Gun Control

[Reincarnate]

I want to make a general discussion thread on this, but I ask that any participants please read this post first, because I want everyone to be on the same page before proceeding, and that requires some background info. Feel free to correct any inaccuracies, and I'll update.

I'd first recommend watching this video. It's 40 minutes long, but it does a terrific job at explaining all the basics of how firearms work, and a lot of this information is still very much relevant today.

Now for some main points. I'm not going to get into a bunch of stats, but rather just try to summarize things to help guide initial discussions. I'm rather intentionally being loose with my language here.

1. Manual weapons require you to reload manually between shots. You pull the trigger and fire the bullet, but now you have to manually eject the spent casing and then load the next round into the chamber yourself before you can pull the trigger and fire another bullet again.

2. Semi-automatic weapons do the ejecting/reloading for you, but only once per trigger pull. So one pull of the trigger = one shot fired.

3. Automatic weapons allow you to hold the trigger down and continuously fire bullets. You might also hear these get called "machine guns."

4. There are other modes of fire such as burst-fire (e.g. 2-3 rounds fired per trigger pull) and selective-fire (the ability to switch between modes such as semi-automatic and automatic).

5. Weapons with automatic fire capabilities are heavily regulated in the US to the point where most civilians may as well consider them functionally banned. It's a very lengthy and expensive process to get your hands on an automatic weapon. It'll take thousands of dollars, extensive background checks, and many months of waiting. There are several restrictions, and this is even before we get to the ways that individual states might make you jump through additional hoops. In some cases they are outright illegal no matter what.

Additional information if you are curious:

http://blog.adamsarms.net/blog/how-d...-nfa-tax-stamp

https://www.quora.com/Is-it-legal-fo...ifle-in-the-US

https://www.quora.com/In-which-state...tomatic-weapon

6. An "assault rifle" is a real term that usually describes selective-fire (i.e. capable of automatic fire) weapons that you might see in the military. However, due to point (5), assault rifles are not being used by civilians to commit homicides or mass shootings. In addition, it doesn't help that the media often uses "assault rifle" and "assault weapon" interchangeably, which is also confusing because...

7. An "assault weapon" is a completely politicized, bullshit term. It's basically used to describe big, black, scary-looking rifles. In other words, the features being included here are mostly cosmetic. To illustrate:





From Wikipedia: Common attributes used in legislative definitions of assault weapons include:

-Semi-automatic firearm capable of accepting a detachable magazine
-Folding or telescoping (collapsible) stock, which reduces the overall length of the firearm
-A pistol grip that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon
-Bayonet lug, which allows the mounting of a bayonet
-Threaded barrel, which can accept devices such as a flash suppressor, Suppressor, compensator or muzzle brake
-Grenade launcher
-Barrel shroud, which prevents burning of shooter's arm or hand as a safety device.

You'll also find that a lot of people legislating against this stuff don't even know what they're legislating against:

"What is a barrel shroud?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rGpykAX1fo
"30 magazine clip in half a second" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJmFEv6BHM0

So there's a lot of bullshit flying around here when it comes to "assault weapons."

8. In short: Trying to ban "assault weapons" means you are basically banning cosmetic features that have no real impact on one's ability to participate in gun violence or mass shootings. And banning "assault rifles" is technically useless because, again, see point (5). When participating in this thread, mention a fruit somewhere in your first post to show that you've actually read this far. I want to gauge how many people actually read this shit.

9. The point of these terms, in my opinion, is to control language and perception, and therefore control thought. It's meant to deliberately obfuscate the issue and lead people to see firearms as strictly a tool of murder and assault. It's meant to confuse people into thinking that semi-automatic rifles are somehow the same as military-grade automatic machine guns. A lot of people see this as an attempt to make a stepping stone that will later make it easier for the anti-gun crowd to push for broader gun control / possible bans. For more info please see http://www.assaultweapon.info/

10. "But what about weapons like the AR-15 I keep hearing about?" It's just a popular semi-automatic rifle that's been around for many decades. "AR" is not short for "assault rifle." It's short for "Armalite rifle." Again, to be explicit, it's not an automatic. And while we're on the subject, rifles are very rarely used in homicides.

11. So if you've read this far you're probably realizing that the only guns we need to focus on are semi-automatic handguns. Focusing on "assault weapons" or "assault rifles" or "automatic weapons" or "machine guns" is arguably a waste of time because none of these things address any real issues our society is actually facing in terms of gun violence / homicides / crime / mass-shootings. The Virginia Tech shooter, for instance, carried out a mass shooting by using two semi-automatic handguns. And more broadly...

12. Virtually all mass shootings have been done with semi-automatics. And in most cases, the weapons were obtained legally. However, mass shootings are a very small fraction of gun homicides / homicides overall. Most deaths from firearms come from suicides and violence committed with illegally-obtained handguns (especially in gang violence or poor urban areas).

13. The Second Amendment reads: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." Whether you like guns or not, this can't be ignored.

14. So now we can finally get to the real meat of the discussion (and where things start to get a lot more opinionated): What should we do about semi-automatic firearms? Any meaningful discussion on gun control has to start here.