots. Hunting, hopefully, involves killing prey. Tracking game sucks, so it is best to kill the game quickly. A quick kill is important to prevent animal suffering, as all ethical hunters should (when hunting for sport, anyway). It seems likely, therefore, that ammunition designed for hunting is designed to kill very quickly and efficiently. Those sound like the last things we want on the streets! Assault bullets!
There’s a reason my M1A gets 180gr Partitions or Accubonds in the woods, and it’s not because I think tossing an extra half dollar down the barrel with each shot builds cool points. I don’t feel like tracking a spiteful moose across a freaking crevasse laced glacier because I used crap ammo, and if I need to shoot a grizz over a fishing rights dispute, I want him to know he’s been shot before he eats me.
Had some 1918 headstamp 45 acp fired off about 10 rounds with no misfires or problems!!