![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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.
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.
no subject
Date: 2013-01-11 09:03 pm (UTC)Somewhere on the net is a series of pictures of me firing a 20 mm anti-tank rifle (on a pedestal mount) at a plywood shilouette of a triceratops. Cost me $20 for the one round I fired.
no subject
Date: 2013-01-12 08:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-14 03:35 am (UTC)Alas, I'm sure that if they had access under the same terms as regfular rifles, some nut case would set up someplace and start taking out cars & trucks on the freeway. *sigh*