Bring it on Terrorist Scumbags!

As mentioned before, I wished that I had more guns to shoot. Well some people talk about what they wish and some people just go out and do it. As for me I went out and bought an AR-15 A3 Assault Rifle

In 1994, the Federal Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 was passed. This law banned rifles that had detachable magazines and two or more of the following characteristics:

• A folding or telescoping stock
• A pistol grip
• A bayonet mount
• A flash suppressor, or threads to attach one (a flash suppressor reduces the amount of flash that the rifle shot makes. It is the small birdcage-like item on the muzzle of the rifle)
• A grenade launcher.

Thankfully, our good President Bush lifted that absurd ban which still allowed criminals to do as they pleased (since criminals do not give a rip about what the law says) but hobbled the rest of us good citizens. And as you can see in the picture, my rifle has:

• A detachable, 30 round magazine
• A telescoping stock
• A pistol grip
• A bayonet mount (also used to mount the A203 grenade launcher, but that piece of hardware is still illegal)
• A flash suppressor (which is also a muzzle stabilizer, by the way, to reduce the effects of muzzle climb)(and this is just interesting, it sends out the most incredible shock waves to both sides and up, but no effects are felt by the shooter. and there are no ports pointing down, so no dust kicks up to obscure your vision or reveal your position)

The A3 designation means that the carrying handle/integrated iron sight is removable and can be replaced any number of interesting devices such as laser, optical magnification, and night vision scopes.

Shooting this gun was indeed a pleasure. There is but very little kick, the flame arrestor keeps the muzzle under control, and the 30 round magazine provides a nice long lasting shooting spree. The 4000 fps muzzle velocity is well above the 1137 fps speed of sound at 77 deg F (http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/sound/souspe.html). So if you hit a nice gong at 900 yards, the sound of that gong is more than 2/3rd the way back to you before the sound of your gun even reaches the target! The iron sights are a bit limited however in how accurate you can be, I was able to hit a few clay pigeons on the ground about 100 yards away though, which is plenty good for varmint hunting.

If you are still reading, I have more to tell... This weapon is the previous weapon of choice for the ground forces of the military even though it is only a .223 caliber. Some years ago, the military changed strategies as far as battlefield expectations goes, it used to be, "kill the enemy, run over their fallen corpses on your way to take the hill". Now it's, "wound the enemy, force two of his comrades to stop shooting their weapons (that's three guns stopped for the price of one) and drag him off the battlefield, then cripple their war economy with the expenses of medical care and all the logistics associated with medical care/transport, then when they are unable to muster enough ammunition or resistance force to stop you, walk up and claim the hill". The .223 (5.56mm military) does that quite nicely in fact. The small projectile with a lot of powder behind it, gives it that incredible velocity and enables armor piercing capability under 100 yards, but again, the small projectile imparts less momentum to the target and does less internal damage. And here's something really interesting, the only tool required for cleaning/maintenance is one of its own bullets.