And pro-gunners try to obfuscate the issue with pedantic tripe. Believe me, the federal court knows the difference between a machine gun and a semi-automatic.
Thankfully the majority of gun owners in the US are indeed responsible. Can you imagine the carnage if we had 200 million or more guns in the hands of a bunch of morons, crooks and psychopaths?
Actually yeah, to most people "automatic" is synonymous with machine gun. Despite it being a reference to how the gun feeds, it's common day usage is to refer to fully automatic weapons. That's how the government, law enforcement, and the military uses the term. Maybe you should contact the Pentagon and straighten them out. My M16 in the Army had a selector switch for Semi and Auto, trust me when I say none of us were confused as to what they meant. And somehow you think the anti-gun crowd thinks it means anything else? C'mon, they think a magazine and a clip are the same thing, that AR-15's are machine guns (Obama said so, it must be true, right?), that AR-15's are high powered rifles, and I couldn't even begin to count the number of people who've argued they can buy guns at Walmart without even having to show ID (Bloomberg really likes hamming up that lie). And let's not forget that politician in Colorado claiming they should just let people keep their 30 round magazines because they'll eventually just "use them up". She was leading the charge to ban 30 round magazines and didn't even know they could be reloaded. Do you honestly think she understands the inner-workings of how different guns feed and eject ammunition? But you know this. And if you've ever owned a gun you'd know that no gun shop would ever hand you a semi-auto handgun and call it auto, because the term "automatic" is the common term used to reference fully-automatic weapons. As for the anti-gun folks who don't know anything about guns, or anybody without knowledge of weapons or ammunition in general, seeing the word "Automatic" on a box of ammo means nothing to them. They wouldn't know what to put it in. But we're not talking about what's written on ammo boxes, we're talking about a common term used to reference machine guns,
You obviously didn't see where I said "...available to the general public". Manufactures call them automatics all the time, do I have to dig up the gun ads for you? Is this a machine gun? Maybe you should call the manufacturer and ask them, {rolleyes}
I've had one of those for over 30 years. it's sitting in the closet about 10 feet away.. and 15 rounds if you chamber the first one and top it off
Buhahahaha!!! So is that an original ad from 1912??? May I remind you that; 1) there were no firm standards or regulations regarding product labeling or marketing at that time, only food and drugs. They could have called it any damn thing they wanted practically. Patent medicines loaded with cocaine and morphine were still legal less than a decade earlier. 2) the actual "machine gun" technology as in fully automatic firing and reloading had yet to make it's way into the public mind or attention. We have to wait a few more years for that to happen when the Germans unleash it in WWI, so the use of the term "automatic" in an ad from that era didn't have anywhere the same meaning or connotation as it does today. I checked Colt's site and catalog and in every instance those style of pistols are referred to as "semi-automatic". Do you have any ads from the last decade that claim to be selling "automatic" weapons?
This is all pointless distraction from the real issue and you know it. Federal court decides what is constitutional or not, and they are upholding bans on semi-automatic weapons. That is all.
The term automatic can refer to the automatic reloading of the weapon after firing, as opposed to having to chamber the next shell manually, not the firing itself. The term is usually confined to a system that uses some of the energy from the combustion in the chamber to accomplish this, as opposed to a mechanical system such as that used by a revolver or Gatling gun. So an automatic weapon can be semi-automatic or fully automatic, technically.
John Dillingers fully automatic (converted) colt. Now this one really is a machine gun, lol Who could tell?
I believe the word "automatic" on the ammo box indicates that that ammo is intended for a (semi) automatic weapon. For example I have a .22 cal. weapon that can accept any .22 LR rimfire shell, but if it doesn't have enough charge the mechanism may not cycle completely resulting in a partial ejection and a jamming of the gun.
I completely understand, but I don't know why gun nutz want to think its common knowledge, and I'm pretty sure I have illustrated why the causal non-gun enthusiast might be easily confused.
true, but don't you think the folks actually writing these laws and promoting for stricter controls and bans should at least know what it is they are talking about? It has been demonstrated time and again that many of the politicians calling for bans don't even actually know what it is they are wanting to ban.
don't have that info off the top of my head. but that there is deception and misrepresentation is rather apparent to anybody familiar with firearms. Like I mentioned about different types of ammo and how the most effective for personal protection is the very type law enforcement are restricted from using and instead are required to use the type that has a clear record of going clean through a target and injuring a bystander. In the late '80's when there was a bunch of crap going on about AK-47's and how deadly they are and a local news show did a segment about these fiercely powerful weapons and the deadly ammo they shoot. It was rather dramatic with emotional pleas for bans and a spectacular montage of a watermelon being exploded by one of these evil guns/bullets. Then about a week later the truth came out whenever it was revealed that when they shot the melon with the AK all it did was punch nice small clean holes straight through it, so a cop that was there pulled out his 9mil loaded with hollow points and obliterated the melon. But when it aired it certainly was made to look as if the AK did the dirty work. I guess the actual truth wasn't as sensational or "newsworthy".