Posted by
Old Bill on Monday, September 08, 2008 7:59:53 PM
I've been listening to the coverage of the conventions till I'll explode if I hear one more trite bit of hyperbole. I can't bring myself to write anything about the conventions, or even the nominees--you've no doubt heard most anything I might say, anyway. I'll talk about the election and the candidates tomorrow, but today let's talk about pistols. Pistols are important. Anyway, I'm listening to Hugh Hewitt as I write this, and I can only double-task if I put myself on auto-pilot, so guns of some sort are my best bet for a no-thought-required piece of writing.
Not that guns don't require thought, mind; guns require plenty of thought, but in my case, that thinking has already been done for so long, and so many times, that I can just let my fingers do the typing, if you know what I mean, while I listen to Hugh educate me about political inside-dope.
Anyhow, what's the first thing you need to know about pistols? If you already are a pistol shooter, especially if you've been a regular shooter for at least 10 years or so (once a week being my idea of regular pistol shooting; most of us don't live where we can shoot every morning in the back yard anymore, or, like my Grand-Uncle John, just open the window and shoot off the bench in his rifle-room at the targets on the fencepost a couple hundred yards off) then you probably know most of this stuff already, so I'll aim my sights, so to speak, at the tenderfeet--or tenderfingers--in the audience, and you old guys just go off and read Small Arms Review or something till tomorrow.
Now, a pistol, to begin by defining my terms, is a firearm designed so it can be fired with one hand--this is it's defining characteristic, and consequently all pistols are small and light compared with shoulder arms, which are all designed to be fired with two hands, preferrably with an ergonomically designed 'stock' pressed firmly into the shoulder.
Pistols, therefore, are more easily concealed and carried than shoulder arms, due to their small size and light weight. This in turn makes the pistol the ideal weapon to be carried by an honest, peaceful, law-abiding citizen for the purpose of self-defense against criminal attack, since the peaceful victim, by virtue of his victimhood, is always caught unxpectedly by the criminal, who has plenty of time to plan his attack. The criminal can therefore take the trouble to fetch a big rifle or shotgun, or bazooka if he wants it, wrap it in something, throw it in the trunk of his car--or backseat, if he wants it in a hurry--and go anywhere with it.
Famously, Lee Harvey Oswald, the man arrested and charged with the assassination of Pres. John Kennedy, was supposed to have carried the rifle found in the 'sniper's perch' on the 6th floor of the Texas School Book Depository to the building that morning wrapped in a curtain or a blanket, carrying it between his cupped hand and his armpit; when asked what the bundle was, he is alleged to have said: "Curtain rods."
Interestingly, it is absolutely impossible for anyone of Oswald's size, or even quite larger, to have carried the rifle in question--a Mannlicher-Carcano 6.5mm Italian Army short rifle, serial number C2766--in this manner, even if it had been disassembled, so the stock could be laid alongside the barreled action (which could not be made shorter than the length of the barrel plus the length of the receiver, or about 30")--if you doubt this, buy an identical Mannlicher-Carcano and try it sometime; I have. It don't work.
When the criminal gets to the scene of the crime, he need only unwrap it, commit his crime, and then throw it back in his get-away car and escape. The reason more crimes are committed with handguns than shoulder arms is simply that most criminals are dumb, although not dumb enough to get caught, unfortunately. Untold thousands of innocent victims are alive every year because the bad guys trying to kill them were using handguns instead of rifles or shotguns. Ask any cop if he'd rather be shot at by some punk with a pistol, or the same punk with a shotgun.
The honest citizen,of course, never has any idea that he/she is about to be assaulted until it happens; and that is why the self-defense weapon, to be effective, must be carried on the person at all times, or at least at any time the citizen feels they are at risk, which, in a typical big city is almost anytime after you leave home, and anytime you're assumed to be asleep even in your own home.
Hence, the self-defense weapon must be available instantly, and therefore must be small and light enough to be carried without even being aware of it, and in these hoplo-phobic times (hoplophobia is an irrational fear of weapons, especially of firearms, and is a recognized psychological disorder) that weapon had better be carried so it's not visible, either. Hence: the absolute necessity of handguns for decent folks to protect themselves and each other. Not that I'm denying the superiority of the shoulder arm if you can get to it; but usually, the shotgun/rifle/carbine or sub-gun is not where you can get to it in time, even at home, let alone when your wife is attacked in the parking lot at night on her way home from work. Thank God for pistols!