Anti-tank rocket AND anti-bunker missile?
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Boy have I been misunderstood 
.
Well, I was not referring to the kind of guns used for hunting or target shooting. Those are indeed intended for benign purposes and are only dangerous when misused. The kind of gun that this toy gun imitates, however, is intended for killing people.
You can’t make a meaningful use/misuse distinction here. These firearms are built to kill people. Maybe it matters what cause you’re fighting for, but it better be a cause worth killing people for. Either way, when a soldier uses his gun, the immediate purpose is to kill (the killing might have a purpose that excuses it). When an ISIS fighter uses his gun, the immediate purpose is to kill. I don’t accept his excuse for killing, but he is not misusing his gun, he is using it just as it was intended to be used.
Your distinction between “using” and “misusing” firearms just felt like too much a euphemism for me. At least when applied to weapons of war such as the one imitated by this toy gun.
Nor did I want to imply that you had.
Just to be clear, my “Note” about this not being about gun ownership was not in response to anything you said, but rather to make clear that I do not want to trigger a debate about gun ownership.
My point was that the toy gun and the accompanying ad promote the idea that this kind of firearm is “cool” - and this is not a message I can support, so I don’t want children to be influenced this way. And I don’t think that exerting less pro-war influence on children is a bad thing or is a symptom of “infantilizing” young people.
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That is just semantics.
What is the difference between a hunting rifle and a sniper rifle?
How is the average bolt action hunting rifle any different than the top of the line battle rifle ~100 years ago?
Which is more powerful, your average .30 caliber deer rifle, or an AR?
What is the different between an “assault rifle” and a “ranch rifle”?
http://jerkingthetrigger.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Mini-AR.jpg
While the development of things like the AR was fueled by finding a better battle rifle, we have found many uses for them besides war. Just like GPS was initially developed to track and move soldiers to kill people, and ICBMs to launch warheads, we have found peaceful uses for them.
The much maligned AR15 is very versatile, comes in a variety of calibers, and actually makes a great rifle for hunting, especially varmint shooting, though many people hunt deer with them. Though to be clear, they don’t shoot it 30 times just because the magazine holds that much, just like you don’t drive 100mph because you car can go that fast.
There are Heavy Barreled National Match versions of the rifle for the marksmanship rifle contests like the famous Camp Perry, which has matches for “military rifles”, such as Garands, 1903 Springfields, M-14/M1-A1s, and the AR15.
One of the fastest growing sports, 3 Gun Competitions, user ARs, or similar weapons. These are timed shooting courses where one has to use 3 types of weapons to finish the course.
The AR15 platform has exploded in the last 20 years. It has gone from “what do you need that for?” to basically becoming adult legos. I actually think the AWB of 94 helped make it more popular. It doesn’t make one more or less likely to want to kill someone. If you look at the FBI stats, rifles are rarely used in crime. But they are continued to be demonized because they look scary.
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It was one of their more forgettable tracks…
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Is the statement: “so much more barbaric in the 1960s–but gun violence numbers in America were lower back then.” actually true?
Lots of conservatives talk about how much better the Good Old Days were and ignore the actual facts. (And that’s how I define ‘conservative’, Xeni.)
http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/uscrime.htm
1969: 73 murders/million; 2013: 45 murders/million US population
so unless the popularity of firearms has increased by more than 60% compared to all others modalities, there is less gun violence (at least for murders/population) than there was in the 60s.
What are the actual numbers?
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Commercial should end with a girl running down the street pretending to be on fire from napalm.
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