{"id":3043,"date":"2009-03-13T09:12:51","date_gmt":"2009-03-13T14:12:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/?p=3043"},"modified":"2009-03-13T09:12:51","modified_gmt":"2009-03-13T14:12:51","slug":"isnt-more-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/?p=3043","title":{"rendered":"Isn’t More Better?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Express Yourself<\/em><\/p>\n

Today I got an email which sort of suggested it was silly to want a shotgun that holds more than five rounds.<\/p>\n

I realize that the pump-gun people are almost a cult, like the .45 ACP people and the revolver people. I don’t think it’s possible to convince a real pump fan that there is anything better than a pump. It would be like trying to make me like soy. But I’ll ask anyway. Do you think there is a good reason–I mean a good reason, not some ridiculous BS like “three more ounces of weight will make it impossible to carry the weapon”–why you would not want to have lots of shotgun shells at your disposal in a gunfight?<\/p>\n

Back in the days when the cops were slowly realizing revolvers were obsolete for law enforcement (because they were being killed by criminals with Glocks), the notion that more ammunition was better did not seem controversial. Even the TV news heads got it. They would say, “The standard service revolver holds six bullets. The WICKED SEMI-AUTOMATIC INVISIBLE-TO-X-RAYS GLOCK holds sixteen. The police are now outgunned.” And they were right. Is there some reason why that logic does not apply to long guns?<\/p>\n

Liberals seem to believe it, although I know that’s a sorry authority to cite. They wet their drawers constantly over “high capacity” magazines, because they realize an armed man who can shoot fifteen times without reloading is a bigger threat than a man who has to fumble with a ridiculous speedloader after five or six shots.<\/p>\n

I read an FBI document the other day. I’ll bet many of you have seen it. The authors pointed out a sad fact. I’m assuming the document is legitimate and the “fact” is really a fact. They said that most shots fired by LEOs miss. <\/p>\n

Again, I am probably using a bad example. If you’ve seen the police shoot, you, like me, may have been tempted to turn to a life of crime simply because of the astronomically low odds that a cop with a gun can hit you. They are really bad most of the time. It must be ego; anyone who is willing to listen can learn to shoot. If you show up at the range in ludicrous black pants with 92 pockets, plus a SWAT T-shirt, plus insulated black boots, in the summer heat, you probably are not the kind of person who thinks other people can teach him anything. Also, I suppose many cops are primarily quiet, mature civil servants just hoping to get benefits and pensions, so they’re not all that gung-ho about marksmanship. They miss most of the time, but maybe that has more to do with their skills than the stress of the gunfight.<\/p>\n

Anyway, most law enforcement bullets miss completely. To me, that suggests that more ammunition can only be helpful. The more you shoot, the more likely you are to hit something, and you can at least lay down suppressing fire a little longer.<\/p>\n

I have seen at least one good argument for fewer rounds. I wanted to get 12-round magazines for my shotgun, but the Saiga nuts say the 8-round jobs are more reliable. So much so that you can actually buy a part so you can saw up a perfectly good 12-round magazine and convert it. Still, I think the people who do this plan to make up for it by carrying more magazines. That would be my guess.<\/p>\n

You can’t hope that a shotgun’s spread will make up for a lack of ammunition. At self-defense range, a load of buckshot isn’t significantly wider than a bullet. It might be an inch and a half across, instead of .45 inches. That means you still have to aim. The advantage in short-range accuracy comes from a shotgun’s sight radius and the fact that you shoulder it, not from the width of the pattern. You shouldn’t think you can get away with a few shells just because you’re shooting a “scattergun.” You should think of it the same way you think of a rifle. I have a rifle that holds six rounds, and I wouldn’t even think of using it for home defense.<\/p>\n

These things seem self-evident, but I am well aware that there is a difference between armchair experts like myself and people who actually fight criminals. So if there is some reason why I should stick with the tiny 5-round magazines that came with the Saiga, tell me what it is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Express Yourself Today I got an email which sort of suggested it was silly to want a shotgun that holds more than five rounds. I realize that the pump-gun people are almost a cult, like the .45 ACP people and the revolver people. I don’t think it’s possible to convince a real pump fan that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guns-hunting-fishing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3043\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}