Friday, October 06, 2017

Blomberg Lies To Make A Political Point

A Bump in the Debate Over Gun Violence - Bloomberg:

Using both a bump stock and large ammunition magazines, Paddock fired roughly 90 shots in 10 seconds -- approaching the volume of a fully automatic machine gun. Automatic weapons have been tightly regulated since the 1930s, and manufacture of new machine guns has been illegal since 1986.

Well, I can see the point that Blomberg is trying to make, but I call them liars or else poor writers when they descent to inaccuracy to make a (political?) point.

Paddock fired roughly 90 shots in 10 seconds

I doubt that.

Even if he was using 30 round magazines ("banana clips" which he probably had but which are notoriously poor at feeding reliably in Rifle calibers) that would require him to fire 30 rounds in 3 seconds, make a magazine change, and do the reload at least one more time to empty 3 magazines.

If he was using 20 round magazines (which are a 'straight-line design', as apposed to "banana clips' which are curved and much more difficult to insert into a rifle), that would require:
 (20 + 20 = 40; reload + 20 = 60;  reload  plus  20 = 80,  reload  + 20 to acquire 90 rounds to the gun) 3 reloads in 10 seconds.  Plus the amount of time to actually empty the magazines.

If he was using 30 round magazines, that would require only 2 reloads, which would  be even more difficult to reload quickly given the curved design of the magazines.  Plus they are less reliable.  The available photos show straight (not curved) magazines as his reserve, which an experienced shooter would prefer.

I have been competing in IPSC matches for 30 years, and even with the best equipment and magazines immediately available on my belt pouches, I find it difficult (if not impossible) to reliably reload a pistol magazine in three seconds.

Pistol magazines are a straight stack design, which means it's more easy to align the magazine with the gun. 

I've use an M16 in combat and in training, and even the (shorter, easier) 20-round magazine is difficult to reload quickly.  And in fact, we consistently loaded only 18 rounds into the magazines which were designed to accommodate 20 rounds, for reliability. 
(Magazines with 20 rounds in them tended to be more difficult to feed into the gun, because of excessive spring tension; and they were less reliable when feeding because the rounds tended to 'jam' when feeding into the gun.)

If we posit that the Idiot In Question had magazines immediately at hand, the scenario posited would give him 3 seconds for each reload (unrealistic ... rifle magazines are more difficult to seat than are pistol magazines) and four seconds to empty the two magazines, calling for a reload.

I know how fast an AR-type rifle cycles, and seems unrealistic that he loaded "90 rounds in 10 seconds" and  expended all the rounds in that period of time.  OR that he ran through two 30-round magazines, and reloaded, in that period.

Plus I've seen the videos .. the rate of fire seemed approximately 100 rounds a minute, at best.
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