I grew up around guns used for hunting. I believe in the entire US Constitution, including my right to bear arms. When the Second Amendment was written, guns were used as a tool to gather food through hunting and for defense. A skilled shooter could put three bullets on target per minute with their muzzle-loading flintlock rifle. These gun owners used the same weapons for hunting and military purposes. Since that time, military weapons have advanced in their lethality, while hunting lethality has remained largely the same, even with modern guns.
My grandfather lost a leg to cannon fire in Russia’s winter after WWI ended. (Google “Polar Bear Division” for a fascinating read on how US soldiers were used to help the Russian Tsar by fighting the Bolsheviks in their revolution.) My father was in the Japanese Occupation Army at the end of WWII. Both men won expert marksman status during their wars and returned to respectful hunting practices. They both knew the difference between hunting and military intent, practices, and equipment.
I own multiple rifles, shotguns, and a small-caliber handgun. All are used for hunting and home defense. None would meet modern military usefulness. I will compare my guns’ capacity with military weapons to illustrate why I believe gun regulations should prevent the common ownership of military grade guns and equipment.
My effective lethality in the deer woods is about 150 yards. With practice, I could increase that to 300 yards with one of my scoped rifles, but that is unnecessary while hunting in the Boreal forest. The upper average lethality of a military sniper with military equipment is 1,300 yards, while the longest recorded “kill” is approximately 2.5 miles. That’s miles! Sniper-type rifles (with some modifications) and ammunition are readily available at gun stores and shows for purchase by civilians.
All of my hunting guns fire one bullet for each trigger pull. After each firing, my hunting guns must be hand-manipulated to ready another bullet. The bullet capacity of my guns ranges from one to seven before reloading. I can fire my pump shotgun 7 times in less than a minute while taking two minutes to reload. But I never fire like that while hunting grouse or ducks. If I miss with the first two shots, the wildlife lives for another day. Modern military guns are designed to spray “suppressive fire”, intending to kill and wound as many enemy combatants as possible while discouraging a frontal assault. General-Purpose Machine Guns (GPMGs) actually fire 500- 600 bullets per minute. These are illegal for civilians to own. US citizens can buy AR-15s and other “assault weapons” (clearly a military term), which theoretically fire 700-900 rounds per minute but are limited to magazine capacity. Large capacity magazines that hold 30-100 bullets are legal in some states. What is also widely available are aftermarket modifications to hunting rifles (bump stocks, re-bound triggers, larger magazines) that increase their rate of fire, approximating military weapons.
I certainly believe in home defense. Fifty years ago, I was assaulted by a man outside my home. I had never experienced anything like that before, so I was scared and confused. I thought long and hard about what my father had taught me. Never point a gun barrel at anything I didn’t intend to kill. Before going to bed, I took my shotgun from the closet, loaded it, and set it by the nightstand. As a last resort, if that guy came through the bedroom door, I was going to kill him in front of my wife, sleeping next to me. Fortunately for all of us, he never returned.
There is an argument over what weapon is best for home defense. I take my lessons from African professional hunters guiding their clients in leopard hunts, typically at night. They use a 12-gauge shotgun loaded with buckshot to track a leopard if their client failed to kill it. A wounded leopard attacking in the darkness is a close proximity to an intruder with ill intent in my home. For a homeowner, a pump shotgun is the least expensive gun and ammunition available. It also takes the least amount of practice to be defensive. Many experts recommend a semi-auto handgun (a military improvement in speed and capacity over old-style revolvers) for its maneuverability and capacity. But handguns require much more practice by the shooter to be effective at home defense. Plus, hard bullets pass through home walls with unintended consequences.
Promoting the use of more bullets is a business model used by gun and ammunition manufacturers. Once a durable gun is purchased, the consumed bullets become the profit center. It is the same in my wood shop. Once I have purchased the tools, it is the “consumables” that I keep purchasing. Saw blades, sandpaper, fasteners, and glue are used up and must be replaced. My tooling lasts a long time. A good gun lasts a long time, but each bullet fired is a purchase. It becomes obvious why fast-shooting guns requiring more practice and large capacity magazines are pushed by gun manufacturers. Declining hunter numbers, the end of two long-running wars, and military budget cuts have forced manufacturers to create new markets. Fear is used to promote the “spraying” of bullets in self-defense. Military rifles are being promoted for hunting even though one or two shots are all that is required in most cases. Gun owners who produce their own ammunition can purchase projectiles that penetrate Kevlar “bullet-proof” vests. Some ammo manufacturers use the same projectiles in over-the-counter purchases. Sound suppressors (silencers—an assassin’s tool) and night vision scopes are sold to “trick out” civilian weapons. This business model is profiteering on people’s death, wounds, and grief. It is a major contributing factor to the fear and chaos in our society today.
I can find no legitimate civilian purpose for guns that produce suppressive fire or sniper rifles equipped with night vision scopes and sound suppressors. Remember, military grade weapon technology has far surpassed what the 2nd Amendment intended for the citizenry to hunt food and defend themselves. The argument against banning large capacity magazines takes the form of how quickly a shooter can exchange even small capacity magazines. But that pause in gunfire is enough time to dive under a school desk or church pew to avoid being murdered.
