Except for the mode of firing

A firearm primer for you.  Guns have a hammer.  The hammer hits a firing pin.  The firing pin hits the back of a cartridge.  The back of the cartridge lights the powder.  The powder explodes and forces the bullet down the barrel.  Pretty much all guns designed or built in the last hundred and fifty years operate this way. 

The "mode of firing" is where guns differ.  Revolvers rotate a new cartridge into place when you pull the trigger.  Semi-automatics use part of the pressure from the burning powder to slide a new cartridge into place so that you can pull the trigger again to fire another round.  Automatics use part of the pressure from the burning powder to not only slide a new cartridge into place, but release the hammer again and again until you either run out of ammunition or let go of the trigger.  This is the difference and it is pretty key to the designation of a firearm.

The left is so intent on banning all our guns that they choose to either ignore, or be ignorant of, these distinctions.  I tend to believe the former since it takes all of ten seconds to learn the difference (I just explained it in two paragraphs above).

Enter federal district court Judge Young, ruling on a weapons ban by the state of Massechusetts.  Heller, the Supreme Court decision on the Second Amendment, included the opinion that any weapon in common use is protected.  From the Cato blog, 

Judge Young ... rejecting the argument that an “M-16” is a machine gun, unlike the weapons banned by Massachusetts, and deciding that semi-automatics are “almost identical to the M16, except for the mode of firing.”

See what he did there?  The M-16 and the AR-15 (banned by Mass) are almost identical "except for the mode of firing".  Since all guns operate identically except for the mode of firing, Judge Young presumably would then agree that the state can ban anything they want.  Does your revolver look like the Webley that the British carried through two world wars?  Weapon of war that not only looks identical to your revolver, but has an identical mode of firing.   Is your Colt 1911 identical to the pistol carried by American troops for almost 100 years including mode of firing?  Weapon of war.  Does your AR-15 look just like an M-16 except for the switch that determines mode of firing?  Banned.  Never mind that the whole point of the original law was NOT to ban semi-automatic firearms, but to ban fully automatic firearms.  If your semi-automatic firearm looks and acts just like a fully automatic firearm (except, of course, for that pesky mode-of-firing issue), banned.

Interestingly some states have also added the SKS to the list of restricted firearms, a semi-automatic rifle that has NEVER been built in fully automatic mode.  Ever.  It was designed as a semi-automatic, utilized by many militaries around the world as a semi-automatic, and sold now as a semi-automatic.  Never mind.  Banned.

The good news is that as soon as Judge Kavanaugh is on the Supreme Court they will probably overturn this ridiculous and politicized ruling.