General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: How to refute the more murders with hammers than rifles fiction that is sweeping right wing websites [View all]Tommy_Carcetti
(43,181 posts)In the wake of the BP oil disaster, you had apologists for the oil companies talking about how this accident was only one oil rig, while there were dozens of dozens of oil rigs out there in the Gulf of Mexico that hadn't exploded and caused a massive oil spill.
To which I would respond, yes, but you saw the devastation that resulted from a single oil rig disaster. Do you really want more of those ticking time bombs out there, just to imagine that type of damage over and over and over?
Similarly, yes, compared to handguns, the percentage of homicides resulting from semiautomatic assault rifles is relatively small. But it doesn't change the fact that the utility of such semiauto assault rifles for legal private civilian use is dubious at best. And it doesn't make the Aurora and Newtown shootings any less horrific and needless, both of which were carried out utilizing such weapons. Why enable more such disasters even if they are relatively few and far between?
If there was a real legitimate use for an AR-15 with a 30 piece clip, perhaps I'd differ. But I just don't see such a legitimate use.