One flew east, one flew west, One flew over the cuckoo’s nest. To the author of the article, Mitch Ablom, hey Mitch, neither the AR-15 nor the Sig Sauer MCX are assault rifles.
The assault rifle traces back to Nazi Germany. Did you know that? The Germans were trying to develop a more effective weapon for their soldiers, one that rivaled the firepower of a submachine gun but had better accuracy in more confined spaces.
Kill faster, closer in. That was the idea. Adolf Hitler, according to some accounts, even named the weapon: Sturmgewehr. It means “storm rifle.”
Tuck that somewhere in the back of your mind. The first people to really utilize this weapon were Nazis. Not our forefathers. Not Thomas Jefferson. Not George Washington.
No matter where we stand on the volatile gun control issue, we might think twice about that before boldly embracing assault rifles as part of our American heritage.[…]
How exactly did Mateen, the killer, inappropriately use his weapon, a Sig Sauer MCX assault rifle? He killed a lot of people in a close space. That’s exactly what it was designed for. Not shooting deer. Not target practice.
Here is how the manufacturer touted the weapon in its 2015 catalog: “Ready to perform anywhere. SIG SAUER combines industry-leading innovation with battle-tested experience to engineer the world’s toughest, most devastatingly accurate pistols and rifles … all in our mission to provide elite shooters with the complete weapon systems they need to prevail under any circumstance.”[…]
Yes, Mateen was once on the terror watch list. But he wasn’t anymore. And we still legally sold him a gun. How does that make sense? Yes, violence like Orlando begins with a sick mind, but a sick mind with an assault weapon is more lethal than one without.
HT: TAH