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A short thread on the rifle used in the NZ Christchurch shootings. But before you read it, read this great post on how the killer tweaked every aspect of this rampage for max effect & viral potential: bellingcat.com/news/rest-of-w…
So, the gun sends a message, not just in white writing
So, the gun sends a message, not just in white writing
In NZ, you can get legally many flavors of AR-15, but you need a special license for what our some here would call "assault weapons," i.e. semi-autos with military-style features. I'm not up on NZ restrictions, but the gun in this shot is designed to work around those bans.
Notice the stock and the grip, and take a look at this link full of CA AWB work-around guns: thefirearmblog.com/blog/tag/calif…
The killer wasn't known to authorities, so probably he could've gotten an AR that isn't dorked up w/ work-arounds. I don't think he wanted one, though.
The killer wasn't known to authorities, so probably he could've gotten an AR that isn't dorked up w/ work-arounds. I don't think he wanted one, though.
The point of using using a "not-an-assault-weapon" rifle in this rampage is to show that these gun laws are dumb, cosmetic, & do nothing to keep anyone safe. The AR-15 is a modular, open-source weapons platform, & you can't ban it without banning all semi-auto guns.
The shooter said he wants to trigger a gun control crackdown in the US and/or NZ that starts a civil war, here. So how better to do it than to illustrate the bankruptcy of assault weapon bans & make the case for a blanket semi-auto ban.
The form of the gun here -- fixed stock, technically not-a-pistol-grip -- sends a message: "I complied with your feature ban, & it didn't stop me from doing this. Bring on the civil-war-starting mega-ban."
Again, the (mostly) AWB-compliant gun was part of the message.
