Well folks, With so many people upset that the ban on assult rifles is going away soon, I figure maybe we should compare an assult rifle to a currently legal rifle, and see what all the fuss is about...
First, to clear up any confusion about commonly used terms, I'll give you a quick brush up. I am not trying to mock or anger any of those people out there that support this ban, but I feel that many people that support gun control simply don't understand guns...
Fully automatic means that you can just hold down the trigger and the gun keeps firing in rapid succession, Semi-automatic means that each time you pull the trigger it fires a single round. Contrary to some believes, because a weapon is given the title "assult rifle" does not mean that it is fully automatic, although typically there are fully automatic versions out there. However, the redeeming factor is that fully automatic weapons are still extremely controlled, and lifting this ban on "assult rifles" won't result in fully automatic weapons becoming any more easy to obtain.
So, what is an assult rifle? Basically, it is a big, mean, nasty looking rifle. In fact, here's a picture of the M16, used by the U.S. armed forces.
See? Scary-looking, isn't it? Now what if I were to tell you that it is very similar to the .22 rifle - the same rifle that has been around for many, many years, the so called Beginner's rifle?
Not so scary looking, as you can see....
What could those two weapons possibly have in common? For one, the size of the bullet that they shoot. The .22 rifle uses ammo that is .22 caliber (surprisingly enough, lol) - the M16, the assult weapon that you see above, uses .223 - which is extremely similar in size. I personally have an old .22 rifle that has a 30 round magazine, the M16 also carries 30 rounds.
The main difference, as far as the ammunition goes, is the amount of gunpowder used in the bullet. The picture depicted below compares a .22 round to a .243, so the difference is actually more significant than if I could find a picture comparing it to the .223 instead. The bottom, golden part of the case is what stores the propellant, the smaller, different colored portion at the top is the actual projectile that is fired. As you can see, they are very similar. Although this may get a little gruesome, when shot with a .22 bullet -because of the smaller caliber - it typically has a higher chance of going through and though the target. As the caliber, for all intents and purposes is the same on the .223, the extra gunpowder (larger shell) simply gives it a longer range than your typical .22 rifle.
Well, I hope this clears a few things up - I just wanted to help people make more informed decisions. Obviously, the look of the guns are quite different, but - the largest concerns I have heard were magazine size and "power" - both of which I addressed. Also, in both cases, the civilian version of each weapons is semi-automatic, so there is no difference there.
The point I am trying to get across is that simply because assult weapons are going to be legal again - it doesn't mean that there are going to be a whole new compliment of even more dangerous guns entering civilians homes now - many of the current legal guns are extraordinarly similar, and in many cases, even more powerful than the "assult rifles" - they just look a lot more friendly...