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In reply to the discussion: Here's a gun question: [View all]friendly_iconoclast
(15,333 posts)142. How many people has Ted Nugent had killed while making records?
http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,220201,00.html
That's the gist of the official von Braun biography posted on the web site of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, where under the directorship of von Braun, the mighty Saturn 5 rocket was developed. And it's this sanitized biography that has roused the indignation of Tom Gehrels, a noted University of Arizona astronomer and pioneer in the program to discover and track Earth-threatening asteroids. A member of the Dutch resistance during World War II, Gehrels readily acknowledges von Braun's contributions to the world of science, but is all too aware of the little-known dark side of both him and his brother Magnus. "They were Jekyll and Hyde characters," Gehrels insists, "and the full truth ought to be known."
It is Gehrels who has pieced together that truth, largely from interviews with surviving political prisoners who had been forced to build V-1s and V-2s under the supervision of the von Brauns in an underground complex near Nordhausen, Germany. These prisoners were housed in an adjacent concentration camp called Dora, and new arrivals were given the standard welcoming speech: "You came in through that gate, and you'll leave through that chimney [of the crematorium]." ...
... For reasons best known to von Braun, who held the rank of colonel in the dreaded Nazi SS, the prisoners were ordered to turn their backs whenever he came into view. Those caught stealing glances at him were hung. One survivor recalled that von Braun, after inspecting a rocket component, charged, "That is clear sabotage." His unquestioned judgment resulted in eleven men being hanged on the spot. Says Gehrels, "von Braun was directly involved in hangings."
Hangings were commonplace, and Dora inmates remember von Braun arriving in the morning with an unidentified woman, having to step between bodies of dead prisoners and under others still hanging from a crane. These were not ordinary hangings, Gehrels says, "not hanging that breaks the neck of the prisoner, but they were slowly choked to death with a kind of baling wire around their neck."
It is Gehrels who has pieced together that truth, largely from interviews with surviving political prisoners who had been forced to build V-1s and V-2s under the supervision of the von Brauns in an underground complex near Nordhausen, Germany. These prisoners were housed in an adjacent concentration camp called Dora, and new arrivals were given the standard welcoming speech: "You came in through that gate, and you'll leave through that chimney [of the crematorium]." ...
... For reasons best known to von Braun, who held the rank of colonel in the dreaded Nazi SS, the prisoners were ordered to turn their backs whenever he came into view. Those caught stealing glances at him were hung. One survivor recalled that von Braun, after inspecting a rocket component, charged, "That is clear sabotage." His unquestioned judgment resulted in eleven men being hanged on the spot. Says Gehrels, "von Braun was directly involved in hangings."
Hangings were commonplace, and Dora inmates remember von Braun arriving in the morning with an unidentified woman, having to step between bodies of dead prisoners and under others still hanging from a crane. These were not ordinary hangings, Gehrels says, "not hanging that breaks the neck of the prisoner, but they were slowly choked to death with a kind of baling wire around their neck."
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I can't find any examples of semi-auto rifles commonly being called assault rifles.
hack89
Jul 2016
#83
It is generally understood that "assault" rifles (can) opperate in "fully automatic" mode.
jonno99
Jul 2016
#7
That's an interesting distinction. I'm fairly certain that legislative definitions supercede judges'
aikoaiko
Jul 2016
#64
"when did people decide an AR-15 WAS an assault rifle." - the REAL answer? When they saw
jonno99
Jul 2016
#17
You've been given lots of answers, yet dismiss them all because it's not what you want to hear.
cleanhippie
Jul 2016
#45
Well, it is Guns Discussion -- the preferred site among three (3) for controller/banners.
Eleanors38
Jul 2016
#36
"Assault Rifle" is a military term referring to specific characteristics of a firearm.
Glassunion
Jul 2016
#14
A magazine is something that holds ammunition and is then inserted into a weapon
Separation
Jul 2016
#147
Darb, if you are looking for a non-homophobic metaphor of this nature (caution)...
Eleanors38
Jul 2016
#44
Because the gunners define "assault rifle" as fully automatic, even though common use includes
Hoyt
Jul 2016
#25
It just proves you are WRONG and your attempts to promote more gunz are based on deceit.
Hoyt
Jul 2016
#65
Always nice to see pro-gun militants showing such regard for Nazi Germany after all these years.(nt)
Paladin
Jul 2016
#131
A round from an AR-15 will only go through 4 walls if you live in a grass shack...
friendly_iconoclast
Jul 2016
#155
It's just common courtesy on a website where everyone is working towards the same goal...
anoNY42
Jul 2016
#51
Or at least make an attempt to be accurate and educated on the subject. You know, as would be...
Marengo
Jul 2016
#53
You don't seem to understand, so here is the most salient quote on his matter...
Eleanors38
Jul 2016
#49
No one has answered it. on what authority are we accepting this definition?
Exilednight
Jul 2016
#80
You were shown the legal definitions that the US government uses to classify rifles.
hack89
Jul 2016
#84
Yeah I was going to say same thing. The Army is kinda boring and just calls it the "M-16 Rifle".
Statistical
Jul 2016
#106
The Fedorov Avtomat would have been the first, though the Sturmgewehr 44 or StG 44 gave them
Agnosticsherbet
Jul 2016
#123