The 1986 Plastic Gun Panic

[Charlie T Waite]

How the gun control lobbies nearly tricked Congress into banning millions of ordinary guns.

[Tricky Rich]

"The Trouble With our Liberal Friends is not that they're Ignorant 
it's just that they know so much that isn't so" Ronald Reagan 

[Dantankerous]

The amount of sheer but willing stupidity of some people is amazing.

 

Of course this scene from the super famous movie Die Hard 2 did not help.

 

 

[Pat Riot]

I remember when the Glock 17 was introduced in ‘82. I was a Gunner’s Mate in the Navy. One of our Chief’s had s magazine describing the new Glock and there was very lively discussion about the world, in general, going nuts over this gun and the implications of this plastic high-jacker’s dream.

 

It was obvious to all of us that there was too much metal to make these silly claims valid. It was also very obvious to us that this plastic gun was a stupid idea, that no one would buy it and that the article we reviewed would be the last time we ever heard about these things...

[Dantankerous]

And yet the Glock was not the first plastic gun invented. Wasn't the M16 introduced in the mid 1960s? Had a bit of plastic on it, didn't it? 

 

Even when the first hype about the Glock came out, people wringing their hands and looking for a safe space over a "plastic" pistol, I thought to myself, "All plastic? Nah, that 17 round magazine full of ammo will show up on any scanner or metal detector. And certainly the barrel can't be made of plastic." But what did I know? I was not a looney politician then and fortunately I am not now.