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What is it like to fire an AR-15? It’s horrifying...
by Gersh Kuntzman

[NYDailyNews] It feels like a bazooka — and sounds like a cannon.
Seriously? I doubt you ever fired a bazooka, or the modern day equivalent, the AT-4 or even a LAWS rocket. Or been anywhere near the blast cone of a big gun, like the 105mm.
What piffle that person writes. The writer clearly has not been to a live performance of the 1812 Overture with real cannons, or even seen the Bugs Bunny version. Even in New York City such innocence of culture is astounding.
One day after 49 people were killed in the Orlando shooting, I traveled to Philadelphia to better understand the firepower of military-style assault weapons and, hopefully, explain their appeal to gun lovers.

But mostly, I was just terrified.
There's no hope for you.
I kind of enjoyed it. AR15's a nice little gun, though I'm fond of old-fashioned bolt actions. If I had the money and I still hunted I'd love to own a Kimber Mountain Ascent.
If I were in a position to do some shooting for a hobby I think the AR-15 is exactly what I'd get.
Many gun shops turned down our request to fire and discuss the AR-15, a style of semi-automatic rifle popular with mass killers such as San Bernardino terrorist Syed Farook and Orlando terrorist Omar Mateen.
They turned you down because of the extra effort to swab off the femininity of the writer touching it.
Does one need a gun license to be able to play with the toys?
But Frank Stelmach of Double Tap Shooting Range and Gun Shop invited me, videographer Michael Sheridan and reporter Adam Shrier to come down. Stelmach is not like many gun lovers. He admires his weaponry, yes, and has difficulty explaining why law-abiding citizens need a gun that can empty a 40-round clip in less than five seconds. But he also hates the idea that “bad people” get a hold of a gun like this and use it to kill without difficulty.
I'd be surprised to empty an entire 40-round magazine (not clip -- the bullets you put in the magazine come in a clip) in less than five seconds. I'd be even more surprised if I hit anything.
“There should be expanded background checks — extending into your family, friends and associates,” he said. “And there should be a mental health screening. In Europe, if you want to buy a gun, you have to see a doctor (for a psychiatric examination) to see if something’s not right.”
Euros love them some government..
That's if one wants to buy it legally. Those without scruples can simply pop into the train station in Brussels, according to the Washington Post, and hand over the requested sum. I s'pose I shouldn't be shocked the writer also has not read the Washington Post.
Stelmach, who opened his shop six years ago after a career in law enforcement in Europe, even calls for government officials to take away guns from some owners — something very few gun advocates support.
If he advocates theft and murder, which antigun advocates advocate, he is no gun advocate. He is instead a statist, just like the writer.
There are situations where a person should give up his/her/its/zer guns. Depression springs to mind. So does lunacy. I haven't been shooting in years because I can't see as well as I used to. But it was my choice to get rid of the guns.
He also said he never sells a gun to someone who “looks a little bit funny,” and he claimed he had prevented many guns from getting into the wrong hands because the would-be purchaser “asked stupid questions” like, “What happens to me if the gun is stolen?”
You mean like, what happens if you're a straw purchaser?
But very few gun shop owners do anything close to Stelmach’s sniff test — and he acknowledged how easy it is to find another gun shop owner willing to make the sale.
A shop owner doesn't get an awful lot of opportunity to diagnose depression or lunacy in his customers. It's more like:
"Hello. May I help you?"
"Yes, thank you. I'd like to buy a rifle."
"What did you have in mind?"
"Do you have anything in green?"
Very easy. In fact, as Philadelphia Daily News columnist Helen Ubinas showed today, you can get a military weapon in seven minutes in this country.
Military style. You can't legally buy an M16 or an AK47 or a Thompson submachinegun, even if you own a violin case.
Stelmach doesn’t think it should be easy. But he thinks it should be allowed.
The general public hasn't been allowed to buy a .50 caliber machine gun since the thirties, if I recall.
He loves the AR-15 for cops, soldiers, hunters and target shooters. “It’s fun to shoot something like that,” he said.
Its a nice gun. I find it's configured a little awkwardly to get a natural butt weld.
Not in my hands. I’ve shot pistols before, but never something like an AR-15. Squeeze lightly on the trigger and the resulting explosion of firepower is humbling and deafening (even with ear protection).
The AR-15 is loud to be sure.
I didn't think it was all that loud in comparison to .308. You can also buy one chambered in .308, which surprised me. I'll bet the .308 version's even louder.
The recoil bruised my shoulder.
It's built on a light frame, but when the M16 was introduced some of us described it as a ladies' gun. The M1 or the M14 had some kick to it. An afternoon at the range would leave you with some bruises to show. Take an old Mauser 98k and you might want to take the next day off.
The brass shell casings disoriented me as they flew past my face.
Must be left-handed. They eject to the right. They don't cross your face if you're right-handed. It's designed that way. They may even make left-handed models.
The Steyr Aug comes with an ambidextrous ejection port.
The smell of sulfur and destruction made me sick.
It's just gunpowder. It doesn't call up Lucifer or anything. It shoots a bullet. They say you can hit a target at 600 yards, though I never have. 300's about as good as my eyes got.
The explosions — loud like a bomb — gave me a temporary case of PTSD.
There's no such thing. Until you've been under significant artillery or your plane's been shot down quit being a frigging snowflake. L.S.M.F.T.
For at least an hour after firing the gun just a few times, I was anxious and irritable.
Funny, an hour after I get back from the gun range I am relaxed. As with any sport, your shoulder has to toughen up after firing any rifle a few times. I test fired an AR-15 I helped a friend build this past winter. I found the recoil to be like a kitten kicking. A Mosin-Nagant would probably kill this guy.
This is a guy? I thought it was a girl. Does he wear a skirt?
He refers to it as a "kilt"...
Even in semi-automatic mode, it is very simple to squeeze off two dozen rounds before you even know what has happened.
Only if you're an absolute dipshit. You gotta pull the trigger or nothing happens.
In fully automatic mode, it doesn’t take any imagination to see dozens of bodies falling in front of your barrel.
Problem. Even with semi automatic, the barrel climbs, making it difficult to keep it on your target. It takes training and discipline to keep just a semiautomatic on target whenever you rapid fire the rifle.
And the AR-15 doesn't have a fully automatic mode. The writer is an ignoramus.
All it takes is the will to do it.
Will is the key. It takes a special kind of asshole to gun down unarmed innocents and to keep doing it repeatedly for a couple of hours. It is the will to kill that did those people in The AR was just the tool.
Forty nine people can be gone in 60 seconds.
The only gun I still own is an old Marlin .22. It has a 15-round capacity. The fact that it's a gun doesn't mean I hold the lives of 15 people in my hands. It's a gun. A tool, to be used. I used a hammer today. It's also a tool. If I had used it to cave in someone's head I wouldn't have been using it properly.
Posted by: badanov 2016-06-15
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=459190