IMO, there's no need for a semi-auto rifle outside the shooting range.

[Barack_America]

Need it for hunting? Learn to fucking shoot.

Tax the living hell out of their purchases and charge a hefty fee for permits to possess them. Ban them for hunting.

Bump clips, high capacity magazines and other such bullshit? Gone for private ownership. Want to play with them? Rent them from the range, and return them before you go.

It's a start.

[BeyondGeography]

1. Yes...and I'd like those who disagree with you to tell us exactly why you NEED a Bushmaster at home

or anything similar. What on earth do you do with such a gun besides use it for target practice?

[Control-Z]

2. Why would there be a need

for a semi-auto rifle at the shooting range?

[HooptieWagon]

4. So you can take several shots without changing posture.

With a bolt-action rifle, you have to remove your finger from trigger to operate the bolt, and have to move your head slightly during that process. With a semi-automatic you take a shot, check aim, and take another shot, etc...without any body movement.

[HooptieWagon]

3. They're used for open field hunting,

where it's possible to get off several shots. In heavy underbrush, you only get one shot...so a semi-automatic is pretty useless.

[digonswine]

5. They aren't needed for it.

Generally, if a person is blowing rounds that fast, they are not aiming well.
Up here(Wisconsin), when we hear a guy blasting a semi-auto, we can usually assume he or she is just missing.
If a hunter is not as near to certain as is possible that they are going to make a good first shot, they should pass and wait for another opportunity.
Not only is it wasteful, but they tend to injure more animals that then get away, often to suffer terribly until death. Bad hunter.

[HooptieWagon]

6. Any rifle can miss or wound with first shot.

A semi-auto lets you get off a quicker second (or even third) shot that will hopefully bring down the animal. Agree with you that throwing a bunch of lead in the air without aiming is wasteful and pointless.
However, my perspective is limited. I've only been hunting a few times, many years ago. Each time was wild boar hunting, in Florida palmetto thickets. Very close range, and only one shot was possible, so I used my brother's shotgun, loaded with a slug. A semi-automatic would be useless, as would a .223. Also tried shooting a gator once with a .22. That was laughable....bounced right off.

[digonswine]

7. A rifle will fire accurately where aimed-the hunter is the key.

If necessary, with my lever action, I can get off a second shot very quickly without needing to re-aim much, and I am no trick-shot artist.
My point was that those guns are not necessary. People may want them, but they can hunt perfectly well without them. Did you get a boar? I always wondered how they taste.

[HooptieWagon]

11. Never got one by firearm.

We eventually figured out traps were much more effective. Taste is much gamier than pig. Brother used to make wild boar sausage, which ended up tasting better when mixed 50/50 with regular pork sausage. Then one time he cut open a boar to butcher it, and the insides were crawling with worms. Ugh, disgusting. Kind of turned us both off.

[newfie11]

8. Damn right!!!!

[Spider Jerusalem]

9. There probably isn't much need for one on a shooting range either, honestly

bolt-action rifles are more often the weapon of choice for precision shooting (there's a reason military snipers use bolt-action and not semi-auto; bolt-action allows for higher cartridge pressures and thus a higher muzzle velocity for precision shooting at extreme-range targets).

[former-republican]

14. Actually there is a change for more semi auto precision rifles in the sniper community

[frank380]

10. Hunting is not protected by the second amendment

Neither is competition shooting or casual shooting.

The only thing protected by the constitution is owning guns to resist an oppressive govt like in the civil war.

[hrmjustin]

13. Interesting post, and welcome to DU.

I disagree that the gov't was oppressive during the civil war but i understanding your meaning.

[k2qb3]

12. Well...

The semi-auto rifle I own is my grandfathers WWII service rifle, which my father tracked down by serial number through the civilian marksmanship program and which came through them to me. Millions of Americans have similar heirlooms, and I doubt many of them would hand them in.

[Barack_America]

15. I didn't say "hand in".

I said high taxes on new purchases and, if possible, higher permit fees to own them.