A couple people had expressed interest in this topic, and I have a bit of extra time for a couple days, so here goes:
Bona fides: I am a former infantry NCO and sniper, hunter, competitive shooter, reloader, hobby gunsmith, sometimes firearms trainer and currently work in a gun shop, mostly on the paperwork/compliance side. Back in the day, was a qualified expert with every standard small arm in the US inventory circa 2003 (M2, 4, 9, 16, 19, 249, 240B, 21, 24, 82 etc.), and today hang around the 75th percentile of USPSA classifications. I've shot Cap-and-Ball, Trap and Sporting Clays badly; Bullseye and PRS somewhat better and IDPA/USPSA/UML/Two-gun with some local success. Been active in the 2A community since the mid-90s, got my first instructor cert in high school, and have held a CPL for almost twenty years now.
I certainly don't claim to be an expert in every aspect of firearms, there's huge areas that escape my knowledge base, but if you've got questions I'll do my best to answer.
Technical questions
Gun control proposals for feasibility
Industry
Training
Wacky opinions
General geekery
Some competition links (not my own) just for the interested.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=U5IhsWamaLY&t=173
https://youtube.com/watch?v=93nEEINflXE
https://youtube.com/watch?v=utcky0zq10E
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
There is a somewhat obscure bit of the gun control debate I’d welcome a legitimate steelman for: concealed carry on mass transit.
I live in a US city that is rather notorious for high crime rates, and grew up in a family that was…dad and grandpa were hunters held in very high regard, which is a long story, but I grew up familiar with guns. When there was a debate about concealed carry on the mass transit systems here, notably the trains, my instinct was to sneer, because superficially it seemed like bravado. But then past that, it seemed totally unworkable to me, because I just can’t picture myself getting a good solid bead on an attacker in one of those swaying clanking metal tubes.
Put another way, besides “feeling” that guns on trains are a bad idea, it also seems like concealed carry in those situations would end up with more friendly fire accidents than dead muggers. (Note: I’m a big-city liberal but also have absolutely no inherent problems mowing down criminals, especially after a robbery nearby where some bastard fatally shot the victim’s dog while out walking.) As someone who has had proper training, and not just flushing quail: any thoughts?
Great question, I'll take a stab too.
A lot of people believe that Defensive Gun Use (DGU) involves high-accuracy shots from ~25 yards. This is... not the case. They're still incredibly high-stress and having training is important, but the distances we're talking about are < 7 yards. On Mass Transit, nobody will be trying to get a headshot from across the car (hopefully). It will be an up-close confrontation. Bystander hits come from inaccuracy and overpenetration.
As /u/JTarrou mentioned, statistically CCW holders are (brutally and hilariously in a laugh-to-not-cry way) far more cautious and accurate than police officers. The difference is significant.
Regarding overpenetration, a carrying best practice is to use expensive anti-personnel ammunition with high expansion and controlled penetration designed to kill one person as quickly as possible. Neither of these is 100% foolproof but it's a point to be made.
Mass Transit is a hive of scum, villainy, and harassment, and it's gotten worse the past two years. Not carrying on mass transit is pretty much not carrying at all.
Like all CCW liberalization over the past 20 years, the doomsday wild west doomsday that hath been prophesized has simply never materialized. 6-12% of this country has a permit, and 2% of them carry every day. Meanwhile, crime rates have dropped and no serious problems have been identified in CCW holders as a group. Even the trivial effort required to obtain a permit in many states is acting as a reasonably effective filter. What I'd consider great criteria for CCW permits is another discussion entirely (TL;DR: I'd support more if I thought they'd be implemented fairly across the US)
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link