Running Head: CITZENS OWNING ASSAULT RIFLES 1
Citizens owning Assault Rifles
By Richard Schiesl
Globe University
CM121
CITZENS OWNING ASSAULT RIFLES 2
Citizens Owning Assault Rifles
Owning an assault rifle is a right that all citizens have because of the second amendment,
although the second amendment has more to it than just the right to bear arms. The topic of the
second amendment and gun control is a powder keg with a short fuse. Gun control is an issue
that has become more and more relevant in the recent years, but has left some people blind or
completely unaware of what the second amendment was intended for. Rather than control the
guns it is better to educate the people by explaining the differences in the weapons, teaching
them that the second amendment is more than just the right to bear arms, and by support self-
control I will show that citizens should be allowed to own assault rifles.
While it is true that the amendment written by our forefathers did not have to deal with
all the advancements of technology as we do today, their written word does not need to be
altered. Gun control is something that should be taken up by the people not the government. This
can be achieved by educating the people about gun safety and control. When I was in the army
for training at FT. Benning, Georgia the first thing they taught me, before they even put the idea
of going out on a range and handling a weapon, was to be able to tell if something was
emotionally or physically wrong with others around us. They taught us the signs to look for in
someone who is suicidal, angry, sad, and depressed. They taught us this so we could stop
someone before they did something stupid. This taught us all to watch out for each other and
keep each other safe. Giving people the knowledge to see and react to a problem, not just as it
happens, but also before it happens and being able to read body language can be an effective way
to get people to stop and control themselves and others. This isn’t the only thing to educate
people on.
CITZENS OWNING ASSAULT RIFLES 3
Safety and control go hand and hand, and being able to pick up on subtle abnormalities
can be a great way to get the people to react to a situation before it gets out of hand. There is still
the education about the differences between the weapons and their uses. First and foremost, no
weapon is dangerous. I say this because there isn’t a single weapon that can cause harm without
an operator. Secondly, every weapon can be an effective tool for self-defense when used
appropriately. Thirdly, not all weapons are made the same. When you hear someone tell you
about their day out gun hunting with a 30-30, 12Guage, or 30-06, most people think yeah that’s a
typical hunting round with little knowledge of what it is. Then when someone says they went
hunting with an AR-15 assault rifle or even an AK-47, people think oh my god why do you need
such heavy fire power? That is ignorance at its best. A hunting rifle is more powerful and more
accurate than any assault rifle (Sniper rifles are not assault rifles and are not in the same
category). People have a better chance of surviving a round from an assault rifle than they do a
hunting weapon. The bullets or rounds that are designed for hunting rifles are designed to stop an
animal in its tracks. Those rounds can and will turn all your insides into gelatin. Whereas a round
designed for an assault rifle will mostly just pass through, leaving a hole and some internal
damage, but you still will be able to patch up the person and possibly save their lives. You can’t
do that with gelatin for organs. Shot guns are a little different because they use both slugs and
bb’s. The bb’s can leave you with a Swiss cheese effect, or even just a big gaping 4 inch hole
depending on how close you are to your target. A Slug can start with an entrance wound of up to
a one to three inch gaping hole, and when it mushrooms on impact it can make an even bigger
exit hole. The rounds of a weapon are an important piece of their lethality due to how different
they can be because no weapon, even with an operator, can hurt anyone without a round in it.
CITZENS OWNING ASSAULT RIFLES 4
Even though assault rifles and hunting weapons differ by types of rounds and designs the
assault rifle is viewed as the more dangerous weapon even though you have a better chance of
surviving a shot from one. Another key component to that thought is the fact you can put more
rounds into a magazine for an assault weapon and they can be fired faster due to the semi-
automatic design of the weapon. A magazine is a simple and effective way for a person to be able
to carry ammunition. A standard magazine size for an assault rifle is 15-30 rounds. That design is
a key part for self-defense for a soldier in combat. That is a lot of ammunition, but it was
designed so that a soldier could be faster at putting rounds down range against multiple enemy
targets. A person used to be only as fast as he could cycle a new round into the chamber and was
accomplished with a bolt. A bolt action was slow, and at best had a magazine of 5 to 7 rounds.
Having to manually pull the bolt back then pushing it back forward every time a round was fired
