Oh, hey- apparently even the Supreme Court agrees that people don’t have an unfettered right to whatever weapon they want:
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear a Second Amendment challenge to an Illinois ordinance that banned semiautomatic assault weapons and large-capacity magazines. As is their custom, the justices gave no reason for turning down the appeal in the case, Friedman v. City of Highland Park, No. 15-133, which comes at a time when the national debate on gun control has been reignited by terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif.
Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia dissented, saying that lower courts have been ignoring Supreme Court precedents on Second Amendment rights.
The ordinance, enacted in 2013, banned some weapons by name, including AR-15s and AK-47s. More generally, it prohibited possession of what it called assault weapons, defining them as semiautomatic guns that can accept large-capacity magazines and have features like a grip for the nontrigger hand. Large-capacity magazines, the ordinance said, are those that can accept more than 10 rounds.
Things like these:
Photos from the scene of the officer involved shooting. Weapons & ammunition carried by the suspects. #SanBernardino pic.twitter.com/6s2HpyEgqP
— SB County Sheriff (@sbcountysheriff) December 4, 2015
This is, inevitably, where the wingnut gun worshippers start squealing about how semi-automatic does not mean you just squeeze the trigger and hold it and bullets come out. And they’re right. That would be a fully automatic weapon. A semi-automatic weapon is one that a bullet comes out every time you squeeze the trigger.
For reasons that remain a mystery to me, they think that is somehow a legitimate defense, but I don’t understand why. You can across an extreme about of damage with a semiautomatic rifle, and with a modicum of training, that can be even more devastating. For example, here is someone shooting semi-automatic weapons:
And I’m not even going to get into how to bump fire a semi-automatic weapon. As you can see- that’s a lot of rounds down range, and it doesn’t take a lot of skill to do. Just pull the trigger as fast as you can. Combine that with the enormous magazines the NRA insists are necessary to protect you, and you can see how two individuals with similar weapons could walk into a crowded room and kill or wound 30 people before anyone can react. In that sort of scenario, you wouldn’t even need to pause to aim, just to reload.
So when we are talking about what these lunatics actually demand they need to defend themselves at home, THIS is what they are talking about.
It’s fucking insane.