Aesthetics are irrelevant
In September 2004, the Federal Violent Crime Control Act of 1994 will sunset unless it is passed again (actually, I’m thinking now that maybe all laws should sunset unless renewed). This act banned manufacture and import of Assault Weapons and high-capacity magazines. Unfortunately, its ban on assault weapons doesn’t really ban those weapons. Per this act, an assault weapon is defined as:
A rifle that can accept a detachable magazine and possesses two or more of the following features: folding or telescopic stock, pistol grip, bayonet mount, flash suppressor, threaded barrel, or grenade launcher.
A folding or telescopic stock makes a weapon look mean. One would think that the ban aimed to make the assault weapons less concealable. It doesn’t. Only folding or telescopic stocks are an evil feature. Mind you, it is perfectly acceptable to just put a shorter stock on the assault weapons, which makes its concealment easier, but it can’t possess the magical power of changing sizes on its own. A pistol grip is, of course, easily bypassed by use of thumbhole stocks. Why a pistol grip makes a weapon more dangerous is beyond me. Of course, grenade launchers were already classified as destructive devices before this act and regulated accordingly. It is good to see that we’re all now safe from all those drive-by bayonetings. I can almost see a need for the threaded barrel listed as a criteria but anything questionable that would be threaded onto a barrel is already regulated (like silencers and flash suppressors). And flash suppressors do not make the flash invisible at night, they just disperse the flash to the sides instead of out the front.
The first result of this ban is that guns manufactured and imported now have detachable magazines and one of the above features. They function the same but don’t look as threatening. Mind you, these arms still accept thirty round magazines (these are readily available since the ban on them because of the sheer numbers that were produced prior to 1994) and their functionality is not at all impaired. What we have is a ban on aesthetics. You’re gun can’t look mean.
The second result of this ban is that the guns manufactured prior to 1994 (which you can still buy and there are still tons of them out there) are more expensive, only because they are cosmetically different.
The third result is that high capacity magazines are expensive. There are still tons out there and they are readily available. They just cost a lot more.
Assault weapons were never very popular in crimes anyway. Assault weapons were not used in crimes that much prior to the ban. In addition, the ban has had no effect on these statistics. And the reason is that most of these guns are expensive. A criminal will buy a cheap gun or steal an expensive one to maximize their return on investment.
Why assault weapons are constitutionally protected:
Because the purpose of the second amendment is to keep the citizenry armed to keep the government in check. The second amendment exists to give the people (as a last resort) the opportunity to overthrow a tyrannical government, so that what happened in Uganda doesn’t happen here. It is therefore reasonable to conclude that weapons of a military nature would be necessary for such an endeavor. In fact, from US v. Miller:
In the absence of any evidence tending to show that possession or use of “a shotgun having a barrel of less than eighteen inches in length” at this time has some reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well regulated militia, we cannot say that the Second Amendment guarantees the right to keep and bear such an instrument.
A sawn-off shotgun is not protected because it isn’t military in nature. It seems our assault weapons are more protected than our hunting rifles. But most people only seem to get upset when hunting rifles are at stake. And how do we ban hunting rifles? By labeling them sniper rifles. The only difference between the two is the target.
Nipping it in the bud:
And the best retorts of those who disagree with me will be:
Crime statistics manipulated by some anti-gun group (which will be wrong).
Why do you need one of those? (Because I’m free and I can).
You obviously have this assault weapon because your penis is small. (No, I built it to protest the Bushmaster lawsuit. Thanks to the Brady Campaign, there is now one more assault weapon running loose in America).
You’re not a lawyer: (well, duh, but I can read)
You’re a whacko, gun nut: Yeah, real intelligent argument you got there, Sparky.
Closing:
There is a website dedicated to allowing the ban to sunset. Check out AWBanSunset.com for info on getting this pointless ban out of the way.
