What a lot of people don't understand about guns is that appearance alone does not make it an 'assault rifle' or 'military grade'. Most firearms on the market are semi-automatic, regardless of how mean they look. They fire ONE bullet per pull of the trigger. Dress it up however you like, adding sights, accessory rails, etc, but they only fire one bullet at a time. That technology has been around since the late 1800s. Obtaining a legal permit to own a fully automatic weapon takes more than a few flaming hoop jumps, but can be done in some states.
Magazine capacity has also been tossed about as a hot topic, but restricting that won't change anything. A skilled magazine change takes just over a second with most semi auto weapons, so whether it has 30 rounds or 10, you just carry more mags to offset the difference. Even revolvers have speed loaders, allowing you to fully load the cylinder in under four seconds. Most modern 9mm pistols hold on average 14 rounds and are far more easily concealed than long guns.
Here's where people start to get upset with me.... My father was a gunsmith. I grew up around more firepower than most average folks ever see unless they wander into a gun store. My father once told me, "No gun ever crawled off the assembly line, loaded itself, and went out hunting people. There's always a person involved." Guns get all the blame for the actions of man, simple as that. Take guns out of the picture, and man will still seek to harm man. Your average crossbow will kill a person just as easily as a rifle, and functions just as simply. "Well, they only fire one shot at a time..." True, but they are nearly silent, offsetting that little reload issue.
Tougher laws and restrictions only apply to the law abiding citizens out there. It makes it more difficult for folks like me to buy a simple .22 to teach my kids to shoot with. They do nothing to the criminal element. If anything this entire situation only leads to more armed criminals taking advantage of unarmed citizens because there's no fear of reprisal. No fear of encountering someone that may actually be able to defend themselves. "Well, you don't need a military grade weapon to defend yourself with..." Let's go back to the whole semi automatic aspect we talked about earlier. Just because it looks scary, doesn't make it sling lead any faster. I may want the same ability to move through my house with all the training I received in the military, but not have a three and a half foot shotgun leading the way. At 3am, when I hear someone in my living room or hallway, I want the cards stacked in my favor, and so would you. Gimme my 'military' looking gun, because I can get it around corners and on target faster.
'Gun Control' is controlling you gun, putting rounds where you intend them to go. What we need is Criminal Control. What we need is to understand that a weapon, be it a sword, crossbow, sling, cudgel, or assault rifle, cannot harm you by itself. They all need help. They all need the hand of man. Instead of demonizing an item, we should be educating about them. Now, if you'll all excuse me, I feel the need to burn a couple mags at the range. Gonna take the kids along and make a little shooting competition out of it, loser cleans the cat's litter box for the week (I shoot a 2 inch group, so I won't be cleaning a damn thing)...
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Topic: The Gun Control ideology (Read 3824 times)