Assault Weapons Round Up
Stephen Erwin tackles some issues with the Assault Weapons Ban:
While the pro-gun community has relied on the same tired old arguments for ending the Ban, they have totally ignored the best arguments available. The AWB has actually increased the ownership of assault weapons by hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of guns. In nine years not a singe person has been denied access to a high capacity semi-auto rifle because of price or availability. And a large percentage of the banned guns are identical to the high capacity 9mm handguns carried as duty guns by our nation’s police. When these facts are pointed out in a letter to the editor the anti-gunners rarely even try to respond.
This is possible because the law doesn’t ban the sale or ownership of any weapon made before 1995. It only bans the manufacture of semi-auto rifles (one shot per trigger pull) with folding stocks, pistol grips, and bayonet lugs. It also bans the manufacture of semi-auto rifles and pistols that hold more than ten bullets.
The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms was charged with keeping statistics on assault weapons, but their web site is strangely silent on assault weapons sales. It’s almost as if they want to keep sales figures a secret.
The site does list import and manufacturing information for the years 1986 to 2000. In the three years before the law was passed 3,049,320 more rifles and 4,330,383 more handguns were manufactured and imported than in the average of all the covered years before and after. There can be little doubt that dealers where stockpiling the guns in advance of the AWB.
In fact the market was glutted. The prices of many rifles fell by as much as 50 percent. In 1993 AK-47 style semi-autos sold for $400 to $600. I bought mine for $185 in 1995 and they are still easy to find for under $400.
A nice letter to the editor tells the editor to maybe have an educational session about Assault Weapons since they obviously don’t seem to know what Assault Weapons are.
More letters to the WaPo fact checking their gun reporting. They should attend the educational session mentioned above.
Armed with hysteria and lies, JoinTogether is pushing for the AWB in Maryland.
