Stephen Benton: Shooter’s weapon wasn’t ‘automatic’

I love how certain individuals use titles and ranks to pass themselves off as subject matter experts.

In the case of the writer of the June 19 letter “Weapons of war,” either he is pushing a political agenda, implying fully automatic weapons were used by the Orlando terrorist and they’re available for easy purchase on the legal civilian firearms market, or he has no knowledge of civilian firearms.

The weapon used by the terrorist was semi-automatic. One trigger pull, one bullet. It was not an assault rifle because it was incapable of automatic fire. It was also not the very popular, much-vilified AR-15, which is also semi-automatic and incapable of automatic fire.

Any resemblance to actual military assault rifles is purely cosmetic. One cannot simply go into a gun store and purchase an automatic rifle off the shelf.

It is, in fact, illegal for civilians to own such weapons manufactured after May 1986, thanks to the Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986. Those manufactured prior to May 1986 are still legal for civilian ownership, but due to limited numbers they command huge prices and the regulatory requirements for legal acquisition are even more stringent than for “civilian” firearms.

This story was originally published June 25, 2016 at 6:00 PM with the headline "Stephen Benton: Shooter’s weapon wasn’t ‘automatic’."