I dont see the big deal about putting an armed LEO at elementary schools. They have them at middle and high schools. How about the Marshalls on airliners, are those people flying more important than our young children. There's too many guns already out there that are easily available. The war on guns is gonna be about as effective as the war on drugs. I dont have a so called assault rifle, really dont want one but outlawing them is not going to stop the violence.

Unless the masses grasp WHY its our right, its not gonna last.

srinath I've never heard of a fingerprint lock. If its electronic there's thousands of 16 year olds out there that can bypass it. What if I wanna teach my grandson to shoot when he's 16, or my wife wants to learn how to shoot? You can pass all the laws you want to, you're never gonna stop people from killing each other. This country has been at war practically my whole lifetime and none of the wars were justifiable. Our goverment has slaughtered millions of innocent children and civilians. No law is gonna prevent sick and evil individuals from killing. Outlaw so called assault weapons. Someone can walk into a school with two automatic pistols and kill just as many as someone with a so called assault rifle. Things have gone to far, society is collapsing. We need a well trained armed LEO at all our schools.

Request permission to chip in my own two cents.

This discussion started with "How do you define an assault weapon?"

I'd like to take the discussion back to the beginning, because I feel it has been slowly steered away from it.

An "assault weapon" is a military issue firearm, generally a carbine or rifle, capable of (currently) both automatic or selective automatic fire (i.e. 3-shot bursts) and a magazine of suitable capacity. Amen.
Definiition given through 33 years of active military service.

Some assault weapons can be of handgun size/origin, such as the fully automatic Beretta 93R or the MAC/Ingram.

Others, such as 7.62/.50cal sniper rifles cannot fit in this category because sniping is in itself NOT an assault discipline, quite the opposite.

Perhaps we should discuss if the lawmakers should define an "assalut-style weapon" and ban that category.

What would be an "assault-style weapon"?
Typically, a "rifle or carbine, derived from a military issue assault weapon, capable of semiautomatic fire with the same or balistically similar ammunition, and capable of using the same accessories".
(Definition used by European lawmakers)

For example, the Colt AR-15 derives from the Colt M-16.
For example, the civilian version of the AK-47 / 74.
But not, by the same token, a "riot style shotgun" if the same receiver/breech/magazine are available in the same caliber with a wood stock for hunting.

In other words, appearance alone cannot define an assault-style weapon, but the possibility of using it in a military-style fashion does.

Looking at the definition, one also realizes that many assault weapon derivatives do not fall in the "assault style weapon" category because they derive from weapons which are today obsolete as assault weapons.
From the Wincherter .30cal carbine we have the Ruger Mini-14 and the 10/22.
Nobody in his right mind would today define the Winchester .30cal carbine as an assault weapon, times have changed, so the derivatives have changed category as well.
But in the 1950s a Mini-14 could well have been considered "assault style".

The same applies to a Garand M1 in 30.06 and .308.

By "assault style" definition, an AR-15 could well be banned, as well as a Beretta BM59, or an AK47/74. I personally see no problem with that.

As for those who want to shoot at coyotes or feral hogs...
Wild boar is considered a delicacy in Europe, think about it.
At  what ranges do you shoot your "assault weapons" for coyote control (target practice?) How farther will the bullet fly when you miss? Can you see that far?
Is anyone willing to go on trial for manslaughter when a passer-by is killed at 1000 yards behind the bushes because you missed that coyote at 300 yards?

Houstonhofh - wrong on many counts.

Swiss military service is compulsory for men. Your 1050 women in the military is a rather recent phenomenon, and 1050 is nothing compared to 1+ million.

Conscription 19–34 years of age obligatorily
36 for subaltern officers, 52 for staff officers and higher
Available for
military service 1,852,580 males, age 16–49 (2009 est.),
1,807,667 females, age 16–49 (2009 est.)

Australia - look it up. They banned and really restricted guns, and crime went down over the decades following it.

Assault weapons may not be in northern mexico from just texas, you do know they have roads to the other parts of the country from texas right ?
Once again you picked northern mexico, not southern mexico, the reason for the violence is the fact that drug routes go through north mexico to the US, duh.

I am really not cherry picking information, but you have 150 years of information that I am pointing out could be proved wrong, if we change the assumptions that it is underpinned on.

Cool.
Srinath.

Midnightrider wrote on 12/27/12 at 21:26:21:


Correct, and @ malls, and theaters, and everywhere else, and the people who are croweing about big gubbamint spending, who are the same fools crowing about needing guns for the last 150 years need to shut up, and better yet, the gun sales and ammo sales need to be taxed and that should be used to pay for it. Sort of like the tobacco tax used to pay for anti smoking ads.

Cool.
Srinath.

Paraquat wrote on 12/28/12 at 06:17:52:


You need to get as long a belt as you need to to make the person who is going to use that gun on a killing rampage needs. That is what its there for.

See, sarcasm works from this side too.
Cool.
Srinath.