In defense of the maligned assault weapon
Hysteria and facts don't mix well, so it's not surprising that missing from the righteous outrage about free-flowing assault weapons and America's gun-crazy culture is this inconvenient truth: gun-related homicides in the United States have fallen in half over the past two decades, according to FBI statistics, to 8,775 in 2010 from 17,075 in 1993.
Note that the gun homicide total continued to drop even after 2004, when the federal ban on assault weapons expired. Per-capita gun deaths today are about where they were in the early 1960s.
Note also that the downward trend in gun deaths has corresponded with an increase in gun ownership.
That doesn't fit the narrative favored by the anti-gun fanatics, but not much about their obsession with banning firearms is rooted in reality.
Start with the "assault weapons" moniker — a term made up by the media and the anti-gun lobby to make those firearms seem more sinister than grandpa's trusty squirrel rifle.
One of the firearms used last week by the Colorado movie theater shooter was an AR-15 rifle, which was described in coverage as a "military-style" weapon. Military style doesn't mean military issue. While the AR-15 is a cousin to the M-16 used by the armed forces, there's a big difference between them.
The AR-15 is not a machine gun. It won't spray bullets with a single pull of the trigger. It's a semi-automatic, meaning that the trigger must be pulled for each round fired. And while it looks more fearsome, in practical application it's no different and certainly no more deadly or powerful than many of the deer rifles favored by Michigan hunters.
What can set it apart from hunting firearms is the size of the magazine. Most hunting rifles have a five-round magazine to comply with state hunting regulations. The magazine in the gun the Colorado shooter used reportedly held 100 rounds.
In theory, that would allow the shooter to discharge more bullets in a shorter time. But in reality, a moderately experienced shooter can change a magazine in a couple of seconds, making the difference in lethality minimal. And the larger magazines have a tendency to jam, which is apparently what happened in Colorado.
The failure of the gun didn't stop the killing. The shooter also had in his arsenal a .40-caliber Glock, a popular handgun, and a Remington 870 shotgun, which can be found in nearly every duck blind in America. It turns out those common weapons killed as efficiently as the assault rifle.
Most gun owners don't use their weapons for hunting. They have them for either personal protection or because they like to target shoot.
So you can't dismiss firearms that aren't suitable for the field as illegitimate.
Many recreational gun users enjoy shooting rifles that resemble the ones used by the military, and the larger magazines enhance the experience.
Mass shootings are an anachronistic crime. They spike and they fall regardless of whether assault weapons bans are on the books or off, or whether the homicide rate is rising or falling.
We can rush to ban certain firearms types based solely on cosmetics. We can reduce their ammo capacity. But those are feel-good measures that won't prevent the next nut-ball from going on a killing rampage.
