Weapons of Affluence

 

 

Civilian version of the Israli IMI Galil assault rifle Creative Commons license Wikimedia Commons

For many years I wanted to purchase an assault rifle but balked at the cost. I had a consumer version of the Israeli Kalashnikov variant, the Galil Golani in my hands and almost spent the two thousand dollars to purchase a basic rifle like the one above. Since that two thousand was even before purchasing clips, ammunition and everything else for a "luxury rifle" I ultimately decided not to buy.

 A basic assault rifle will cost between five hundred and a thousand dollars and that is even before you add any extras like clips, scopes, and other hardware that will let you use it as it is intended. Following your purchase, you will need to pay handsomely for ammunition, which by the nature of the rifle, will be used up like throwing dollar bills out the barrel each second. I have known friends with assault rifles who would spend several hundred dollars on a day of shooting. 

Even with a middle-class income, I struggled to justify the cost of purchasing something that would continue to make me pay dearly every time I used it.  As opposed to my bolt action .243 and 30-06 rifles, that require a more measured use because they only hold a handful of shells, an assault rifle seemed like a gluttonous waste of money. Even the lead tossed out of the barrel so carelessly and scattered around seemed wasteful.

 Every time there is an unfortunate event where people are killed en mass by one of these rifles of the financially well endowed, we never hear about them as expensive luxury goods or what they really are: weapons of affluence. The cost of purchasing one, let alone affording to pay the ongoing exorbitant costs of ammunition means only a specific segment of the population can afford one. An assault rifle and all its accompanying costs is simply a weapon of inequality which adds to their already dubious existence as a consumer firearm.