Showing posts with label History. Show all posts
Showing posts with label History. Show all posts
Monday, April 8, 2013
Dancing on Graves for Fun and Profit
Do not speak ill of the dead, we’re told.
Why not?
The dead are beyond the reach of my slings and arrows. More dangerous, to my mind is the whitewashing of misdeeds done by the recently deceased.
I will agree that Westboro Baptist style celebration at the death of young men and women taken too soon is offensive to the grieving family. It is insensitive and hateful.
But if a person dies in the fullness of time, and that person’s acts were harmful to many, I don’t see why a little fist pump is so bad a thing. If an old, miserable dick dies, I think it’s fine to be happy that the world is a bit less dickish.
Margaret Thatcher began her reign of evil by abolishing free milk for schoolchildren aged seven to eleven. Turning back Vietnamese refugees, because of “concerns” about the number of Asian immigrants, demolishing labor unions, privatizing services, making the first cuts to the NHS, and the utter tone deaf awfulness of her response to the crisis in Northern Ireland all show a callus disregard of basic human dignity and needs of anyone not wealthy and English.
I won’t shed a tear at the end of a life, when countless thousands of more innocent lives were destroyed or made harder by policies she championed.
To show my UK friends that it’s not a matter of national identity, I assure everyone I’m shining my tap shoes for dancing on the graves of Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney as well.
So I will happily accept criticism of my comments and attitude, while echoing the sentiments of Labor MP George Galloway who tweeted “Tramp the dirt down.”
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Choose the Right Tool for the Job- Guns and Ammo Edition
Much of the current gun debate here in the US has centered around assault rifles and high capacity magazines. Predictably, this has prompted outrage and strawman arguments form the pro gun groups.
I'm neither dogmatically pro gun or anti gun. I'm a guy with a history degree and some Marine Corps time under my belt. Here is a little perspective on the history, development and uses of assault rifles and high capacity magazines.
They were developed by and for the military, to fit military needs. A soldier and a civilian have different requirements from a gun.
A soldier wants a gun that holds lots of rounds and is quick to reload because he’s shooting at people who are trying to kill him. If he misses, he wants to get that second shot off fast, because the guy he missed is trying to kill him. Even if he hits, the guy’s buddies are still trying to kill him. Firing that next shot quickly becomes really, really nice. As the Zulu War and Little Bighorn showed, even an enemy with Stone Age weapons can rush you and kill you with a spear or tomahawk or bow and arrow while you grope in your ammo pouch between shots. This is why armies developed fast firing weapons with bigger magazines, going from muzzle loaders to breech loaders to magazine rifles to semi automatic magazine rifles.
The assault rifle was invented by the Germans in WWII as just that. A weapon with the rapid fire of a submachine gun but the longer range and accuracy of a rifle, to use in an assault. They even called it the Sturmgewehr, which is just German for “assault rifle.” The purpose of the rapid firing rifle is so that some members of a rifle squad can use the fire to keep the enemy’s head down while the rest of the squad moves in. It’s the best thing since sliced bread for fire and maneuver tactics. If you want to keep an enemy suppressed so your buddy can get close enough to toss a grenade in his trench, you want an assault rifle. It tends to be short, light and easier to quickly point and shoot than a traditional rifle, and uses a smaller cartridge than a rifle, but still bigger than a submachine gun, which usually uses a pistol cartridge.
The best weapon for a guy who wants to shoot a deer is not a high capacity assault rifle. A hunter wants to hide and wait until he has a good shot, then he gets one shot, and the deer is hit or it bounds off through the trees, presenting a very difficult target for a second shot. The goal is a one shot kill. The best rifle for that is a bolt action .30-06. It’s more accurate than an assault rifle, and it’s a bigger bullet, with more knockdown, so a hit is more likely to drop the animal so you don’t have to chase it through the woods.
Deer don’t wear Kevlar, so you don’t need a full metal jacketed .223 round.. Deer don’t attack in waves and gore you while you reload. Deer don’t take cover and shoot back, so you don’t need to suppress them so your squad can outflank the deer’s position.
In fact, the best all purpose hunting weapon is the 12 gauge shotgun. With just a change of ammo you can hunt ducks, geese, deer, rabbits, squirrels, turkey, and pretty much anything with a legal season in the US. Plus, it’s perfectly adequate to defend your home.
If you want to protect yourself from being mugged and raped walking to the bus stop, an assault rifle is a lousy choice as well, since it doesn’t fit in your purse. A handgun with a standard magazine should be fine. Threats will be at close range, and as a friend of mine once said when questioned about the capacity of his choice of handgun, “anything that can survive six rounds of 44 ammo deserves to live.”
This isn’t opinion. This is history. The high capacity magazine was designed to meet a military need. The assault rifle was designed to meet a military need. They’re good for shooting a lot of people with very little time between shots. So, yeah, they are pretty much ideal for all kinds of illegal stuff, like shooting up a mall or school or mowing down firefighters, but sub par for most legitimate civilian reasons, like hunting or self defense. You aren’t allowed to mount an M-60 to the rollbar of your Jeep and play Rat Patrol either and we’ve managed not to turn into Russia.
So, yes, we can question the civilian desire for high capacity magazines in the same way we can question the guy who wants to use an F-350 as his city commuter vehicle and haul firewood with a Smartcar.
I'm neither dogmatically pro gun or anti gun. I'm a guy with a history degree and some Marine Corps time under my belt. Here is a little perspective on the history, development and uses of assault rifles and high capacity magazines.
They were developed by and for the military, to fit military needs. A soldier and a civilian have different requirements from a gun.
A soldier wants a gun that holds lots of rounds and is quick to reload because he’s shooting at people who are trying to kill him. If he misses, he wants to get that second shot off fast, because the guy he missed is trying to kill him. Even if he hits, the guy’s buddies are still trying to kill him. Firing that next shot quickly becomes really, really nice. As the Zulu War and Little Bighorn showed, even an enemy with Stone Age weapons can rush you and kill you with a spear or tomahawk or bow and arrow while you grope in your ammo pouch between shots. This is why armies developed fast firing weapons with bigger magazines, going from muzzle loaders to breech loaders to magazine rifles to semi automatic magazine rifles.
The assault rifle was invented by the Germans in WWII as just that. A weapon with the rapid fire of a submachine gun but the longer range and accuracy of a rifle, to use in an assault. They even called it the Sturmgewehr, which is just German for “assault rifle.” The purpose of the rapid firing rifle is so that some members of a rifle squad can use the fire to keep the enemy’s head down while the rest of the squad moves in. It’s the best thing since sliced bread for fire and maneuver tactics. If you want to keep an enemy suppressed so your buddy can get close enough to toss a grenade in his trench, you want an assault rifle. It tends to be short, light and easier to quickly point and shoot than a traditional rifle, and uses a smaller cartridge than a rifle, but still bigger than a submachine gun, which usually uses a pistol cartridge.
The best weapon for a guy who wants to shoot a deer is not a high capacity assault rifle. A hunter wants to hide and wait until he has a good shot, then he gets one shot, and the deer is hit or it bounds off through the trees, presenting a very difficult target for a second shot. The goal is a one shot kill. The best rifle for that is a bolt action .30-06. It’s more accurate than an assault rifle, and it’s a bigger bullet, with more knockdown, so a hit is more likely to drop the animal so you don’t have to chase it through the woods.
Deer don’t wear Kevlar, so you don’t need a full metal jacketed .223 round.. Deer don’t attack in waves and gore you while you reload. Deer don’t take cover and shoot back, so you don’t need to suppress them so your squad can outflank the deer’s position.
In fact, the best all purpose hunting weapon is the 12 gauge shotgun. With just a change of ammo you can hunt ducks, geese, deer, rabbits, squirrels, turkey, and pretty much anything with a legal season in the US. Plus, it’s perfectly adequate to defend your home.
If you want to protect yourself from being mugged and raped walking to the bus stop, an assault rifle is a lousy choice as well, since it doesn’t fit in your purse. A handgun with a standard magazine should be fine. Threats will be at close range, and as a friend of mine once said when questioned about the capacity of his choice of handgun, “anything that can survive six rounds of 44 ammo deserves to live.”
This isn’t opinion. This is history. The high capacity magazine was designed to meet a military need. The assault rifle was designed to meet a military need. They’re good for shooting a lot of people with very little time between shots. So, yeah, they are pretty much ideal for all kinds of illegal stuff, like shooting up a mall or school or mowing down firefighters, but sub par for most legitimate civilian reasons, like hunting or self defense. You aren’t allowed to mount an M-60 to the rollbar of your Jeep and play Rat Patrol either and we’ve managed not to turn into Russia.
So, yes, we can question the civilian desire for high capacity magazines in the same way we can question the guy who wants to use an F-350 as his city commuter vehicle and haul firewood with a Smartcar.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)