"Seven bullets in a gun, why? Because the high-capacity magazines that give you the capacity to kill a large number of human beings in a very short period of time is nonsensical to a civil society..."

Charles Gant and Greg Lewis recently pointed out the effects of psychotropic drugs to suppress fear and enable "murderous rage" in an American Thinker article. The cite American Long Range Reconnaissance Patrols during the Vietnam War, quoting from the extraordinary book Dispatches by Michael Herr. Gant and Lewis went on to further discuss the effect of similar drugs such as Ritalin and Adderall on restless school children with Attention Deficit Disorder. But what exactly happens -- in some detail -- when someone is in a gun battle with someone high on drugs, be it against a soldier or a home invading robber in New York or any other state?

Let's start by answering the question about soldiers, particularly soldiers who opposed American forces in Iraq in 2005 during house-to-house fighting in Fallujah. I quote from Tony Perry of the Los Angeles Times:

Fallouja Insurgents Fought Under Influence of Drugs, Marines Say Troops note the caches found and rebels' ability to keep going even after being severely wounded. (snip) The conduct of many of the insurgents during the fighting in Fallouja suggested that they had ingested drugs that enabled them to continue fighting even after being severely wounded, Marines and Navy medical corpsmen say. "One guy described it as like watching the 'Night of the Living Dead,' " corpsman Peter Melady said. "People who should have been dead were still alive." Marines say the information prompted them to change their strategy. "On the second day of the fight, word came down to focus on head shots, that body shots were not good enough," said 1st Lt. Tim Strabbing, a platoon leader with the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, one of the lead units in the assault to oust the insurgents. The battalion, known as the Thundering Third, suffered 23 dead and 300 wounded. Strabbing said his platoon found five locations with stockpiles of needles and adrenaline. "My guys put five [machine gun] rounds into a guy who just stood there and took it and then took off running," he said. Stimulants enable the body to continue functioning despite mortal wounds, forestalling, although not preventing, death, medical experts say. Many combat veterans recall watching insurgents in Fallouja who had been shot at close range return fire and hurl grenades at Marines who stormed their strongholds.

Amphetamines and similar mind altering drugs are also well known to both school children (in the form of Ritalin, etc.) and young street thugs (in various forms such as meth amphetamine, crack, etc.).

From the Los Angeles Daily News, Dec. 1, 2006:

Capt. Ron Nelson, a spokesman for the Ventura County Sheriff's Department, said the numbers might be low compared with some other communities, but the increase is of serious concern and points to a rise in meth use. There were 10 bank robberies in areas patrolled by the Sheriff's Department, which include Thousand Oaks, Moorpark and Camarillo.



Like other drugs, meth lowers inhibitions and leads addicts to commit robberies and burglaries to buy more drugs, Nelson said. A man recently arrested on suspicion of holding up banks in Thousand Oaks and Camarillo was addicted to meth.

Criminals can now assume, perhaps incorrectly, that most armed citizens have only a seven shot capacity in their handgun or rifle to stop a home invasion in New York State. If the crooks happen to be meth heads, they now have increased their odds of overpowering a home resident. I wonder how more fearful Democrat gun owners whose name and address were made public by the Journal News of White Plains, NY, feel today.

Of course, this recent New York gun control law, as others have noted, was rushed through the legislature while emotions run high. It also has produced a personal political feather in the cap of Governor Cuomo, increasing somewhat his chances of getting the Democratic Party nomination for President in 2016.

So Philosopher King...er...Governor Cuomo believes five or six shots are enough to "reasonably" stop an armed robber in a "civil society." But an armed robber turns a quiet home from a civil society into an uncivil combat zone. I would have said the politicians theoretically deliberated the merits of the gun control legislation in a committee room in the state capitol on false premises, but even that didn't happen. The bill was rushed through in record time. It was essentially a push-in robbery of New Yorkers' rights as American citizens under the U.S. Second Amendment - and probably the New York State Constitution, as well.

If and when a number of people find their home invaded in the overmatched scenarios I have described above and the word of those events spread - with or without the mainstream media's assistance - this will no longer be merely the thought exercise of this writer, dismissed by some readers as "absurd." At that time, the sentiment and political opinion will arise to either repeal this new gun control law, disobey it, or flee New York State for other locations. This new gun control law is a not a recipe for a civil society - it is a recipe for the "Potterville" dystopia seen in the movie It's a Wonderful Life. Never has the old saying been truer in New York State: It is better to be judged by twelve than carried by six.