What are your thoughts on Florida Congressional candidate Greg Evers announcing his AR-15 giveaway in wake of the Orlando massacre?

It sounds like grandstanding. Not unexpected for a politician.

Here is the link to the story

I wonder how many ammosexuals are torn between their desire for a free gun and fear of having a government representative run a background check on them.

It seems a little tasteless…

On the same level as that pastor that made a video saying that the Orlando massacre was a good thing because there are now 50 less paedophiles in the world.
Or the marines that posted a picture of an assault rifle with the text “coming to a gay bar near you”.

Also entirely expected from that part of the political spectrum.

Truly tasteless after the attack in Orlando.

Not in the least surprising.

Surreal. Makes me feel that I don’t belong here. The planet itself is OK but the dominant life form makes me want to leave.

This is on General, so I’ll just say, “he’s a sick fuck.”

He is appealing to a constituency in an election year.
Having said that, if he is a “sick fuck” for giving away a rifle, what do we call the guy who used a rifle in a crowded nightclub to kill or maim 100 people who were doing nothing but having some fun? A weapon without a killer is just an object. A killer without a weapon will eventually find one.

I think he’s going for the gun rights vote, and thinks this will get him more votes than it will lose him.

He might at least have chosen a different model of gun.

Maybe he’s also going for the voters who are hostile to gay people even right after that attack.

Maybe he’s hoping to catch some of the voters who like people who do/say things that outrage “liberal” sensibilities, as Trump has done.

How can I enter the drawing??

@kritiper As the article mentions, you need to be 18+, live in his district, pass a background check, “Like” his Facebook page, and share some post from his page.

I bet it comes with a list of gay bar addresses.

@Cruiser I find it incredibly sad and alarming too.

Disgusting. He doesn’t deserve to be elected to any public office.

Just when you think you’ve heard everything. Crazy.

@Zaku I’m in!

Well, now he has whining rights when his peaceful rallies are met with violent protest.

I watched Orange is the New Black and there was a fast cut to ‘Crazy Eyes’ working in her old job as a greeter at a ‘mega store’. Remember this show would have been shot and edited together well before the Orlando shooting. She checks the receipt of a shopper against their cart and in the cart was…. you guessed it, an AR15 Assault Rifle. If you want to check it is in Series 4, Episode 11 at about 7 minutes 30 into the show.

It’s a political move and a predictable one. A bit tactless but sends a message that “I’m a staunch 2nd amendment supporter” It’s just that extra step that sets him apart from other politicians that could just be giving lip service. This stunt will probably pay off.
@cazzie My local walmart sells ar-15’s, nothing special about them. They are not “assault rifles” or even “assault style” rifles they are just semi auto rifles. The little .22 I had as a kid literally operates the same way. I have very mixed feelings about gun control but I really can’t help but be a little concerned with the language and spin the media puts on some of this.

That little .22 doesn’t leave baseball-sized holes in people. Just saying.

And I’m betting that it would be really, really difficult to kill 49 people in one setting at a bar with that little .22. Just saying.

Actually… it’s close to the same cal but has more powder behind it. Standard “ar” cal is .223 and is a medium power cartridge. Not “blowing baseball size holes” you’ll need something north of a .308 or shotgun for that. Something gun control proponents always miss is that it’s not the platform, it’s the capacity and caliber.

“One looks like a grenade went off in there,” University of Arizona trauma surgeon Peter Rhee told Wired when comparing the damage done by AR-15 bullets and 9mm handgun bullets. “The other looks like a bad knife cut.”

The reason that happens is pretty simple, and it’s explained by physics. The bullet from an AR-15 rifle leaves the muzzle at three times the speed of a handgun bullet. That means it has plenty of energy to “distribute” inside the body upon collision.

It can disintegrate three inches of leg bone, turning it to “dust” according to Donald Jenkins, a trauma surgeon at the University of Texas Health Science Center. “The liver looks like a jello mold that’s been dropped on the floor,” if hit by the same bullet, Jenkins says. The exit wound can be the size of an orange.

Comparatively, handgun bullets can be stopped by flesh and bone, and can pass through the body only to remain stuck in the skin.

Furthermore, AR-15 bullets don’t just affect the skin and the tissue immediately under it. In addition to turning a bone to dust or liver into jello, the high energy would also cause damage around the entry and exit wounds.

When a high-velocity bullet pierces the body, human tissue can ripple just like water does when you throw an object in it. But it all happens at increased velocity. The bullet and its ensuing fragments might miss a critical artery, but the cavitation effect could tear through blood vessels.

Rhee also said that a handgun would require only one surgery, but an AR-15 bullet wound needs three to ten.

Source

‘Upgrades’ aren’t hard to come by to make it work ‘very well’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1bKh3dYDqc

They are shooting the same 22 caliber but putting in a conversion kit and making it much much more deadly. They are converting these to kill.

It’s like saying, But my son only shoot marbles with his thumb. Marbles aren’t that harmful. But put those marbles in something that shoots them at a velocity 100 times harder and a thousand times faster and try that argument. You can’t compare the two. Not if you profess to know anything about physics.

It’s still comes down to capacity and caliber.

I believe it was planned before the shooting and the link provided by @Cruiser confirms that but I think it was in poor taste and disrespectful to the families and friends of the shooting victims to go ahead with it anyway.
Would anyone, even someone who is rabidly pro-semiautomatic weapon ownership, have been upset if it was postponed a while?

@rojo – The election is August 30th, I think. He’s running out of time to get his name out there.

Many politicians are detached from reality. This is just another. There’s is a world of denial , and they usually flip flop on issues as it suits them. They little or no ability to empathize, or ever see anything from anyone elses view. They never question their own beliefs, and seem incapable of introspective thought. IMO all politicians are bad people. They would never ascend far without lying, cheating, and coruption. If there is ever a politician that has you thinking they are different than the others, then you have had the wool pulled over your eyes. I’m not some anarchist, but the well intended democracy in America is badly broken. And there are way to many uber rich people really pulling the strings.

Giving away a firearm to anyone you’ve never met is crazy….Bat shit crazy.

In regards to the ammo discussion, the type of round is important too.
Hunting/ defense rounds are designed for rapid expansion in soft tissue. AP or armor piercing rounds are more for penetration but can cause ‘less’ severe injury. Some AP rounds can ‘tumble ’ when going through things before hitting their target though and when they hit sideways, the damage is greater. Indeed , though Seek is correct that the velocity of the projectile is the major factor in the case of .223 or 5.56 cartridges. These weapons, and their ammunition where designed primarily to kill people. I am a gun enthusiast, but to say otherwise is a lie. They can be used for target shooting, and in my state people hunt wild boars with them with night vision scopes. They are a tool, and like most tools can be used maliciously to hurt others.
If a mad man wants to kill lots of people, he can rent a moving truck and drive it into a parade or large number of people. The effect would be mass casualties. Bad people do bad things. The focus I think should be on making it really hard to buy them (assault weapons. )

I think all gun owners should, by law, have to wear coonskin hats.