Sometimes, stories drop in our laps. Other times, we have to go looking for trouble. That’s fine, because it’s my kind of trouble.
But there are phrases media outlets use that are always going to snag my attention. One of those is “weapons of war.” Why? Because it’s been so overplayed, usually describing weapons that have never seen a modern battlefield. It’s even more hysterical because they don’t say that about the Mausers, Enfields, Garands, and a host of other milsurp firearms that actually saw combat.
Still, it happens and it snags my attention.
Often, they’re talking about AR-15s, but this time, they’re talking about something else. This time, they’re lamenting the accused’s alleged possession of a full-auto switch.
Investigators say a Kansas City man who had homemade devices that turned regular weapons into weapons of war is now in jail.
…
“These dangerously lethal and illegal weapons pose a threat to both public safety and the safety of law enforcement officers,” Teresa Moore, the United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, said.
“These highly dangerous devices transform a street corner into a combat zone, devastating entire communities,” Special Agent Bernard Hansen with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms — Kansas City Field Division said.
Johnston now faces the harsh repercussions of his alleged actions. Federal prosecutors say he had and was making hundreds of machine conversion devices – turning semi-automatic firearms into fully automatic machine guns.
Dalton Johnson, the accused, is looking at a long time in prison.
Now, a full-auto Glock handgun–and this is most likely a Glock we’re talking about, unfortunately–has never been on a battlefield to my knowledge, especially one modified to be full-auto. But if they simply mean that by being a machine gun, it’s close enough for their purposes, I might be willing to let it slide.
However, a lot of people keep tripping over themselves to pretend this is Glock’s fault.
This guy was building conversion devices that have been illegal pretty much since they were invented. Making them is illegal. Selling them is illegal. Installing them is illegal. Using this is most definitely illegal.
And none of that has stopped anyone from doing it if they wanted to.
All the laws did was make it so you and I can’t lawfully have any such thing. While not wasting ammo all over the place spraying bullets is fine with me–I don’t have a lot of time learning how to control full auto fire, after all–I don’t agree with prohibitions that tell me I can’t have it, especially when this guy is accused of helping a ton of people violate those same prohibitions.
Gun control never trips up the bad guys. It’s just the law-abiding that are laid bare before the mercy of the merciless.
These devices were never created by Glock, either, so people trying to blame Glock for them is just as stupid as trying to make them even more illegal, which is what we’re currently hearing people try to discuss.
Criminals are going to crime. It’s in their nature. Stop trying to prevent crime by making things extra illegal or something. It’s idiotic.
