Let's put a stop RiGHT NOW to any argument of false equivalency!!!

[Ninga]

Simply and only assult weapons, simply and only gun magazines that can fire rounds and rounds and rounds of bullets.....

Finally, the dangerous intersection, where so many deaths have taken place, will get the fat, lazy and complacent lawmakers to finally put up a traffic light.

Collectively the Democrats have been cowards (pro gun rights Democrats drowning out the few voices of reason).

Assult weapons and magazines.......must go, must be turned in, now.

[Recursion]

1. Again with this. Do you know what makes something an "assault weapon"?

Do you? It would surprise me if you do, because I don't think I've ever talked to someone who
A ) knows what the assault weapons ban actually did, and
B ) supports it

[Ninga]

2. Oh, sorry. I don't know anything about guns. What kind of a gun was used? Do all guns

Use magazines that can fire multiple rounds?

[Recursion]

3. You're talking about semi-automatic weapons with detachable magazines

The assault weapons ban said that weapons like that could have one of the following characteristics:

* Pistol grip (these are safer than traditional grips, but people for some reason think they make guns more deadly. they don't)
* Bayonet lug
* Threaded barrel
* Flash suppressor

Civilian weapons generally don't have threaded barrels or flash suppressors to begin with (though they don't in any way make a gun more dangerous). So the result of the assault weapons ban was that the rifle that looks like an AK-47 had to have its bayonet lug removed.

The only part of this equation that actually effects how the gun operates is that it's a semi-automatic weapon with a detachable magazine, so all the ban did was say you can't mount a bayonet on those. It was a stupid law.

Now, the reasonable answer might be to say "ban semi-automatic rifles with detachable magazines", but here we hit a logistical problem because there's more than a hundred million of them out there. That is the most popular class of rifle sold.

[Ninga]

4. Now that I understand, I'm more upset, because I am now fearful that there isn't a way to resolve

this problem. What a mess.

[Recursion]

5. Well, we've managed to cut the murder rate in half in 20 years

... and that's with gun laws having been all over the map (an assault weapons ban for half that time, but increasingly libertarian gun laws in many states).

I think banning things that are easy to make, easy to conceal, and widely desired doesn't work, and often makes things worse. Alcohol and drug prohibition are exhibits A and B for this, to me.

I mean, if I could wave a magic wand and make all semi-automatic rifles with detachable magazines disappear, I would do it, but simply making them illegal won't make them go away. But, like I said, we're doing some things better, and we can do more things better.

Personally, I would start with requiring private individuals who are selling guns to use the national background check system, and attaching criminal liability to people who give or sell somebody a gun that is then used in a crime. That would have to happen at the state level, though, for the most part.

[Atypical Liberal]

6. The only way is to ban all semi-automatic weapons or at least detatchable magazines.