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In reply to the discussion: Assault weapons ban dropped from Senate bill [View all]AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)It is NOT 'so deadly'. A lot of our troops are pretty pissed at it's military cousin for lacking stopping power. It was desirable as a military round for two reasons: cold war doctrine, and portability. .223 is a lot lighter and smaller than .308, the previous battle rifle cartridge. Stepping down to a cartridge somewhere between a battle rifle and a sub machine gun was desirable to increase the amount of ammo the soldier could carry. Studies showed volume of fire was preferred over penetrating power, so more ammo of the lighter weight was deemed superior to less ammo of greater power. Second, killing on the battlefield, in cold war era war fighting doctrine is not as valuable as wounding. Killing an enemy soldier is ok, one guy out of the fight. Wounding an enemy soldier is better, because now you've taken out one soldier plus one or more of his comrades attempting to care for him. .223 is LESS deadly than .308.
And you can see this in deer hunting regulations. The .223 is not lawful for hunting deer in most states, not because it is grossly deadly, but because it is too small and light. It won't reliably put down a 250lb deer without needless suffering. It is not damaging ENOUGH. The minimum caliber for hunting deer in my state is .240 for this reason. Bigger, heavier bullet, bigger wound, more energy on impact. More likely to penetrate and do enough damage to cleanly kill the deer. The troops are generally unfavorable to the round nowadays, because the enemy is more or less a 250lb deer that might be wearing body armor, and is shooting back at you.
Yes, you aim it at a kid, devastating results. Same is true of any long rifle. Hunters using .223 are more likely to be using it against animals that are, frankly, more kid sized, like coyote, and feral hogs. Only in a handful of states, with VERY specialized ammo, are people using these rifles lawfully against deer.
Your comment about accepting external magazines applies to practically every semi-auto rifle made after oh.. about 1940 or so, so that's a huge battle. Not a trivial legislative issue. These rifles are very much in common use today, nationwide, by millions of people for entirely lawful purposes.
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