An AR-15 is a killing machine

[Heartstrings]

Let's stop the debate (currently being the focus on social media) of what the correct word is to describe it, that's just semantics plain and simple.

It's called a killing machine......period!

#enough

[dchill]

1. Prima facie.

[maxsolomon]

2. Oh, well since you said "period!"

I'm sure everyone will comply.

New Zealand defines it as an "MSSA": Military-Style Semi-Automatic". That is fairly legalistic, so it should satisfy the nitpickers.

[LakeArenal]

3. Human Killing Machine...

[better]

4. Here's the problem with this approach...

You're talking about calling one specific weapon a killing machine, instead of properly defining what makes it a killing machine, and focusing on trying to regulate or ban that. The risk, and as history shows what can be expected, is that such a focus will result in one or more weapons being banned on the basis of some poorly crafted definition, while other equally deadly weapons remain legal. This approach is a shell game.

What makes the AR-15 at least semi-reasonable to call a killing machine is one primary thing.
High capacity.

Whether we like it or not, there are many valid reasons for a civilian to own an AR-15, or any other scary-looking rifle.
What there aren't many valid reasons for a civilian to own is any rifle with high capacity and rapid reloading.

From the perspectives of both the practicality of passing and enforcing regulation and of actual impact on the streets, banning high capacity ammunition devices is without any doubt where we can make the most profound and immediate impact. Whether it's an evil AR/AK or your granddad's deer rifle, you aren't going to walk into a classroom and kill every living thing inside it very easily if it takes twice as long to reload your gun as it does to empty it.

Ban AR-15's instead, and they'll just stick a high capacity magazine in one of the thousands of other guns that accept them.