Nobody will dispute that .223 or 5.56 is a dangerous thing to be shot with. 5.56 is a common round in global militaries, so it’s not as though it’s underpowered or anything. What is amusing though is the torturous way the anti-gun lobby will devote hours to discussing the lethality of this particular assault rifle round, while simultaneously ignoring reality or contradicting themselves –sometimes both!–.
That’s not to say that there isn’t a lot of hyperbole around the capabilities of the standard AR-15 chambering. The “.223 deadly!” side would have you believe that the 55 grain (3.5 grams) projectile .223 throws would rip a human being in half, despite the fact that many states limit the cartridge to varmint-sized animals for hunting purposes –because the round isn’t powerful enough to be considered humane for deer or larger.–
Perhaps the best example of this collision of ideology and reality is the Highland Park, IL assault weapons ban that is currently struggling through a lawsuit to stop it. Of the innumerable post-Bruen decision cases, this one has produced an amusing dichotomy: The “.223 deadly, and no good for self-defense!” argument is being stood up alongside the concept that the unbanned .300WinMag rifles, and 12ga shotguns are perfectly fine to shoot people with. This despite both of those rounds being significantly more powerful, and much more capable of removing entire portions of a human being than the comparatively underpowered .223 or 5.56.
Naturally, at the center of this massive conflation in service of unconstitutional legislation is Ryan Busse –former Kimber executive turned gun control lobby shill– who never misses a chance to get paid to say absurd things about guns in service of banning them. He is the oxford cloth, wingtip version of the former service member who claims to “support the 2A, but…” Wherever there is a Bruen challenge and the Shill Signal has lit up the sky, he rarely fails to answer the call, and the paycheck that comes with it.
