by Mark Chesnut, Editor - Friday, November 17, 2017

Just when you think gun-ban groups can’t get any nuttier, they prove you wrong with their vast ignorance about firearms.

Enter Gabby Giffords’ anti-gun group, formerly called Americans for Responsible Solutions but now known simply as Giffords. The organization recently released a “report” aimed at scaring people into wanting to ban more firearms and firearm-related products. And boy, is it a doozy.

Titled “Legal And Lethal: 9 Products That Could Be The Next Bump Stock,” authors of the report claim to show “how the gun industry is putting public safety at risk by manufacturing extremely lethal firearms designed to skirt the federal laws established to keep us safe.” All they really did was make themselves a laughingstock to anyone who has a clue about firearms and their usage.

Cue the .50 caliber muzzleloader, which delivers a particularly lethal .50 caliber round.” — Report from Gabby Giffords’ gun-ban group.How so, you might ask?

Consider that Number 8 on the list of “products that could be the next bump stock” is … drumroll please … MUZZLELOADERS!

Yes, most of us know them as primitive firearms, sometimes called “smoke poles,” that allow us to get an extra week or two in the woods chasing whitetails each fall. But it seems those pesky devices, which we’ve never heard of being used in any crime anywhere, are much more sinister than we ever could have imagined.

“Muzzleloaders fell out of favor as a firearm of choice almost a century ago, and are generally seen as primitive antiques,” the report says. “That’s why federal law generally exempts them from regulation.”

Then things turn so ominous you can almost hear the scary music in the background.

“Cue the .50 caliber muzzleloader, which delivers a particularly lethal .50 caliber round.”

It seems that the organization is particularly worried about a recently introduced muzzleloader that has a built-in suppressor, thereby making it more friendly to the ears of hunters and shooters. Yet instead of saying so, the authors lump all .50-cal. muzzleloaders into their ridiculous “report.”

“Even if silencers were removed from the NFA, the guns they attach to would still be subject to certain basic provisions of federal law,” the report said. “These laws prohibit convicted felons and other dangerous people from possessing guns, require gun retailers to be licensed, and require licensed retailers to conduct background checks on purchasers. There is one blanket exception to these laws, however: the exception for antique firearms, including muzzleloaders. The gun industry is determined to exploit this exception.”

Such ignorance hardly even warrants a rebuttal, but I’ll do so anyway since it’s so easy.

If every muzzleloader in the country had a silencer on it, it wouldn’t affect the violent crime or murder rate one way or another, period.First, that “particularly lethal .50 caliber round” Giffords wants you to believe is so sinister typically leaves the muzzle at a far lower velocity than bullets from modern cartridge rifles typically used for deer and other big-game hunting. The 295-grain projectile I use in my CVA muzzleloader leaves the muzzle at about 1,600 fps and only retains the recommended energy for a clean kill on deer out to about 150 yards.

Also, as most everyone reading this blog knows, muzzleloaders are loaded much differently than modern cartridge arms. A propellant—black powder or a substitute—must be put into the gun from the muzzle. A projectile then must be pushed in from the muzzle with a somewhat unwieldy ramrod and seated firmly on the powder. On most more “modern” muzzleloaders, a primer or cap must then be put in place at the breech to ignite the powder when the trigger is pulled and the hammer falls. People who are really good at it can fire a couple of shots per minute—that is, if they don’t choose to stop and swab the barrel between shots to ensure accuracy on the follow-up. Obviously, that’s not exactly what one would consider “bump stock” speed.

Lastly, the group’s feigned worry about a suppressed muzzleloader is simply more ado about nothing. As we’ve mentioned time and again at A1F Daily, suppressors don’t make guns silent, they merely reduce the report to the point they are less likely to damage the hearing of hunters and shooters. If every muzzleloader in the country had a silencer on it, it wouldn’t affect the violent crime or murder rate one way or another, period.

Whether you love bump stocks, hate them or don’t care strongly either way, any organization that is ignorant enough to compare them with muzzleloaders has proven itself so clueless that nobody—even the gun-ban advocates who support the group—should consider it a legitimate source for firearm-related information moving forward.

Mark Chesnut has been the editor of America’s 1st Freedom magazine for 17 years and is an avid hunter, shooter and political observer.