Media myths on “assault rifles” and “semi-automatic firearms”
First, the Times calls the AR-15 “the civilian version of the military’s M-16.” The M-16 is a machine gun, that throughout most of its history – and certainly in popular understanding – has been a fully-automatic weapon. When you squeeze the trigger on an automatic weapon, bullets keep firing out of it until you stop squeezing. The U.S. military has shied away from automatic firing, and the newest M-16s have other settings – three-shot burst (which, relative to the automatic setting, preserves ammo and inculcates more discipline among soldiers in combat) and semi-automatic.
AR-15s that are legal to buy do not have the three-shot burst that the military’s current M-16s have. They also don’t have the automatic-fire option that most people associate with the M-16.
If you’re going to use a famous gun as a point of reference, it seems responsible to mention that unlike the famous machine gun you’re comparing it to, the AR-15 is incapable of automatic or burst fire.
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
LOL…OMG. this chump writes an article about myths and firearms, then goes to make a dumba$$ statement like this. News flash, the full-automatic version of the M-16 – usually the A-1 – does not qualify as a machine gun. When switched to “full-auto” it is an automatic rifle. Even the belt feed M249 SAW isn’t a machine gun – it’s an automatic rifle.
MoreLiberty on December 17, 2012 at 1:55 PM
Most people don’t understand a semi-automatic is not actually an automatic weapon. It merely chambers another round and recocks the hammer. A separate trigger pull is necessary to fire another round.
Mitoch55 on December 17, 2012 at 1:55 PM
Reminds me of the time, years ago, I was watching coverage of a similar event. Some photo of the shooter had surfaced showing him posing with an AR-15. The brain dead news anchor rather authoritatively described it as an AK-47.
CurtZHP on December 17, 2012 at 1:56 PM
The original ASB proponents formed their list of “bad” gun attributes based on what they saw in popular culture.
The one I find most puzzling is that of a bayonet lug. Apparently attaching a short blade to a rifle sends people into fits of terror, yet having that same blade in my hand is no big deal.
Bishop on December 17, 2012 at 1:58 PM
True, another one is the flash suppressor. On a side note, didn’t Columbine happen while the Brady “assault” weapons ban was in effect?
MoreLiberty on December 17, 2012 at 2:01 PM
After they’ve confiscated guns, liberals will target the supply of rocks. Somewhere they heard about some guy named David who took down a bully named Goliath with a slingshot and a stone–and they can’t have people fighting back.
BuckeyeSam on December 17, 2012 at 2:01 PM
I’ll add in the pistol grip too.
Pistol grip = Bad
Thumb hole stock = Good
Make the perfect tank, someone else will make a corresponding antitank gun. You lefties are digging a hole here, good luck getting out when the time comes.
Bishop on December 17, 2012 at 2:04 PM
Even more mystifying is that we no longer use horses and bayonets. /
Mitoch55 on December 17, 2012 at 2:06 PM
And now the Discovery Channel has cancelled “American Guns”.
BacaDog on December 17, 2012 at 2:07 PM
Ridiculous.
MoreLiberty on December 17, 2012 at 2:09 PM
This is just the start, everyone is going to go apeshiite over this.
Bishop on December 17, 2012 at 2:12 PM
Um, no. For most of its history it has had the “3 round burst”. Those who ascribe to popular understanding are ignorant.
As for the rest, so what?
I’m tired of trying to educate ignorant unwilling students.
cozmo on December 17, 2012 at 2:14 PM
There have been no g@ngb@nger bayonet charges in the ghetto since the Big Ban. So there.
novaculus on December 17, 2012 at 2:15 PM
If you happen to like that “Planet of the Apes” look in a firearm.
cozmo on December 17, 2012 at 2:16 PM
FIFY.
novaculus on December 17, 2012 at 2:17 PM
MoreLiberty on December 17, 2012 at 1:55 PM
.
I’d just be happy if the media would stop writing about belt fed revolvers, or fully automatic bolt action deer rifles, or concealed carry .50 caliber sniper rifles.
LincolntheHun on December 17, 2012 at 2:19 PM
It was all of those drive-by bayonetings in California. My Clinton era M1A doesn’t have a lug on it, but is capapble of 1000 meter accuracy (true gun control).
DAT60A3 on December 17, 2012 at 2:20 PM
Here in MA they consider the “coolness” of a firearm when banning them. I have a Beretta Neos 22cal pistol which are now banned because they look “cool”. As explained to me by my local police, the cool factor is a big deal to people committing firearm crimes. I guess cool looking guns inspire folks to criminal actions or maybe criminals don’t dare commit a crime if they don’t look cool doing it.
Frank Enstine on December 17, 2012 at 2:22 PM
B-b-but, doesn’t “semi-automatic” mean that it’s a machine gun half of the time? That’s what my professors at journo-school taught me.
/Sarcasm
JimLennon on December 17, 2012 at 2:26 PM
No, Lincoln, we need to KEEP them talking about those types of weapons. Then we agree to ban them, they pat themselves on the back, and we laugh all the way to the gun show.
CurtZHP on December 17, 2012 at 2:27 PM
Most of the cool looking weapons are pure junk. Personally, I will never own an AR platform rifle because the M-16A1 was such a POS. I understand that the A2 model was much better, but the overall crappiness of the M-16 A1 has soured me for life on AR’s. I still had M-3 grease guns in my inventory. Those were cool.
DAT60A3 on December 17, 2012 at 2:28 PM
2011 – SEVEN YEARS AFTER THE EXPIRATION OF THE ASSAULT WEAPONS BAN EXPIRED: New Report: U.S. Homicide Rate Falls to Lowest Rate in Four Decades
This week, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) announced that in 2010 the U.S. homicide rate fell to 4.2 homicides per 100,000 residents, the lowest U.S. homicide rate in four decades.
Resist We Much on December 17, 2012 at 2:32 PM
If only Tipping Guam Hank Johnson had heard about David and Goliath! It would have saved him that very painful “m-word apology” speech on the House floor last week.
lol
Resist We Much on December 17, 2012 at 2:35 PM
From a 2008 SNL skit about the New York Times sending reporters to Alaska to investigate Sarah Palin. “Ted Boucher” is the assignment editor, while the others are NYT reporters.:
The whole transcript (or video, if you can find it) is comedy gold about how utterly clueless lib reporters are about life and culture outside of Manhattan.
And I think the skit seriously underestimates the number of pre-op transsexuals working in the LSM.
JimLennon on December 17, 2012 at 2:40 PM
Thanks for the authoritative clearing-up-the-fog article on gun terminology which relies on the way “most people associate” these terms. And gets it all wrong as a result.
There should be a yearly prize for the dumbest use of gun terminology in print, and articles which attempt to correct the misuse but end up making the problem worse should be automatic co-winners.
TexasDan on December 17, 2012 at 2:44 PM
Accurate information is the enemy of today’s activist press, not the goal.
Socratease on December 17, 2012 at 2:52 PM
This statement could begin as the explanation for why people buy anything that the statists are selling.
besser tot als rot on December 17, 2012 at 2:54 PM
Almost every argument that the statists make is based on a lie, generally a strawman or Orwellian definitions of terms.
besser tot als rot on December 17, 2012 at 2:57 PM
I get so tired of people conflating ‘automatic’ and ‘semi-automatic.’ Any attempt to explain the difference to them results in some sort of apoplexy and ‘NRA STOOGE!’ flying out of their mouths.
Washington Nearsider on December 17, 2012 at 3:23 PM
And what exactly would a Sherman DAT know about the coolness of an Infantry weapon?
.
Don’t see me stateing the Sheridan was better than the Sherman tank.
.
even though it was.
LincolntheHun on December 17, 2012 at 3:40 PM
They should outlaw shooting a pistol sideways.
cptacek on December 17, 2012 at 3:51 PM
And what exactly would a Sherman DAT know about the coolness of an Infantry weapon?
.
Don’t see me stateing the Sheridan was better than the Sherman tank.
.
even though it was.
LincolntheHun on December 17, 2012 at 3:40 PM
Dumb Ass Tanker M-60A3, but what should I expect from a crunchy? Good to see somebody that understands what a DAT is.
DAT60A3 on December 17, 2012 at 3:55 PM
But I don’t want the bad guy to shoot accurately.
CurtZHP on December 17, 2012 at 4:16 PM
Besides, it is funny when that hot brass casing flies up and hits the guy in the forehead rather than be ejected off to the side.
DAT60A3 on December 17, 2012 at 4:23 PM
If they are banning ‘cool looking’ guns, then obviously the sideways shot must go as well.
Don’t worry, this ban will work as well as other gun bans.
cptacek on December 17, 2012 at 4:25 PM
If you read lefty threads there are folks calling for ALL semi-auto guns to be banned. That would knock out the shotgun I was given by Mom for quail and dove hunting, and also our old Ruger .22 kiddie trainer.
I really wish people who want to ban things would learn some facts about what they want to ban.
juliesa on December 17, 2012 at 4:26 PM
IIRC, the legal definition of a machine gun that the BATF uses for regulatory purposes is if it fires more than one bullet with a single squeeze of the trigger or if it fires from an open bolt. So technically a select-fire M-16, BAR, or Kalashnikov is an assault rifle, but by their legal definition it’s a machine gun.
Walter Sobchak on December 17, 2012 at 4:30 PM
.
Next you’re going to expect people to make informed choices.
.
And live within thier means.
.
Just crazy talk.
LincolntheHun on December 17, 2012 at 4:30 PM
I’m almost of a mind to let them put in the old AWB, which they all think worked, but didn’t. It would make them STFU for awhile and then we could go about our business as usual.
In any case, I think it’s a good idea to stock up on mags right now, if you haven’t already (I haven’t). Give some to the ones you love for Christmas!
juliesa on December 17, 2012 at 4:34 PM
Lest anyone think these “myths” are accidental.
Josh Sugarmann:
The weapons’ menacing looks, coupled with the public’s confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons—anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun—can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons. In addition, few people can envision a practical use for these weapons.
The “confusion is deliberate.
soundingboard on December 17, 2012 at 4:49 PM
I’m talking about the definition via the military, the BATF also claims that weapons that CAN be converted to fully auto is a machine gun. Loose definitions that entangle large quantities of firearms benefit the BATF goons. A pistol that malfunctions and fires auto is not a machine gun, I don’t care what they say. Ill stick with the definition used by professionals that actually know about machine guns.
MoreLiberty on December 17, 2012 at 4:57 PM
I did. They came with guns too.
cozmo on December 17, 2012 at 5:00 PM