The problem is the legislation is far too restrictive in scope. "Need" is always subjective, but there are lots of people other than professional cullers and land managers who previously used semi autos very effectively for pest control who are now not able to do the job adequately. I think the restrictions should be widened to non-commercial pest control, perhaps with some controls in place to stop the 'spray and pray' shooting style that gives semi autos a bad name.
I was told by a police officer that under the old law there were constant complaint from scared members of the public about hunters wandering DOC land etc with AR15s. Possibly had the MSSA category been restricted to sports events and pest control 20+ years ago it might have gone a long way to fixing the issues that led to the semi auto ban.
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