The Bushmaster AR-15: Adam Lanza's Weapon Of Choice

If you, like many red-blooded Americans, plan on joining the gun shopping spree that mass shootings usually inspire, you might find yourself wondering about the Bushmaster AR-15 that Adam Lanza used in Friday's massacre. The fact that he successfully killed 27 women and children with only one target escaping with an injury certainly suggests that the gun does what it was designed to do: kill a whole bunch of people in a short period of time. The manufacturers of the gun certainly would like you to believe that it's just the ticket for fulfilling your power fantasies, as evidenced by this ad found in Maxim by Mother Jones. 

But before you rush to give Bushmaster your hard-earned dollars, let me present a second opinion on the gun's manhood-bolstering capabilities from Robert VerBruggen, courtesy of the National Review Online, who argues that Lanza's weapon is too weak to bother banning:

I am doubtful that these reforms would do much to curb gun violence. An “assault weapon” fires at the same rate as an ordinary semiautomatic rifle, and the .223-caliber ammo in Lanza’s rifle is banned for deer hunting in some states on the grounds that it’s too weak. High-capacity magazines sometimes stop shootings by jamming, and shooters are often (though not always) able to change magazines without incident.

Ah yes, the ammo is too weak. (Never mind that an adult deer weighs around 250 pounds and a child around 40.) Given the strength of Obama's speech at last night's memorial service, we can expect more of these airtight arguments from our nation's finest gun loving commentators. As your brain reels, just keep in mind the Bushmaster motto: "If it's good enough for the professional, it's good enough for you."