Why do you want to own an Assault Rifle?

[j_garcia]

If the goal is to hit a target bullseye, the velocity and limited recoil make .22 a good win. I'm sure there's others too.

But, if you want something with more kick...

.22 is the go to of course. I like .17HMR. Costs a bit more, but is more fun to target shoot.

Buddy of mine has a Henry.

 

[roadwarrior]

First I'm not a liberal far from it. However I don't want to own a riffle and I don't want anyone else owning one either.

And for the record guns do kill people. Yes, its the guns stupid.

Guns are a frightful menace in the home. As a physician I saw countless tragedies from having guns in the home. These also involved our own hospital staff on more than one occasion.

In other jurisdictions including Canada just a few miles north of here mass shootings are very rare. They make guns hard to come by.

Civilized countries make guns hard to come by and certainly don't allow the purchase of riffles.

The US second amendment needs to be written off the books.

The US citizenry needs disarming and fast. That includes the police, who shoot far too many people. One of the root causes of that is that people can wander about this country with concealed weapons. In this part of our state over 40% are wandering around packing heat and that's a disgrace. So that makes cops justifiable fearful and hence trigger happy.

Unfortunately due to the proliferation of guns world wide, some UK police units have to be armed. The average cop on the beat is not, and surveys show they don't want to be armed.

America is a massive outlier when it comes to gun violence, and things are getting worse fast. Attitudes have to change.

I make no apologies about being an extreme hardliner when it comes to disarming the citizenry.

First off, thank you for what you do. Both my nephew and myself have received emergency treatment at a critical care facility before and there are no words but none of what you are saying will ever happen here no matter how much you believe it should.

I live in the South and firearms are a way of life down here. I don't hunt and I stopped target shooting at a range years ago but I still have several handguns and a shotgun and I always will. I have a gun safe and I've also had constant safety training on a range since I was a kid and the only bullet that ever went where it shouldn't have in my life was fired by a convicted felon into my nephews back at close range so I'm not without empathy regarding this topic. Maybe some laws get tightened a bit but if our elected officials didn't do anything after Newtown I highly doubt they'll do much of anything now. Sad but true.

We need to invest more into our mental health facilities for one thing. Not enough beds for those that need one and the laws to help an adult child who may be suffering are inadequate. My uncle worked at the Rochester Psychiatric Institute for years. He often said, "Our jails are now our hospital beds for the mentally ill."

 

[killdozzer]

First I'm not a liberal far from it. However I don't want to own a riffle and I don't want anyone else owning one either.

And for the record guns do kill people. Yes, its the guns stupid.

Guns are a frightful menace in the home. As a physician I saw countless tragedies from having guns in the home. These also involved our own hospital staff on more than one occasion.

In other jurisdictions including Canada just a few miles north of here mass shootings are very rare. They make guns hard to come by.

Civilized countries make guns hard to come by and certainly don't allow the purchase of riffles.

The US second amendment needs to be written off the books.

The US citizenry needs disarming and fast. That includes the police, who shoot far too many people. One of the root causes of that is that people can wander about this country with concealed weapons. In this part of our state over 40% are wandering around packing heat and that's a disgrace. So that makes cops justifiable fearful and hence trigger happy.

Unfortunately due to the proliferation of guns world wide, some UK police units have to be armed. The average cop on the beat is not, and surveys show they don't want to be armed.

America is a massive outlier when it comes to gun violence, and things are getting worse fast. Attitudes have to change.

I make no apologies about being an extreme hardliner when it comes to disarming the citizenry.

If I wrote something like this, it would be "lost in translation" in a way. Everyone might jump at me with all the; but you don't live here, but you don't know what it's like, you can't judge from your context...

I'm really glad it was you (especially for not being a liberal, kudos).

I was reading this thread and I got really depressed. I was thinking; they all got so entangled into the dumb semantics of these shallow NRA arguments about guns not killing, shooting clay pigeons with miniguns, protection... I thought there's no helping them. I thought you Americans simply paved your way to the state of permanent tragedies with all the justifications you're desperately trying to hold onto, that there's nothing else left for me to do, but feel sorry for some of the Americans I know and like.

It is so obviously wrong to everyone outside U.S. I wouldn't even know where to start. To go through some of the more obvious ones:

Heat of the moment; takes fraction of a second with a gun and may well go up to an hour with an umbrella.

Mass-shooting; if it's not guns try to do it with a golf club

Attacker has a gun, so I need one; so it's back to the wild west - the fastest gunslinger lives, ey? And you are pretty sure you're the fastest? Really?

Accidentally going off; try that with a stone.

Mistaking someone for the attacker; mistake him without a gun, see what happenes.

If they had weapons, the tragedy wouldn't happen; but you still have the highest number of guns and tragedies. Don't you see it doesn't work? Do you really think you can get good arguments from a gun lobby? It's a lobby!!! And it is lobbying guns!!!

People, with all your insight into how snake-oil works, the majority of your pro-gun arguments still come directly from the gun vendors.

There is one sole purpose to guns. It is a tool designed to make taking a life easier. Never was there and will there be any other. Shooting cans is merely a practice. Guns are not made for the cans.

The convenience of one's enjoyment in shooting cans, does not outweigh the horror of gun related tragedies. If you think it does, if you think you should have a right to own guns for your cans at the cost of people dying, then YOU are the psychopath with a gun even if you'd never shoot another person. You are demanding your hobby even if it means people will get killed.

The most important at the end; owning a gun makes you a legitimate target. Every single time. If you have one and your attacker has one, it's fair game. You're fair game. More guns will always mean more shooting and more death and it already does in your country and you can see it and witness it. Unless you expect to fill your country with so much guns that a cross country "Mexican stand-off" happens every time someone draws, you will have increase in casualties faithfully following the increase in civil armament. It already does.

It is false logic. No safety can come from having at your disposal a tool for easy life taking.

 

[highfigh]

I can’t see any reason........

Some people don't live near places that sell venison, boar or whatever wild meat they prefer and since most game is healthier than eating cows, they may have a good supply in the woods close to where they live.

For every hobby that someone enjoys, someone will fail to see any value in it- many people think that we're wasting our money and time in our endeavors to achieve audio greatness, too.

One group of people that like these weapons are the ones who are interested in all things military, for whatever reason. Some prefer military vehicles, uniforms or aircraft, but things that go 'Boom' or 'Bang' excite some people. However, the problem with some people is that something clicks in their head and they decide that killing a lot of people will make them famous, invincible, or something else.

Unfortunately, some people go off the rails without anyone seeing it as it's happening and Sunday seems to be a prime example of this. Now, someone has a new goal to exceed.

 

[highfigh]

Cliche soufflé, anyone?

There are scores of laws and applicable punishments which are highly effective at limiting criminal activity.

Tell that to the ones who don't care about what's "illegal". They don't care, think they're too desperate to care or want to make a statement.

Using a cell phone while driving is illegal, yet tens of thousands of crashes are the result. Speeding, likewise- on Monday, someone speeding on a dangerous street in Milwaukee ran a red light and t-boned a car. Unfortunately, that car contained a woman and her 11 month old infant. Neither survived.

 

[ATLAudio]

Tell that to the ones who don't care about what's "illegal". They don't care, think they're too desperate to care or want to make a statement.

Using a cell phone while driving is illegal, yet tens of thousands of crashes are the result. Speeding, likewise- on Monday, someone speeding on a dangerous street in Milwaukee ran a red light and t-boned a car. Unfortunately, that car contained a woman and her 11 month old infant. Neither survived.

If your point is laws are not full proof then I agree. If you want to say that we can’t have “law x” because people don’t follow laws, I’m going to ask why have any laws?

Let’s get out of the logical gutter of absolutes.

 

[ATLAudio]

Some people don't live near places that sell venison, boar or whatever wild meat they prefer and since most game is healthier than eating cows, they may have a good supply in the woods close to where they live.

For every hobby that someone enjoys, someone will fail to see any value in it- many people think that we're wasting our money and time in our endeavors to achieve audio greatness, too.

One group of people that like these weapons are the ones who are interested in all things military, for whatever reason. Some prefer military vehicles, uniforms or aircraft, but things that go 'Boom' or 'Bang' excite some people. However, the problem with some people is that something clicks in their head and they decide that killing a lot of people will make them famous, invincible, or something else.

Unfortunately, some people go off the rails without anyone seeing it as it's happening and Sunday seems to be a prime example of this. Now, someone has a new goal to exceed.

My thread question is about assault rifles, not game rifles.

Again, why do you own an assault rifle?

 

[ATLAudio]

A few knee jerk, dog whistle canards and cliches which I’ve read here. They are worth answering, but both are quite nonsensical to my question; “why do you own an assault rifle?”

“Guns don’t kill people, people kill people...”

Another empty bumper sticker cliche soufflé, but who wants to put guns in jail? Laws govern people, that’s not changing.

“Cars kill people in the wrong hands.”

I love this. When firearms have the same governmental oversight, tranperancy, licensure, training and insurance demands etc. not to mention open legal remedies against manufacturers, I’ll be glad to discuss this further. While automobiles can have tragic, let’s say, “off-label uses,” I believe that the primary benefit of automobiles for the private citizenry trumps that of assault weapons any day.

 

[TLS Guy]

First off, thank you for what you do. Both my nephew and myself have received emergency treatment at a critical care facility before and there are no words but none of what you are saying will ever happen here no matter how much you believe it should.

I live in the South and firearms are a way of life down here. I don't hunt and I stopped target shooting at a range years ago but I still have several handguns and a shotgun and I always will. I have a gun safe and I've also had constant safety training on a range since I was a kid and the only bullet that ever went where it shouldn't have in my life was fired by a convicted felon into my nephews back at close range so I'm not without empathy regarding this topic. Maybe some laws get tightened a bit but if our elected officials didn't do anything after Newtown I highly doubt they'll do much of anything now. Sad but true.

We need to invest more into our mental health facilities for one thing. Not enough beds for those that need one and the laws to help an adult child who may be suffering are inadequate. My uncle worked at the Rochester Psychiatric Institute for years. He often said, "Our jails are now our hospital beds for the mentally ill."

I live in the North and firearms are a way of life here. This is the USA!

Guns should not be on the home. Pretty much all the family tragedies I encountered with guns, there was a locked gun safe. A child usually, or some other, knew how to open it. Then the dire consequences. Usually it was the death of a child. We are not done yet, as it usually ends in family break up and divorce.

I understand people want to hunt. Then they should keep their guns in a controlled staffed armory. It should be checked out and checked back in before nightfall.

No guns in the home, no citizens going round with concealed weapons. Those may make the owners feel safe, but it makes me feel unsafe. Whose rights are paramount?

We just had a case in the Twin Cites were a guy got shot by a cop because he did have a gun and license to carry.

The bottom line is that owning a gun, and especially carrying one, is more likely to get you or someone in your family killed that not having a gun. The downsides of gun ownership far out weigh the benefits. It is not even close.

 

[TheWarrior]

I live in the North and firearms are a way of life here. This is the USA!

Guns should not be on the home. Pretty much all the family tragedies I encountered with guns, there was a locked gun safe. A child usually, or some other, knew how to open it. Then the dire consequences. Usually it was the death of a child. We are not done yet, as it usually ends in family break up and divorce.

I understand people want to hunt. Then they should keep their guns in a controlled staffed armory. It should be checked out and checked back in before nightfall.

No guns in the home, no citizens going round with concealed weapons. Those may make the owners feel safe, but it makes me feel unsafe. Whose rights are paramount?

We just had a case in the Twin Cites were a guy got shot by a cop because he did have a gun and license to carry.

The bottom line is that owning a gun, and especially carrying one, is more likely to get you or someone in your family killed that not having a gun. The downsides of gun ownership far out weigh the benefits. It is not even close.

But what if armed citizens were in the crowd at the Vegas concert, they could have just returned fire at random to the Mandalay!?

And for anyone arguing that it's wrong to 'politicize' this, you're ignoring the fact that congress is attempting to make silencers accessible.

It's a right to own weapons, but it's a privilege for the victims to have access to healthcare. This must change.

 

[shadyJ]

All of this arguing and debate is theoretical about "what would be best" with regard to gun control. There isn't any need to get heated about it, because, in this country, it has about as much to do with reality as arguing if spiderman can beat superman in a fight. In reality, here is what is going to happen: nothing.

No matter how horrific the slaughter, things are not going to change. You would need a democratic controlled congress and democratic president to even have a hope of getting started on any kind of further restrictions, and even then, the legislation they would likely take would be mild for fear of putting off swing states. And before anyone blames politicians, it takes a voting public to support these politicians. The American people have decided that the occasional mass murder is an acceptable price to pay, not only for easy access to firearms, but for lack of easy access to mental health care. That is the reality, and that isn't going to change anytime soon.

 

[highfigh]

If your point is laws are not full proof then I agree. If you want to say that we can’t have “law x” because people don’t follow laws, I’m going to ask why have any laws?

Let’s get out of the logical gutter of absolutes.

I'm not using absolutes but I think creating more laws is a bad way to to deal with crime. People break laws because they didn't learn that we need to solve problems peacefully, they weren't taught to do this or they have some fundamental disagreement about their requirement to follow the laws. I'm not an anarchist, I'm a believer that people are broken, flawed and over-reactive. I'm very disappointed in people because there's so much potential to do great things, but too many choose to do stupid, selfish things.

 

[highfigh]

My thread question is about assault rifles, not game rifles.

Again, why do you own an assault rifle?

Why are you assuming that I own an assault rifle? Read the words, don't infer so much.

 

[slipperybidness]

Why own an AR?

Because I can, because I have a (modest) firearm collection, because I exercise my 2nd amendment rights.

That's all the "why" that I need. I enjoy shooting firearms from time to time. Skeet shooting is fun, target practice is fun, seeing what a high-powered weapon can do is fun.

It's no different than taking out a high-powered sports car for a few laps at the track.

Down in TX, we guns are just part of the culture. We respect and appreciate them! Grew up with loaded gun right behind the front door. Knew what it was, knew how to use it, knew not to touch it unless needed.

Sleep with a loaded pistol in arms reach, the girlfriend knows where it is and how to use it. I do not worry about the GF when I am out of town.

 

[Steve81]

I'm only going to post once on this thread.

First order of business, I've already deleted a few posts that crossed the lines of civility. If I see any more, the thread will get locked and I will ban offenders for as long as I deem necessary to cool things down.

Second order:

Again, why do you own an assault rifle?

I don't, nor do I have any particular desire to own one. OTOH, I'm not exactly sure what kind of answer you expect. I have some friends and family members who own assault rifles. Their reasoning mostly centers around perceived cool factor and/or adding to their collections. I can certainly understand that to an extent: when I go shooting with my wife's family out in rural OH, my 22LR plinker isn't the one that garners attention.

And before anyone blames politicians, it takes a voting public to support these politicians. The American people have decided that the occasional mass murder is an acceptable price to pay, not only for easy access to firearms, but for lack of easy access to mental health care. That is the reality, and that isn't going to change anytime soon.

Pretty much. My view is that America doesn't just have a problem with gun violence, but violence in general. There are a great many reasons for that, but any proposal that doesn't take a holistic view of the problem isn't much of a solution to my eyes.

 

[TLS Guy]

All of this arguing and debate is theoretical about "what would be best" with regard to gun control. There isn't any need to get heated about it, because, in this country, it has about as much to do with reality as arguing if spiderman can beat superman in a fight. In reality, here is what is going to happen: nothing.

No matter how horrific the slaughter, things are not going to change. You would need a democratic controlled congress and democratic president to even have a hope of getting started on any kind of further restrictions, and even then, the legislation they would likely take would be mild for fear of putting off swing states. And before anyone blames politicians, it takes a voting public to support these politicians. The American people have decided that the occasional mass murder is an acceptable price to pay, not only for easy access to firearms, but for lack of easy access to mental health care. That is the reality, and that isn't going to change anytime soon.

You are assuming that change has to come from the left. What if change comes from the right? I believe it will be Republicans in the end that lead the way to end this nonsense. I know I'm not the only republican that feels this way, far from it.

I take exception to your term "occasional mass murder". The correct description now is regular mass murder.

Change I doubt will come in my lifetime, but I feel it will in my grandchildren's lifetime. These awful incidents will not stop without drastic change. All the mental health care you could provide will not stop it. You know as well as I do that this has not peaked out yet. There will be more frequent and more horrific incidents. That will drive change. History tells us it will. Democracies are like a huge ship at sea. They are hard to turn but when they do they set a steady course.

 

[highfigh]

But what if armed citizens were in the crowd at the Vegas concert, they could have just returned fire at random to the Mandalay!?

And for anyone arguing that it's wrong to 'politicize' this, you're ignoring the fact that congress is attempting to make silencers accessible.

It's a right to own weapons, but it's a privilege for the victims to have access to healthcare. This must change.

I would be surprised to learn that nobody in the crowd was carrying, but a sensible person knows that spraying lead at a hotel when the shooter's location is far from ground level will result in the wrong rooms being hit, especially at that distance (which was estimated at 400 yards). Nobody practices this kind of shot and a pistol would be useless.

IMO, health care should have been settled decades ago.

 

[slipperybidness]

First I'm not a liberal far from it. However I don't want to own a riffle and I don't want anyone else owning one either.

And for the record guns do kill people. Yes, its the guns stupid.

Guns are a frightful menace in the home. As a physician I saw countless tragedies from having guns in the home. These also involved our own hospital staff on more than one occasion.

In other jurisdictions including Canada just a few miles north of here mass shootings are very rare. They make guns hard to come by.

Civilized countries make guns hard to come by and certainly don't allow the purchase of riffles.

The US second amendment needs to be written off the books.

The US citizenry needs disarming and fast. That includes the police, who shoot far too many people. One of the root causes of that is that people can wander about this country with concealed weapons. In this part of our state over 40% are wandering around packing heat and that's a disgrace. So that makes cops justifiable fearful and hence trigger happy.

Unfortunately due to the proliferation of guns world wide, some UK police units have to be armed. The average cop on the beat is not, and surveys show they don't want to be armed.

America is a massive outlier when it comes to gun violence, and things are getting worse fast. Attitudes have to change.

I make no apologies about being an extreme hardliner when it comes to disarming the citizenry.

But, how do I protect my home and family without a firearm? Rely on a fast police response?

Like I say, it's different in TX. You pretty much assume that every home is protected by a firearm.

You did see what happened in Garland, TX a couple years ago when some extremists tried to raid the place? That got stopped pretty quickly.

 

[highfigh]

You are assuming that change has to come from the left. What if change comes from the right? I believe it will be Republicans in the end that lead the way to end this nonsense. I know I'm not the only republican that feels this way, far from it.

I take exception to your term "occasional mass murder". The correct description now is regular mass murder.

Change I doubt will come in my lifetime, but I feel it will in my grandchildren's lifetime. These awful incidents will not stop without drastic change. All the mental health care you could provide will not stop it. You know as well as I do that this has not peaked out yet. There will be more frequent and more horrific incidents. That will drive change. History tells us it will. Democracies are like a huge ship at sea. They are hard to turn but when they do they set a steady course.

Ships are also hard to stop and they don't do that very quickly. Well, most of the time- they often need to hit land in order to do that and then, disorder results.

The home break-ins where guns are stolen because they aren't secure needs to stop, felons can't be allowed to walk free with only a slap on the wrist and I fully expect blowback from the next comment, people who don't know how to raise/care for children in a way that results in good citizens shouldn't be allowed to keep the children. I know parents aren't the only ones who can be a major influence on kids' lives, but what I see happening is absolutely unacceptable, for ANY point in time. It's barbaric and inexcusable.

 

[highfigh]

But, how do I protect my home and family without a firearm? Rely on a fast police response?

Like I say, it's different in TX. You pretty much assume that every home is protected by a firearm.

You did see what happened in Garland, TX a couple years ago when some extremists tried to raid the place? That got stopped pretty quickly.

A few years ago, the former MKE County Sheriff made a comment in an interview- "The average time between a 911 call and arrival of Police officers is more than 23 minutes, on average". When the average time for a shooting is 3-6 seconds, people will die. Last week, we had two shooting incidents on I-43, in a two mile stretch. The first one didn't result in any injuries, but they found 19 bullet casings on the pavement. The second, was due to the shooter being fired from his job that day and he fired at a car that was occupied by some of his former co-workers. At least two people were hit and his girlfriend, who was riding in the car with the shooter, called the police later.

When seconds count, the police are only minutes away. I'm not in Milwaukee proper, but I'm close to the border and I'm very tired of hearing gunfire.