And around we go again- ya gotta love it.
Best real world living example of the utility (lack of, that is) of PG-only shotguns I know of is a fellow by the name of Reginald Denny. Remember him? Truck driver type, LA riots post Rodney King deal? I only saw the footage once before the spin doctors yanked it. Denny, dragged out of his truck and beaten to a pulp, lying in the street unconscious and unmoving while a young man dances up with his Mossberg Cruiser PGO and lets go at Denny from fifteen feet or so.
Anyone else here remember seeing that videotape?
Well, Denny is still kicking, and was unwounded by shotgun pellets I might add. And his assailant got charged but it was reduced to some stupid 'firing into a vehicle' sort of nonsense. But it was all on tape and I saw it, even if only once. Parker (from what I could see) had homicidal intent and wasn't shooting at any cement truck- he was trying to 'do' Denny. But that stupid PG that Mossberg insists on using on their own guns (while they sell a perfectly useful one that fits 870s and Winchesters, that is curved like the PG portion of a regular stock) indexed the gun so that Parker killed a lot of asphalt and that was all.
Good thing for Denny... .
Here's a clip or two, just as a bit of proof I am not hallucinating:
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http://www.highbeam.com/library/doc0.asp?docid=1P1:2244379&refid=ink_puballtnews&skeyword=&teaser=
James Bolden
Los Angeles Sentinel
05-05-1994
Final Defendant Tried in LA's Worst Civil Unrest.
By JAMES BOLDEN
Staff Writer
Lance Jerome Parker, the last of the so called LA 4+ defendants, was acquitted Monday on charges that he fired a shotgun at trucker Reginald Denny during the April 29, 1992 violence at the intersection of Florence and Normandie.
>snip
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http://www.mndaily.com/daily/gopher-archives/1993/05/28/NAT28.STO.txt
A judge in Los Angeles, Calif., dismissed two felony charges Thursday
against a man accused of firing a shotgun at beating victim Reginald
Denny's truck at the start of the 1992 riots.
Superior Court Judge Michael Tynan ruled that prosecutors failed to
present adequate evidence against Lance Jerome Parker on two counts
of attempt to burn.
He still faces two counts of discharge of a firearm with gross
negligence, shooting at an unoccupied vehicle, assault with a firearm
and shooting at an occupied vehicle. He faces a 15-year jail term if
convicted.
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I don't think anyone here is saying that PGO shotguns are stupid or utterly useless. But for most folk in most situations they lack the utility of a full stocked shotgun, unless the shooter works a lot harder and a lot longer at becoming proficient.
lpl/nc