Adam Lanza Shot Victims at Close Range with Semi-Automatic Rifle

[krispos42]

78. If the rifle was bought in Connecticut in the last 18 years...

...it was not an assault weapon.

Connecticut has had state ban that mirrors the now-expired federal ban. All "assault weapons" had to be registered with the state within a year of the law passing, (a certain date in 1994) and I believe you can't sell a registered assault weapon to anybody else in the state if you decide to get rid of it.

It may have been a semi-auto rifle that uses the AR-15 operating system, but it did not have enough features to be classified as an "assault weapon".

The rifle pictured is one, per Connecticut law, because it is a semi-automatic rifle with a detachable magazine and pistol grip, AND also has a telescoping stock and a flash hider.

If the rifle's stock was fixed, or if the flash hider gets removed, the rifle pictured is no longer an assault weapon. Same as if you replaced the pistol grip and buttstock with a conventional straight grip: no longer an assault weapon.



This is why such bans don't work. Arbitrary and ineffective.

You could argue for the banning of semiautomatic long guns, which certainly removed both the arbitrariness and the ineffectiveness of the Clinton-era ban.