Projects

Firearms have brought out my creative side in a way few things have.

A point before I begin - coming back from the range a few weeks back my friend and I were discussing how guns are an acceptable place for men to really care about aesthetics. Guys on forums will ask questions about which spray paint most closely matches Magpul's Flat Dark Earth color (for my money, short of a high end cerakote job, it's Rustoleum Satin Dark Taupe). That gun is beautiful, the camo paint job you did looks sharp, that stock really balances out that gun's look. Guys will openly compare their AR-15 to a Barbie doll, or make that Simpsons joke about how a new stock is like Malibu Stacy's fancy new hat. I find it mildly amusing and I enjoy participating in it.

Anyway, I've been working on a few things in the last few months, and I thought I'd describe them here.

1. Hexagonal Camouflage

After seeing lots of cool rattlecan camo paint jobs, I felt like trying one of my own. I've limited myself to PMAGs since it's a lot easier to swallow an ugly $12 magazine than an ugly $800 firearm (I'm aware that there are options for removing spray paint, but baby steps). Since I'm just doing the mag and I don't have a need for actual camo, I wanted to try something different. I like Boards of Canada and futuristic things in general, so I started looking at hexagon designs, and found inspiration in the camouflage of the "CELL" private military corporation in the Crysis games, which is hex-based.

I cut some stencils out of paper and, after some setbacks, made this:

Currently I'm working on a slightly different technique. In MSPaint I made some boxes, the size of the magazine, with pseudorandum arrangements of hexes. I did 3-5 different boxes with different arrangements for the 3 sizes of hexes. Once these are cut out, I'll be able to hold the box up to the mag, spray, and then all of my big hexes are down at once; same with the other sizes. I can mix and match for different arrangements. I also got these laminated, so hopefully they'll hold up a little better (the hexes are a pain in the ass to cut out, though). Hopefully this will be a more attractive result than my first attempt.

2. Target Stand

Back in March my friend and I went out to the unmanned range in Oregon, MO. It's a solid hour and a half away, but worth the trip when you're in the mood to shoot without being subject to the rigid Parma atmosphere. The only problem with this range is the target situation - the 25, 50, and 100 yards are marked with orange plastic safety fence and nothing else. It's difficult to affix targets to this fence, especially since it's very rarely replaced and as a result is pretty shot up.

Even though we saw a park ranger hassle a guy once there for shooting at a homemade target stand, I've decided to build one. I think it's absurd to hassle someone for taking the initiative to build something that can actually hold a target when there's really no alternative. I guess we'll see what happens. At any rate, I based it off of this reddit post:

http://www.reddit.com/r/guns/comments/1p85fl/diy_portable_steel_target_stands/

I followed that cut list just about exactly and got a 2x4 cut at Home Depot. The clamping and gluing process made the receptacle for the post a little too tight, so I've had to file it out a bit. I'm not using steel targets at the moment, so I made a basic rectangular 2'x1' frame out of 2x2 and am currently figuring out the best way to attach the frame to the post to be stable and yet portable. I may have to sacrifice portability. At any rate the expected use for it is attaching cardboard to the frame and then taping targets to the cardboard.

3. Ammo Can

Back in high school, when my gun-owning dreams were little more than a twinkle in my eye, I bought an old 50 cal ammo can for all of $4 at a flea market. I've held onto it all these years. Last year I took my dremel to it in an effort to get the rust off. I've halfheartedly continued this effort since then, but after using it to hold ammo at a few recent range trips I decided to get serious about it.

I used the dremel's wire brush a few more times, as well as steel wool, to get the rust off as best I could. After a blasting of brake cleaner, I covered the whole thing with gray Rustoleum primer, and then painted the whole thing with that Rustoleum Satin Dark Taupe I was talking about.

I then got on my computer and messed with a picture of my AR and a picture of my pistol. Using the pen tool in Gimp I created a shape out of the gun, filled it in all black, and printed it out. I carefully cut it out with a hobby knife and used double-sided tape to stick the stencils on the can.

I then covered the whole can with Krylon Camo green. After removing the stencils, what I have is a nice flat green can with no visible rust (you can kind of see it, though), and nice FDE-color pictures of the guns whose ammo I use the can for the most often. I think if I had bought some spray adhesive for the stencils it would have looked better with cleaner lines, but I'm still pretty happy with it. An easy project if you have one of these cans laying around.

Old Faithful OWB Holster Review

I have an itch to try competitive pistol shooting. I think I'm a pretty good shot and sometimes I get bored punching holes in paper at the range. I need to get the proper gear before I start, so last month I ordered a holster.

I chose a company called Old Faithful based on a forum recommendation given to me when I posed the question of who makes a good P-07 holster. Old Faithful makes IWB and OWB holsters out of leather and Kydex. Something Old Faithful does that I've not seen from other outfits is allowing you to buy a disassembled holster for almost half the price of a fully assembled model. Maybe 10 minutes of DIY is required to turn the included parts into a functional holster - I did it during lunch while watching a movie.

If you go for the DIY, here's what you get. The two main pieces of the holster are the leather backing and the molded kydex. The kydex attaches to the leather via four holes, which are arranged such that it's easy to figure out how to orient the kydex. The most involved part is attaching the backings for the screws - these are four metal pieces with a threaded hole and 3 spikes, which you embed into the leather via a hammer. After that it's a simple matter of attaching the kydex in the four holes with a spacer, a screw, and a washer. The screws are tightened or loosened in order to control the retention of the gun. You get a bag with tons of hardware - you'll definitely have extras when you're done. 

The OWB holster I got doesn't use clips, it has holes for a belt. I believe the IWB holsters come with clips, allowing for an extra level of adjustment. I expected clips but this isn't a huge deal. I've worn it around my house a little bit and it's comfortable, the kydex is molded perfectly to the gun, and retention is solid. I may need to invest in a thick, wide gun belt to use this properly, as even my thickest dress belt leads to twisting and shimmying when I try to pull the gun out.

For about $50 shipped I think this is a good quality holster. Old Faithful seems like a small operation - the president of the company appears in the "how to" videos, and the holster came with a nice (form) letter from the guy, thanking me for giving them my business and nicely asking me to pass on the name and recommend them if I'm happy, so here we are. Shipping is on the long side, especially since I ordered the model where I do the assembling - but to their credit I got a shipping notification after I sent them a "where's my stuff" email a day or so after the shipping window passed. Just like Palmetto this feels like a "good and cheap, but not fast" kind of deal.

In my limited usage so far Old Faithful seems like a solid choice and I recommend it. As time goes on and I use it in different settings I may alter my opinion either way. Not only will I hopefully try this out in competition, but Kansas is set to pass a comprehensive pro-gun bill that, among other things, expands state preemption to open carry - so I'll be able to take my gun with me when I'm walking my dog at night. Hopefully the holster continues to do the job and serve me well in all these endeavors. 

AR-15 Review and Thoughts

Back in May I bought an Aero Precision lower receiver when Aero had a sale, which kicked off my AR-15 experience. At the end of November my upper receiver arrived and I got a rear sight for it, so now it's built up and I've had time to shoot it. It's been a fun time getting it put together and thinking of even more things to buy for it. This is not as much of a review as a collection of thoughts and anecdotes from the process.

The choice of an AR-15

While some may be turned off by buying America's most popular rifle, this is the strength of the platform. Everyone makes parts for it, it's easy to find tools and spare things for cheap, and they all work the same way. If a crucial part fails it's cheap and fast to get another. If you want to change the look and feel of the rifle completely you can do that with parts that will be at your house in days. Most of the (good) stuff for the AR is made here in the US as well, which is a plus if you're like me and care about that kind of thing.

Plus it's not like everyone with an AR has the exact same rifle - it's the opposite, really. If you build one your rifle will very much be "your" rifle. Even mine, which is pretty basic with mostly Magpul and PSA parts, looks different than other basic Magpul/PSA rifles.

My rifle

Here are the specs of mine for the curious:

-Aero Precision lower receiver

-Palmetto State Armory lower parts kit and mil-spec trigger

-Magpul MOE trigger guard, stock, and pistol grip, in flat dark earth (came as a "build kit" with the LPK)

-Palmetto complete upper - 16" barrel, A2 flash hider, mid-length gas system, standard tapered clamshell handguard

-Mil-spec charging handle

-Palmetto full-auto profile blemished BCG

-Daniel Defense A1.5 fixed rear sight

Pic:

This was about $800 in all. Had I waited just a few months for some of these parts it probably would have been about $100 less.

The loop coming out of the stock is paracord, and it's intended to be a rear mount for a 2-point sling I will buy in the indeterminate future. The HK-style color fill was achieved with Testor's model paint and brake cleaner to wipe away the excess.

Magazines

Coming from a pistol where mags are like $40 a pop, the world of AR magazines is like a Wild West of low prices. I have five magazines - 2 black 30-round PMAGs, 1 flat dark earth 30-round PMAG, 1 black 20-round PMAG, and 1 30-round Lancer mag. The Lancer is cool because the mag is polymer but the feed lips are metal. PMAGs can be found for something like $12 each and they work great. It's crazy. It's almost impossible for me to justify buying more but the cheapness makes them absurdly tempting. 

An experienced friend is an invaluable asset, but be careful

Who knows what kind of rifle I'd have picked up if not for my friend. He has about 5 built-up rifles under his belt, some of which are very exotic and require multiple NFA stamps (his short-barreled, suppressed 300 blackout was a treat to shoot). Before I bought the lower I told him I was considering going for an AR and asked whether I should buy someone's used panic rifle or build my own. He enthusiastically encouraged me to build.

This friend generously offered to help me assemble the lower receiver. He'd been through this before, launching detent pins around the room and so on, and his expertise (and generous stock of extra parts and tools) ensured my build went smoothly - but I don't feel like I learned as much as I would have if I'd done it on my own. 

If I'd tried it on my own I probably would have spent several hours cursing and angrily ordering replacement springs, but I'd have more of a sense of satisfaction than I do currently. At one point I thought about a replacement endplate with a sling mount and realized that I really have no idea how the entire buffer tube assembly goes on. I was no slouch and I didn't let me friend do everything, but sometimes I wish I went through all the rage, on my own, that so many new AR builders do. 

Don't let anyone tell you aesthetics/cool factor are not important

There is a whole industry these days built around making your rifle pretty. Parts are offered in a range of colors, there are little multicolored things you can put in unused rail slots, there are free float tubes with "MOLON LABE" and such engraved into them. You can send your parts away to get coated with a durable, ceramic-based paint in a range of colors.

Extend this out to a civilian whose rifle is little more than a range plinker spending hundreds (EOtech holo sight) or even thousands (Trijicon ACOG) on optics that are designed to survive heavy use and combat. I'm not even talking about hunters or people who do 3-gun, but people like me who just like to shoot. People do all kinds of things to their rifles that are motivated by aesthetics or to feel more like a Tier 1 Operator. And this is ok!

People get huffy about this, and they'll say that their guns are tools, but don't listen to these people. A big part of owning an AR for me is this nebulous cool factor. I saw the movie "Lone Survivor" this past weekend (with the friend who helped me build my AR). Of course the SEALs in the movie use rifles based on the AR platform, in different configurations. The movie's attention to detail meant there would be things like close-ups of an actor working the safety selector switch. I watched that and thought, "I know what he's doing. I know how that works" because I have a rifle that works the same way at home. That's pretty cool. One thing I like to do at the range is after I load in a new magazine I slap the bolt catch with the pad of my thumb instead of pressing it like a button. There's no point to this other than it makes me feel cool. The characters in the movie, since they were in the middle of a firefight, reloaded the same way - again, pretty neat to watch realistic depictions of arguably the finest warriors on the planet, and they reload their guns like I do!

So don't feel weird or frivolous if you want your rifle to look cool, or you decide on one part over another because it feels more Operator, or anything like that. This is a fun hobby and the AR is a fun gun. Be proud!

The future

With unlimited funds, I'd like to do a Mk12/SPR clone build (Lone Survivor was a really great movie). This would mean an 18" floated barrel, a good 2-stage trigger (the kind that costs at least a couple hundred bucks), bipod, and scope. If I'm going all out I'd get a suppressor as well. 

However it's more likely that I'll stick with my current rifle and trick it out a little bit. I'm using iron sights now, which are fun, but I'd like an optic. Primary Arms is a top choice, or a Vortex something or other - I'm going for better than a Wal-mart BSA but not as Tier 1 as an Aimpoint or similar. I may also get a sling for no real reason other than being able to carry it on my back when I'm shooting on a friend's land or something. Eventually I'll get a free float tube to replace the handguards, which would probably require a new front sight to maintain co-witness.

ARs are fun. I think everyone should have one. If you build it you can spread out the cost and make the rifle truly your own. They shoot well, ammo is pretty easy to find again, mags are as cheap as they've ever been. Get while the getting's good and have a great time.

AR-15 vs M-16, and other definitions

AR-15: Short for "Armalite Rifle, model 15." A lightweight, semi-automatic rifle based off of Eugene Stoner's AR-10, created by Armalite in the 1950s. Colt acquired the AR-15 trademark shortly thereafter. Nowadays AR-15 is a catchall term for a semi-automatic .223/5.56 "black" rifle, usually with certain features (stock, pistol grip, detachable 30-round magazine), easily obtainable "over the counter" by civilians (where applicable), made by a wide variety of manufacturers.

M-16: An AR-15 variant; a select-fire (automatic or burst in addition to semi-auto) rifle used by the military. M-16 usually entails 20" barrel and rifle-length gas system, fixed length stock, and carry handle upper, but the modularity of the AR-15 platform means it could look different.

M-4: Another AR-15 variant, also select-fire, also military. Carbine-length gas system and shorter (14.5") barrel, so less overall length than an M16. One of the base rifles for the SOPMOD system, which means an M4 will usually have lots of rails and all kinds of tactical things attached to them.

*Note: Civilian enthusiasts will often build AR-15s as "clones" of certain military rifles. For example, it is easy for a civilian in most states to obtain an AR-15 with 14.5" barrel and carbine-length gas system and dress it up to look like an M4 (popularly called an "M4-gery") - with the exception of the inability to shoot full-auto, it will be very close in look and function. Likewise it is easy to obtain Vietnam-era parts and make an AR-15 look like an old-school M16A1, and likewise it will function more or less identically to the military's version with the exception of automatic fire.

Assault Rifle: An umbrella term that encompasses many, many rifles. Translation of the German "sturmgewehr," as in the WW2-era Sturmgewehr44 rifle. Broadly, an assault rifle is: (1) select fire (can fire automatically); (2) intermediate cartridge (bigger than a pistol cartridge, smaller than a "battle rifle" cartridge like .308 or 30-06); and (3) uses a detachable magazine. 

So an AR-15 checks two of the three assault rifle boxes - it uses detachable mags and fires an intermediate cartridge, but it is not capable of full-auto. While an AR-15 may look like an assault rifle - indeed, its owner may make a conscious effort to have it look as much like an assault rifle as possible - it is not a true assault rifle.

Assault Weapon: A legal term that means whatever the legislature who wrote the law wishes it to mean. "Assault weapon" legislation usually is intended to control the purchase, possession and use of AR-15s, but broad wording and lack of understanding sometimes result in certain .22 rifles, shotguns, or pistols legally becoming "assault weapons." Not all states define "assault weapons" and those who do often define it differently from other states.

Here's a couple more:

A clip and a magazine both hold cartridges. The difference between the two is that a magazine has things like springs and followers that move the cartridges into the chamber, and a clip does not. A clip, then, can be just a piece of metal that holds the ends of the cartridges.

A bullet is the projectile that exits the gun when you pull the trigger. A cartridge includes the bullet - it also includes the case, primer, and the explosive bits that make the bullet go. The thing you put into the gun is a cartridge, and what comes out of the barrel is the bullet. 

Daniel Defense Superbowl ad

The big deal in gun circles over the last day or so is the rejected Daniel Defense Superbowl ad. I watched the commercial this morning - for those who have not, it's something like this:

A man narrates throughout the commercial. We learn that he has returned home after serving in the armed forces. He informs us that things are different since he got back and his family (wife and baby daughter) is the center of his universe now. He's responsible for providing for them and for keeping them safe. "Nobody has the right to tell [him]" how to defend his family, and he's going to use the best tool for the job. Cut to black screen with a white silhouette of a Daniel Defense rifle, and the slogan "Defending your nation. Defending your home."

The commercial was rejected, or as some say, "banned." NFL rules don't allow firearm advertisements, rules which the NFL stuck to even after DD offered to change the rifle at the end to an American flag. So obviously the NFL is a tool of the statist left, and they rejected the commercial because it goes against their globalist agenda of disarmament.

Rules are rules. The NFL is a private entity with whom other private entities wish to transact business. They make the rules - Daniel Defense is a firearm company and those companies can't advertise during the superbowl. This is not "censorship." I also don't like the use of the word "banned." Nobody is banning it, the NFL made a decision to not air the ad during the superbowl. DD uploaded the ad to youtube instead, which is why we're all talking about it. 

Ads get rejected all the time. Are the NFL's rules somewhat arbitrary? Sure - the latest Call of Duty game or Expendables movie ad will no doubt air without issue. But in the grand scheme of all the bullshit gun owners have to put up with, this is not very much and I can't really get fired up about it.

I also think the ad wasn't all that great. It was schmaltzy and bland. Attractive suburban family, nice car, tree-lined street, cute baby, cut to black. I do enjoy this kind of depiction of firearm (particularly AR-15) ownership as the province of normal, successful folks as opposed to weird range commandos, and I like the association of higher-end rifles like the DDM4 with this crowd as well. But let's be honest - if you take away the rifle silhouette at the end, as Daniel Defense was prepared to do, who outside of a subset of the gun community even knows what Daniel Defense is? I'd be willing to bet that the average person watching the ad would think it's for a home security company. "But they could google it!" Sure, but would they? On the one hand I want ads like this to air, because showing a huge audience that the AR-15 is the best home defense gun is nice and it would get people talking. But in order for this to work, a gun has to be involved in the ad. 

I wish the NFL would allow firearms companies to advertise. I'd love to see an ad that takes it a step further. Show people competing in a 3-gun match, soldiers, SWAT, as well as the suburban dude protecting his home. Men and women showing off the versatility and power of the platform. DD's ad was trying to do an end run around the rules - not only did that not work, it resulted in a boring ad that probably won't go viral outside of the loudest of gun types. If they pushed the envelope, maybe it would get people talking a little bit more. Not as much as full-on super bowl ad exposure, but some.

Winning the media war is tough because of the types of people who are entrenched at the very top. That's the world we live in. You and I have the power to chip away at this, though - take someone new out to the range. I'll believe my buddy who has personal experience with a product far more than the claims of a commercial; gun ownership works the same way.

Maverick 88 Review

I've accumulated a handful of comments on this blog, and most of them are to my CZ P-07 review. I'm glad people are reading the review and enjoying my pretty pictures, and if I've steered even a handful of folks toward that gun I feel like I've done a great thing. Prices for it have gone up but I still feel like it's a terrific pistol at a fantastic price. I've been shooting it quite a bit these days since 9mm is easier to find and it feels like I'm falling in love all over again.

Anyway it dawned on me that I've bought a gun since then but I haven't done a review. Here are my thoughts on the Mossberg Maverick 88 shotgun.

Specs

The Maverick 88 is a pump-action, 12 gauge shotgun. It can accept either 2 and 3/4" or 3" shells. It has a tubular magazine under the barrel that can hold 6 of the 2.75-inchers or 5 3" shells.

The Maverick 88 is a Mossberg 500 assembled in a different factory with a few parts switched out. This means that, with a few exceptions, it can accept Mossberg 500 parts and accessories. Unlike my CZ this gun has market penetration and then some. Aftermarket stocks, choke tubes, fiber optic bead sights, and barrels are widely available. Owing to the cross-bolt safety you can't use 500 trigger groups, and the forearm assembly is also different - other than that, you can buy Mossberg 500 parts and accessories with confidence.

Mossberg sells a couple of variants: mine is the "field" model (called All Purpose on the website), with a 28" vent rib, smooth bore barrel and a bead sight. The front of the barrel is threaded to accept different choke tubes. According to Mossberg's website, the 88 is also available in two additional configurations: the Slug version, with a 24" barrel and option for full rifling, and the Special Purpose version, the 18.5" home defense variant. All versions feature a synthetic stock and the All Purpose is also available in 20 gauge. Different barrel length options exist for the different versions, as well.

Field stripping is easy. The pump action is worked until the bolt is halfway between open and shut. A screw with a large, circular plastic handle at the end of the magazine tube is then unscrewed, and the barrel simply separates from the receiver. This is all I have personally done to clean it - I will then oil all exposed metal parts, make sure the pump operates smoothly, and run a boresnake through the barrel. This also makes it very easy to switch out barrels, or (in my case before I got a dedicated shotgun bag) fit the gun into a shorter case.

I bought it from a guy at work for $200. It came with the stuff he bought for it, which were a modified choke, a turkey choke and a soft, velcro shell holder for the stock. I didn't get as good a deal as others have on this gun but it was in good condition and I was satisfied.

How Does It Shoot?

My 88 is what I'd call a standard, no-frills gun for shooting flying things. It is a basic pump gun through and through. Since there isn't an extraction system to absorb some of the recoil, you feel what you're shooting, and one thing I still have to learn is that, as fun as it is, it's not my 22 rifle and I can't shoot it all day long. My shoulder was angry at me for Saturday's trap outing until yesterday.

A pump-action is not favored in the world of clay shooting sports due to the inconvenience of having to work the pump for follow-up shots. I have used the gun mostly for single-shot trap, rendering this issue moot, and it has performed very well. I chalk up any "hitting the clay" issues to user incompetence. Note that I also took it to a work outing put together by my wife's company, and I was able to hit two clay targets launched simultaneously - I suspect some of the "can't ever use a pump for clay shooting sports ever" is typical gun community hyperbole.

A real upside of a pump is not really having to worry about extraction, since it's essentially up to the operator and not the gun. "Short-stroking" is an issue with pumps apparently but I've successfully extracted every shell I've shot out of it. Low power rounds, like the kinds that come in the Federal bulk packs, shoot without issue.

I've written about my struggles in deciding on a shotgun - what I figured at the end of the day was to get a good, cheap pump to start with and see how I do, and then when I feel myself starting to outgrow it skill-wise I'll upgrade. This has worked out fine so far, and I don't feel it holding me back at all yet.

Final Thoughts

I didn't buy this gun to display it or to outfit it with tons of accessories (though I can!), I bought it to be a utilitarian workhorse that won't give me issues when I feel like going to the clay range. In this regard it has absolutely succeeded. 

"Weapons"

Sometimes I see people on r/guns or elsewhere get defensive (heh) about the use of the word "weapon." Gun communities are known for insisting on absolute semantic accuracy, as anyone who has uttered a word that sounds like "clip" knows - it's just a part of the experience. This, I believe, stems from the folks in Washington and state legislatures often being comically ill-informed on guns, and that lack of information occasionally leading to shitty laws. Precision and clarity in language is always important. But the "weapon" thing is different to me.

I see the hesitation in calling it a weapon. Weapons are for killing. You can go to jail for committing "assault with a deadly weapon." Nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons.  They're things for criminals, homicidal dictators, cops, and militaries, not for the average citizen. Weapons don't have to be guns (or bombs, or tanks, or etc), of course - a sledgehammer or utility knife in my garage can be a weapon if I use it in a certain way. Were I properly trained, I could even say (non-ironically) that "my fists are lethal weapons." What ties all this together is that a weapon is something that was designed for or is used purely for the purpose of hurting or killing. 

So if we go around calling our guns "weapons" we're admitting that they're for hurting or killing things. Someone who has a closet full of AR-15s that serve no purpose other than looking cool and punching holes in paper ("turning money into noise" is a particularly apt description I saw on Something Awful's gun board) takes issue with the characterization that he has a closet full of weapons, because he has no plans to kill anyone or anything with them. He may even be a pacifist, the sort to keep them under lock and key and not even use them if he's threatened during a home invasion. Are those then weapons?

On the other hand (and this is the side I lean toward) yes - the AR15s, my shotgun and 9mm, the long-range shooter's .308 bolt-action rifle - they're weapons. They exist because someone a long time ago learned that projectiles can hurt and kill, and projectiles that are a certain shape and propelled with a certain velocity can hurt and kill very well, and then a few millennia of science and engineering got us to the firearms we have today. Their existence and continued enhancement and refinement can be credited to the desire to kill other humans in the most efficient way possible. I hesitate to include my .22 rifle, or a .22 target pistol, but they're the beneficiaries of the same science and engineering - they exist because hurting, killing, and war exist. Furthermore I don't ever really see someone calling a 10/22 a "weapon."

I think getting touchy about calling a gun a weapon is going too far. It's too much in the direction of trying to make guns seem like something they're not. Yes an AR-15 can be used for sporting purposes (putting holes in paper, or feral hogs), so it's a "modern sporting rifle" but it's terrific for home defense as well - the bullets are less likely to overpenetrate through walls, the collapsible stock means more people in your house can use it comfortably, and a 30-round mag is surely a greater capacity than the cheap Hi-Point being wielded by the guy breaking into your home. Refusing to call a gun a weapon is using language to neuter the object.

It's equally dumb when people say well, if my AR-15 is a weapon then so's my baseball bat or my kitchen knife. This is a stupid position to take. A bat can be used to bash someone's head in, but it exists because of a leisure activity. A knife can stab, but it exists because we like to cut our food before cooking. An AR-15 can be a safe queen or it can never be used to shoot at anything other than paper, but it exists because it works pretty well at killing people.

The 18.5" barrel shotgun loaded with 00 buck that you keep under your bed is there for one reason - to use against someone who breaks in. The Glock 19 loaded with hollow points that you concealed carry when you're in a bad neighborhood is there for one reason - to defend yourself or others in the event of an attack. You want to say that they're not weapons because you don't want to use them as weapons (neither do I), but that's what you have them for. Stop allowing the uneasiness of others to control the conversation- they won't stop their efforts to ban it just because you call it a modern sporting rifle. If that's what you like to call it then knock yourself out, but don't dogpile on someone just because they called it a weapon.