Sunday, February 10, 2008

Guns: The California Legal Rifle

About the most absurd consequence of needlessly restrictive gun laws is the rise of "California legal" rifles. To understand this phenomenon, you need some background. You see, in nearly every other state in the U.S. (including Florida), the purchase of so-called "assault weapons" (that is, crippled semiautomatic versions of fully-automatic rifles) is legal. I used to have several myself. They're fun to shoot and are a decent choice for home defense, because their military lineage makes for a tough rifle. They are almost never used by criminals. These rifles, however, are banned under California law.


The thing is, since the only differences which separate a scary-looking "assault weapon" from Grandpa's semiauto deer rifle are cosmetic, the California ban is mostly concerned with various features (like pistol grips and folding stocks) that have nothing to do with how lethal a firearm is. Enterprising gun manufacturers have found ways to produce rifles that look and feel a lot like the banned rifles, pistol grips and all:



In some cases, though, like with the Kel-Tec SU-16CA, you get a semiautomatic rifle that accepts detachable magazines and is essentially just as effective as the "dangerous assault weapon":

It's a very curious phenomenon. Here, we have a rifle that accepts the same accessories, fires the same ammunition, and has the same firing rate as a rifle that can be purchased in Utah or Nevada. And yet, for some reason, Californians (or at least their government) think that those scary rifles across the border are so much worse than the rifles that can be bought legally in a California gun shop. I've said it before, and I'll say it again - the legislation is either very stupid or devilishly clever.

2 Comments:

At 12:40 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The reason why folding stocks are illegal is because criminals would be able to compact the rifle and smuggle it in crowded areas like schools or hide it in their car.

The reason why pistol grips are illegal is because a mass murderer can shoot multiple targets very quickly with a pistol grip. A pistol grip also alows for more versatility in tight shootouts against the police.

The reason why flash dampners are illegal is because snipers would be able to kill innocent people with less chance of someone seeing where the shooter is.

 
At 4:42 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Lol, the guy above has no idea what he is talking about. taking five inches off of a rifles length DOES NOT make it concealable...it is still 3 feet long. you couldn't hide it under your jacket if you wanted to.

Pistol grips don's give you that much control on a rifle. All they do is allow you to fire from your hip (which is the reason they were outlawed according to the CA liberals). I would rather someone fire from their hip at me, than shoulder their rifle and actually aim...

A sniper will not be located by sight, but actually sound. A good sniper would position himself deep inside a window, so that he could not be seen by anyone but his victim. If its in the middle of the day, a person can't see a flash from a rifle anyways. A flash suppresor is useful in group on group battles, because the noise of all the firing makes it impossible to use sound to triangulate a person's position.

 

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