[446] in libertarians
My Trip to a Gun Range (First Ever)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Vernon Imrich)
Mon Dec 5 19:09:49 1994
To: libertarians@MIT.EDU, Libernet@Dartmouth.EDU, mcpherso@lumina.uscd.edu
Date: Mon, 05 Dec 1994 19:07:28 EST
From: Vernon Imrich <vimrich@MIT.EDU>
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Tonight, for the first time ever, I got to see up close a few of
the guns covered by recent (manufacture, not possession) bans. My
primary reasoning for going was to simply be able to say that I
"fired banned guns" which suits my challenge authority mentality.
But as the evening progressed, I think I learned more about the
gun issue, in almost indescribable ways, than I could ever have
otherwise. Forgive the errors, if I've made any, in gun descriptions.
I'm doing this from memory.
The event was sponsored by the MIT Libertarians. A couple of us city
folks were the guests of a local gun enthusiast at a legal, safe
firing range in Woburn, MA. (We've been running this for a few people
at a time for several weeks now.)
First we fired four different kinds of handguns, one a revolver, the
others pistols of differing calibers. The pistols each had the recently
banned "clips holding more than ten rounds." In addition to these, we
had a chance to fire an AR-15 (a so called "assault rifle") and an L1-A1.
I tell you, it was very enlightening to see REAL guns up close.
The movie portrayals just don't come close. This was an invaluable
experience for me. To see for myself what exactly makes a gun fire
the way it does, what things make it dangerous, and just get a feel
for what they really are. Just being around the range was inciteful.
It wasn't a bunch of macho wanna-be's or nuts. They were ordinary
folks of varying backgrounds, age, and race (though true, of the ten or
so people I saw, none were women).
I am not a gun enthusisast, nor am I likely to ever own a gun. In fact,
I was litterally shivering at first when I held them, viewing them almost
like bombs that might explode in my hands. After I went through the
mechanisms and procedures, however, I gained a type of understanding
that I could not have got otherwise. There is an immense feeling of
power, like when you drive a car the first time, and realize you've
got a ton of metal moving under your control. Rather than invigorating
you with some sort of lunatic zeal, however, it is really a humbling
experience, like living through a storm or something. There is a sense of
respect and responsibility that is indescribable.
The *reasons* some of these guns have been banned now seem ridiculous. One
model was perfectly legal with a wooden stock, but illegal (just to
manufacture) with the "evil looking" black hand grip style stock. Other
legal factors included whether there was a bayonette mount (to prevent
all those bayonette attacks I guess), a flash guard (which is just
a piece of metal at the end of the barrel that diffuses the fire
leaving the barrel so that in wartime enemy people would have a
harder time pinpointing your location by the light of your gun fire),
and other purely cosmetic things. It was as if the gun laws had been
written by people with no understanding of firepower, who'd simply
strolled through a gun shop picking out the ones that "looked bad."
No matter what your perspective on gun issues, everyone should take the
time to give this try. There is only so much you can gather from position
papers and media hype. This is perhaps the single most worthwile event
I've ever been part of. I suggest every student group, activist
association, and so forth give this opportunity to gun novices. Even
for someone like myself, who strongly opposed gun control laws for
practical reasons anyway, there was a bias born of ignorance that I
didn't even realize I had.
And BTW, I *almost* hit the ten ring :)
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| Vernon Imrich | market failure, n. The inabilty of the |
| MIT OE, Rm 5-329b | market to recover from a blow by |
| Cambridge, MA 02139 | intervention. (The Exchange) |
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