• Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    32
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    3 days ago

    This is one huge problem I have had with gun control advocates. In Canada they are basically banning all rifles that look ‘military’. The problem? All, and I mean ALL semi-auto rifles now look like that. Even ones that still have wooden furniture like a pre-WW2 era rifle can have them swapped out for black polymer and ‘look’ modern.

    Even lever guns are sporting serious polymer furniture that make them look like sci-fi western guns.

    The definition of ‘military style’ gun was created in the late 80s when your average gun owner was still owning their vintage ww2 surplus rifle (from the 1960s to 70s WW2 era rifles were so common on the market that there wasn’t that much room for anything truly new) that had that old school look while all new military rifles had switched to polymers and had protruding pistol grips.

    The rhetoric has remained the same despite almost 40 years passing and a lot of basic changes.

    • funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      2 days ago

      Unpopular opinion, probably, but if your hobby, such as hiking, sewing, reading, improv comedy… kills more children than car crashes, someone should be allowed to take a look at stopping that. Unless the hobby is guns, of course, of course.

      • kava@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        2 days ago

        if we’re gonna ban stuff just based on deaths, we should get rid of fast food, soda, cigarettes, alcohol, and cars in general

      • Olhonestjim@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        2 days ago

        Pretty much, yes. It also serves as a mount for the rear sight. Since the AR platforms keep all the major moving parts in a straight line back from the barrel, ergonomics requires the sights to be higher than usual to account for the shape of the face.

      • dx1@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 days ago

        IDK why the second pic says “same capacity” when…you can see they don’t have the same capacity.

      • 4lan@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        2 days ago

        Then why don’t more people have that style of gun?

        I hear this argument all the time about different banned features and attachments. (I own and shoot often btw)

        Like for braces. People say it doesn’t make you more able to kill, when it does.

        When there was a brief time where braces were legally iffy, I was using a sling instead. Let me tell you something, shooting with a sling is incredibly inaccurate compared to a brace.

        Every shot removes the pressure you are putting on the sling, whereas a brace every shot pushes it into your shoulder more.

        Shooting with a brace is incredibly similar to shooting with a stock, essentially identical just barely less comfortable.

        People are so political when they talk about guns, just be honest with yourself. You can love guns and love regulation at the same time. Maybe we just shouldn’t have crazy people and violent people owning them?

      • intensely_human@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        2 days ago

        That first graphic reminds me of sci fi author David Brin’s concept of a “militia rifle”.

        (He published this a long time ago and I’m unclear if he still supports the idea)

        Basically he argues:

        • Mass shootings are a problem
        • Resisting government tyranny is important
        • (He claims) historically a group of people with lower capacity rifles can hold their own against people bearing high capacity automatics, because in many-vs-many battles the individual guns’ bullet output matters less (more about which group controls which points on the battlefield permitting covering of other points)
        • So a mass shooter is a 1-vs-many scenario (shooter vs crowd)
        • Resisting government tyranny is probably gonna be a many-vs-many scenario (militia vs army)
        • Therefore it’s legit for people to own firearms that are low capacity, high hassle

        Seems to me the California laws approach this design equilibrium.

      • PolydoreSmith@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 days ago

        Thank you for providing an explanation of this. I don’t know a lot about guns but this is very informative.

      • 4lan@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        2 days ago

        If it is just as capable as an AR-15 then why not just buy that gun?

        Hint: it isn’t.

        • Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          9
          ·
          2 days ago

          Mini-14 is now prohib in Canada as of 2020. They say they did it because of the Polytechnique shooting in 1989, but they had passed sweeping gun legislation in the 90s already. It is kinda incredible how that shooting is still the number 1 talking point and they’ve practically competely forgotten about the Nova Scotia shooting in 2020. I think it is because they are well aware that the 2020 shooting was done pretty much entirely with firearms smuggled in from the US. And the one gun that he had that was sourced in Canada the RCMP let him have due to a major league fuckup when they had all the right to just take it.

          Also he was forbidden from owning firearms well before the shooting. Despite countless complaints that he had guns and seemed to be planning something fucked, they chose to do nothing, as usual.

          • PugJesus@lemmy.worldOPM
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            4
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            2 days ago

            It’s funny how gun control is a legitimately important issue but some of its biggest and loudest advocates are more interested in looking busy and being ‘tough’ on guns rather than addressing actual problems.

      • JamesTBagg@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        2 days ago

        The best way I’ve ever heard it described, “It’s the gun that forgot to become obsolete.”

      • intensely_human@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        2 days ago

        I fired an M-1911 a little while ago. It was the instructor’s personal weapon.

        Turns out I’m magically some kind of crack shot with a .45. He was probably exaggerating but the instructor was an army ranger or sniper or something and told me he’d never see a beginner shoot that well.

        So I’m probably some kind of Jason Bourne type who just forget about his past as a super duper soldier.

        I put about twenty rounds through an area the size of a silver dollar. Short range — 7 yards I think — but he was still impressed. Or he was really good at hyping his students up.

        • Agent641@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          2 days ago

          Congrats of your Super soldier past life! I must have been a boat captain in a past life because when I got my skippers license, I’d never driven a boat, and the instructor was floored at my maneuvering skills and pulling alongside the pier after only 30 minutes of theory. He said “I set you up to fail because I didn’t warn you about the crosswind and the current, but you nailed it. Show me again.” And I repeated the maneuver again twice, perfectly pulling up to the designated spot each time. I felt pretty proud about that.

    • JamesTBagg@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      22
      ·
      3 days ago

      The M2 is almost as old. Both are still in service around the world. Both are John Browning designs.

      • ElmarsonTheThird@discuss.tchncs.de
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        11
        ·
        2 days ago

        It will never stop being funny to me that both the M2 and the 1911 are (according to scifi-fantasy franchise Warhammer 40.000) still in use in the 41st Millennium.

      • copd@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        edit-2
        2 days ago

        I’m not sure why this suprises people.

        M2 Browning was bolted to basically everything american in ww2 and that was 80-90 years ago. It’s an old weapon

    • SSTF@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      18
      ·
      3 days ago

      Ummm acktually the A2 developemnt began in 1979, which makes it 45 years old.

        • SSTF@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          3 days ago

          Nah, the design of the A2 is uniquely different, if we want to be technically pedantic.

          • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            3 days ago

            May I introduce you to the concept of technicalities.

            Using this example to illustrate, technically the AR-15 and the M16a2 are the same platform, just with a few minor changes like the furniture. I mean we’re not considering the M4 a completely different platform just because of the feed ramps, are we? The second you swap from a quad rail to a free float system does it cease being an ar15? No not really, it’s still the same gun, but there are minor changes that only matter on clone rifles (which are usually not 100% anyway, why you only have two pinholes hmm?)

            So, technically the A2 is different from the A1, and technically the A1 is different from the first ar15s with the addition of the forward assist, but technically they’re also all the same platform, at least close enough to say they’re the same thing. Thus: “Technically.”

            Thank you for coming to my technicality Ted talk.

            • SSTF@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              edit-2
              2 days ago

              few minor changes like the furniture

              And the fire control group, and the barrel design, and the reenforcement on the back of the receiver. The redesign of the sights is not merely cosmetic as fixed sights are more tied to rifles than removable. With those, and the other changes all standardized into one design.

              • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                2 days ago

                And that somehow makes it a different platform than before, which is why they called it the m16a2 instead of the m17? We’re talking the Rifle of Theseus here.

                So if I put together some magpul flippy bois, an FRT, a pencil barrel, and a Hoffman lower, is it not an ar15?

  • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    25
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    3 days ago

    Nam was fifty years ago, I think most people would think Hueys and M16s when asked that question.