The standard bill of fare gun control activists serve up includes demands for a ban on firearms they consider too scary for civilians to use. Firearms like AR-15 rifles, or certain styles of shotguns. Their rallying cry is that these guns have “no legitimate use” — that they’re weapons of war and need to be removed from the streets. Obviously they don’t quite grasp the point of the Second Amendment, but when they start using that rationale to oppose products like TrackingPoint’s rifle, their message goes off the rails. It becomes obvious that they simply are scared of change, and just want everything that doesn’t fit their idea of “acceptable” firearms to go away. The National Gun Victims Action Council is now using this rationale to go after TrackingPoint rifles, saying that they are too dangerous to be in civilian hands . . .
“There are three groups who will buy these rifles — insurrectionists, terrorists and hate groups,” (Elliot) Fineman said in a recent statement. “Given the sniper rifle’s deadly accuracy, no one is safe — this cannot be allowed.”
Mr. Fineman believes that the only people who are buying TrackingPoint’s goods are evil folks. But according to the guys at TP their sales seem to be concentrated in the wealthy hunter and collector demographics. While Mr. Fineman’s fever-dream inspired beliefs don’t match up with reality, that still doesn’t make his words harmless. TP has come under fire before for this same claim by other anti-gun groups, and while I’m sure most of our readers will see right through the FUD there is always a small population who will buy into the fantasy.
The problem is that if Mr. Fineman gets his way, it sets a dangerous precedent. What exactly constitutes “too accurate” a firearm for civilian sales? If one scope manufacturer can be put out of business, Horus and Leupold are next on the chopping block, continuing until all “evil sniper rifles” have been destroyed and banned.
Also, there’s the small fact that no one has been killed with a TrackingPoint gun. The guys have been selling them as fast as they are building them for well over a year, and if Mr. Fineman’s assertion that the only people who buy these rifles are evil people then where is the body count? It’s another example of a gun control group prognosticating about “blood in the streets” and that prediction never actually coming true.
The National Gun Victims Action Council is the boy who cried wolf. They have opposed every gun rights victory, and yet their predictions of doom have never come true. And now they’re crying little green men from Mars, and I don’t think anyone is listening.