Pros And Cons Of Mass Shootings

Mass shootings have been very publicized and been taken notice of by the public in recent years, and debates over banning assault weapons have been increasing more and more. Such shootings like the Sandy Hook massacre, and the Orlando club massacre are examples of assault weapons with high-capacity magazines being used to gun down multiple people in a public setting. These types of mass shootings have terrorized the nation, and has many Americans fearing for the lives within regular public settings. Tensions have only continued to rise over the issue, and the media has, for the most part, pointed the blame towards the legality of assault weapons on the nation. In all of this tension, there is a solution that could potentially be a compromise

As the law currently stands, weapons that are fully automatic are heavily regulated and taxed, and are not common whatsoever. Assault weapons are very common on the other hand, and can still take advantage of a large magazine size, even though they are not fully automatic. At the current moment, “eight states and the District of Columbia have enacted laws banning large capacity ammunition magazines” (Large Capacity Magazines). Even within these states, only three of them actually prohibit the existence of such magazines; these laws only stop the creation of new ones. If there were to be a federal ban on the possession of large-capacity magazines (unless the owner was a dealer or military), then mass murders with assault weapons would be extremely difficult. The shooters are often stopped when they are forced to reload their weapon, such as the Tuscan, Arizona massacre. The shooter had a thirty plus magazine equipped, but once he had to change out his magazine he was tackled and stopped. With a smaller magazine size, the shooter is forced to reload faster, and is able to do far less damage with his weapon. In this way, whether the shooter was to use a hand gun or assault weapon, the rate of fire and effectiveness on a massive crowd would be nearly equal, therefore eradicating any practicality of using an assault weapon for mass