General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: What is an "assault rifle," he asked sarcastically. [View all]mr_lebowski
(33,643 posts)You cannot define, for the purposes of an actual law, a 'banned weapon' using (many) of the sort of descriptions that are in the OP. 'It's weapon of choice of mass-murderers' is meaningless afa writing a law goes. Laws just aren't written that way. You have to define actual physical characteristics, and the only ones being given in the OP is the type of rounds fired, and the fact that the magazines are big. There's a suggestion these guns can be legally modified to fully automatic 100 round magazines ... but I don't believe that's true. I mean the feeding mechanism of the magazine is automatic but if you make your AR-15 'full-auto', you're breaking the law in every state I believe.
Aiko is right that the OP is not descriptive enough for making a law with ... and if used to construct a ban, would pull in so many weapons that there's no hope of it passing. Yet, when the humpers ask 'define, legally, the weapon(s) to be banned', that is what they're asking for, and they're right to do so. Cause we're asking for a law.