Dan said: <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR> Even if the mfg determines who they sell to, the slant of the article
was almost supporting the the mfg's decision.
Does Charlie Petty feel this way? I don't know, but it comes across as if he does.[/quote]
Look at the article again and re-read the 4th from last paragraph. It states that the ATF has ruled the cartridge (and by extension, the gun) to be 'non-sporting", thus restricting sales to military & LEO.
What would one expect AH to do? Advocate that "law-abiding" gun owners should march on the FN facility here in Columbia, sack the place, and depart with stolen weapons & ammo so that one can prove gun onwers are capable of owning such devices without using them to commit acts of mayhem? I rather think not. (Besides, they've got extremely well-trained & armed security at the plant. You don't even want to pull into their driveway to turn around. I know. I did it once, and it wasn't too comforting to see guys with M-16's giving me hard looks while letting their muzzles begin to drift in my direction. No, they never pointed them where they shouldn't, but they damn well weren't "at ease.")
I saw only an editorial stance which reported the facts and didn't advocate anything political, one way or the other. As for how Charlie feels, I think his feelings were pretty well summed up in Shawn Dobson's post in part 1 of this thread. Any "you don't need this" attitude is not coming from a totalitarian, authoritarian point of view, but rather a practical point of view. Jimminy Christmas, look at the umpteen zillion cartridges available to the American shooter. Look at the overlap. From a
practical point of view, do we
really need a new cartridge? Gawd, there's dozens out there already that will do the job the 5.7X28 will do. If you think about it, wouldn't it be accurate to say that just about any job requiring a firearm could be handled by just a few basic calibers & guages? From a purely practical point of view, I can see the need for only the following: 12 ga., .30 & .37 centerfire in rifles, 9mm & .45 in handguns, and of course, the .22RF in both rifles and handguns. Proper ammo selection in .30-06 and .375 H&H Mag. could give one a world class battery, capable of killing any animal on the planet from "tree rats" to elephants, given proper shot placement. (Head shots on squirrels with 110 gr bullets from the -06.)
But hey, isn't it great to have all those choices? I personally like .270 Winchester for no reason other than an Interarms Mark X Mauser in this caliber was my first gun other than a shotgun.
Again, it all boils down to the damn gubmint creating a hodge-podge of ridiculous, un-enforceable, and unconstitutional laws which, like it or not, we all have to live with. Let's get it together, stop attacking our own, and get with the program to change the gov't and its laws. Maybe then, manufacturers won't have to worry about producing arms and ammo that can't be sold to the general populace, and debates such as this one could become a thing of the past.
I think I'll drop Charlie a line and let him know of this discussion. If he feels it merits a response, he will do so. Then again, its entirely possible he'll look at all this and decide that it's a waste of valuable time.
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Shoot straight regards, Richard at The Shottist's Center
http://forums.delphi.com/m/main.asp?sigdir=45acp45lc