Saturday, April 23, 2016

assault weapons

Army Basic Training in 1975 was sorta fun - playing soldier!
The entire goal of the training was to teach one how to maintain and accurately shoot an M16 assault rifle.
The programme was well-designed - by the end of training one could, in fact, maintain and accurately shoot an M16!

Most of the rifle training was in semi-automatic mode: you pull the trigger, it shoots one bullet.
Every once in a while we got to use it on fully automatic mode: you pull the trigger, it just keeps firing.
It could go through a 30-round magazine in about 10 seconds... pretty much a waste of ammunition.

I've never fired an AK47. My understanding is that it's a more reliable but less accurate weapon.
"More reliable" meaning that it jams much less frequently than an M16.
"Less accurate" meaning that it's harder to hit what you aim at. ...
... but in combat you're never really aiming at anything, you're just putting projectiles in the air. ... as many as possible in as short a time as possible.

Semi-automatic assault rifles are designed for war.
They're not designed for hunting.
Or for civilian personal defense.
They're a lot of fun to shoot! - just like playing soldier as a kid... but with lethal ammunition.

I am conflicted regarding the 2nd Amendment.
Most of this conflict derives from the sad fact that the Second is one of the first 10 - "The Bill of Rights".
If we mess with the 2nd, we are then free to mess with the other nine... and I really LIKE the other nine (well, maybe not Amendment 10 - the "State's Rights" bit).
... But I really don't want to challenge freedom of speech/press/assembly, or right to due process, or protection against self-incrimination.

What would the Framers say today?

No comments:

Post a Comment