The Prohibitionists seek to ban semiautomatic rifles such as the AR15 with the fervor of religious zealots. 

We are constantly asked, “Why does a law-abiding citizen need or benefit from owning a firearm like that?”

Funny they should ask.

The following just came out from the Wilson Combat YouTube channel, which is a fountain of knowledge for gun people.  It’s Ken Hackathorn and yours truly discussing that very topic. I hope you’ll find it worth the 13 minutes it takes.  Feel free to distribute the link.

21 COMMENTS

  1. I had just shared this video with my father last week. Keep up the good work Mas, I learn something new from you every article write.

  2. This is mostly irrelevant. It’s the Bill of RIGHTS, not the bill of needs. We should never take the bait of justifying why we “need” something. Just say no.

  3. Two men who are very respected in the firearms community. It always pays to listen to men like this. Thanks, Mas, and also Ken, for your lifetimes of helping gun owners to learn both how to shoot, and when to shoot.

  4. A video full of logic and reason. Unfortunately, logic and reason makes no more impression upon a true leftist then water makes on a Duck’s back. The left-wing ideology is built upon an “emotional response” to the World. It is not a worldview built upon the higher, intelligent section of the human mind which controls logic and reason.

    A leftist is an individual who is “innately wired” (at the subconscious level) with a high level of trust in humanity. This creates a worldview which, in simple terms, insists that “People are Good; it is the World that is Bad”.

    Such a worldview automatically promotes a “prohibitionist” mindset. It creates a belief that human behavior can be controlled and channeled by limiting human access to negative influences in their environment.

    Therefore, anything that is perceived as a potential negative influence (Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, Explosives, etc.) is ripe for banning under the left-wing worldview. Using logic, it would be strange that such a miscellaneous collection of items would be grouped together and regulated by a single Federal Agency (The BATFE). However, under the left-wing worldview, the mission of the BATFE makes perfect sense.

    Indeed, the American Left is eager to ban anything that it views as a negative environmental influence. This can be practically anything (plastic straws, large cups of Soda, MAGA Hats, Non-PC Speech labeled as “Hate Speech”, etc.).

    The left-wing mind is, inherently, a “prohibitionist” mind. When you couple this basic mindset with the fact that a disarmed public is easier to control and that Central-Government Control is the utopian Dream of the American Left, then the ideology of Firearms-Prohibition is irresistible to the them and to their Media Propagandists. They can resist it no more than a Cat can resist Catnip!

    Therefore, although this video is sound and logical, its usefulness is (sadly) very limited. This video would make no (Zero) impression upon a true leftist since it is contrary to their fixed worldview. To a non-leftist that already supports the U.S. Constitution (like many readers of this blog), it is simply “Preaching to the Choir”.

    There is a small chance that a few non-leftists, who are ignorant about firearms, might be influenced. However, if they have managed to live their whole lives without learning anything about firearms (up to this point), the odds that they will “tune in” to this video, and actually learn something about the subject, is slim to remote.

    No, firearms-prohibition is one of those polarizing issues (like abortion) that splits humanity into fixed left-wing and right-wing camps. Any middle ground is mostly a figment of the imagination. We will never, never, never, never, NEVER, NEVER educate the American Left as to the truth about firearms. We will never, never, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER get them to give up their Dreams of an Utopian World where all weapons are banned and, as the 5th Dimension put it:

    “When the moon is in the Seventh House
    And Jupiter aligns with Mars
    Then peace will guide the planets
    And love will steer the stars
    This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius”

    The 5th Dimension was mouthing the lyrics of the left-wing Utopia with this song! The Left actually believes (on a deep, subconscious, emotional level) this kind of CRAP!

    The only thing that can be done is to DEFEAT the Left. Defeat them at the ballot box again, and again, AND AGAIN until it finally registers (at an emotional level) that Firearms-Prohibition is a NON-STARTER politically and the American Left is forced to abandon it the way they were forced to abandon Alcohol-Prohibition. Unfortunately, given its “Catnip Attraction” to the Left, I am sometimes doubtful that anything (even perpetual defeat) will make the left give up on Firearms-Prohibition. However, our only choice is to try to bring them to that point. May God give us the Strength to succeed in this Battle!

  6. I spent 80 hours in the 1980s with Mas, learning how and when to shoot. And 35 years later, he’s still teaching me new things.

  7. The AR is more than the sum of its parts: it is a utilitarian tool.
    Home Defense – mine is a 556 AR Pistol 10″ and 30 rds
    Deer Hunting – I use an AR Platform in 6.5 Grendel cause it’s light to carry, accurate, and sufficient caliber for humane harvest
    Plinking – fairly inexpensive and fun
    ARs are here to stay – suck it up, grabbers

  8. You made a great argument, Mas. Too bad half of America has been inoculated against logic by our government schools and communist media.

    The AR-15 (ARmalite) suffers from an image problem. It looks wicked to grass-eaters. Paint it white or pink, then adorn the stock with an image of a unicorn riding a rainbow, and it might become semi-acceptable to some sheeple. In America, looks and image are more important than substance.

    • Painting an AR-15 white may look racist so don’t do it. Do cover your AR-15 in pink and purple butterfly stickers, and ones of multi-colored mushrooms. Ex-hippies like Bernie love the latter, especially the magic mushrooms. Sticking a plastic flower in the flash suppressor when the rifle is not in use helps too.

  11. Yeah Josh SUgarman….
    I watched him perjure himself before a Senate Committee hearing in Olympia shortly after that felon in violation of parole, and under indictment for two more felonies, and wanted on a warrant for more felony charges, got a handgun and shot/killed four Police Officers in a coffee shop on preshift break with that unlawfully possessed handgun. He was killed in a shootout two days later and was found with the handgun that had been taken off one of the dead officers. The hearing was to consider an “assault rifle” ban in Washington, and SUgarman lied when he explained those rifles are “dangerous” because they are “easily converted to fully automatic weapons” Yeah, right, “easily” when you have the lower receiver, the NFA item you and I cannot get, from the full auto weapons. But he “forgot” to explain that that piece is near impossible to get. But what’s one more lie from that guy.. he’s on a mission to disarm America. Maybe he thinks he is channeling General Gage back in the 1770’s……. rotter…….

  12. In my study of the period of the American War for Independence I came across a very interesting account…. seems some French inventors had developed a rifle that fired a .69 calibre ball, (very common in that time) but was semi automatic, air powered. It took several minutes of work to build up the pressure necessary, but once charged, the rifle could fire forty rounds without reloading or recharging, and fire them each with a separate pull of the trigger, at a rate of about one round per second or so. The musket and Brown Bess of the day, the military rifle of England, or the weapons of the COlonaials, were far slower to reload for the next round. The Lobsterbacks were ‘fast” when they could be ready for a second round within a minute and a half, two minutes most common. The well regulated militia of the Coloanies, were so practiced they could most times reload and fire a second round in about half a minute. THAT was a shocker to the Redcoats…… HOW are they doing that? Simple… they practiced to become a well regulated fighting force. They did not do it ‘by cadance” each move called out by an officer.

    But that air powered semiautomatic rifle was many times faster. They were VERY expensive, though, and heavy. (imagine a heavy rifle with forty .69 calibre ball in the magazine….. probably another ten pounds added to a monster.
    SO anyone who tries to claim that the semi automatic rifle did not exist at the time our Constitution was written is flat wrong. I can’t remember the name of that rifle, but I think it was something like “girondelle”…. and there were a few of them here in the Colonies.
    As the Old Good Book says, there is nothing new under the sun

    • Here is the Wikipedia link to the air-rifle you reference:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girandoni_air_rifle

      It was used as a standard military rifle, in the Austrian Army, from 1780 to about 1815.

      Lewis and Clark also had one of these air-rifles with them during their famous expedition. They often demonstrated the air-rifle to native Americans that they encountered. While the native Americans were familiar with standard, muzzle-loading, single-shot, black-powder rifles, they had never seen anything like a powerful, semi-automatic air-rifle.

      This was probably done to impress the tribes. While the expedition only had the one rifle with them, the native Americans did not know that fact. For all the natives knew, the expedition had enough to arm every man in case of a fight. No doubt, this possibility made the natives think twice before attacking and raiding the expedition.

      These air-rifle demonstrators may have been a significant factor in the fact that the Lewis and Clark Expedition had relatively little trouble with the native tribes. They bluffed them into not starting any trouble.

      As the old Latin phrase puts it: “Si vis pacem, para bellum” or (in English) “If you want peace, prepare for War.”

      Because of these impressive air-rifle demonstrations, the natives thought that the expedition was very well armed and fully “prepared for War”. Therefore, the expedition was mostly peaceful.

      To bring it to the topic of this blog, a semi-automatic rifle with a fully loaded magazine gives me a “peaceful feeling” when I am at home too! 🙂

    • The Girandoni air rifle. It was invented in 1779 by an Austrian tinkerer. When fully pumped up, it could fire about 30 shots. Lewis and Clark had one on their 1804 expedition, but I doubt if any had been imported to the US by 1789 (when the 2nd Amendment was written). It was very hard to make and prone to failure, but it continued in Austrian military service until 1815.

      I’ve heard that during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, it was semi-well-known – but regarded by many as sneaky and dishonorable because it was silent.

      (NOTE: this edit window has a feature I’ve never seen before: autohyphenation of displayed text.)

  13. The purpose of the Second Amendment is clearly stated in the preamble to the Bill of Rights where it says “The convention of a number of states having at the time of their adopting of the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse, of its powers that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added”. Note that when the Second Amendment was written, every weapon was a weapon of war, there were no restrictions on the private ownership of weapons and the militia was equally matched with the Continental Army. After all, if they weren’t equally matched, it would be pretty hard to deter or prevent “misconstruction or abuse” of the government’s powers – so in reality, the citizen militia of today should have the same firearms as the current US military. Unfortunately we are no longer equally matched because we have let our gun rights be eroded by buying into this notion if we just compromise to accommodate the people who – for whatever reason – don’t like guns they will quit trying to take away our gun rights. History has shown that no matter how much we compromise, it’s never enough so we need to stop compromising.

  14. The default local home defense meme is “Git you a shotgun!” But, back when my former employer required shotgun qualification or practice, large strong men would be whining about the recoil. In addition, I’ve seen entirely too many photos of the damage caused by stray pellets.

    On the other hand, as Mas points out in the video, the usual reaction of those introduced to the AR pattern rifle is “This is FUN!” It’s easier to use, fires one discrete bullet that goes where you point it, and, per FBI testing, properly selected ammunition penetrates less building material than defensive/duty handgun ammunition.

    While there are other semi-automatic rifles available, once they establish the AR ban, they’ll be back for the rest.

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