I had a discussion with a friend last night about it. He's a reasonable person, Holds a PHD, Works as a programmer... Very smart.SQLGeek wrote:I see the talking point in a few places has shifted to "semi-auto" as a whole. That's not good.
We started with him calling for much stricter background checks. I asked him to define much stricter. He described the process that exists. He said every state is different, I explained that the background check was federal there are no differences between states. He then said he could go to another state and buy a gun at a gun show with no background check. I explained to him that purchasing a gun from a dealer had to go through a background check, and that if he had purchased a gun in another state that the gun had to be transferred to him through a FFL in his state.
He went on about AR15's being Assault Rifles that shouldn't be purchased by civilians. I explained the A was for Armalite not Assault. He tried to equate it to a machine gun. I pointed out long guns in their entirety comprised a very small percent of mass shootings, that hand guns made up the bulk. And that as far as deaths go, blunt objects far surpassed guns of any type.
By the end of the conversation he had given up on the AR15 issue and replaced it with the word Semi Automatic... Showing the real foundation of his beliefs. It's not surprising. He's Austrian, grew up in Austria. He's only been in the US 8 years or so. But if someone as bright as he is, and that I know well enough that he isn't playing dumb about his agenda, is so wrong on the basics of what he believes of the issue then the Anti's are going to be able to dupe quite a few people into believing.
We also touched on person to person transactions not being ran through a BG check. I told him it's illegal for me to sell a firearm to someone I know can't pass a background check. So he dropped that one fairly quickly.