What is a barrel shroud? Hint: it is what those words say it is. This question was famously lobbed at Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy, to which she answered after a lengthy diversion, âI actually donât know what it is.â
That was not the first, and certainly not the last time an anti-gun politician would eat foot and display sweeping ignorance of the world of firearms, despite their intent to prevent the people from owning them.
In fact, on her website, McCarthy states that hollow-point bullets are âcop-killersâ and not only easily defeat body armor, they also explode. Theyâre explosive. If thatâs not a misunderstanding, itâs propaganda, which is even worse.
âI will tell you these are ammunition, theyâre bullets, so the people who have those now theyâre going to shoot them, so if you ban them in the future, the number of these high capacity magazines is going to decrease dramatically over time because the bullets will have been shot and there wonât be any more available.â
âThe Congresswoman has been working on a high-capacity assault magazine ban for years and has been deeply involved in the issue; she simply misspoke in referring to âmagazinesâ when she should have referred to âclips,â which cannot be reused because they donât have a feeding mechanism.â
Stripper clips, of course, can be reloaded, and are, often, to reload magazines. Thatâs what theyâre made for. (DeGette might have have learned this if someone told her that most clips hold five to 10 rounds, thatâs more her speed, not at all like âassault magazines.â)
Another recent gaffe was Bidenâs infamous âGet a shotgunâ advice, which included illegally discharging two warning shots into the air above an intruderâs head.
The President would never make such an ill-informed statement. Remember, he â[does] skeet-shooting all the time.â Most recently, President Obama incorrectly stated that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooter used a fully-automatic rifle. He did not.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is also willing to legislate blindly.
After passing the SAFE Act, Cuomo was cornered by the billâs own language, particularly the seven-round magazine limit. Since seven rounds is not a standard number, itâs a sweeping magazine ban â which could easily be defeated in a court of law.
âMuch of whatâs in the law was drafted by people connected to Mayor [Michael] Bloomberg and the Brady Center, not by the Governorâs staff. Thatâs why there are so many problems with it,â said a Cuomo insider.
Almost nothing beats Sacramento City Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy, who famously stated that people get shot all the time by unloaded guns. For reals:
Of course, you donât have to be in politics to get it wrong. In an interview, Chris Cillizza, an MSNBC political analyst argued against, well, you decide.
âEventually â Okay, letâs say assault weapons or letâs say these high-caliber â these high-pack rounds â if they do that, what will they do next.â Weâre not even sure what they want to do first.
The Denver Post once even reported on a Colorado University policy, one that would segregate students who had concealed-carry permits apart from the others. When we spoke to the dorm management, it turned out that there was no such policy.
These gaffes arenât just occasional slips. Theyâve been going on for years, and probably will continue. Weâre not sure if thereâs anything we or anyone can do to fix this, but we can at least get a good laugh out of it.
What are your favorite displays of complete ignorance when it comes to gun politics?
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