05 - Lever Action

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Lever action is popular in older style western rifles, but they exist in shotgun and even pistol forms. The reason it was popular for so long, was because it was so effective. Not only can people fire nearly as fast as a semi-automatic, but fixed magazine weapons like this, allow load-as-you-go. You can fire and add rounds in while walking, and never run out of ammo.

The same rules as apply to other guns: you can carry more than one. While rifles (and lever actions) are rarely used by mass shooters, that's just because they don't need the size/range advantages that a longer barrel has. The point is if you took away other kinds of weapons, you could still mow down dozens of people with one of these, no problem. Add in a couple more, or other guns as backup -- and they can do horrendous amounts of damage. Which is why many massacres happened with these kind of weapons in the past. Though, most of those were done by government using them against Native Americans.

Reload Times
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There's a fallacy amongst hoplophobes (gun phobics) that limiting magazines to 10 rounds will help against mass shooters, or that assault rifles are somehow unique. However:
  • The time it takes to reload is less than the reaction time to know that a shooter is reloading.
  • We fought all wars prior to the Korean war without removable magazines, and all wars prior to Vietnam with 10 round magazines (or less).
  • The FBI studied mass shootings and found that the average mass shooting is 10 rounds over 5 minutes, most never even need to reload.
  • In all the mass shootings in the U.S. there has never been a case where a shooter was charged and disarmed during a reload, even with revolvers.
  • Shooting sprees end by them leaving, surrender, suicide or getting shot: virtually never by takedowns during reloads.

Magazine limits, assault rifle bans, outlawing removable magazines, and so on, sound great to those who don't know any better, but is just an infuriating ineffective annoyance to gun owners. Each bad law like this, makes it harder to pass "good" laws, as the tolerance for any more legislation was been wasted dividing us, instead of making a real difference. more...

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📚 References

Reload Times: The Basics Removable Magazines Fixed Magazines Revolvers Pump Action Bolt Action Break Action Air Rifle