I’m not sure if this is a disconnect from reality or just yet another example of a process failure:
What I think we should do is regulate the price of bullets. I can see some CEO of a munitions company calculating his performance bonus right now. Let’s try $75 dollars per bullet for a .22 caliber bullet. $15 dollars more for each caliber higher. You want a .38? No problem! Only $315 dollar each. Want a .357 magnum? Only $5100 dollars each. Want six? Cool! A mere $30,600 will get you six. Want a 50 round clip of 9mm bullets. All you have to do is pony up a cool $15,700. This, of course, does not include the cost of the clip. How about a recyclable clip for $250 plus a $50 recycling deposit? At last, an eco-friendly way to kill each other. I can see Michael F. Golden (Smith and Wesson’s CEO) having multiple orgasms dreaming of his bonus based on the potential profits his company could make.
How disconnected is this? Let me count a few of the ways:
- The instant creation of a black market.
- The infringement of the specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms.
- What is or would be a recyclable “clip”?
- S&W does not sell ammunition.
- With such a high price on something more cheaply available on the black market ammunition manufacturing companies would have near zero sales.
- Reading literally “$15 dollars” is “15 dollars dollars”. The same goes for “$75 dollars”, “$315 dollar” (well almost, it is “315 dollars dollar”), and “$5100 dollars”. It isn’t even consistent because many instances of “$” are correct.
- .357 magnum is $5100/round but .38 (Special, I presume) and 9mm are only $315 each? How can one derive that from “15 dollars more for each caliber higher”?
Even though I have decades worth of examples of stupid stuff the anti-gunners say I am sometimes still amazed at the depths of stupid they are capable of reaching.
38-22=16. 16*$15+$75=$315 So it’s $15 per .01 inch above .22
357-22=335. 335*$15+$75=$5100. Someone doesn’t get the decimal system, it appears. This isn’t a process failure it’s a walking, typing BSOD.
This is the sort of skill that comes from grading lots of physics lab reports…
The weird discontinuity between .357 and .38 is probably because the poor creature doesn’t know what decimal points are:
( 357 – 38 ) * 15 = 4785.
4785 + 315 = 5100.
I have no idea where 315 came from to begin with. I doubt that the poor creature you quote has any very clear idea either. But he or she does appear to believe that something about a .357 magnum revolver, or round, is about 9.4 times as big as some equivalent feature of a .38 special.
This is left-wing factual expertise at its very finest. No twelve-year-old learning about sex from his eleven-year-old friends has a firmer grasp of the facts.
Er. What he said. Crap.
I can assure you he belives he is VERY clever indeed, and would love to discuss how clever he is with you at great lenght, given of course you agree with him. ; ]
This is not a new idea–it’s simply a rehash of rationing, which is codified in various ways all over the country.
Plus it doesn’t make any sense…
8. Manufacturing bullets is not difficult or expensive, and raw materials are standard industry stock that are commonplace. Just because I don’t make my own condom bullets at home doesn’t mean that it’s impossible, it’s that I get acceptable performance from lead ones. I could got out and buy the presses and dies tomorrow, if I felt like it.
9. The materials involved are indefinitely recyclable. There are thousands of we “scroungers” that already do so. We’re more numerous and more efficient than tax-subsidized recycling corporations. We’d collect more lead scrap and confine it to shooting ranges if the EPA didn’t discourage this with restrictions on the Great Silver Peril.
10. .38 Special and .357 magnum are the same bullet, and the same diameter. This relationship is not unique to these cartidges, since there’s standard tooling for both U.S. and Metric sizes.
11. The diameter of the bullet has no bearing on its energy. The .357 Magnum is just a .38 S&W Special with a lengthened case so that it wouldn’t accidentally be loaded into an older, smaller revolver with a weaker frame.
The .357 Magnum was created in 1935 to address the popularity of .38/44 (heavy) loads in large-frame S&W revolvers and potential safety problems of “wildcatting” the .38, where the heavy loads were indistinguishable from the standard ones. The .38 Special was one of many cartridges that started out as a black power load, and had room to spare when the industry switched to smokeless propellants with higher energy densities. Wildcatters used the extra room for more powder and shot them in stronger guns.
So there’s nothing stopping any company from loading up .38 Specials to 35K psi, or any loader from pulling the bullets from the same and substituting a larger charge to transform it into an ersatz .357 Magnum. Modern propellants have also created large areas of overlap in cartridge performance. I bet no one testing the Lee-Enfield rifles chambered in .303 Brit in the late 19th century envisioned that some TJP in America would be pushing .30-06 performance out of the same cartridge, at the same pressures, more than 100 years later.
Yet another example of a pro-liberty pedant demonstrating the self-defeating nature of a recycled disarmer idea. The reality of the situation is the same regardless of whether or not we point out the details. Who knew?
I for one am happy that many of our opponents are idiots.
I remember watching a Chris Rock routine to to that effect. It was pretty funny. But I make it a general rule not to take policy advice from comedians.
The Chris Rock routine (and other Chris Rock quotes) and my comments about that type of thinking can be found here.
Remember, they did this to us in 1934 with the NFA. Want a rifle with a barrel under 16″? Just pay $200 (at the time that was more like $2000).
Same old busted logic.
Lets see them apply this to free speech or abortions.
And I’ll have to assume he means “loaded cartridge” when uses “bullet”. Making one’s own bullets is trivial, and costs almost nothing. Making all the components for complete metal cartridges is a bit more involved, but still doable– probably similar in complexity to making methamphetamine, to put it in perspective.
Cool, thanks! I enjoyed those posts. And I like it that you don’t delete the old ones that predate my having found your blog.
Another blithering hoplophobe/idiot solving the problems of people getting shot by criminals.
“It’s so much easier to suggest solutions when you don’t know too much about the problem.”
– Malcolm Forbes
Lyle,
He painted himself into a corner either way, because those names are simply labels. They can be changed, or new ones can be invented. Sort of like how 9mm Largo appeared in countries where “military calibers” such as 9x19mm were “banned”.
But you see, he called it “regulat[ing] the price of bullets”. Even though the concept of rationing had previously been pounded into dust by the pro-liberty crowd, a disarmer gets to give a new name to a broad argument, and then accuse his opponents of being pedants when the break it down and analyze the components to discover that it is not, in fact, any different from a previously debunked argument.
Ignoring disarmament’s opponents is not a winning strategy in the long run. Some disarmers are exploring other arguments now, but most of them are counting on repetition. Look at the Mexican 90% Canard. That was debunked in what, under a week? And before it was even picked up by Authorized Journalism. How many years has it been since then? They’re still repeating it.
You know, I’ve been thinking….being part of the executive staff of a disarmament lobby group appears to be personally profitable. We should look into it. Think about the perks:
* Inability to conduct research a plus
* A breeze to submit the same stupid bills to legislatures every year, but only change a couple of sentences
* Send lawyer up against Alan Gura in court with a fictional brief that claims George Mason said, “F*** guns, ban ’em all!”
* Accuse a huge swath of the American public of pre-committing the worst crimes imaginable while never being held accountable for defamation
* Collect a six-digit salary
Yes, this is idiotic, but I’m worried about per cartridge rationing schemes. If cigarettes are any indication, it would see a lot less push back than we gunnies think and work well enough to severely restrict shooting as a mind share activity after a generation. Then we’re in the position England is now; shooting just isn’t done and the cycle accelerates.
Reloading won’t save this as components will simply fall under the same rationing scheme. Loose tobacco and papers for rolling at home are the ciggie equivalents. And you can’t make primers in your basement. Primers are already hazmat materials today and reloaders simply take the hit and pay the higher shipping. Nobody is storming that gate. I doubt there would be a army outside the gates for addition taxes/restrictions on a box of ammo.
So I’m glad banners are fixated on the razors for now. If they start seriously looking at the blades, I’ll be much more concerned.
Let’s rewrite:
“What I think we should do is regulate the price of education. I can see some CEO of union calculating his performance bonus right now. Let’s try $75 dollars per kid for a pre-K class. $15 dollars more for each elementary school class. You want a college education? No problem! Only $315 dollar each credit hour. Want a useful education? Only $5100 dollars each credit hour. Just want to party at college? Cool! A mere $30,600 will get you six years of partying education. Want a college with easy hot co-eds? All you have to do is pony up a cool $150,700. This, of course, does not include the cost of room, board, or books. How about a recyclable Victim Studies text book for $250 plus a $50 recycling deposit? At last, an eco-friendly way to kill brain cells. I can see Michelle Obama having multiple orgasms dreaming of his bonus based on the potential profits his company could make.”
Still doesn’t make much sense, but it’s a little better.
Actually, I welcome this change. I like most laws that help to centralize the purchase of rounds among people who can do a little bit of math and avoid these sorts of things.
I will simply stop firing anything less than a +P+ load in my 9mm. Seems that bullets don’t go faster than 1,350 ft/s. I’m not sure what that would make those +P+’s, but obviously they wouldn’t be affected, since they are too fast to be “the real killers.” My rifle never could shoot slow enough to be firing bullets, anyway.
What bothers me is that some of these people might figure out that we can’t easily make smokeless powder at home. At least I have a link to some downloads of old-time chemistry books. Say, did you know that you can make yer own nitric acid? I may have already said too much.
I remember reading Herbert and Lou Hoover’s translation of De Re Metallica, which had recipes for making nitric acid. That book was written in the 16th Century.
P.s. Herbert Hoover should have stuck to engineering and scholarship. He was an evil Pwog and a bad President.
Recyc…. Oh sh!t. I just realized that my clips are reusable/recyclable. I’ve been throwing them away. Thank you for this very informative post.