Guns Guns Guns

We are a nation obsessed with guns. Heck I own 5 of them, although 3 are non functional display guns. For the most part people are pretty responsible with them, although the are some idiots in the mix. But when you her terms like “assault rifle”, “semi automatic” or “long gun” in the media it’s hard to figure out what it all means. I’m going to help.

The news is constantly screaming about someone being shot by an “assault rifle”, but what exactly is an assault rifle? basically an assault rifle is based on the way a weapon looks. Typically the AR 15 is referenced because it is one of the most popular styles & with good reason. The AR platform is a very well designed & comfortable rifle to shoot. But at it’s core it is no different than a standard rifle.

Another term the media like to scare us with is “semi-automatic”. There are 3 basic firing styles of weapons: manual, meaning after you fire you need to perform an action to load another round like pumping a shotgun or moving a bolt on a rife. The next (and most common type) is semi-automatic. This means when you fire the weapon it automatically loads another round for you. You then need to pull the trigger again to fire. Almost every pistol & rifle made is a semi-automatic type. Even revolvers are technically semi-automatic. The final type is full-auto. Full auto means that when you pull the trigger the weapon will keep firing until you release the trigger or run out of ammo. Except in special cases you can not own a fully automatic weapon. They are illegal. So when the news people say “semi automatic” trying to scare you, you’ll know they are talking about almost every firearm that is made.

So if you are a crazy person & want to kill a lot of people you could do it just as easy with a standard rifle, which is also called a long gun, a pistol or shotgun just like you could with an “assault rifle”. So I say to the media, stop trying to scare us with sensationalism & scary words & just tell the news. And everyone else, quit focusing on the type of guns used in these killings & start looking at the people. They are the ones doing the damage, after all.

Video is here.