The Top-Six Gun Myths Debunked

1. Assault Weapons

   A meaningless term created to provoke shock and fear.  When politicians
   and media types talk about "assault weapons" they're usually referring
   to rifles that work the same as any other semi-automatic rifle that
   uses a detachable magazine, but have an appearance similar to true
   military assault rifles.

   And appearance is all they share with the real thing.  They do not
   fire fully-automatic or in bursts.  They fire one-shot-per-trigger-
   pull, just like any other semi-automatic firearm.  There's nothing any
   more dangerous or "powerful" about them than any other semi-automatic
   rifle with a detachable magazine.

2. High-Capacity Magazines (sometimes incorrectly called "clips")

   These are almost always really standard-capacity magazines, designed
   to hold as many rounds as will fit in the grip of a pistol or, in
   the case of a rifle, will fit in a magazine that doesn't extend so
   far from the bottom that it would be awkward or unreliable.

   There are true high-capacity magazines, but few shooters own them, and
   even fewer actually use them.  They're really not very handy, and they
   can be unreliable.  They're often more a curiosity than truly useful.

   But the real issue is that, even were we to eliminate "high-capacity"
   magazines, it would have little, if any, effect on the potential for
   firearms misuse.  It takes but a moment to eject an empty magazine
   and insert a full one.  "Moment" being "as little as a fraction of a
   second" for somebody practiced in it.  (It doesn't take much practice.)

3. Armor-Piercing Ammunition

   Like so-called "assault weapons": Another bogeyman term.  Gun stores,
   on-line stores, and the sporting goods sections of major retailers
   don't stock it, and wouldn't be allowed to sell it to you or me even
   if they did.

   When you hear or see "armor-piercing bullets," what they're talking
   about is almost always plain old, run-of-the-mill hunting and
   target shooting rifle ammunition.  Truth is most common hunting
   and target shooting rifle rounds will penetrate most body armor,
   the relatively thin sheet steel of cars, some building construction,
   etc. The stuff isn't designed or sold as "armor piercing." It's just
   ordinary rifle rounds.  They're powerful because they're designed to
   shoot long distances, not so they'll pierce armor.

4. A gun in the home (or wherever) is more likely to kill or injure
   you, a loved one or a friend, than be used for self-defense

   That claim is almost always based on a discredited study done by
   a Dr. Arthur Kellermann, back in 1986.  That was the source of
   the infamous "43 times" number you sometimes still hear.  Even Dr.
   Kellermann, himself, has backed away from that number.  (Some myths
   die very hard.)

   Not only is the research to back such claims questionable, but there's
   evidence of just the opposite: That firearms are frequently used by
   people to defend themselves, their loved ones and others from attack.

5. Guns are the reason for America's high violent crime rate

   The fact is that, of every credible study ever done on violent crime
   and firearms ownership, not a single one has ever found a relationship
   between the availability of firearms and violent crime.  So, while
   it seems logical that such a relationship exists, it does not.

   There are U.S. cities with very restrictive gun laws that have
   violent crime rates much higher than that of other, similarly-sized
   U.S. cities with less restrictive gun laws. There are countries with
   a fraction of the gun ownership rate of the U.S. that have much higher
   violent crime rates--higher even than those of America's worst cities.
   If there was a relationship between the number of guns in a population
   and violent crime it experienced, these things would not be so.

   By the way: So-called "assault weapons" account for less than 2% of
   the times in which a firearm is used in the commission of a crime in
   the U.S.

6. Guns are way too easy to get in the U.S.

   In fact: They're not all that easy to get.  With one exception:
   To buy any firearm in the U.S. one must be cleared by the National
   Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).  Some states require
   additional, more thorough checks to obtain a special permit to purchase
   a handgun.

   Which brings us to the much-maligned "gun show loophole."  It's not
   a loophole and it has nothing to do with gun shows. It's a part
   of the law that says private sales, such as between you and me,
   do not require the NICS check.  There's a reason for that: Private
   citizens, not licensed to sell firearms, do not have access to NICS.
   Unless you want everybody and their brother doing criminal background
   checks on whomever they wish: How could it be any other way?

This piece could have as well been entitled "Top 6 Gun Lies," because
anti-gun politicians and organizations, and the entertainment media
that masquerades as "news," have been corrected about them repeatedly,
for years, yet they continue to repeat the falsehoods.	They can't very
well claim ignorance, can they?

At this point a curious person might begin to wonder what else they've
been deliberately misled about.