DB Deadeyes Club

You are free to your opinions. But if you aren't a firearm enthusiast, I don't understand why you're posting in this thread other than to say that your opinion is more valid than other peoples', which is the kind of atmosphere I would prefer stays out of this thread.

I guess some aussie thinks I'm some kind of cunt. Good news though, I expect to make a full recovery.

I feel better already, my friend. This is where I would insert a smiley face emoticon if that were something I did.

Ah, a fellow shotgunner. Very nice.

My girlfriend bought me a Mossberg Maverick 88 for our two year anniversary. She's a keeper...and my girlfriend is pretty cool, too!

I strongly suggest that you don't operate any firearm while under the influence of any potentially reflex impairing medications, especially anesthetics.

I have sort of an ambiguous feeling towards firearms. I somtimes ask myself if a nasty situation I got in could have been made better if I had a gun, and the answer has always been no. I never came up with a reason to own one so I've never seriously considered getting one for myself. I often find that people associate guns with crime because of people getting shot in the streets, which does happen. Though the statistics usually indicate that these crimes are generally committed by people who have obtained these weapons illegally. So I don't really like the idea of tightening our gun laws so our sane gunowners have to be probed even further just to shoot targets in their backyard. It just means that people who want them are more likely to break the law to get them.

People that I know who own guns are pretty level-headed people most of the time. However, I did once have a pretty frightening experience where a girl invited me to her barbecue, and I didn't know her husband was a marine who would be drinking, wearing his army pants with no shirt, and his hand gun holstered in the back of his pants. Nor did I know that everyone else there would be people I didn't know who are also huge gun enthusiasts, and would also be drinking. It was pretty scary to be on their property, have nothing in common with any of them, and have the potential to be on the wrong side of an argument with a bunch of people who all have guns.

When it comes to guns, I'm not as scared about shooting. I'd rather be shot in the face than filleted with a knife, honestly. There's a whole set of other issues that comes with the fact that it's possible to hold a tool in your hand where you can control who ever you point it at to do things they don't want to do without even operating the weapon. Things like robberies, rapes, extraction of vital information, etc. can all be done with a gun without physically hurting someone. I feel like this is an underrepresented issue with guns that statistics can't effectively measure. It's just a level of power I don't believe is normal for people to have, whether they will respect it or not.

I don't really know what to do about it. I think the system we have in place is the best we're going to get. The fact that guns can be used for evil is just a bi-product of their existence. You can be like kb1 and plow over a bunch of school children if you want to, but we're not gonna get rid of all the cars either. The issue lies in the way people become crazy enough to want to do that.

Bit of a bump here, so apologies for that. As a serving soldier in the British Army (until I can get out, at least) I do have some firearms experience that might be interesting though. I'll go through what I've used, but try not to go divulging secrets or any of that crap:

SA80A2 IW - The standard assault rifle for the British Army is a 5.56mm H&K bullpup, so probably not so familiar to Americans, although it's the same NATO round as the M16. I've used it with a few different sights and reckon it's probably pretty good. I'm not a fantastic shot, but I can hit a target up to 300m reliably once the sight is zeroed. My main issue with these is that we probably spend more time cleaning the fucking things than firing them.

H&K Minimi 5.56 LMG - Fun when they work, but both extremely rust prone and inexplicably liable to stoppages. Having carried one exclusively for two weeks, the weight isn't so bad once you're used to it, but it's not a first choice. As these are usually fired from the prone and are considered an area weapon, I was actually pretty good with these!

Glock 19 - I can see why Americans like owning pistols. These are fun to shoot, easy to maintain and work at distances you think about day to day. I've seen some amusing top slide related injuries though, so they do require a bit of training. Right-handed I've done well with these, but in my left hand I found my accuracy wasn't as bad as my drills. Ended up doing some really silly stuff like firing one handed or not actually having a finger to fire with.

GPMG - I want to say this was a H&K too... The 7.62mm General Purpose Machine Gun actually seems really reliable... It's just heavy and probably more suited to fire support than running about with individually.

UGL - I've only fired these on a simulation range, but they're really intuitive and fun. Plus you look like a bad arse carrying one in each hand unattached from a rifle.


I've also held some AK-pattern weapons, mortars, RPGS and missile launchers, a Barratt .50-cal, an RPD, PKM and thrown a range of grenades. My honest take on all of this stuff is that they're much cooler in media than in real life, as the maintenance requirements and safety regimes that go with them (at least in a professional setting) suck all of the fun out. Nothing kills a range day more than shit weather and the knowledge that every round expended is just adding to the cleaning job later. Especially once you factor in all of the waiting about.

It also strikes me as quite amazing how hard it is to reliably hit a target at any real distance. You do need to know what you're doing to be effective.

Unfortunately they are very easy to set to automatic and spray in a general direction, so as a tool for indiscriminate killing in crowded places they are all too easy to use. It's only really for precision firing and long term ownership that I think they're unappealing through difficulty.