I’m not sure whether or not it’s an urban legend, but I’ve heard that the “cleaning” deaths aren’t as common as the stats say. Something about how if you commit suicide, then you don’t get any sort of life insurance payout, and so the investigator is incentivised to declare it an accident.
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Anecdotally, I am sure that is the case in some instances. I can’t say for sure what the actual numbers are. But I remember reading about a retired Sheriff officers who shot himself in the chest while cleaning his gun… eh… yeah… they wanted his widow to still get his pension.
But yes, safety is always a concern, though I have read that the preliminary numbers for last year has one of the lowest accidental deaths in decades.
Thanks for that. Been a long time! Here’s Gang of 4 back at you with Armalite Rifle (aka AR15), they were WAY ahead of the curve on that one!
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Describing semi automatic rifles as ‘pretty much useless’ seems a bit strong when the M16A2 and A4; and the M4 specifically omit the fully automatic setting offered by the M16A1 and A3 because it was deemed to be not worth the tendency to empty the magazine really fast and not hit much.
Burst fire remains; which is a genuine difference, probably extra relevant if you are concerned about defeating Warsaw Pact body armor; but higher rates of fire are treated as accuracy and ammunition limited enough to not be worth supporting until you get to light machine guns.
Also anecdotal, but this is especially prevalent with law enforcement suicides.
using a sledge or maul will distort the pieces so they can’t be reassembled w/o first cutting them apart. cutting leaves nice flat surfaces that only take welding and grinding on the edges. probably best to leave it all assembled when you bash it so they’ll be wedged together. Even then, some people have reconstituted roman helmets that were smashed and rusted for 2k yrs, anything is possible given a terrorist who’s also a really dedicated nerd.
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It’s also a way for the family to declare it an “accident” rather than admit to a suicide.
When I was a young teen, a friend’s older brother “accidentally shot himself cleaning a rifle”…
It’s like “hunting accidents” that happen by one’s lonesome in the woods. Yeah, there’s occasionally people who drop loaded guns from tree stands and have really bad luck, but often it’s a mask for some poor sod who just goes into the woods to end it.
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Destroying the firing pin seems simple enough. Wouldn’t that work? Last weapon I fired was Lee Enfield 303.
Replacing it seems pretty simple too. Funny Joke. Ha ha.
Or you could use an industrial shredder…
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Back in the day, with a rifle the firing pin was unique to each rifle, one pin couldn’t fit another. Guess that has changed. 
burst fire is not the same as semi-automatic. I think most people are scared of big words like semi-automatic and don’t really realize the difference between military and civilian weapons.
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For the purpose of your rifle not working? Yes. It would prevent accidents and such. Good for “wall hangers” and relics. Perhaps “grand pappy’s” old shot gun.
From a legal stand point, no. To make sure no one else can fire it, no.
Yes, that was what I was referring too earlier. They make these machines bigger to crunch up things like cars. I imagine one could spend hours dumping stuff into it and watching it get eaten.
Nope.
I think people are scared of what a gun like these can do when used to massacre people with ease. Don’t condescend.
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Even a van can massacre people. Now I will be the first to say that a fully automatic weapon is a terribly powerful weapon that can cause a tremendous amount of death and destruction. A semi-automatic limited to a 10 round magazine? Significantly less harmful.
I guess it’s hard not to condescend when everyone loses their minds over a black rifle.
Has anyone gotten bingo yet?
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For Australians, the Queensland police have recommendations for Making your firearm permanently inoperable. And removing the firing pin (and welding its hole) is the first thing on the list. I don’t think the list requires every action to be taken on the list because some of them are mutually exclusive (if you remove the firing pin you cannot also weld it in place)
For the US, a machine gun must have its receiver destroyed. If it’s not a machine gun then those instructions are overkill and probably not appropriate for grandpappy’s old Remington lever action rifle.
To be honest, I’m not really sure what constitutes legal disablement of a firearm, but there are Hollywood props made from real firearms that have been modifies so they are no longer classified as firearms. If it were me I would fill the barrel, remove the firing pin, weld the firing pin hold, and possibly cut the hammer from the trigger assembly.
I’m really, really not interested in knowing different ways to massacre people, thank you very much. I just want fewer people killed by weapons that make it very easy to kill people. It’s something that most of the rest of the world finds pretty easy to get their head around.
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