Another mass shooting in the U.S

1)I really wish people would actually learn the difference between semi automatic and fully automatic firearms before diving blindly into the debate.

To break it down into simple terms, semi auto is a firearm which chambers and fires a round each time the trigger is pulled, then the trigger is released before another round can go down range. Trigger/bang/trigger/bang/trigger/bang.

Fully auto is a firearm which chambers and fires a round when the trigger is pulled and keeps doing so until the ammunition is expended. Trigger/bang/bang/bang/bang/bang.

The former can be found as a system in any number of firearms from shotguns to pistols. Indeed you might argue that a revolver is "semi auto" as in practical terms it functions in a similar way. Fully automatic firearms are heavily restricted in the US and as Sparks points out I can't recall any time when such weapons were used in such spree shooting. I would imagine given the speed they empty their magazines and how much the jump around someone could do far more damage against unarmed targets by carefully selecting victims shot by shot.

There is a third type(well fourth if you consider single/double shot), the lever or "pump" action. Found in rifles and shotguns. The cowboy flics fave the Winchester a good example. In the right hands they can be fired extremely rapidly.

2) The term "assault weapon" need some further teasing out too. EG shotguns, which will be about the last firearm to be banned or heavily regulated anywhere are used in war as "assault weapons", so called "trench guns". Indeed they cause such injuries they're banned by the Geneva convention(though it's largely ignored). Lever action hunting rifles will be another least likely to be banned and like I say they can be fired rapidly.

3)If given the hideous choice of being shot by an "assault weapon" round or a shotgun or a hunting round, I'll take the M16 please Carol. Hunting rounds are often soft or hollowpoint rounds designed to do the most internal damage to take down the animal. So called "dum dums" in movie parlance. No thanks.

4)Let's look at this from a different angle. Go back 50 years in the US. Firearms were easier to get than today and this kind of spree shooting was unknown. "Oh but modern weapons are more dangerous!". Really? The Colt 45 semi auto first came out in 1911 and that has some stopping power. Ever see a Tommy gun in action? The Thompson machine gun, a fully automatic firearm, spitting out 45 calibre lead at 1000 rounds a minute has been around since the 20's and you could buy one over the counter in the US with no restrictions until the mid 1930's. Even then you could still buy one, but you just had to register it. And yet no school/college/public place shooting sprees by lone nutters. So what has changed?

TL;DR? The public are baying for something to be done. "Ban Assault weapons" makes for great headlines and it'll look like a step forward, but the guns are a symptom of something else and it'll just take away the focus from the underlying condition(s) and these tragedies will keep happening. After all this latest tragedy would still have happened, as would the tragedy in the US college last year. No assault weapons required.

smurgen wrote: »

And yes you could argue that a revolver is a semi automatic but you'd be an idiot.

Actually you wouldn't. It fires as fast as you can pull the trigger.

You know exactly what type of weapon when I say a semi automatic.

Do you? It seems from your writings on the subject you do not. MInd you and to be fair, you're not alone in this thread on the lack of knowledge on display, happy to fall back on hyperbole and ignorance of the subject involved.