The term "Modern Sporting Rifle"

The term "Modern Sporting Rifle"

  • I like it

    Votes: 23 20.0%

  • Don't care one way or the other

    Votes: 44 38.3%

  • I don't like it because it is a weak attempt at PC

    Votes: 48 41.7%
  • Total voters
    115
  • Poll closed .
Personally, I don't believe in hate crime. There is just crime. Murder is killing someone without sufficient cause. "Hate", which can be defined in a myriad of ways, is just a subset of "without sufficient cause".

Another thing is the fallacy of legal piling on. If someone commits multiple counts of capital murder regardless of the penalty society places upon such a combination of felonies, will it matter if you tack on some additional penalty? Call it a hate crime? Add a few "gun charges" to the legal docket? Another few years jail sentence after execution or N consecutive life sentences? It's all just rabbit vote pandering.
 
Another thing is the fallacy of legal piling on. If someone commits multiple counts of capital murder regardless of the penalty society places upon such a combination of felonies, will it matter if you tack on some additional penalty? Call it a hate crime? Add a few "gun charges" to the legal docket? Another few years jail sentence after execution or N consecutive life sentences? It's all just rabbit vote pandering.
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Actually, in our Legal System, piling on the charges gives more ammo to the prosecutor..... mostly for plea bargaining..... you see, we don't really have a "Justice System", we have a "Legal System"- it's a game, really, of,by, and for the Lawyers, with the rules written, and rewritten, as the game goes along, by the same.
 
kcub said:
Personally, I don't believe in hate crime. There is just crime. Murder is killing someone without sufficient cause.
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"Hate crime" is another example of marketing language. In the American context, it doesn't refer to criminalization of hatred, but to enhancement of criminal liability where the defendant appears to have had a specific sort motivation to commit the underlying violent crime.

The concept is problematic because violent crime so rarely involves goodwill and affection toward the victim. "Hate crime" legislation has a political component.

However, the marketing involved in calling the object of the enhancement schemes "hate crimes" works. Who is going to defend "hatred"? Why NOT have a law against it. The term makes the argument.

MSR similarly makes the argument that just because a rifle has a modern design doesn't make its use less legitimate than the deer rifle or trap gun the prohibitions say they won't go for.

Our language is so littered with these sorts of marketing terms that they go largely unnoticed, except when they are neologisms.
 
As usual, context is everything. The term "Modern Sporting Rifle" has been around for many decades. Gunwriters of the '40s/'50s/60s used it when comparing (e.g.) a Model 70 or a Weatherby with 19th century hunting rifles.
 
The latest politically motivated term I hate (oops!) is "gun crime".

How do you plan to stop "gun crime" without guns? Wait for the cops? Better hope you aren't one of the many unlucky victims in the meanwhile. It never takes long for the mass murderer to kill a bunch of unarmed folks.
 
I think it's OK, those in government and the media with a certain agenda feel free to call them "assault weapons" when they are not. So why should we not feel free to use nomenclature that we want.
 
freedom dispensers
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Too many syllables. It would have to be an FDR(Freedom Dispensing Rifle) or something. The simple reality is Americans don't commonly use terms with more than about three syllables. Four is really pushing it. There are almost no 5 syllable terms in common usage. Common in some other languages/cultures also, but not universal. For it to catch on it has to be a 2 or 3 syllable term abbreviation. Initialism good, acronym better, phrase best. HDR(Home Defense Rifle) would probably be acceptable and focused on defense from common criminals, which increases political palatability. CDR(Citizen Defense Rifle) might work with a meaning closer to original 2A meaning.

Do you really want to hitch your wagon to a George W."Mission Accomplished" economy destroying the-Pakistanis-are-our-friend-and-will-kill-Osama-Bin-Laden-at-Tora-Bora Bush era catch phrase?
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I did self-appoint myself as the controlling body of the English language while teaching ESL, but no one seems to have taken note and not a single government with English as their official language has acknowledged my role, so I seem to lack the power to hitch any ones wagon to anything on my own. I would say that many such terms follow the success of the movement they envelop. Had the war in Iraq been seen as a success, Freedom Fries would likely be on a menu at a diner near you. Had a different phrase been chosen to replace "French", the war in Iraq would have probably gone the same way and the phrase abandoned.
Of course, in this case, it is really more like the US government calling the Vietnam conflict a "police action" which was really quite effective IMO. The term still worked for its political purposes regardless of the military results in Asia.
Irrespective of my opinion on the term, I would not be surprised if the term "Freedom Sticks" caught on.
 
Never forget that "Three Letter Acronym" is a "TLA".
:eek:
I'd just go for a "BHR" for Big Honkin' Rifle. It seems "HBR" is taken.
 
I would not be surprised if the term "Freedom Sticks" caught on.
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While it might catch on with "the choir", I doubt it will get any further...after all, the very first thing they will throw at us is, that we are liars, our "sticks" aren't made of wood, so the rest must be false, as well....:rolleyes:
 
"Assault rifle" is already firmly entrenched in the average American's mind. I really don't think MSR is going to get very far at all.
 
I built my AR simply because there are those who don't believe I should have it.

They can call it whatever they will. I'll call it "come and take it". :)
 
Could care less what they call em--that's for others to fight out. I simply love building them and hand loading for them. They are "America's Rifle." if anything IMO : ) If they become banned--then the mass murder crowd is simply going to take up bomb-making the way I see it.
 
For about $2.00, a gal. of gas, and a giveaway pack of matches, the devastation could be horrendous!

These incidents never get much press? Not sexy enough.

Some mentally deficient purple haired teen, with his Mums rifle? Now that is sexy, focus on the AR15, close up! Yes the gun, it was bad.

One look at these shooters, the biggest majority are nuts! Act nuts, and look nuts! And what is done before the fact? Nothing, what can be done? Beats me.
 
It seems to me that labels or names carry with them the direction something is going to take. Since the legislators, whether through ignorance or malevolence, seek to limit ownership of "assault rifles," I am all for a different label. I've seen "pit bull" ordinances in some municipalities. Whether they are wise or not, I cannot say, but dog owners successfully defeat them by naming their dogs anything other than "pit bull."

The last go 'round with the AWB was much more comprehensive by articulating characteristics or features of the firearms they sought to limit. But the battle of individual rights is often determined by the nomenclature used, and if the champions of firearms ownership rights seek to succeed, they have to control the labels.

As F. Lee Bailey once said, the average American has the attention span of a 4 year old. Most voters make their decisions based on short, snappy, sound bytes. In recent times the label "terrorist" has changed the direction of many people's lives. This label, conferred by the President, now entitles the President to authorize death warrants without a fair, public, trial, where evidence is heard and a judgment of guilt rendered BEFORE the execution. --For most people it is ok to kill terrorists without giving them a trial. To a thinking man, the implications of such an arrangement are unacceptable, but most people do not like to think.

Enter the term "domestic terrorist" which is being bandied about a lot here recently. Anybody care to guess where this one is going? Soon, anybody with an "assault weapon" will be branded a "domestic terrorist," and extrajudicial executions employed to make everybody safe.

I don't think it is a mistake to dumb down the dialogue as much as possible to win the support of such people who make most of their decisions based on labels.
 
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This thread, so far, has referred only to the AR15 type "assault rifles," and has failed to mention AKs, SIGs, FALs, M1As, HKs, et. al. Do we lump all of these together as "America's rifle," or, God forbid "freedom sticks?"

I don't use the term "assault rifle" as I find it ludicrous, and generally just refer to whatever rifle I am talking about by its proper name, i.e. AR15, HK 91, etc.

Personally, I think something like LSA, or "Light Semi Auto" would be an accurate moniker for the type of weapon we are discussing.
 
I believe the reason the gun control crowd and politicians use the term "assault" in my opinion is because it carries the moniker of illegal intent--unless carried into battle by soldiers--in which case the intent is killing or incapacitating enemies.

In itself it is an inanimate object until handled by someone--by calling it an "assault rifle" it identifies the object as having illegal intent in the possession of anyone other than military or police.
 
I refer to mine by what they were always called.
"Main Battle Rifle"s.
It's this creeping timidity I find repulsive. Even more so the acquiescing to it.

I've been told I "Can't say 'Merry Christmas!'", really, why not?

I've yet to see a single actual rule prohibiting me! Its just wimpy cyber bullying attempts. I say "Merry Christmas!", I own "Main Battle Rifles" & its legal, so I'll continue to do so. If someones delicate sensibilities are offended then they have an issue, not me & I won't pander to it.
:mad:
 
Being forbidden to say "Merry Christmas" was a big to-do in the right wing talk media a year or two ago. Seems some stores were forbidding employees to say it, and requiring "Happy Holidays" or "Season's Greeting" be used instead.

Then, of course, something actually important took over the news cycle and on the world went.

"Everyone" seems so intent to avoid possibly offending someone, but no one seem to care much about offending ME. Unless they want something, like my vote or my money...

Here's a thought, if a phrase or a term offends you, be the bigger person, and just GET OVER IT!
 
I refer to mine by what they were always called.
"Main Battle Rifle"s
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Was an M16 or AK-47 ever correctly referred to as an MBR? I thought that going all the way back to the STG-44 "assault rifles" were differentiated from MBRs.

Citizen's Rifle. If you don't have one you're a subject! If you don't get it, you're a slave!
 
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