The ability to not purchase a weapon lawfully that could fire 60 bullets in one minute may not have prevented Holmes from carrying out his plans, but it is very likely that it would dramatically have reduced the casualties he would have been able to inflict. That's a valuable thing to do. We may not be able to prevent these shootings, though if law enforcement were alerted as I have outlined to suspicious activity, we may be able to do a lot more than you realize, but we can certainly reduce the number of casualties that are inflicted. A handgun which can only shoot one bullet at a time is bound to kill a lot fewer people, and take much longer to do it than a quasi-machine gun.
It's unfortunate that people don't actually understand what an "assault rifle" is. Did you know that in order to own the type of weapon you think you are portraying, or a fully automatic, suppressed, or short barreled rifle, you actually have to pass an investigation, pay a tax, and have all serial numbers and personal information on file with the ATF? I bet there are more regulations than you could begin to imagine when it comes to true "machine guns". But Holmes. He didn't have one. He pulled the trigger, and it went bang. So did his handgun. So did his shotgun.
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If I had a dollar for every existential crisis I've ever had, does money really even matter?
If I had a dollar for every existential crisis I've ever had, does money really even matter?