"Why do we need assault weapons?"

[Hoggslayer]

This guy could have poison the popcorn butter and killed everyone in the movie but because he had a gun it's now a national debate. Sometimes people just just go off the deep end an that's that.

[Dallascowboys]

how would they deal with the nra lmao they wouldnt have any guns

[Mike D]

I respectfully agree with what everyone is saying and it seems like we are all on the same side. Let's stick to the question though. Why do we need assault rifles??? ..... And I must say this, if a drug cartel rolls up to your deer lease, you are probably in big trouble no matter how many AR's you have.

I don't own any assault weapons, and neither do most American citizens. I own a few AR15, but not one single assault weapon.

Living in a free society comes with a price. Not that it makes what happened any better but there are many more people killed by other methods on a daily basis. And things like this happen on such rare occasions that it is really irrelevant whether our guns hold 1 bullet or 100.

Oh, and what Shane said too.

[Tilladaddy]

While you are discussing this..

The Brady Campaign posted this..

"Brian Dzyak - It's high-time to declare the NRA a Terrorist Organization. We can offer a 24 hour amnesty for members to quit. After that, everyone on the membership roles will be considered a potential threat to national security and dealt with appropriately.
about an hour ago ·

This is very scary?????

Like yelling fire in a crowded room.

[Mike D]

Founding fathers would have insisted on WE THE PEOPLE have free access to the same weapons the government has...probably not nukes but ground defense weapons.
take away our AR 15 it won't stop there....by the end we will BB guns.

Yup.

[hopco.boy]

Please keep this civil as I would like this thread to last. A politically neutral friend of mine is posting on facebook asking why American civilians need assault rifles, and suggesting that they be banned. Here is an excerpt.

"To me, guns serve only two civilian purposes: self-defense and hunting. Why would you need an assault rifle for either of these purposes? And it's not the firepower of the gun that's so important; it's the capacity of the magazine, of which assault rifles generally are larger. This allows for a wider range of damage across targets, say, in shooting sprees. There is a problem, however, in that if someone wants to kill people, they'll find a way to do it. We shouldn't outlaw civilian possession of firearms in general, only those styles which can injure many people at one time."

The last sentence concerns me. What would you say?

Funny you post this. I had the exact same argument with a friend of mine(from Hopkins county) on fri. It went on for about two hours. We tend too talk for a long time when on the phone. He asked the same question and had the same views. I tried to explain to him that it wasn't about why someone would need one, it's about a person right to own one if they wanted. Surely we can't be talking about the same person

[tx07]

Please keep this civil as I would like this thread to last. A politically neutral friend of mine is posting on facebook asking why American civilians need assault rifles, and suggesting that they be banned. Here is an excerpt.

"To me, guns serve only two civilian purposes: self-defense and hunting. Why would you need an assault rifle for either of these purposes? And it's not the firepower of the gun that's so important; it's the capacity of the magazine, of which assault rifles generally are larger. This allows for a wider range of damage across targets, say, in shooting sprees. There is a problem, however, in that if someone wants to kill people, they'll find a way to do it. We shouldn't outlaw civilian possession of firearms in general, only those styles which can injure many people at one time."

The last sentence concerns me. What would you say?

Servers two purposes.

Hmmmm seems like for self defense you would want large capacity mags.
Those style of weapons don't harm people.

People harm people...........

Tell him to turn his attention to all the poisons put in our food & tobacco.

[texasruss]

In any discussion each side attempts to pull the discourse as far as possible in their direction, thus keeping things in the middle. A good example is the republican party, a candidate cannot run as a republican unless they are more conservative than anyone else, this then results in stagnation because no one will compromise.

Sorry but that's not a good example at all. Your political affiliation is irrelavent, and to point to that tells me how out of touch you are. This conversation is about individual gun rights, which are protected by the Second Amendment. "Stagnation", as you put it, is a good thing in regards to our constitutional liberties. To compromise is to lose freedom, and from that point there is no turning back.

[thaTuna]

We need assault rifles for the same reason American's been buying muscle cars that can go 150 mph and the speed limit is 75, because we as American's have that right and you never know when you may have to defend yourself from enemies foreign or domestic. Oh and I like shooting mine for my entertainment....really accurate at hitting anything under 400 yards and still practicing

[PSD Ryan]

There's a lot of replies in here, haven't read them all, but read quite a few. Here's my personal opinion.

Each gun has a purpose. My bolt actions are great target shooters, and great for hunting. My rimfires are fun for cheap plinking and small game. My AR-15's are great target shooters, small game, varmint, and medium game rifles, that also do well as home defense rifles. I could go on...but to the point. There is one purpose ALL my guns serve. A check against the government. Disarm the people, and the government has nothing to fear. I'm not saying we need to revolt right now. I'm saying that if there is a time where it's needed, the people should, by right, have the means to carry it out.

[justincorbell]

Well how else are we supposed to mow down whole sounders of hogs???.......or zombies??!......,..or even worse......zombiehogs!?!?!?!?!?

[twobanger]

I respectfully agree with what everyone is saying and it seems like we are all on the same side. Let's stick to the question though. Why do we need assault rifles??? ..... And I must say this, if a drug cartel rolls up to your deer lease, you are probably in big trouble no matter how many AR's you have.

Need has nothing to do with it. "Shall not be infringed" means exactly what it says. By the way, the Second Amendment has nothing to do with hunting.

Anti's know incrementalism is the only way they'll get their way. Start with semi auto rifles and handguns, and then hunting rifles will suddenly become sniper rifles that need to be banned because they can hit their targets from hundreds of yards away.

[Bowhuntamistad]

I really can't help but to sit here and think....


What if it was proven that one of the victims in this senseless act was a liscensed concealed carrier that was forced to leave his/her firearm in their vehicle because they wanted to be within "the law" and respect the wishes of this establishment?


Could the family, at that point, sue the theatre for wrongful death? I would give it my **** hardest to make sure it was brought to light of this fact. The fear of guns actually helped increase this POS's opportunities.

At that point, would the media shift the blame onto the theatre and a massive push be made towards making sure more areas were accessable to us. Of course not, we and guns are evil and need to be banned.


They would try to make it a point that the CHL holder wouldn't have stood a chance, etc. Pretty much how they did when they covered CHL in colleges.


Its an uphill battle that keeps getting worse. Whats worse, its folks that are not raised around firearms and are biased that are trying to call the shots.

[junkmanhunter]

"why would you need an assault rifle"?

Answer: because it is my right given to me by the 2nd amendment.

[okrattler]

Because I don't ever want to be in a situation where I have to face a crazed gunmen with an AK-47 armed with nothing but a musket.The bad guys have them......why can't we?

Recap to February 28,1997.........you know what happened on that day?Two bank robbers wearing body armor,carrying automatic weapons and several thousand rounds of ammunition got into a shootout with the Las Angeles Police Department and wounded 18 people.They were both convicted felons and shouldn't have ever been able to possess a firearm but they got them anyway.As a matter of fact they managed to get ahold of fully automatic weapons......the police officers they were shooting at didn't even have those.How on earth could that happen?Besides that It's illegal in this country to own a firearm if you are a convicted felon.You just can't go and buy a gun like anyone else can.But somehow they still got these weapons.How did they do that?That's a good question.......how does a criminal go about getting anything illegal?I couldn't answer that because I'm not a criminal but it makes a person wonder how that could happen.Maybe it's because they don't care if it's illegal or not.........that's just a theory.

And here is another fun fact.Did you know that any shotgun with a barrel length under 18" long or an overall length under 26" long is illegal to own unless it's registered to the ATF first?Do you think Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold registered their saw off shotguns to the ATF before turning Columbine Highschool into a killing field?No I seriously doubt they did.Do you think they were worried about how highly illegal it was when they were making pipe bombs to kill and wound their classmates with?I highly doubt it ever even crossed their minds.

Yeah alot of things are illegal in this country but somehow people manage to get those things and do illegal things on a daily basis.Killin other folks is illegal but it still happens.So why would anyone want to disarm people that could literally go their whole lives without ever going off the deep end and hurting another person while some punk that feels like they've been treated unfairly is in their garage making pipe bombs and trading dope or whatever to get an "assault weapon"?That doesn't make much sense to me.