Full-Auto Myths

Few things in this world are less understood by the general public than firearms. In fact, most of the "truths" out there that the general public takes for granted are entirely false. So how about we tackle a few?

Assault Weapons are all Automatic: This is of course false, as the legal definition for the word "assault rifle" is in fact entirely based on cosmetics. Put a bayonet lug and a pistol grip on a bolt action rifle and it would suddenly fit the bill too.

It's illegal to own automatic weapons: False. All you need is a class III "license". In fact, you can own all the full auto weapons you want, you just have to make sure you aren't "stockpiling" ammo.

Semi-auto's must be purposefully modified to make them full-auto: I love that one. Listen up... Full auto is the natural state of any blowback weapon. The trigger releases a spring, which drops the hammer which fires the round, which blows the slide back, which recompresses the spring... so if the trigger is still held... there isn't anything to stop the hammer from dropping again. Get it? You have to alter the design to make it semi-auto... and sometimes, weapons simply malfunction and go full-auto on their own. The ATF has been known to take people to court over these malfunctions, claiming that they modified the weapons themselves. Of course, the ATF has also been humilated in court a number of times.

The Class III is actually a licence: In fact it's not a licence at all. It's a tax. You pay the Feds 300 bucks everytime you want to buy a new automatic weapon. That's it. That's all it boils down to. Well... there's also that bit about giving up your Fourth Amendment rights... Interestingly it was that same 300 bucks that the ATF was going to WACO to collect.

Criminals use automatic weapons: This is a true howler. More people died in incidents involving toilet bowls in 1993 than with any of the weapons banned in 1994. It's interesting that in the early 90's we heard about all the criminal use of expensive auto's... then in the late 90's, we heard that criminals actually used cheap small caliber pistols like Star and Jennings. Criminals use what they can steal, and they steal what's common and available. You don't see them with auto's because auto's are very rare, and well... very secure. If criminal has one, chances are he stole it from a cop.

Weapons bans work: Of course they do. I find it remarkable that liberals will often site the easy availability of "deadly ammunition" like Ralphies, as a reason to ban guns. However, they never seem smart enough to recognize that Ralphies are themselves illegal. So if the ban doesn't effect specialized ammo, why would it effect firearms? See what happens when you are trained to not think?

Oh.. and one last one for all you Republicans out there...

Gun bans won't work, but drug bans will: There ya go girls. Quit whining and take it like a man. You constantly make arguments that banning firearms will result in even more criminal activity with guns, yet you then turn around an argue that drug bans will work. The "War on Drugs" is a BS excuse to take your rights. I can only conclude that it wasn't working as fast as intended, so we needed this new "War on Terrorism" to speed things along. It's hard to argue with the results.

I can't wait till I'm 80... By then we'll all know how history has judged this generations leaders. Someday I'm gonna be able to use my arthritic fingers to type:

HAHA Bill! I told ya so!