aileron
02-12-2007, 06:42 AM
An art form we should all learn to use against the anti's. They have done it to us, we should give back. ;)
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig7/tonso4.html
'Unspeak' and the Gun Prohibitionists
by William R. Tonso
DIGG THIS
The following statement is presented inside the dust jacket of Steven Poole’s recent book, Unspeak: How Words Become Weapons, How Weapons Become a Message, and How That Message Becomes Reality:
A completely partisan argument can be packed into a sound bite. This is Unspeak.
Unspeak represents an attempt by politicians, interest groups, and business corporations to say something without saying it, without getting into an argument and so having to provide justification. At the same time, it tries to unspeak – in the sense of erasing or silencing – any possible opposing point of view by laying a claim right at the start to only one way of looking at a problem. As an Unspeak phrase becomes a widely used term of public debate, it saturates the mind with one viewpoint while simultaneously making an opposing view ever more difficult to enunciate.
Jack Shafer’s Slate essay reviewing this book, "The Devil’s Lexicon: Unspeak Exposes the Language Twisters," was posted on LRC on January 23. In his review, Shafer invited his readers to submit their own examples of unspeak to him, but he must have been swamped, because he called a halt to submissions in an addendum to his piece. Too bad. As a sociologist who has followed the gun-prohibition movement closely since it was resurrected around 1960, and who is very familiar with firearms, I would like to have sent him a few prime examples of unspeak that have long bugged opponents of this movement.
Saturday Night Specials
I’ll start with "Saturday night special," a label applied to small-caliber, small, easily concealed, cheap handguns that are the favorites of criminals and for which honest citizens have no legitimate uses. The gun prohibitionists claim that, at least, and the mainstream media haven’t questioned their claims. "Saturday night special" has been tossed around for half a century through these media as if the label is precise and the troublesomeness of these guns has been well established. Who would want such a gun other than a criminal? What reasonable person wouldn’t want to ban them? These questions don’t even have to be asked. In mainstream media circles, it’s obvious that only criminals and the unreasonable would oppose banning them. Therefore, other questions are never asked. There seems to be general agreement that in this case, small caliber means .22, .25, .32, and even .38 S&W and .380ACP. But how small is "small" as far as the guns are concerned? How easily concealed is "easily concealed"? How cheap is "cheap"? But the main question, given the claims of the gun prohibitionists, should be, "How can the guns in question, regardless of how "small," "easily concealed," and "cheap" are specified, be lethal in the hands of criminals but completely useless in the hands of honest citizens trying to protect themselves from criminals?"
Most states issue permits to carry handguns concealed for self-protection purposes to citizens who have passed background checks. Vermont and Alaska don’t even require permits for concealed handgun carry. The characteristics that presumably make certain handguns desirable to criminals, "small" and "easily concealed," also make them desirable to private citizens who want them for self-protection – and to police as backup guns. North American Arms makes some incredibly tiny five-shot, .22-caliber revolvers. The .22 short model is 3 5/8" long, 2 3/8" high, 13/16" wide, and weighs 4 oz. unloaded. That’s certainly "small" and "easily concealed," though the .22 short would be considered a last ditch, at best, cartridge for self-protection. For those who want more power in a small package, there’s Kel-Tec’s .380 ACP, 5.14" long, 3.576" high, .748" wide, and 7.2 oz. unloaded. Both of these guns are extremely well made, yet the North American .22 can be had for under $200 and the Kel-Tec .380 can be had for under $300. Both of these guns are quite cheap compared to other quality handguns.
But what does cheapness have to do with anything? If the concern is that cheapness means shoddy and unreliable, do those who want to ban guns so described want criminals to have better guns? Though some very shoddy and unreliable handguns have been produced over the years, cheapness doesn’t ensure shoddiness and unreliability. Harrington & Richardson, for example, started making inexpensive, but quite serviceable, handguns way back in 1871. In excellent condition, their Model 922, nine-shot, .22 revolver with a 2 ½" barrel is worth only about $100 on the used-gun market today. A number of years ago, firing a very reliable 1950s vintage H&R of this model at a rate of a shot every two seconds or less, I hit a three-foot steel gong nine out of nine times at fifty yards. That’s hardly precision work, but not bad for a small, easily-concealed, cheap handgun in the hands of a devotee of the hit-it-any-which-way-you-can school of marksmanship rather than a master bulls-eye target shooter.
So the concern about cheapness may have less to do with the serviceability of such guns than it does with the fact that their low price makes them affordable by folks at the lower socio-economic levels – folks who, on the one hand, have high crime rates, and on the other, have the least police protection. In fact, there’s reason to believe, though the gun prohibitionists deny it, that the "Saturday night special" label derives from "nigger town, Saturday night," because inexpensive handguns were long associated with the weekend altercations common in poor black urban areas. And the first restrictions on the sale of such handguns were passed in the South in Jim Crow days, their aim being to keep even law-abiding blacks defenseless. In other words, as good unspeak does, those three little common words, "Saturday night special," cover up a lot at the same time that they imply much that ain’t so. And so does the label "semi-automatic assault weapon," generally shortened to "assault weapon."
Semi-automatic Assault Weapons
In his 1988 "report on assault weapons," gun prohibitionist Josh Sugarmann wrote: "The weapon’s menacing looks, coupled with the public’s confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons – anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun – can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons. In addition, few people can envision a practical use for these guns." In other words, Sugarmann expected public support for a ban on "semi-automatic assault weapons," because that public was completely uninformed about the guns so labeled. And he expected the public to stay uninformed about these guns, because, as he candidly acknowledged, the media the public looks to for information were equally uninformed about them. In fact, the mainstream media often encouraged the public to believe that the semi-automatics targeted by the prohibitionists were actually machine guns, the legal civilian possession of which has been strictly regulated by the federal government since 1934 and which is not allowed at all by some states. For five years after the 1989 Stockton, California schoolyard shooting, in which such a gun was used, every NBC and many CNN commentaries on "assault weapons" that I viewed that included demonstrations, showed machine guns rather than the semi-automatic guns covered by the eventually-passed ban being fired. And these machine-gun demonstrations were invariably accompanied by snide comments by either the TV anchor or a guest ban supporter to the effect that such guns were obviously of no use to hunters, often referred to as "sportsmen." Never mind that the guns being demonstrated weren’t the guns covered by the ban, or that opposition to the ban had nothing to do with the desires or needs of hunters, or that legitimate gun use isn’t limited to hunting.
As "Saturday night special" (SNS) projects the claim that handguns so labeled are useful to criminals but not to honest citizens desiring to protect themselves from criminals, "assault weapon" (AW), projects the claim that guns so labeled are useful only to military and police forces, and criminals, but not to ordinary citizens who have no business assaulting anyone. Therefore, reasonable people would support banning the civilian ownership of such guns. But what makes a gun an "assault weapon"? "Assault rifles" (ARs) used by the military, as opposed to "assault weapons" sold to civilians, have certain features that, by definition, mark them off as such. They can be fired semi-automatic (one shot per trigger pull), but they can also be fired either full-automatic (firing as long as the trigger is held back) or burst fire (firing a set number of shots – usually three – before the trigger must be pulled again). AWs can be fired semi-automatic only, and as such are no different from many rifles, shotguns, and pistols used by American civilians for hunting, target shooting, and self-defense for over a century. ARs are chambered for cartridges less powerful than those used in past military rifles that themselves used cartridges still popular with hunters of middle-sized big game such as deer and black bear. But the AR cartridges are considerably more powerful than the pistol cartridges fired by submachine guns. Most AWs fire the same middle-range cartridges as ARs, but some fire the lower-powered pistol cartridges. Both ARs and AWs are equipped with detachable box magazines with capacities of 20 or 30 rounds, but other rifles not labeled AWs, such as the Ruger Mini 14 and the M1 carbine, also come equipped with detachable, high-capacity, box magazines or can utilize them.
Continued, next post
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig7/tonso4.html
'Unspeak' and the Gun Prohibitionists
by William R. Tonso
DIGG THIS
The following statement is presented inside the dust jacket of Steven Poole’s recent book, Unspeak: How Words Become Weapons, How Weapons Become a Message, and How That Message Becomes Reality:
A completely partisan argument can be packed into a sound bite. This is Unspeak.
Unspeak represents an attempt by politicians, interest groups, and business corporations to say something without saying it, without getting into an argument and so having to provide justification. At the same time, it tries to unspeak – in the sense of erasing or silencing – any possible opposing point of view by laying a claim right at the start to only one way of looking at a problem. As an Unspeak phrase becomes a widely used term of public debate, it saturates the mind with one viewpoint while simultaneously making an opposing view ever more difficult to enunciate.
Jack Shafer’s Slate essay reviewing this book, "The Devil’s Lexicon: Unspeak Exposes the Language Twisters," was posted on LRC on January 23. In his review, Shafer invited his readers to submit their own examples of unspeak to him, but he must have been swamped, because he called a halt to submissions in an addendum to his piece. Too bad. As a sociologist who has followed the gun-prohibition movement closely since it was resurrected around 1960, and who is very familiar with firearms, I would like to have sent him a few prime examples of unspeak that have long bugged opponents of this movement.
Saturday Night Specials
I’ll start with "Saturday night special," a label applied to small-caliber, small, easily concealed, cheap handguns that are the favorites of criminals and for which honest citizens have no legitimate uses. The gun prohibitionists claim that, at least, and the mainstream media haven’t questioned their claims. "Saturday night special" has been tossed around for half a century through these media as if the label is precise and the troublesomeness of these guns has been well established. Who would want such a gun other than a criminal? What reasonable person wouldn’t want to ban them? These questions don’t even have to be asked. In mainstream media circles, it’s obvious that only criminals and the unreasonable would oppose banning them. Therefore, other questions are never asked. There seems to be general agreement that in this case, small caliber means .22, .25, .32, and even .38 S&W and .380ACP. But how small is "small" as far as the guns are concerned? How easily concealed is "easily concealed"? How cheap is "cheap"? But the main question, given the claims of the gun prohibitionists, should be, "How can the guns in question, regardless of how "small," "easily concealed," and "cheap" are specified, be lethal in the hands of criminals but completely useless in the hands of honest citizens trying to protect themselves from criminals?"
Most states issue permits to carry handguns concealed for self-protection purposes to citizens who have passed background checks. Vermont and Alaska don’t even require permits for concealed handgun carry. The characteristics that presumably make certain handguns desirable to criminals, "small" and "easily concealed," also make them desirable to private citizens who want them for self-protection – and to police as backup guns. North American Arms makes some incredibly tiny five-shot, .22-caliber revolvers. The .22 short model is 3 5/8" long, 2 3/8" high, 13/16" wide, and weighs 4 oz. unloaded. That’s certainly "small" and "easily concealed," though the .22 short would be considered a last ditch, at best, cartridge for self-protection. For those who want more power in a small package, there’s Kel-Tec’s .380 ACP, 5.14" long, 3.576" high, .748" wide, and 7.2 oz. unloaded. Both of these guns are extremely well made, yet the North American .22 can be had for under $200 and the Kel-Tec .380 can be had for under $300. Both of these guns are quite cheap compared to other quality handguns.
But what does cheapness have to do with anything? If the concern is that cheapness means shoddy and unreliable, do those who want to ban guns so described want criminals to have better guns? Though some very shoddy and unreliable handguns have been produced over the years, cheapness doesn’t ensure shoddiness and unreliability. Harrington & Richardson, for example, started making inexpensive, but quite serviceable, handguns way back in 1871. In excellent condition, their Model 922, nine-shot, .22 revolver with a 2 ½" barrel is worth only about $100 on the used-gun market today. A number of years ago, firing a very reliable 1950s vintage H&R of this model at a rate of a shot every two seconds or less, I hit a three-foot steel gong nine out of nine times at fifty yards. That’s hardly precision work, but not bad for a small, easily-concealed, cheap handgun in the hands of a devotee of the hit-it-any-which-way-you-can school of marksmanship rather than a master bulls-eye target shooter.
So the concern about cheapness may have less to do with the serviceability of such guns than it does with the fact that their low price makes them affordable by folks at the lower socio-economic levels – folks who, on the one hand, have high crime rates, and on the other, have the least police protection. In fact, there’s reason to believe, though the gun prohibitionists deny it, that the "Saturday night special" label derives from "nigger town, Saturday night," because inexpensive handguns were long associated with the weekend altercations common in poor black urban areas. And the first restrictions on the sale of such handguns were passed in the South in Jim Crow days, their aim being to keep even law-abiding blacks defenseless. In other words, as good unspeak does, those three little common words, "Saturday night special," cover up a lot at the same time that they imply much that ain’t so. And so does the label "semi-automatic assault weapon," generally shortened to "assault weapon."
Semi-automatic Assault Weapons
In his 1988 "report on assault weapons," gun prohibitionist Josh Sugarmann wrote: "The weapon’s menacing looks, coupled with the public’s confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons – anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun – can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons. In addition, few people can envision a practical use for these guns." In other words, Sugarmann expected public support for a ban on "semi-automatic assault weapons," because that public was completely uninformed about the guns so labeled. And he expected the public to stay uninformed about these guns, because, as he candidly acknowledged, the media the public looks to for information were equally uninformed about them. In fact, the mainstream media often encouraged the public to believe that the semi-automatics targeted by the prohibitionists were actually machine guns, the legal civilian possession of which has been strictly regulated by the federal government since 1934 and which is not allowed at all by some states. For five years after the 1989 Stockton, California schoolyard shooting, in which such a gun was used, every NBC and many CNN commentaries on "assault weapons" that I viewed that included demonstrations, showed machine guns rather than the semi-automatic guns covered by the eventually-passed ban being fired. And these machine-gun demonstrations were invariably accompanied by snide comments by either the TV anchor or a guest ban supporter to the effect that such guns were obviously of no use to hunters, often referred to as "sportsmen." Never mind that the guns being demonstrated weren’t the guns covered by the ban, or that opposition to the ban had nothing to do with the desires or needs of hunters, or that legitimate gun use isn’t limited to hunting.
As "Saturday night special" (SNS) projects the claim that handguns so labeled are useful to criminals but not to honest citizens desiring to protect themselves from criminals, "assault weapon" (AW), projects the claim that guns so labeled are useful only to military and police forces, and criminals, but not to ordinary citizens who have no business assaulting anyone. Therefore, reasonable people would support banning the civilian ownership of such guns. But what makes a gun an "assault weapon"? "Assault rifles" (ARs) used by the military, as opposed to "assault weapons" sold to civilians, have certain features that, by definition, mark them off as such. They can be fired semi-automatic (one shot per trigger pull), but they can also be fired either full-automatic (firing as long as the trigger is held back) or burst fire (firing a set number of shots – usually three – before the trigger must be pulled again). AWs can be fired semi-automatic only, and as such are no different from many rifles, shotguns, and pistols used by American civilians for hunting, target shooting, and self-defense for over a century. ARs are chambered for cartridges less powerful than those used in past military rifles that themselves used cartridges still popular with hunters of middle-sized big game such as deer and black bear. But the AR cartridges are considerably more powerful than the pistol cartridges fired by submachine guns. Most AWs fire the same middle-range cartridges as ARs, but some fire the lower-powered pistol cartridges. Both ARs and AWs are equipped with detachable box magazines with capacities of 20 or 30 rounds, but other rifles not labeled AWs, such as the Ruger Mini 14 and the M1 carbine, also come equipped with detachable, high-capacity, box magazines or can utilize them.
Continued, next post