Via Charles Cooke, is this the worst listicle ever or the greatest?

You’re expecting a list of different makes and models, I know. But look:

2. Revolvers

Revolvers, named for their rotating chambered cylinder, placed second in the ATF’s ranking of guns found at crime scenes more than 46,000 recovered in 2012, the most recent year for which statistics were kept.

Some grenade launchers, shotguns, and rifles also have rotating barrels, but the term “revolver” is generally used to describe handguns. Revolver types include single and double-action firing mechanisms, the latter of which does not require a cocking action separate from the trigger pull.

In order: “Pistols,” “revolvers,” “rifles,” “shotguns,” and “derringers,” i.e. virtually every form of small arms known to man. That’s about as informative as a list touting the world’s five deadliest animals that goes “mammals,” “insects,” “reptiles,” “amphibians,” and “fish.” You can’t promise your reader the cheap suspense involved in clicking through each item of a countdown only to deliver something as broad and doofy as “RIFLES.” Has BuzzFeed taught us nothing? But, arguably, that’s what makes this great, right? The point here, I assume, is to use the list format to emphasize that all guns, even itty bitty derringers, are dangerous. There’s no suspense; they’re all deadly. Gotta ban ’em all to be on the safe side. There’s a certain honesty in that uncommon to most gun-grabbers’ “no, really, I’m just worried about ‘assault weapons'” dissembling.

But wait — that’s actually what makes this terrible, right? The reason most lefties take an incrementalist approach on guns, starting with scary-looking AR-15s, is because they know Americans are too comfortable with guns and gun culture generally to support a full ban right out of the gate. Moving this Overton window will take time and great effort. Better to focus on a few specific weapons, build opposition, and get them banned so that the public slowly gets used to the idea of certain guns disappearing from the market. Then, when that ban achieves nothing — as everyone understands it won’t — declare that it hasn’t gone far enough and that more weapons need to go. You don’t jump into this fray by trying to freak people out about common semiautomatics. You work up to it. This is a listicle from 2050 transported magically, and foolishly, into the past.