6 thoughts on “Steven Hunter Interview on NPR”

  1. I was very excited to hear this…then I listened to it.

    I thought he did a very poor job making his case…the worst was at the end where he said that 98% of these mags end up in drawers and never used (which I was surprised that the host didn’t immediately leap on and say “if they aren’t used by anyone, why have them available to anyone?”).

    And then he made the comment about women in general being unwilling to train. Do male shooters in general train more than women? Maybe…but I bet it is a very small additional percent BECAUSE MOST MEN DON’T TRAIN EITHER. Mssr Hunter needs to remember the addage…”when you are trying to get yourself out of a hole, the first thing to thing to do is stop digging”.

    Frankly, the second caller was much more articulate and on point.

  2. Perhaps unavoidable, it seems that arguing the “need” for a various thing or tool is less than ideal.

    In part because you sound like a whacko to many people, and in part because whether one needs a gun (and accessories) or not is a moot point.

  3. The second caller definitely made the most sense. His comments about how he privately provided soldiers in Iraq with extended magazines, even 15-round magazines was very interesting and I have to suspect that part of the shortage in magazines holding more than 10 rounds had to be a result of those being banned for production for the decade prior. The interaction & overlap between civilian & military markets and production capacity is something policy makers should be more aware of.

    Hunter’s comment about women not practicing was unfortunately distracting, and out of character (read his books.) I see a lot more men than women at the range, but the women who are there are definitely practicing. I think the point he was trying to make is that there are a lot more gun owners and gun collectors than shooting practitioners, which is certainly true.

  4. As a former service member, let me tell you, during the ban, my pro-gun friends and I stole every pre-ban magazine we could get our hands on. I kept all the ones I got, but my friends had a side business of selling them for top dollar to the highest bidder. You know what the result was? Our unit got brand new magazines, replacing the worn out old ones we had. Everybody wins, except the taxpayers. The lesson is that when you prohibit something from the citizenry, they can still get it, you just incentivize illegal activity. Don’t believe for one second there weren’t cops doing this, too.

  5. “The lesson is that when you prohibit something from the citizenry, they can still get it, you just incentivize illegal activity.”

    Yep, bans cause crime, in many areas.

  6. Sure there were cops doing this too.

    Glocktalk had a thread discussing magazines that had a suspicious groove ground between the witness holes right where the “Law enforcement only” verbiage should have been.

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