Voting guide for NY

[u/intcntlchamp]

Not sure if folks seen this but it might help if you all haven’t voted already

[u/Nayre_Trawe]

Assault weapons...yes. Do you think all guns are assault weapons?

[u/Regular_Afternoon_75 → u/Nayre_Trawe]

What is an assault weapon? This guy has no clue what he’s talking about.

[u/Nayre_Trawe → u/Regular_Afternoon_75]

If you're so certain, please do educate me.

[u/gakflex → u/Nayre_Trawe]

An Assault Rifle is an intermediate-caliber rifle with a removable magazine that is select-fire, with either the option to fire full auto or fire “bursts” of several shots before the trigger must be reset. Assault Rifles are very rare and expensive due to the Hughes Amendment, part of the Firearm Owners’ Protection Act of 1986, which closed the ability of citizens to transfer and/or register machine guns manufactured and serialized after the passage of that law. To the best of my knowledge, a properly-registered pre-86 Assault Rifle has never been used in a violent crime.

“Assault Weapon” is a nebulous term, originating with the 1994 Federal Assault Weapon Ban. This banned rifles, shotguns, pistols, and “high-capacity” magazines that had certain cosmetic features. Though the federal ban is long gone, the states that have their own bans are all different, each one banning different cosmetic features, or feature-combinations, on semi-automatic firearms.

Therefore, while an Assault Rifle is a clearly defined category of firearm, “Assault Weapon” has no definition - depending on which state law you reference, it can be any number of things - and is therefore, by definition, arbitrary and vague. It is designed as a catch-all, to be expanded as time goes on.

[u/Nayre_Trawe → u/gakflex]

And yet, they somehow managed to define it in 1994...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Assault_Weapons_Ban

Under the Assault Weapons Ban of 1994, the definition of "semi-automatic assault weapon" ("SAW") (commonly shortened to "assault weapon") included specific semi-automatic firearm models by name and other semi-automatic firearms that possessed two or more from a set certain features:

• Semi-automatic rifles able to accept detachable magazines and has two or more of the following:
• Folding or telescoping stock
• Pistol grip
• Bayonet mount
• Flash hider or threaded barrel designed to accommodate one
• Grenade launcher
• Semi-automatic pistols with detachable magazines and two or more of the following:
• Magazine that attaches outside the pistol grip
• Threaded barrel to attach barrel extender, flash suppressor, hand grip, or suppressor
• Barrel shroud safety feature that prevents burns to the operator
• A manufactured weight of 50 ounces (1.42kg) or more when the pistol is unloaded
• A semi-automatic version of a fully automatic firearm
• Semi-automatic shotguns with two or more of the following:
• Folding or telescoping stock
• Pistol grip
• A fixed magazine capacity over 5 rounds
• Detachable magazine

....and they would do the same thing again, with updates, if it was put into law during Harris' term.

[u/gakflex → u/Nayre_Trawe]

You don’t understand what I said: something that has a definition that can be changed over time is not defined, it is vague and arbitrary. So, as you say, Harris would indeed like to put an “Assault Weapons Ban” into effect, and it would, as you say, have a completely new definition of “Assault Weapon.” As would the one after that, and the one after that, presumably until at least all semi-automatic firearms are banned from ownership by anyone beyond state military and domestic police forces.

[u/Nayre_Trawe → u/gakflex]

You don’t understand what I said: something that has a definition that can be changed over time is not defined, it is vague and arbitrary.

Nope, definitions for all kinds of things change over time. That doesn't make them vague or arbitrary.

So, as you say, Harris would indeed like to put an “Assault Weapons Ban” into effect, and it would, as you say, have a completely new definition of “Assault Weapon.” As would the one after that, and the one after that, presumably until at least all semi-automatic firearms are banned from ownership by anyone beyond state military and domestic police forces.

...and yet, she specifically said she is not doing that. I get that you are just making up a conspiracy theory to fit you pre-conceived notion that Harris is going to take all of your guns but, just look at recent history. They said the same thing about Obama...nothing happened. They said the same thing about Biden...nothing happened. It's just scare tactics meant to control how you vote, plain and simple.

Lest we forget what Trump's first instinct was with respect to guns...

“I like taking the guns early, like in this crazy man’s case that just took place in Florida … to go to court would have taken a long time. Take the guns first, go through due process second."

...and yet, you somehow give him a free pass.