Automatic or Semi-Automatic
[Sheriff’s Office] To Be Armed With Automatic Weapons, Tasers
That’s the headline. Interesting. I wonder what kind of automatic weapons.
[E]very officer will now have access to an automatic AR-15 and will be armed with a taser.
An automatic AR-15, huh?
Police said the new semi-automatic rifle was chosen for several reasons…
Wait. Automatic or semi-automatic?
Oh, what’s the difference? After all, this is an assault weapon we’re talking about. It’s designed to kill as many people as possible as quickly as possible. Nobody needs one of these.
Such weapons are generally found in the military, and not on the streets. But police site [sic] several recent crimes that have made them reconsider their own protection.
So, an assault weapon can be used for your “own protection?” Maybe, if you’re a policeman, I guess. So what crimes were these, anyway?
Police cite [sic…no wait, this time it’s right] the chilling image of a gunman pointing an automatic weapon [automatic or semi-automatic?] at a woman during a recent bank robbery, and Clay County deputies say a mass murder suspect used a semi-automatic weapon [you sure? maybe it was a crew-served machine gun] to kill four people over the weekend.
But what good is an “automatic” “assault weapon” against these heavily armed thugs?
[I]t holds more rounds, is more accurate in long-distance shooting, and is less penetrating, so someone standing behind a suspect would be less likely to be injured
Compared to what? The “automatic weapons” the criminals have? I wonder if it’s “more accurate” when spray-fired from the hip. The police are going to spray-fire from the hip, aren’t they? I mean, that’s what the pistol grip is for, right?
Oh, the video clip is even better. It starts out with the newscaster lady in body-armor saying that the police told her “the bullets from the rifle we just showed you of the bank robbery suspect could actually go right through this bullet-proof vest I’m wearing…it is so powerful, it could actually go through the BODY OF A CAR!”
The video contains a brief picture the bank robber with his “automatic weapon,” but I couldn’t quite make out what it was. The police also demonstrate their taser on a journalist, which is definitely something I can support.
Remember, kids, the moral of the story is: in the hands of trained law enforcement, an “automatic” “assault weapon” is a tool for public safety. In the hands of Joe Citizen, it’s a dangerous bullet hose.
May 27th, 2004 at 10:45 am
I’ll wager I could put a ball bearing through the body of a car with a well aimed shot from a slingshot.
May 27th, 2004 at 2:32 pm
And thus perpetuates the machinegun myth.
May 27th, 2004 at 5:56 pm
It’s possible that gun owners are partially to blame for the “automatic/semi-automatic” confusion. How many of us have ever called a semi-automatic firearm an “automatic?” I probably have, just out of laziness.
May 28th, 2004 at 4:57 pm
I’d like to see a bank robbery with 3 men hauling in the parts for a .50 cal, setting it up, and using it to “cover” the man going for the vault.
Would be kinda cool, heh.
As long as no civies are hurt, of course.
May 31st, 2004 at 2:38 pm
Yeah I get it. COPS get (maybe) real assault rifles because the bad guys are using guns against UNARMED CITIZENS. Sorta like the Mayor getting vaccinated to protect the townspeople from a plague.