No, you don’t need an AR-15
Every time someone says we need stronger background checks or to ban certain weapons, a certain percentage of people get their hackles up and appear to lose all common sense. I’m sure they think they’re being rational. I’m sure they’re pleading to keep their stockpile of weapons out of fear fed to them by the media they consume and the people they associate with.
Hell, I know a fair number of self-defense aficionados and experts and many are convinced the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. No matter how much evidence they’re presented with that shows this isn’t necessarily true, it “feels” true, and they can’t let go. Still, some of these people couldn’t bring themselves to walk across a street, while armed to the teeth, out of “safety” concerns while the women and unarmed men I know rolled their eyes at the paranoia and go on with their day.
The thing is, even if you’re convinced the only thing keeping you safe is the knife in your boot and the .22 in your pocket, you don’t need an AR-15 or anything similar.
If you have a history of beating up your wife, threatening restaurant staff, punching strangers, posting videos about all your violent fantasies on YouTube, and filling your spare time in Reddit chats about how women are out to get you, maybe you don’t need a fucking gun. Period. Not just that you don’t need an AR-15, because Holy Hell No, but you probably shouldn’t have handguns or shotguns or maybe even water guns.
“But, I need an AR-15 for home protection.”
Are you a drug trafficker? Are you affiliated with organized crime? A gang member in the middle of a turf war? No? Then no, you don’t need an AR-15 for home protection.
AR-15 rounds travel so much farther and do so much more damage than handguns and shotguns that you’re far more likely to murder your neighbor or a guy stopped at a red light nearby than you are an intruder.
Not only that, but how are you keeping that thing safe around your kids? How are you preventing neighbor kids from stealing it when you aren’t home?
What the hell is in your house that you need military-grade weaponry to secure it? Whatever it is, get better home owner’s insurance.
Thing is, if you live in a rural area and you fear your neighbors that much, maybe it’s because they’re all armed like militia members, and if you live in the city, that bullet’s far more likely to maim or kill an innocent than a “bad guy.”
“What’s the difference between my AR-15 and a pistol besides it being fun?”
I feel like you know the difference and if you don’t, why the hell’d you buy it.
They’re more accurate, shoot with higher velocity, and can be modified to shoot more rounds without reloading.
Again and again and again, doctors keep trying to tell us that the older street guns were’t as deadly as the new higher-powered weapons people fetishize today.
They’re also way easier for untrained people to murder with, which is why they’re so popular with mass shooters, especially young ones.
“But guns don’t cause people to become mass shooters. Crazy people find a way.”
Look, leave “crazy” out of this. There are a shit-ton of people who struggle with mental illness who aren’t inclined to shoot up malls or concerts or schools. They tend to silently try to get through their day. They have enough pain and don’t want to cause more.
Guns don’t “cause” mass killings. What they do is convert mass attacks to mass shootings. High-powered weapons with high-accuracy and large magazines cause more deaths than a similar attack with a knife, a revolver, or even a pistol. Without practice, it’s hard to hit a lot of running, screaming people accurately with a pistol. It’s why the military uses long guns first in most instances and it’s why arming teachers is a spectacularly shitty idea.
“Guns don’t kill people…”
Seriously, go read this.
Done? Or you didn’t read it.
How ‘bout this quote:
“But the worst is a wound from an AR-15 or AK-47 — high-muzzle velocity weapons, which impart a tremendous amount of kinetic energy into the body. Those are much more destructive. You’re looking at a wound that, externally, is two, three, four times bigger than any handgun wound.”
Look, I know it’s from a site focused on preventing gun violence, so some of you are sure it’s fake news. Besides, you saw a movie where the main character got shot fifteen times and just went to a mob vet.
Yes, people can kill with a knife or a car, but those things have other uses. AR-15s don’t have other uses besides efficiently killing people.
“I use mine to hunt.”
If you need an AR-15 to hunt, you’re a shitty hunter.
Seriously, there’s a reason most hunting rifles hold few bullets. The deer run after they hear the first shot. Bears, birds, and everything in between run.
If you need to mow down the whole forest to catch dinner, you need to save the money you’ve been spending on ammunition and go to the grocery store. Seriously, beans don’t run. Tofu’s on sale. The chicken’s pre-murdered.
“It’s cool. I like it. Fuck you, libtard!”
What if your boss thinks it’s really cool to store botulism in the company fridge?
What if your neighbor things it’s really cool to blow up his garbage instead of using the city cans like everyone else?
What if your kids think it’d be cool to keep a hyena in your bedroom?
Wait, all that’s ridiculous and dangerous and no way? Exactly. You can’t drive a tank on the interstate because you think it’s cool, so why would you be allowed to take a military-style weapon to Denny’s?
“But, what about tyranny! And the sacred 2nd amendment? You just hate ‘murica!”
It’s spelled “America” and it’s shorthand for the United States of America because “America is actually two continents and three regions with many other countries and sovereign territories.
As for the Constitution? Yeah, it’s great and all, but it’s not perfect. That’s why the founding fathers set up a way to amend it if necessary. We’ve done it before. A lot. We found slave owning was a bad idea, so we did away with it. We tried outlawing liquor, found out that was a bad idea, and repealed it. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights are living documents. They’re meant to be so we can evolve as a nation.
As for “tyranny”? Look, I know the militia people have you believing you can hold off the US government with your stockpile of guns, but so did Al Qaeda. I mean, the internal group that did the best against the US government (better than the Confederates, even) was the Seminoles, but that was before fighter jets, drones, and satellite imagery, so hiding out in the Everglades worked pretty well. It’s buggy and hot out there and back then the military wore a lot of wool.
Look, I know re-banning assault weapons won’t solve the problem completely. We also need:
- More comprehensive background checks.
- Close the private sale and gun show loop holes. You sell that thing without going through the background checks and licensing and JimBob uses it to shoot someone, you go to jail too. No more selling weapons of war in a parking lot for a few hundreds and a handshake still greasy from breakfast.
- A real, digitized national database. (Shut up, “tyranny” dude. I can download satellite images on my crummy laptop and your house is visible on Google Earth. The “guv’mint” knows who you are already. And it doesn’t matter if they know how many guns you have since they could take you out with a guided missile if they really wanted to.) What we have now is a system that largely looks like it hasn’t changed since the 2nd Amendment was penned even though I have a supercomputer I can store my grocery list on. Seriously, in an age where WWIII will likely start on Twitter, our system of keeping track of guns shouldn’t be boxes of wrinkled paper in a warehouse like something out of a Hoarders rerun.
- Better mental health accessibility and less shame and blame on mental health. Sounds discordant? If you make people ashamed of seeking help, they won’t, and then you won’t know who’s dangerous until it’s too late. You won’t be able to prevent violence or suicide, and you’re lowering national productivity to boot. Mental health care shouldn’t be a hodgepodge of “what ifs” that depend on your job and whether or not your company picked the right other company to manage care. We shouldn’t be leaving people to manage bi-polar disorder with cigarettes and beer because they can’t access doctors.
- Shift our culture away from toxic masculinity. Teach boys and men they’re allowed to have emotions besides anger. Stop with the entitlement and the “man up, pussy” bullshit. Stop equating manliness with not giving a damn about anyone. All those people mumbling about “bullying” as if getting kids not to pick on each other will stop every act of violence are really talking about this. When you’re buying body wash in a black bottle because you don’t want to seem too “girly,” you’re perpetuating the myth that weakness is feminine and it’s emotions are bad. Poetry and vegetables and the color pink will not turn you into a ladyperson. (Why do I even have to explain that?!)
Will that solve the problem completely? Even if it stops one, it’s better than what we have now. Even if the trend declines by 10%, it’s better than what we have now. Anything is better than nothing. Anything is better than being on track to be the deadliest school year outside of active war zones.
Stop fantasizing about “good guys” with guns or arming teachers or having public high schools that look like maximum security prisons. You aren’t Rambo. He’s not real and real life “good guys” die all the time. Teachers aren’t trained for that, and no amount of training is going to get the vast number of teachers ready to accurately kill an armed student in a the middle of a massacre. As for prisons? I’ve worked behind razor wire and cinder block. Still had escapees and anyone who wanted to could have shot up the fenced area during movement or fire drills. None of those are real solutions.
We need real solutions. Real triage to stop the bleeding. Now.
Don’t just “clap” and move on. Call your representatives. Vote out those beholden to the NRA. Talk to friends and family. Register others to vote. Get loud. Get mad. Get active. #NeverAgain.
