And yet we enable sick individuals to take multiple lives quickly because we allow assault weapons to be sold. So if we really don't want attacks like this happening, then we need to do something about it.
Not to be offensive, but this shows a distinct lack of firearms knowledge. Semi-automatic center-fire rifles (and lever action also, which are never mentioned) have been around since the late 1890s. That technology is seriously old news in firearms design.
What changed wasn't that the rifle or the abilities of the rifle changed, but that they became politicized after almost 70 years of private ownership by modern politicians.
This tech is so old your great-grandfather could have owned it. It wouldn't be made of plastic, but it would be available in wood. Cheap. Your grandfather used it on the beaches of Normandy. It's not new and it's not any more deadly than it ever was.
Most infantry in WWII was given a few hours of training and could fire the venerable M1 Garand at rates of fire nearly equaling a modern non-select-fire (so called "automatic") AR or AK. 18 year olds with no prior combat experience and only their fear of being shot by a German or a Japanese soldier at their motivation.
Anyone hell bent on killing people can fire anything fast enough to make the difference between whatever they're using and a so-called "assault" rifle, truly meaningless.
And it's been that way since 1896 or so.
Oh, bump shooting lol!
That used to be fun as a kid, we'd do it with my buddies AK47, could also do it with most any semi auto, frankly aside from blowing lots of ammo it doesn't have much real world use.
If I were going to get in shootout, and the other guy could only bump fire his weapon, I'd happily go up against a AR15 with a 100round drum, with my 7 round 1894, I'd also feel sorry for him, as he'd be channeling his inner tony montaina, making lots of noise but not hitting much, I'd just slowly chamber a round, aim and squeeze.
Bump firing, ahh back when I was young and 7.62 was cheap enough to waste like that.
This. ^^ Anyone can learn to bump fire a rifle in about five minutes. No special stock or anything else needed. Firing a rifle that fast with a 100 round drum hanging from it is completely spray and pray, it's too heavy to shoulder correctly. With a smaller magazine, even 30 rounds, the rate of fire vs accuracy between shouldering it and aiming properly and bump firing it leans toward using it "properly" as being significantly more "deadly" than someone bump firing.
The dumber the shooter, and the more they think useless crap like a bump stock helps them, the better for anyone in their line of fire, honestly. Muzzle rise, overheating, malfunctions caused by cheap drum magazines leading to jams, inability to shoulder or support the thing properly -- all work in the favor of the victim in a cold hard calculation of the matter. It's a ***** to shoot a rifle with all that cheap crap hanging from it.
The above makes no sense to anyone who doesn't shoot. They think it's like Hollywood and Rambo shooting from the hip takes down an individual with every pull of the trigger. It just doesn't work that way in real life.
Watching the video of the Dallas shooter I saw what I've been worried about for some time, and the stuff they found in his apartment confirmed it. He TRAINED. And then grabbed an old venerable SKS and used it and the training to walk up and execute people. He wasn't a "sniper". He was a murderer. And he didn't just train on how to shoot. He trained in how to move. Combat techniques.
One commentator who is a
Police firearms trainer said he saw things the guy did that he wished he could get Officers to do consistently to save their lives.
It doesn't take an "assault rifle" to harm many many people. It takes a relatively small amount of training and much less practice time than we require of people earning Private pilot's certificates. Put in as much time as the average Private pilot has the day they pass the checkride, you're going to be extremely hazardous to anyone.
Case in point: Someone will probably have to send a robot with a bomb to take you out, when you know about how to use cover effectively to nullify a threat twenty to thirty times your size. Because they will not be able to get to you.
I always hear people say when they misinterpret the preamble of the Second that they really prefer that well-regulated (which meant well-trained back then and well-disciplined) militia instead of a yahoo with a gun.
No. You really really don't. The world record for 12 rounds from a revolver stands at just about three seconds. Including a reload.
Magazine size? Who cares? Just carry two firearms. Fastest reload you've ever seen.
Firearms have been cheap fast accurate technology for over 100 years. It's the operator, not the firearm, and the operators willingness to do whatever it takes to kill.
