Assault Weapons Should Not Be Banned

It's always been difficult for me to understand how people don't know what assault weapons are, yet want to get rid of them. Allow me to clarify what these weapons REALLY are. 1. In 1954, a company called ArmaLite was founded. To this day weapons based on ArmaLite's design for rifles are in use in the military. These include the M16, as well as the M4; but I cannot stress this enough, the AR-15 is a civilian Model of ArmaLite's weapon design. The AR in AR-15 stands for ArmaLite Rifle, not assault rifle. Now that we have that out of the way, I'll define what an assault rifle really is. I define an assault rifle as a select fire rifle chambered in an intermediate rifle cartridge. Select fire is a switch that will allow a rifle to change between firing modes. It is typically laid out SAFE-SEMI-BURST-AUTO. In the military, it is just laid out SAFE-SEMI-BURST. The AR-15 has no select fire, instead, a safety switch, which most guns already have, whether they're hunting rifles or automatic pistols. The other parts of the "assault rifle" are mostly cosmetic, and make little difference. A telescoping stock is the only thing on the back of a gun that has any actual function, A thumbhole stock and a pistol grip don't actually make a gun any different or any more controllable. That is a lie, and even a telescoping stock makes the rifle only slightly smaller. A folding stock provides little concealability, as an AR-15-is already a large rifle even without a stock. One important thing is that an AR-15 is incompatible with a folding stock, as it needs a thing on the back of the gun called a buffer tube to function. The buffer tube is already about 10 inches with a carbine length AR-15, and so cannot be used with a folding stock. A non detachable magazine feature has loopholes, and can already be modified to be detachable without a tool. Speaking of magazines, their size matters very little, as contrary to popular belief, reloading only takes 2 seconds at max, which when you are sufficiently spaced from your victims ends up making no difference. Also, smaller magazines are more maneuverable, and end up speeding up the reload, which defeats the purpose of magazine size restrictions. A "barrel shroud" Serves the same purpose as the forward grip of a hunting rifle. Rifles are meant to be held with both hands so that they may be shouldered and aimed comfortably, as they usually have smaller, more precise iron sights and are much more heavy than pistols. A barrel shroud is really to protect you from burning your hands on the barrel of a heavy machine gun so that you brush up against it during the reloading process, you won't end up burning your fingers off. A flash hider distributes gas better than the muzzle of a normal rifle so that you don't get powder and gas in your eyes. It disrupts the fire from the muzzle flair so that it won't blind you when you shoot in the dark. It does not make the shooter invisible. It is commonly also called a flash suppressor, but it does not serve entirely the same purpose as a regular suppressor. A suppressor makes a gunshot a little quieter but you must use special ammunition. It also hides the muzzle flair and flash. Keep in mind, however, that most guns are loud even while suppressed. Firing mode for assault weapons is a very important detail. The AR-15 is SEMI AUTOMATIC. This means one shot per pull of the trigger. The fastest shooters can only shoot around 5 rounds a second with an AR-15. Real fully automatic assault rifles fire anywhere from 10 to 20 rounds per second. The politicians trying to ban these weapons have no idea what they're talking about either. According to them, as long as it looks scary, it should be banned. The AWB in '94 was successful at decreasing the number of assault weapons used in crime by half, which did next to nothing, as assault weapons for the majority already weren't really being used in crime. So in conclusion, banning assault weapons has been shown to be generally ineffective at controlling gun crime as a whole, and massacres would still happen.