General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: What is an "assault rifle," he asked sarcastically. [View all]better
(884 posts)because it will determine the impact any laws referencing it will have. The trick is to properly identify what makes a rifle an assault rifle, and the cold hard truth is that it's neither the appearance nor the caliber.
It's how much ammo it can hold and how quickly it can be reloaded.
Yes, an AR-15 can be made to fire at a rate similar to a fully automatic weapon, with or without modification, as can any semi-automatic. But firing at such a high rate actually becomes a serious liability to the usefulness of the weapon if its capacity is so limited as to mean that firing at such a rate means that you have to reload literally every second.
It is important to get this definition right, not only because are there in fact valid reasons for civilians to be allowed to own an AR-15 which will be used to foment opposition to any reforms, but because it is of vastly greater importance to do away with high-capacity rapidly replaceable magazines than it is to do away with any particular firearm design into which they can be loaded.
Ban the AR-15 and we will still have Ruger Mini-14's that have the same destructive potential.
Ban high capacity rapidly replaceable magazines, and we reduce the destructive potential of ALL weapons.
The argument is not that civilians should be allowed to own weapons capable of mowing down a classroom full of people in 5 seconds.
It's that we need to ban the thing that actually makes that possible, and that requires proper definition.