Lisa Graves replied on Permalink
The Bushmaster
<p>Dear Craig:</p>
<p>My grandfather taught me how to shoot, and I can assure you that the Bushmaster .223 for civilian use is not the kind of weapon my family has used for hunting deer. The Bushmaster is a assault-style rifle designed to kill human beings, not deer -- the primary market for the military class version of the weapon, sometimes called an M4, is soldiers for use in war to kill other soldiers. Based on the market/purchaser type (civilian, law enforcement, or military), it has different mechanisms for how rapidly it fires and what size of magazines can be used to fire rounds of ammunition as well as other features (like grenade launchers), and different rules for who can possess it.</p>
<p>I understand that the NRA prefers that such weapons be called merely "rifles," and not be called "assault" weapons, and that the federal Assault Weapons Ban referenced specific models of guns along with other rifles, pistols, and shotguns with specified features for the ban -- but manufacturers worked around these rules to provide models that did not fire as many rounds as quickly as weapons subject to the AWB (and were not allowed to use the larger capacity magazines) or the pre-existing ban on fully automatic machine guns. Such weapons are still deadly though less deadly than the more rapid or continuous firing versions. The firing speed for the civilian version of the weapon depends in part on the speed of the shooter's trigger finger.</p>
<p>But, I think most Americans understand that the style of weapon used here to rapidly cause mass casualties at the elementary school in Connecticut is an assault weapon in the most basic sense of the word. Consistent with the style of weapon, as opposed to a six-round pistol for example, the coroner who examined the bodies of several of the dead children said that all of them suffered three to 11 gun shot wounds each. The "feat" of mowing down 26 human beings in short order is more easily accomplished with a Bushmaster .223 style weapon that a six-shooter a person would have to load and reload and reload and reload and reload and reload and reload some more to fire that many shots into that many victims.</p>
<p>The state's chief medical examiner also noted that, as for the ammunition, "the bullets are designed in such a fashion that the energy . . . is deposited in the tissue and so the bullet stays in" the body of the victim. See http://video.msnbc.msn.com/msnbc/50210025#50210025, Interview with Dr. H. Wayne Carver, II (12-15-12). You may quibble about whether that design, or caliber or speed, is intended to maximize damage because you believe the particular bullet used bullet does not "expand"/explode like some banned ammo, but I stand by what the coroner said, even though the location of a wound is one of the biggest factors in its deadliness. Beyond that, there has been no specific public confirmation yet about whether the ammo was hollow point bullets or full metal jacket ones.</p>
<p>Your suggestion that attributing any blame to the weapon is "neurotic at best" is quite frankly callous at the least. Let's reframe that, nuclear bombs don't kill hundreds of thousands of people, people kill people -- except without the capacity for such mass destruction in the span of a few moments fewer people would die by the hand of one man. </p>
<p>Similarly absurd is your suggestion that people expressing concern want emotionally troubled people "rounded up." I think reasonable people simply do not want an emotionally troubled young man to have access to weapons like the Bushmaster. </p>
<p>It is fascinating that you chose Japan as an example of how a murderer can kill without guns as with the terroristic poison gas attack in the subway a few years ago. But, let's look at Japan, which has some of the strictest gun control laws in the world. In 2008, the U.S. "had over <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr59/nvsr59_04.pdf">12 thousand</a> firearm-related homicides. All of Japan experienced <a href="http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-%20and-analysis/homicide.html">only 11</a> . . . ," as noted in Max Fisher's piece from earlier this year in The Atlantic magazine. See http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/07/a-land-without-guns-how-japan-has-virtually-eliminated-shooting-deaths/260189/</p>
<p>Nevertheless, there are a range of factors that affect overall homicide rates in countries as well as cities, including poverty and culture. As Michael Moore pointed out in "Bowling for Columbine," Canada has a similar rate of gun ownership (including lots of hunting rifles) as the U.S. but a much lower homicide rate. </p>
<p>I stand by our article's statement that the ready accessibility of weapons that make it easier to kill more people faster in fact makes it easier to kill more people faster, and that this is a problem. But, it's more than that, it's a series of tragedies waiting to happen, and the massive loss of life in Connecticut is a heart-wrenching example of that.</p>
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