Noted Firearms Experts at Slate

Say that an AR-15 really isn’t useful for anything. Sorry, when these are your creds:

I generally consider myself a Second Amendment supporter, and I haven’t yet decided where I stand on post-Newtown gun control. I would own a gun if New York City laws didn’t make it extremely difficult to do so. But I nevertheless find Keene’s arguments disingenuous. It’s odd to cite hunting and home defense as reasons to keep selling a rifle that’s not particularly well suited, and definitely not necessary, for either. Bolt-action rifles and shotguns can also be used for hunting and home defense. Unfortunately, those guns aren’t particularly lucrative for gunmakers. The lobby’s fervent defense of military-style semi-automatic weapons like the AR-15 seems motivated primarily by a desire to protect the profits in the rapidly growing “modern sporting rifle” segment of the industry.

You don’t own a gun, yet you surely know what’s useful for self-defense and hunting? Have you ever hunted? Even shot an AR-15? Look, dude, you have about as much expertise to pontificate on this as I do on hookah bars in Manhattan. There are a lot of reasons the AR-15 as generally useful, all around firearm, which is why it’s the most popular selling rifle (even outside the current panic environment, where they are selling faster than they can be made). This article also reads like someone who has never had to deal with a breakdown in law and order, such as what follows in the aftermath of a major hurricane, which I’m sure some of my Florida readers who went through Hurricane Andrew can give you quite an education on.

17 thoughts on “Noted Firearms Experts at Slate”

  1. I like how they quote the hunter who says that anyone who hunts with a semi sucks. My guess, if he really is a hunter, that he has an aol email account and spends his days telling kids to stay off of his lawn.

  2. Overall I agree with everything you said, but I would point out that NYC just suffered a major hurricane :)

      1. You’re most likely correct, I just thought it was an odd thing to say right after Hurricane Sandy smashed the shit out of NYC haha

  3. “None of my doormen, bouncers, guards, drivers or servants carry an AR-15 that I know of. They have the shoulder thing that goes up, and magazines, but I draw the line at clips and grenade launchers!”

  4. “Bolt-action rifles and shotguns can also be used for hunting and home defense.”

    Who the fuck uses a bolt action rifle for home defense?

    Do they even make bolt action shotguns?

    1. Yep. My dad had one (I don’t remember who made it, though; I’ll have to look the next time I visit my mother). It was a bolt-action .410 with a detachable magazine. It looked very much like someone had taken a rifle design and just modified it a little for .410.

    2. My uncle actually has a bolt action 20 gauge–weirdest thing I’d ever seen.

      1. Yeah I have a friend with a few of them. One has a scope that he shoots sabots out of.

        Very weird, but actually kind of fun too!

  5. From my understanding, nearly every “sporting” arm was originally based on a military pattern from some point in history.

    It wasn’t until the adoption of shoulder fired automatic rifles (BAR, etc.), and the resulting act of 1934 that there was any divergence between military small arms and what private citizens privately used.

  6. You know, I almost lived in a high rise apartment once, but I didn’t because the rent was too much. But that qualifies me to say that we should raze most of lower Manhatten to the ground because nobody needs more than three stories.

    Oh, and I’ll get right on telling the .mil and LEOs that they need to go back to bolt actions.

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