Semi-Automatic; what does that mean?

You hear gun control advocates rail against the evils of semi-automatic guns all the time.  They tell you we need to ban them and that they are inherently dangerous or that no one needs them.  To the average non-gun-owning citizen, these arguments sound pretty good.  Really, the way these anti-gun folks talk, you would think they are talking about a machine gun.

But, let's be clear, a semi-automatic firearm in NOT a machine gun.

"A semi-automatic, or self-loading, firearm is one that performs all steps necessary to prepare it to discharge again after firing—assuming cartridges remain in the firearm's feed device. Typically, this includes extracting and ejecting the spent cartridge case from the firing chamber, re-cocking the firing mechanism, and loading a new cartridge into the firing chamber. Although machine guns and selective-fire firearms do the same tasks, semi-automatic firearms do not automatically fire an additional round until the trigger is released and re-pressed by the person discharging it. That is, a semi-automatic firearm fires only one round (bullet) each time the trigger is pulled." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semi-automatic_firearm

So a semi-automatic gun does not "Spray" bullets.  They are not machine guns.  They do not fire a continuous stream of bullets as long as you pull the trigger.  They are also not inherently more powerful or more accurate that other firearm actions.

Do they offer an advantage to other firearm actions?  Yes.  They allow the shooter to make a follow up shot more quickly because he/she does not have to manually work any sort of lever or bolt.  That is an advantage in many situations.

The semi-automatic action is used in many different types of firearms.  Some have a military purpose and some don't.  Here are just a few examples.

The M1 Garand was the first semi-automatic rifle generally issued to any army.
 It allowed US troops to lay down more rounds of accurate fire than their Axis counterparts, who were mostly outfitted with slower to operate bolt action rifles.

Back in the year 1900, John M. Browning patented the operating system for his Auto-5 semi-automatic shotgun.   (Harold Murtz. Gun Digest Treasury (DBI Books, 1994), p.194)   


This Marlin Model 60 is a basic .22 caliber rifle used for target and small game shooting.  Hardly a hard-hitting, bullet-spraying menace to society.


And then there are handguns.  Many different calibers and purposes





All of the above guns share an operating principle. but have different uses. Millions of these guns are in American homes right now. Does anyone honestly think they can get people to give them up? Do they really think that a ban on these weapons will do anything to stop violence?



Even if you passed a confiscation law, which will not happen, you would have civil war trying to get millions upon millions of guns from their owners. And really, there are other gun action types that fire nearly as fast anyway.



A pump action gun is very quick. In the right hands they are basically as fast as a semi-auto. A lever action is nearly as fast as well. Double action revolvers are just as fast as their auto-loading counterparts, but are limited in capacity to 5-9 rounds of ammunition and are typically slower to reload than a magazine fed auto.



So, in my humble opinion, all this hate for the semi-auto is largely based in ignorance. When I hear this stuff, it's usually from people who have little or no experience with guns. We fear what we don't know, right?