zlacker

> no reason that an MRAP should be on American streets

It's not _on_ American streets. I lived in the US for 20 years and I've never seen one. Likely some SWAT teams purchased them for pennies on the dollar, but I'd argue SWAT teams need them, to reduce casualties when getting close to violent action.

> assault rifles

To the best of my knowledge assault rifles are not in use by US police. AR15 is not an assault rifle.

I saw plenty in London though.

But that's nuance - people younger than, say, 35, won't understand any of it. Literally nobody is interested in the actual reform at the moment. If they were, we'd see some serious proposals by now.

>>m0zg+(OP)
> But that's nuance - people younger than, say, 35, won't understand any of it.

Check yourself, pot, that's an awfully broad brush to be calling a kettle incapable of nuance with.

>>m0zg+(OP)
> AR15 is not an assault rifle

Means you don't know what and assault riffle is.

>>Gibbon+SZ1
Assault rifles have selective fire (i.e. they can fire multiple bullets with each pull of the trigger). An AR15 is semi-automatic, which means only one bullet for each pull of the trigger.

>>lliama+y52
Assault weapons are light weight short barrelled rifles designed to be used in close quarters. That's it.

>>Gibbon+Cj2
That is a carbine. Actual assault rifles have selective fire and are heavily regulated.

>>lliama+6o2
You spouting politically motivated revisionism here. You can do that but I'm not signing up.

>>Gibbon+vq2
The terms I am using are defined pretty clearly on Wikipedia:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assault_rifle

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbine

You may be confusing "assault rifle" and "assault weapon" which are different categories. The AR15 does usually qualify as an "assault weapon". The definition of assault weapon is looser, and includes a number of features (such as barrel shrouds and flash suppressors") the sole purpose of which is to make the gun safer to use, and have nothing to do with making them actually more dangerous.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assault_weapon

If you have different sources, feel free so share.

>>Gibbon+Cj2
Assault weapon != assault rifle. Former is a generic term w/o commonly agreed definition, latter is a rifle with the characteristics the GP listed, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assault_rifle

>>pandam+FB2
Is there anything in the definition of assault weapon that has to do with a shorter barrel though? I'm genuinely curious where this person came to the conclusion that it was relevant.

>>lliama+9P4
Probably some local law? There are 50 states and much more cities, every one of them can have an "Assault Weapon" legislation with whatever definition they want, starting from the color and ending with the "shoulder thing that goes up".

Also, barrel length is one of the most common theme in firearms bans. Usually those consist of legal limits on the minimum barrel length in an effort to prevent people from concealing it, I guess.