posted
That has much to do with the movie. Much.
Registered: Mar 1999
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EdipisReks
Ex-Member
posted
quote:Originally posted by Alshrim: I ask everyone ... how can someone get such a powerful rifle?? (I'm not being sarcastic - i'm really asking .. )
Is this guy military? A Cop? Is this guy just a hick that got licensed and got stupid - and went on a rampage??
it's just a .223 (which is considered by many to be a pussy round), probably a bolt action varmint hunting rifle. you can pick one up from a gun store for $500. just because the media calls it a super high powered death stalker bazooka cannon rifle of satan doesn't mean that it is. there is lots of hunting in Canada, and a lot of Canadian big game requires a much more powerful rifle than a measly .223 mousegun. go ask a Canadian who hunts where he gets his guns.
in terms of what he is (military, pyscho, etc) we won't know until he's caught. hard thinkin', there .
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quote:just because the media calls it a super high powered death stalker bazooka cannon rifle of satan doesn't mean that it is.
Yes. Generally, the media considers anything more powerful than a .22 rimfire an "assault weapon."
-------------------- "The best defense is not a good offense. The best defense is a terrifyingly accurate and devastatingly powerful offense, with multiply-overlapping kill zones and time-on-target artillery strikes." -- Laurence, Archangel of the Sword
Registered: Mar 1999
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Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256
posted
That might have something to do with the fact one could conceivably use said weapons to assault people.
Registered: Nov 1999
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-------------------- "The best defense is not a good offense. The best defense is a terrifyingly accurate and devastatingly powerful offense, with multiply-overlapping kill zones and time-on-target artillery strikes." -- Laurence, Archangel of the Sword
Registered: Mar 1999
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EdipisReks
Ex-Member
posted
quote:Originally posted by E. Cartman: That might have something to do with the fact one could conceivably use said weapons to assault people.
assault weapon isn't a real term. it was made up by the media to sound sinister.
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posted
As I understand it, the weapon being used is some sort of M-16/Armalite/CAR clone, presumably available commercially in semiautomatic mode only?
Actually, Edepis, the term was originally coined by gun manufacturers and sellers to describe any weapon that resembles the rifles used by the military, which *are* described as "assault rifles."
An assault rifle is a rifle which "has a switch that permits it to fire like a semiautomatic rifle or as a fully automatic rifle. Some also have a switch position that causes the gun to shoot a short burst of several shots each time the trigger is pulled."
quote:M-16/Armalite/CAR clone, presumably available commercially in semiautomatic mode only?
White Marsh Arms, located, oddly enough, in Reisterstown, actually has (or had) a pre-ban fully automatic AR-15 for sale for about $5k. So it's not impossible to get one fully auto, it just costs a lot of $$$.
I don't know - and I don't think anyone does - that the weapon is an assault rifle. It could be a hunting rifle. But you're right that assault rifles and clones of such and look alikes of such are commercially available.
posted
Anyone killing nine people with a rifle has pretty much proven he knows all the cords on that rifle. We had a big scare in Sweden ten years ago, a racist with a rifle with lasersight, shooting immigrants. Out of five people shot in the head, three survived, so this new guy could have been trained.
-------------------- "I'm nigh-invulnerable when I'm blasting!" Mel Gibson, X-Men
Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
Ah. I just thought I'd seen some report that the weapon used had been identified from ballistics as a Bushmaster Armalite-type weapon. I wasn't really paying attention so can't really vouch for the report's veracity.
Without getting into the legality of it all (fat chance of that, I suspect!), I'm not sure why people feel the need to own fully-automatic weapons. Unless it's for the sheer joy of firing one at juat a practise target, which I myself can testify to (happiness is a Bren Gun on full auto - and as for the GPMG: Oh. My. God.), and probably answers my question. . . 8)