The Assault On Shoppers

 In response to the recent mass shooting at a grocery store I posted the following on Facebook:

Assault  rifles and pistols were never designed to be anything except weapons with which soldiers could kill large numbers of enemy soldiers in a very short period of time and with relative ease.

They were never intended as, nor conceived as, nor should ever be considered as appropriate for civilian usage.  Their only purpose is to kill as many enemy humans as possible in the shortest amount of time possible with the most efficiency possible.

For this purpose they were conceived, developed, manufactured, and distributed.

A bit of history:

Nazi weapons manufacturers realized some problems in military operations which could be solved only through a very innovative solution, the assault rifle.  

That much is undeniable. The story goes on that  Hitler didn’t like the idea with his corporal’s level of understanding of military strategy and tactics, but his banning of the manufacture of the weapon was ignored because some people loved the soldiers and their country more than they loved Hitler.

It is commonly reported that when he asked one individual combat officer what could be done to improve results in the field he was told more of those wonderful assault rifles would be effective. Although Hitler was disturbed at his orders having been ignored, he realized his error and ordered increased production.

I don’t know how accurate the story is, but I have seen reports that it is partly true. I don’t know which parts are true and which parts aren’t. Nevertheless, it’s a good story.

From The National Interest:

>The MP-43 was neither rifle nor submachine gun, but a deadly spawn of both.

... Close combat, rapid fire, and overwhelming force were evolving as the paradigm, but submachine guns of the period, which fulfilled these requirements for the most part, were still expensive and relatively slow to produce. It appeared that a hybrid of some sort, which combined the rifle’s accuracy with the submachine gun’s high ammunition capacity and rapid rate of fire, would be an effective companion for the modern infantryman.<

Assault rifles and assault pistols in the hands of a civilian make as much sense as a main battle tank in the hands of a civilian.