David Codrea writes [via ammoland.com]
“The 840-hp Dodge Challenger SRT Demon from Fiat Chrysler is so inherently dangerous to the common safety of motorists that its registration as a road-worthy automobile should be banned,” Automotive News effectively shrieks, even while admitting “There are more powerful, and even faster, vehicles available from other automakers that are rightly street legal.”
“From its barely legal slick tires to its monstrous acceleration, the … Demon may comply sufficiently with the letter of the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards to legally be registered for on-road use, but in its current form it certainly doesn’t fulfill the spirit of those standards,” the editorialist fumes indignantly.
Heavens! The slick tire loophole! There’ll be blood in the streets! Something must be done! Ban it! For the children!
How often have gun owners heard similar hysterical “rationales” from the gun-grabbers objecting to performance characteristics, and then codifying bans into law? Hey, we can’t have “30 magazine clips” and “shoulder things that go up” and “weapons of war that have no place on our streets,” right?
Thanks to the internet, rights activists have been quick to react when industry writers, who ought to know better, side with the citizen disarmament cartel. Sick of all the crap gun owners protested loudly and effectively when:
“The guides on our hunt tell me that the use of AR and AK rifles have a rapidly growing following among hunters, especially prairie dog hunters. I had no clue… Excuse me, maybe I’m a traditionalist, but I see no place for these weapons among our hunting fraternity. I’ll go so far as to call them ‘terrorist’ rifles. To most of the public, an assault rifle is a terrifying thing. Let’s divorce ourselves from them. I say game departments should ban them from the prairies and woods.”
“[W]ay too many gun owners still believe that any regulation of the right to keep and bear arms is an infringement. The fact is that all Constitutional rights are regulated, always have been, and need to be.”
“Like we mentioned before, the MP7A1 is unavailable to civilians and for good reason. We all know that’s technology no civvies should ever get to lay their hands on. This is a purpose-built weapon with no sporting applications to speak of. It is made to put down scumbags, and that’s it.
Mike Cabrera of Heckler & Koch Law Enforcement Sales and veteran law enforcement officer with SWAT unit experience points out that this is a gun that you do not want in the wrong, slimy hands. It comes with semi-automatic and full-auto firing modes only.
Its overall size places it between a handgun and submachine gun. Its assault rifle capabilities and small size make this a serious weapon that should not be taken lightly.”
Lesser known to most gun owners, probably because it predated widespread effective internet issue advocacy, were statements published in Field & Stream by editor David E. Petzal at the time the Clinton “assault weapon ban” was being promoted. In our hour of need, he was claiming “it took tremendous courage” for his magazine to go against the NRA:
“Gun owners — all gun owners — pay a heavy price for having to defend the availability of these weapons. The American public — and the gun-owning public; especially the gun-owning public — would be better off without the hardcore military arms, which puts the average sportsman in a real dilemma … an Uzi or an AKM or an AK-47 should be no more generally available than a Claymore mine or a block of C4 explosive.”
Yeah, who needs those to hunt ducks, right? But what happened to weapons being “part of the ordinary military equipment [that] could contribute to the common defense”?
There’s a saying I can’t repeat here (that starts with “Because” and ends with “that’s why”) appropriate for self-righteous busybodies demanding we justify our “needs” to them. The bottom line, as with guns, if performance cars are abused in a way that endangers the public, there are better ways to deal with that. Banning property that can potentially be abused has never been the answer.
I haven’t bought a Field & Stream ever since I organized a letter campaign to tell them why. If I were a car buff, I’d be telling Automotive News where to go right about now.
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating / defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament.
In addition to being a field editor/columnist at GUNS Magazine and associate editor for Oath Keepers, he blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.