Anti-gun activists have much in common with the original Luddites. They blame new technologies and users of those technologies for their own plight, and aren’t above using violence to achieve their goals. Luddites did their own killing, whereas “anti-gunners” — more “anti personal guns for ordinary people” in truth — try to use the ATF and other government agencies as their cat’s paw.
The rallying cry of the anti-gun bigots is usually “for reasonable gun control!” They claim that old, simple guns are just fine, it’s the new and extra deadly weapons and ammunition that are the evil incarnate. Even if we assume they aren’t lying about their intentions, let’s look at the history of the devices they are trying to eradicate from common use:
Long range rifles – in civilian use by 1515 for hunting and competition, in common military use by the late 1700s
High capacity handguns – 20-shot pinfire revolvers common from 1830s to 1850s.
Semi-auto pistols with capacity over 10 rounds – 1905 (Savage)
Machine guns – 1882 (Maxim)
Submachine guns – 1915 (Villar Perosa)
Semi-automatic and fully automatic rifles with magazines over ten rounds (1887) – Mondragon
Hollow point ammunition for handguns – 1897 (Webley mk.III)
Automatic revolvers – 1901 (Webley-Fosbery)
Machine pistols – 1932 (Mauser M712 Schnellfeuer, though Steye M1912 also cited as such)
This is only a partial list of the types which the anti-gun people find so objectionable. They have been able to retard the development of small arms and damage the ability of peaceful people to obtain them for self-defense, but to what end? Brigands of all descriptions, from government troops to freelance thugs, are seldom deterred by law from acquiring arms, while the non-violent people are handicapped in defending their lives and families.
We can only hope that Brady creatures and their government enablers would meet the same end as the Luddites, a dismissive entry in history books and a complete political irrelevance.
“We can only hope that Brady creatures and their government enablers would meet the same end as the Luddites, a dismissive entry in history books and a complete political irrelevance.”
The WCTU still exists. I suspect the Bradys will linger on in like manner.
Bet they completely lose their minds when someone builds a working, reliable, and lightweight laser rifle.
Don’t worry the government will ban it before it ever comes to that point.
In all likely hood it’ll probably be the FCC banning access to diodes of adequate wattage. There have already been threats to do that with the >1watt diodes currently available.
They’re not Luddites. That’s just a ruse in order to seem “reasonable” and “common sense.” This is just their first step. They want to ban them all to make up for their own shame.
In the long run, they’d like to ban the concept of self-defense. Some because they expect mercy from predators if everyone is meek like them, others because they are the predators. Guns, cross-bows, swords, sticks…all those are weapons and thus hated.
Here’s an excellent article on the topic: http://www.stephenhalbrook.com/article-nazilaw.pdf Restrictions covered firearms, air guns, knives and even sticks.
Semi-auto pistols with capacity over 10 rounds – 1905 (Savage)
Wasn’t the C-96 Mauser available with a 20 round magazine before 1905?
The earlier examples, the better, for these purposes…
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Whenever I see a car up here in Minnesota with a “repeal concealed carry” bumper sticker I always think of that individual as a murderer.
The Continental Congress approved the purchase of a large batch of “chain-fire!” muskets for use by the Army. No documents found to indicate they were built/purchased, though. This was a stacked bullet/powder system, with a slight delay between rounds. We would call it a chain-fire device, since the sequence could not be stopped once you lit off the multi-shot system. The gun was more weather sensitive in some respect than contemporary guns, but I can’t recall the details.
I’ve lost my data on this, and memory is a bit fuzzy. Held between 8-15 shots, IIRC.
I think it had a single shot capability while fully loaded, by use of an ignition cut-off.
Not positive about this.
So, the Founding Fathers were certainly aware of the possibilities of large capacities and machinegun characteristics.
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