CDZ I do not understand the fascination with and demand for semi-automatic rifles

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The right to free speech has no specifications whatsoever. Yet we have time and court tested laws restricting it when it comes to slander, libel, or using it to foment violence.
Indeed - because they harm others, or plance them in a condition of clear, present and immediate danger -- because of this, these things can be regulated w/o running afoul of the 1st Amendment.

How does my ownership/possession of AR15 harm someone?
How does nor ownership/possession place someone in a condition of clear, present and immediate danger?
They don't?
Then, using the right to free speech as a guide, as you suggest, on what basis can my ownership/possession of an AR15 be regulated?
 
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The amount of people killed by rifles is tiny when compared to the amount of people killed by handguns. (The "type not stated" category is likely handguns too)

If you're going to worry about a firearm, worry about handguns.
 
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The amount of people killed by rifles is tiny when compared to the amount of people killed by handguns. (The "type not stated" category is likely handguns too)

If you're going to worry about a firearm, worry about handguns.
Canadians are extremely concerned about handgun proliferation in Canada and are fully aware that US handguns leaking across the border are the biggest threat.
Along with that, we are banning assault type weapons and/or AR type weapons. The biggest danger with the AR type weapons in Canada is in the sort of people that are attracted to them. We don't want any more potentially dangerous people of that sort.
 
The right to free speech has no specifications whatsoever. Yet we have time and court tested laws restricting it when it comes to slander, libel, or using it to foment violence.

The restrictions on Free Speech aren't so much about limiting potential speech as they are about redressing harm caused by the abuse of speech. If you slander or libel, you can be punished civilly. Even if you foment violence, and a court would have to prove that a reasonable person would be driven to violence by your speech, you cannot be punished for possessing the speech itself, only for abusing that speech.

Punishing people for harm done by misuse of arms is good and fine. Withholding a right because someone may use it improperly is not keeping in the spirit of a right. The right has been subjugated to the status of a privilege.
 
The restrictions on Free Speech aren't so much about limiting potential speech as they are about redressing harm caused by the abuse of speech. If you slander or libel, you can be punished civilly. Even if you foment violence, and a court would have to prove that a reasonable person would be driven to violence by your speech, you cannot be punished for possessing the speech itself, only for abusing that speech.

Punishing people for harm done by misuse of arms is good and fine. Withholding a right because someone may use it improperly is not keeping in the spirit of a right. The right has been subjugated to the status of a privilege.

Exactly. Well said…
 
The restrictions on Free Speech aren't so much about limiting potential speech as they are about redressing harm caused by the abuse of speech. If you slander or libel, you can be punished civilly. Even if you foment violence, and a court would have to prove that a reasonable person would be driven to violence by your speech, you cannot be punished for possessing the speech itself, only for abusing that speech.

Punishing people for harm done by misuse of arms is good and fine. Withholding a right because someone may use it improperly is not keeping in the spirit of a right. The right has been subjugated to the status of a privilege.
Americans' choice of allowing unlimited and irrational freedom with firearms has compromised their country's freedoms for all to experience the freedom to live in safety.
It's one of the main reasons why America ranks so poorly on 'freedom' as compared to other countries that exercise sensible controls on guns and the use of guns.


  • The U.S. (86) ranks 52nd, between Slovakia and Belize.
 
So if I have a 2nd Amendment right, then where can I buy a cruise missile, some grenades, maybe some anti-aircraft missiles... You know, all the stuff we're not allowed to buy.
Yes, buy the missiles and immediately sit on one and fire it.
 
Americans' choice of allowing unlimited and irrational freedom with firearms has compromised their country's freedoms for all to experience the freedom to live in safety.
It's one of the main reasons why America ranks so poorly on 'freedom' as compared to other countries that exercise sensible controls on guns and the use of guns.


Gun ownership reinforces the freedom to live in safety, because it gives the average citizen the ability to defend himself.
 
EDIT:
Several readers have responded remarking specifically about the AR-15 genre of rifles. I don't know if they didn't read the whole OP, but this post/thread is about semi-automatic rifles in general, and the AR-15 is but one form of them, albeit, apparently, the most popular one. I've not in the main post below singled out the AR-15 genre of semi-automatic rifles.​
Edit end.


I'm not a hunter or target shooter, though I have on occasion fired a rifle at a stationary target. That said, it seems to me that the only legitimate civilian uses of rifles are for sport -- hunting and target shooting. Perhaps, however, that's an errant predicate, but barring a handful of exceptional circumstances, it doesn't seem to me seem so; thus I'm baffled at the existential fascination gun enthusiasts have with semi-automatic rifles.

Over the past few days and in an effort to challenge my own perception that there is no sound/cogent basis for demanding a semi-automatic rifle for target shooting or game hunting, I've plumbed the Internet seeking input on whether there be any hunting or target shooting sports for which an automatic rifle is necessary or even militated for. So far, I have yet to find one.

What have I found? Well, this:

So what did the inquiry above lead me to think? [1] Well, pretty much what I thought before I undertook it: what the hell is the fascination with semis? It seems very clear to me that for hunting and target shooting a semi isn't at all necessary, though it's also clear that semis facilitate follow-up shots if such is needed. All the same, assuming one is is a fair marksman and has in one's sights a single target, a "manual" rifle of some sort will get the job done very effectively for any medium to large game.

Why was I interested in trying to make some sense of just what gives rise to the fascination with semis? Quite simply, it's because in my recollection, all the unlawful rifle users of recent times have used a semi. [2][3] That suggests to me that if there is to be ban, it needs to be a ban of semis, not so-called assault rifles. It also seems to me that if the tactical styling of "next gen" rifles is what drives sales to some consumers, fine. I'm sure that look can be implemented without semi-automatic functionality.

At the end of the day several things strike me as legitimate concerns:
  • People do have a right to own guns.
  • While the gun doesn't leap off a shelf or rack and go out shooting people, it's clear that people who use rifles to shoot others -- be they shooting single targets as the D.C. Sniper did or shooting indiscriminately at people -- preponderantly choose to do so using semis.
  • For most of those rifle gunmen, it's very clear that the rate of fire has had a material impact on the quantity of people whom the shooters killed and/or injured.
  • Hunting is a legitimate sporting pursuit and nobody should be denied the ability to enjoy it.
  • Target shooting is a legitimate sporting pursuit and nobody should be denied the ability to enjoy it.
  • Given the body of available germane information about all sorts of things -- soundly performed psychological research findings, soundly performed sociological research findings, extant limitations on future findings in either discipline, consumer behavior, guns themselves and their various capabilities, fitness for a purpose, extant laws, the nature and extent of law enforcement, the nature and extent of policy solution actions that can be taken, etc. -- it seems to me that rifle enthusiasts are going to have to make or face some sort of concessions on the nature of rifle availability. Access to semis may be among them, too it may not.
  • Given the body of available germane information about all sorts of things -- [same list as above] -- it seems to me that gun control advocates are going to have to make or face some sort of concessions on the nature of rifle restrictions. Simply banning all rifles is not an option.
  • Mass shooters don't much seem to use handguns. (This discussion does not include handguns and it does not construe "semis" as handguns.)
In light of those concerns, it seems to me that declaring semis to have the same status as fully automatic rifles may be one of the viable means and modes of established a basis by which we can reduce deaths an injuries caused by unlawful users of rifles.


Note to Members who are in the "no, no, no" camp as go access and/or gun reporting:
You need not post in this thread because I am well aware of your stance and I know you exist. We all are and do. This thread is not about how many responses it may generate and I'm not canvassing to see what views are most popular here.​


Note:
  1. Though I did encounter some coverage given to shotguns, I didn't see much. I inferred from that that either bird hunting isn't especially popular in the U.S. or just about shotgun, roughly speaking, will do as goes bird hunting, the key being the size of the shot one uses more so than the shotgun. I don't really know or care, right now, which of those, if either, be so. It was just a ancillary thought that crossed my mind.
  2. I'm thinking back as far as the D.C. sniper days. I have not checked to see if shooters prior to that used semis or didn't use them. I also have relied only on my memory as goes what weapons rifle-murderers used/fired to kill folks.
  3. This is flat-out bizarre. -- Based on FBI Uniform Crime Report data, in any given year between 2006 to 2011 (inclusive), rifles and shotguns outstrip handguns in terms of having been used to commit murder; however, over the period as a whole, handguns overwhelming outstrip rifles.

    I'm sure there must be an explanation for that strange happenstance, but I don't at this juncture know what it is. It could be that the site that compiled and graphically reported the data goofed somewhere. A "goof" certainly seems plausible given that the FBI's data about victims of rifle and handgun shootings from 2010 to 2014 presents a very different picture.

    Be that as it may, it's all too damn many people being unlawfully shot and killed, regardless of the weapon, as far as I'm concerned. That said, this post/thread is about rifles.

Honey...look around you. Society is BREAKING down---Cops are under attack. GUNS are needed for protection from a variety of sources now and things will only get worse for the next several years.
 
What is wrong with is the legislation has allowed idiots to access them.
When was the last time you used one for self protection?
You've never don't it and highly unlikely you ever will. Its bullshit and a poor justification. Dickheads like you are partly responsible for the slaughter of innocent children simply by disagreeing to put tighter controls. Go away with you silly gun shit. You're all mad.
I've never woke up in a burning house, but I have a smoke detector in my home.
 
What is wrong with is the legislation has allowed idiots to access them.
There no sound argument to deny the law abiding access to firearms.
When was the last time you used one for self protection?
However rarely they are used in self-defense it is at least an order of magnitude more often than they are used to commit murder.
You've never don't it and highly unlikely you ever will. Its bullshit and a poor justification.
If gun-related violent crime is not so bad that there's no need to have a gun for self-defense, then we cannot have a need for more gun control laws.
Dickheads like you
^^^^
The last resort of someone who has run out of talking points.
 
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