A gun enthusiast explains his hobby

Elementary School Rampage

(CBS News) SAN FRANCISCO - Former Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas once said, "I own more shotguns than I need, but not as many as I want."

A lot of gun owners feel that way, but we wondered why so many owned the same kind of assault rifle used in the Newtown massacre last week.

Gene Hoffman says he owns four AR-15s for hobby and sport. The internet entrepreneur has 11 other guns in his home south of San Francisco.

Gene Hoffman

/ CBS News

"If you ask a golfer why he needs 15 clubs instead of 7 he'll tell you, well, with certain shots, I like to use that other putter," Hoffman said.

"Look, the right to firearms, the civil right to firearms, is dangerous and that's why it's a right. This isn't something that's free or easy. There will always be people who disagree with it." he added.

The AR-15 is often called the "Barbie doll" rifle because it has so many accessories.

"You can buy one and buy a lot of different parts for it. You can hunt with it, you can target shoot with it," Hoffman said.

A 2011 survey by the Shooting Sports Foundation found 49.1 percent of gun owners who bought that gun did so for target shooting; 22.8 percent bought id for hunting; and 28.1 percent for protection.

More than 3 million Americans now own an AR-15.

"The AR-15 is the kind of mainline rifle these days. It's the most popular selling firearm. It's kind of like talking about a Chevrolet," Hoffman said.

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These weapons have become stars of cable TV shows and popular video games. Gun makers market them mostly to men. Overall production of military-style weapons and rifles increased 75 percent in eight years, from 2001-2009.

Hoffman said that he does believe in some gun control.

"There are a lot of things we can do to make sure only the right people have firearms, and if a mental health professional decides they are dangerous they'll lose their gun rights for 10 years or life," he said.

Hoffman plans to add two more guns to his collection bringing his total to 17.

[ThomasSense]

CBS has an article about gun laws in Israel. Their licensing rules seem quite reasonable. I also agree with the earlier post by "Venus..." that explains the relationship between hunting, sportsmanship, and target practice. I also agree that someone in a drug trafficing border state might have a valid reason for a gun with clips, but I really haven't heard any news stories that have backed up this thought.

I know the people that are worried about the government more than their neighbors with guns won't agree. Some unstable person in my neighborhood is a more real threat. We need to change instead of being on this slippery slope that is headed toward the WILD, WILD west.

[vista8635]

Here's my 2nd Amendment right: I want a small drone hacked out with Microsoft Windows Phone 8, xbox Kinect, an infrared camera, a hybrid HD camera, and a gun.

[TRICKSTER2NDA]

@ Jack818. The "Brady Act" did not ban any guns. The Brady Act, passed in 1993 as an amendment to the Gun Control Act of 1968, imposes a waiting period of up to five days for the purchase of a handgun, and subjects purchasers to a background check during that period. See 18 U.S.C. section 922(s)(1). The waiting period and background check prescribed by the Act are not required in States that have permit systems meeting standards prescribed by the Act. 18 U.S.C. section 922(s)(1)(C), (D). Your entire post is inacurate and typical of those who just parrot some emotional tripe that they read on some anti-gun website instead of actually doing some research.

[Scimajor]

"If you ask a golfer why he needs 15 clubs instead of 7 he'll tell you, well, with certain shots, I like to use that other putter," Hoffman said.

Oh that makes perfect sense. A golf club is just like a shotgun. How couldn't I have seen this before?

Thank goodness I don't live close to that guy.

[itsobvious513]

Its like taking a shot from a sand trap vs a fairway. For one you would use a wedge, and the other an iron or wood. The same applies to firearms: While he may not have worded that in the most accurate way, it is safer to fire smaller caliber firearms at closer range, rather than a .357 Magnum. Im not trying to win the argument, but doing some basic research into firearms and firearm practice/ safety would be a great idea before taking the side of "ALL GUNS ARE BAD! LETS BAN GUNS!". This man clearly practices safe firearm handling int he fact that he keeps his guns in a locked gun safe, shoots at a designated range, and wears proper safety gear (shooting glasses).

[ginevsky]

So much of this discussion is marred by the kind of anger one associates with primitive religious disagreement (I am not necessarily including disputes between theologians--rather their vulgar followers). On the one side we have those who fear the mass killing of citizens by deranged individuals armed with semi-assault weapons--on the other side we have those who are terrified of the U.S. government and seek the ability to kill fellow citizens and political officers in the event of some "tyranny" they cannot define other than restricting their "right" to have such weapons. Until the gun-rights folks can clearly identify the "tyranny" they seek to avoid and and explain clearly to the rest of us why such a "tyranny" cannot be avoided short of "armed insurrection" only one side of this debate appears grounded in reality

[JohnPaschke]

You are obviously on the side of the arguement that uses lies to further their goal of disarmament of the citizenry and repeal of the 2A.

[joesapper]

A happy gray haired married Hoffman is far from the planet of the evil animal that used that weapon as others have in recent months to conduct evil .

Hoffman is stable , and he has decades of years to back that record up , which is far from the fact of the animal in CT .

A World of difference Folks , two different planets , so MR Hoffman do you think the jump in sales of these type weapons in last week is going to gray hair or youth ?

[JohnPaschke]

The POS that committed the atrocity didn't purchase anything. The "jump" in sales is going to citizens who are following the law. The purchaser's age, gender, sexual orientation and socio-economic level are irrelevant.

[venusvegasvada]

Well, with all due respect to Mr. Hoffman and others that enjoy shooting these types of firearms, they are a tough sell to old-school sportsmen.

There are many of us that were raised with hunting and target shooting. That means a single shot or a bolt action rifle to most people; the most accurate of their kind and that you can afford. True, if you compete in the National Matches then you need a semi-auto prior service arm to enter, but that is a fairly rare group using larger centerfire rifles such as the Garand, etc. Even so, target shooting is ruled by the single shot/bolt action. Period.

It also means you are supposed to develop your skills and practice your @ss off to become the best shot you can be. All that is because when you eventually do go hunting and finally work yourself into a position to take a shot, you are not supposed to take the shot unless you can put the animal down quickly and efficiently. One shot is best with a follow up shot if needed, but that's the goal. What that means is that true sportsmen should be spending all their time at the range practicing to become as good as they can be and probably reloading to fine tune their hand loads. That's what a sportsman would do.

That also means using the right sized cartridge for the animal you are hunting. Deer or anything larger is too big for the .223 to take cleanly with confidence with one shot. It's useless on anything but varmints.

An assault rifle in .223 is not only insufficient to take anything but the smallest animals, it's large magazine cry's to the user to just keep pulling the trigger to compensate for poor aim. Rather than to take the time to be able to place one shot where it needs to be.

We already have low powered, short range target and plinking covered via the old .22 rimfire. If a family wants to go out and have fun shooting up cans and things then that is what those are for.

Using the much more powerful, centerfire .223 for plinking on that scale is a waste of money and it's still not a hunting rifle. You aren't going to use it for tree squirrels because of it's range. If you miss, you run the risk of injuring people when the round falls from the sky. If you are using it for varmint hunting, they make excellent long range varmint bolt actions for that too. An assault rifle is not needed for varmint hunting.

Semi-autos are really for wing-shooting shotguns or slug guns where rifles are illegal because the area is too densely populated by people to use anything with greater range.

Frankly I'm surprised assault rifles have become so popular and can't see the reason why. At first I thought it was a younger generation who didn't know better but I guess I'm wrong about that. Is it home defense? I would rather have a shotgun for that, better knockdown for the range.

No, I think it's just the movies. More and more people want to be able to pretend they are Rambo and are prepared and waiting for the Zombie Apocalypse or Anarchy to start than I thought. Call them assault rifles because that's what they are. They are not designed for hunting and they shouldn't hide behind that usage. They are designed to kill people.

The problem with an event like Newtown is that if the assault rifles had been banned, that still would not have stopped him from having semi-auto pistols and doing what was done. Banning a weapon class would just cause someone who is motivated enough to use a different weapon type, if they are serious enough to do it. Unfortunately I don't see how banning them would have changed things. I think the failure here lies with the mother's poor judgement in having those types of weapons in a house with an unstable individual that she clearly underestimated.

[JohnPaschke]

Hunters are 6% of the population or less. The population of owners of AR and AK patterned rifles is far larger. The opinions of hunters and "old school sportsman" are irrelevant when it comes to the subject of the Second Amendment.

[Eudo-Atencio]

I must disagree with you here on the issue of using a semi-automatic rifle for hunting, specifically using the .223 caliber: I've seen deer taken with this caliber in Utah at ranges of about 50 yards, 2-3 shots in rapid succesion and the animal went down in seconds; I've also seen a video of a Whitetail taken with an AK-74, in Georgia I believe. Myself I use a semi-auto SKS, which uses the same round as the AK-47, another "Assault Rifle". You are making a lot of assumptions in your opinion and I'm afraid not all of them based on reality (for instance your claim "Call them assault rifles because that's what they are." is grossly inaccurate). I can understand that as an "old-school sportsman" the fact that these rifles have become popular is hard to fathom, but reality it is. A rifle such as the AR-15 can be very versatile. For example, I use my Golani as my dedicated rifle for home defense, plinking and/or hunting, depending on the type of ammo that I use. BTW I don't think target shooting with it is a waste of money.

[venusvegasvada]

Wow, right out of the woodwork huh?

-Old school sportsmen don't count towards the 2nd Amendment, but Assault Rifle owners do because there are so many assault rifles? Do some research before you post. Total number of firearms in the US public's possession is between 270-310 million. Of all those, it's estimated that only 3.6 million of them are assault rifles, or about 1 percent of the total. Hell, Winchester made the 2 millionth model 70 back in 1992! That was just ONE bolt action line. You are not just wrong, but wildly, ridiculously wrong.

Ref:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/crime/2012/12/20/assault_rifle_stats_how_many_assault_rifles_are_there_in_america.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/08/28/us-world-firearms-idUSL2834893820070828

- 6% of the population seems pretty small to me. I'd tend to think it's a bit higher, like 20%. I say that based on those that have their own land and don't need a permit to hunt.
I tend to agree with these folks:
Ref:
http://www.conservationforce.org/role4.html

.223 for deer? What!
Wow, Have IQ's dropped that much? The whole point is that you are not supposed to have to keep pumping round after round into an animal in some idiotic attempt to achieve a kill because you have zero skill and are USING THE WRONG CALIBER. That's not being a "sportsman" and "hunting". It's called being a "sadist" that enjoys torturing an animal and if they actually happen to kill it and find it, then it's some kind of extra bonus gift. You are ignoring reality to justify using a toy for hunting. The fact is, you shouldn't be hunting deer with that small a caliber.

The same reason the US Army doesn't use the .223 as a sniper round- it doesn't have enough energy to do the job on impact at distance. Both the 30-06 and the .308 (7.62) have more impact energy at 400 yards (150g bullet) than the .223 has at it's muzzle. Think about that for a second. You really have to be a @#$@ing moron for trying to take an animal the size of a deer with a round that small. The late Jack O'Conner made the case about the 270 being so great and there are many out there that claim it's fine but there are many out there than think it's not enough. There are exceptions, like the 6.5 Swedish Mauser because of its bullet design and resultant excellent penetration, but really, a 30 cal is where most should start at, not 5.56 (.223).

Grow up people.

-Who said to use a bolt action for home defense? Semi-auto/ shotgun. Read the whole thing.

[Jdberger]

I simply don't understand why people need those newfangled automo-biles. A true traveler likes to get out there and stretch his legs, carry his house on his back. More and more people want to pretend they're some kind of race-car driver....

Same goes for that dang Rock & Roll music. In my day, we just plucked on a tight string for music....

[Jdberger]

I simply don't understand why people need those newfangled automo-biles. A true traveler likes to get out there and stretch his legs, carry his house on his back. More and more people want to pretend they're some kind of race-car driver....

Same goes for that dang Rock & Roll music. In my day, we just plucked on a tight string for music....

FYI - the US Army uses the 5.56 round in their DM rifles. They also use it in their Mk 12 Special Purpose Rifle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mk_12_Special_Purpose_Rifle.

And though I wouldn't use .223 for deer, people are roughly the same size.

Finally, there are plenty of different upper recievers that you can put on an AR-15 platform rifle. 6.8 SPC is great for pigs. At .270 and 2600 fps it packs plenty of punch for a clean kill on an animal.

But thanks for playing.

[ThomasSense]

venus: thank you for adding a hunting perspective to this issue.

[LARRYINCALIFORNIA]

Consider that jihadist terrorists have only been able to kill 17 Americans in the United States since 9/11. Meanwhile, some 88,000 Americans died in gun violence from 2003 and 2010, according to the U.N. study.

That means that in the past decade, an American residing in the United States was around 5,000 times more likely to be killed by a fellow citizen armed with a gun than by a terrorist inspired by Osama bin Laden.

[JohnPaschke]

Well, we know you are capable of doing a cut and paste job.

[LARRYINCALIFORNIA]

California already has the answer - make buying ammunition harder. Without ammunition an AR-15 is a big paperweight.

[MikeElliott]

If Mr. Hoffman see this deadly situation as mostly a mental health issue, a very human disorder, then who is to say he himself someday will not fall victim to this dreaded disease? Strange how this man and so many other ducks of the same feather are so narrowly focused when it comes to these matters of gun control. I feel they fear a likelihood of utter chaos to eventually sweep the nation and if such an event were ever to occur they would have no respect for their police force, national guard or armed forces in providing proper and adequate protection. If my scenario were to prove right, it would be Mr. Hoffman and his colleagues who the protection authorities would hunt because Mr. Hoffman and his kind would then have the dubious distinction of: "known as being, highly armed."

[JohnPaschke]

Mr. Hoffman and other ducks of the same feather, believe that the Constitution and Bill of Rights means what it says. You obviously don't. I pity you.