Guns: A Deep, and Brief, Post to Make You an Informed Voter
You'll be way ahead of most Americans
Before we can intelligently discuss gun regulation, we should know what we are talking about. After reading this post you will know the types of guns, the mechanisms of action, which guns are most lethal and why.
In the last post, I talked about the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. I pointed out that our founders considered armed citizens to be a check on government tyranny. With that as background, I concluded that those who want gun control might be seeking more government control and those who are against gun control might be seeking more individual freedom.
I’ll start by dividing guns into two categories. Long guns are held to the shoulder to fire. Handguns are held in the hand. A key difference is the range of motion that can be achieved.
Using the picture as a model, stand while holding a stick (as your long gun) against your right shoulder and place your right hand on the stick with your arm bent. Your right hand is approximately in position to pull the trigger. Now grab the stick with your left hand, while keeping your arm nearly straight. Your left had would be on the forearm of a long gun. Keep the stick against your shoulder and without moving your feet point the stick to the left as far as you can. You will find that your motion is limited. You might be able to turn your upper body enough to shoot behind you but not very far. Now swing to the right. You will find your motion is even more restricted. It is very difficult to shoot behind you.
Now find about a six-inch stick. Hold it in your right hand and point it as if to fire. Your range is nearly unlimited. That increased range makes a handgun more dangerous than a long gun.
Long guns are divided into rifles and shotguns. A rifle barrel is rifled. That means the inside of the barrel has a spiral and puts a spin on the projectile, similar to the spin a quarterback puts on a football when passing. The spin makes the projectile (bullet) more accurate. Rifle bullets are shot one at a time. Rifle barrels have a legal minimum length of 16 inches. Rifle barrel diameter (bore) is measured in millimeters or fractions of an inch. To hunt deer in Washington State, the minimum diameter bullet is .24 inches. The larger the bullet the more lethal it is.
The above picture is a cartridge. The propellent (gun powder) is in the bottom of the cartridge. The top is the projectile (bullet).
Shotguns have a smooth barrel. Multiple projectiles (shot) are fired with each pull of the trigger. The minimum legal length of a shotgun barrel is 18 inches. The diameter of a shotgun barrel is measured in gauge. Guage is the number of lead balls of the same diameter as the barrel to weigh a pound. A 12-gauge shotgun would take 12 balls of lead to weight a pound. A 20-gauge shotgun would take 20 balls of lead to make a pound. The smaller gauge shotgun has a bigger diameter barrel and is more lethal. Each shotgun shell contains multiple projectiles (shot). Shot size is measured in numbers. The smaller the number the larger the shot. For example, size 8 shot is .09 inch in diameter. Size 2 shot is .15 inch in diameter. Sportsman’s Warehouse has a great chart of shot sizes.
The picture above shows three shotgun shells. The brass contains the propellent (gun powder). The red end contains the shot. The end is crimped to contain the shot.
You have probably seen a movie of someone shooting a target with a rifle or handgun. The targets are usually made of paper and will have a hole for each bullet that hit the target. If a good shooter shoots ten times, there will be ten holes.
When a good shooter shoots the same target with a shotgun, there will be multiple holes for each shot. The shot spreads after it leaves the barrel. If the target is close to the shooter, the number of holes may be so close together that it forms one big hole. If the target is far away, the target might have few holes due to the spread of the shot.
The spread of the shot is called the pattern. The smaller the pattern the more lethal the gun. A longer barrel will result in a smaller pattern. The muzzle is the end of the barrel that the shot exits. Muzzle diameter is given in choke. Choke sizes from largest to smallest are open cylinder, modified, or full. A full choke shotgun with a long barrel will have the smallest pattern and be most lethal. The maximum lethal range for a shotgun is around 100 yards.
Ducks are considered in range at 40-60 yards. A rifle can be lethal at over a mile.
The action of guns are the mechanical components that allow the guns to be fired and reloaded. Actions include break, bolt, slide or pump, revolver, semi-automatic and automatic.
The above break action double barrel shotgun has the barrels side by side. If the barrels are one on top of the other, it is called an over and under. Notice how the action breaks to extract the shells and reload. Of course, break action gun could only have one barrel and would be called a single shot.
The bolt action shotgun has a bolt that must be raised and pulled to eject the shell. In the picture, you can see the bolt with the ball on the end, just above the shooter’s right hand. The shooter ejects the cartridge or shell. In the above picture, the shooter must place the next round in the chamber and close the bolt. If the gun had a magazine (a place to hold more cartridges or shells), the next round would be in position automatically. The shooter would just close the bolt.
The slide action or pump action is shown above. Notice the stainless steel looking plate just ahead of the trigger. That is where shells are inserted into the magazine. After pulling the trigger, the shooter pulls back on the forearm (part that is gripped under the barrel). The shell is ejected and another moves into position. The forearm is then moved forward to lock the shell in the barrel for firing.
The semi-automatic has a rigid forearm. The action does all the work of ejecting a shell and reloading from the magazine. All the shooter has to do is aim and pull the trigger. The magazine is pointed down in front of the trigger.
The semi-automatic pistol often has the magazine in the grip as shown in the above picture. All the shooter has to do is point and shoot.
The revolver has a cylinder that holds cartridges. A shooter must cock the single action revolver by pulling back the hammer (the gold top part in the picture). When all the way back, the hammer locks into position and the shooter pulls the trigger to fire. If the trigger is held back, the hammer will fall immediately instead of remaining cocked. You may have seen a western where a shooter shoots repeatedly by fanning the hammer with the left hand while holding the trigger with the right hand. A double action revolver cocks the hammer and has it fall simply by pulling the trigger.
I have not covered fully automatic guns. Most are already illegal in the United States but are used in the military. A shooter pulls and holds the trigger on a fully automatic gun and the gun fires as quickly as the action can function.
Now you know the basics. If you haven’t been around guns, I hope you’ve learned something. In the next post, I’ll cover some of the issues in gun control. I’ll look at crime statistics and what does or does not make sense.