There is no actual functional difference between an “illegal” automatic rifle or handgun and a “legal” semi-automatic weapon. They both can lay down a lot of lead.
The recent (February 14, 2018) horrific school shooting IN BROWARD COUNTY FLORIDA where thirty or more high school children were shot and 17 were killed brought our the hand wringing and bloviating types. But sadly little seems to change.. These leaders and commentators seem to keep repeating the same words and definitions from past shooting tragedies. The weapons used remain the same. The now infamous AR 15. In making their comments journalists, talking heads, and politicians continue to distinguish carefully between automatic and semiautomatic guns as if this designation was a significant difference. The terms relate to the firing mechanism. In an automatic, holding back the trigger will cause the gun to continue to fire, while a semiautomatic requires the shooter to pull the trigger back for each shot.
But in terms of their actual use there is no functional difference between an assault rifle that is termed automatic and one termed semi automatic. They both kill equally well.
The M4 carbine is the current weapon issued to US Army troops and the Marines. It is presently in service in Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, Iraq...and where ever else our troops go. This new M4 is an automatic and will continue to fire as long as the trigger is pulled back. It has a theoretical rate of fire of 700 rounds per minute. Of course that rate of is not actually possible. The heat generated by friction as each bullet (which are designed to fit tightly against the inside of the barrel—to hold back the expanding gases) would literally melt the lining of the inside of the barrel and cause the weapon to explode. The military model has a 30 round curved magazine. But firing the full clip at once is likely to cause irreparable harm to the barrel were one to fire continuously so as to empty its ammo clip. In battle situations a second barrel is often carried—just in case. The M4’s actual rate of fire, according to the Military Handbook is actually only about 12 to 15 rounds per minute. The shooter has to fire in bursts to permit the gun’s barrel cool down or risk a blown barrel and a lost eye.
The AR 15, the so called “sporting” weapon used by the Florida school shooter yesterday—to kill seventeen of his former classmates—is for all intents and purposes almost exactly the same as the M4 military weapon described above. It fires the same ammo, is issued with a 30 round clip, has the same or similar sights, the same flash suppressor. It can be purchased in the same barrel length, and might even have the barrel stud to mount a bayonet. The only difference is that in firing the AR15 the shooter must pull the trigger back for each round to fire.
I suggest you take out your smart phone and turn on the timer function. Set it to zero and count how many times you could pull back your trigger finger in one minute. Yes, you can readily fire off many more rounds than 12 or 15 in a minute, even with a semiautomatic. The effects on the target would be the same whether the bullet was fired from an automatic or semiautomatic.
So realize that these designations “automatic and semiautomatic” are meaningless, phony designations which permit our gun manufacturers to market and sell battlefield weapons to the mass domestic market. Call it a “semi automatic” and you can hand it over to any mental defective, cuckholded and angry husband, secret jihadist, escaped mental patient or plain nut case, etc. etc. etc. The AR15 was designed, not as a sporting weapon, but for use on a battlefield to kill as many of our nation’s enemies as possible. It remains an excellent weapon for what it was intended. It is a battlefield weapon and in its automatic or semiautomatic forms it does not belong in the hands of civilians, and certainly not in the hands of mentally deranged, abused and emotionally fragile teenagers!
We must stop fooling ourselves—these weapons have no place in a civil society. They belong only on the battlefield.
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