Words matter when it comes to describing assault weapons

Create: Wed, 01/16/2013 - 01:32
Author: Ed Connor

ORMOND BEACH -- Let's examine the language of proposed assault weapons bans. The term assault weapon is a made up term used by lazy liberal journalists who think it distinguishes them from ordinary guns.

They hear the term and repeat it endlessly until everyone within listening distance is also repeating the term without thinking what it means. An assault weapon is anything used to assault another human being: It could be a kitchen knife or a piece of iron pipe.

Rapid fire automatic weapons have been banned since the 1930s, yet we are led to believe by Piers Morgan of CNN and even conservative news anchors that banning "assault weapons" removes the threat faced by the kids of Newtown, Conn. or theater goers in Aurora, Colo. This is a patently untrue and deceptive message by journalists with a liberal agenda.

Rapid fire automatic weapons have been banned since the 1930s, yet we are led to believe by Piers Morgan of CNN and even conservative news anchors that banning "assault weapons" removes the threat faced by the kids of Newtown, Conn. or theater goers in Aurora, Colo. This is a patently untrue and deceptive message by journalists with a liberal agenda.

Prior to Newtown, there was mall shooting in Clackamas, Ore., in which just two people were killed. Why don't we hear from these same learned heads why the body count was so low. An armed bystander confronted the shooter who then ran off and shot himself, otherwise the body count may have been much worse.

This situation doesn't fit the agenda of the control crowd who think making more laws will make criminals respect them. That's why we don't hear more about the Oregon shootings.

Be careful when using language loosely. Words matter. They are used to make laws that matter. Not laws that don't.

Editor's Note: The principal weapon Adam Lanza used in the Dec. 14, 2012, school massacre in Newtown, Conn., before killing himself with a handgun was a semi-automatic Bushmaster .223 rifle. The three weapons used by accused killer James Holmes in the July 20, 2012, massacre of a dozen people in the Aurora, Colo., movie theater were a semiautomatic variation of the military’s M-16 rifle, a pump-action 12-gauge shotgun and at least one .40-caliber semiautomatic pistol. The weapons in both cases are described in law enforcement reports and confirmed by numerous media outlets.
 
The biggest difference between automatic and semi-automatic is as follows: You only need to pull trigger once and as long as you keep your finger on it the bullets will fire continuously until you release the trigger or until the bullets have all been expelled.  With a semi-automatic, it's one trigger pull allowing one bullet at a time to fire. The video below should help explain further.

 

This video from YouTube describes the difference between automatic and semi-automatic firearms as described and demonstrated by LeRoy Pyle, a cop with the San Jose, Calif. police force.

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