Despite the emphasis in nearly every major media outlet’s coverage of yesterdays shooting in a Nebraska mall, the shooter did not use an “assault” weapon by any stretch of the imagination. But this doesn’t stop the media from using the term:
A 19-year-old man killed eight people and then himself with an assault rifle at a busy mall in Omaha on Wednesday, sending terrified workers and Christmas shoppers scrambling for cover.
But the weapon used was not an assault rifle, it was about the cheapest, impractical* rifle money can buy – a Russian SKS. It would take five minutes of google-work to determine that the SKS is semi-automatic, with 10-round magazines and is well known to be used by rednecks for shooting beer cans long before it would ever be used by a mass murderer.
In a 2001 letter to the editor, Ed Hoyer Jr. wrote an excellent and short analysis of the term being applied to the gun in the Chicago Tribune:
The SKS is a semiautomatic rifle. It is not an assault rifle.
Real assault rifles have a selector switch that controls how many bullets will be fired with one pull of the trigger. The usual pattern is up to four selections: safe or no bullets, one bullet at a time, a burst of three bullets or fully automatic fire like a machine gun. That selector switch is what makes a real assault rifle different from a semiautomatic rifle.
The SKS has never had this selector switch. It has always been a semiautomatic rifle–one bullet for each pull of the trigger. That’s the way the Russians designed it and the way it has been built all over the world. It is a simple, easy-to-operate, semiautomatic rifle. It’s popular in the U.S. because it is simple to operate, inexpensive, easy to maintain and can be used for both target shooting and hunting some game.
But the media isn’t entirely to blame for messing this one up. The originator of this inaccuracy, not the last, I’m sure, in a long line of mainstream myths, ignorance and political exaduration of gun threats, is actually the local police department.
It was local Omaha police chief Thomas Warren who first declared to the media that we are talking about an “assault rifle.” One would think that a police officer (police chief, no less), supposedly well trained in firearm use and identification, would be able to tell the difference between something like a full-auto AK-47 with a 30 round banana magazine, and a glorified bottle shooter like an SKS.
The distinction is important – if not only for accuracy in government and media. But accuracy is even more important, because guns, weapons and public use of these things are paramount issues in the United States. In order to make accurate determinations of what kind of weapons are dangerous, we need to know the facts in the first place. If we don’t, we can soon expect “outrageous exposes” on how regular people, without b***ground checks or special approval, can just walk in a gun shop and buy an “assault rifle.”
*author changed “worthless” to “impractical” to emphasize that, while the SKS is a useful weapon, it is not the most pragmatic choice for close-quarter killing
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The Nooz… I also believe that every able American should exercise concealed carry at all times. Thats not to say that supplementing these practices with a more prepared force would not be a sound decision. As far as “Tubby the Rent a Cop”, I have found that most security departments would have a serious expenditure to undertake if they where to implement armed in house security. I guess they figure that the industry standard of one death every 8 million dollars nullifies the need for pro active solutions.
Marinecorps Writes:
QUOTE: “The writer who said that stopping the production and sale of weapons would stop the “undereducated” masses from having them should endorse the same approach to the manufacture, sale, and use of illegal drugs – this would stop all of the drug problems….wait, wait, I think we may already be doing that. How come we still have a drug problem?”
The war on drugs is a huge joke and not at all a parallel argument to guns. Any idiot farmer can grow weed or cook meth. Any mule can bring bales of dope across the border – but heck, just the homegrown supply is more than enough.
My point is that you need some pretty fancy equipment to mass produce firearms. Getting them across the border may not be too hard, but the fact is that we give the green light in many cases and make it legal. A government would have a much easier time dropping the quantities of military rifle available if it wanted to. Drugs? I agree no way. I challenge any one reading this to come up with a way to mass produce military quality waepons in their basements.
If we take the guns don’t kill people, people do argument to the limit and say that weapsons don’t matter, then why not legalize .50 machine guns, or 20 mm Vulcan Guns? Heck, why not hand grenages, RPGs and nuclear bombs too? If there is no need for limiting access to such weapons – since a killer can use anything – why not mass produce flamethrowers and sell M1 Abrams tanks and Bradley vehicles along side Humvees?
Why not? – Because it would be foolish. I guess it comes down to where do you draw the line and I would argue that we are way over that line. The only fortunate thing is that each time a nut goes off and whacks a bunch of people, more people stand up and ask that something be done. However, there is plenty of ignorance on both sides of this arguement.
I personally do not pretend to have all the answers and some good points were made above explaining that there are some messed up societal problems that need to be addressed as well.
I do not live in fear and personally no longer own any guns – except an old .22 for critter control. The chances of me getting popped by some kid in a mall are infinitesimally small- I have about as much likelihood of winning the MegaBuck$ lottery. Random acts of violence are just that – random. And much to the average person’s belief (dismay?), they don’t happen with much statistical signifance. Nor do people flying 757′s into skyscrapers. I don’t worry too much about needing to carry a gun, but if others feel safer carrying, good luck.
And the shootings keep stacking up…
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-12-09-colorado-church_N.htm
No telling what make of gun he used. Maybe a Ruger “Ranch Rifle” (designed for rapid repeat shots when the ranch is being over run by prairie dog herds). I keep pointing out the Mini-14 vs the AK47 but nobody is biting … oh well.
I also am pro-gun, but you might not be able to lump me in with the NRA crowd due to my lack of spouting the phrase “law abiding”.
Regulating firearms poses difficult questions, but I agree with the poster who said “we must draw the line somewhere”. Wheel guns, lever actions, pump and bolt actions good… everything else bad sounds a-ok to me. I wont cry if they ban auto-loading firearms…not one tear.
I find it immensely interesting that not one of you know it alls mentioned the Mental Health aspect. It’s a major factor in just about every one of these shooting spree incidents.
If the guys (yes guys… women never carry out mass shootings…more food for thought) were diagnosed and
medicated these people would be alive in most cases.
Sadly, when it comes to the media and politics, logic doesn’t apply.
Its laid out to get the biggest bang for their buck. The media and politicians use AK-47 to describe just about any gun used in a sensational crime. AK-47 has a larger sticking factor in the minds of viewers than Marlin 30/30.
The TV brings the fear into the living rooms and drives home the closeness of the carnage to an uninformed viseral voting public, even though statistically, long guns in the class of guns used to commit this murder number well under 2% of guns used in crime.
Hell, they don’t call it PROGRAMMING for nothing.
Lets blame the gun instead of seaching for the factors that could create a little coward so upset that he is a nothing that he has to kill innocents and drive pressure against the majority of gun owners who seek quality reliable firearms in concert with our heritage. papa
When I come home from work I don’t load my AR-15 or SP-89 and go out and shoot people! I buy most guns as an Investment!But the most chilling statement I have ever heard was Diane Feinstein say “if she could have gotton 51 votes in the senate she would have an outright ban Mr.&Mrs america turn em all in She would have done It”She was speaking of semi-auto military style guns, After that it would have been handguns,shotguns,hunting rifles!You will never stop every person who wants to kill people rather with a gun or jetliner!we should look at people in other countries! Go to Wikipedia under gun laws of switzerland you will learn there are between 1.5 &3.0 million guns floating around and every one in the military between 20&34yo must keep a fully automatic sig arms weapon in their house! when they leave military its converted back to semi auto if they wish to keep it! yet gun violence is low makes you wonder!
I still contend that the 7.62×39 is a very low power round. Saying that it is “much” more powerful than a 110 year old even weaker round does not change the fact that it is much less powerful than a large portion of hunting rounds available today. My point was to demonstrate how absurd it is to claim that the SKS is a substantially more effective killing machine than all the other “non-military” weapons out there. As for the price of 9mm vs. 7.62×39, I should have been more specific. I am referring to rifle ammo. Of course handgun ammo will be cheaper. Other than .22, I have not seen a rifle ammo cheaper than 7.62×39.
The “church shooter” was killed by an “armed security guard” yesterday morning. I rest my case. Armed citizen, armed security, safety and preparedness will solve these problems; period. We must put this hippie fantasy of utopia to rest and look out for one and other. We do not live in fantasy land. It it really all about win or lose. Like Sylvester said back in the 80′s, “As long as we have to play by these bulls**t rules and the killers don’t, we’re gonna lose”!
the “security guard” was a volunteer that happened to bring her personal weapon to the church.
Yeah, she saved many lives. Churches (and schools, stores, etc.) that ban CCWs are asking for this sort of thing to happen to them.
People who want to use guns in a hostile manner (such as gang shootings( usually obtain them in an illegal manner, or through a hook up. Now what gangster, on the street is going to have the imagination and idea making to think, hmmm if i take an SKS, and then adapt it for use with the banana… NO! they use common guns, 9mm weapons etc.
These mass murderers are a different, they come up with the weirdest equipment and anything they can get their hands on (SKS anyone?)… it ruins americans who want their rifles as Hunting, Target shooting, and Curiosities.
Oh by the way about the 7.62 not being powerful. Age doesnt really matter, musket balls used to be up at the .60 caliber mark on intermediate rounds dude! 7.62 isn’t a 50 BMG by any standard but getting shot with a 7.62 will end your day abruptly..
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All i wanted was an Mk14 EBR!
oh yeah P.S. If everyone (that qualifies) had a gun, it would put a mind set of, if i shoot him, his buddy will shoot me back, so i won’t shoot him…
and thus the stupid people have a reason not to go ape with a “SKS HEAVY SQUAD AUTOMATIC 105mm AC-130 howitzer with a laser sight on its underslung nuclear rifle
Certainly not an ‘assault rifle’; also certainly not junk. I’ve owned a few of them over the years as they make nice ‘truck rifles’. For the money, they’re dependable, fairly accurate, and have the power to hunt anything one can hunt with a .30-30 Win.
Thank goodness the media hasn’t caught on to the long-range power and accuracy of our scoped deer and elk rifles; while I prefer to not be shot with anything, ever, I’d rather be hit by an assault rifle than a .300 WSM just once.
May God bless the families and comfort them in their loss. And those of us that own guns…we need to police ourselves and store our weapons in safes when they’re not being utilized, with bolts/operating rods/cylinders/slides stored seperately. It won’t stop everybody, but it will stop some of the goblins. It’s worth the effort, at any rate. If we don’t start policing ourselves better, Unc Sam will eventually start doing it for us.
Your description of the rifle may be correct but in putting down the gun and the myths you exploded on another myth, the “rednecks” use it.
Your description of a assault rifle being one that shoots none, one, 3 or multiple rounds is also not very accurate. First of all there is no such thing as a assault rifle, assault is a action and the action of killing someone is not performed by a gun/knife/stick/club/rock it is performed by a person. Enjoy.
anybody who know anything even slightly about guns at all would know that an sks is in fact an assault rifle, a switch dictating how many rounds fired does not constitute an assault rifle. the sks fires the exact same round as the ak47, it can be equipped with 40 round clips, and modified. by the way, in nys among many states in the us, the ak47, which is one of the most famous assault rifles in history, is only semi auto, as well as a lot of variations of m16′s. Get your facts straight “zealfortruth.com, you jackasses…
Seriously,
I am the biggest bleeding heart liberal there is, but we liberals have the gun control issues all wrong. If it were possible to get at least 95% of the ILLEGAL guns off the street, then gun control would be a good goal because it would reduce violence, but since any crazy person, thug, gangster etc. can get a gun whenever they want to harm/threaten others, it does no good to restrict the amount of law-abiding citizens with guns. We should focus on getting ILLEGAL GUNS off the streets!
I’m sure the media rushes out with the story, calling anything that isn’t a pistol an assault rifle, because people were assaulted.
In the People’s Republic of Kalifornia, the SKS is (wrongly) classified as an assault rifle. Anthony, just because people call it an assault rifle doesn’t make it so, just as “cop killer bullets” never (as far as I know) killed any cops. The media and the anti-gun lobby just love the negative publicity that sound-bites generate. This is nothing new, the term “Saturday Night Special” was coined in the 60′s. Kalifornia classifies a semiauto rifle with a bayonet lug, pistol grip, and removable magazine as an assault rifle. If you check history rather than media hype, you’ll find that the true, original meaning was a select-fire (full auto capability)introduced by the Nazis at the end of WWII as “sturmgewehr” as a means to classify this revolutionary rifle. The “civilian” look-alikes are semi-auto only, and despite the rumors, not easily convertible by the average person.
well controlled militia or government? And how do you control a government or militia if you are unarmed?
My question is, is a detail like this really THAT important? The people are still dead, he could have been using a slingshot for all it matters.
i hate the term assault weapon
confuses the uninformed
stupid 90′s
There is no such thing as an “Assault Rifle” the term was made up by ignorant anti-gun people to try and ban scary/military looking weapons because they believed that they are too dangerous and too powerful which isn’t true because the average hunting rifle is far more powerful than an AR or Ak. The truth is all firearms are equally deadly in a skilled user’s hands, even a cheap .22 rifle could be used to kill or wound many people as evident by a recent news story where an 8 year old boy murdered his father and another man with nothing more than a bolt action .22. Gun laws don’t protect anyone except criminals. If you want to protect yourself from gun violence then carry a gun!