Well, you know, words have meaning. You can call your hand a foot if you want to, but that doesn’t make it so.
The first two aren’t super important needing to know the difference between the two.
The third one is a huge difference in both a legal and functional sense.
But, is it “really” important, though? In an actual day-to-day sense? Do we really need gun guys to jump in every conversation like “You said the shooter had an automatic rifle, actually I think you mean semi-auto. Let me explain the difference…”
You are right, words do mean things! But if a layman says “clip” or “bullet” or “auto” and is incorrect yet you know what they meant, then the layman has communicated effectively, if imprecisely, and the gun person really ought to pick a different battle.
Some reference videos of gun enthusiasts firing guns with actual silencers may be useful. Thankfully, youtube has us covered.
As pointed out by @anon75430791 and @Mister44, the hollywood “pfft pfft” sound is totally fictional. However, you can get something that doesn’t sound like a gun firing, if you combine a silencer with three other ingredients: subsonic ammunition, a low caliber bullet, and shooting outdoors.
Here’s a .22 with a silencer firing both supersonic and subsonic rounds (very annoying credits, mute or fastforward through the first 30 seconds):
By comparison, here’s a 9mm firing various kinds of ammunition. The explosion is muffled but recognizably present, and the sound of the bullet echoes quite distinctly even with the slower ammunition (whereas the faster ammunition makes a huge echoing sound):
And finally, here’s small, medium, and large calibre guns with silencers and subsonic ammo being fired indoors. It’s a lot louder indoors than out:
Absolutely. If one thinks one used an fully automatic to spray down victims, that is a far cry from the truth. Furthermore, when the conversation turns to what one thinks should be allowed and what the laws should, it would behoove that person to know WTF they are talking about, as the difference between semi-auotmatic and automatic is night and day as far as laws go.
That’s being correct, but annoyingly so and I am sure you can think of many other phrases and words people misuse everyday that one could chose to correct. Such “irreguardless” and “I could care less” and “Their instead of They’re”. I suppose everyone has their threshold on who and when and why they choose to correct someone.
I’m not pro-gun. I don’t like guns. I’ve never fired a gun. I generally support strong gun regulations.
That said…
Why is anyone fighting against this? I can’t think of any way in which allowing guns to be VERY LOUD instead of INCREDIBLY LOUD is a public safety concern. I mean it’s a natural reflex to oppose anything the gun lobby wants, I have it too, but is there any other reason?
The shooter did prescribe to some conspiracy theories. I haven’t seen anything on pizzagate but wouldn’t surprise me.
Yup. Have seen all these videos.
I don’t imagine it will budge the needle on people’s opinions in any way, however. Those who want to have an educated opinion on the topic will already have seen the suggestion that silencers/suppressors/whatever don’t do what you’d imagine and sought out the truth of it and found their way to these videos.
Those who don’t will have skipped all the informative comments (honestly why I hang out more here than other communities) and went straight for something like this:
No. Maybe, if there is another similar attack each day for the next month. That ought to get them about even with attacks by Alt-Right nutcases in the last year or so. Feel free to list major gun attacks by “liberals” compared to white, male conservatives any time you want though.
And I think that is nonsense, honestly. I get that this is historically a legally significant distinction, but a shooter with a fully legal semi-auto ar 15 can still empty their magazine in seconds and kill a roomful of people just as dead.
But enough arguing about semantics, lets just ban all machine guns and assault rifles and call it a day.
What if I told you that roughly 75% of gun violence is performed with a single type of easily classified gun, which relates more to its form factor than firing mechanism?
Well I would say ban those and throw in the remaining 25% just to be on the safe side.
OK then. =)
I think tou might have missed the point of what I was writing.
I was wondering if this event would be used as a justification to restrict speech from their political opponents.
I would argue that is not entirely accurate. Most gun + silencer + ammo combinations are not silent, but for example a properly suppressed .22 with subsonic ammunition is even quieter than a gun with a movie silencer. With a semi automatic gun you just about only hear the action cycle.
Plenty of people have been killed with a .22 and even mass murders committed with only a .22 (non-silenced).
Straying further from the point, there are also the genuine silenced “assassin guns” like the British Welrod:
producing a sound of around 73 dB when fired
Of course, that is not a gun with a silencer but a specially built gun.
Indeed, and to expand on my previous post, I do think there’s a legitimate market for these (certainly larger than the criminal market, which would not get much mileage out of them at all). But I believe both are dwarfed by the market of people who have no practical use for it.
I say this because if I had an AR-15 copy, I wouldn’t care overly much how many bullets I could shoot at once, I would care about how many awesome things I could attach to it. Because like many (or possibly most men), deep down inside I am basically 12.
Yes, a sub-sonic .22lr is going to be pretty quiet, with mostly the action of the firearm making the noise. It is still and anemic round what isn’t that loud to being with. I’ve had paintball guns that are louder. Yes they have been used by the mafia and government agencies (with and with out suppressors). IIRC the Israelis have a 10/22 modded with one. They were also used to kill guard dogs by special forces.
But, the main point is, the logic behind the strict control of suppressors is rather flawed. You aren’t going to see drug dealers with suppressed .22s roaming the streets. “Professional” criminals can make or smuggle them in. Hell, they make kits that are “solvent traps” which are a few holes away from being suppressors. You can even get screw on adapters that work with oil filters, not to mention the other ways to improvise them.
Practical shmatical. If that is how we bought things they entire car wing industry and most of the car modding industry.
My AR is made for an OPS Model 12 or clone. I’d love to get one someday, but they are stupid expensive for a metal tube.
[quote=“Mister44, post:61, topic:102731”]
Practical shmatical. If that is how we bought things they entire car wing industry and most of the car modding industry.[/quote]
There’s an argument to be made there about banning rear spoilers on front wheel drive cars. 
My brother successfully did this with a .22 rifle in his basement, after seeing it in one of the Bourne movies.
Yeah, he’s a cop. ha ha
Out of interest. If they don’t actually do anything at all, sound-wise, why have them at all?
