Ender_Stonebender's Journal: Everything about this story disgusts me

A few days ago, a local eight-year old girl was shot while sleeping at home. Although that's digusting and obviously a bad thing, that's not what set me off.

This story, in which the local police conflate "assault rifles" (a term that's been used in laws but has no legal definition) with automatic weapons, is what got me angry.

"Assault weapons are good for one purpose only," he said, "and that's to kill other human beings."

There are two problems with this statement. One: These weapons are useful for target shooting, or hunting vermin in farm country. Two: The same (flawed) logic can be applied to ANY weapon - other rifles, shotguns, handguns, swords, machetes, pointy knives. Which seems to be what happened in Britain, where civilians generally don't have guns (barring a few collector's items) and doctors have called for a ban on pointed knives.

Police recovered a bulletproof vest, two pistol grip 12-gauge shotguns, a .308-caliber hunting rifle with a scope, a .22-caliber revolver -- and two semi-automatic AR-15 rifles.

They recovered a clip and ammunition for the rifles. They also found two loaded clips for an AK-47 assault rifle, but not the weapon itself.

So they found ONE "clip" for TWO rifles? Something doesn't add up here. Oh, that's right, the cost of magazines soared last year on fears that Obama would reinstate a ban on high-capacity magazines. I bet one of the confiscating officers just added another 30-round magazine to his personal collection.

"It almost seems like a status thing," Sullivan said. "If you're a big, bad drug dealer, you have to have an automatic weapon in your house."

Big problems here: AR-15s are, by definition, not automatic weapons. They are semi-automatic - that is, when the trigger is pulled, one round is fired and the next is put in postion to be fired; the trigger must be released and pulled a second time before the second round is fired. Automatic weapons fire the next round without the need to release the trigger - and continue to do so until the trigger is released or their are no more rounds in the magazine. An "automatic AR-15" is not an AR-15, it's an M-16! (I'm not even going to start on the magazine/clip thing.)

"You don't need a 50-round clip to go hunting," Harmon said. "I'm not against responsible gun ownership at all. I defend the people's right to defend themselves, but nobody needs an assault weapon to protect themselves."

Who said they're for self-defense? Maybe gun collectors just have a hard-on for military equipment and this is as close as they can get.

Gun enthusiasts, collectors and legal owners would disagree. People like Bill Bunting, an influential Pasco County Republican and certified NRA instructor. He pointed out that the suspects arrested in Sunday's murder all have criminal records -- and they're barely adults.

"Unfortunately passions are running high and I can understand where the chief is coming from," Bunting said. "But people need to take heed ... and find out why these kids weren't sitting in a juvenile facility.

"It's not the gun, it's the person."

Damn right, Mr. Bunting! That final sentence is the one that should have led the article. A gun is an inanimate object; with no one touching it, it is little more than an expensive paperweight. It it no more good or evil than your television, or your car, or a pen. It is what people do with these things that is good or evil.

So those of you out there that own guns: Don't use them for evil. Use them for good if you must. But try not to get into situations where you need a gun at all.