A lesson on handguns

I like reading The Economist each week. It has a nice world view, and it gives me a good idea of how important Australia is to the rest of the world. That is, we appear in it about twice a year. Right up there with Burkino Faso and Fiji in importance.

A recent edition had an article calling for a ban on "semi-automatic handguns", which is a silly bloody expression, obviously written and edited by some goons that have never pulled a trigger in their lives.

To my way of thinking, a weapon either has to be cocked between firing each round, or it doesn't. If it doesn't have to be cocked, then it can either fire one shot at a time, or it keeps firing until the ammo runs out. The last type is an automatic weapon.

A Lee-Enfield rifle is not semi-automatic. The bolt has to be worked to eject the empty casing, load a new bullet and do something tricky with the firing pin inside the bolt.

A revolver is semi-automatic, in that if you have enough strength in your trigger finger, you can keep pulling the trigger and it will fire six times. People who have never used a revolver are often amazed at how much strength is required to pull the trigger if the weapon is not cocked, which is why the easiest way to fire one is to cock it with the thumb (which has more strength), then pull the trigger. If it is not cocked, when you pull the trigger, your finger has to be strong enough to do two things - rotate the cylinder and pull back the cocking lever. Police recruits where revolvers are still used routinely have to spend time each night dry firing their revolver in order to build up the required strength.

Which is why people love pistols, or "automatics". They are nothing of the sort, as they are semi-automatic. A Glock is semi-automatic, just like say a .38 revolver. It just takes more hand strength to fire a revolver at the same rate as a Glock.

Given how much a Glock kicks though, you still need plenty of wrist strength to control it. I always laugh when I see idiots in movies holding a pistol side on. That's a great way to break your wrist, as the recoil goes all the wrong way.

Anyway, The Economist is retarded on this issue.