A Politician Is Born
Retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal backed banning assault weapons on Tuesday, saying guns like the M4 and M16 belong in the hands of soldiers, not on the streets.
By way explanation he adds:
“I personally don’t think there’s any need for that kind of weaponry on the streets and particularly around the schools in America. I believe that we’ve got to take a serious look — I understand everybody’s desire to have whatever they want — we have to protect our children and our police and we have to protect our population. And I think we have to take a very mature look at that.”
Sounds like a politician spouting half-truths don’t he?
I did try to find any statistics that suggest how many people in the US have been killed by an M4 or an M16 since they were introduced. My Google-Fu failed me miserably, I’m afraid.
However, I did find one reference that sort of applies.
Since 1934, there appear to have been at least two homicides committed with legally owned automatic weapons. One was a murder committed by a law enforcement officer (as opposed to a civilian). On September 15th, 1988, a 13-year veteran of the Dayton, Ohio police department, Patrolman Roger Waller, then 32, used his fully automatic MAC-11 .380 caliber submachine gun to kill a police informant, 52-year-old Lawrence Hileman. Patrolman Waller pleaded guilty in 1990, and he and an accomplice were sentenced to 18 years in prison. The 1986 ‘ban’ on sales of new machine guns does not apply to purchases by law enforcement or government agencies.
Perhaps one of you folks will have better luck uncovering how many crimes have been committed BY Civilians (legally purchased) in the USA with such evil weapons? There MUST be hundreds of such cases.
Category: Geezer Alert!, Guns
My usual reply: So how many of those weapons “on the streets” were acquired legally? How many are in the hands of those who could legally own them?
How exactly will restricting ownership by those who only wish to own anything within legal parameters impact criminal use of any weapon?
Belaboring the obvious again: most crime is committed by criminals and most of them only possess illegally acquired weapons now. Laws don’t seem to bother them much.
“…like the M4 and M16..” Not the M4 and M16, guns like, repeat, like the M4 and M16. Now you’re talking a lot more guns.
”I spent a career carrying typically either a M16 and later, a M4 carbine,” McChrystal said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “And a M4 carbine fires a .223 caliber round, which is 5.56 millimeters, at about 3,000 feet per second. When it hits a human body, the effects are devastating. It’s designed to do that. That’s what our soldiers ought to carry.”
He added, “I personally don’t think there’s any need for that kind of weaponry on the streets and particularly around the schools in America.
If Stan is so frightened of the mighty .223 caliber, the .270s, .308s, .30-06s, .300 Win Mags, etc., commonly carried by big game hunters on the North American continent must really freak him out. (Hand him an African big game rifle, and he’d probably pee his pants and faint dead away). So if he doesn’t think civilians should have .223s, I guess he is calling for a ban on all high-powered rifles?
Or maybe he hasn’t really thought things through?
Well, either way, Stan can go screw himself as far as I am concerned.
Is it just me or is there a wave of gun control talk sweeping across the nation? You cannot go one day without reading at least one story on what should be banned or some other story about gun control. I have to ask myself why the hell is the General even asked about the potential ban on “assault weapons”? Who cares what he thinks about laws effecting so many Americans.
Up until now, I have not been beating on a drum about the 2nd Amendment. Now I am really concerned with the hype from the media coupled with the fact that Obama may get a chance to stack the Supreme Court before he is through. All I can say if you cherish freedom, pray for Justices Kennedy, Thomas and Scalia to remain in good health.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I have never seen anyone carrying assault rifles around schools.
Joey, “like the M4 and M16” refers to two, that’d be Two for morons like you. Still asking, is a Remington also an “assault weapon”? You’re stupid enough to think that a Bushmaster is.
Random, I have, once. We had a National Guard color guard for the national anthem at a football game. The soldiers on each end had an M-16. Neither rifle took it upon itself to load itself or open fire on anyone.
@5: I have and it involved the United States military doing it in foreign countries. Good enough for foreigners but not good enough for our own.
Regardless of McCrystal’s military background he sounds like a Libtard when discussing our constitutional rights. I’m willing to guess he didn’t trust his own troops with weapons either with this type of attitude towards law abiding citizens and their constitutional rights.
Aren’t the pols just saying that you can have firearms just ones that aren’t very effective.
If i didn’t know better i would say that Rolling Stone article was just staged.
Taliban Stan McChrystal should be getting questions on his overly Restrictive ROE and the amatuer hour that was his Afghan Campaign.
Yeah McChrystal’s opinion counts for nada next to the Constitution, he can go take a flying leap at a rolling donut.
Pathfinder: AGREED! It was pointless being in A-Stan with that ass clown calling the shots, and now here he is, weighing in on something with all his wisdom. Terrific. I thought I was done dealing with his shit when I got on a C-17 in ’10. Silly me…
Wasn’t this the same guy who ran the Tillman scam?
What is it that McChrystal and others find so difficult to understand about the following text?
A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed…
SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED. Simple… you can not ban guns. You can regulate based on criminal record who cannot buy a gun, but you may not prevent the private ownership of guns at either the federal or state level. yet it goes on every day in this country, and all for bogus and idiotic reasons based on fear and scare, not facts.
To listen to the gun grabbing fascist (there Joe, I said it and you can kiss my ass) you would think that there are hoards of angry red necks and lunatics outside of schools across this country just waiting to ambush all the kids going to school.
When in fact the overwhelming majority of all gun violence is undertaken by criminals with illegal weapons who give a rats ass about your silly “laws”.
The fascist argue that other countries did it, so we should to… what they do not tell you about those utopias is that they all have higher violent crime rates than we do in the US, where violence has been on the decline for over a decade. Where more people are killed with hammers than guns, but anyone can go and buy themselves a nice framing hammer at Home Depot, no background check required….
Bunch of pathetic ans sniveling individuals…sheep following the sheep herding socialist like nanny Bloomberg, Feinstein, Obama…I swear, if I was a conspiracy nut, I would think they were trying to provoke a crisis where law abiding citizens remind them of April 1775.
Headline: “Flag Officer is an Arrogant Prick Who Doesn’t Know What He’s Talking About.
In other news, climatologists report that snow may be cold.”
If the ass hats who run this country now keep in power neutering will became part of the acceptance policy at the service academies and an OCS graduation requirement. Sad to say but the Senior Non-Commissioned Officer ranks aren’t much better that the officers either. The Last bastion of freedom might end up being our salty Lance Corporals.
Is it really news that many current and former GOs/FOs are actually more politicians in uniform than military leaders?
It’s not just Generals or politicians who think like this.
A lot of my friends, former and current, grunts and POGs, think that semi-auto (they think they are assault weapons) rifles should only be available to current and former military and police, because they were trained on them. By trained, they’ve dis/ass it for a couple of hours a day and went to the range to qual once every fiscal year.
Every time I hear that garbage, I remember back to qual-ing on the rifle range and watching a fellow Marine prying off the magazine base plate to load rounds in it, and eat e spring.
Another challenge for those with time on their hands. Try to find a crime using a 50 BMG rifle. In order to count, the rifle had to be fired, mere possession does not count. Hint: I am aware of one. In the early 1990s the Denver news media reported that some guy in Evergreen Colorado fired one into a car — seems to me that it was in a shopping center parking lot and it was a Barrett bolt-action single-shot.
@13 – yep, and he voted for Obama. That says it all right there.
I read Where Men Win Glory by Jon Krakauer and it was anything but flattering to McCrystal. Not my favorite biography. Both the author and the family were very political which distracted a lot from Tillman’s story.
Gemeral Stan can kiss my straight-leg, evil black rifle-owning ass.
Most GO/FO’s are politicians and nothing else. That’s what civilians don’t seem to understand most of the time. I hit A-Stan right as McCrystal’s new ROE took affect, known at the time as the “Karzai 12” ROE. So called because McCrystal bent over backwards for Karzai and gave him everything he wanted. We’re talking about a GO who thought it was a good idea to write ROE dictating that we can only conduct raids during the day time and with ANA escort. Among other such asinine rules. Of course Joe has no idea what any of this means. And he’s too lazy to do any research to try to figure it out. He couldn’t even be bothered to hop over to the Brady Campaign’s website and copy and paste their definition of “assault weapon”. Mind you, the Brady Campaign’s definition still would have been wrong, but it would have at least had more substance than “a bushmaster is an assault weapon”. Joe isn’t even fun to debate, he’s just sad.
If this man is supposed to be a prime example of the kind of leadership inspiring individual that West Point is churning out, gawd help us. No wonder some officers I knew always said they escaped the machination’s of WMA…I get it, NOW!
Stan was on Hannity last night and heard the entire clip of Obama’s summarily dismissing his ass. The look on his face when the camera came back to him was exactly that when someone is caught with wanker in hand…Expressionless. Then the shock from what Obama said hit him like a brick wall.
I felt sympathy for him right then, but after this mornings tour of bobblehead shows I can see I was very wrong. Makes me real glad that I never served anywhere near him in a CoC, too.
cannoncocker, Joey wouldn’t even make a piss poor water boy for the San Fran Giants. THAT is how sad I think he is, LOL!
Am I wrong or does not each Iraqi head of household have the right to possess one fully automatic AK-47 to protect his family from Ali Baba? Or did McCrystal recend the Iraqi constitution too?
Joe. It’s past your bedtime little man.
After you have a snack, be sure to brush your teeth. Someone will be in later to tuck you in.
Goodnight.
Crime statistics available from DOJ show rifles and carbines are used in about 1.5 % of violent crime. Stats stayed the same before during and after the assault weapon ban.
I’ll always remeber the words of my PMS (Professor of Military Science) in ROTC. An Army SF LTC (who was prior service enlisted).
We had a retired USAF Colonel invte himself in during a class period to give a briefing on personal financial management (for his company of course) and got pissed because he wasn’t offered “due respect and courtesy” from the staff in accomodating his visit.
After my PMS got him calmed down and on his way..he turned to me (the Cadet Battalion Commander)and said…
“The only thing worse than an Officer..is a retired Officer”
I always remember that. And will.
Sorry about the spelling..too much wine
@2: Joe; what you know about weapons wouldn’t fill a thimble. Can you tell me the difference between an M4/16 and a rifle “like” an M4/16?
You have been given reems of information to educate yourself, yet you choose to keep your head up your ass and then come back with more bullshit.
@5, when I was in high school way back when, before the Gulf War, our history teacher invited his army buddy to come to school with M16A1’s and let us shoot blanks in them. To my knowledge, none of us have ever shot up a school.
“Perhaps one of you folks will have better luck uncovering how many crimes have been committed BY Civilians (legally purchased) in the USA with such evil weapons? There MUST be hundreds of such cases.”
I don’t have specific data on this. But http://www.gunfacts.info has a 100+ page pdf pretty much debunking most of what is being said about gun control right now. It’s definitely worth a look for everyone.