Opinion: Assault-style Rifles, Their Bullets Many Times More Dangerous Than Original Militia
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The Parkland high school mass shooting on Feb. 14, 2018 killed 17 people, including 14 students. The shooter fired 136 bullets in six minutes and four seconds, or about 22 bullets per minute, from the rifle he used. In 1789, when the Second Amendment was passed by Congress, the average number of musket balls that could be fired by a member of the militia was about two per minute. Using this comparison of the number of bullets released per minute, the Parkland shooter represented the equivalent of 11 militiamen storming the high school.
The wounding energy of each of the rifle bullets released by the Parkland mass shooter in 2018 is at least nine times greater than the energy released by the musket balls shot by a member of the militia in 1789.