Media Misinformation: Automatic

The idea that anyone can own “automatic” weapons must be downright frightening to the uniformed. Even with the modifier “semi” in front of it, an automatic weapon sounds like something only the military or police should possess, yet time and time again there are stories of criminals, terrorists and gang members with “automatic” weapons.

Blame movies, TV and video games for this one too. But the truth is that automatic is a word that is automatically used by anti-gun zealots and the media to make a firearm sound far more dangerous than it actually is, yet isn’t that their point? Many guns fall under the category of automatic; however the real issue is “semi-automatic” versus “fully automatic” or “full-auto.” The latter are the kind that are true military style machine guns or military assault rifles. The key word here is “military.”

The truth is that the commercial AK-47 that is readily available is in fact automatic; it is just semi-automatic, not the fully automatic variety used by the military. When John Kerry’s supporters ran an ad talking about the assault rifle ban in 2004, it noted that “automatic AK-47s” could now be bought and sold, and showed a fully-automatic version firing. The truth again is that the commercial AK-47s that are legal (except in places like New York City and San Francisco), are actually the semi-automatic versions.

To the uniformed this is a huge difference. As Officer L Pyle of the San Jose Police Department explains in the video above, a semi-automatic only fires one round for each trigger pull – whereas a fully-automatic weapon fires until the trigger is released.

Thus a semi-automatic firearm is “automatic” in the sense that it automatically reloads the guns and makes it ready to fire after each shot. The firearms does not need to be manually cycled, which is needed with bolt action rifles or pump action shotguns.

The problem is that more and more “automatic” has become synonymous with fully automatic. It is more confusing because “automatic pistol,” is almost exclusively used to describe a semi-automatic pistol, yet “automatic rifle” may mean a fully automatic rifle, where as automatic fire is meant to be “fully automatic.”

The result is that the media often misreports on this fact, either because of a lack of understanding in many cases – which we see as flawed or even sloppy reporting – or because of an attempt to push an agenda. In the latter case we believe this to be the case. We cannot accept that seasoned reporters haven’t been explained the difference between semi- and fully- automatic. Thus, it is our belief that some of the reporting is purposely vague as it helps back up an anti-gun agenda.