Following the massacre of 49 people in a gay night club, the media felt compelled to share some personal vignettes about buying or shooting the dreaded AR15 rifle — a rifle that had nothing to do with the Orlando tragedy. I hope the irony of having the most gun-ignorant and gun-inexperienced imbeciles explain firearms and firearms policy to the public is not lost on you.
First we have Gersh Kuntzman, who writes at the New York Daily News, the rag that blamed the NRA for the Orlando massacre rather than the maniac who actually killed a night club full of patrons. Kuntzman found a gun shop willing to let him “fire and discuss the AR-15, a style of semi-automatic rifle popular with mass killers such as San Bernardino terrorist Syed Farook and similar to the Sig Sauer MCX rifle used by Orlando terrorist Omar Mateen.”
The owner of Double Tap Shooting Range, Frank Stelmach, allowed Kuntzman and his team to chat with him and fire an AR15. We learn that “Stelmach is not like many gun lovers. He admires his weaponry, yes, and has difficulty explaining why law-abiding citizens need a gun that can empty a 40-round clip in less than five seconds.” FACT CHECK: it’s IMPOSSIBLE to empty a 40-round clip in less than five seconds using any legal weapon. I’m sure Stelmach did have difficulty explaining how that violation of the laws of nature was possible.
Which bring me to question what exactly Kuntzman was shooting at the range. He claims it was an AR15, but his description of the experience doesn’t make much sense. Kuntzman describes “the resulting explosion of firepower is humbling and deafening (even with ear protection).” And Kuntzman reassures us that he has “shot pistols before.” It sounds like he wasn’t wearing proper ear protection.
The actual experience of firing the AR15 was nothing less than traumatizing. “The recoil bruised my shoulder. The brass shell casings disoriented me as they flew past my face. The smell of sulfur and destruction made me sick. The explosions — loud like a bomb — gave me a temporary case of PTSD. For at least an hour after firing the gun just a few times, I was anxious and irritable.”
Sulfur? I’m beginning to think the gun store owner punked Kuntzman because little girls shoot AR15s without issue and I don’t know what would cause the environment to smell of sulfur. Maybe it’s testosterone he’s smelling for the first time?
The description is revealing for other reasons. The anti-Second Amendment crowd caricatures the firearms community as blood-lusting maniacs who own “weapons of war” that have no purpose other than to mindlessly slaughter innocents. In fact, that’s what Kuntzman sounds like when he says, “Even in semi-automatic mode, it is very simple to squeeze off two dozen rounds before you even know what has happened. In fully automatic mode, it doesn’t take any imagination to see dozens of bodies falling in front of your barrel.”
Wow, I can’t say I’ve had the same experience. Have you? I’m very aware of how many rounds I am firing and I’ve never imagined dead bodies on the other side of my firearm. Perhaps the desire to deny firearms comes from the left’s projection of their own unstable mental state?
Next up, we have Helen Ubinas, who writes at Philly.com about an expeditious experience (7 minutes) buying an AR15. Most people complain about how long it takes to complete retail transactions, but not Ubinas!
That’s how long it took me to buy an AR-15, the semiautomatic rifle used in the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history.
Seven minutes. From the moment I handed the salesperson my driver’s license to the moment I passed my background check.
“I’ve filled out more paperwork at the doctor’s office for a routine checkup than I did Monday afternoon,” she said. “The truth is that I could have bought the gun as easily in any gun shop in Pennsylvania. I just didn’t realize how easily.”
She didn’t know what happens when someone purchases a firearm? That’s on her, as this isn’t secret information. If you are clear in the database and not a prohibited person, how long should it take? Ubinas doesn’t mention there is a list of questions on the six-page form that she has to answer and if she lies it’s a felony punishable with prison time.
She also laments that there is no need for a concealed-carry permit. Why on earth would you need a concealed-carry permit to purchase a rifle? As I mentioned above, these are the most gun-ignorant and gun-inexperienced imbeciles America has to offer and they are lecturing you about firearms.
Ubinas obviously isn’t interested in keeping her AR15 so she drops it off at the police department. She tells us it takes longer to turn over a gun than to buy one, whatever significance that holds.
As with all of the anti-Second Amendment crew, we only get complaints about how insufficient the current system is but no concrete solutions as to how to “fix” the system. In the case of Orlando, the FBI had investigated the shooter in the past — they were even notified by Disney that the shooter and his wife were casing the property well in advance of the maniac’s recent gun purchases. What happened with those investigations might be a better question to ask, if one was really concerned about making sure dangerous people don’t get a hold of weapons.
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