‘Semi-fully automatic’? Um… Did you pass high school English, Mr. Daley?
Now, you’re just a mayor and a politician. I wouldn’t expect you to know anything about laws. :rolleyes: It is indeed a violation of federal laws (and state laws, and city laws) for criminals to have firearms.
Presumably they don’t become criminals until they start blasting people. Daley seems to be complaining that if the cops find an AK in the trunk of a car, and they suspect its going to be used in a crime, they can’t just seize it. So instead, they have to have their own heavy weapons to reply after the blasting starts.
I thought firearms were banned in Chicago.
So are heroin and cocaine.
I always thought “fully automatic” was redundant, and used by those who want to use it politically. It’s either automatic or semi-automatic, or something altogether different (bolt action, etc.). “Fully automatic assault rifle” is completely over the top.
I think Johnny’s point is that it would not be a matter of “not being able to seize” if the were already illegal inside Chi-town city limits anyway.
I heard the recording on NPR (Weekend ATC) and IIRC it sounded like Daley stumbled upon his words, like “someone has a semi-uh-fully automatic weapon”. Maybe he meant to insert an “or” or meant to correct himself and ended up sounding silly.
And my theory of why laypeople say “fully automatic”, is that it’s a combination of (a) pistols are commonly called “automatic”, when they’re really semis, so the layperson may be confused and (b) in the context of selective-fire weapons they are used to hearing the terms “semi or full auto” to indicate the selector settings,so they think that those are also the terms for describing the weapon.
I don’t know why y’all are so confused, it’s just like being semi-pregnant. Simple, really.
I believe “fully automatic” or “full auto” is used to discriminate between “semi automatic” and “automatic” for those who may not understand the difference.
Surely, there must be firearms out there which can be truly semi-fully automatic, at the click of a button or lever? It’s a bit like those auto-manual car transmissions which let you choose, depending on mood.
They’re called ‘selective fire’. It can shoot one way or the other. ‘Semi-fully automatic’ is meaningless.
Anyway, this isn’t about the guns. It’s just an example of Da Mayor talking about something he doesn’t understand to try to fool the proles.
Aaaaah OK. Now that I think of it, I’ve heard the term “selective fire” before, but had never stopped to wonder what it meant. Thanks Johnny.