Gun Control & RKBA

... when people cite opinion pieces as if they were gospel. Especially people who know nothing about the matter at hand.

News flash: bad ammo still exists, and can still render your semi-auto inoperable. Try some Remington UMC pistol ammo and then tell me how reliable modern ammo is. Save money by buying Russian steel-cased ammo and see what happens. Clearing stoppages is part of the drill for semi-auto shooters still, and some stoppages are very difficult to clear.

Furthermore, many semi-auto pistols are "ammo-sensitive," meaning that they won't function well with certain loadings -- bullet shape, powder burn rate, etc. are factors that can affect the suitability of a particular cartridge for a particular pistol. That's why you hear semi-auto shooters talk a lot about what ammo their pistol "likes." Weaker loadings can cause stovepipe jams, hollowpoints can hang up on the feed ramp, etc. None of this is an issue with a revolver.

Semi-auto pistols must be broken down to be cleaned. With new gun owners, this can result in improperly reassembled pistols, leading to malfunctions, some easily fixable, but others not so. Their springs must be replaced regularly. Not so with revolvers, except perhaps for a new hammer spring every decade or so.

Certainly any mechanical device can malfunction. The article describes the ways revolvers can malfunction. The fact remains that such malfunctions are rare. The complexity the author describes is only an issue for the manufacturer. There is no reason for a user to "crack open" the internals of the gun, short of a broken part, and those are very rare. I have a revolver that is over 100 years old and still perfectly functional. It has never been opened, as evidenced by pristine side plates.

Semi-autos replaced revolvers because of increased capacity and quick reloading, not because of reliability issues with revolvers.