Summary

At a Lafayette, Indiana anti-Trump rally Saturday, a man pulled an assault-style rifle after clashing with protesters who blocked his truck at a Third Street intersection.

Video shows the man in a MAGA hat yelling at protesters, prompting another man—angered by the confrontation with women—to intervene.

The two exchanged shouts before the protester headbutted the man. He returned to his truck, retrieved a rifle, and reentered the crowd.

Police detained but released him, citing self-defense. The “Hands Off!” rally drew nearly 1,000 people and ended early amid safety concerns.

  • Limonene@lemmy.world
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    15 days ago

    The source loses my respect for calling it an “assault rifle” when it almost certainly was not. This summary (which I assume was written by MicroWave) calls it an “assault-style rifle”, which has no meaning at all.

    This is not an assault rifle, and not fully automatic. If it was, the gun’s existence would have been almost certainly illegal.

    Words have meaning. The meaning in this case is important. Use your words.

    • MegaUltraChicken@lemmy.world
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      15 days ago

      At this point it’s difficult to take this critique seriously when right wing gun nuts use arguing over minutiae like this to prevent any kind of constructive discussion whatsoever.

      Yes, there is a technical definition of an “assault rifle”. It’s also a shorthand that regular people not familiar with firearms use to mean “gun that looks like something the military carries” or something approaching that. It’s not even relevant here. We do not need to break up every single discussion involving firearms with arguments over meaningless definitions.