An Argument Against Assault Rifles

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I grew up with guns in the house. I ate pheasant, rabbit and venison regularly, all by the hand of my gun-toting father. My brothers learned to hunt. I have enjoyed venison from their hunting as well.  I held a rifle in my own hand at one time.  Actually, that one time was enough for me to decide “no thanks” to guns, but that is another story. I have been mad enough a time or two to actually be glad that I don’t own a gun. If I had used one, I might be writing this from a jail cell.

The second amendment grants us the right to “bear arms” and is one cornerstone of American Values. The second amendment is also the only amendment that mandates regulation. (Yes. Read it.) We must regulate the right to bear arms. That is what those people who advocate opposing assault weapons are getting at. We don’t want to take away your pistols, hand guns or rifles. We want to limit the fire power of unhinged strangers, when they go after our kids in churches and schools. Is that too much to ask?

Regulation looks like:

• Training on use of the weapon. We need training to use a car, a lawn mower, a snow blower, a computer, a sewing machine, a chain saw and multiple other devices. Training with and for your gun will save your foot from being shot off. Learning the safety protocols really helps you not be the victim or survivor of unexpected consequences. I think they also touch on a moral code of ethics.
• Registration of weapons. We need to license and register our cars. We have a license and registration for our motorcycles, our boats, our spouses. Teachers, doctors, lawyers and others need to obtain a license to practice. I do not think registration of your fire arm is too much to ask, nor getting a license to hunt.
• Limits on who, when and which weapons are given.  Using the car analogy again, no one will sell or give a car to a person who does not have a license. No one should be able to buy a gun without a gun license  – let the seller know that you know what you’re doing.  If you drive a semi-trailer truck you know you had to learn and pass an exam to obtain a  license to drive that truck. And aren’t you glad they don’t hand out semi-trucks to just anyone who wants one? I can drive a car pretty well, but I would need and want training and a license to drive a motorcycle or semi- rig. Isn’t it only reasonable to require a license for those who own and use a gun?
• Limits on what buyers can access.  Who among you owns a bazooka? (I’m sure there is one or two folks out there who actually do). Who among you owns a B-52 (airplane) or other heavy -assault weapons? This is the crux of the argument. If we have a working military, we really  don’t need to defend ourselves because the army, navy, air force, national guard, state and local police and Eagle scouts will all be protecting us. 
• In this day and age, we may feel the fear of assault from anywhere, but are you going straight to the assault rifle as your first and only answer to danger?

Let’s look at the right to own a gun to obtain food. That has been one of the fundamental reasons to bear arms. I remember my dad being angry because with more than one bullet, the ammunition shot up the meat so it was inedible. No one wants to spend time pulling bullets from the meat they want to eat. More ammunition scars and destroys the meat, so what you kill becomes useless instead of providing food for the table.

Let’s look at the right to own a gun to defend yourself and your kin. That was a reasonable  expectation in the early years of our country when we might need to defend against the King’s men. Now that I write that, you may need to defend yourself against the ICE officers, who want to take you in, because you look like a foreigner.  (Look in the mirror to see if that applies to you.) I with my German/English heritage have been accused of being Italian, Dakota and Irish. I would not be able to prove my heritage on the spot, nor would I be able to pull my birth certificate from my pocket for proof of an American birth. (This might actually be something to consider: copy your birth certificate and keep it in your wallet.)

Third, Let’s look at bullets, rifles and let’s look at the difference between regular rifles and assault, semi-automatic rifles. It is just natural physics that dictates what kind and extent of damage a speeding bullet will do. I’m not gun expert, but even I can see that sending many more than one bullet through a stained-glass church window does much more damage than you might realize. Spraying bullets through the side of building creates shrapnel, creates dust and destruction and subsequential damage that most of us would be very surprised at. “OH, I didn’t know that bullet would slice through my husband’s head into my eye”  Wow.  The fact of the matter with automatic ‘assault’ rifles is that many more bullets are shot in a very short amount of time. The bullets may be the same, but the damage is not.

The amount of energy a bullet radiates into a target is determined by a simple formula taught in high school: It’s the product of one half the projectile’s mass times the square of the velocity. So, if indeed, the assault rifle sends bullets faster than a regular gun, the bullet is more deadly. The Kinetic energy of the bullet, sends out shockwaves through tissue and bone as it moves through the body, leaving chaos in its wake.  If you don’t believe this, come view the aftermath of my friend’s leg who was shot through and through – after six weeks is still healing from the internal damage – still packing the wound which the shooter left.

Alex Yablon in a (The Trace) blog on June 21, 2017 tells us that higher speed, greater mass and more surface area increase the damage that rounds do to bodies.

Dr. Peter Rhee, trauma surgeon in Tucson Arizona, who  operated on victims of the 2011 shooting in which six people were killed and 13 wounded in a hail of 9mm bullets, explained that the more massive the projectile, the more severe the wound.

“A .22 will kill you, but it won’t blow your head apart,” he said. With bigger bullets, you will make bigger holes.”

(https://www.thetrace.org/2017/06/physics-deadly-bullets-assault-rifles/)

Gunmakers catering to consumers who increasingly buy weapons for self-defense since the mid-2000s, have produced fewer of the small-caliber handguns like the .25 or .32, and more 9mm bullets and larger. Your insecurity is giving the bad guys more powerful and deadlier weapons.(https://www.thetrace.org/2016/12/americas-obsession-powerful-handguns-rising-gunshot-lethality/)

You, do not know what size bullet the shooter had in the guns he used, so you cannot deny the damage that a bigger bullet will do. But, even if you did, the speed of the bullet changes its impact and the trajectory defines where it goes and how it splinters on impact.

Semiautomatic rifles don’t shoot the biggest bullets on the market, they like to use the more common round for the AR-15, which is not much larger than many .22 rounds like the Hornet, typically used for youth shooting sports, target shooting, and hunting varmints. The .223 weighs in at 55 grains, while the .22 is usually 45 grains or smaller. What makes the .223 potentially deadlier than the .22 is its velocity. (this from: https://www.thetrace.org/2017/06/physics-deadly-bullets-assault-rifles/)

When the .223 exits the barrel of a gun, it flies at more than 3,200 feet per second, and is still going 1,660 feet per second after traveling 500 yards.  . The .223 is carrying 335 foot-pounds of force, while the .22 carries 70 foot-pounds. (Physics of deadly bullets assault rifles)

William Taylor from the GunZone.com reports: “Large-capacity magazines allow shooters to fire more rounds without reloading, potentially increasing the number of casualties in mass shootings and other violent incidents. Limiting magazine capacity is seen as a way to reduce the lethality of such events.” (https://thegunzone.com/why-did-the-assault-weapon-ban-not-get-renewed) Alex Yablon corroborates this in a blog posted on Dec. 5, 2016 on Trace at: (https://www.thetrace.org/2016/12/americas-obsession-powerful-handguns-rising-gunshot-lethality/)

Now, let me point you toward the aftermath of a mass shooting with a assault weapon. Who cleans that mess up? How much effort, resources and time are you willing to give to clean up the mess you make with your guns? I’m serious. A single bullet hole through one window takes a lot less rebuilding that the whole front of your house: windows, walls, doors and door frames, siding, windows, etc. will cost to repair. How long will it take? We are still not back into our church because of repairs needed, after six weeks. It will be a couple more months before we can again have Mass in our church building. It will take time, effort and a lot of money to repair and replace what one assault rifle in the hands of a mentally ill person wrought in a few very short minutes.

That is the easy part. It will take weeks, months, years for the many victims of this latest mass shooting to heal, to maybe feel safe again, to walk into school or church with a feeling of ease. Bodies may or may not heal and return to “normal”. My friend said she still has a piece of shrapnel inside her head. Many others — so many children are healing, but will be living with the reminder of that day, a piece of shrapnel inside their head, neck, back, arm or leg. A speeding bullet shatters. It shatters skin, muscle, bone and organs. It might go in clean, but when it comes out, there is a gapping hole. The lives changed will never be returned to the “before the incident” wellness. Is the disruption of lives worth the right to bear assault weapons? Really?

On my last blog post, I said: In a recent Minnesota Star Tribune, in an article (“Parents want ban on some weapons” by Nathaniel Minor, Tues. Sept. 16^th, 2025) Tim Kummer said that a bullet hitting a body “From a handgun, that wound would likely have only been a graze wound, but from a high-powered rifle, it became a life-threatening brain injury.” If for no other reason, let this be the reason to outlaw weapons like automatic rifles. (https://annette-gagliardi.com/when-bad-things-happen-to-good-people/

My cousin said this was totally false information:

“That is a flat out lie by the so-called Doctor. There is ZERO difference in the bullets from what you call a assault rifle than a bolt action rifle of the same caliber or a semi-automatic rifle. Contrary to what the media claims the public CANNOT have automatic weapons WITHOUT having a Federal Firearms License which are difficult to get. You know I’ve grown up around guns all my life and been shot as well. The GUN didn’t shoot me a now X family member did. You keep forgetting the gun is tool no different than hammer when used properly. When misused by HUMANS both are deadly.”

Cousin, Fist of all, that “so-called Doctor” is a real doctor in a real emergency room, who was shaken more by the mending of the many Annunciation School children who had been hit by an assault rifle, than any other emergency he had encountered. You are rude and ill-bred to deny his experience or his expertise. If you cannot defend the argument, do not defame the speaker. I know you are better than that.

Second, do you see the extra guard rails on freeways, the extra lights, the signs and road paint, those rumble bumps that wake-up drives to a highway crossing? Notice the signs and lights at railroad crossing? Those are regulations for drivers. As folks have gotten more and more unwilling to maintain personal responsibility, the government has put up more and more regulations to keep us safe from ourselves and each other.  As gun owners are becoming more and more unhinged, we need more regulation to save them and us.

I am just asking that we have the same regulations for rifles. I’m just asking for those who regulate guns to look more closely at what a person needs to prove in order to own and operate an assault rifle. I am not looking to take away your right to shoot. I just don’t want you to shoot my child, or any of my students.

I know how we all get confused, especially once the media starts throwing around catch phrases. Here is a quote from the USCCA:

“What many deem an assault rifle is more accurately a modern sporting rifle or MSR. While these may look similar to military rifles, they function differently.  MSRs like the AR-15 have been used by law-abiding gun owners since the ’60s.” (https://www.usconcealedcarry.com/blog/the-matter-of-assault-weapons/)

I will point you to an article defining assault rifles at: https://www.usconcealedcarry.com/blog/the-matter-of-assault-weapons/

“Technically speaking an assault rifle is defined as a fully automatic weapon, which means it can continuously fire rounds as long as the trigger is held down.”

 The speed of the bullets and the sheer number of bullets offered by an assault rifle is why they are so deadly. Is it too much to ask of gun owners, to really, really think about your need for an assault rifle. I’m not talking about the one you use to shoot Bambie or Thumper. But, one that shoots a hundred rounds in a minute – really? Why do you need it? Who will you be shooting with that?

 I know that guns are sexy. Just like cars and motorcycles and fast women are sexy.  A person feels so very powerful behind the wheel of a powerful engine (muscle cars!) or a powerful gun (So Virile!) With the weight of the metal, the smooth, shiny barrel and the slight smell of the oil used to clean the guns, it feels so good. Those guns also make you feel so very safe – especially when you know how to use them. But, guns as well as vehicles are tools that kill. Tools with so much power to kill that they must be regulated. You notice that traffic laws are for your own and other’s protection and you try to obey even the ones you don’t like.

All I’m asking is that another ‘traffic’ law – one for guns this time, be enacted. The government puts regulation on things so we do not kill ourselves or others because, somehow, humans cannot control themselves all the time. Many humans cannot control themselves any of the time. That is why we call for regulation. That is why we need regulation.

Please help us help you. Please allow the congress to reinstate the assault weapons ban (AWB) which was discontinued in 2004. I know the repealing of this law is a whole other argument and we could go on and on with this debate, as many others and many in congress, town halls and elsewhere have. But, let us rethink our need for such dangerous weapons. I wonder if it isn’t just the criminals who feel so very unsafe that they need to possess the most deadly weapons. Are you one of them?

Alternative approaches to reinstating the Assault Weapons Ban “include strengthening background checks, improving mental health services, addressing underlying social and economic factors that contribute to violence, and implementing ‘red flag’ laws that allow for the temporary removal of firearms from individuals deemed a danger to themselves or others.” (William Taylor article).

I think we should not debate which approach to take. Let us take them all. Let us protect our children from this danger we can protect them from. I have only seen semiautomatic assault rifles being used for mass murders. If there is another use for them, I have yet to find out.

As far as other uses go, I am willing to turn an assault rifle into a lamp, hanger holder, coat rack or a bird feeder. I’m open to other suggestions, as well.

Your comments are welcome in the comments section below.