I watched the town hall forum held this week in Florida between senator Marco Rubio and Florida residents impacted by the mass murder of students and teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The one response that senator Rubio said that I took note of was his concern that banning the sale of assault rifles which are are semi-automatic weapons would require banning the sale of all semi-automatic weapons including semi-automatic rifles used for hunting.
I think the only way to address senator Rubio’s concern is to define what an assault rifle is. The definition of an assault rifle the NRA wants us to use is “an assault rifle a semi-automatic rifle which is designed to shoot a high velocity bullet at a target”. However, this definition doesn’t account for what an assault rifle’s bullet is designed to do after it hits the target. The bullet at high velocity is designed to maximize the damage to a target, e.g. students and teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, because of a bullet’s supersonic shock wave and tumbling after hitting a target. Hunters don’t use rifles with this type ammunition because it ruins the meat of the animal they are hunting. The only purpose for a rifle shooting a high velocity bullet of this type is to maximize the damage done to the animal being shot and killing it.
The sale and ownership of assault rifles needs to be banned not because they are semi-automatic rifles but because of what they are designed to do which is rapidly shoot high velocity rounds of ammunition which maximize the damage done after they impact a target. They are “weapons of war” specifically designed to kill people.