The Republican Party, resigned to never doing anything about gun violence as long as the money keeps pouring into their campaigns, have gotten lazier in their defense of assault-style, high-powered weaponry. At issue is the fact that there really isn’t any meaningful need to allow citizens unfettered access to military-style weapons. Even if one is under the misconception that keeping a firearm in the home offers up real protection from invaders, and makes one safer, it is hard to defend the idea that having an unwieldy rifle just lying next to your bed at night is a logistically viable way to handle close proximity conflicts.
But banning assault weapons or assault-style rifles is a blow to the big business of death. And since the GOP is a death cult focused almost entirely on consolidating money and power, they need to scuttle any legislation that might help make American safer from guns. So what’s the defense coming out of the mouths of GOP officials? Varmint. Prairie dogs. Excuse me? Excuse you!
According to both Republican Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado and Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, vermin like “prairie dogs” and “raccoon” are the main targets for people owning AR-15-style, semiautomatic rifles. The longer .223 bullet round that travels at a far higher velocity than many rifles and handguns, and delivers considerably more foot-pounds of force, is essential for gun-loving Coloradans and South Dakotans in their eternal war against … vermin.
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During a Congressional hearing on gun violence, Rep. Buck used some of his time to zoom in from his kitchen and say that AR-15s were needed to stop raccoons “before they get to our chickens.” He wasn’t making a joke. This poorly written script, possibly jotted down with bloody hands by some whiskey-soaked gun lobbyist for Buck to read, was his excuse for how AR-15s—a gun that was manufactured with the military in mind—is a normal civilian firearm. Buck’s position, like most NRA stoolies’, is not shocking.
Buck is one of those perverse new Republican representatives that believe they should be allowed to strap on their garishly-painted guns and walk around Congress. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2020, after voting against funding to help Americans dealing with the then-new pandemic, Buck tweeted out a threat aimed at Democratic candidates (at the time) Joe Biden and Beto O’Rourke, where he gripped an AR-15 in his congressional office, like he was terrified there were raccoons running rip-shot through the hallways.
Sen. John Thune, probably sprinting to the safety of his office through those very same vermin-haunted hallways, was asked a series of questions about what the state of gun safety legislation was by CNN. Here’s his response:
Did you catch that? “Varmints.” Prairie dogs. The last part is the addendum excuse the anti-gun legislation crowd always add in: There are already too many guns in circulation, so doing anything won’t matter, so let’s continue to do nothing. While Thune didn’t have a specific number at hand, Rep. Buck offered up “something like 20 million,” when he was sitting in his kitchen, likely holding his feet off of the floor because of how many varmints might be attacking his homestead during that hearing. The AR-15 is called the “most popular rifle sold in America" by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, and they should know as they make all of their money promoting guns.
While proponents of the gun will offer up that the relatively small size of the .223 used by the AR-15 makes it a great varmint control gun—the problem is, it’s also a damaging, easy-to-use, and easy-to-get weapon for hunting people.
Semiautomatic rifles don’t shoot the largest bullets on the market. In fact, the .223 projectile, a common round for the AR-15, is not much larger than many .22 rounds like the Hornet, typically used for youth shooting sports, target shooting, and hunting varmints. The .223 weighs in at 55 grains, while the .22 is usually 45 grains or smaller.
What makes the .223 potentially deadlier than the .22 is its velocity. When the .223 exits the barrel of a gun, it flies at more than 3,200 feet per second, and is still going 1,660 feet per second after traveling 500 yards. The .22, meanwhile, leaves the muzzle at 2,690 feet per second, and slows to 840 feet per second at 500 yards. At that long distance, the .223 will slam into its target with almost twice the speed of the .22. The .223 is carrying 335 foot-pounds of force, while the .22 carries 70 foot-pounds.
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Putting feelings about animals and hunting aside, I totally get why some people like using the AR-15 to kill raccoons and pigs and other varmints that may be wreaking havoc on their land. It’s an easy and reliable way to kill those rodentia. But there are other guns, that take more skill, and can also kill animals. And while there are times when large-scale hunts of wild hogs and the like are sanctioned by conservationists, the majority of AR-15 users aren’t facing off against hoards of small game overrunning their castle walls.
Cowboy up! As they say, get a backbone. Think of the children.