Broad approaches to gun control/regulation

[jimmy the one]

18. glorified 22?

sarisataka: At the risk of being offensive, this is ridiculous. Guns are lethal weapons, they will only make you dead once. Until a more reliable less-lethal weapon system is designed, guns are what we have.

Agree, what you wrote is ridiculous (to what you replied to). Tell you what, I challenge you to a duel. You can use a 22 caliber handgun using 22 shorts, & I'll use an M16, from 150 yards. You can even shoot first (head helmets & heart plate required).
In wwII american gis complained about the m1 carbine, that it sometimes took 3 body hits to bring down a japanese enemy. (the garand m1 was better of course). Semantic games need not apply when speaking of lethality.

Va mtnman: The AR15 is just a little more than a glorified .22 in power, and it is not lethal unless you hit an organ, or a main artery.
I know this because, I was raised a hunter, and understand "what gun, would be used for what purpose" actually Guns, like the AR15 in its standard caliber of 5.56 or .223, are BANNED in many states for hunting, not due to magazine capacity, but because they are too weak to reliably make a clean, merciful kill. Guns of that type tend to wound, not kill.

pffft; not that you're wrong on all, but calling it a glorified 22 is like calling a harley davidson 1100 a glorified moped.
.. bullet energy is determined by kinetic energy, and the formula is thus:
Kinetic Energy = 1/2 x mass x velocity squared
A 22 short might have a muzzle velocity of 1100 fps, & the .223 from the AR15 a muzzle vel of 3,000 fps.

KE 22 short = 1/2 x ~40 grains x 1100 x 1100 = 24 million
KE .223 fmj = 1/2 x ~60 grains x 3,000 x 3,000 = 270 million

so the AR15 .223 fmj delivers 11 times more kinetic energy to the target, than the 22 short.
.. the .223 can cavitate inside the body, creating a kind of shock wave around the bullet path, 1 to 2 inches in diameter, disrupting tissue & organs etc. A 22 will generally just create a wound similar to being stabbed with a long dagger thrust.
.. the .223 tends to fragment into 2 parts which create two bullet paths thru the body, one or both cavitating.

You are correct it, the m16 = AR15 more or less, was designed as much to wound terribly rather than kill, as well as being much lighter to carry about with the .223s bandolier. Actually a better way to put it is that it was designed to kill but if it didn't, it would leave a terrible ghastly wound which would divert troops to tend to the victim.
But the m16 is far more lethal than most rifles, in spite of this. It can take an arm off at the shoulder (see kinetic energy above), which does'nt kill immediately but 2 minutes should do it. The body holes are such that they can't be survived much.

.. what part of sheanadoah you in, vmm? lynchbg?