Since the subject of gun control is back in the national spotlight, you see people from both sides arguing their case. People on the side of more gun control will routinely say something like “You don’t need an assault rifle.” Because they’re scared of the black gun that looks like a military weapon. I want to spend some time breaking down this argument.
First, An Education
Before we go too much further, I feel that you need to watch this video because it actually explains the difference between what an actual military assault rifle is versus is what is currently sold to the public that many on the side of gun control label as “assault rifle” (they’re two very different things).
Also, I need you to understand what the phrase “semi-automatic” means versus what the media wants you to think it means. A gun is considered to be “semi-automatic” when trigger has to be pulled for each round to be fired. In other words, the gun can only be fired as fast as you pull the trigger. Granted, you can pull the trigger very fast, but you do so at the cost of accuracy (unless you have lots of practice). A lot of handguns fall into the category of “semi-automatic”. What the media and gun control proponents want you to think when they say “semi-automatic” is “fully automatic” in that you pull and hold the trigger, the gun will fire until you release the trigger or it runs out of bullets. A semi-automatic weapon doesn’t work that way, it only fires a single round for each time the trigger is pulled. In fact most handguns sold today are semi-automatic.
Rifles sold to civilians are semi-automatic, the trigger has to be pulled for each round you want fired. Turning these guns into fully automatic weapons, while possible, is very illegal. It’s also illegal to sell the parts to do so to a civilian.
You Don’t Need a Gun Like That
You’re right. No one needs a gun like that. However, in today’s society we all have, buy, and want things we don’t need. There are several kinds of cars out there. There are many variations on alcohol. We don’t really need all the different kinds of cars or alcohol but we have them. In fact, at one point in our history we attempted to ban alcohol. That didn’t turn out so well did it? I digress, lets move on.
For the purposes of this argument, we’re going to ignore the fact that in the United States we have a constitutional right to keep and bear arms. You can argue all you want about the meaning of the second amendment, but the Supreme Court has ruled the right to keep and bear arms is an individual right on numerous occasions, including the more recent D.C. versus Heller case which shot down the capital’s ban on guns. Again, I’m digressing.
Since gun owners don’t need an AR-15, then I propose that we ban other things we as a society don’t need. I propose we start with cars.
We don’t really need cars that go over 35 miles per hour, so all new cars need to be built to not exceed this speed limit. Also, we don’t need cars of various sizes and colors. You can have a car or a truck. Both will only come in black, they will all be the same size, and they will all have four doors. There will be one size for trucks and one size for cars. They will all come with cloth seats as you don’t need leather seats. They will have AM/FM radios only and will contain bluetooth for hands free phone operation. You don’t need a CD player or Mp3 player. You will not be allowed to modify your car with different tires, all tires will be the same kind of tire. We don’t really need big tires, therefore they are now banned.
Why will your new car only do 35 miles per hour? All speed limits will be lowered to 35 miles per hour, that way we don’t need to reduce speed limits for neighborhoods. We’ll all have one speed we drive. You don’t need to go faster than that.
Don’t like the car analogy okay, we’ll move onto alcohol.
We don’t really need a few hundred varieties of beer and liquor. We want it. We even like having a range of choices. We don’t need them though. Alcohol causes as many if not more problems than guns. It destroys families, can cause depression, leads to thousands of deaths via drunk driving. Some have even called alcohol a “social disease.” So, I propose we limit the kind of beer available. You only really need Budweiser. It’s a beer. You don’t need the many varieties on beer.
Now that we only serve Budweiser for beer. We have a beer. You don’t need a light beer, a beer energy drink, or even beers with added flavors. We don’t need ales, wine coolers, and so on, so we can just ban all those. Remember you don’t need them.
But Guns Are Made To Kill
By now, some are saying “yea, but guns are only made to kill things” and why they think this is a argument is beyond me. I own three guns and I’ve shot several more. Want to take a guess at how many people I’ve killed when shooting my guns? Here’s a hint, it is less than one. Yep, that’s right. My guns which “are made to kill” have killed zero humans (and zero animals for that matter too). Now, ask me how many paper targets I have put holes through, or how many clay pigeons I’ve killed. That number is going to be a lot higher.
Alcohol’s sole purpose is to inebriate. It’s not meant to be refreshing, in fact it’ll make you more thirsty. So one could argue that since alcohol’s sole purpose is to inebriate, that the makers of the substance are, in fact, encouraging people to be inebriated. While inebriated, people tend to do stupid things since their judgement is impaired resulting in injuries or even death to themselves and possible others.
You can own guns and never take the life of a single living thing. Yes, guns making killing things easier, but that’s not their only purpose. People like shooting guns. They like shooting a variety of guns like a car guy likes driving different kinds of cars or a home brewer likes to make and drink different kinds of beers.
Saying you want to ban a gun because of how it looks, operates, or whatever stating “you don’t need a gun like that” as your reasoning is just as ignorant as me saying we should ban all other forms of cars and beer because you don’t really need more than one type of beer or one type of car.
I can understand some people don’t like guns. That’s fine. I’m not really a fan of beer. But I’m not trying to ban your beer, so please stop trying to ban my guns.
I'm Michael Koby, and I love technology. I'm also a programmer, currently doing Ruby on Rails development for a small Houston startup. Here I talk about technology, programming, politics, movies, music, and anything else I feel I need to talk about. If you would like to know more, you can check out the About page.
Michael Koby 
"You don't need an 'Assault Weapon'"
Since the subject of gun control is back in the national spotlight, you see people from both sides arguing their case. People on the side of more gun control will routinely say something like “You don’t need an assault rifle.” Because they’re scared of the black gun that looks like a military weapon. I want to spend some time breaking down this argument.
First, An Education
Before we go too much further, I feel that you need to watch this video because it actually explains the difference between what an actual military assault rifle is versus is what is currently sold to the public that many on the side of gun control label as “assault rifle” (they’re two very different things).
Also, I need you to understand what the phrase “semi-automatic” means versus what the media wants you to think it means. A gun is considered to be “semi-automatic” when trigger has to be pulled for each round to be fired. In other words, the gun can only be fired as fast as you pull the trigger. Granted, you can pull the trigger very fast, but you do so at the cost of accuracy (unless you have lots of practice). A lot of handguns fall into the category of “semi-automatic”. What the media and gun control proponents want you to think when they say “semi-automatic” is “fully automatic” in that you pull and hold the trigger, the gun will fire until you release the trigger or it runs out of bullets. A semi-automatic weapon doesn’t work that way, it only fires a single round for each time the trigger is pulled. In fact most handguns sold today are semi-automatic.
Rifles sold to civilians are semi-automatic, the trigger has to be pulled for each round you want fired. Turning these guns into fully automatic weapons, while possible, is very illegal. It’s also illegal to sell the parts to do so to a civilian.
You Don’t Need a Gun Like That
You’re right. No one needs a gun like that. However, in today’s society we all have, buy, and want things we don’t need. There are several kinds of cars out there. There are many variations on alcohol. We don’t really need all the different kinds of cars or alcohol but we have them. In fact, at one point in our history we attempted to ban alcohol. That didn’t turn out so well did it? I digress, lets move on.
For the purposes of this argument, we’re going to ignore the fact that in the United States we have a constitutional right to keep and bear arms. You can argue all you want about the meaning of the second amendment, but the Supreme Court has ruled the right to keep and bear arms is an individual right on numerous occasions, including the more recent D.C. versus Heller case which shot down the capital’s ban on guns. Again, I’m digressing.
Since gun owners don’t need an AR-15, then I propose that we ban other things we as a society don’t need. I propose we start with cars.
We don’t really need cars that go over 35 miles per hour, so all new cars need to be built to not exceed this speed limit. Also, we don’t need cars of various sizes and colors. You can have a car or a truck. Both will only come in black, they will all be the same size, and they will all have four doors. There will be one size for trucks and one size for cars. They will all come with cloth seats as you don’t need leather seats. They will have AM/FM radios only and will contain bluetooth for hands free phone operation. You don’t need a CD player or Mp3 player. You will not be allowed to modify your car with different tires, all tires will be the same kind of tire. We don’t really need big tires, therefore they are now banned.
Why will your new car only do 35 miles per hour? All speed limits will be lowered to 35 miles per hour, that way we don’t need to reduce speed limits for neighborhoods. We’ll all have one speed we drive. You don’t need to go faster than that.
Don’t like the car analogy okay, we’ll move onto alcohol.
We don’t really need a few hundred varieties of beer and liquor. We want it. We even like having a range of choices. We don’t need them though. Alcohol causes as many if not more problems than guns. It destroys families, can cause depression, leads to thousands of deaths via drunk driving. Some have even called alcohol a “social disease.” So, I propose we limit the kind of beer available. You only really need Budweiser. It’s a beer. You don’t need the many varieties on beer.
Now that we only serve Budweiser for beer. We have a beer. You don’t need a light beer, a beer energy drink, or even beers with added flavors. We don’t need ales, wine coolers, and so on, so we can just ban all those. Remember you don’t need them.
But Guns Are Made To Kill
By now, some are saying “yea, but guns are only made to kill things” and why they think this is a argument is beyond me. I own three guns and I’ve shot several more. Want to take a guess at how many people I’ve killed when shooting my guns? Here’s a hint, it is less than one. Yep, that’s right. My guns which “are made to kill” have killed zero humans (and zero animals for that matter too). Now, ask me how many paper targets I have put holes through, or how many clay pigeons I’ve killed. That number is going to be a lot higher.
Alcohol’s sole purpose is to inebriate. It’s not meant to be refreshing, in fact it’ll make you more thirsty. So one could argue that since alcohol’s sole purpose is to inebriate, that the makers of the substance are, in fact, encouraging people to be inebriated. While inebriated, people tend to do stupid things since their judgement is impaired resulting in injuries or even death to themselves and possible others.
You can own guns and never take the life of a single living thing. Yes, guns making killing things easier, but that’s not their only purpose. People like shooting guns. They like shooting a variety of guns like a car guy likes driving different kinds of cars or a home brewer likes to make and drink different kinds of beers.
Saying you want to ban a gun because of how it looks, operates, or whatever stating “you don’t need a gun like that” as your reasoning is just as ignorant as me saying we should ban all other forms of cars and beer because you don’t really need more than one type of beer or one type of car.
I can understand some people don’t like guns. That’s fine. I’m not really a fan of beer. But I’m not trying to ban your beer, so please stop trying to ban my guns.
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