“I was very clear with the filmmakers that she used the weapons intended for self-defense for her and her family.”
Typical ignorance-fueled lefty. Winchester had military contracts in mind for the model 1873, and its earliest predecessor, the 1860 lever-action Henry rifle, was highly valued in the American Civil War. Every common action type in existence is or has been used by militaries, including her pump shotgun, double-action revolvers, and bolt-action rifles. It's funny that she was okay with a pump shotgun whereas WWI Germany most certainly wasn't:
"Although the Model 1897 [pump shotgun] was popular with American troops in World War I, the Germans soon began to protest its use in combat. "On 19 September 1918, the German government under Ludendorff issued a diplomatic protest against the American use of shotguns, alleging that the shotgun was prohibited by the law of war." A part of the German protest read that "[i]t is especially forbidden to employ arms, projections, or materials calculated to cause unnecessary suffering" as defined in the 1907 Hague Convention on Land Warfare."
Also, despite what you and the other kids in this thread think, a lever-action rifle is a very formidable firearm. The 1873, chambered for .44-40, has a magazine capacity of 15+1, has about the same power as a 10mm Auto, and this is how rapidly a lever-action can be fired by some people...
https://youtu.be/OuKz8brpH0I
... though firing that rapidly isn't typically useful, regardless of what type of gun you have.
The airheaded politics aside, I liked seeing an interesting / unusual firearm in this movie as opposed to the typical tacticool stuff that you always see these days. Did you complain about the lever-action shotgun in Terminator 2? That was introduced in 1887 and was the most memorable/interesting firearm in that movie. Also, lever-action rifles have been recommended for home defense and police work by people who actually know what they're talking about, for ages. For example:
"If you pay close attention you may be able to detect a rather historic milestone in small arms history. This may be nothing less than the rebirth of the M94 Winchester. In six years this piece will achieve its centennial, and instead of being superseded it looks better all the time. Both Mark Moritz and Greg Morrison are at work on treatments of this weapon, pointing out how far superior the M94 carbine, in caliber .30-30, is to the weapons the world's troops are issued today. The AK47 weighs 10 pounds 4 ounces. The M94 weighs 5 pounds 10 ounces. The 94 is much more compact, decisively more powerful, and far more accurate in the practical sense. This piece, when fitted with a serviceable ghost-ring sight, may just be the ideal police backup weapon - 100 years after its introduction." - Jeff Cooper
On the other hand, it's very unlikely that she would have ended up with a Winchester M1873 or even an Italian clone, since they are specialty items. A Winchester M94 or Marlin M1894 carbine chambered for .357 Magnum would be far more likely if she went to a typical gun shop looking for a lever-action rifle for home defense. As a bonus, the .357 Magnum transforms into an intermediate rifle cartridge in terms of power (comparable to a 7.62 x 39mm) when fired from a 16" or longer barrel, but grants the high magazine capacity of a pistol cartridge.
reply
share