… Because now I am seriously considering acquiring a “real” AK-pattern firearm just because I can (and, no, Vera does not count; she may look the same, but damn).
So what brought about this sudden interest? Only Our Glorious President mouthing off and proving himself to be the petty “gun control” authoritarian we always knew him to be:
“I – like most Americans – believe that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual the right to bear arms,” Obama said.
That is nice, but completely immaterial. It does not matter how many people believe something is, or is not, a right; if every American but one believed that slavery was acceptable and would not abridge or infringe upon anyone else’s rights, they would still be wrong. Hell, it was not that long ago that “most Americans” believed people of your skin tone, Barack, were subhumans not suitable for anything more than manual labor… do you really want to go down the “appeal to popularity” road?
I will say this much though – at least he said that the Second Amendment “guarantees” that right, rather than “provides” or “grants” that right; the former is correct, the latter is completely wrong. Likewise, I am very intrigued that he said “bear arms”, given that phrase strictly means “carry them on your person”… the interpretations of that you could make would probably upset him greatly.
“I think we recognize the traditions of gun ownership passed on from generation to generation, that hunting and shooting are part of a cherished national heritage.”
Again, immaterial. It would not matter if we did not have a tradition of firearm use or a national heritage that included it; the Second Amendment protects a pre-existing right to own and carry firearms, and so far as you – a duly-elected representative of the people who is lawfully bound and constrained by the Constitution and its Amendments – are concerned, that is all that matters.
Of course, it rather goes without saying (though I will, of course, say it) that the Second Amendment has absolutely nothing to do with “hunting”. Oh, sure, employing the arms protected by that Amendment in hunts is a wonderfully coincidental benefit of having it around, but the intent of the original sentence was not whacking Bambi.
And now we get to the good part:
“But I also believe that a lot of gun owners would agree that AK-47s belong in the hands of soldiers and not in the hands of crooks. They belong on the battlefield of war, not on the streets of our cities,” he added.
…*headdesk* Where to begin?
If you believed that a lot of Americans would agree that the Irish should have to work without receiving pay, would it matter? Would your belief matter? Would the supposed public opinion matter?
Are you aware that AK-47s are exclusively firearms that are capable of “select-fire” – i.e. they can shoot one, a few, or many bullets per trigger-pull (in other words, they are “fully-automatic”-capable)?
Did you know that such select-fire weapons are strictly regulated by the National Firearms Act and new ones are impossible for civilians to procure by way of the Hughes Amendment to the so-called Firearm Owners Protection Act?
Did no one ever tell you that functionally no American unit uses AK-47s in the line of duty? (There may be SPECWAR exceptions, but they are rare.)
As such, are you aware that the only time our troops would ever actually encounter an AK-47 on the battlefield would be if it was pointed at them, or on the body of a dead enemy combatant?
So why, exactly, do you want guns on a battlefield where our troops will have to face them?
Are you aware that the Second Amendment specifically and intentionally protects firearms “in common use for lawful purposes”, which unquestionably includes such things as semi-automatic AK-47 clones?
And, finally, if there are any guns that happen to look like AK-47s “on the streets of our cities” in the “hands of crooks”, you, sir, put them there.
In other words, with all due respect to the Office of the President and none at all to the individual currently occupying it, kindly piss off. Your ignorance is only surpassed by your remarkable contempt for the United States Constitution, and, frankly, you of all people have absolutely no right telling the American people what arms they should and should not be permitted to own, both because it is not within your abilities as President and because of your bloody-handed complicity in Operation Fast and Furious / Gunwalker.
So with that small matter of a poorly-performing civil servant having been addressed, tell me about AK-pattern rifles. What countries / importers should I favor / avoid, what patterns work the best, what calibers to consider? Obviously 7.62×39 is the traditional caliber, but I would honestly like to stick with something I already have (7.62×51, 5.56×45, or 7.62x54r), just to keep costs/logistics simpler. I may get to play with these folks’ toys this weekend, so hopefully that will be an educational experience…