(MiniRant) I don't care which side of the Gun Debate you're on...

[seawasp]

... but will people stop saying "semi-automatic" in a context that shows that they think it means "shoots like a machine gun"???? and misusing the term "ASSAULT WEAPON". Real assault weapons are NOT semi-auto.

A semi-automatic weapon is not a machine gun. It is not "made to kill a lot of people quickly", as one spam I got today says.

Most pistols are semi-automatic. You pull the trigger, it shoots, and a mechanism in the gun brings the next cartridge up so you can PULL THE TRIGGER AGAIN, having spat out the now-expended first cartridge's remains (the "brass").

Revolvers do the same thing through a different mechanism, but unlike a semi-automatic pistol, they don't eject the cartridges themselves, so you have to open the revolver up and clean it out and reload after 6 shots pretty much by hand, while you can eject a magazine from your semi-auto and keep shooting -- one shot at a time.

FULL AUTO weapons are the ones that shoot lots of bullets much faster than you can pull a trigger (well, faster than MOST people can pull a trigger; some of the stunt shooters can manage an impressive rate of fire for a short time). Real assault weapons are full-auto (many can SWITCH to burst and/or semiauto, but what makes them good military weapons is that they are in fact capable of fully automatic fire.

Semi-automatic covers most handguns and a fair number of rifles and some shotguns.

Fully-automatic weapons have been illegal in most states for YEARS, and generally HAVEN'T been used in the killings people get up in arms over.

Comments

[seawasp]

Actually, if you're talking about decent-sized magazines (say 10+ rounds), it's more a difference of one second to TEN seconds for most people. Trick shooters can approach auto-fire rates, but most people are going to manage one shot a second, maybe two, instead of the between ten and twenty per second that a full-autofire weapon can reasonably reach. (Miniguns can manage FIFTY, but no one outside of an action film's ever going to use one of those as a carriable weapon).

In combat with people shooting at you, an extra 4-9 seconds is a LOT. Even someone fat and slow like me can cover over 50 meters in 9 seconds, and in a building that means getting out of the room or finding reasonable cover a LOT easier.

If it's irrelevant, then it shoudn't be mentioned as though it was (which specifying "semi-automatic" does), and those trying to ban guns should just say they want to ban guns. This will not work,and given current political climate could lead to vastly worse events, but I'd prefer people be straightforward about what they want.

[kengr]

Oh. A note about high capacity magazines. For several weapons on the market, it's actually quicker to use the standard 10 round magazine and reload it from "stripper" clips.

The bigger magazines take up a lot more room, and are harder to "seat" than the stripper.

With the stripper, just pull the clip (a strip of springy metal that holds 10 rounds by their bases), insert it into the top of the open action, push down with your thumb to "strip" the rounds off the clip, and toss away the clip.

Compare that with pushing the magazine release (on the bottom of the weapon) and fumbling to get the magazine lined up right without damaging the "lips" (if you bang them wrong, the magazine will "seat", but the ammo won't feed)