Worst myths you've heard about guns which are meant to scare the general public?

That having a gun for home defense is unsafe because one would be like 42 more times more likely to be killed by gunfire (or other criminal activity) than to kill a home intruder. This argument/myth fails because it does not take into account incidences in which a gun is used to successfully stop an intrusion without an intruder being killed.
That teens carrying handguns are 40+ times more likely to die in gun violence than those not in possession. Duh.. the vast majority of teens carrying handguns are already in violation of law by doing so, and are doing so because they are already involved in high-risk behavior, such as gang activity or criminal activity.
Those are two I hear over and over. There are more, but I can't stay online right now to type what would end up being a diatribe over it.

45acp will take a mans arm clean off causing him to do flipping whirlwinds through the window behind him.....

Here's three

The evil prototypical Saturday Night Special, the .22 short RG 10, fired a magical bullet that would enter the chest, tear about the body, ricochet off bones, and end up anywhere, even the leg. (.22 short from a revolver with a 2" barrel will often fail to penetrate the sternum or skull, and penetration in flesh is a few inches. A .22 short once penetrated a man's chest, entered a vein, got pumped through the heart, circulated down the aorta, and stuck in the femoral artery in the thigh. Mis-reporting of the autopsy results led to this urban legend. In a similar manner, birdshot with a penetration of just one inch, may enter the circulatory system and float in the blood flow and end up almost anywhere in the body.)

Plus the evil RG10 was so poorly made it would explode like a hand grenade and kill the shooter as often as not. (The mass of gun powder in a .22 short equals a baby aspirin; a hand grenade contains several ounces of explosive. Even anti-gunner Robert Sherrill admitted that story was the bunk: in all his research he never found a single death or injury from an exploding RG10.)

An anti-gun demonstration on the evils of the demon assault weapon, and the danger of allowing the ban to lapse, showed a pre-ban AK rifle blowing holes through a concrete block, then demonstrated a ban-compliant AK rifle fired with no effect. Even CNN had to admit the test was bogus: off camera, the ban-compliant rifle was shot into the dirt, not at the cinderblock. Both guns would shoot through a concrete block. Any common deer rifle will shoot through a cinder block.

And on the subject of the Assault Weapon Ban, the news would talk about banning semi-automatic rifles, but show full-automatic machineguns blazing away at 600 rpm.

Ooops, guess that's four.

And the Kellerman/New England Journal of Medicine 47, er 42, er 2.7 times more likely figure got revised down to 40% more likely, or 1.4 times.

My favorite? Guns "go off" from handling or being dropped.

Guns go off when you pull the trigger.

"It just went off"
Probably the greatest gun myth told. Guns don't "go off" unless a booger hook hits the bang switch

Guns are racist.

"A fifty caliber rifle will shoot through a tank a mile away."

I think I first read it in the Chicago Tribune, this URL indicates it started with an AP article in an Indianopolis newspaper.


http://fiftycal.org/frenchrebuttal0511.php

I wish I had saved my copy of an old alarmist skreed "Menace of the Sex Deviant". It contained the kind of scare stories used to promote gun control, prohibition of alcohol, reefer madness and bans on Vault of Horror comics. If you make out on lovers lane, an escaped lunatic will leave hanging on the door of your car ... a hook! Be afraid, be very afraid, but authority will save you.

An AK 47 will fire both their rounds and our own rounds. (7.62 x 39 and 5.56 x 45 from the same gun)

Probably the worst, for me, is the belief that having a gun will make you more likely to commit a crime (or try to change the laws so you can commit violent acts while not breaking the law). This means that people associate guns with criminals, and don't want to associate with guns for belief that they will go down a dark path because of them.

As reported by a CNN talking head during the search for the Beltway killers a few years back.....

"The .223Rem from an AR-15 can make accurate headshots at 5,000 yards, and is so deadly because the bullet SPINS!"

Yeah, that one deserved a major league face palm.

Black guns are somehow more deadly than hunting rifles/shotguns.

" A 50 cal BMG Sniper rifle can bring down an airliner"
Hypotheticly, perhaps, but ask those greatest generation fighter pilots from WWII just how many rounds it took to get a "Kill". My answer to this statement of "fact" is "Show me the documention where this has happened" Statistics will also show that people who take a conceal carry certification course are 80% LESS LIKELY to be involved in a deadly force encounter than "average citizen". Why?? Look at the demograghics of who takes CCW classes (mid aged and seniors who want to obey the law).

As reported by a CNN talking head during the search for the Beltway killers a few years back.....

"The .223Rem from an AR-15 can make accurate headshots at 5,000 yards, and is so deadly because the bullet SPINS!"

Yeah, that one deserved a major league face palm.

Click to expand...

Wow. Guess we better introduce that guy to a little thing called barrel rifling. Been around since the 1860s?

I think there were rifled muskets in the Revolutionary War.

That gun owners are violent people just waiting for a chance to harm someone.

A woman with a handgun is more likely to have the gun taken from her by the Bad Guy and then have it used on her or her loved ones. That seems to be the principal scare tactic of the League of Women Voters' ( a supposedly "non-partisan" group) local la Presidente, along with "Stand your Ground" legislation causing vigilante mentality.

Guy in a gun shop talking about the German MG-42 that fired so fast there were three bullets in the barrel at the same time. He became rather hostile when it was gently explained that having three bullets moving in the barrel at the same time was impossible.

Semi-automatic military-style rifles "can spray 600 rounds in a minute from the hip!"

Guns kill people.

Accidental Shootings. Almost all "accidental" shootings are actually explained by negilgance.

Doofus Reporter called a Hi Point carbine an "assault rifle " in a recent newspaper article. Guess that makes the article a lie written by a truth-assaulting anti-Second Amendment agitator!.

Guns have no place in a civilized society.