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A liberal New York Times columnist called for a full ban on semiautomatic rifles Wednesday, but made numerous inaccurate claims surrounding firearms, getting the basic terminology describing them, the process in purchasing them, and the history of the legislation regulating them wrong.

In the column headlined, "Sick of Massacres? Get Rid of the Guns," Gail Collins wrote that gunmen in various mass shootings across the U.S. in recent years using semiautomatic rifles was "a pattern," and therefore such weapons needed to be severely restricted or removed from society.

"Good Lord, just get rid of them … [it] does simplify things, doesn't it?" she wrote, after suggesting background check laws needed to be strengthened and that the sale of "semiautomatics" needed to be restricted to those with hunting licenses.

She went on to make a number of false claims and mischaracterizations to support her argument.

Fox News Digital spoke with The Reload's Stephen Gutowski, who offered his expertise on firearms to pick apart Collins' claims.

Collins claimed the 18-year-old suspect in last week's shooting in Buffalo, New York, Payton Gendron, bought an "AR-15-style assault rifle with just a little more effort than it'd take to buy a burrito."

"The last time I bought a burrito I did not have to show a valid government-issued ID, fill out a questionnaire under threat of federal...

Read Full Story: https://www.foxnews.com/media/new-york-times-columnist-inaccurate-claims-full...