During a Nightline interview back in 2012; Michael Bloomberg suggested guns holding more that three rounds was a threshold for differentiating between regular firearms and “assault weapons.”
And he made clear that the guns categorized as “assault weapons” ought to be banned. Nightline’s Cynthia McFadden asked Bloomberg how to define an “assault weapon.”
Bloomberg responded by dividing guns into categories of what is necessary for hunting versus what goes beyond that.
He said, “If it [the gun] can fire a lot of bullets very quickly, that’s a good place to start.”
McFadden tried to take the hunter’s point of view and Bloomberg interrupted, saying, “So we’re going to argue what ‘a lot’ is? Okay, let’s pick it. Let’s say three. If you haven’t hit the deer with three shots you’re a pretty lousy shot, that deer deserves to get away.”
McFadden countered Bloomberg by pointing out that his three shot definition for an “assault weapon” would also include most pistols. Bloomberg responded by arguing that pistols are different because “you have to pull the trigger each time…[but] an “assault weapon” you basically hold it and it goes brr-brr-brr.”
McFadden realized that Bloomberg was confusing semiautomatic firearms with machine guns and she interjected, “Those are fully automatic weapons.”
Bloomberg paused and said, “Okay.”