The Second Ammendment Lobby and Police Safety

[Condor]

First off you continue to use the term "military style assault weapons" when I clearly pointed out the military doesn't use the nomenclature "assault weapon" for any of their weapons (though on a side note the term has been adopted by so many within our culture that there are even people within the "profession of arms" who will use that term). It's kind of like the whole "clip/magazine" terms that constantly get interchanged within our culture despite the fact that a clip and a magazine are clearly different things.

Look, I'm not going to get bogged down in an argument over the term but I do believe when people start using terminology that isn't correct or of dubious origin it immediately sends warning signals up in my head that "here we go again, someone is going to lecture about the evil assault weapon" when as I clearly pointed out you could ask a hundred different people and get a hundred different answers. There are many firearms out there that can be dress up with fancy wood furniture, has a 5 round magazine, no flash suppressor and no bayonet lug and most people if shown a picture wouldn't give it pause. If you suddenly take all those features off the weapon and put on black plastic furniture, a 30 round magazine, flash suppressor and bayonet lug it immediately becomes an "assault weapon" to most people.

As far as the American public having access to military grade weapon systems, not going to happen anytime soon. Like I said, I spent 13 years in the military and last time I checked, local gun shops aren't selling M240s, M2s, Javelins, TOWS, MK19s, Stingers, etc. It is possible to own an automatic weapon but as I pointed out it takes a lot of money and hoops to jump through. So today the whole argument of citizens being just as well armed as their military becomes kind of a moot point.

With that being said, as you pointed out above, there's a large percentage of people who expect their government to live up to the founding principals of this country. I am well aware of the history of both this and the English country. I guess one could argue that our founding fathers did not imagine the advances that would take place in military weapons and equipment, so I can see where some could argue as I stated above that today the thought of the average citizen being as well armed to his military counterpart is a joke. With that being said, if people feel that government is stepping outside their moral (and legal) bounds then resistance will arise at some point. I think Colonel Jones has done a great job articulating how "insurgencies" start. Also keep in mind that despite all our military grade hardware, we are getting our butts kicked by a bunch of people who are still living in the 12th century. Of course we could blame that on lack of any type of long term strategic goals but alas that is a different subject.

By the way, there was just a recent home invasion near where I live and 10 "suspects" were caught and charged with the home invasion. People can sit there and say "but you don't need a 30 round magazine". Obviously these very same people have never been in a gunfight.

PS-I wouldn't take everything that is put on WikiPedia as gospel. Anyone can "edit" or put what they like on there, doesn't mean it's correct.