In response to all the recent crap I've seen on the news regarding citizens, who are worried that their guns will be taken away... And also to all you non-gun-owners in a position of power, please take a moment to read this. You'll be educated for the better.
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The term "assault weapons" has misled you.
When people see weapons like the AR-15, or the .223 Bushmaster, they call these assault weapons. Way, way too many of you don't know what the hell an assault weapon is. There is actually no definition of an assault weapon!
But OK, there are also assault rifles in existence. If you read that, you'll see that most "assault rifles" are fully automatic. They also cost many thousands of dollars.. Usually upwards of $10,000. These are the weapons you see during war, where there is a "rope" of rounds being fed in by another soldier.
Wait a minute. What's the difference between semi-automatic, and fully-automatic? Read that. Please.
ANY semi-automatic weapon will fire one (and only one) round with each squeeze of the trigger. However, most fully-automatic weapons will fire multiple rounds with one squeeze of the trigger. They will continue to fire until the trigger is released. These are machine guns, as most people think of what it means to be a "machine gun". Many people think the term "assault weapon" MEANS "machine gun". That couldn't be further from the truth.
Here is a very well-done slideshow for you to check out from assaultweapon.info. ~ Read that too!
Semi-automatic technology has been around for over a hundred years. This includes semi-automatic handguns. Any gun that can be fired repeatedly as fast as the shooter can squeeze the trigger is a semi-automatic. This includes revolvers! It also includes most shotguns. Most shotguns are either semi-automatic or pumps. The pump shotguns require the shooter to pump the prior shell out, the action also loads another shell, and it's very quick. It's not semi-automatic, but most pump shotguns can hold 7 shells, or at least 3-5. Semi-automatic shotguns can shoot 7 rounds as quickly as the trigger is pulled.
Anyone can take any semi-automatic rifle - or a hunting rifle - and change many various parts of the rifle, and make it look just like an AR-15, or.. what people think is an assault weapon:
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The AR-15, the .223 Bushmaster, are exactly the same as all semi-automatic hunting "long guns".
Period.
By the way, most of these lunatics who go murder people with guns got their guns legally. This is an important fact.
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I've already mentioned that semi-automatic technology has been around for over a hundred years. If all semi-automatic guns were banned in this country, all criminals would have an absolute advantage.
The point is this: If there were a semi-automatic weapons ban, we would be suddenly thwarted back to the late 1800s. In those times the only guns in existence were single-load weapons. So the answer to the gun violence of 2012 is to make only single-load guns available? Right. It will never happen. But if it did, all criminals would have a serious advantage.
The more important message is that everyone needs to understand the difference between a rapid-fire machine gun, and a semi-automatic weapon.
I enjoyed your post. One other thing to think about, why do we allow the government to tell us what we need or don't need.
ReplyDeleteHere is a great post that explains this better:
http://olegvolk.net/blog/2013/01/06/the-nobody-needs-fallacy/