As we move towards the Fall and a new session of the Supreme Court of the United States, we will certainly see more and more comments, editorials, and high-strung debates about gun ‘rights.’ This is because the Court is going to take up a challenge to New York’s Sullivan Law and by extension, the existence of discretionary approval for concealed-carry of weapons (CCW) in New York and a few other states.
Ever since two formidable gun researchers, Art Kellerman and Fred Rivara, published work in 1993 and 1994 which found a clear connection between access to guns and increased rates of homicide and suicide, the debate about the social value of guns has swung back and forth.
Our friends in Gun-nut Nation cite research by Gary Kleck, which proposes that using a gun for self-defense results in many violent crimes, perhaps several million violent crimes not being committed each year. On the other hand, research by supporters of Kellerman and Rivara find the opposite to be true.
I happen to think that both sides in this debate tend to ignore a fundamental point. What we do know about gun violence is that the overwhelming number of deaths and injuries caused by using a gun happen to involve guns that are designed for one purpose and one purpose only, which is to shorten human life.
Why do we suffer 14,000 gun homicides as against 75,000 or more non-fatal gun assaults each year? Because the shooter didn’t shoot straight. It’s really as simple as that. The United States is the only country in the entire world which grants its citizens free, legal access to guns that are issued to our troops. Does this unique legal tradition result in a lower rate of violent crime than we find elsewhere? Not one bit. To the contrary, it gives us a much higher rate of violent crimes that end in a death.
The latest manifesto about the value of walking around with a gun is a piece in National Review where the author takes issue with the ACLU for putting up a podcast which claims that the 2nd Amendment has been used to deprive Blacks of gun ‘rights.’ The podcast’s main speaker is Carol Anderson, whose book on how the 2nd Amendment was drafted and used as a racist code was reviewed by me right here.
Basically, what I said in that review is that her history of the 2nd Amendment’s historical roots may be true, but it’s certainly not the case today that giving Whites CCW licenses but denying the same privilege to Blacks results in more Whites killing Blacks. Homicide, particularly committed with a gun, is an intra-racial, not inter-racial affair. Yes, shootings have spiked during the Pandemic, but it’s not because Whites are assaulting Blacks or Blacks assaulting Whites.
The reason that Gaston Glock’s gun became the handgun of choice for military, police and gang-bangers was not because it has a polymer frame and not because it takes a double-stack mag. It’s because the barrel is cut with polygonal rather than spiral grooves. What this means is that the bullet runs up the barrel without the escape of gas, which makes the bullet move much faster when it leaves the barrel, which makes the gun much more lethal, even if the bullet doesn’t hit a vital spot.
In other words, what Glock’s gun was designed to do, and this design was then quickly adopted by just about every other company manufacturing guns for the military and police, was to disable or kill someone no matter how quickly the gun would be drawn, pointed, and used.
The issue isn’t whether the 2nd Amendment gives any law-abiding the ‘right’ to walk around with a gun. The issue is whether the 2nd Amendment should give Constitutional protection for the purchase and ownership of guns that were designed only for the purpose of ending human life.
And before you start telling me that you have a ‘right’ to own any gun you want, just remember that what is considered ‘defensive’ gun use to one person may be ‘offensive’ gun use to someone else.
Jul 27, 2021 @ 15:51:29
Polygonal rifling. Well, I learned something today!
Jul 27, 2021 @ 16:00:53
Although I strongly suspect the main difference in lethality is not polygonal vs. traditional rifling, given the low hit rates of all shooters, but the replacement of older cartridges like the 25 cal, 32 cal, 38 Colt, 38 Special, etc. by modern higher performance loads such as the 9mm ACP and 40 S&W. Comparing standard 38 Spc loads vs. standard 9 mm loads (roughly 200-300 ft lbs vs. 300-400 ft lbs) is enough, not to mention going from a six shooter to a high capacity semiauto.
Jul 27, 2021 @ 23:35:01
So let me make sure I’m reading this correctly…it may be something important. According to this post the advantages of barrels with polygonal rifling include a smaller gap between bullet and bore, leading to slightly higher bullet velocities. Am I correct? I believe I can believe that. And “this design was then quickly adopted by just about every other company manufacturing guns for the military and police, was to disable or kill someone no matter how quickly the gun would be drawn, pointed, and used.”
Okay, I believe I read that correctly. (Hope)
The principle of the polygonal barrel has been around and proposed back in the mid-1800’s. So I don’t know about the “quickly adopted.” Guess it depends on “quickly adopted.”
You know many years ago I was hit in the chest with a 7.62x39mm round. Boy am I glad it wasn’t shot out of a polygonal barrel. That slightly higher velocity may have just done me in.
Sometimes I read things that could be right out of the Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. You know wordplay makes Wonderland what it is.
P.S. I wonder if the low price of those polymer frame guns had anything to do with police contracts back in the 80’s?
Jul 28, 2021 @ 09:26:11
You are reading it correctly. But the initial design was used for rifles, not handguns. Handguns only started to use polygonal barrels with Glock. And yes, when Glock, Sig and Beretta started trying to get into the U.S. police market, they gave the guns away. But what makes these guns cheaper to manufacture is that with a polymer frame you don’t need to do the finish and all the rubbing and shaving that you need to do with a tempered-steel gun so the labor cost drops to almost nothing. And it’s the labor cost which is basically what determines the FOB price of the gun.