Jim Carrey twits tweets:
Any1 who would run out to buy an assault rifle after the Newtown massacre has very little left in their body or soul worth protecting.
SayUncle replies:
My assault rifles have killed [fewer] children than your ex-girlfriend’s anti-vaccination advocacy.
Bingo.
* * *
A commenter at SayUncle makes the obvious and essential point that the correct ending to Mr. Carrey's sentence was ‘…would have to be a time-traveller.’ An assault rifle is a military weapon capable of fully automatic fire, such as the M-16. Automatic firearms have been strongly regulated since 1934 and effectively unavailable to the civilian population since 1986. The AR-15 (e.g.) is not one of these weapons.
There remains, though, some confusion about the ‘AR’ in AR-15, which obviously (oy!) stands for ‘assault rifle’. Actually, it is the model-number prefix used by ArmaLite, the original manufacturer of the AR-15. They also have manufactured the AR-5, a double-barreled .22 Hornet rifle and .410 shotgun survival (read: hunting, mostly) gun, obviously not what anyone would call an ‘assault rifle’, but the basis for the USAF M-6 Air Crew Survival Weapon
… the AR-7, a collapsible .22LR survival rifle (read: a squirrel gun that fits in a backpack), also unlikely to be confused for an ‘assault’ anything
…and the AR-50, which is a very large bolt-action (not automatic, and not even semi-automatic) rifle which no one would confuse for an assault rifle. For starters, good luck carrying this thing, much less firing it, while on that ‘assault’:
It is black, though, so boo!
By the way, I own a Henry copy of the AR-7. Squirrels fear me! (Actually, it's not that accurate, so mostly they just taunt me. Red squirrels are mean.)
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