Communities around the U.S. have seen shootings carried out with weapons converted to fully automatic in recent years, fueled by a staggering increase in small pieces of metal or plastic made with a 3D printer or ordered online. Laws against machine guns date back to the bloody violence of Prohibition-era gangsters. But the proliferation of devices known by nicknames such as Glock switches, auto sears and chips has allowed people to transform legal semi-automatic weapons into even more dangerous guns, helping fuel gun violence, police and federal authorities said.
The (ATF) reported a 570% increase in the number of conversion devices collected by police departments between 2017 and 2021, the most recent data available.
The devices that can convert legal semi-automatic weapons can be made on a 3D printer in about 35 minutes or ordered from overseas online for less than $30. They’re also quick to install.
“It takes two or three seconds to put in some of these devices into a firearm to make that firearm into a machine gun instantly,” Dettelbach said.
Well, okay then. There’s your middle ground. Even if you don’t go quite that far, one of the low-key wins the gun lobby has had is in reframing assault rifle bans as bleeding heart pansies who are afraid of a Red Rider and want to ban “scary black guns” without knowing what they are.
In reality, it’s simply not difficult to define what an “assault rifle” should be with sufficient certainty to make end-runs complicated, expensive, and relatively simple to nail down later:
Those are the things that make a “hunting rifle” into one that’s mostly suitable for hunting humans, regardless of what material the stock is made from.
That will never fly as a “middle ground” because the second amendment was never written as a hunter’s law. It’s a Revolutionary, shooting-at-people law that didn’t take into account advances in technology because they didn’t matter.
What they had different were people upset with a government across the ocean and soldiers in their homes, and the only people upset with the colonists were slaves that weren’t allowed guns, education, or freedom. So that made the problem we face way less likely.
Any middle ground like you suggest would take a constitutional amendment and mass adoption, and the ones with the guns that aren’t likely to shoot up the place (Jan 6th excluded) are not keen on either.
For whoever downvoted the parent poster, he’s correct. Let me quote Federalist Paper #46, authored by James Madison, the guy who drafted the US Constitution (written during the public debate for the states to accept the US Constitution). He was specifically arguing that the federal government would remain subordinate to the public because the American public was armed, that you couldn’t have an autocrat seize power and end American democracy by force, couldn’t have someone take things back to the sort of monarchy that was common in Europe at the time:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalist_No._46
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-10-02-0261
the 2nd amendment always took into account the advances in weaponry by tying it to state militias. The goal was to keep the feds from disarming the states, not to allow everyone to buy a personal nuke.
At the beginning of the revolutionary war, militias, minutemen, and even the Continental army relied on soldiers to bring their own weapons from home. They would never have held off British troops long enough to have a revolution at all otherwise. This was an 8 year war, and only after 1776 did they begin to supply the Continental army with arms from France on the regular. Spain as well.
It was absolutely their intention to have regular citizens armed. With nuclear weapons? No. Be serious. With small arms able to be used by one person. To my knowledge, private citizens didn’t have access to cannons at a reliable quantity to count on them in battle.
This is what our flawed founding fathers experienced first hand and amended the Constitution with.
Look either you believe the constitution applies to new weapons or it doesn’t. Be serious.
Ultimately the second amendment is in fact the problem.
You’re right, it was designed as a “Revolutionary, shooting-at-people law”, but it’s woefully inadequate in that role now. It doesn’t allow you to own a tank or an attack drone, and an assault rifle isn’t going to be enough to stand up against a modern military force. So basically, as a revolutionary law the 2nd amendment is fucking useless at this point.
I say either double down on the intention of the 2nd amendment, or get rid of it. Either amend the constitution to allow civilian use of destructive devices (including tanks, artillery, missiles, 2000 lb bombs, etc) or kill the second amendment entirely. And hey, just go with whichever seems like a better idea to you, no judgement.
Doesn’t take much more than that, ask ISIS about it
No, not really. ISIS was not able to stand up against a modern military… They were able to stand up to a very degraded Iraqi military. The military capabilities of Iraq are pretty substantially different from the military capabilities of the US.
“We want less effective guns! Disarm yourselves!”
“The Christo-facists are taking over!”
“They be starting trains for LGBT people!”
I’m a peaceful man, I am not harmless. You keep on being harmless. It’s your right and I fully support it, and I mean that. Just not for me and mine.
Did you know AR-15s are illegal to hunt with in some states because the rounds aren’t lethal enough? LOL, a .223 or 5.56 looks like a BB gun vs. a 30.06 or .308. But you’re OK with the hunting rifles!
As a liberal gun nut, I’m constant looking and asking for ideas on this issue. And BTW, you have sane ideas, kinda. But they won’t pass 2A muster in the courts. So keep stumping for lost causes I guess?
Because the goal is to kill the animal quickly with limited pain. “not lethal enough” entails every lethal wound that takes minutes and hours to kill instead of seconds. But for killing humans there is a reason why armies prefer 5.56 over .308 in most standard issued weapons.
Meanwhile, 5.56 is plenty if you are accurate.
And, the US military is currently adopting the MCX Fury as their new standard issue rifle.
That thing fires the .277 fury cartridge that is way better at armor penetration than 5.56 ever could be.
And the reason .308 isn’t used as much for most military issued rifles is more to do with recoil and capacity than anything to do with the ballistics.
A .308 would be far better for killing literally anything than 5.56, but is mostly for use in semi-auto marksman rifles and some snipers. Where accuracy of first shot matters more than volume of fire.
I’m sorry, the right also tried the Nazi gun control argument and it was just as bullshit as when they argued it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_gun_control_argument#Criticism
Queer people are in serious danger. Getting into firefights won’t help them.