A "high firepower weapons ban"

[wercal]

155. I know you won't like hearing this...

...and you'll accuse me of using NRA talking points...but we have to get one thing straight.

The AR-15 is not a machine gun.

Ok?

Now before you get upset, let me articulate why that is important.

The difficulty with crafting legislation that outlaws Assault Rifles lies in the details. This is because there is fundamentally no difference in rate of fire or even magazine capacity between an AR-15 and a common hunting rifle.

Exhibit A would be the BAR .308 semi-auto. You can search Google Images for it. Its wooden, has no flash suppressor or pistol grip, and doesn't look flashy at all....its what a most would picture a 'hunting rifle' looks like. Yet, it does exactly the same thing the AR-15 does - it is semi-automatic and can accept a high capacity magazine. Its actually more powerful.

That term I used was 'semi-automatic'. And that's exactly what the BAR has been since the late '60's. And that's exactly what the AR-15 is. Neither of these are machine guns. Both require one trigger pull per bullet.

The same can be said for the vast majority of pistols out there that are semi-automatic (think Jared Loughner).

Machine guns have been very restricted in this nation since the days of Al Capone....and I may be wrong; but, I can't recall a single mass shooting in my lifetime that featured a machine gun.

So why are these semantics important?

For starters, you don't want to write your congressman demanding he restrict machine guns...that would be redundant. Next - how does one outlaw an 'assault weapon' and not a 'hunting rifle'? Its been tried before, so manufacturers just made 'Assault Weapon Ban Compliant' weapons. I actually think the 1994 ban is responsible for the meteoric rise in popularity of the AR-15. This is because the ban caused the manufucturer to sell a stripped down model, yet they made it very easy to accept accessories, and an entire cottage industry of interchangeable parts sprung up. AR-15 owners can customize and accessorize just like some people do with automobiles. That's more fun to them than that plain ole .308 BAR.

So, how does one outlaw an assault rifle? And, even though we are in the shadow of two recent mass murders using the AR-15, shouldn't we step back and ask why outlaw the AR-15 and not Semi-Automatic pistols, since they are used in so many crimes (and mass shootings). The OP tried to address these questons - a good attempt, yet it is still very flawed. But to not address these questions just gets us AWB 2.0...some people pat themselves on the back, but nothing meaningful is accomplished.

Anyway, please know that an AR-15 is not a machine gun; and, despite the protests of many, it is a very important distinction.