this post was submitted on 01 Feb 2024
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My favorite childhood toy was a metal-and-plastic, kid-sized Winchester 1873. It came with plastic beads it could shoot - they were all lost within days, but it still made a "pop" when you cocked and shot it. I tried to carry that thing everywhere; I clearly remember the trauma when my parents refused to let me take it sto church, or school.
Anyway, I've always assumed my experience and desires were pretty standard for kids: they like guns. Is that uniquely American? Do German and Chinese kids not run around with gun-shaped sticks or toys "shooting" at each other?
I only occasionally see that here in Asia. It exists, but I feel like it's much less. I immigrated here maybe 12 years ago from the West. The overall level of violence is much lower than I grew up with (even in Canada).
Most young people I know consider handling guns more of a chore. In Vietnam, learning to disassemble, clean, maintain, and reassemble an AK-47 is a mandatory class. My wife got top score :)
Anyway, we stumbled on a great way to make guns uncool, I think. Personal possession is illegal here except for shotguns, it's for some very specific scenario that I don't exactly recall. I knew of some remote workplaces with one, in case of wild animals. We get some, but not many, illegal firearms.
Sure they do. The difference is they don't do it with real weapons because people generally don't own real weapons. When they do own one (for hunting or sport, never for personal protection), it's locked in a secure safe by law and requires successful completion of a fairly tough training with a proficiency test at the end.
Was the JR15 mentioned above a real gun? I have a hard time imagining a functioning rifle chambered in 5.56 that would be small enough for a child to handle. And AR15s aren't that big; a young teen can handle them fairly easily.
I guess my point is that the AR frame is about as small as you can make a functioning 5.56 rifle anyway. You could put a shorter barrel on it, maybe lighten the stock, but now you've just made a carbine. The upper isn't getting any smaller... so what's "JR" about it?
Scaling an AR down so it just looks like one, but is chambered in something shorter like .22 short... I guess you could call it a JR15. Seems like a cheap cop-out, since that upper is the defining feature of the AR15. Although a guess there are derivations chambered in Blackout, Grendel and so on, and they're all considered based on the AR platform.
Hence, my assumption it was a toy.
Apparently it's a .22 "long".