[CaptainCrunch]

I get your point, and I agree with it to an extent, but stating that controlling or stopping semi-automatic rifle sales all but eliminates rifle massacres is something that I don't believe is true.


These people are determined to mass massacre for whatever their demented reason, whether politically, racially, or anger based reasons. They won't stop.


If you put a stop to so called legal sales, all you're doing is driving it underground, people won't stop searching for and buying weapons, and its a huge dollar business especially for example in China where manufacture of these types of weapons is linked tightly to the government and a big source of cash. There are other nations with arms factors that participate in the black market.


All you're going to do with a ban is create a really unregulated market place. You're going to have to massively increase the ability to do inspections at the mexican border and on the east and west coast where hundreds of thousands of everything from freighters to personal vessels arrive.


Its the same idea as the war on drugs, just because you make something illegal doesn't make it go away, and the private concerns are smarter and more concerned with keeping their sales undetected then what happens in the legit market.


A person that's that determined to kill is going to find other methods, we might reduce the number of school shootings, but these people will probably become amateur chemists, or other methods ie sniping with a hunting rifle, using pistols and a more confined space, whatever.


Look I'm all for banning these type of rifles, I think I've demonstrated that here in the past, that I'm a confusing mess on this issue, I'm ex military, I've shot in the past and really enjoyed it, but I don't see the need for these rifles, and think that they're the unlimate enabler for the crazy, the angry, the ignored and the nut bar groups out there.


If you want to get rid of these weapons you have to.


1) Sure ban the sale of them
2) Because they are banned for sale, you're going to have to spend a lot of money encouraging people to hand in what they've got.
3) Ban personal sales, and make the punishment for doing it really harsh
4) Up street enforcement, because frankly you ban these weapons and the value of them goes through the roof, so thefts will increase
5) Spend massive amounts of money on border and port security
6) Find a way to press other countries not to control the flow of their semi-automatic arms to the States.
7) To me, up the punishment for gun crimes of any type from not securing properly, to use of these weapons.


This at this point where guns are heavily entangled in the American ethos the formula of ban the sale of semi-automatic weapons = elimination of rifle massacres is a formula that I don't believe is true. For a time, you might get that, but like jurrasic park, murderers will find a way.