15 Jun 2016

Liberal Reporter PTSD’d by a Trip to the Shooting Range

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PajamaBoy
Gersh Kuntzman undoubtedly looks just like this.

Gersh Kuntzman, reporting for the hoplophobic New York Daily News, wound up psychically-scarred with a bruised shoulder and suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome after test-firing an AR-15.

What is it like to fire an AR-15? It’s horrifying, menacing and very very loud.

It feels like a bazooka — and sounds like a cannon.

One day after 49 people were killed in the Orlando shooting, I traveled to Philadelphia to better understand the firepower of military-style assault weapons and, hopefully, explain their appeal to gun lovers.

But mostly, I was just terrified. …

I’ve shot pistols before, but never something like an AR-15. Squeeze lightly on the trigger and the resulting explosion of firepower is humbling and deafening (even with ear protection).

The recoil bruised my shoulder. The brass shell casings disoriented me as they flew past my face. The smell of sulfur and destruction made me sick. The explosions — loud like a bomb — gave me a temporary case of PTSD. For at least an hour after firing the gun just a few times, I was anxious and irritable.

Read the whole thing.

I will grant Mr. Kuntzman that ARs are noisy, but Goodness Gracious, Mercy Me! they shoot the .223 cartridge, a minutely-modified version of the old .222 Remington, a center-fire cartridge introduced in 1950 as a less noisy groundhog shooting cartridge offered as a less-powerful alternative to the .220 Swift and the .22-250 Remington.

Kuntzman ought to try shooting an African big game rifle sometime, or one of those super-handguns custom-made by John Linebaugh that fires the equivalent of an elephant round from a standard-size revolver. The last time I fired my .500 Linebaugh I found a large lump had developed at the base of my thumb. I wondered at the time if it was going to be a permanent souvenir, but it gradually went away.

Back in the old days, when men were men and not metrosexual bed-wetters, Sir Samuel Baker was renowned for using a black-powder 2-bore rifle on dangerous game. The 2-bore designation means that the gun fired a ball weighing a half pound of lead.

Kuntzman (2016) shot an Ar-15 firing a 63 grain .223″ diameter bullet at 900+ feet-per-second.

Samuel Baker (1866) used to shoot a two-bore firing an 8 ounce, 3500 grain 1.326″ diameter bullet at 1500 feet per second. So much has humanity declined in a century and a half.

SamuelBaker
Sir Samuel Baker, KCB, FRS, FRGS (1821-1893)

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7 Feedbacks on "Liberal Reporter PTSD’d by a Trip to the Shooting Range"

GoneWithTheWind

I joined the Air Force in 1964. Qualified with the M1 carbine in basic training. A great gun, loved it, bought one later, it was a joy to use. The next year for arms qualification I used the newly introduced M-16 (They had some at Lackland in 1964 but not enough to use for small arms qualification). I am sitting here today 51 years later with ringing in my ears. They didn’t use ear protection back in the 60’s. The M-16 (AR-15 platform) is loud. I knew it before I even had fired my 60 rounds to qualify that I had hurt my ears.

None of this is intended to prop up the lib anti-gun reporter but the point is simply that the gun is loud, especially if fired at a range with the protective baffles that have a tendency to reflect the sound back to the shooter. Wear your ear protection.



Cactusjack

Looks like Obama has just found his next SecDef.



Lee

While you have a point, Gone With The Wind, I seriously doubt the range owner let him for the gun without ear protection. Liability issues. He’d be crazy to let a reporter get away with not wearing any and ask suggested protection there.



Reltney McFee

So, he DID wear his hearing pro, like, on his EARS, right? My Darling Wife said this reporter needed to develop a pair, of not-ovaries.



Pizza Boy

I think you misspelled his name. It should be Gersh Cuntzman.



Robert

You got the FPS on the 5.56 wrong. I also doubt very much that Baker’s half-pound shoulder howitzer was producing 1500FPS.



JDZ



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