One Shot

In looking at the mass murders and gun insanity that is taking place in present day America, one wonders if there isn’t a way available to limit the loss of innocent lives, without taking away the legitimate use of guns from those who collect them and use them for sport.    The idea here is to stop the lunacy driven massacres, without punishing those not responsible.   That would be good law and the answer to it is making the only legal civilian weapon, single shot.  Let’s see how that would affect the various acceptable gun uses.

Hunting.  When I was a motorcycle dealer, during the sixties, I took a beautiful hunting rifle in trade on a motorcycle.  I am a gun collector and target shooter.  The rifle, a Remington auto-loader, 308 Winchester caliber, with a telescopic scope and beautiful wooden stock, had only been fired six times.  Five times to sight in the scope and one time, hunting, to mistakenly shoot a nine year old boy off of an ATV.  The hunter killed the boy.  Had the hunter been hunting with a single shot rifle and only had one shot to fire, the game would have been carefully stalked, better identified and the single shot would have been placed with far more care, but with this rifle, he still had four more rounds quickly available.  The nine year old he killed would today be considering his retirement and his wife and family’s future.  The hunter might still be hunting, but would be much better at it.  Most hunters would probably agree that without an easy second shot, they would be a far better hunter.  So the single shot could benefit the hunter while limiting his selection of guns.

Home defense.  All of the above applies to home defense as well.  There are far too many loved ones mistakenly injured or killed, in the act of “home defense”.  The defender, with a single shot gun, will place a well-aimed shot at an identified menacing target.  Also, from a gun safety standpoint, a single shot gun would be much harder to mistake for “empty” and cause an unintended discharge.  Many single shot guns have an exposed hammer as an additional warning of their readiness to fire.

Collectors.  It makes little or no difference to a collector, whether a gun in the collection can fire one or twenty rounds.  He or she isn't firing it, other than occasionally on a range, to test it, unless they are a hunter or target shooter, as well as a collector.

 

Target shooting.  I am a target shooter as well as a collector (gun nut).  I formed an NRA club at my high school ROTC range, in the late 50’s.  At that point in history, the NRA was primarily about gun safety, especially on the shooting range and they were very effective..  They were not a political organization or a lobbyist for gun manufacturers.  And, “We liked it that way.”  It would not be a problem for target shooters to reload their firearm after each round fired.  It may cause each round to be more carefully placed on the target.  I would prefer it and I suspect that most who use their gun in timed competition would happily agree to the competition requiring reloading after each shot, in order to ultimately end the mass murders.

Walter Mitty.  Some folks go out and spend two to five thousand dollars on something called an “assault rifle” and dress their small children in “camos”.  They would be the most damaged by a single shot civilian law.  Winning the lottery for them, I suspect, would be actual combat, that they survived, unscathed.  It is the imaginary hero in them who has played a few too many video war games.  A few even see their government as a potential threat that they are armed and ready to defend against.  These assault rifles are not great target rifles.  They have plastic stocks and short barrels and a short sight radius deeming them less accurate.  The assault weapon is not a piece of art or an example of fine craftsmanship.  The finest hunting rifles today are generally bolt action and not particularly good for rapid fire.  The auto loading hand guns pretty well fit the description of the assault rifles.  Large capacity clips, being offered by accessory manufacturers, have no logical use other than sweeping a Safeway parking lot.  There is no rational excuse for producing the large capacity clips.  In 2006 a poll of uniformed British police indicated that 82% did not wish to be armed and they aren't. Most people don’t need to be armed to live their lives.  I suppose the most common reason for “packing” is an irrational fear.  The imaginary warriors and the fearful, need to limit their favorite imagined gun pastime to video games and leave the actual guns at the sporting goods stores.

If tomorrow it were illegal to produce, sell or own a gun, other than a single shot, would the mass murders end?  No, not immediately.  You could require a simple modification to turn any gun now owned into a single shot unit, but not all people presently owning them would comply.  But, these illegal weapons would soon be too expensive and rare to be easily gotten and the homicidal lunatic who commits the mass murders would not so easily obtain them.  They would not be sold at WalMart.  Gun manufacturers and their outlets would have a whole new product market open up with the single shot legal weapon.  Gun legislation can be very effective, but it will take time to eradicate the problem of rapid fire weapons.  Have you recently heard of a silencer being used in a killing, mass or otherwise?  How about a fully automatic, machine gun?  My point is, fifty years after the gun law is implemented, it’s pretty darn effective.  Better background checks would have had little effect on the recent mass killings.  That is not to say that better background checks and psychological help to the mentally ill are not good legislation, but we would do better to limit the tools available for mass murder.   Act today to stop the problems of tomorrow.  Stand for making the rapid loading guns illegal.  It makes sense and it can be done.

Cheers, Old Buz (the gun nut)