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Most civilian-owned assault weapons are based on military models.

The impact of a bullet from either weapon, however, is typically the same. University of Arizona trauma surgeon Dr. Peter Rhee reports that a round fired from an assault rifle like an AR-15 “will cause a body wound that looks like a grenade went off in there.” University of Texas Health Center trauma surgeon Dr. Donald Jenkins claims that an AR-15 round can “turn a leg bone into dust,” producing “exit wounds the size of an orange.” The Birth of the Assault Weapon Debate While debates over the Second Amendment can be traced back centuries, the debate over assault weapons is a far newer topic in American history. Indeed, prior to 1988, the term had not even

Chapter 1: Assault Weapons in America

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