When Idiots Write Gun Control Laws, We Get Idiotic Laws

"12 ga. Street Sweeper"

I stopped by the local Bass Pro Shop down the road today. Upstairs, in the firearms department, it was a lot like those movies you see of Wall Street traders on the trading floor, shouting out their orders. Okay. Not quite that bad, but crowded and busy. And a lot of empty slots along the wall where the long guns usually stand.

The handgun ammunition shelves, on the other hand, looked a lot like Twinkie displays after the Hostess closure.

I wasn't there to buy a firearm, but it reminded me of the last time I went there shopping for one. It wasn't very crowded back then at all. In fact, I didn't really need another gun. I just wanted one. BPS had run a national ad for this particular gun:

It reminded me of rifles I'd seen in Western movies as a boy. It struck me as a kind of novelty: a revolving rifle. Odds were, I might not even ever fire it, just keep it as a collectible. This model fires six five .45 Colt (an old six shooter round) or .410 shotgun shells. And, as such, is illegal in the State of California.

I know. You're quaking in your boots over the thought of six five shots, fired double action, as fast as you can squeeze the trigger, which in turn is about as fast as any other revolver ever made.

You can legally buy a semi-automatic .45, which could fire ten shots in less time than it would take to empty the Circuit Judge. You can legally buy a 12 ga. semi-automatic shotgun which will fire 8 rounds of 12 ga. buckshot or slugs ( a much larger and more powerful cartridge than the .410) as fast as you can pull the trigger.

So what elevates the Taurus Circuit Judge to be in that rarefied status of "scary gun we have to ban"? As with any other revolver, the Circuit Judge has a revolving cylinder. Oh, noes! You cry.

Oh, yes. Unlike the "Streetsweeper" depicted at the top of the post, (also illegal in CA) which is semi-automatic, with a rotary 12 shot magazine,and a truly formidable weapon, the trait that the Circuit Judge shares with the Streetsweeper, is that before they fire, the shells go around in a circle. Since it is such a "Mickey Mouse" distinction, think of it this way: If your shells are all in a line, as if you were waiting to ride Space Mountain, you're legal. If any of your shells go around on the Tea Cups, you're public enemy #1.
(Hope we cleared that up for you!)

Under California law, according to the idiots who wrote it, the revolving cylinder of a Circuit Judge somehow magically becomes a rotary magazine, and a relatively low powered , low capacity, innocuous firearm is thus banned from being legally owned in California.

For comparison, a .410 shotgun shell (R), 12 ga.(L)

Also legal, though quite a bit more expensive, I could legally purchase a semi-automatic 10 ga. shotgun, that fires an even larger shell.

Some pinheaded legislator who probably can't figure out which end the round comes out, decided that a Circuit Judge is too dangerous for me to possess, but guns that will fire more, larger shells, more quickly is just fine.

Yeah. Right. If only we could allow the ignorant to write even more gun control laws for us! That'll fix our problems!

Cross posted at LCR.