- The Washington Times - Monday, June 13, 2016

Florida Rep. Alan Grayson used the aftermath of Sunday’s Islamic terror attack to claim AR-15 semi-automatic rifles can fire 700 rounds per minute.

Security guard Omar Mateen killed 49 people and wounded over 50 others during an attack on a gay nightclub — the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. Mr. Grayson, a Democrat, was asked about the massacre and soon turned his attention to the AR-15 rifle.

“If [Mr. Mateen] was not able to buy a weapon that shoots off 700 rounds in a minute, a lot of those people would still be alive,” the congressman said. “If somebody like him had nothing worse to deal with than a Glock pistol … he might have killed three or four people and not 50. It’s way too easy to kill people in America today, and we have to think long and hard about what to do about that.”

CNN’s Erin Burnett then replied, “You’re right about that.”

Conrad Close, the conservative editor in chief of American Crossroads, then offered $50,000 to the charity of Mr. Grayson’s choice if he accomplish the feat, the Blaze reported Monday.

“Let’s do some math here,” replied one reader. “700 rounds / 30 rounds per mag = 23.333 magazines. For round numbers, 23 mags. 60 seconds per minute / 23 magazines = 2.6 seconds per magazine. 30 rounds per mag / 2.6 seconds per magazine = 11.53 rounds per second. Not to mention, you’d have to sustain this for a full 60 seconds, no time factored for changing magazines. Wow. That’s impressive.”

“For the new big guy in my first unit back in the ’70s, naturally I had the distinct honor of ’humping the pig’ right away. The belt fed M60A1 machine gun had a rate of fire of 650 rounds per minute,” another reader said. “Naturally, when the truth does not tell the story in accordance to an agenda, a handy lie will work.”

Mr. Mateen, 29, was killed by a SWAT team that stormed the Pulse Nightclub to end the carnage.

• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.

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