From: holger@vmars.tuwien.ac.at (Holger Reusch (Dipl. ALF in spe))
Newsgroups: rec.guns
Subject: Re: Best defense: Machine gun or shotgun?
Date: 24 Jul 92 16:50:23 GMT
Organization: Technical University Vienna, Dept. for Realtime Systems, AUSTRIA

In <1992Jul22.152204.29671@btree.uucp> btree!hale@UCSD.EDU (Bob Hale) writes:
#In article <1992Jul21.083005.2443@email.tuwien.ac.at> holger@vmars.tuwien.ac.at (Holger Reusch (Dipl. ALF in spe)) writes:
#[ part of my original post omitted ]

#I think that Holger has read something into my posting that I did
#not intend: I was advocating having enough tools to do the expected
#job, not everything under the sun.

I think we are trying to find the range between "enough" and "too much"
here.

#>I'm exaggerating, but the bottom line is that you are better off with
#>a by all standards "mediocre" weapon *and* good tactics and proficiency
#>with your weapon than by the biggest arsenal of "specific tools".
#>You can't be well trained with all of them and it's strategically
#>inopportune to rely on a complex selecion process in a stess situation.
#>It's just not practical.

#Now here we agree - tactics are far more valuable than an armload
#of firearms.

#Something that I didn't mention in my first post (I thought that
#it was obvious) is that some redundancy is a good idea; if your
#single firearm malfunctions then you are in deep trouble.  Having
#more than one at least gives you a second (third, etc.) chance.
#And you only need to be proficient with a few different firearms,
#perhaps one each of pistol, rifle, and shotgun.

Now we are two who didn't mention that important point: Depending on
only one gun (of its type) is foolish.  From an aspect of fail-safety
a number of guns is certainly advisable.  The point I was trying to
make was just that it's not the tool (i.e. type of gun) which makes the
difference.  Having a number of different *types* of guns might present
a problem, not having a number of *guns*.

To be able to handle a gun well in a stress situation requires a lot
of practice.  If you possess many different types of guns, the necessary
training is considerable.

SWAT units form special sub-units whose members train exclusively with
only one or two different guns, while the unit as a whole uses lots of
gun types (sniper rifles, shotguns, SMGs, handguns, etc.).  The level
of gun handling proficiency these units require would not be
attainable if they trained on all kinds of guns they stock.

The lesson I learn from this is, that if they can't, I don't expect
myself to be able to do it.  I'd rather confine myself to some good
handguns (and take them to the range quite often) and some idiot-proof
shotguns, always with a special regard to likeness-of-use.

#Actually, I think that Holger and I agree but that we weren't
#discussing the same situation :-).

We're speaking of private citizen vs. mass riot/general anarchy
situations, aren't we?

If all else fails, we can always blame the fuzzy semantics of the
English language :-)

-- 
| Holger Reusch                             |
| Technical University of Vienna, Austria <-+--- No kangaroos here,
| Dept. for Real-Time Systems               |    sorry!
| holger@vmars.tuwien.ac.at                 |