General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCan Some gun expert answer this question about AR-15......
Is it easier to kill people with an AR-15 that it would be with the 30.06 I used as a kid?
If not then how will an assault weapon ban prevent anything?
1939
(1,683 posts)is that you can carry a hell of a lot more .223/5.56 ammo than you can 30-06/7.62mm ammo because it weighs less.
The largest common magazine for the M14 was 20 rounds.
The M1 held 8 rounds.
Them M1903 held 5 rounds.
Decent mags for the M16 wannabes usually hold 30 rounds. There are mags with greater capacity, but they are not functionally reliable like the 30 round mags as they have problems with jamming.
Just reading posts
(688 posts)do have problems.
whatthehey
(3,660 posts)your old rifle is far more powerful, making it do more damage when it hits. It's far better at higher range in equally skilled hands. But if you want to spray and pray quickly to kill a whole bunch of people you'd have to really jerry-rig an old hubting rifle out of all recognition to make it as quick to fire follow ups and reload for a large given number of rounds, so you could hit more people more quickly.
An AWB, even verywell written, might at the very best in certain circumstances slightly reduce the body count in very large very rare mass shootings like this one, although Cho caused dozens of deaths with a pistol in an open environment. In a crowded nightclub he could have likely matched the latest loon. About the only way I could see it is yes all things equal in this particular shooting if I'm in the crowd I'd prefer him to have a nice heavy old 30.06 without the big magazine and low recoil of the AR to be honest. The bullet would do more damage, but I'd have a better chance of escaping one at all.
TexasProgresive
(12,157 posts)Your 30-06 was maybe a Remington 700 ADL or BDL. The magazine held 6? rounds. If it was a semi-auto 30-06 probably the same. The AR-15 type rifle can use a large magazine and is semi-auto. When the mag is empty another can be inserted quickly. This vastly increases the fire power of your old deer rifle.
One other thing from what I remember of the M-16 there is nearly no recoil whereas the 30-06 has a substantial kick. This affects more than comfort as it is easier to keep the AR under control by the shooter.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)more ammo choices, it's a favorite of every racist, it's a favorite of those who like to train for urban warfare, even sniper wannabes like them. But heck, you know all that. If I remember correctly, you have a few guns.
The reason I think it will help is it will cool down the market for gunz, put some lethal weapons manufacturers out of business, stop advertising like that below which entices yahoos into buying and training with the dang things, etc. It'll even work better if we restrict semi-auto handguns.
And it will stop some of this BS:
comradebillyboy
(10,174 posts)than you can with a 30.06. AR has a much greater rate of fire with much less recoil than a 30.06. Also I don't think you can buy 30 round magazines for a 30.06. The only thing that the old assault weapons ban did was banning high capacity magazines, banning the AR's bayonet lug and banning telescoping stocks. Back then you had to make do with 20 round army style magazines. If all the proposed assault rifle ban does is to make semi-automatic rifles look less like a military rifles it won't have much effect at all. During the last 'assault rifle ban' you could buy a Ruger Mini-14 for about half the price of an AR and have the same firepower, it just didn't look like a military rifle. The Mini-14 was easily converted to full auto as well.
99th_Monkey
(19,326 posts)In 1986, it became illegal for civilians to own newly made machine guns. But with just $299, you can modify your semi-automatic AK-47 or AR-15:
Slide Fire is a company that sells gun stocks that you can use with an AK-47 or an AR-15. These attachments enable accurate "controlled rapid firing," according to the company's website, meaning "you can shoot one round, 2 rounds 15 rounds or a full magazine," as Jeremiah Cottle, the US Air Force vet who invented the product, told Guns America last year.
Gun enthusiasts, who have posted videos on YouTube of the Slide Fire in use, seem to love the product. "It's just like an M-16!" the shooter in the YouTube video above exclaims. "You can shoot it accurately or if you want to have fun, you can just spray the shit out of everything." Survivalists also love the product. "If the gun-grabbers and Brady camp gets hold of this, it's game over," wrote a user on a survivalist message board, referring to the Brady Campaign to Stop Gun Violence.
A gun modified with Slide Fire "fires as a machine gun would," explains David Coulson, a spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the federal government's gun regulatorbut, he adds, that doesn't make it a machine gun.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/12/how-make-your-gun-shoot-fully-automatic-one-easy-step
Adrahil
(13,340 posts)Why? It's a toy. I've used one at the range (not mine). Difficult to control, and mainly just wastes ammo. Some folks can get pretty good with them, but it take a lot of practice, and they are not under any kind of stress. With ammo at $.50/round, it's a great way to piss away hundreds of dollars in a half hour or so. I don't care about it either way.
jmg257
(11,996 posts)I know I could shoot more things faster with an AR then I could with a semi-auto M1, a pump action 760, and a bolt-action 1903.
Also, AW bans typically address magazine capacity.
SuperDutyTX
(79 posts)It's hard to know exactly what you used as a kid; depending on that it could be very similar, or much easier with an AR type rifle.
The M1 Garand carried by our troops in WWII can shoot at a fairly high rate of fire (you'd have to get proficient at swapping in en bloc clips and not smashing your finger), and the 30-06 is substantially more powerful than the .223/5.56 round fired from the AR15; it would be very possible that a single round wound multiple people with a 30-06.
In my opinion, the AR15 is no more lethal than several other magazine fed semi-auto rifles that have been around for decades.
Crepuscular
(1,057 posts)30-06 is a cartridge, AR15 is a specific weapon type, the two can't be compared.
An AWB is unlikely to prevent much in terms of reducing gun violence.