re: Gun Legislation

[Marc <cram3813@uidaho.edu>]

At 11:49 PM 5/2/99 -0400, you wrote:
>In reply to you question:  The sale of these we a big deal about two years
>ago.  The NRA said they were to be used to hunt bears with.  No I can't
>rember the name sorry.  However the so called Rhino rounds that were
>bascily a fragmentation slug were on the market to the public before they
>were banned because of their extream nature.  I also feel that an assult
>wepon is not in our (hunting and shooting sports) best intrest to fight
>over.  An ak47 is not nor was it ever ment to be used as a hunting weapon.  
>
>
>Robert

Ah, the infamous Black Rhino round.  It was claimed to do a few interesting
things by its manufacturer, Signal Products Corporation of Alabama, such
as:  it would go through body armor and then fragment into many pieces
causing much death and destruction.  Only a few things were wrong with this
whole thing.  It was a lie.  A hoax.  Whatever you want to call it.  No
such bullet was ever demonstrated to do anything more than a normal bullet
could do.  The company could not deliver one for independent testing.  Then
they said they would delay manufacturing to let the public furor die down.
Guess what--they never even had an FFL (federal firearms license) to
manufacture ammunition.  It was never banned because it never existed.

The initial panic in the armor piercing bullet market started a few years
ago when KTW was going to make a solid steel bullet and teflon coat it.
Gasp!! The famous "KTW cop-killer" bullet appeared.  Big weeping and
wailing and gnashing of teeth!  If one only got his entertainment from the
television or the newspapers, it is obvious this is an evil thing.  These
media did not mention a few other facts.  
1. The bullet was never manufactured or was it meant to be manufactured for
public use.  It was a test bullet.  
2. Steel on steel is *bad* for barrels.  Lead, and to a lesser degree,
copper is self-lubricating on steel.  *Good* for barrels.  The teflon was
placed on the bullets to reduce barrel wear.  Cop killing was never in the
design specifications.  
But, be what may, paranoia gripped some people in DC and now AP handgun
rounds are evil.  Even though not one cop has ever been killed by an AP
round going through his vest.  Zero.  Nada.  Zip.  It is a non-problem.

And I agree 100% with you.  The AK-47 was never designed as a hunting
weapon.  It was specifically designed to wound humans.  I don't see what
its "hunting use" has anything to do with ownership of one.  I don't own
one, but not for that reason.  I do own some guns that would be an even
worse choice for hunting.  My main beef with the AKs are some of the
features (Kalishnikov was having a *bad* day when he designed the dust
cover/safety) and the general feel of the weapon.

Still politically incorrect--

Marc