Monday, October 2, 2017

Fully-automatic gun ownership is legal in America

As we absorb the horrible news about the mass gun murders in Las Vegas, and the probable use of at least one fully-automatic weapon in the carnage, here are three things to know:

* Though the relevant federal licensing is complex and expensive, it is legal to own a fully-automatic weapon in most states. The number of legally-licensed such weapons in the US is somewhere between 140,000 and nearly 400,000, according to several articles I've read today.

Semi-automatic weapons fire every time the trigger is pulled; automatic weapons fire repeatedly as long as a pulled trigger is held in that position, hence the more rapid "automatic" emptying of the cartridges in the weapon's magazine.

* One such fully-automatic weapon, a military-grade M-16 similar to those below, was among 18 weapons stolen from a Janesville, WI gun shop earlier this year in a high-profile crime spree by an anti-government extremist

Thirteen of those stolen weapons, including the M-16, have not been recovered.
M16a1m16a2m4m16a45wi.jpg
* Legal semi-automatic weapons can be altered through so-called "bump fire" parts modifications to fire faster, though not at the rate of a fully-automatic weapon. You can Google the term.

* With the know how and parts, it is said that a semi-automatic weapon can be converted to full automatic. Again, you can Google the terminology and read threads devoted to the matter.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You can typically find these weasels selling the parts and info at any gun show or at 7 Mile Fair almost any weekend. I don't know why this is allowed other than flat out greed and lack of concern for fellow citizens of the planet.

Anonymous said...

SADLY WHEN 20 1ST GRADERS WERE GUNNED DOWN IN THEIR SCHOOL AND CONGRESS CHOSE TO IGNOR THEIR DEATHS AND NOT IMPOSE A BAN ON AUTOMATIC ASSAULT WEAPONS THERE ARE NO NUMBER OF ADULT DEATHS THAT WOULD LEAD TO PAUL Ryan and friends turning back the NRA's money and even considering a ban. Our elected officials are totally owned by their special interest donors and in the most simple terms they don't care about us and quite frankly they don't work for us. That can be changed but only if we stop voting for political parties and vote for those who will accept no special interest donations and who commit to serving the people not their money masters.