Say Anything Blog

Can you explain how calling your congressman is supposed to effect the Supreme Court?

Actually, a lot of guys I know suggest a short barrel (18” or longer) pump action 12 gauge (no choke) is the best home defense weapon.  Putting the shell into the chamber administers a 2 second IQ test (if they’re not gone afterwards, give ‘em the Darwin award), the pellets are generally not lethal after going through sheetrock, and you don’t have to aim it as much to hit and disable your target.  They’re also far cheaper ($200-250) than a similarly reliable pistol.

(just in case someone is looking for a home defense weapon....)

Of course, DC doesn’t let you have a shotgun, either, so you point that we need to keep the pressure on Congress to get sound judges who understand basic English is well taken.

I’ve read that there are far more accidental shootings with a long gun than a pistol.

Also a long gun is an offensive weapon you grab when there’s going to be trouble.

A pistol is a defensive weapon you can have on your body when you don’t know when you’re going to be attacked.

Furthermore it’s much easier to disarm a person with a long gun than a pistol.

Putting the shell into the chamber administers a 2 second IQ test

In nearly any room, I can cover the distance across the room in under two seconds.  And I am NOT fleet of foot.

What’s going to happen to US industry when the global warming extremists like John McCain double the price of electricity?  I would think all these factories will close and set up in countries where they aren’t scared of technology.

Whistler, I’m having trouble believing your claim about long guns being more dangerous, unless you include hunting accidents.  It would stand to reason that kids having accidents (or adults for that matter) would actually be inhibited by the size of a long gun.

But to your point; I agree that there are pluses and minuses for either.  Either way, DC is way out of line for preventing self-defense.

I’d also suggest that a nighttime burglar might be hampered by not knowing how a room is laid out--and given pause by any sound indicating he’d been detected.  It’s not like a track meet where the only thing the guy has to fear is a paper cut from the finish line tape.

Hawk,
Politics makes strange bedfellows. You don’t know who is a friend of a friend of a friend. Anyway, it won’t hurt.

BB:  I read that factoid in a gun magazine years ago.  On the other hand, in thinking about it I do in fact believe that a loaded pistol in the house is safer than a loaded shotgun.

For one reason it’s easier to secure a loaded pistol.  I can keep it on me if need be.  It won’t tip over and go boom.  Many shotguns do not have a firing pin safety meaning if dropped with around in the chamber they may go boom.

Pick your load, but I would say that more projectiles mean more danger to bystanders.  Buckshot can go through an interior wall as well as a pistol round.

Whatever, in my house I have a locked up pistol as my ready gun.  You seem to like the long gun.  I support your right to make your decision and I assume you support mine.

What’s going to happen to US industry when the global warming extremists like John McCain double the price of electricity?  I would think all these factories will close and set up in countries where they aren’t scared of technology.

Oh, I recommend both, ya know.  :^) That prebate is about the price of a carry gun....

Correction: that DC Gun Ban is Unconstitutional

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

What part of shall not be infringed don’t they understand?  That it has taken over 30 years and requires argument before the Supreme Court is a travesty.

Still, if the ruling is in the direction the arguments and commentary from the bench sound it might go, the Heller decision should be a wonderful victory for the Constitution.  Imagine that, more freedom without need for blood being spilt (as it is, so so quietly in Tibet right about now).

With regard to the merits of long guns over handguns in home defense, in a home defense vs MOUT combat situation, handguns have a distinct advantage.

Houses by their very nature are divided into rooms, floors, partitions, meaning that any confrontation will be close to point-blank.  Long guns have to go around corners and of course have long barrels.

Those long barrels can be grasped by someone just on the other side of that door, say, waiting with their back flat against the wall in the hallway.

Pistols can rapid fire with a single hand, whereas a pump shotgun requires two hands and what may mean a lifetime between shots (gun to gun confrontations can be very quick) Shot recovery, meaning that time the gun can be accurately aimed between shots, is very rapid for small and medium caliber handguns.  For larger handguns and two-handed longguns the recovery time between shots can be significantly larger, depending upon caliber, configuration and so on.

Pistols can be easily locked during the day in a nightstand or headboard equipped with a mini gunlocker.  Long guns take longer to secure and to have at the ready (unlimber). 

Seconds can mean the difference between winning an losing in a close-in gun battle.

At any rate, the Constitution forbids the government from interfering with the rights of the citizen to keep and bear arms, so really, noone in government should be opening their pie-hole as to what weapons citizens should be ‘allowed’ to use.

One last thing.  Last night, listening to CSPANs transmission of the oral arguments of counsel and questioning by the Justices, John Paul Stevens, I think it was, really, really came out with some specious reasoning.

He looked back to the writings surrounding the militia clause of the Second Amendment and noted that only officers were to report to militia duty armed with pistols, while the rank and file were to report bringing their own long guns, shot and powder.

He tried to bootstrap that argument into putting pistols into a special category, which might somehow escape classification as a militia gun, thus protected under the earlier holding in Miller.

That turd!  The reason officers are armed with pistols and not long guns is because their job is t direct the platoon, company, regiment, battalion.. whichever and to use their firepower.  The siderarm is for the officers’ self-defense in overrun situations or simply to maintain discipline in extremis.

I wonder if that Justice had ever worn the boots of a soldier, much less ever served in the military.

...for great justice