There is an obvious reason upon which we can rest most of the “common sense conversations” and their lack of their titular common sense.
Semantics.
Words mean things.
The more you try and change what words mean, the less they mean… because the less anyone cares.
We know that ignorance is bliss among gun controllers. From the Twitter activists capitalizing on their blue check mark (or even victim/survivor status) when it comes to “gun” violence, to the lawmakers that are crafting the rules for implementation to reduce deaths from homicide, suicide, and accidents, one thing becomes glaringly obvious whenever they open their mouths…
They don’t have the ghost of a clue what they’re talking about… The ones that do don’t make headlines.
Contextual Thought Exercise
Imagine with me, if you will, a heart surgeon trying to explain the risk and reward analysis of common heart surgeries in fairly broad terms. The doctor is doing so in order to convey why or why not someone might undergo the surgery. But the audience keeps interrupting and asking why the heart that the surgeon is showing isn’t shaped like this ❤? Or asking where all the blue blood is inside the body, because all the real life pictures the surgeon is using only shows the red blood? They darn well know there are blue blood veins in the body too, they claim they saw them in pictures.
Now imagine that the doctor has patiently explained that the heart, the muscled organ of the body that circulates the blood is, in fact, the shape it is. The doctor also patiently explained that the red/blue color scheme that they use is only an indicator color to tell the difference between blood that has oxygen in it and is delivering to the muscles, and blood that has delivered oxygen and is circulating back to the heart and lungs to do it again. The colors in the diagrams are not accurate representations of reality, they are just a simple way to distinguish between the blood paths. Additionally because nonoxygenated blood is much darker than oxygenated blood, blue was a good choice that had some indicative color reference to work with.
Now, imagine… that after taking the time to patiently, and as succinctly as possible, explain all these things to educate the audience (who are allegedly curious about hearts and surgery) since these two things are required basic understanding for a further understanding of the topic of heart surgery… the audience proceeds to argue with the doctor about both the shape of the heart and the existence of blue blood… and that the basis for both their arguments are solely the facts that we draw a heart like ❤, and that illustrations of the circulatory system they have seen “showed” blue blood. That’s it, that is the depth of their understanding and they are challenging an expert in the field, a heart surgeon, on those facts.
Now imagine… yes, we are four imagines deep… that not only is the audience arguing with the surgeon about the shape of the heart and the color of blood, but that part of that audience (and some of the loudest voices arguing these asinine ‘facts’ about the heart) are in charge of the rules governing heart surgery. That people loudly and implacably claiming the human heart is shaped like ❤ has control over and is actively working to change the rules surrounding how to take care of the heart medically. They then passionately describe the one time they played a game of Operation, and how harrowing and life like an experience it was, and how that they have since dwelt on that game for a very long time and they feel strongly and passionately about heart surgery because of that ‘lifelike’ board game experience.
You now possess the frame of reference to understand how depressingly and mind-numbingly stupid activism like the following is…
Yes, this does get worse every time you read it. Yes, this person believes their opinion should be considered when making policy involving firearms. They believe so as passionately as the folks who believe in the blue blood… or for a more real world example, they believe as passionately that their opinion should be taken seriously as a flat-earther believes the earth is flat.
So let’s break down that post piece by piece into its stupid parts… and ask ourselves, “If this were someone making rules for medicine, getting this much basic information so abysmally wrong, would we trust them to make those rules?”
An AR-15 is a semi-automatic rifle.
Alright, we’re off to a good start. Factual statement there.
It shoots 13.4 bullets per second, 800 rounds per minute.
That’s.. um.. the cyclic rate, yes. It cycles at the rate of 800 cycles per minute. But it, being semi-auto, also only completes one cycle before being interrupted by the disconnector. Otherwise it would be fully-automatic, not semi-automatic.
It was created for the purpose of hitting multiple targets in a short amount of time, making it ideal for mass murder.
That was not why it was developed, and that is an easily checked and well documented fact. It was developed to be a light weight infantry rifle stemming from the AR-10 design, originally to replace the M1 Carbine. In fact it was never meant to be a primary infantry weapon at all, it just worked so well once it made it into service (and the kinks got unkinked) the military bought into the design. The Air Force bought them to replace M1 carbines with something more suited, but it was still replacing the M1 carbine which is a support personnel’s personal weapon.
In its semi-automatic ‘civilian’ configuration it was meant as a light weight mildly recoiling rifle for any and all reasons a person might need a light mild recoiling rifle. It isn’t designed to hit “multiple targets in a short amount of time” it is designed to automatically reload itself from the magazine after your fire the shot.
It is far from ideal for mass murder, there exist far more efficient mediums. Ask anyone with IED experience.
It’s been used in the military to clear out areas in the Middle East for the reasons above.
High explosives, heavy machine guns, medium machine guns, light machine guns, armored vehicles with cannon, artillery, mortars, precision guided bombs, aircraft cannon, guided missiles, aircraft mounted rockets, shoulder launched rockets, and launchable grenades would all like to have a word with you, Rin Lynn. You may be oversimplifying a bit and ruining any point you were trying to make.
Yes, the AR-15 is a good fighting rifle. But when compared to the pallet of available destruction of combined arms doctrine, it is nothing.
The rifle is largely a defensive weapon, by doctrine. In the attack, in most attacks, heavier weapons will be brought against the target. The heaviest weapons that can be used will be used, this keeps our troops safer. Rifles may be used in conjunction with the heavier weapons, but rarely (only if there is no better option) will they be the main effort of an attack.
They aren’t lethal enough to control a combat environment effectively on their own on the larger scales of military combat. That’s why heavier weapons are brought into serious fights, especially offensive actions, and used against the enemy. If I have a medium machine gun to use against the enemy, it beats the hell out of my M16. So the M16 becomes the supporting ‘just-in-case’ item. If I have a JDAM and can use the JDAM, then the enemy is getting 500lbs of precision guided kaboom and not semi-auto 5.56x45mm.
In the defense, the enemy attacks, troops defend themselves with their personal weapons (those AR-15’s) and as quickly as possible bring heavier weapons into action against the attacking enemy. Then they use their rifles to support the heavier weapons employment against the enemy, but wherever possible the heavier more effective weapons carry the fight to a successful conclusion.
By all things militarily available, the AR-15 sucks at mass murder. It’s a very good individual weapon though, especially to protect oneself.
Compare it to, say, a Glock 19 (a popular handgun, since you are confused about it).
I am most certainly not confused about it. The G17/G19 are probably the world’s most popular handgun, that’s a rough one to assume people don’t understand. Maybe throw out something more niche, like the Nambu. I’ve owned 7 G19 variations, including the 19X (which is my favorite) among the many Glocks I have owned in total.
This gun is small and holds a chamber big enough for 10 rounds of ammo.
It is not an automatic or semi-automatic weapon,]
It is absolutely a semi-automatic weapon. It is the definitive semi-automatic pistol, an international standard of semi-auto pistols. It also has a fully-automatic variant, the Glock 18, which fires faster than 800 rounds per minute.
[which means it takes more time in between shots before being able to shoot again.
The cyclic rate is upwards 1100-1200 rounds per minute (Glock 18), that is upwards of 50 percent faster than the AR-15 to mechanically prepare the next shot. It is not slower.
It is used in homicides and burglaries, crimes with singular victims.
This is in no way accurate… Not even a little bit…
It is not ideal for mass murder because of its inability to target multiple people at once.
In the 2019 Mass Attacks in Public Spaces (MAPS) survey, 71% of mass attacks involving firearms involved only handguns.
Virginia Tech involved only handguns, a Glock 19 and a .22 with only 10 and 15 round magazines. 32 people killed, 17 injured.
But you know what can?
I do. You don’t.
A fucking semi-automatic weapon.
