Sloppy (But Scary!) Gun Reporting At NY Times

[The Times has subsequently appended a correction.]

The NY Times misoverestimates the possible impact of Obama's proposal to limit ammunition magazines to ten rounds:

The officials said the president will call for a new and tougher ban on military style assault weapons and to limit the number of rounds that can be in a magazine to 10. That would eliminate the 30-round magazines that were used in Newtown as well as other mass shootings at Virginia Tech, a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., and a congresswoman’s public event in Tucson, Ariz.

The Virginia Tech shooter, as documented by the commission which studied it, had two handguns and used ten and fiteen round magazines, not thirty rounders. And the panel's thoughts on smaller magazines?

The panel also considered whether the previous federal Assault Weapons Act of 1994 that banned 15-round magazines would have made a difference in the April 16 incidents. The law lapsed after 10 years, in October 2004, and had banned clips or magazines with over 10 rounds. The panel concluded that 10-round magazines that were legal would have not made much difference in the incident. Even pistols with rapid loaders could have been about as deadly in this situation.

So regardless of what the Paper of Record is telling us, the VaTech shooter had some magazines in compliance with the current proposed ban and would not, in the opinion of those who studied it, have been slowed or stopped by the continuation of that ban.

We eagerly await the Times' contributions to a calm, reality-based debate.

TO BE FAIR: Even the Times seemed to grasp that silliness of the "assault weapons" definition when they ran this grapic explaining what turns a hum-drum rifle into a scary "ASSAULT WEAPON". Grenade launcher mounts? Bayonet lugs? Are we having a crisis of mass bayonet charges, or homicidal maniacs getting ahold of grenades?

BY WAY OF EXAMPLE: Here is the Ruger Mini-14 Ranch rifle with a 20 round magazine; here is what is fundamentally the same rifle dressed up as the Ruger tactical rifle. Obama and Biden seem to think that one of these is terrifying and the other no big deal, but I can't see why. I would agree that the folding stock on the tactical rifle could aid in concealment (and the overall weapon is a bit shorter) but the flash suppressor, pistol grip, and bayonet lug won't make the bullets come out faster or hit harder. (Actually, correct me if I am wrong but the shorter barrel should reduce the power and accuracy slightly, for the same ammo.)

FWIW, the ranch rifle is not legal in California, presumably because the magazine is detachable and holds more than ten rounds.

A picture being worth a thousand words, let's check out the calm, Sunday afternoon shooting with the family rifle:

And the SCARY one we need to ban right now because children's lives are in danger:

Later we hope our President will address the incidence of traffic fatalities in this country and talk about a possible ban on rear spoilers, flame decals, and anything else suggesting it is appropriate or acceptable to drive cars in excess of the speed limit. The children!

MORE: More myths here.

NOT PROVEN: The WHite House package explaining their gun control measures includes this:

Limit ammunition magazines to 10 rounds: The case for prohibiting high-capacity magazines has been proven over and over; the shooters at Virginia Tech, Tucson, Aurora, Oak Creek, and Newtown all used magazines holding more than 10 rounds, which would have been prohibited under the 1994 law.

Virginia Tech doesn't make their case. I think Tucson, where the shooter was stopped while reloading, does. And Newtown? The shooter had a semiautomatic rifle, two semiautomatic pistols, and enough time to put three to eleven bullets in each victim. I think that because the school lockdown was mostly effective he ran out of targets and eventually, time.

Comments

[daddy]

On the fake girlfriend of the Notre Dame college kid from Hawaii...

Hmmm, fake girlfriend...Hawaiian kid... where have we heard that before?

Also worth noting that once the story breaks the media is able to immediately run checks for her SSN, her obituary, and her funeral announcements; is able to run checks on her through her college newspapers back editions, able to check out police records for auto accident reports, to search for her Birth Records in Newspapers, etc.

Amazing to see how hard our Press gumshoes can gumshoe when they actually care about gumshoeing.

[Rick Ballard]

Lightwave,

Many of BOzo's slobbering followers believe his signature appears below so let it be written, so let it be done on every piece of flim flam he has signed.

As political theater goes, this show is closing in New Haven.

[narciso]

Bruno Mars, he seems a little schizophrenic about his girlfriends, sarc.

[daddy]

As political theater goes, this show is closing in New Haven.

Yes Rick, But will it play in Peoria?

[Melinda Romanoff]

VZ, S, and T are about to get in a bunch of trouble, FYI.

Plan accordingly.

[Melinda Romanoff]

And don't plan for this in your garage, ever.

[MTF]

Fascism is back in fashion among the eliterati.

That's a word I just made up, mashing together "elite" and "literati". I could just say "over educated east coast snobs without any life experience who want to govern all of us according to progressive dictates", but I decided to try to be less geographically specific. After all, the President isn't from the east coast.

[Danube of Thought iPad]

KK's authority is the victim's brother. Very persuasive. But of course the VaTech rampage involved not a single "military-style assault weapon."

I myself have no problem with background checks at retail outlets, which is where madmen get their weapons (when they don't steal them, or kill for them). I do object to interposing them between private buyers and sellers, whose transactions are at free market value and have not put weapons into the hands of murderers.

Altogether today's events were a delightful raising of the white flag of surrender by these simpletons. No wonder this one was. Given to the clown Biden.

[Danube of Thought iPad]

*this one was given*

[Danube of Thought iPad]

May I be forgiven here for suggesting that Downton Abbey is a bit...overdrawn?

[anonamom]

Was it Matthew, a WWI vet, not being able to find the courage to open the letter that seemed a bit over the top, DOT? Or the events at the church?
It's a soap. And a communal experience. Even my twenty something sons and their friends watch it.
Enjoy the scenery, enjoy the beautiful clothing, the cars, the flowers---whatever you like--and suspend belief.

You can do what we do, and predict the next line of dialogue for fun.

[ed in texas]

Quibble points from a gun nut...
The Ruger tactical pictured doesn't have a folding stock. It has an adjustable for length stock (you squeeze the tab on the bottom of the stock and it slides on the tube). If you want to see modified tactical 'tricked out' Ruger Mini-14's (the generic type), look up the old 'A-Team' show, ala George Peppard & Mr T. They have folders on theirs.
The AR-15 / M-16 family of rifles aren't capable of mounting a folding stock, just a slider, due to the way the bolt and buffer system is set up in the rifle.
Kalashnikovs can mount any or no stock and still function.
The point that attracts the BATF in these cases isn't actually the stock as long as it's rigid -it's the pistol grip.
Just some odd info from a builder.

[Patriot4Freedom]

ed -

Because we all know that a pistol grip turns a sporting rifle into one of those vewwy, vewwy, scaewwy so-called "assault rifles", right ?
Thanks for the other info, too !

[Janet]

What is the difference between an Executive Order & an Executive Action? Those 23 points were called an Executive Action.

[Janet]

Your 10:43 post is great, daddy. Sketchy, bs narratives catch up with only some people.