Guns Part 468 - Breaking Down Biden's Speech Part Deux

Because I ran into the conundrum of illustrating rifles, pistols, SBR's, and Any Other Weapons (AOW), this one's taken more time, even though it was the first of the two entries on Joe's speech.  

As expected, Joe decided to take action against things that are stuck in his mind, yet won't yield a damned bit of good.  Let's read what Joe had to say and attempt to make some sense out of it.  

He starts out strong with a complete lie.

"But you go to a gun show, you can buy whatever you want and no background check." 

As I've previously noted in other entries, this is utter bullshit, and everyone who goes to gun shows knows it.

He continues - 
"...we want to treat pistols modified with stabilizing braces with the seriousness they deserve. Stabilize the embrace [inaudible 00:13:35] essentially makes that pistol a hell of a lot more accurate and a mini rifle. As a result, it’s more lethal, effectively turning it into a short-barreled rifle. That’s what the alleged shooter in Boulder appears to have done."

In all fairness, I can't say for certain whether Joe's lying or just has absolutely no clue what he's talking about.  I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and default to the latter.  

Regardless, one of the President's spokespersons openly stated the above was solely a reaction to the Boulder shooting.  Because as we know, being reactionary to one minor thing makes Joe feel good.  Except the gun used in the Boulder shooting was not modified with a stabilizing brace; it came from the factory with one.  Ruger, like every other major manufacturer of AR-15's equips their complete AR pistols with a stabilizing brace.  Again, standard, stock, out of the box, not modified.  At this point, you're probably wondering what's the difference between an AR rifle and an AR pistol as well as what the hell a brace is.  The main difference between a pistol and rifle is barrel length.  Rifles have barrels at least 16 inches and pistols, less than 16 inches.  Pistols are forbidden to have stocks installed on them, whereas rifles may have stocks.  A gun with a barrel shorter than 16 inches and stock installed is considered to be a short barreled rifle, or SBR.  Unless your gun has a tax stamp, possessing an SBR is a felony.  Pistols may have a brace installed, the use of which is shown below.  

It's designed so a shooter can effectively fire the gun one handed, but everyone shoulders the brace like a stock.  Quite frankly, is a workaround to not make it an SBR.  I have a brace on one of my guns, although I always use it in the manner in which it was intended.  If you're not sufficiently confused, I've taken the easy way out and gone with a movie that illustrates how fucked up the rules are.   

Returning to Joe's comments:
"I want to be clear that these modifications to firearms that make them more lethal should be subject to the National Firearms Act. The National Firearms Act requires that a potential owner pay a $200 fee and submit their name and other identifying information to the Justice Department, just as they would if they went out and purchased a silencer for a gun."

If you're wondering, the The National Firearms Act, or NFA, was enacted in 1934 as a response to all the naughty gangsters, running amok in the US.  It made things such as machine guns (full auto anything), silencers, and short barreled rifles and shotguns illegal to possess without the proper tax stamp.  The law was basically a knee jerk reaction to the mobsters - 'anything you guys have been using, and whatever else we feel like throwing in, are now illegal unless you pay a $200 tribute to the crown for the tax stamp'.  The short barrel stuff was a direct response to a gangster, whose name I've forgotten, who used a sawed off shotgun to commit robberies.  Incidentally, the cost hasn't changed since the law's inception; it's always been $200.

Some thoughts on the NFA, from others and myself.  First, even the ATF has said silencers shouldn't be on it; not necessarily germane to this topic, but dammit, I'm tired of dealing with the shit every time I want to build a can.  Second, the law is antiquated and a knee jerk response to events almost a century ago.  That crossing a line on a tape measure requires a tax stamp is ludicrous.  You can trust me, being as close to a gun expert you can have, short of paying for the analysis, a shorter barrel rifle may be slightly easier to maneuver in tight spaces, but not a whole lot more than a gun with a 16" barrel.  This is especially true in the more open areas where mass shootings typically occur.  

Oh, and if your plans include a mass shooting, I'd hazard a guess that you're not so concerned about committing a felony ahead of it, so you can throw a stock on your gun in 15 seconds for under $30.  

AR-15 Stock

All of the above aside, our illustrious leader wants to make over a million law abiding citizens into felons because of an event that represents roughly 1% of all mass shootings!  

Finally, I return to the fact I highlighted in a previous entry - were Colorado a participant in the NICS system, the gun wouldn't have made it into the shooter's hands in the first place.  

In conclusion, I applaud Joe for latching on to dumb details and getting worked up over them.  I have a feeling we'll be reminded quite a few more times that his primary quality that got him elected was he wasn't Donald Trump.

If you want me, I'll be pondering whether to give our government another $200 for the privilege of exercising my rights.