Re: OT: Time To Buy A Gun, Or Move To New Zealand?

John Wilkins wrote:
> Steve Schaffner wrote:
>
>>dkomo <dkomo871@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
>>
>>
>>
>>>eyelessgame wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>dkomo wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>Is self-defense immoral these days? I suppose there has always been a
>>>>>dedicated pacifist minority who thinks so. Just as there is a dedicated
>>>>>minority who believes all guns are inherently evil.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>Not me. I have no problem with guns. I have a problem with people.
>>>>Especially ones who seem positively eager to start shooting "looters,
>>>>terrorists, and gang-bangers".
>>>>
>>>>Wow, if I were uncharitable, I might think there was just a speck of
>>>>racism in that set of images. Just the faintest whiff.
>>>>
>>>>Tell you what. Why not take your AK-47 down to Watts and start shooting
>>>>some gang-bangers right now? What do you need an excuse for?
>>>>
>>>>eyelessgame
>>>>
>>>
>>>Who said anything about shooting anybody? Just letting loose with a
>>>volley into the air can have an amazing deterent effect.
>>
>>
>>A volley into the air has a particularly strong deterrent effect
>>on the guy half a mile away that you hit accidentally. What
>>exactly it is you're deterring him from, other than being alive,
>>is less clear.
>>
>
> I gather they don't teach gun owners that what goes up, comes down at roughly
> the same speed as it left the barrel?
>

In a vacuum. Think about this. If a bullet is fired from a high
powered rifle, it has a muzzle velocity of roughly 3000 feet per second
-- almost three times the speed of sound. When it comes back down to
the ground, do you really think it will still be moving at three times
the speed of sound?

No? I didn't think so.

For two reasons:

1. Almost all its energy will be dissipated moving upward through air
resistance. It couldn't have anywhere near the original speed when it
reaches the ground.

2. Objects falling through air reach a terminal velocity of something
like 125 mph (sorry about all the English units), again because of air
resistance. Whether this speed is sufficient to kill someone is
debatable. Urban legend says a penny dropped from the height of the
Empire State building can be lethal. I'm skeptical.

On the other hand, it is certainly true that a highly trained sniper can
kill a man 2000 yards away with a high powered rifle. This is over a
mile -- a incredible distance if you've ever tried scoping it. The
bullet, even traveling at 3000 feet per second, drops something like 50
feet due to gravity. It will still be traveling at the speed of sound
when it hits its target.

So the question as to whether you can accidentally kill someone by
firing a rifle in the air is actually quite involved. I think it
depends on the angle at which you fire it. At a high angle near the
zenith it's not likely to kill anybody. At too low an angle, it will
only travel a short distance before it strikes the ground. But at
angles which are intermediate, it certainly can kill.


--dkomo@xxxxxxxx

.

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