# Explain the difference between Hunting Guns and Other guns (and associated legislation) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 5, 2013, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-difference-between-hunting-guns-and-other-guns-and-associated-legislation/675566 "2013-12-05T11:55:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2013, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-difference-between-hunting-guns-and-other-guns-and-associated-legislation/675566/41 "2013-12-06T18:42:40Z")
> [@doorhinge](#): > > Yes. A pistol grip or an adjustable stock or a bayonet mount does not make a rifle any more accurate or lethal. They change the way you hold the rifle, storable length, and the ability to mount a bayonet, respectively. So again, those are not cosmetic changes. They are functional changes to the rifle. Arguing otherwise, especially after pointing out the extent of these functional changes, is an exercise in absurdity. As I said before, whether or not these functional differences mean that one should be banned and the other not is a separate issue. ---
**Author:** ![doorhinge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@doorhinge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doorhinge)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2013, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-difference-between-hunting-guns-and-other-guns-and-associated-legislation/675566/42 "2013-12-06T19:59:14Z")
> [@treis](#): > > They change the way you hold the rifle, storable length, and the ability to mount a bayonet, respectively. So again, those are not cosmetic changes. They are functional changes to the rifle. Arguing otherwise, especially after pointing out the extent of these functional changes, is an exercise in absurdity. > > As I said before, whether or not these functional differences mean that one should be banned and the other not is a separate issue. The two Ruger Mini-14’s function exactly the same way. Place a round into the chamber, close the breech, pulling the trigger allows the firing pin to crush the primer creating flame, the flame turns the solid propellent to gas, and the gas pressure pushes the bullet down and out of the barrel. Repeat. The stock could be wood or nylon or steel. The stock could be pink, blue, green, or very scary black but that doesn’t change how the action works. Either Mini-14 would be just as accurate and just as effective as the other one. Cosmetic changes do not change the basic function of the rifle. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2013, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-difference-between-hunting-guns-and-other-guns-and-associated-legislation/675566/43 "2013-12-06T20:43:53Z")
> [@treis](#): > > They change the way you hold the rifle, storable length, and the ability to mount a bayonet, respectively. So again, those are not cosmetic changes. They are functional changes to the rifle. Arguing otherwise, especially after pointing out the extent of these functional changes, is an exercise in absurdity. > > As I said before, whether or not these functional differences mean that one should be banned and the other not is a separate issue. There’s no bayonet mount on the scary rifle. The way you hold the rifle does not affect it’s function. The fully collapsed stock is only 4 inches shorter than the wood. 34 vs. 38 inches. Find one crime that was committed with a rifle with a fixed bayonet. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2013, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-difference-between-hunting-guns-and-other-guns-and-associated-legislation/675566/44 "2013-12-06T22:01:28Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > Find one crime that was committed with a rifle with a fixed bayonet. Challenge accepted. 🙂 > [@](#): > > A masked gunman wielding an assault-style rifle with fixed bayonet shot up a woman’s car during a robbery Tuesday night at a crime-ridden apartment complex near downtown Athens. > > No one was wounded by the gunfire at Bethel Midtown Village, but the woman’s boyfriend suffered two small puncture wounds when the bandit jabbed him with the bayonet at the end of an AK-47 or SKS semiautomatic rifle. > > Athens-Clarke police detectives made the robbery a priority investigation because of the firepower the robber and his accomplice used. > > “This is a serious weapon, and we need to catch up with these people and get that weapon off the street,” said Capt. Clarence Holeman, assistant commander of the Athens-Clarke police Criminal Investigations Division. > > “Anytime someone uses a weapon - period - that bothers me, but an AK-47-type weapon has the potential to do a lot more damage because of its range and the propensity it has to enter buildings and other objects,” Holeman said. > > Semiautomatic AK-47 and SKS rifles belong in the class of “AR” weapons, which gun shops can sell legally. They are the civilian models of fully automatic military assault rifles like the M-16, the only difference being they can’t fire a burst of bullets with one squeeze of the trigger. > > Holeman couldn’t recall any recent robberies where a suspect used an AR-type weapon. > > The victim said she and her boyfriend left her apartment off College Avenue about 9 p.m. Tuesday to go shoot pool. > > They had just gotten into her car when two men approached, one waving the rifle, Kendra Barnette said in an interview. > > Barnette first thought the robbers’ order to “give it up” was a prank - until the gunman stuck the rifle into the car and poked her boyfriend’s back with the bayonet. > > She and her boyfriend threw a wallet and cash from the car, she said, and as she backed out of the parking space the robber fired a shot, shattering the car’s rear passenger-side window. > > “When I heard the first shot, I knew he wasn’t playing,” the 22-year-old said. > > As the couple sped away, the robber fired more shots, blowing out the back window of Barnette’s car, she said. > > Neither Barnette nor her boyfriend could identify the masked gunman, and they didn’t get a good look at his accomplice. They couldn’t tell if he had a gun, she said. > > Detectives also checked Wednesday to see if the robbery was related to a hold-up in November that involved an AR-type rifle. > > Two men armed with handguns kidnapped a man from the Rocksprings Homes apartment complex Nov. 7 and drove him to a subdivision where they demanded money, police said. The victim bluffed, telling the robbers he left his wallet in his car at Rocksprings, and he fled after the men drove him back to the complex. > > The victim told investigators what while held captive, the gunmen mentioned an SKS rifle was in the trunk and that they planned to go on a “rampage,” according to police. > > The victim said he believed one of the men who robbed him lived at Bethel Midtown Village. > > Police arrested one of the suspects in late November and the other last month, but one since has bonded out of the Clarke County Jail. > > Investigators have not ruled out the possibility that man was involved in Tuesday night’s armed robbery, police said. Originally published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Thursday, January 15, 2009 ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2013, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-difference-between-hunting-guns-and-other-guns-and-associated-legislation/675566/45 "2013-12-06T22:05:59Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > Challenge accepted. 🙂 > > Originally published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Thursday, January 15, 2009 You lead 1-0. Didn’t find that one when i tried a search. But it’s still pretty rare. Two small punctures? Someone wasn’t trying. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2013, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-difference-between-hunting-guns-and-other-guns-and-associated-legislation/675566/46 "2013-12-06T22:33:16Z")
Probably just cosmetic wounds ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2013, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-difference-between-hunting-guns-and-other-guns-and-associated-legislation/675566/47 "2013-12-07T00:33:35Z")
A semi auto weapon has one feature that is quite useful in hunting situations. It allows for a quick followup shot if your initial shot does not drop the animal immediately. If the animal drops after the first shot and then begins to get back up you can shoot it again while keeping the gun sighted on the animal. A skilled shooter can get off a second shot with other types of weapons but not quite as quickly as with a semi auto. The ethical hunter does everything possible to prevent a wounded animal escaping to die a lingering death. ---
**Author:** ![obbn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/d6d6ee/32.png) [@obbn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obbn)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2013, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-difference-between-hunting-guns-and-other-guns-and-associated-legislation/675566/48 "2013-12-07T01:11:59Z")
> [@treis](#): > > Probably just cosmetic wounds Twas just A flesh wound … 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-difference-between-hunting-guns-and-other-guns-and-associated-legislation/675566.md?page=2)