If there’s one thing Democrats have taught us about AR-15s, it’s that they are the most powerful, deadly weapons of war ever created, assembled by the devil himself. Of course, anyone that knows anything about the platform and the round it shoots knows that’s nonsense, but still, when someone of a leftward persuasion shoots one, hilarity often ensues.

That’s what was on tap when Kevin McCallum, writing for Seven Days in Vermont, decided to share his experience shooting an AR-15 at an indoor gun range. To hear him tell it, he basically had an out-of-body experience due to the massive, bone-rattling recoil.

Seriously, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out this is satire, but all indications are that it’s real, and it’s spectacular.

Reporter "rattled" after firing AR-15 at Vermont's first indoor gun range: "It felt like a meteor had struck the earth in front of me. A deep shock wave coursed through my body, the recoil rippling through my arms and right shoulder with astounding power." https://t.co/7q7h9lqcmO pic.twitter.com/1jP6nepsSA

— Rob Romano (@2Aupdates) August 5, 2021

I’d hate to see this guy shoot my .308, which itself is not a very hard kicking gun. Still, if he did, it might break him in half. I also own an AR-15, and I can personally vouch for the recoil being non-existent. It’s just a 55 grain .22 caliber bullet, after all. My wife, who is not even 110 pounds, laughed after the first time she shot it. At no point did she describe it as deep shockwaves coursing through her body after a meteor landed in front of her. She certainly wasn’t “rattled” by the explosion.

I also find it odd that he felt a pistol was less scary to fire. While the recoil isn’t being imparted into the shoulder like with a rifle, any 9mm or above pistol is going to have a more violent response in your hand than an AR hitting you with all the veracity of a two-year-old’s punch.

And that probably explains this guy’s reaction (I’m assured he is in fact a guy, though, we may need to get confirmation on that). Even though pistols account for over 99% of gun deaths in the country, reporters are terrified of scary, black modern sporting rifles. The moment he pulled the trigger, it was as much of an emotional impact as a physical one. I’m sure his life flashed before his eyes as he thought of various mass shootings that he had no doubt blamed on the gun he was now firing.

It doesn’t matter to these people that AR-15 use in gun crime is essentially limited to a few high-profile shootings, tragic as they are. To someone who is skeptical of the Second Amendment, a .223 cartridge might as well be a .50 cal. Facts are not important, only feelings, and that’s no way to make policy.

If these gun-control supporters actually cared about lowering gun crime, they wouldn’t be in Vermont fretting that Joe Bob law-abiding citizen could take an AR-15 home that day to varmint hunt with. Rather, they’d be in an inner-city putting the spotlight on gang violence and the systemic issues that are holding back effective policing.

That would require actual work, though, and dangerous work at that. Better to just be comedic relief, describing an AR-15 as if it were a nuclear weapon. Journalism, am I right?