Guns: The California Legal Rifle

About the most absurd consequence of needlessly restrictive gun laws is the rise of "California legal" rifles. To understand this phenomenon, you need some background. You see, in nearly every other state in the U.S. (including Florida), the purchase of so-called "assault weapons" (that is, crippled semiautomatic versions of fully-automatic rifles) is legal. I used to have several myself. They're fun to shoot and are a decent choice for home defense, because their military lineage makes for a tough rifle. They are almost never used by criminals. These rifles, however, are banned under California law.


The thing is, since the only differences which separate a scary-looking "assault weapon" from Grandpa's semiauto deer rifle are cosmetic, the California ban is mostly concerned with various features (like pistol grips and folding stocks) that have nothing to do with how lethal a firearm is. Enterprising gun manufacturers have found ways to produce rifles that look and feel a lot like the banned rifles, pistol grips and all:



In some cases, though, like with the Kel-Tec SU-16CA, you get a semiautomatic rifle that accepts detachable magazines and is essentially just as effective as the "dangerous assault weapon":

It's a very curious phenomenon. Here, we have a rifle that accepts the same accessories, fires the same ammunition, and has the same firing rate as a rifle that can be purchased in Utah or Nevada. And yet, for some reason, Californians (or at least their government) think that those scary rifles across the border are so much worse than the rifles that can be bought legally in a California gun shop. I've said it before, and I'll say it again - the legislation is either very stupid or devilishly clever.