Bans on gun stocks and accessories
I feel sorry for some of the people that are gun owners and are presently stepping into the word of AR15, AK or Mini 14 ownership for the first time and live in anti-gun States. I have had some really bizarre conversations with friends in California and New Jersey that had to take AR15 or FAL gun magazines and have blocks welded into them so they couldn’t take more than 10rds. To some people these sounds like a good thing, but the real problem is you are taking something that is functional at a certain operating system and potentially messing the whole thing up. Magazine capacity restrictions are like putting smaller gas tanks on cars to keep people from speeding. The other problems that many in New Jersey or California and other States run into are gun accessories like flash hiders or folding stocks, these are all usually banned.
I find the whole issue about bans on gun accessories like bayonets and folding stocks to basically be about people trying to put band aids on your kids body parts where there is no bleeding expecting to stop another person from beating him or her up. Nobody wants to talk about how most gun crime is from the drug trade which basically is a self inflicted problem due to our Federal Government getting involved. Gun accessories like, bayonets, flash hiders, folding stocks, collapsing rifle stocks have no bearing on reducing crime and putting people who are a threat to society in jail for long periods of time would have more impact on reducing crime than making law abiding citizens block 20rd magazines so they can only hold 10.
There is another issue that I see come up when taking new students to the range. I usually bring various military style rifles with me to get people to adjust to recoil and realize the common military style weapons that exist in the world. Many of these individuals, after a day on the range tend to select the gun that fit them the best. When I first got into shooting rifles, I started out with all of the military surplus firearms that came into the Country in the early and mid 1990s. There may never be another time where Soviet style weapons are imported into this Country. The military warehouses got cleaned out after the fall of the Soviet Empire and American gun owners were the beneficieries.
I think many of us have seen wild variations in quality of the Kalashnikov firearms. Back in the early 1990s there were very inexpensive guns coming in from Eastern Europe. The quality of many of these guns were pretty darn good. As the years went by, the guns got worse and worse and I started to see my fair share of AK style weapons that did not live up to the AK47s reputation of reliability. There were a few importers that were assembling guns that looked bad, but they worked very well. Some rifle sights were misaligned but other than that, it was really all about the rifle stocks.
I have to admit it, I am a Mini 14 enthusiast. The Mini 14 has served me well and I always respected and understood the design limitations. The more I involve myself with the shooting world, the more I just sit back and observe gun owners and watch their skills with the firearms they choose to use. Gunboard squabble will never end when it comes to one gun over the other, but there is nothing wrong with modifying a less expensive semi-auto gun and using it as a defensive weapon.
Most of us probable got into the shooting world via a shotgun or 22lr rifle. Those seem to be some of the best instroductory firearms. You can learn the basics about shooting from a 22lr bolt action rifle and the shotgun is the most versatile firearm out there. Something like a Remingto 870 shotgun is normally available with an 18-28 barrel on it and can be found in 12 or 20 gauge. The shotgun can be used for pheasant hunting all the way up to deer just by altering the type of shot or using a slug. Depending on the sights you have on the gun, you may want to consider rifle sights if you plan on using slugs very often.