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Scott Pechnick fires an AR-15 at the Markham Park shooting range in Sunrise, Fla. “I enjoy shooting — to me it’s a stress reliever,” he said. “I’m also a firm believer in self-defense.” (caption and photo courtesy nytimes.com)

TTAG reader AM clocked The New York Times article Where Support for Assault Rifles Is All in ‘Good, Clean Fun’ and read between the lines:

Mr. Pereira, 45, is a regular at the target range here at Markham Park, a county-run recreation area outside Fort Lauderdale that offers family camping, boating, biking, a dog park, a nature trail and, at the far end, a 100-yard shooting range.

This seems like an ideal situation, fun for all! . . .

Arguments over gun control may boil in some quarters. But here, canoers, bird-watchers and even the dogs paid little heed to the distant crackle of gunfire.

There must be something wrong with these people!

How can we not limit weapons that can kill dozens in minutes? Why would any sport shooter need extra hand grips and a magazine holding 30 or even 100 cartridges?

As if a magazine change would stop a determined killer.  And it’s fun to shoot without having to constantly reload (but I do like the idea of one shot and on target).

Mr. Pechnick, 31, said he favored wider background checks and thought that someone should be monitoring large purchases of ammunition. “You can buy 1,000 rounds of ammunition online and nobody says anything,” he said, adding that banning the rifles seemed pointless.

Hell, when ammo is on sale why not buy it in large amounts, I find myself shooting at least 200 rounds any time I go to the range.

His father, Jorge Pereira, said he did not share his brother Eddie’s love of guns but saw nothing wrong with it, “and I’m a registered Democrat.”

I am also a registered Democrat (the shame, but I haven’t voted Democrat in at least 20 years), and see nothing wrong with other people exercising their rights (but like Dogbert, there are some people I would not trust with string).

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54 COMMENTS

  1. The derp is strong with these people. I can’t wait to get my assault weapons out this weekend, weapons that can kill dozens in minutes, and then shoot paper targets. The horror!

  2. The “large ammo” thing is especially stupid. Sure, some spree shooters have stocked up on ammo, but what advantage did it give them? I can’t think of any mass shooting that used more than 150-200 rounds. Who cares if he had a million rounds back home? In what scenario does this matter? When has it ever come into play?!

    • Of course it doesn’t matter, but that’s okay. The folks they are selling this nonsense to can’t think it through.

      It tugs at the emotional heartstrings; they create the equivalence in the minds of their readers/listeners that each round of ammo owned is an innocent person shot.

      Fear sells, especially when it’s irrational fear.

    • Even worse was the FBI Director stating the perpetrators of a recent attack “conducted target practice at a few local ranges”, as if going to a range made someone a dangerous radical or was a clear sign of radicalization. I’m sure some liberals have since added time to their usual drives to avoid passing the local range for fear of catching radicalization.

    • “. . .The “large ammo” thing is especially stupid. . .” Especially when you realize that they’re talking about using government policies to limit the exercise of a constitutional right.
      As others have said, trying to limit the amount or kind of ammunition we buy is like trying to limit the number of times and places where we can exercise free speech.

  3. I confess. I have two bricks of .22 ammo. I have a THOUSAND rounds of .22!
    And an evil “assault rifle” chambered for them.

  4. If I own 1,000 guns and a bajillion rounds of ammo but never ever harm any one, what’s the problem? I am actually being safer that JoJo One Gun with a Barnie Fife bullet, on average….

    Also give guns and ammo for Christmas gifts.

    • Yep, I was just wrapping up a 300-pack of CCI Mini-Mag HPs for number-one-son’s Christmas stocking; then I realized that the stocking can’t support the weight, so the ammo will be parked under the tree and a SIG mag will be found in the frosty folds of the former footwear.

    • If you happen to give a new Taurus firearm as a gift, it comes with a free one year NRA membership. Just need to provide proof of purchase and download the application.

  5. “Why would any sport shooter need extra hand grips and a magazine holding 30 or even 100 cartridges?”
    For the same reason people “need” Toshiba Magic Wands, marijuana, SUVs and gay marriage. I have no use for these either, but it’s none of my business if other people have them / use them, etc.

    • For the same reason people “need” Toshiba Magic Wands …

      You may have a use for such things, especially if it makes Mrs. SelousX very happy.

    • Cars kill as many per year, and YES, they are used to purposely kill and injure en mass.

      Cars also INJURE more people per year than guns (IIRC, estimate is 1.5M injured with cars, 250k with guns IIRC).

      Regulating the amount of ammo is equivalent to limiting the amount of gasoline. Regulating the type of firearm is equivalent to regulating the type of vehicle.

      So why do we NEED cars that have 300 HP? Or have 30 gallon gas tanks.

      Let’s reduce all cars to having 10 gallon gas tanks. And can only go 75MPH with 100 HP. Then, you can only purchase gas once a month, with a 20 gallon max capacity (2x the tank size). For electric vehicles, that means you can only charge your vehicle twice in a month. Oh, and if you practice driving in the snow, that’s equivalent to going to the range, so you’re obviously a threat and a menace to society.

      Think the auto industry lobby would have something to say about that? I do. And I think they’d be pretty vocal about it.

      The problem here is that a lie repeated 1000x becomes truth….

      Liberals and the media.

    • Exactly. Why does anyone *need* a certain number of shoes or a vehicle of a particular horsepower and/or seating capacity, or a house of a given square footage?

      I know, I know, those aren’t “weapons of war” designed to kill people. Well. According to some people, mostly liberals, running those big homes and cars is killing the entire planet. Not even DiFi ever accused an AR of doing that much damage.

      People really need to mind their own business.

  6. How can we not limit weapons that can kill dozens in minutes?

    I could kill dozens in minutes with a bolt-action I am sure.

    Why would any sport shooter need extra hand grips and a magazine holding 30 or even 100 cartridges?

    Because the right to keep and bear arms doesn’t have anything to do with sport anymore than the right to free speech has to do with Better Homes and Gardens magazine. I mean, recreational speech, ranging from magazines to porn to Harry Potter, are all covered under the right to free speech, but it is offensive speech and political speech that are the main reasons for protecting the right. The right to keep and bear arms is about the right of an individual to engage in a private war in self-defense against criminal predation and to engage in war against a tyrannical state if one arises. And also to hunt for food if absolutely necessary.

    • I agree. Popular speech doesn’t need protection. Challenging, dissenting speech does.

      Likewise, loveable, wuvvable, cutesy cheerful rifles don’t need protection. (Think Cricket bolt action, single shot, .22lr, in pink camo. That’s adorable!) Scary, evil looking, black rifles do.

  7. The SAFE Act in New York bans internet sales. Sort of. You can still buy online, it just has to ship to an FFL to transfer to you. Of course, the FFL charges you. Which means those seeking the best price (the reason for shopping online) will want to spread the $20 the FFL charges over as many rounds as possible.

    Which is why I now buy 1,000 to 2,000 rounds of ammo at a go instead of the 200 to 500 I used to buy. So the SAFE Act is making it smarter to buy in large quantities and stockpile. The exact opposite of what it was intended to do.

  8. … Why would any sport shooter need extra hand grips …

    Extra hand grips. People should have to demonstrate a need for those. Maybe go before a judge.

    • “I need a better hold on my rifle! You know those scary black rifles! They love to jump out and go on killing sprees all on their lonesome! Gotta keep a firm grip on ’em”

    • Common sense says you would encourage me to maintain a better grip, more cotrol while discharging.

      And that shouldeer thing that goes up is hard to hold while firing.

      • Liberals feel if you have a hand grip it makes the assault weapon more accurate and heaven knowns we don’t want that. I think the “thing that goes up ” helps to

  9. This “large quantities of ammunition” topic is a new bother. I buy “large quantities” of ammunition because I save money on bulk orders. I store the ammo and use it as I want, instead of being at the mercy of local sporting goods stores that feature higher prices, poor customer service, and seem to order ammunition in the direct opposite manner of demand (aka never have what I want when I want it). People flock to Sams Club and Costco but can’t see the benefits of bulk buying beyond toilet paper and cookies.

    Besides, if someone is planning something they have time to plan (duh). So they can buy 100 or 200 rounds at a time and stock up. There is no law that says you have to shoot what you buy in X days. Meanwhile millions of people would be at the mercy of the government’s new economics of ammunition, which means it would be more expensive, less capitalistic, and full of bugs and bureaucratic blackholes. We saw what happened to the economics of healthcare when the .gov stepped in. That’s their point, though, “if you want to keep buying ammo freely you can”. Now I suppose they will argue ammunition doesn’t fall under Second Amendment protection as firearms do because ammunition isn’t directly stated. It might be time for me to buy a press or two.

    • If you consider a lot of people that shoot even semi seriously are into tracking their ammo prices to the tenth of a cent yeah there’s justification to buy thousands of rounds. Not only that, but idiots rattling sabers make supply difficult to get at times so people will buy when they see it because they aren’t all that sure when they’ll see it again. Back when it was a buck or two a box (yeah, I know dating myself here) I would shoot .22 by the brick just because it was there. Nothing wrong with that.

  10. I live in South Florida and I go to Markham Park when I want to sight in a rifle from a bench at a known distance
    The range officers there are extremely strict and you can see why when you look at the floor and see the holes from previous customers negligent discharge
    The problem is South Florida is that there is no place to just plink out in the country
    There are only three, 100 yard outdoor ranges anywhere in South Florida
    They are Trail glades in Miami, Markham Park and the Palm beach county sheriffs range ( only open one or two weekends a month )
    That’s it. No other outdoor ranges to shoot your rifles. None of them allow rapid fire or even animal or human silhouette targets. Only circles or squares. No zeroing your deer rifle on a deer target.

    • Dude, that blows. Come up north a little bit, there’s a place called the shoot shack that will, now hold on to your hat, let you shoot silhouette targets!

  11. a roman gladius (short sword) could kill easily dozens in minutes, no special training needed, just stick em with the pointy end. And you can buy one ONLINE! NO BACKGROUND check! or required training! OMG ban gladius short swords! for the children!!

    ack, these people should try and apply thier drivel to another subject and see how uneducated they sound.

  12. I read the article. Editorializing to their confirmed believers masquerading as a news article yet again. I particularly enjoyed the conflation of the ISIS killers’ use of the devilish AR in California with the enjoyment of target shooting by the guys in Florida, like they were closet nut cases ready to shoot up a company picnic themselves. The way old National Geographics described quaint, backward, and “dangerous” tribes in some fetid jungle. As some of you have said repeatedly about projection, the more you read of this garbage the more you see that these people really are scared of their own reflections.

  13. “Why would any sport shooter need extra hand grips”

    Hey now. My hogleg is awfully partial to her work grips, her target grips, and her elkhorn stag Sunday Go To Meetin’ grips.

  14. Why do I need to have lots of rounds of ammunition? Easy, they last time the liberals pushed for gun control, the people went out and cleaned all the stores out. And ammo supply is only now starting to get close to normal again, THREE years later. So now I am closing in on 1000 rounds of ammunition in each caliber I own, and the next goal is 1000 rounds for each gun.

  15. Why would any sport shooter need extra hand grips…?

    Because sometimes you don’t put up the “shoulder thing that goes up.”

    Duuuh.

  16. …extra hand grips…

    How many hand grips do you have to have before they count as extra? I mean, I have two hands, so that’s two for each weapon, right?

    (By hand grips do they mean pistol grips and vertical foreends? Or just any means of gripping the weapon, as opposed to a bare barrel and action. They probably don’t even know.)

  17. As Eddie Pereira helped his 15-year-old nephew fire a semiautomatic assault rifle for the first time…

    Of course, to beat the dead horse: if it’s semi-automatic, it’s not an assault rifle.

  18. From the article:

    But Mr. Horwitz, of the gun-control coalition, sees the feature differently.

    “Traditional hunting rifles are very accurate on the first shot,” he said, which is usually all one gets when hunting game. “The pistol grip allows the same accuracy on rounds two to 100, a very helpful addition when the shooter is aiming at people.”

    The NYT just parrots the misinformation of gun grabbers without confirmation or fact-checking.

    • Must mean I am doing it wrong. Maybe we should all hunt with pistols as the hand grip insures accuracy and rapid followup. I guess I need to get rid of all my rifles. Thanks, Mr Horwitz.

    • Where does Mr. Horwitz get his expertise? How many years has he hunted? How many times has he committed mass murder? Does he know what kind of action was on the weapons used in the shooting at the UT tower in Austin, close to our first mass murder? (Hint; it rhymes with “DOLT!”)

  19. Why can’t they stay up there and worry about stuff in their state? Is this their way of showing their readers how free we are compared to them?

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