I've no sympathy for the "need" argument -- who needs to read Reason or the New York screamin' Times? That argument is well-trumped by the Bill of Rights. But the next time some ninny whines about how "assault weapons" are "only good for killing people," you send him or her to Frank W. James. See, we've killed off most of the predators of the dear little critters that eat our food (and nerf-worlders, those predators are not especially huggable or child-safe); the 'yotes and hawks are doin' what they can but the hungry rodents breed like, well, rodents, and they are eating your food or what your food eats, perhaps even your fuel including your heating supply.
It's us or them; Farmer Frank and I vote "us." With an AR-15. Bye-bye, gopher!
Granted, an AR with a .22 upper would work well for gophers, but it might be a little heavy compared to a properly fixed-up 10-22, no?
ReplyDeleteHey, next time you get the need argument, ask them if they need a coffee order at Charbucks which takes five minutes to recite, rather than a simple cup of hot brown water. Heh.
Jim
I don't suppose it ever crosses their blinkered little brains that maybe we want them because we might have to kill someone. Only the most shrill of the gun grabbers will say that no one should have pistol because their only function is to kill people (sporting pistols aside, most gunshot deaths are caused by pistols by a very wide margin).
ReplyDeleteBut because 'assault rifles' are scary looking and in movies, someone can claim to be perfectly reasonable, pro gun even (spit) and still call for banning them.
Just another attempt to get the debate moved away from logic and the rights issue and into emotion and fweewings, where they have the advantage.
I'm with you and Farmer Frank. I think I need an assault rifle for prairie "rat" hunting. Of course I could use a bolt gun but the follow up shots would be way less effective.
ReplyDeleteNext week I'm going out to NM to shoot prairie dogs (rats without the pink tail) with my AR and a .22 LR won't cut it as most are taken around the 300+ yard range. The AR is just right for the distance and follow up shots due to the fact you are shooting something the size of a 20 oz Coke bottle, at 300+ yards, moving around, in the wind, and with the mirage. Prairie dogs really mess up the environment they live in, decimating crops and the livestock break legs in the varmint holes. They reproduce like crazy and if we don't thin them, Mother Nature blesses them (and everything around them) with bubonic plague.
"License to kill gophers by the government of the United Nations. Man, free to kill gophers at will. To kill, you must know your enemy, and in this case my enemy is a varmint. And a varmint will never quit - ever. They're like the Viet Cong - Varmint Cong. So you have to fall back on superior intelligence and superior firepower. And that's all she wrote." - Carl Spackler in Caddy Shack
If the hoplophobes had their way, they would want the gophers humanely trapped, sterilized, and then set free.
ReplyDeleteBob "if the hoplophobes had their way, they would want the gophers humanely trapped, sterilized, and then set free."
ReplyDeleteNot before ACORN registered them all to vote.
work verf: hambale. Pigs in the threshing machine! Damn!
Most of my predators are bipedal around here, but at 0300 last Monday I hollered for something long and Russian with a spike at the end to deal with a raccoon who was reaching through the chain link fence and tormenting my dogs. Would have been bad form to light it up at that time of the morning, although the dogs and coon were raising enough hell to raise the neighbors.
ReplyDeleteRegards,
Rabbit.
A gopher is only a bit smaller than a prairie dog and my AR works just fine on them! Best one-shot hit was 230yds.
ReplyDeleteI hate to make corrections based on the dust spurt when the 'dog jumps back into his hole.
Let me politely note to reflectoscope that an AR-15 is .22 caliber, i.e. a .22 although not a rimfire.
ReplyDeleteMy DPMS with Surefire and EOTech red-dot comes it at just a shade over 6.6 pounds, so weight isn't a problem and the average home owner isn't slogging through the boonies for 14 hour days.
Everyone needs a couple of ARs around the house. Pirates are always a consideration as well as gophers.
Ed: True, I've carried one enough to know that it isn't any great burden.
ReplyDeleteThe other reason I'd prefer a .22 is the difference in cost for ammunition. It is of course a free country, and I wouldn't criticize anyone for their choice of gopher gun.
As an aside, if you want intact gophers (to feed a snake, perhaps) there is this. Don't get me wrong, I have no sympathy for them whatever; if a cow steps in gopher hole and has to be put down, thats a waste of a good animal and big loss for the rancher.
Jim
Had the same conversation with my father-in-law this past weekend. The man is a Vietnam vet and dedicated deer hunter (until his knees gave out). He reads the KC Star cover to cover daily. He can't understand why anyone needs an "automatic weapon."
ReplyDeleteI spent 20 minutes explaining the 1934, 1986 and 1994 laws to him. He didn't realize how thoroughly he had been brainwashed.
Mycroft
WV = storymai. A Japanese tale?
Geez, I didn't know anyone still read the KC Red Star!
ReplyDelete"It's not the 'Bill of Needs'!"
ReplyDeleteFollowed by "Who appointed you to determine what I need?"
Or, if they've really pissed me off, "Who do you you think you are, to tell me what I do and don't need?"
I loved it when a woman who had just been bragging about how fast her car went on the Autobahn when she was stationed in Germany started in on "Who needs an assault weapon?"
I told her that "Your bogus 'needs test' accuses me in advance, without due process, and in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, of intending to commit a crime."
Damned liberals...
Calling Roberta from Nerf World. I have no problems with rodent control. Since when did a gopher become a predator?
ReplyDeleteAs old and feeble as I am, I am 99 percent certain I could run up and smack one on the head with a stick. This way I save my ammo for better uses. Ammo=Gold Bullion in Nerf World.
Sheesh. Gopher=Predator? Maybe on Discworld.
:-)
Joe
I've always said -- and you may please to spread the notion far and wide among those of your acquaintance -- that needs are a piss-poor determinant of deserts.
ReplyDeleteIt occurs to me on this occasion that they are also a piss-poor reason for infringement on rights.
In either case, the principle is free-standing, and the needs of the person in question are irrelevant. I argue therefore that bringing needs into the argument is prima facie evidence of ill intent.
Which reminds me of Col Cooper's belief about masked men (q.v.).
M
Assrot asks, "Since when did a gopher become a predator?"
ReplyDeleteSince never; the problem is, most of what preys on 'em is either gone or in short supply, which leaves that job for us.
Gophers are not especially clever but they're paranoid. Hunting them with a stick is trickier than it looks. Most of their peers in the "eats our crops and leaves holes for livestock" biz are even more so. If you just want 'em gne, the tool of choice is a rifle with decent optics. For a rugged track/tractor-carried varmit-remover, an AR-15-family rifle is hard to beat. They we designed to survive being slogged through desert an' jungle by soldiers, after all. (That said, an AK-47 might be a better choice if you are expecting to have to beat a gopher to death with it.)