I was about 2000 miles away, but listening to the news, I heard a hail of gunfire the likes of which I had only heard in war movies. At such a time as this, when our great nation is made a war zone from within, and mass murder ensues, it is time, now more than ever, to talk about these weapons that we are allowing to be bought and sold here rather unencumbered. It’s time to talk, dare I say it, gun control.

I would like to begin by saying, if you cannot defend yourself with a revolver, then maybe you shouldn’t own any gun. I am pretty sure that a six-shooter is plenty enough to defend against most attackers that one might encounter.

Within an otherwise civilized society, equipped with a modernized police force, coast guard, and military, you just shouldn’t need more. If you do, then someone is not doing their job efficiently.

What’s an assault rifle? What’s a hunting rifle?

Now as for assault rifles and automatic weapons, I think some might still need this broken down into simple terms. Many, if not most hunting rifles made today are semi-automatic. But they appear unassuming and well, built for hunting. The differences between a semi-automatic hunting rifle and an assault weapon are twofold and kind of deceptively silly. One is purely cosmetic and the other difference may be found in the round capacity of the clip.

The differences between a semi-automatic hunting rifle and an Assault Rifle are, as I said previously, mostly superficial and/or cosmetic.

The only parts that one needs to change in order to make a semi-automatic hunting rifle look like an assault rifle are as follows: a black polymer frame, collapsible stock, a flash suppressor and a pistol grip. That’s it.

Now you stick a banana clip in there and what you have is a standard assault rifle. Both rifles can be converted to fire fully automatic.

YouTube is full of videos that will show you how to do it. And regardless of conversion, both rifles can be bump fired to almost the same effect as that produced by fully automatic gunfire.

Bump firing a semi-automatic rifle is almost the same as fully automatic

Bump firing is when the recoil from the first shot is used to initiate the trigger pull for the next shot.

With a rifle, it’s easier with a bump stock, but can be done without it. This has the effect of making the gunfire rapid. Not quite as rapid as with fully automatic gunfire, but close enough. What I’m trying to say is probably not going to make the gun nuts happy. Because this used to be their argument. You know the one? Saying that an assault rifle is no different than a hunting rifle?

In part they are correct. If the hunting rifle, of which they speak, is a semi-automatic hunting rifle with a banana clip, then it is no different than an assault rifle. So you can clearly see, the problem is not with the regular standard single shot hunting rifle for the sportsman and/or the hunter, it’s with any semi-automatic and/or fully automatic weapon.

Don’t even get me started on what I think about someone that murders defenseless animals for sport. They should be made to hunt with a sharp stick instead. Then we can call it a sport. And then that is a whole separate issue. Today we are still rocked by the realization that someone just murdered 59 people and injured upwards of 500 in just 15 minutes, turning Las Vegas, in those brief moments, into a war zone. It happened right in the heart of our great nation.

What is bothering me the most is that something occurred on our soil, once again, that ISIS felt justified in claiming responsibility for. When will America look like Syria? Are we not any better than this?
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