{"id":5179,"date":"2009-01-06T09:53:45","date_gmt":"2009-01-06T13:53:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=5179"},"modified":"2009-01-17T02:14:20","modified_gmt":"2009-01-17T06:14:20","slug":"semiautomatic-madness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2009\/01\/semiautomatic-madness\/","title":{"rendered":"Semiautomatic Madness"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Gun sales in the waning months of 2008 saw a dramatic spike in Utah<\/a>, a trend gunowners say is propelled by the election of Barack Obama and a faltering economy . . . At Kearns’ Impact Guns, assault weapons, such as AR-15s and AK-47s are out-of-stock after a post-election rush.”<\/p>\n

Will someone please explain to me why any civilian would want or need an AK-47? <\/p>\n

I mean, really. What are you going to do with it? Mow down the dozens of thugs trying to steal your car CD player? (Or, if you’re Mormon, your years’ supply of hard white winter wheat?)<\/p>\n

Obviously firearms are big among Mormons, and not just the huntin’ types. I’ve never owned one, and I don’t think I ever will, but I don’t begrudge others their weaponry. Under certain conditions, that is. If you want a shotgun to kill yerself an elk, great–just make sure you eat the stinking beast. If you need a handgun in your home to feel safe, fine–robberies do happen. Although if you have kids, by the time you get your piece and your ammo from their separate locked-up locations your plasma is gonna be gone. And if the robber perceives a threat, you’re gonna be gone too. <\/p>\n

But an assault rifle? Please. <\/p>\n

Gun Sales in Utah<\/p>\n

October 2007: 9,841<\/p>\n

October 2008: 11,117<\/p>\n

November 2007: 11,912<\/p>\n

November 2008: 20,908<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

These aren’t all assault rifle sales, of course. But clearly they’re flying off the shelves, into the hands of citizens who have no good use for them other than re-enacting scenes from Die Hard in their backyards. <\/p>\n

Two members of the board of directors of the Gun Violence Prevention Center of Utah are on record accusing gun dealers of fueling the scare. (Duh.) Some guy from the Utah Shooting Sports Council says the fear isn’t due to hype, but to the fact that there are senators in office who would like to ban all handguns. (As if.)<\/p>\n

But the weirdest part of the article isn’t the sales numbers, or the crazy fears spurring them. It’s the names of these two director guys: <\/p>\n

Gary Sackett and Steve Gunn. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Gun sales in the waning months of 2008 saw a dramatic spike in Utah, a trend gunowners say is propelled by the election of Barack Obama and a faltering economy . . . At Kearns’ Impact Guns, assault weapons, such as AR-15s and AK-47s are out-of-stock after a post-election rush.” Will someone please explain to me why any civilian would want or need an AK-47?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-politics"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5179"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6212,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5179\/revisions\/6212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}