• theyoyomaster@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      Automatic probably would have had fewer since it would have missed with most the shots. Lethality like that requires controlled and aimed fire with individual shots.

      • Prettywhooped@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        I believe the suspect that the police have identified was a firearms instructor at a military base down in Saco.

      • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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        2 years ago

        If it was a dense crowd, an automatic has more than enough accuracy to hit a ton of people since you do not need much accuracy at all in that scenario.

        • theyoyomaster@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          Automatics are extremely expensive, rare and usually illegal to own. They also do not have much tactical use in a scenario like this. Continued fire is primarily for suppression in squad movements. Sainted individual shots will always be more effective for portable, handheld weapons.

          • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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            2 years ago

            Not sure where I claimed automatics were cheap and easy to obtain…

            I am aware how they are generally used. They are also generally used in the military where the objective is not to kill a mass concentration of people. When your target is huge, pointed, individual shots are not going to better since accuracy is not really necessary.

            That being said, it does not seem to be the case here since this was in a bowling alley. The guy was a firearms instructor.

            • Dkarma@lemmy.world
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              2 years ago

              But they are the guy ur responding to is pretending sear switches arent $20 and he’s pretending u need to buy a fully auto weapon instead of a 600 m&p ar and a $20 eBay part.

            • theyoyomaster@lemmy.world
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              2 years ago

              All you’re doing is showing that you’ve never actually fired an automatic weapon, because what you are saying is flat out wrong. Even in a bowling alley or somewhere else with densely packed people, automatic fire is going to miss with the majority of rounds fired. Pinpoint accuracy is not required but some sort of accuracy is; in even the best conditions automatic is simply too uncontrollable and too fast. If he was actually a firearms instructor he would absolutely know this as well.

              • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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                2 years ago

                I have fired full auto several times. A bowling alley is not that densely packed. Some place like a concert would be densely packed like when the shooter in Vegas used bump stocks to essentially fire full auto and would over 400 people and kill 60. A gun with a bump stock has worse accuracy than a fully automatic gun but he still managed to do a hell of a lot of damage in a short period of time.

                • theyoyomaster@lemmy.world
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                  2 years ago

                  Vegas it was never determined by the investigation if he used bump stocks or illegally modified full autos. He also fired more than 1100 rounds into a crowd upwards of 20,000 and killed 60 with less than 500 injuries to include shrapnel. He missed with the majority of his shots in a far denser crowd and from a fixed firing position where the guns were functionally mounted versus being hand held.

            • theyoyomaster@lemmy.world
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              2 years ago

              Most guns have some simple way to convert to full auto illegally but if the talk is about preventing atrocities with bans, like the general discussion here, they are already banned.

              For AR-15s it’s not a sear though, you’re thinking of glocks which function completely differently.

        • theyoyomaster@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          All the photos I’ve seen are normal magazines, I’ve also never seen an AR that takes clips. Optics are kinda standard for most rifles these days and even many pistols too. Nothing really out of the ordinary. He seems far more proficient with the weapon and tactics though, training is a much bigger factor in lethality than equipment.

        • glitch1985@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          It’s a magazine. Clips are for another type of rifle that allow quick reloading. You aren’t looking in a scope if you’re shooting a full auto weapon.

    • HidingCat@kbin.social
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      2 years ago

      As much as USA is pro-gun, I thought automatics are not sold?

      Regardless as the other comment says, firing on full auto is a waste of ammo. Back in service our first range practice we were given the Rambo-fantasy; hip firing at full auto at 10 metres out. No one hit any of the targets. It was a lesson to us that firearms, as easy as they are to use, needed at least some skill to be effective.

      • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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        2 years ago

        Technically no. You can still get a fly automatic but they are expensive as hell. A cheaper solution would be a bump stock but that is even less accurate than an automatic. You could also illegally build your own.

        As for ability to hit targets, how close together and how many were the targets? If it is a few targets spread out over 10-20 meters, yeah going full auto is going to miss a lot. Having dozens of people packed into a small area makes accuracy less important.

        • HidingCat@kbin.social
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          2 years ago

          What’s a bump stock? Went to read about them; the inventing company has stopped making them, are they still easy to get?

          They popped up the range targets, so not as tight as a packed crowd, but you’d think at least one would get hit. My impression was that it was really hard to control the recoil making the barrel going up, so most of my rounds just went over the targets.

      • mean_bean279@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        Full auto guns can be purchased. Most often they’re prior 80s ban guns. They’re older generally, although there are some newer full auto guns that have been hitting the market lately. They all require you to have full background checks and they’re serialized to match. The ATF is the one though that you have to register through to legally acquire one and from what I’ve heard it’s kind of a bitch to get approval on them (as it should be).