Thursday, January 3, 2013

High Capacity, Standard Capacity, Or Reduced Capacity


I had a thought provoking comment left the other day by a John Ryan that bears repeating. It was in regard to an infographic I had posted by the American Preppers Network that discussed "high capacity" magazines.

We have to be better at getting the right terms out there. Especially getting them to the talking heads on our side ( they are making lots of mistakes). Otherwise hyperbole wins the day. “Standard capacity” is the winning term. They are proposing “reduced capacity”. “Reduced capacity magazines” diminish a persons ability to defend themselves. 10 is a random # made up out of thin air.

If we meet them on the terms they set, talking about “ high caps don’t save that much time” we lose because nobody ( other that shooters) wants to follow that. We, as proponents for the preservation of the 2nd, have to make sure our arguments are not just convincing to us, but to lay people as well.

“Standard capacity” is what a pistol was designed for. It’s what a rifle was designed for. Artificially limiting that capacity harms a persons right to self defense as codified in Heller. Spread this rationale around.
The Browning Hi-Power was one of the first pistols to use a double-stack magazine. The magazine size was 13 rounds. That was the size of magazine that the pistol was designed to use. Likewise, the ubiquitous Glock 17 was designed to use a magazine containing 17 rounds. Hence, I presume the name.

I think Mr. Ryan is absolutely correct. We have to take charge of the discussion and to do that we need to be more precise in our language. We cannot let the media or the gun prohibitionists continue to dominate the discussion with the emotionally laden term of "high capacity". There are good, solid reasons one needs standard capacity magazines in the non-military, non-law enforcement world and we should be making them daily.




7 comments:

  1. I agree that we should use the correct term, but but waste previous talking time correcting them. Occasionally an AP reporter in Chicago will call me to get my reaction or comment. I get limited air time and so must be focused in my response. In my opinion, it is most useful to make the comparison to law enforcement and the firearms they use.

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    1. You don't have to spend time correcting them, just make sure that YOU don't use their terminology.

      If you use their terminology, you've already lost your argument regardless of what else you say.

      -HSR47

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  2. The popular explanation is that the Glock 17 got its model number from being Gaston Glock's 17th patent. I can't seem to find any authoritative sourcing for that though.

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    1. That was what we were told in the Armorer's class in Smyrna. It seemed authoritative enough at the time. ;)

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  3. http://olegvolk.net/blog/2012/12/22/the-mad-numerologists-of-gun-control/

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  4. Thanks for re-posting John.

    John Ryan

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