Following the Orlando massacre, the clueless whiners are out in force, blaming everything and everyone except the son of a bitch who shouted Allahhu akbar and pulled the trigger. One of the most stupid, egregious and dishonest assholes among them is the New York Daily News columnist Gersh Kuntzman, who described his “experience” firing an AR-15:
The actual experience of firing the AR15 was nothing less than traumatizing. The recoil bruised my shoulder. The brass shell casings disoriented me as they flew past my face. The smell of sulfur and destruction made me sick. The explosions — loud like a bomb — gave me a temporary case of PTSD. For at least an hour after firing the gun just a few times, I was anxious and irritable.
My take: Kuntzman is lying. He has not and never will fire an AR-15. He made the whole damn thing up, out of whole cloth. Let’s deconstruct this description:
The recoil bruised my shoulder.
The 5.56mm cartridge fired by the AR-15 is a low-powered cartridge. It’s hunting-rifle counterpart, the .223 Remington, is considered a good cartridge for woodchucks, prairie dogs and maybe coyotes. Recoil is negligible in a bolt-action rifle, and in the AR-15, which uses a large recoil spring in a buffer tube as part of the action, the recoil is all but non-existent. 12 year old children fire AR-15s with aplomb. It’s one of the easiest rifles in the world to shoot well, partly because of ergonomics, but mostly because of non-existent recoil.
The brass shell casings disoriented me as they flew past my face.
Unless Mr. Kuntzman is left-handed, no brass shell casings flew past his face. The AR-15 ejects cases to the right and downward. In a proper shooting position, the shooter’s face is on the left side of the stock. Cases are ejected away from the face and away from the line of sight.
The smell of sulfur and destruction made me sick.
Modern smokeless propellants contain no sulfur. Unless Kuntzman was firing 5.56mm cartridges inexplicably loaded with black powder, he smelled no sulfur. As for smelling “destruction,” that is pure hyper-emotional horseshit.
The explosions — loud like a bomb — gave me a temporary case of PTSD.
The 5.56mm round fired by the AR-15 is, as previously mentioned, a low-powered cartridge. It generates about 1200 ft/lbs of energy at the muzzle. The report may be accurately described as a sharp crack, but certainly not “loud like a bomb.” Also, the range – were he really on one – would have required him to wear hearing protection.
If you want to try a powerful rifle, my own .338 Win Mag generates over two tons of energy at the muzzle. Thunder Speaker really will give your shoulder a workout. An AR-15? Not really.
The only conclusion one can draw from this article is that Kuntzman is either in the terminal stages of a severe muscle-wasting disorder, or that he is what, back in the 1970’s, we used to refer to as a “pussy.” Or both. More likely, he’s just a liar. He has never handled or fired an AR-15 in his life, and his article proves it.
