Why did I do such a 180 on guns?

[paleotn]

163. I understand the sentiment.....

...but guns do not always = murder. That's an overreaction. Of course the gun lobby lies, Taverner, but lets interject a bit of sanity to this discussion. What exactly are you advocating here? A full and complete ban on all firearms? Might make sense for you urbanites, who get the "creeps" from guns. In a heavily urbanized area, to me that's sensable. In the very rural area in which I live, a total ban doesn't make as much sense, but reasonable changes to current law are needed .

My suggestion is a total ban on semi-automatic weapons in all jurisdictions, both hand guns and long guns. Forget magazine size and assault weapons bans. That's just a knee jerk reaction based on what looks "scary." Instead of a 30 round magazine, 3 10 round mags work nearly as well and can be swapped in a matter of seconds. And not all serious firearms, from a firepower perspective, look "scary" to unfamiliar eyes.

Semi-auto is not a requirement for hunting or target shooting. It would not affect me as a hunter one bit. Yes, I do hunt since I refuse to outsource all my killing. In fact, I've been using the same 20 round box of 30-06 for 3 years now, for both hunting and sighting in my bolt action rifle. I have a box of 30-30 that's even older, since I don't use my lever action rifle all that much. The one common factor in all mass shootings is firepower. The ability to put a significant amount of lead down range quickly. A semi-auto ban eliminates that factor.