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jlf1961 -> RE: Gun Control and mass murder, one does not eliminate the other. (12/15/2012 12:11:27 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: tazzygirl
quote:
The first part of my solution to stop mass killings, get rid of the high cap mags. Not the weapon.
Yet they can be modified as you pointed out earlier. And hey are available on the secondary market, as well as through private sales.
True, I did make that point, however, you cannot increase the capacity by much, in some cases it is enough.
And I have been thinking about the currently available ones, and I think I have a solution, a government sponsored buy back program, worked for illegal guns in a few cities, why not high cap mags?
It is not perfect but it is a start.
I repeatedly stated something about the number of dead, and pointed out something many people who have never used one doesn't seem to know or realize.
The shooter had about 8 minutes to kill his victims.
Cho at Virginia tech killed most of his victims in 10 to 15 minutes.
I like to go to shooting competitions. I also watch the Discovery series "Sons of Guns" and have seen the technique demonstrated in person and on tv.
I am going to paint a picture for you to think about.
John Doe has a modern double action large bore revolver, say a 44 magnum.
Now John goes shooting say three times a week, which is about average from what I have read, could be wrong on that, but for the sake of argument, lets say three times a week.
When John first bought his pistol, he thumbed the rounds into the cylinder, a slow and cumbersome process, forget what hollywood does with the process.
John goes to the sporting goods shop and complains about the time it takes to reload. The helpful clerk demonstrates a speed loader.
Over the years John gets faster reloading with the little gimmick, and he buys more speed loaders. He starts to time himself to see how fast and how many rounds he can put on target in a given amount of time. (in the era of police revolvers, this was a common past time among leo's, it was also a life saving ability)
One day John snaps, maybe his wife left him, who knows, the reason is not important.
He loads every speed loader he has, and he has a lot of them, puts on something with a number of baggy pockets, say BDU's like in this case, drives to a local mall and goes on a shooting spree.
now the world record for shooting a revolver is held by Jerry Miculek, 12 shots in 2.99 seconds. That is fire six, reload and fire six.
Our boy is not that fast, say he can fire 12 shots in 10 seconds. In eight minutes he can fire 576 rounds accurately. That is 96b speed loaders worth of ammo. Between 8 large BDU pockets and a fanny pack, it is theoretically possible.
But lets make it a bit harder, he has the bulk of his speed loader in a book bag. That extra encumbrance going for a speed loader adds a few seconds to his reload time. It is not going to be as fast as an automatic, but it is by no means slow either. So now we are looking at a time frame similar to Cho at Virginia Tech.
Average police response time to a crime scene is 12 minutes if there is no unit close, and it can be as high as twenty minutes.
Now John does not kill himself before he runs out of ammo. He has 8 to 12 minutes before the closest police unit arrives, during that time he is doing what he went there to do. First unit arrives and it is a single officer, procedure is to enter the mall and assess the situation. This means he has to find John.
Now he is going to continue killing until the police find him, if the officer enters the section of the mall where he is, no problem, if he enters the point furthermost from John it could take a few minutes as he runs to the gunfire.
Lets just say a total of fifteen minutes, during that time John has fired 360 rounds. If it is crowded when he starts, the death toll could easily be 30 to forty people.
Now put him in a school and figure 12 rounds every 15 seconds, and give him 8 minutes. The death toll may not be as high as with the automatic, but it is going to be high.
I am proficient with the smith and wesson 44 I own, and I pride myself on accurately placing 12 shots in the bullseye in 20 seconds. Of the group of friends I shot with, the slowest is 12 rounds in 28 seconds, the fastest is 12 rounds in 8 seconds. At competitions I have seen men and women faster, but not record breaking speeds, and I have seen some of these shooters get angry at some of the littlest things, and have commented that with that temper they do not need to have firearms.
And these competitions are combat style, meaning they work through an obstacle course selecting targets, disregarding target portraying innocent bystanders.
Combat shooting ranges and courses are common in this country, and all this type of scenario needs is one wannabe super shooter to lose it.
The body count will not be as high as with an automatic but it is going to be significant.
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