Monday, January 28, 2013

Surprise: Good Advice on Guns from Joe Biden

Official portrait of Vice President of the Uni...
The vice-president of the United States dispensed some zombie apocalypse self-defense advice at a Google Plus hangout last Thursday:

Guess what? A shotgun will keep you a lot safer -- a double-barrel shotgun -- than the assault weapon [in] somebody’s hands who doesn’t know how to use it .... it's harder to use an assault weapon and hit something than it is to use a shotgun, ok? So if you want to keep people away in an earthquake, buy some shotgun shells.

And you know what? He's right. If you don't want to spend the money on a top-notch main battle rifle or a good large-caliber handgun, and the time required to become proficient in its use, a 12-gauge shotgun is a cheap alternative with a shallow learning curve -- you just need to be able to point it and squeeze the trigger while leaning into it if you don't want a nasty bruise behind where the stock is resting -- that's just about perfect for anything you might run into at short range.

Of course, he started babbling nonsense after that. He's not qualified to decide what you "need" -- only you are -- and he didn't mention government organizations being willing to do without "fighter jets, tanks and machine guns."

But as far as it goes, the shotgun advice is pretty good. Especially if you keep in mind that he's also not qualified to tell you whether or not to saw the barrel off for close quarters work.
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