Why people buy "assault weapons"

[ericire12]

http://www.examiner.com/x-2944-Denver-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m5d14-Why-people-buy-assault-weapons

The term "assault weapon" was manufactured to define scary-looking legal civilian weapons.  They have big clips, flash suppressors and bi-pods and folding stocks like military weapons, but the critical feature missing is full-automatic firing.  At heart they are no different from the plain looking guns that employ gas pressure from the fired round to recock the gun and chamber the next round.  This gun design has been around for decades and is legal.  We should be able to buy legal guns that look scary-as-all-get-out for the same reason we can buy cars that go 120 MPH and look like they go 500.  We who buy guns want the capability and the looks even if there's no promise that we'll get the chance to use it.

Think about most everything we buy.  We are attracted to cars that go fast.  According to my Chevy Venture's telemetry, I average 21 MPH as I live and work in the Denver area.  I am still drawn to Corvettes, and would own one if I could afford it.  I used to drive a 1968 SS396 Camero in high school and college.  I didn't get into any accidents.  I usually didn't drive fast, but I knew I could and that was the pleasure. New computers are sold by touting the speed and power of the processor and video cards yet we mostly do web surfing and e-mail on them which three year old computers can handle nicely.  Home theater gear is sold for its ability to make your ears bleed and rumble the house as you watch "Star Wars", yet most of us listen at comfortable levels both for our own health and consideration for the neighbors. Even car insurance is sold with swashbuckling cartoon figures fighting bad guys (Esurance) by an action person who is prudent enough to get insurance. We buy expensive watches that calculate lunar phases and chronometers for yacht racing and we use them to tell us when the next train leaves or when to pick up the kids.  Most of us don't race yachts.  All the laser sights and bells and whistles sold for guns don't make them any more deadly, they just add to the sizzle for marketing.

 I doubt that many of us will ever face hordes of killers attacking our house and forcing us into pitched battle for our survival, but that should not preclude the sale of guns that are capable of that.  I like large clips because loading them is a drag, and I like to shoot more than load clips. The flash suppressor looks cool, but I shoot during the daytime and it is irrelevant.  Where is the harm?  Ten years of experience with the last "assault weapon" ban showed that criminals rarely use such guns and the law abiding citizens don't do any harm with them.

Diane Feinstein, Eric Holder, et.al., you have many more real problems to deal with in America than the fiction of one with scary looking guns.

[graywolf]

Couldn't have said it better myself.  I thought the "devil made me do it"  Or maybe it was because I was free to do it.

[1911 Junkie]

Because it's so much harder to assault someone without one.

[Bill Stryker]

Not counting .22s, I bought my first semi-auto rifle, an M1 carbine, from DCM back in 1963 just for the fun of it. I was a brand new 2LT and did it all by mail just because I could.

I never felt the need of another until Bill Clinton because I do most of my rifle hunting with a Ruger No.1. But no one was going to tell me what to use, so I bought a Browning BAR in 30/06 as a hedge against Bill Clinton's designs. The Browning is a nice rifle, but I still use the Ruger to hunt with. Since then I have added M1 Garands and M1 carbines for the fun of it for competition at the club and to play around with in my retirement.

Then, after years of saying I would never buy an AR15 because of an horrible experience with one in Vietnam, I bought a Rock River AR15 -- M4gery -- at Camp Perry to use in club matches because shooting an M1 Garand left handed in rapid fire is close to impossible. I liked the new AR and bought a Fulton Armory varmint rifle with a fixed stock and floating hand guard last year at Camp Perry to use out West on a prairie dog hunt and to replace the M4gery for club competition. But I really bought the Fulton Armory one because I was sure at the time that Hillary was going to win and try to take all the ARs away and so far I have two grandsons. If any of my granddaughters show an interest in shooting, as their mother did I will add some for them too.

Just for the record, after trying several real assault rifles in combat I found that the M2 Carbine was the best for me. It was a good weapon for an officer or NCO at platoon or company level at the time. I don't claim to know what is best for today's LTs.

[tombogan03884]

"Just for the record, after trying several real assault rifles in combat I found that the M2 Carbine was the best for me. It was a good weapon for an officer or NCO at platoon or company level at the time. I don't claim to know what is best for today's LTs."

For 2nd Lt's, an airsoft. 
From a former E-4 

[Sponsor]

[Bill Stryker]

From you Tom, I'll ignore that except to state that I was a 1LT Airborne Ranger with CIB at the time. I my day there were very few 2LTs in Vietnam. It took too long for schools, special training, first unit experience and so on.

When I was a battery commander at Ft Hood I had lots of 2LTs in my unit to train or weed out. Most were 1LTs by the time they got to RVN or were out or back to being EM.

[tt11758]

"Just for the record, after trying several real assault rifles in combat I found that the M2 Carbine was the best for me. It was a good weapon for an officer or NCO at platoon or company level at the time. I don't claim to know what is best for today's LTs."

For 2nd Lt's, an airsoft. 
From a former E-4 

OOO RAH!!   

[tombogan03884]

Come on Bill, You know just as well as I do that the most dangerous man in the Army or Marines is a 2nd LT with a map.

[tt11758]

Come on Bill, You know just as well as I do that the most dangerous man in the Army or Marines is a 2nd LT with a map.

.


No shit!!!!

[Bill Stryker]

That's right. No wonder the Germans, Japanese, North Koreans, Vietnamese and Iraqis were so confused. Hurray for 2LTs and God bless the good professional NCOs that teach them what a good NCO can do. I witnessed an outstanding Sgt Major "explain" to an out of line SFC how to properly address any officer. That lesson taught me how to handle a bad Sgt Major as a 1LT. And I saw good SFCs teach their 2LTs how to be a good platoon leaders. There is no doubt in my mind that NCOs are the backbone of the Army -- and that 2LTs grow to be generals.