CNBC’s America’s Gun: The Rise of the AR-15; a review
A couple of you alerted me to the CNBC special last night entitled “America’s Gun: The Rise of the AR-15“, so I DVR’d it and watched it this morning. The trailer is at the link. Brian Sullivan spends an hour or so interviewing the various sides of the scary black gun debate. But, mostly he sticks with interviewing people that I would have trouble spending the day at the range with. For example, James Yeager who made this video in which he announced that he would “start killing people” if the government came for his guns (LANGUAGE WARNING);
The video has been edited to take that line out, because Mr. Yeager almost lost his gun permit because of the video, but CNBC has an original copy. Some of you sent me that video when it came out and while I agreed with the sentiment Yaeger expressed, I was a little uncomfortable about the way it was presented.
They also interview more grounded people like a dentist and a real estate agent in Florida who just enjoyed target shooting with their AR-style weapons. But CNBC spent more time with the “prepper” types, I guess because those are the people CNBC want to own ARs so they can justify disarmament.
CNBC also had a gun control fascist on the show who said that people like Mr. Yeager “chilled” the discussion. But there was no mention of the fact that gun grabbers don’t even know why they want to ban the rifles other than the fact they look scary. They did briefly mention that more people are killed with blunt instruments than with rifles of any type, but they followed that up with scary X-rays of the damage that an AR can do to it’s target.
CNBC touched on the development and original intent of ARs as military weapons in Vietnam, and they noted that the popularity of the weapon isn’t driven by any corporate ad campaign, but rather by customer demand.
If your a gun grabber, nothing in this presentation will convince you otherwise. If you’re an AR owner, it won’t make you want to sacrifice your gun in order to make the world safer. If they were looking for balance, I guess they achieved that. Of course, because it’s NBC, it leans heavily towards gun control, but I enjoyed watching happy people shooting their ARs.
Here’s another review at the New York Daily News.
Category: Guns
My unit, 82nd (ABN) was, I think, the first Army unit to get them in, I think ’64. Before we had trouble getting the Troopers qualified on the M14. With the AR15, the whole Battalion qualified right out of the box. Shortly thereafter we went to the Dominican Republic with them. Loved that weapon. I don’t remember the troopers (1/101 and 3/82nd) having jamming problems in VN in ’68, but then they had grizzled NCO’s on their ass about cleaning them all the time.
For those that don’t know Mr. Yeager has a questionable past as a security contractor in Iraq. The guy labels himself as a tactical squirrel yet there is video(check youtube) of him in action when contact is made and it’s not flattering.
CNBC knew exactly what they were doing when they choose to use that guy rather than somebody else.
Yeager is dug into the prepper community like a tick on a hound dog’s balls. He Makes his living teaching people to shoot, so he spends a ton of time online advertising his course and himself.
He has ZERO Military background. He Parlayed a few years of small town and county Law Enforcement into a Civilian Contractor’s Job in Iraq. That’s where he “made his bones” so to speak. There is no doubt he has experience being shot at and shooting back. As for the accusations of Cowardice, probably not fair, he was caught up in a bad situation which he had little control over.
He has ego and control issues, and comes across as arrogant and all knowing. He surely isn’t the type of person you want speaking out on behalf of gun owners.
The late Eugene Stoner and his team created an American icon…AR-15 turns 55 this year.
I was shocked when they went out of their way to explain that AR stood for ArmaLite Rifle, and not assault rifle.
“For those that don’t know Mr. Yeager has a questionable past as a security contractor in Iraq.”
Yup. The AARs from his performance in Iraq versus what he says happened make for interesting reading.
Is this the same guy who was giving shooting classes for preppers on the “Deep Earth Bunkers” show on Discovery a couple of years ago?
If so, I thought he was a bit paranoid back then. That guy wanted a bunker that couldn’t be broken into with artillery.
Another word that has become pejorative. “Prepared” seemed like an appropriate description of most Americans not that long ago. When the term “prepper” first came into use, it still seemed like a pretty good OK thing to me – like the way we try to have extra tp through the winter months just in case.
Not sure that I want to be called a prepper these days. While we try to keep plenty of aluminum foil on hand, we really don’t use it to either cover the windows or make hats.
I’m kind of in the mindset that says plastic wrap stretched across a doorway at eye level, supported by several lengths of dental floss down below across the same doorway, is just as good a repellent as a flamethrower, and far less costly.
But that’s just me.
On the other hand, I see nothing wrong with having a fully-stocked pantry and paper supply closet at all times.
Did we ever discuss using dry beans or lentils in an airgun as ammo, in case you run out?