Why handguns?

[DWS1117]

Why are they so evil? Why do they seem more feared? It isn't because they are more powerful. Is it because they are more concealable? Is it the gang violence factor?

There are/were even gun control groups such as "Handgun Control Inc." Where is "Rifle Control Inc."?

Here is Texas I can carry a loaded rifle in my car, but heaven forbid that I carry a handgun without anointment from the state.

In most states an individual can buy a long gun at 18, but must wait until that magic age of 21 befre that may buy a handgun.

Why so much hoopla over the handgun?

 

[Brian Williams]

concealability

 

[BluesBear]

Why so much hoopla over guns in general?

I never could understand it.
I guess I'm too logical and reasonable.

I don't recall anyone making a fuss over guns until JFK was shot. I was eight years old. A few years later they stopped selling handguns at Sears and any gun through the mail.

It wasn't the gun's fault JFK & RFK were killed. But the rest of us have been made to suffer for that ever since.

 

[benEzra]

Actually, the gun-haters have shifted most of their attention to rifles lately, aka "assault weapons" and "sniper rifles." Though I'm sure handgun-hating is alive and well.

 

[Gordon Fink]

Handguns are the most versatile self-defense weapons currently available. They are portable, discreet, and fairly effective. Unfortunately, this also makes them the weapons of choice for criminals, which leads in turn to a lot of irrational fear.

~G. Fink

 

[Double Naught Spy]

Right, and along with being concealable and handheld, they still give the user the option of addressing a target at distance with power and accuracy, unlike other handheld concealable items such as knives, rocks, etc. Such concealed power means that a little scrawny person can effectively engage a much larger and more powerful person and be victorious over that person.

 

[Sharps Shooter]

The people who wish to take away our rights are intelligent enough to know it has to be done one bite at a time. Handguns are easier to demonize than deer rifles and skeet or trap shotguns. I can remember when the antis coined the term "Saturday Night Special." Like "Assault Guns" and Sniper Rifles," there is no real definition to the term - it's simply a term the antis have made up intending to provoke an emotion from ignorant and uninformed citizens who will then join in taking away our rights. No gun owner should doubt for one second that his or her pet .308 deer rifle can quickly be labled a "sniper rifle."
Do I see conspiiracy behind every tree? Possibly. But anyone who can't see conspiracy in the anti gun movement must be blind. Like BluesBear, I remember when JFK was shot. I was 16 at the time. And like BluesBear, I remember there was no hoopla over guns before that. Nobody I knew thought of guns as either good or bad - they were just guns. Oh, I suppose I'd heard of BGs using sawed-off shotguns. But to me, sawed-off shotguns were not something evil. They were shotguns used by evil people.

 

[walking arsenal]

ive often wondered the same thing. If youll look around youll notice that in countries that have banned firearm ownership shotguns are the last to go. SHOTGUNS, that the most destructive firearms i can think of that everyone can own. makes no sense.

 

[Gordon Fink]

The shotgun has limited military utility.

~G. Fink

 

[woofe]

aaaaahaaaaaahaaaaaaah!!

Oh my gawd!!! the only thing worse than handgun is an EVIL BLACK RIFLE!!! :banghead:

 

[Boats]

The right kind of shotgun is, should circumstances require it, the most powerful two shot handgun ever devised. It may have limited military value, but immeasurable clandestine value in that one could always be used to "liberate" some governmental lackey's pistol or assault rifle.

That the gun banners permit the ownership of shotguns in otherwise gun totalitarian societies underscores just how stupid and unimaginative they are.

 

[Father Knows Best]

The shotgun has limited military utility.

How do you figure? The shotgun has had plenty of military utility, from the trenches of WWI to the jungles of Viet Nam. I don't know if they're being used in the sandbox right now, but I wouldn't be surprised to find that they are. They're excellent CQB implements.

If by "limited" you mean there are things they can't do, well, that's a meaningless assertion. There are plenty of things rifles and pistols can't do, either. They all have military utility. It just depends on the situation.

 

[Ozendorph]

Oh my gawd!!! the only thing worse than handgun is an EVIL BLACK RIFLE!!!

Don't forget handgun with a forward-seated magazine. So sinister, it hardly requires an operator to spread its evil.

 

[Moonclip]

I think even among people who do not like guns they may see some acceptabilty for "Farmer Johns" old double barrel shotgun or 22rifle. Most people like that probably only see handguns as being concealable weapons only good for killing people or sticking up a liquor store.

They do not realize or care that handguns are also used for target work and for hunting also. My state for instance is a lot more lenient on long guns as long as they are not "assault weapons" there is a lot less involved to buy one especially if it is not certain types of semi autos or it is something like a 22lr.

 

[Gordon Fink]

How do you figure? …

Many, many more rifles are issued than shotguns. They have limited military utility, not no utility.

~G. Fink

 

[Standing Wolf]

I can remember when the antis coined the term "Saturday Night Special."

You've got to be seriously old: the original term, "niggertown Saturday night special," dates at least to the 1890s. It's been euphemized as "Saturday night special" since the 1920s.

The impulse behind the term is unchanged, of course: the self-appointed new aristocrats don't want dark people fooling around with firearms.

 

[Tom Servo]

First off, the gun can be CONCEALED. This is immensely frightening, because perhaps our protectors and shepherds from the government might not know we're carrying them. After all, why should we need to protect ourselves when the government's there to do it? According to the liberal agenda, all we need to do is Fear and Obey. The very idea that we may be concealing instruments to potentially resist said government is even more disturbing.

Second, in the movies, handguns are scary, and in a culture that bases its opinions on the "facts" presented in fictional and/or biased television shows, that means that anyone with such an implement must be out to cause mayhem. (Most antis who have very strongly-formed opinions don't even realize that 90% of their impressions about guns come not from informed sources or research, but from shows like NYPD Blue or Law & Order)

 

[BluesBear]

No Surprise

The shotgun has had plenty of military utility, from the trenches of WWI to the jungles of Viet Nam. I don't know if they're being used in the sandbox right now, but I wouldn't be surprised to find that they are. They're excellent CQB implements.

My Mossberg does the Talking