Assault Weapons and High Capacity Magazines

> In the poll of 15,000

law enforcement professionals, 71% of respondents said an "assault weapons" ban would have zero impact on violent crime. Of those surveyed, 95.7% said the same of a "high capacity" magazine ban.

I like cops. Every other home in Mt Greenwood was the home of a police officer.  But they are not always right. And they are always armed - most of us are not.

I agree with them that an assault weapon ban would not

have too much of an impact on crime. Bad guys would still kill with normal pistols and rifles and shotguns.

What a ban on assault guns would help reduce is the nutcase who wants to commit mass murder and fantasizes about killing huge numbers of people. In his sick twisted mind this would really be neat and give him immortality. And get revenge on all those who dissed him.

Most people can have a assault rifle and not misuse it. My cousins and friend both had one. They shot prairie dogs and deer with it.  But they certainly did not need a 30 to 50 round magazine to do this.

I get it that firing them is cool.  It is fun to fire a machine gun. I like firing weapons. 

But is the individuals ability to have a bad ass cool looking weapon worth the mass killings we have to endure?

High capacity magazines

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" Jared Lee Loughner allegedly used in Tucson, Arizona, when he was able to fire 31 bullets in 15 seconds because he supersized his Glock 19 handgun with a high-capacity magazine."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sen-frank-lautenberg/post_1905_b_845590.html

"Loughner proceeded to fire apparently randomly at other members of the crowd. He reportedly used a 9mm Glock 19 semi-automatic pistol with a 33-round magazine.A nearby store employee said he heard "15 to 20 gunshots". Loughner stopped to reload, but dropped the loaded magazine from his pocket to the sidewalk, from where bystander Patricia Maisch grabbed it. Another bystander clubbed the back of the assailant's head with a folding chair, injuring his elbow in the process, representing the 14th injury. Loughner was tackled to the ground by 74-year-old retired United States Army Colonel Bill Badger, who had been shot himself, and was further subdued by Maisch and bystanders Roger Sulzgeber and Joseph Zamudio."

Kudos to the people who subdued this monster. I love it that a woman and a 74 year wounded old guy helped subdue this moron.

It is unlikely that any of us will ever be in a situation where there is a mass shooter banging away.  But if there is you have several choices - fall down and play dead, run, or try to close with and destroy and kill the moron.  

I vote for trying to assault and kill the cretin.  To have any chance to take out the shooter you must wait till he runs out of ammo, then make your move. Makes it much harder if he has a 30 to 50 round magazine.

"More Than Half of Mass Shooters Used Assault Weapons and High-Capacity Magazines"

"More than half of the killers we studied in our investigation of 62 mass shootings over the last three decades possessed weapons that would be banned by Feinstein's bill, including various semi-automatic rifles, guns with military features, and handguns using magazines with more than 10 rounds. The damage these weapons can cause has been on grim display since last summer, from Aurora to Milwaukee to Minneapolis to Newtown, where attacks carried out with them left a total of 118 people injured and dead."

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/02/assault-weapons-high-capacity-magazines-mass-shootings-feinstein

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"NEWTOWN, Conn. -- Adam Lanza used a semiautomatic Bushmaster .223 rifle during his rampage through Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday, firing dozens of high-velocity rounds as he killed 20 children and six adults, authorities said Sunday."

"Lanza, 20, carried "many high-capacity clips" for the lightweight military-style rifle, Lt. Paul Vance, a spokesman for the Connecticut State Police,"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/16/school-shooter-adam-lanza_n_2312818.html

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Aurora Gunman’s Arsenal: Shotgun, Semiautomatic Rifle and, at the End, a Pistol

By JAMES DAO

The three types of weapons used by the man accused of killing 12 people in a Colorado movie theater — a semiautomatic variation of the military’s M-16 rifle, a pump-action 12-gauge shotgun and at least one .40-caliber semiautomatic pistol — are among the most popular guns available in the multibillion-dollar American firearms market.

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Nancy Palmieri for The New York Times

The police say the gunman in Aurora used three types of weapons, including a Smith & Wesson M&P15.

The weapons have become so common that a growing sport among gun enthusiasts is the “three-gun competition,” in which sharpshooters use a version of each of the weapons as they move from target set to target set, firing and reloading as rapidly as possible.

It appears, the police say, that James E. Holmes, the man accused in the Aurora shootings, used all three types of weapons inside the theater as well, first firing the shotgun, then using the semiautomatic rifle until its 100-round barrel magazine jammed, and finishing off with a pistol.