This is a continuation of a post I authored in 2014, see that post here.
#1 Interchangeable Parts
This one has popped up from time to time......"you need to have the factory fit replacement parts for your revolver" this usually applies to cylinders. For instance, someone wants to install a .22 magnum cylinder into their Ruger .22 Single Six, but their gun didn't come with the extra cylinder.
Online "experts" will tell you that you have to send the gun to the manufacturer to have the cylinder "fitted" to the gun. WRONG.... 99.9% of all gun makers, build their guns on machines. Most guns have not been hand fitted since before the Civil War. That is not to say the factory does NO hand fitting, certainly there is a little shaving here or there, but the vast majority of parts bolt on and work properly without needing any fitting.
Now if you your gun has a lot of wear, there may be some issues, but those can be corrected by buying new parts such as the pawl or cylinder stop.
#2 The .22LR won't kill anyone
While it is easy to find stories of people shot with a .22 LR that survived, there is no doubt the .22 can kill. In fact, it used to be the #1 caliber used in homicides, it has since been replaced by the 9mm.
Studies show that 76% of head shots by a .22 LR were lethal, helping to prove the point that shot placement is more important than gun type or caliber.
#3 Fingerprints on guns
While older guns with smooth blued steel might pick up a fingerprint, todays polymer, aluminum or steel guns with rough finishes rarely pick up any fingerprints.
#4 Guns That Never Run Out of Ammo
This is more of a movie myth, but it applies to people who don't know guns.
Few movies bother to keep a round count. There was one that stands out in my mind that did, Dirty Harry, in the opening scene where the bank robber is laying on the ground going for his gun, Inspecter Callahan says the following: "I know what you're thinking, did he fire six shots or only five...." we all know the rest of the quote.
While watching the TV show Hell on Wheels one character was teaching a former slave how to shoot, his instructions for a gun fight included: remain calm, aim carefully and count both his and your rounds and make sure he runs out first.
All good advice, unfortunately all too often the 6 shot revolver is shown making 8 or 10 or 12 shots without reloading. Don't even get me started on the machine guns in movies......
#5 Handguns are more dangerous than rifles
Handguns were designed as a defensive weapon, mostly for mounted troops.
A long-known parable states that the handgun is designed to buy you time to get to your rifle. It is true that handguns are used in more homicides than rifles, but that is due to their ability to be transported and hidden within clothing. Handguns by in large are less powerful than rifles and harder to shoot accurately.
#6 Accuracy of Full Auto Machine Guns
Fact, the faster a gun cycles, the harder it is to maintain point of aim on target. This wastes ammunition, which of course is not good.
In the early days of repeating bolt action rifles, the British Army put a block off plate covering the 10-round magazine of the SMLE rifles, they feared the soldiers would waste ammo if given permission to shoot as often as they wanted. Fast forward to the 1990's...
After using full auto for decades, many armies have gone to a 3-shot burst, they have learned the full auto, while a lot of fun, is a colossal waste of ammo.
Here is an anecdote from Col. Jeff Cooper:
"Family member Dr. Werner Weissenhofer reports from Vienna. It seems that a felon armed with a 357 revolver robbed a bank. As he left the bank, he was accosted by a policeman who he murdered with one shot. Great excitement ensued, with the felon taking hostages and racing madly around from one store to another. When the forces of law and order had been mobilized and surrounded the goblin, a policeman volunteered to trade himself to the goblin for two hostages. This offer was accepted, at which time the felon fired at the policeman, seriously wounding him. The forces of law and order opened up with everything they had, which was mostly AUG and Glock fire. Shortly, the goblin killed himself with one round. He had fired three times and achieved three hits. The police, according to their official report, fired 1,261 rounds without drawing blood.
At one time we used to refer to an event of this sort as a "Chinese Fire Drill." Later we came to call it "Father's Day in Harlem". After the internment of the Ayatollah Khomeini, we began to call it "An Iranian Funeral". Now I guess we'll call it a "Viennese Bank Robbery".
As I have often stated, if someone wants to shoot at me, I sure hope it is on full-auto."
#7 The Right to Keep and Bear Arms was invented by the NRA
Before we tell this story, it needs to be said that you can NEVER trust anything written by a Democrat. Their goal is to put their boot on your neck, and they do not care what they have to do to achieve this goal. The individual right to keep and bear arms was protected and codified in 1787, nearly 100 years before the NRA was created. Secondly those that wrote the bill of rights, had just finished fighting a war, against the largest army in the World, with....wait for it.......individually owned firearms.
In fact, the famous "Paul Revere's ride" (which included other lesser-known men) was to warn the colonists that the British were coming to seize weapons, powder and lead balls (bullets), which at the time were stored in an armory. The lesson learned by the Patriots was that guns needed to be in the hands of the citizenry, making it harder for any government to take them all.
Later when the Anti-Federalists refused to agree on a central government without additional safeguards, the Bill of Rights was written to limit the power of the Federal Government, one of the most important rights was that of the individual citizen to keep and bear arms, infringing upon this right is against the Constitution, the highest law in the land.
The National Rifle Association was created in 1871 to encourage marksmanship. After the Civil War it was apparent that too many Americans no longer had the ability to shoot. So, some New Yorkers (Ironic, I know) formed an association to promote shooting as a hobby.
It wasn't until the 1930s that the NRA got involved in gun rights, this was due to Democrats trying to limit the rights of Americans.
To bring this full circle, the fact is that "NRA gun rights activism" was actually created by leftist Democrats.
#8 Without guns people wouldn't kill.
This one is so stupid and easily debunked I almost didn't include it. You may remember from Sunday School that Cain killed Able with a rock. Humans have been killing each other since we crawled from the swamp. In fact, all animal species kill each other, mostly out of survival.
Dr. Richard Gatling, inventor of the Gatling Gun thought his invention might actually end war, because facing one of his weapons was a death sentence and no army would go into battle against it. In reality it just spurned more innovation.
Humans will always find better ways to kill each other. In England they outlawed guns, so criminals switched to knives, then they outlawed knives, so they switched to acid.....now they plan to outlaw acid, see a pattern?
You simply cannot outlaw a tool and expect the criminal intent to disappear.
#9 Guns are the leading cause of Death in America
Totally not true, #1 guns do not kill, people kill. #2 guns are used in 20,000 +/- deaths each year, while Cancer and Heart Disease kill upwards of 600,000 each. Medical Malpractice kills ten times as many, even the flu kills twice as many people as criminals with guns.
We don't include suicide in these numbers, just as stated before, suicide is an intent to do self-harm, removing the firearm does nothing about the intent.
#10 There is no such thing as the .45 Long Colt
Well-meaning purists will tell you that the correct name is 45 Colt, not "45 Long Colt" and while that is true, there was a shorter 45 Colt, shorter by 1/2". In addition, there were factory named short and long versions of the .32 Colt, .38 Colt and .41 Colt, so it stands to reason that the longer 45 Colt should be called the .45 Long Colt, even though the factory never gave it that name. This is similar to the Suppressor vs Silencer argument.
