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And ... what do computers and cars have to do with owning an AK-47? Your trite remarks do not answer my question.

1. The same liberals who want to take away Second Amendment rights are also opposed to people owning SUVs, as is constantly pointed out by Rush Limbaugh. "Why does anyone NEED a SUV?" demand such leftists.

2. You do not understand the difference between actual assault rifles and the kind of SEMI-automatic firearms that are affected by this ban. An ASSAULT RIFLE (most of them are actually CARBINES, not rifles, as they have less range than the longer barrelled rifle) has a selector switch on it. When you turn the switch to "FULL AUTO," it fires like a machine gun. When you turn the switch to "SEMI-AUTOMATIC," you can only fire a one shot at a time, but do not have to manually work a lever, bolt, or pump action to eject the empty cartridge and load a new one. That is why it is called "SEMI-AUTOMATIC."

The term "automatic" refers to a mechanism in the weapon that ejects the empty, fired cartridge casing and loads the next round from an external or internal magazine that holds the unfired cartridges. Some of the weapons use mechanical AUTOMATIC reloading, like the German Luger pistol, and others use "Blowback" technology that captures the gases from the firing of a cartridge and forces the gas back into the weapon to work the mechanism that reloads the next cartridge. An "automatic" carbine fires and reloads as long as your finger presses the trigger. A "semi-automatic" must have the trigger depressed in order to work the mechanism to eject and load. They are SINGLE-SHOT weapons, not AUTOMATIC weapons. The only differences between the banned weapons and hunting weapons that are semi-automatic are:

A. A semi-automatic carbine has a shorter range.

B. Some semi-automatic carbines "look like" the military arms from which they are copied. An AR-15 "looks like" an M-16, but has no flash suppressor or lug for receiving a bayonet. Actually, this makes the AR-15 LESS of a "militia" weapon than an M-16, and, according to one Supreme Court decision, it is MILITARY ARMS that are those protected by the Second Amendment, as a militia is supposed to drill and train with actual military weapons, not with civilian market knock-offs. That decision identified all the military weapons that were protected under the Second Amendment by branch of service and specialty, such as an Artiller soldier could own the military sidearms of the day that were applicable to the artillery, an artilleryman's sword and revolver. A cavalryman could own a saber, revolver, and carbine that were in use in that branch of service. An infantryman could own a long rifle in use in the service and a bayonet to be fitted on the long rifle.

The Second Amendment does not secure SPORTING ARMS, although no one should be worried about them. The Second Amendment actually supports the ownership of MILITARY ARMS. I am talking about the small arms used by the branches of the service that are not crew-served weapons, such as machine guns, Stinger missiles, etc. Crew-served weapons require more than one soldier to use them. No one in the militia kept howitzers in their front yards. The Supreme Court only addressed small arms used by individual soldiers.

What this means is that, in addition to the Second Amendment as an issue, the erosion of the institution of ACTUAL State Militias, organized by State Governments and regulated by Congress, as opposed to the National Guard system we now have, should also be discussed with the issue of gun ownership. To be a true militia, the officers have to be recognized by the Governor and Legislature, and they must regularly drill and train, with the militia being under the regulations established by Congress.

Assault "Rifles" and Machine Pistols/Submachine Guns: People confuse these two weapons. An assault rifle has the same fully automatic capabilities as a submachine gun, but has a carbine configuration (shorter rifle) and can accept a bayonet. The carbine also does not fire PISTOL ammunition. A submachine gun fires the same caliber of ammunition that the primary sidearm of an army fires. In World War II, the German MP-40 fired 9 millimeter pistol ammunition and the US Thompson submachine gun fired 45 caliber pistol ammunition like the Colt .45. Like the assault "rifle" (Assault rifle was the German designation for such weapons, but they are not rifles) the submachine gun is designed to be most effective in close quarters combat. "Sweeping" and "brooming" are terms used to describe what they are intended to do, as the submachine gun was originally designed to "sweep" World War I trenches of enemy troops once an attack caused soldiers to enter enemy trenches or fire down into them at close range.

The only real assualt RIFLE was the Browing Automatic Rifle. It was fully automatic (fired like a machine gun) was not crew-served, and was constructed in the configuration of a large rifle.