The gun control advocates keep using the phrase “common sense.” It’s a refrain we’ve heard since the 1980s, and is a rather effective “brain hack” used to try and make the speaker seem like their proposals aren’t as radical as might otherwise be believed. However, while gun control advocates might use the phrase “common sense” almost to the point where it seems like a verbal tic, every time they open their mouths they remove all doubt that they don’t have any. Point and case, Jesse Jackson . . .

Anyone who has waded into the debate about the effectiveness of the AR-15 platform inevitably runs into the argument that the 5.56 round is underpowered. Even the AK-47 and its 7.62×39 round is puny compared to the mighty 7.62 NATO used in most hunting rifles. But, apparently when you add the label “assault rifle” to those weapons they become Godlike in power. At least in the minds of the aforementioned gun control advocates.

From the Business Insider:

Rev. Jesse Jackson on Sunday repeated the debunked claim that semi-automatic and so-called assault weapons can “shoot down airplanes” — and added that they can also “blow up railroads.”

“Semi-automatic weapons are not just about gun control, they’re about national security,” Jackson said on Fox News. “You know that these weapons can shoot down airplanes, they can blow up railroads. This is really a whole national security issue.”

In this debate, words matter. Phrases have power. And the scarier you make a gun sound, the more people overestimate its firepower. Even to the point of believing that it can “blow up railroads,” when common sense tells us that’s impossible. Or, at least, no more likely than with any other firearm you could pick up off the rack at your local gun store.

The civilian disarmament advocates don’t care about facts, they only care about emotions. And the more you can scare the American public, the easier it is to legislate based on those fears. That’s what they’re counting on. Which makes efforts like www.takeanewbieshooting.com’s campaign to take as many new shooters to the range as possible even more important. Education is the only way to show exactly how little “common sense” gun control offers.

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106 COMMENTS

  1. The question that cannot be ignored: WHO’S THE *NUT* HERE? This isn’t just Jesse being Jesse; this is Jesse being your teacher’s Evil Sidekick.

    • Mr. Jackson has been off the deep end for so long. I don’t understand how people can lie like this and not be trashed in the media for idiocy!

        • It isn’t stupidity (well, not all of it) – it’s found in the Saul Alinsky ‘Rules for Radicals’ and other such manuals. If you tell a big enough lie often enough, it will be believed. Small lies can be debunked. Go big.

          Read the rest of them – it includes calling people names, i.e. birther, tea bagger, skeeter, etc. That way you don’t demonize a group of people but single individuals out to show how stupid they are. Average nice people (like most conservatives) don’t want to appear stupid so it shuts them up. Note that the first ‘birther’ was Hillary Clinton in the ’08 campaign. They used Chicago style thuggery of some type to shut up a Clinton which no one thought possible. When one method doesn’t work, go for another.

          We try to fight their lies with facts, their seeming stupidity with logic and common sense – and we aren’t getting very far. We need to use their tactics against them and go for the emotional side of things. That’s how the uninformed or under-informed individuals out there are being swayed to the left.

      • Anyone who pays any attention to this caricature of a human needs phyciatric evaluation themselves.

  2. Didnt Bloomberg think recently that tanks shot nuclear missles? You want to know what is a common theme with the antigun/anticonstitution crowd? They are stupid, and have the IQ of a pineapple. and are BADLY misinformed

    • You’re making a DANGEROUS mistake in dismissing these people as ignorant buffoons. They’re NOT. DON’T UNDERESTIMATE THEM. That’s how they win.

    • They’re not stupid. They continually and intentionally lie to the ignorant masses. They don’t openly preach to people who can and will call their lies into question. Ignorance runs rampant and is easy to exploit by those with a large enough non-thinking audience.

      • Yep there are a lot of folks out there that take these people for their word no matter how ridiculous.

      • They do the same thing CONservatives do. There’s only one way to get working people to vote CONservative, that’s to lie to them.

        Tax Cuts=RICH pay less
        Personal Responsibility=You’re on your own
        Cut the Deficit=Screw middle class and poor people

  3. So a AR-15 according to this inbreed idiot is a Death Star they say a AR can blow up the planet now. LOL

  4. Why does anyone listen to that racist fool? He had his five minutes of fame, now all he does is sully the name of the Civil Rights movement.

  5. If the glove doesn’t fit you must aquit./// Jerkson is a has been trying to get back some relevancy. If they want build their case on ghouls & gobblins fine, I’ll stick with reality, Randy

  6. Well then, let’s have a “mythbusters’ moment” here, shall we?

    Let’s stand Reverend Jesse out on some railroad tracks with an AR-15 and as much ammo of whatever type he wants.

    And then let’s send a train down that track. One of the BNSF 1.3 mile long coal trains around here should work nicely. Once they get up to speed, they’re trundling along at about 55 to 65 MPH.

    Jesse gets to shoot at the train as many times as he wants.

    I call dibs to set up bleachers and sell tickets for people to see the result.

    • Ghostbusters II, Egon to Bobby Brown, “A proton pack is not a toy!”

      That’s my compramise to the grabbers. They can have the proton packs and Ill keep my AR and 30 rounders.

  8. This race hustler’s time isn’t over yet? What makes people listen him? He’s barely coherent, semi-delusional, and a FVCKING LIAR! His kids a thief, and faking being nutz, you’ll hear from him later, I’m sure. If an AK or AR could bring down a plane, would it have happened already? Now I’m feeding into this Bull. Seems the more absurd the allegation the readily it is believed. But then again Chizzel Minizil has filled his pockets by hypnotizing a good portion of the population with his indecipherable gibberish. And then accuses conservatives of speaking in “code”! Jessey, my man GetTFOOHere. Stinking subversive.

  9. I think Mental Illness runs in the family…first JJJ now JJ….seriously…go back to race baiting over the whole George Zimmerman thing and sleeping with other women while trying to put yourself out there as a “man of god”.

      • It’s defective, but I know how to fix it. I will take it off your hands at a reduced price…since it’s defective…

        • No. You must not have the shoulder thingy that goes up. Everyone, who knows anything, knows you need the shoulder thingy that goes up in order to shoot down aircraft and destroy railroads with your ar-15

        • You’re both wrong. You need one of those under-barrel rocket launchers mentioned in Feinstein’s AWB.

          Because if she’s trying to ban it, it must be an actual thing, and therefore it must be awesome.

  11. I believe it was little Jimmy Norton who was once on a passenger plane with Jesse Jackson. He said it was the only time he had ever wished for his own plane to crash…

  12. Ok when that one conservative politician over the summer made the statement that women can’t get pregnant from legitimate rape he was laughed and essentially booed out of a job for failing to grasp simple biology.

    Why is it that when the other side fails to grasp simple physics they are not treated similarly?

    • I still remember the hubbub and hooha the media made when Dan Quayle said “potato” is spelled “p-o-t-a-t-o-e”. So why aren’t they making similar jokes about what this idiot said instead of quoting him and lending credence to this misinformation?

    • Because the “other side” is populated by a very high proportion of people for whom the skilled use of words (written or spoken) matters more than the truth or facts communicated by those words.

      For an elaborate example of this, I recommend people read up on the “Sokal Hoax.” A for-real physics PhD got fed up with the sort of pablum he was reading in lefty journals (eg, that “physical laws are a societal construct…”) and decided to prank a “cultural studies” journal with a paper that was utter twaddle at the physics level, buried in “post modernist” babble, skillfully used.

      • And what a classic that prank was. The Deconstructionists apparently deconstructed their own knowledge.

    • Especially when you consider how easy it is to understand how AR parts work and how complicated women are.

  13. Hell if the 5.56mm round could down trains and planes we would have won a hell of a lot more wars and conflicts than we have!! Right??!!!
    He is such a dumbass!! Apologies to other dumbasses!!!

    • If .556 is so dangerous, why do tangos have so many RPG’s? I’m sure .556 ammo is much cheaper at 40 cents or so per round.

  14. I for one believe Jesse is correct.

    After all, Bruce Willis blew up a helicopter with a pistol once.

    • Bruce Willis brought down a chopper with a car launched using a toll booth as a ramp. He learned that from Chuck Norris. Chuck usually just punches the choppers out of the sky. Bruce wasn’t tough enough for that so Chuck tought him a couple of tricks.

  16. I love Jesse Jackson precisely because he’s such a buffoon. If all wingnuts were equally addled, our rights would be far more secure.

    And BTW, an AR-15 can bring down an airplane — from the inside. But then again, so can a snub nosed .38.

  17. ………..I was never aware of the power of a 5.56 round; perhaps I should use it instead of a 270 or 308 the next time I go elk hunting. Actually, with the way the “Reverend” is describing it, our military should use it for an anti-tank weapon. Screw depleted uranium and high explosives, we could take on aircraft, tanks, and the the Union Pacific all with our Ar-15s. lol.

    • Most people who have no exposure to guns don’t break out such things as stopping power, penetration, volume of fire, or even the “intimidation factor” as separate characteristics. Everything is grouped together under one lump measurement you might call “power”. Many people literally believe if you were to shoot a deer with an AR-15, it would splatter into little bitty pieces. Because it’s an assault weapon, and those are really “powerful”.

      • Simple. The Black Rifle. It’s racism. “Black Power.” Even has Jess scared. As he once said, “I was walking home from a meeting one night in Chicago and heard footsteps close behind me. I was so relieved when I looked back and saw it was a white guy.” Then he laughed. Yep. It’s OK for him to say it.

  18. I’m sorry. I must have fallen asleep when we stopped talking about regulating AR-15s and started talking about regulating Flak 36s. You know something Jesse, I’ll bow to your infinite wisdom. If I need a halftrack to move it and a crew to fire it, you can regulate it all you want.

  19. My mini 14 feels underpowered now, what with hearing it should be able to shoot a plane down or blow up a train. Can I bill him for the counseling bills the poor little thing incurred?

    • The 6.8 SPC was designed for Navy seals to take out enemy battleships. The 5.56 just won’t penetrate more than 20 inches of steel!

      Three shot burst is for when you’re taking out a train with 3 locomotives.

  21. I vaguely recall learning a squad-level anti-aircraft drill in the army.

    – It involved using fully automatic 5.56mm weapons.
    – It involved an entire squad firing in concert.
    – In terms of effectiveness, it was generally considered one step above bending over and kissing your *ss goodbye.

    • I met a WWII vet who was, in fact, shot down by a truckload of Japanese soldiers using rifles, from their sitting-duck position in a truck moving through northeast China.

      Mind you, his plane was hit as he overflew the truck as he strafed the crap out of them with his P-40… so it isn’t as tho the soldiers on the ground got away with it. It’s just that some lucky Japanese soldiers were able to puncture his oil cooler and coolant lines… which tended to cause problems in the Allison engines of the day. He bailed out about two minutes later…

      • It’s a Good Thing that a rifle can [potentially] take out a prop-driven aircraft that’s flying low/slow enough to strafe you.

        Jackson’s comment, of course, suggests to the ignorant masses that a nutcase in the woods is going to use an AR-15 to shoot down a passenger aircraft doing 400+ knots 5 miles up.

  22. Is it just me, or is Jesse starting to sound more and more like Mushmouth from the Fat Albert cartoon show?

  23. I believe the old saying regarding common sense goes, “The least common thing on god’s green earth is the collective sense a group of people have on a particular subject”. Seems approprieate these days

  25. I really liked when he read Green Eggs and Ham on SNL. So, in essence, everything that comes out of his mouth really is just a joke.

  29. I think everyone has missed the point. He’s referring to Feinstein’s AR with the rocket launcher attached. They’re very dangerous.

  30. The private motivation of the political anti-AR riff is becoming clear as a Hollywood Scientologist’s e-meter reading: Jesse, Barack, et al. can’t get out of their minds those hideous pictures of LA Koreans effectively defending their businesses from rioters in ’92, or those Big Easy mansion owners in 2005 successfully warding off 10 and 15 marauders at a time with AR’s. The value of the “If you don’t give us more ‘safety net’ there could be riots” (“sweet Mau Mau we can bank on”) bit is seriously deflated by business/homeowners in possession of a decent standard capacity Personal Defense Weapon, aka Patrol Rifle. Bolster these with support from paranoid urban billionaires convinced that non-municipal employees spend their days plotting to off the über-rich minority (rather than watching HBO), and you’ve got an alliance from hell hard at work on the soft underbelly of American politics, the soccer mom. None of this gun control action is hitting the gang-dependent illegal-heater-holder dope dealer where he lives. Obviously.

  31. I’m just wondering where Jessie Jackson has gotten all his great information. After all he is just a Spartenburg SC Preacher

  34. To be honest, let us begin by not calling this man, reverend. Anyone can say they are a preacher – anyone. The only topics this man has ever preached has been from the far left. All true, blood bought believers have one thing in common. They cannot stop talking about the Lord Jesus and what He has done for them. Any man who calls himself a servant of the Lord, and says that he was called to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus, but never preaches Jesus, is a fraud!
    Mr. Jackson is a member of the Democratic Party, whose members are ardent believers in abortion on demand. Over 50+ million innocent lives have been snuffed out by abortions in this country. Mr. Jackson, by his association with these murders, becomes a murderer himself. To support sin against God’s word makes him an enemy of God. Mr. Jackson, unless he repents, will hear these words someday, Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Matthew 7:22-23

  36. And liberals laugh at people who claim the 2a is about protection from government tyranny. They say you cannot take on tanks and helicopters with your pea shooters. Joke is on them according to Jerkson.

  37. I’ve got the best ban ever, lets ban idiots in government. The only problem there would be, is that we wouldn’t have any politicians anymore. HOOORAH!!!! Let’s do it.
    The first one to go is Jessie Jackson, then the biggest idiot next would be Obutthead.
    I would probably keep ole Hank Johnson around, someone that stupid would just be funny as hell to laugh at, that way we can keep a sense of humor about all of it.

  38. But wait folks, he didn’t specifically mention “assault weapons”, he just said semi-automatics……..therefore, by the good Rev’s logic my Ruger MK1 could blow up a railroad. Not just a train, or a station, or a length of track mind you…..a whole damn railroad! Considering that it can only put holes 1/5 of an inch in diameter in paper targets, I’d say our nation’s transit system is in dire straits indeed.

  39. If you were to dig a hole in the ground and place Jesse Jackson’s rectum next to it, he would not be able to distinguish the two. The effective range of a semi-automatic rifle bullet is well established. He is a fool and everybody knows it. He should have focused more on parenting skills and then his son would not be headed for a rehab mental institution.

  40. Any group of people so large and so stupid enough to reelect someone like Barack Obama who is literally destroying this nation (in every possible way), the greatest and freest nation ever to have existed on earth is ignorant enough to believe anything these leaders of destruction say. Stating the term liberal progressive and common sense in the same sentence is an oxymoron. Put another way impossible, cannot ever coexist.

    Not only do they preach this dribble they become offended if anyone questions any of their statements. The truth is no longer consequential with liberal progressives. Reality is also a nonexisting phenomena in a liberal progressive world.

  41. A MUCH LARGER threat to national security is the tripe this buffoon spews, and the impact it has, upon an entire race of people that have been hoodwinked into believing that We, the People, owe Ye, the Lazy and Non-Productive, a lifestyle equal to, or better than, we who work for it.

    Jesse should know about “assault weapons”. He has used HIS to produce a child out of wedlock, and a product of adultery, while proclaiming to the masses: “follow me and heed what I say, for I am your leader”. I just wish he and his party would cease using their “assault weapons” upon our posteriors.

    • There you go!!! Now we can have him arrested for Assault with a Dead Weapon!!! LOL!!! Maybe he will get eaten by a killer hamster, that way he can suffer as much as we have had to, listening to his BS!!!
      Every time he is on TV my bullshit meter explodes and I have to buy a new one!! Them damn things aren’t cheap or easy to find anymore!!!

  42. Okay, if I accept JJ’s assertion, semi-autos can bring down airliners and blow up railroads- I’d like to see that demonstration or at least get the details on which SA and ammo was used in the destruction of said airliner and train. What was the range on the airliner? I’m lucky to hit a 12″x12″ target at a 100 yards with iron sights. BTW JJ, still takes a human operator, the gun doesn’t shoot itself…..

  43. Now now… give Jesse a break. He’s obviously worried about his son Jesse Junior’s impending date with the Illinois Department of Corrections over his blatant misuse of campaign funds.

    Oh and Mrs. Jesse Jr… she resigned her position as a Chicago City Alderman… in disgrace.

    I would imagine that in Jesse’ Sr’s world, where he thought himself immortal and impervious to anything let alone a bullet; would think that a bullet could blow up a railroad… not just the train, but the entire railroad.

    What do you expect from a guy who during the Clinton-Lewinski affair, was busted having an extra-marital affair, fathering a love-child; paying millions in hush money from income he never reported through Operation Push?

    He’s like teflon, kevlar. Man Jesse is like Dragon-Wear… he;s the Chuck Norris of the ministry so of course he would think that a .223 round could drop a 747 at 43,000 feet and blow up an entire railroad.

    What else would you expect him to say.

  44. Jesse Jackson has a two prong approach to his ignorant diatribe despite the fact that he’s the postor child for a Hooked on Phonics failure.

    1. Be the lightning rod for a failed administration, it’s failed policy and it’s grossly incompetent lawmakers. We don’t want voters to focus on the upcoming mid term election that can hand control of the Senate to the Republicans that would essentially put an end to the 2nd Amendment attack which is being used as the scapegoat.

    2. Convince as many folks on the right that even though he and his handlers can’t prove any of the slim pouring from his mouth as fact; power perceived is power achieved.

  47. … but Sherifff David Clarke just followed Jesse Jackson on Fox and ripped Jackson’s comments to shreds. Got to love Sheriff Clarke!

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