Understanding assault-style weapons

The author of the Daily Herald's Aug. 18 editorial regarding the state Supreme Court ruling on gun control does not have a good understanding of the facts. The author states "especially on weapons whose only purpose is to kill as many humans as possible as quickly as possible."

The AR-15 type rifle isn't any more powerful than many other types of semi-automatic rifle and in many cases is less powerful. It shoots a .223 round. This is much smaller than many other types of rifles, which use larger and more powerful rounds such as the .270 and .308. One hunting website (I don't hunt) states that the best use for this rifle type is for coyotes and smaller varmints, which is the main use for many people on farms and ranches. Larger rounds were recommended when hunting dear, elk, and bear.

There are an estimated 24 million of the AR-15 types of rifle in the U.S. Several websites, including the FBI, state the number of people killed by rifles is less than 500 each year. If you presume 500, each killed with a different rifle, and each killed with an AR-15 type rifle, that means out of the 24 million of these types rifles, only 0.002% were used to kill someone.

The Statista website states between 1982 and 2023, rifles were only used in 26% of mass shootings.

Per several websites, such as FactCheck, there is no evidence that the previous federal ban had any effect on reducing homicides.

Gun control laws do little to keep guns away from criminals, since criminals don't obey the law.

AR-15 type rifles are rarely used to kill people. They are less powerful than many other types of rifles. Banning them doesn't save lives and won't keep them out of the hands of criminals.

Bruce Bohren

Gurnee