The hypocrisy of anti-Second
Amendment veterans

By Mike Judge. Sep 3, 2020

Some Veterans in politics and media have taken it upon themselves to rescue Americans from the "dangers" of firearms, specifically the AR-15.

Their contention is that these are "weapons of war" and therefore unfit for civilian use. Pat Ryan, an Iraq War veteran who had run for Congress in New York's 19th district, ran a campaign ad in 2018 expressing his desire to "get rid of assault rifles." In the wake of the Orlando shooting, Congressman Seth Moulton, a former Marine officer, stated on Twitter that "I know assault rifles. I carried one in Iraq. They have no place on America's streets."

As a Marine trained on the use of numerous military-grade weapons, Seth and others should know better.

The original definition of "assault rifle" from a 1970 Army Field Manual (FSTC-CW-07-03-70) has been re-purposed by the anti-gun movement to nebulously define firearms they believe civilians should not own. One of the four requirements for the field manual's definition of an assault rifle is a "select-fire" option (i.e. you can toggle settings between single shot and fully automatic or burst). The fact that the AR-15 currently sold to civilians in America only has a single fire option means it does not meet their definition of an assault rifle. And, just in case anyone's wondering, the "AR" in AR-15 stands for "Armalite Rifle" not "Assault Rifle."

But details like these don't matter to the gun control lobby, and the issue with these anti-gun veterans is that they believe they know better than the rest of us. They tout their combat experience with these "weapons of war," demanding that we trust their message and heed their warning. .....