Below is a reproduction of TDF 28 -- "A fudd set that should appeal to both sides--plus having a 'political' symbolism" -- with one paragraph in red added.
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In the 1970s, the clear focus of gun control advocates was banning handguns. Long guns received little attention beyond what had been done in the 1968 Gun Control Act and the movie, The Deadly Tower about the 1966 University of Texas shooting. Normal criminality--not concerns about "militias," terrorism or insurrection, or the rare mass shooting--seemed to be the genuine focus. Even as late at 1988 and the infamous "Sugarmann Memo," some circles put long gun controls as simply political steps to handgun control.
This is no longer the case. The "Black Rifle Craze" that started in the early 1980s ended up completely flipping that picture. Aside from magazine capacities, most typical-configuration handguns have been left virtually untouched by "assault weapon" legislation (save in some odd technical points in California and Massachusetts). And the 2008 Heller decision established handguns as particularly and specifically protected by the Second Amendment.
This edition of TDF will not focus on issues of objective validity of any of this, but rather point to an interesting play on it for the minimalist RKBA realm.
Today, we hear two conciliatory lines--however grudging or disingenuous they may be--from the anti-gun side toward the baseline, Blackstone-type RKBA. The first is a Heller-based acceptance of pistols. A Boston, Massachusetts police chief once semi-famously stated that he saw no reason for city dwellers to have rifles or shotguns. In doing so he tacitly--and probably reluctantly--accepted a "reason" for these people to have handguns. (Interestingly, a colonial-era fire ordinance in Boston prohibiting keeping "firearms" loaded in homes did not apply to pistols.) A modern handgun is generally superior to the weapon generally viewed as protected in the 1688/89 English Bill of Rights: "a blunderbuss to ward off burglars."
Uncle Festus' views notwithstanding:
So, putting these two lines together, we get a focus on what should be THE fudd weapon these gun controllers can get behind: The .45/.410 revolver. Arms like the Magnum Research BFR, Taurus Judge, and Smith and Wesson Governor hold the "best" (from the conciliatory gun control perspective) of both worlds--not a long gun, yet with some shotgun effect. And at least some such arms are legal in every State save California, which views them as short-barreled and rotary shotguns.
A consideration of the tactical elements lends a certain call for liberals to endorse this. Such arms are certainly not the combat weapons hicap 9mm's are. Yet they serve the role of a sidearm. See here for a critical, yet balanced, review of one: Taurus Judge .410 Revolver Review [Updated 2021] | TheGunZone https://thegunzone.com/taurus-judge-revolver-review/ . While expressly stating it is not the writers' preference, the review does offer this assessment:
If you load the .45 ammo, you’ll have a better chance of hitting targets further away up to mid-range distances. The .410 shot is better suited for very close-range encounters, where you can pull the trigger in the general direction of the threat, and it will likely cause damage.
Home and carjacker defense are probably what this gun is good for in the self-defense realm. This is because at mid to long-range, especially when using shot, the ammo loses a lot of its velocity. So in a sense, it offers some form of safety in that you will only have more chance of damaging a close-range target, with less chance of occurring collateral damage.
And, of course, it looks quite intimidating in its bulky form.
(See also TDF 27 for a view of the revolver's sense of American heritage.)
Now, match this arm up with a play on the shotgun line: a regular--and extremely versatile--.410 shotgun or a .410 "firearm" like the Henry Axe, and one has a long gun/sidearm set (outside of California) very much PC, yet still effective at the Blackstone defense level while playing the anti-gunners own rhetoric against them--a case of tactical and political mitigation coming together:
This is the ULTIMATE minimalist expression of the Second Amendment personal right. KEEPING is fulfilled in the modern blunderbuss, and the American innovation of more general BEARING is fulfilled in the revolver.
The picture here is that, while obviously not fulfilling the vision of 2A, there is a play on opposition rhetoric which can serve the baseline RKBA functions AND make a greater statement.
We work to prevent things coming to this, but we have a fallback mitigation if it comes to it.
