.22 Long Rifle
The .22 Long Rifle is probably the most popular and prevalent cartridge in the world with billions of rounds being fired every year. It’s also one of the most versatile cartridges for use on small game and is used extensively in formal competition. The .22 Long Rifle cartridge produces almost no recoil and its muzzle blast, especially in a rifle, is very mild making it easier to learn the fundamentals of good shooting. It is also very economical to shoot, especially when compared to centerfire handgun or rifle rounds, making it an ideal first gun for shooters and hunters from all walks of life. The .22 Long Rifle cartridge, while considered by most shooters to be more of a sporting round, has also been used by various branches of the U.S. military for training purposes and by other, less well known government organizations such as the OSS, the forerunner of the CIA, for clandestine use. Gary Powers, the U-2 pilot shot down over the USSR, carried a High Standard USA-HD-MS .22 LR pistol equipped with a suppressor and you can see a picture of one (minus the suppressor) on page 61 of High Standard Automatic Pistols 1932-1950 by Charles E. Petty. I’m not sure what an original OSS issue High Standard pistol is worth nowadays but there is an ad from Arms Tech Ltd. of Phoenix, Arizona in the May 2001 issue of Small Arms Review that shows a replica being offered for $2495.00 so it wouldn’t surprise me if it was at least that much. No matter where you are in the world, unless the ownership of guns and ammunition is illegal, it’s a safe bet that you will be able to buy .22 Long Rifle ammo. I’ve never been to Africa but from what little I’ve read of safaris, it isn’t all that unusual to find a .22 LR rifle of some sort that is used around camp to shoot small game such as guinea fowl. Gen. Craig T. Boddington mentions on page 15 of his seminal work Safari Rifles that while .22 caliber firearms are illegal in some parts of Africa, in those parts of the dark continent that allow its use, a .22 LR rifle is the ideal tool for small game hunting and target practice. He also brings up a good point when he stresses that it is the ideal firearm to practice with if a hunter on safari develops a flinch from using very powerful rifles. Which makes a lot of sense to me since the average hunter may find it difficult to shoot well with a .416 Rigby or .470 Nitro Express without a lot of practice and that can end up costing quite a bit of money at $5.00 to $20.00 per round or more.
Cartridges of the World, 12th Ed. shows that the .22 Long Rifle cartridge was developed by J. Stevens Arms & Tool Co, in 1887. The .22 Long Rifle round uses the same case as the .22 Long and was originally loaded with 5.0 grains of blackpowder but the .22 LR cartridge began life loaded with a 40 grain lead bullet instead of the .22 Long’s 29 grain bullet. The .22 caliber bullet used in the .22 Long Rifle cartridge is referred to as of heel-base type and is typically coated with a grease or wax lubricant on the outside of the bullet. Heel-base bullets have a base which is smaller in diameter than the bullet body (the part that is normally engraved by the rifling) and were once fairly common in the U.S., with cartridges such as the .44 S&W American (aka .44/100 Smith & Wesson centerfire) being a good example of a handgun cartridge that uses a heel-base bullet. The .22 Short, a very early ancestor of the .22 Long Rifle, is another cartridge that is loaded with a heel-base bullet and according to Cartridges of the World, 12th Ed., first saw the light of day in the U.S. in 1857 when Smith & Wesson introduced the S&W Model No. 1 revolver to the American firearms market. Although many would scoff at the idea of using a .22 Short revolver for self-defense, that is exactly what Smith & Wesson had in mind when it introduced the cartridge and its associated revolver to the American firearms market. It wouldn’t have been my first choice as a defensive firearm but Smith & Wesson sold over 200,000 of them in several variations so there were apparently quite a few people that felt otherwise. Another American metallic handgun cartridge that was loaded with a heel-base bullet was the .41 Short Colt but as the 19th century drew to a close, the days of American cartridges that used heel-base bullets were numbered. David R. Chicoine writes in Smith & Wesson Sixguns of the Old West, pages 50-51, that General Alexander Gorloff, Russia’s military attache’ in the U.S., began ordering large quantities of the Smith & Wesson No. 3 revolver for the Russian Imperial military in 1871 and specified that the guns be chambered for the .44 Russian cartridge. The .44 Russian’s bullet had a base of the same diameter as the bullet body and set the pattern for most, if not all, of today’s cast bullet designs meant for centerfire handgun cartridges. The .22 Long Rifle and .22 Short cartridges are the only commonly available rounds currently manufactured that I know of that still use heel-base bullets but with the current interest in cowboy action shooting, it wouldn’t surprise me if someone out there is making small batches of ammunition for some of the older cartridges that used heel-base bullets such as the .44 S&W American and .41 Short Colt. Mike Venturino wrote an article titled “.44 Smith & Wesson Russian Black-powder and Smokeless Loads” for Handloader #277 that gives a brief summary of the evolution of American handgun bullet design in the latter part of the 1800’s and anyone wanting to learn more about the subject would do well to start there.
Cartridges of the World, 12th Ed. also states that the .22 Long Rifle was once available in blackpowder, semi-smokeless and smokeless loadings but all current offerings from the major ammunition manufacturers I’ve seen in the U.S. are loaded with smokeless powder. Gun Digest 2012 lists the muzzle velocity of a .22 LR high-velocity cartridge loaded with a 40 grain bullet fired from a 22.5” barrel as 1,255 feet per second (fps) with a muzzle energy of 140 foot pounds (ft/lbs). Standard-velocity .22 LR cartridges loaded with a 40 grain bullet have a listed muzzle velocity of 1,070 fps and a muzzle energy of 100 ft/lbs from the same length barrel. Hyper-velocity .22 LR cartridges will generally be about 200 to 500 feet per second or so faster at the muzzle than a high-velocity .22 LR cartridge but they will do so by firing a lighter bullet that weighs approximately 20% less than the typical 40 grain projectile. The CCI Stinger, the first hyper-velocity .22 LR cartridge available to American shooters, is loaded with a lighter bullet (in this case a 32 grain hollow point) and has a muzzle velocity of 1,640 fps and a muzzle energy of 191 ft/lbs. The CCI Stinger is, however, only meant to be used in modern firearms that are strong enough to withstand the extra pressure the cartridge develops and should not be used in older guns. The same holds true for other hyper-velocity .22 LR rounds such as the Remington Viper. Being a rimfire cartridge, the priming compound is contained at the bottom of the interior of the case, distributed (ideally) evenly around the rim, making it impractical to reload the case. However, .22 LR cases have been used to make bullets. Vernon Speer, founder of the world famous Speer Bullet Company, manufactured bullets during the 1940’s by using fired .22 rimfire cases as the raw material for bullet jackets. Corbin Manufacturing still sells presses and die sets for anyone interested in recycling fired .22 LR brass by making them into bullets.
The .22 Long Rifle cartridge is available in a bewildering variety of loads with standard-velocity, high-velocity and hyper-velocity versions being the most commonly seen with bullet weights ranging in weight from 31 grains to 40 grains. However, MidwayUSA’s Master Catalog #35 shows that for the U.S. market, it is currently possible to buy .22 LR cartridges with bullet weights ranging from 20 grains to 60 grains. Virtually all of the .22 LR rounds sold in the U.S. are loaded with lead bullets, with the notable exception of CCI’s .22 LR 21 grain Short Range Green TC HP and Winchester’s .22 LR 26 grain Super-X HP offerings, both of which are loaded with lead-free bullets. Subsonic cartridges, ideal for use in suppressed firearms, are also available as are shot cartridges for use against poisonous snakes and other small pests at close range. Match grade cartridges are available for serious target shooters at considerably higher cost from the likes of Aguila, CCI, Eley, Federal, Fiocchi, Lapua, RWS and SK. Although competitive target shooters will shoot hundreds of rounds of expensive, match grade .22 LR ammo in their quest for accuracy and buy case lots of whatever shoots best in their guns, most shooters and hunters (myself included) buy whatever is cheapest and use it for whatever purpose they may have in mind. The cheapest .22 LR ammo is generally accurate enough for 90% of shooters so if you can shoot stationary clay birds at 50 yards with regular consistency with the ammo you are using, there probably won’t be many misses when it’s time to hunt small game. With practice, it is possible to consistently make hits on ground squirrels at 100 yards with a .22 LR rifle but in my personal experience, ground squirrels shot at that distance with the typical, bargain basement, high-velocity loads you will find at Wal-Mart or the local sporting goods store don’t always die on the spot if they aren’t hit well. Use of hollowpoint loads significantly increases the lethality of the .22 LR cartridge so if you don’t mind spending a little extra money for them, they are well worth it. CCI’s SGB .22 LR ammo has a good reputation for humanely dispatching game but I can’t personally vouch for its performance since I haven’t had a chance to try it. Even so, if the small game I’m after is more than 100 yards away, I will try to close the distance before taking a shot with a .22 LR rifle or pistol, regardless of the load I’m using. In my opinion, any shots made beyond 100 yards are best made with one of the newer, more powerful rimfire cartridges such as the .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire, .17 Hornady Magnum Rimfire or a small-caliber, centerfire rifle anyway to ensure a clean kill but that is a subject for another discussion.
.22 LR rifles have got to be some of the best bargains on the planet, new or used, with a large variety of action types that have been made over the years. Granted, it is possible to spend several thousand dollars on a new Anschütz, Feinwerkbau, Volquartsen or Walther target rifle and they are well worth it if you can afford it. It’s also possible to spend a lot of money for a used Winchester Model 52 target rifle but unless you plan to enter formal competition, it isn’t necessary to spend that much to have an accurate, reliable .22 LR rifle. A few hundred dollars will allow anyone that isn’t prohibited from owning a firearm to buy a brand new .22 LR rifle, be it a semiauto, bolt action, lever action or single shot that will provide many years of service and enjoyment. The Marlin Model 60 is one of the most popular semiautomatic .22 LR rifles ever made as is the Ruger 10/22. Millions of both have been made since their introduction and they are still being produced for a gun buying public that hasn’t lost its enthusiasm for either one. Other makers of .22 LR rifles include Henry Repeating Arms, Browning and Remington but there are many others. Jonathan Arthur Ciener offers .22 LR conversion kits for the Colt AR15 and Ruger Mini-14 semiautomatic rifles along with fullautomatic kits designed for use with the Colt M16 assault rifle, Ruger AC556 machinegun and Thompson Model 1921/1928 and M1/M1A1 submachineguns. Tactical rifle fans can pick from several different .22 LR rifles made by Umarex that replicate the look and feel of full-size service rifles such as the Colt M4, Colt M16 and Heckler & Koch 416. Smith & Wesson offers the M&P15-22, a .22 LR semiauto rifle that looks and feels just like the S&W M&P15 5.56mm NATO service rifle. At about half the price of a Smith & Wesson M&P15, the S&W M&P15-22 would be an ideal choice for someone that already owns its centerfire counterpart. My favorite .22 LR rifle though, is my Kimber Model .22 bolt action rifle. As of this writing, it is no longer produced but it is one of the most accurate .22 LR rifles I have ever owned and it has one of the prettiest pieces of walnut I’ve seen in a long time on a production rifle.
The rifle I learned to shoot with, though, is my father’s Marlin Golden 39-A Mountie lever action rifle. He bought it while he was working for the U.S. Government overseas in the 1950’s and although the rifle has seen some hard use, it still shoots well and has the fine workmanship that was typical of Marlin firearms of the period. I haven’t shot it in years but as a kid, I fired thousands of .22 LR rounds through it and never got tired of it. Marlin’s Model 39 is still being made and is a good choice for anyone that wants an accurate, lever action rifle made entirely of steel and wood. The Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) occasionally has used .22 LR rifles that were originally used by the U.S. military, mostly for training purposes, that are available for purchase by qualified individuals. My father bought an old Mossberg Model 44US .22 LR bolt action rifle from the Civilian Marksmanship Program that was missing a magazine when he got it and while it does need a bit of work to make it presentable, it still functions as a single shot rifle and is fairly accurate for something that is about 70 years old. Reproduction magazines are available from Brownells as I write this and although I bought him one, it won’t work reliably without some repairs to the magazine guide and retainer so I suspect his Mossberg Model 44US will continue to be used as a single shot rifle for the foreseeable future. One of the more interesting features of my father’s Mossberg Model 44US is the Lyman receiver sight that the rifle came with. It has a button on the rear of the sight base that, when depressed, allows the elevation slide assembly to be removed making it possible to clean the barrel from the breech. A nifty feature that is still present on Lyman’s Model 57 and Model 66 receiver sights of current manufacture.
As much as I enjoy shooting .22 LR rifles, I generally shoot more .22 LR cartridges out of handguns than anything else and there are some excellent handguns available today, both new and used. The Ruger Mark III semiautomatic pistol in either stainless or blue is an outstanding choice and can be had at very reasonable prices. Ruger also recently introduced the SR22 .22 LR semiautomatic pistol and although I haven’t had a chance to fire one, it looks like it would be a good choice for anyone looking for a lightweight pistol for camping or backpacking. Another excellent choice in .22 LR handguns is the Smith & Wesson Model 41 semiautomatic pistol. I have a 5.5” barrel specimen and it is an excellent target gun although, at a 2012 retail price of $1369.00, I’m definitely glad I bought mine a little over 15 years ago. I don’t fire high-velocity .22 LR rounds in my Model 41 because I don’t hunt with it but it shoots well enough with standard-velocity Remington .22 LR ammo to print 0.5” groups at 25 yards on a good day so I suppose if I had no other gun available to me, it would work just fine for hunting small game. At this point in my life though, my S&W Model 41 is too heavy for me to consider packing around on a backpack trip or small game hunt that requires a lot of walking but on the very rare occasion I do carry a .22 LR handgun in the woods, I usually take along an old 5.5” Ruger “Black Eagle” Mark I Target Model. It is reliable, accurate and unless I am using defective ammunition, it never fails to fire.
For those of you that prefer revolvers, the Smith & Wesson Model 17 (built on a K frame) is a good target gun while the smaller, lighter stainless steel Model 63 built on S&W’s J frame is an excellent choice as a camp gun. Smith & Wesson also offers the aluminum alloy frame Model 317 .22 LR double action revolver for anyone looking for a very lightweight handgun for daily carry. The 2012 Ruger catalog lists the stainless steel SP101 double action revolver (Cat#KSP-242-8) in .22 LR with a 4.20” barrel, 8 shot cylinder and adjustable sights along with the new .22 LR LCR 8 shot revolver. If I were going to buy a small .22 LR handgun for use while hiking or plinking, either one would be one of my first choices in new handguns. Single action revolver fans can still buy Ruger New Model Single-Six Convertibles in both blue and stainless that come with extra cylinders chambered for the .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire cartridge. Ruger also currently offers the Single-Ten single action revolver that holds 10 .22 LR cartridges in its cylinder. The .22 LR Ruger New Bearcat is still listed in the 2012 Ruger catalog and is an ideal handgun for anyone with small hands. Like all Rugers, they are rugged and reliable workhorses that will work under almost any circumstance. It is also still possible to find Colt Frontier Scouts on the used gun market and for anyone that wants a .22 LR revolver that looks, feels and operates in a similar manner to the Colt Single Action Army, the Frontier Scout is an excellent choice. The Freedom Arms website still shows the .22 LR Model 97 Premier Grade single action revolver as being available for purchase and it is one of the finest examples of American gunmaking skill to be found anywhere. It does have a premium price tag compared to its competition but considering the superior workmanship Freedom Arms is known for, it would be well worth it if you appreciate fine craftsmanship and can afford to indulge yourself.
Fans of the Colt Model 1911 and its clones have a good selection of .22 LR handguns to choose from whether they are full size guns that are made to look and feel like a .45 ACP 1911, such as the Colt .22 Government 1911A1, or guns that have a grip that has the same dimensions such as the Ruger 22/45. As of this writing, there are also conversion kits being made by Kimber, Jonathan Arthur Ciener and Nighthawk Custom that will replace the slide assembly and magazine of a Colt Model 1911 type semiautomatic pistol. The conversion kits allow the use of .22 LR ammunition and they are excellent choices if you plan to have a .45 ACP Model 1911 as your primary handgun. Jonathan Arthur Ciener also makes .22 LR conversion kits for the Para-Ordnance P14-45, Browning High-Power, Beretta Model 92/96, Taurus PT92/PT99, Glock 17/22 and Glock 19/23 semiauto pistols. SIG-Sauer currently offers .22 LR conversion kits for their P220, P226, P228 and P229 pistols and they would be an ideal option for anyone that already owns one of those pistols. One thing to keep in mind though, if you own one of the early P220s with the European-style magazine release located at the bottom of the magazine well; SIG-Sauer’s website states that their .22 LR conversion kits will not work with them. On a happier note, SIG-Sauer currently offers conversion kits for the P220, P226 and P229 (with rail) with a threaded barrel and although I haven’t actually seen one, it seems to me they would be ideal candidates for the installation, where legal, of a suppressor. The Colt Ace and Service Model Ace semiauto pistols are available on the used gun market as is Colt’s .22 LR conversion kit but all three are something of a collector’s item so be prepared to spend accordingly. The original Colt Ace was a blowback pistol and while beautifully made, it apparently never worked all that well because the slide, even though it was lighter than the one used on the .45 ACP 1911A1 Government Model, was still too heavy for reliable function with the .22 LR cartridge. The Colt Service Model Ace improved upon the Ace by having a slide that looked (externally at least) very much like the Government Model slide but worked in conjunction with a floating chamber designed by David “Carbine” Williams of M1 Carbine fame that helped the little .22 LR cartridge give the slide enough impetus to work the action. Fans of firearms trivia may be interested to know that as quoted by Donald B. Bady in Colt Automatic Pistols, pg. 330, Mr. Williams originally referred to his floating chamber design as a “vibrating member, preferably chambered and having telescopic arrangement with the rear part of the barrel.” Whatever Mr. Williams preferred to call it, the floating chamber was a stroke of genius and I hope Colt decides to resume production of the Service Model Ace someday. Browning has recently introduced the 1911-22, a .22 LR pistol that at first glance looks like a 3/4 scale Colt Model 1911 and although I haven’t tried one yet, it looks like it would be a lot of fun to shoot. There are more choices than ever in today’s firearms market so anyone interested in buying a .22 LR handgun should have no problem finding something that will suit their needs or desires.
I take a lot of pride in keeping my guns clean and in good, working order but I must admit that I don’t clean any of my .22 LR firearms all that much. I do wipe them down with a rust preventative before I store them but I’ve always worried about damaging the delicate rifling in .22 LR barrels by getting too aggressive with a bore brush and cleaning rod so I generally do the bare minimum to keep my .22 LR firearms clean and reliable. Unless the gun in question is stored or used in a harsh climate or is exposed to saltwater, the lubricant used on today’s .22 LR bullets tends to keep the bore from rusting anyway so I don’t worry about damaging the bore by not cleaning it right away after shooting. I do find, however. with semiautomatic .22 LR rifles and pistols that the action will need to be cleaned after a few hundred rounds are fired to maintain reliable function. Even then, I generally don’t detail strip and clean a semiauto .22 LR rifle or pistol until it becomes difficult to seat a round into the chamber without some manual assistance or there is some other issue that affects reliability. I’m sure there are a lot of shooters who will disagree with my attitude toward cleaning .22 LR firearms but it works for me. Besides, replacing a barrel, especially a match grade one on a .22 LR rifle or pistol, can be very expensive.
I had an interesting conversation some time ago with Mr. Dean Thames, one of the fellows working at Santa Clara County’s Field Sports Park, about the .22 Long Rifle cartridge and I remember him making a comment to the effect that a .22 LR handgun, especially a semiautomatic pistol like the Smith & Wesson Model 41, is the best type of handgun to use when practicing the fundamentals of good handgun marksmanship, especially for anyone just starting to learn to shoot. He mentioned this to me on a day when I was shooting my Ruger Bisley .44 Magnum revolver and as much as I enjoy shooting big revolvers chambered for cartridges such as the .41 Magnum and .44 Magnum, I have to agree with him and others with a similar philosophy such as Elmer Keith, the man most people associate with the .44 Magnum cartridge and the .44 Mag. Smith & Wesson revolvers he was so fond of. Elmer Keith wrote on page 57 of Sixguns by Keith, his seminal work on handguns, that “For the beginner, nothing is as good as the .22 caliber.” It is all too easy to develop a flinch if you don’t learn proper trigger squeeze, sight alignment and breath control and a gun that kicks too much or has too much muzzle blast will make it very difficult to learn to shoot well. It’s very easy to be a macho man and show the world how tough you can be by shooting the biggest gun on the range but it won’t do you any good if you can’t hit anything with it. I went through a similar phase when I was younger and while I still like big guns and shoot them whenever I can, I still keep going back to the .22 Long Rifle, whether I am shooting a rifle or a pistol. The .22 Long Rifle is just a very pleasant cartridge to shoot and will take care of 95% of my shooting and hunting needs. Pete Mazur, one of the best gunsmiths in the U.S., once mentioned to me that when he retires he would like to have enough land in a rural area of the western U.S. so that he can shoot a .22 LR rifle on his own property on a regular basis. He didn’t say he wanted enough land to shoot a centerfire rifle, which is the dream of most serious riflemen, but a place that is just big enough to legally allow him to use a rimfire and the more I think about what he said, the more I think I would like to have the same. In the end, .22 Long Rifle firearms are a lot of fun to shoot. It’s why I got involved with guns in the first place and I’m sure it’s the reason most of my fellow gun enthusiasts got started too.
That’s not to say that the .22 Long Rifle cartridge and the guns that are chambered for it should be considered as toys. While it is true that many youth model rifles feel about as substantial as some of the plastic toys at the local toy store, consider the fact that the maximum range of the .22 Long Rifle cartridge is about 1 mile, assuming the firearm is held at a 25 to 30 degree angle when it is discharged. Cartridges of the World, 12th Ed. states that people shot with the .22 Long Rifle cartridge sometimes “show little immediate distress, survive without complications for several days, then die very suddenly.” I’m no doctor but I suspect that one of the reasons the .22 LR cartridge can be so deadly is that although the .22 LR cartridge may seem underpowered, it can still penetrate the human body quite well and cause internal bleeding that may initially go unnoticed. In addition, it wouldn’t surprise me if the dirt and dust the .22 LR round’s outside lubricated bullet tends to collect might cause a serious infection after it enters the human body, further complicating an already bad situation. The .41 Short rimfire cartridge, listed as the 41 Short (Derringer) (Obsolete) by Cartridges of the World, 12th Ed., had a similar reputation during its day and was apparently much feared among those who lived in the U.S. in the late 1800’s. Elmer Keith mentions in Sixguns by Keith, pg.34, that one of the more common handguns in the U.S. at the time was the .41 Remington Derringer, a small, easily concealed, 2 shot, over-and-under handgun that, according to the Thirtieth Edition Blue Book of Gun Values, page 1422, was produced from 1867 to 1935. The cartridge the .41 Remington Derringer was chambered for, the .41 Short rimfire, was so underpowered according to Keith that it would sometimes fail to penetrate a heavy metal can at close range. However, since the pointed, outside lubricated bullet acted like a magnet for dirt and germs, was still powerful enough to penetrate a man’s flesh, tended to stay in the person shot and would require a doctor to remove it, the .41 Short rimfire round and the Remington Derringer was considered a deadly effective gun/cartridge combination. Keith also mentions on the same page that given a choice between being shot with a .41 Short rimfire or a .38 Special, “Most gunmen would prefer to be hit with a .38 Special....”
As I stated earlier, and I can’t stress this enough, the .22 LR cartridge is nothing to trifle with and should be given the respect it is due. The 40 grain lead bullet the .22 Long Rifle cartridge is usually loaded with also has a tendency to ricochet if it hits a hard surface or the surface of a body of water at a shallow angle, adding an extra element of danger if used carelessly. Which is ironic since many folks I’ve talked to in rural areas have no objection to hunters using .22 LR firearms to shoot varmints when, in my opinion at least, it might be safer under some circumstances to use a centerfire round such as the .22 Hornet, .223 Remington or .204 Ruger with highly frangible bullets as the high velocities modern, centerfire, varmint cartridges generate tend to make such bullets disintegrate when hitting hard objects. Unfortunately, most people object to the muzzle blast centerfire rifles generate but never consider that it may sometimes be the safer option. The same folks will also usually frown upon anyone using a suppressor on a rifle, even though they are fairly common in other countries and it is legal to do so in some places of the U.S., because of the general perception in American society that they are only used by criminals or clandestine employees of the U.S. government. Just goes to show that the human animal isn’t always the rational being scientists would have us believe.
I try to keep up with the financial news on a regular basis whether it is reading The Wall Street Journal, watching Fox News or listening to the various local radio stations in my area and one thing I’ve noticed over the last few years is the increasing volume of ads related to the purchase of gold as a hedge against hard times. Some of the ads I’ve seen or heard make it sound like the world is literally going to hell in a handbasket and that the United States of America will cease to exist someday, thereby making the U.S. dollar worthless. I don’t like the direction the U.S.A. is going in terms of our governance and I pray to God every day that we will find a way to turn back the tide of liberalism/socialism/communism that seems to be creeping into the average American citizen’s everyday life but I don’t think the world is ready to enter another Dark Age just yet. However, if the U.S. and the rest of the world does descend into chaos, I don’t know how much in the way of food or goods would be available to buy with gold. However, you would definitely need some way to defend yourself, feed your family and protect your stash of gold. Which, at least from my way of thinking, would imply the need for some sort of firearm. It doesn’t have to be an expensive, custom-made piece or one of the current breed of “black rifles” but a .22 LR rifle and perhaps a .22 LR handgun would fill the bill quite nicely. They are generally very affordable, readily available and the ammunition doesn’t take up much space or weigh enough to discourage anyone from carrying 50 to 100 .22 LR rounds on their person. Since .22 LR firearms, especially rifles, don’t have the sharp muzzle blast of a centerfire, you won’t draw much attention to yourself while using it, especially if you live in a state that allows the ownership and use of a suppressor. Which is another, very desirable aspect if you find yourself in such a situation. Again, I do not think we are going to enter another Dark Age anytime soon but it seems to me that it wouldn’t hurt to have a .22 LR firearm of some kind securely stored around the house. Besides, if the end of civilization never occurs, you will still have an excuse to go have fun with your gun.
Unfortunately, it seems that there are many people, especially in the U.S. Government, that don’t believe in the private ownership of firearms, let alone having fun with them. Anyone that has been watching the news lately has seen the sad spectacle of Attorney General Eric Holder become the first sitting Attorney General of the United States to be held in contempt of Congress. Most people would quite rationally assume that the U.S. Department of Justice would begin making plans to formally charge AG Holder with contempt but since he runs the U.S. DOJ, it is very unlikely that anyone in his organization will do so. Even after all the sordid details uncovered so far by Rep. Darryl Issa and Sen. Chuck Grassley about Operation Fast and Furious, the botched illegal gun smuggling sting run by BATFE,, it is still patently obvious that Obama and AG Holder are still as antigun as ever. Which is all the more reason for gunowners to make every effort possible to thwart any steps Obama and his fellow, left-leaning, antigun politicians, judges and bureaucrats may take to restrict or abolish our 2nd Amendment rights. Most gunowners have assumed for many years that the courts would never allow the government to infringe upon our Second Amendment rights but most of the so called legal experts I saw on TV said that the U.S. Supreme Court justices would strike down Obamacare when they actually upheld it so even that assumption is now in question. As much as we all like to think judges are fair and impartial, the sad truth is that they are often very political and since they are human, they do make mistakes. After all, the Supreme Court of the United States held in the 1856 Dred Scott Decision that colored persons were not citizens and that slaves and their descendants had no rights under the U.S. Constitution, a concept that would be anathema to virtually anyone alive today. Although I often feel as though I am preaching to the choir, all gunowners need to get involved in the struggle to secure our God-given rights and give generously to the NRA, The Firearms Coalition and other like minded organizations. Now that Obama has been reelected, it is fairly obvious to me that he will have the chance to appoint several Supreme Court justices that share his world view, so it will be up to us as gunowners to defend the 2nd Amendment through the U.S. Congress and the various state legislatures. If we don’t do this, our rights will slowly erode away and our descendants will only read in history books about what it was like to live as truly free Americans -- John Swikart (December 8, 2012)
Copyright December 2012 John Swikart
