300+ teens attack pedestrians on Chicago's Magnificent mile. 28 arrested

[krispos42]

191. *shrug*

They're written the way they are because of moral panic.

People don't like the idea of "military styled" weapons in the hand of civilians, even though we're just talking about common rifles and handguns and such. Regardless of the numbers of bells and whistles it has, an AR-15 is simply the launching mechanism for a Ø0.224" bullet made of copper and lead and maybe a bit of plastic in the tip. There are dozens, even hundreds, of manual-action rifles that are also launching platforms for Ø0.224" bullets made of copper and lead and maybe with a bit of plastic in the tip.

So, even though "military style" is really just an accumulation of logical ergonomic features for a rifle, they are portrayed as evil and "not belonging on our streets".

I mean, it's not like we're talking about guns that shoot artillery shells or homing missiles or electro-magnetic pulses or heat rays or poison gas or something. It's a launching mechanism for an unguided chunk of lead and copper.


If the problem is the high number of rounds that a semi-automatic rifle can shoot in a short period of time, then taking away a protruding pistol grip or a quick-adjusting buttstock is NOT an answer. Outlawing semiautomatics is.

Of course, nobody is proposing that. All the podium-thumping politicians that are so eager to ban "assault weapons" as a critical, essential component to reducing gun violence in America are entirely silent on the idea of banning semi-automatic rifles as a glass.

The politicians want to be seen as "doing something", and since another AWB has, inexplicably, been the Holy Grail of the gun-control movement for 9 years now, that's what they are going for.

Remember, these are the same people that have failed to protect the public from Big Oil, Wall Street, Big Health Insurance, the prison-industrial complex, mortgage-backed securities, systemic torture, the Iraq invasion, the Patriot Act, etc., etc., etc., are now trying to grab onto something also popular but useless. And trust me, they'll be mentioning how they "Took On The Gun Lobby!!!!!!" when they beg you for your money over the next 18 months.


The only solution is a blanket ban on semiautomatic long guns. ANYTHING else is useless pandering to public moral outrage. And if you're not going to do that, if the votes and the political will is lacking, then let it go. Stop the war on secondary ergonomic features and do something else, like universal background checks.

Except, of course, that the vast majority of murders are done with handguns. All rifles, and all shotguns, each account for about 5% of murders. Semiauto, bolt-action, lever-action, pump-action, etc.

So what is happening is that your side is expending maximum political effort and running a very great electoral risk for a pretty minimal reward. Your side's only hope is that the corporate media fails, as usual, to get the story straight.

Semiautomatic rifles that feed from detachable magazines will still be sold under Feinstein's 2013 ban, and Connecticut's proposed ban that is scheduled for a vote this week. It may be a "big political victory", but it's not effective lawmaking.

Remember, the gun that Fuckstain used at Sandy Hook was not an "assault weapon" under Connecticut law, so that right these should show the ineffectiveness of drawing an arbitrary line between "acceptable" and "unacceptable" semiautomatics.