Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!ll-xn!nike!ucbcad!ucbvax!jade!jkh From: jkh@jade.BERKELEY.EDU (Jordan K. Hubbard) Newsgroups: mod.rec.guns Subject: Submission to mod.rec.guns (Re: Shotgun choices and Law) Message-ID: <1548@jade.BERKELEY.EDU> Date: Wed, 29-Oct-86 19:37:04 EST Article-I.D.: jade.1548 Posted: Wed Oct 29 19:37:04 1986 Date-Received: Fri, 31-Oct-86 02:04:42 EST Organization: University of California, Berkeley Lines: 43 Approved: jkh@ucbjade Author: hplabs!bnrmtv!zarifes@ucbvax.Berkeley.Edu (Kenneth Zarifes) Cc: zarifes@ucbvax.Berkeley.Edu Article: 10:52 >> If you get a double barrel, buy over-under. It is easier to sight with >> only one barrel than with two. Skeet shooters use over-under >> combinations effectively, but I don't think you will need one for home >> protection. Just get the riot gun with pump action (gas action is >> expensive) and it can hold 4 shells in total (BY LAW). Unless there is a state or local law which prohibits the maximum number of rounds in a shotgun, there is no restriction. In California, there is only a limit for firearms used in **hunting**. Thus, shotguns which can hold more than 3-4 rounds (whatever the hunting limit is), must have a "plug" installed in the magazine. This plug is commonly a plastic or wooden rod which prevents the magazine follower from compressing the spring past the capacity for the legal limit. Even my SPAS-12, which can hold 9 rounds, comes with a plastic rod to limit the magazine capacity (if I should ever want to hunt animals with it). Further, the hunting limit, I believe, applies only to regulated animals, and not animals which are legally classified as 'pests'. So you can legally go rat-hunting with a SPAS-12. You can also keep such a weapon for home defense, legally. For home defense, a 12 or 20 gauge shotgun may be appropriate if you live in an area where a miss isn't likely to take out someone in the next apartment, otherwise a pistol (loaded with Glaser Safety Slugs) is probably a better choice. Shotguns are really only useful in a "repel all boarders situation", where 'they' are on the outside and 'you' are on the inside. Keep in mind the legal ramifications of shooting someone outside of your home are such that you should only do it if you **KNOW** that they absolutely will kill you if you don't do something. Even then, you will have a tough time explaining it to a jury. Now if you live in the mountains, and are primarily concerned with Charles Manson-like interlopers, a rifle and shotgun are probably the best choices for primary weapons. >> >> Brian Keves ARPA: keves%ra@sdcsvax.ucsd.edu >> Lab for Math and Stats UUCP: sdcsvax!ra!keves >> UCSD, La Jolla, CA PHONE: 619-450-6421 >> Any opinions expressed are my own and are not the opinions of my employer. Robert Allen, robert@sri-spam.ARPA