Assault Weapons Ban Round Up
And we thought police were all for gun control:
I took exception to Tuesday’s letter, “Common sense won,” from Marsha McCartney of the Dallas Million-Mom March for implying that any vote against the assault weapons ban was a vote against law enforcement. I have been a police officer for the last 13 years, and I can’t remember the last time I saw an assault weapon used in a crime.
Assault weapons simply are not the weapons of choice for criminals. I have talked to a great many officers, and I have yet to find one who supports the assault weapons ban. They see it for what it is – a political ploy by liberal politicians that has no benefit on society.
So I am wondering what law enforcement the Texas senators turned their back on. As far as I can see, they stood with us.
Mark Mladenka, Dallas
I personally know a lot of local policemen. All of them seem to be opposed to the ban.
This article addresses some of the gun bill stuff. My issue with it is that it refers to Americans for Gun Safety as a moderate group. Moderate, my ass. Continuing:
They should look, in fact, to a bill to be offered as an amendment to S. 659. The amendment would close the gun-show loophole, a move supported by President Bush, that currently requires dealers at gun shows to conduct background checks on buyers but exempts casual sellers who are sometimes not so casual. The loophole not only gives criminals an easy way to buy a wide range of high-powered guns in large quantities but creates an unfair market for legitimate dealers. The bill, sponsored by Republican Sens. John McCain and Mike DeWine and Democratic Sens. Jack Reed and Joe Lieberman, redefines the difference between commercial sales, which would include sales where at least 75 firearms are offered, and private sales, including sales from private homes or at hunt clubs, which would be exempt.
Background checks have become much faster – more than 90 percent take less than a few minutes, only 4 percent take more than a day, according to the FBI – and would not be a burden for the small-time seller. Under the bill, the gun show officials itself would qualify as licensees to call in any sale. The checks would be further improved by legislation co-sponsored by Sens. Larry Craig, a Republican, and Edward Kennedy, a Democrat, to speed up and improve the accuracy of the checks.
The reauthorization of the assault-weapons ban is expected to be a second major amendment to S. 659. Despite the warnings of a slippery slope infringement on the Second Amendment when it was passed 10 years ago, the assault-weapons ban has not led to the widespread diminishment of gun ownership. But it has worked: the percentage of banned weapons traced to crimes has dropped by two-thirds since 1994, and a strong majority of Americans, including a majority of gun owners, back its reauthorization.
The assault weapons ban has had zero impact on crime. The reason is that these weapons were only used in considerably less than one percent of crimes before the ban and these weapons also represented a small market share of total guns sold. Also, very few criminals get guns at gun shows.
And then there’s this:
The ban, enacted in 1994, will expire Sept. 13 unless renewed by Congress and signed by President Bush.
Among those supporting the legislative effort is Atlantic Chief of Police Roger Muri. He said while his department has never had to deal with such a weapon, they never want to.
“That is it in a nutshell,” he said. “These types of weapons are designed for one purpose – to rob banks and ‘shoot the place’ up.”
Muri said he supports the right to own guns, but sees no need for assault weapons.
If you support the ban on assault weapons, you do not support the right to own guns. I have an AR15 and I am happy to say that I have never robbed a bank nor have I shot the place up.
And it looks like Pennsylvania is looking at enacting its own ban.
One thing I have noticed is that just about every article I have read to day points to the fact the assault weapons ban (which isn’t a ban and has no effect on assault weapons) is expiring. I have a feeling we’ll be seeing more stories that tell us the sky is falling as September 13 draws near.
March 22nd, 2004 at 5:39 pm
I wouldn’t go that far. Many people generally support the right to own guns, but carve out an exception for “assault” weapons based on the naive belief that they, um, are assault weapons. It’s an ignorant position all right, but not necessarily a sign that they oppose the RKBA generally.
March 22nd, 2004 at 10:34 pm
Jeffy Weffhy,
I could buy the ignorance argument from most folks but I assume that a chief of police has a basic knowledge of firearms.
April 14th, 2004 at 1:18 am
I have been a police oficer for almost 20 years in florida, we have a high rate of officers killed in the line of duty. we aveage 10 a year. almost all of them are killed with small handguns that are concealable. its hard to hide an ak-47 or ar-15 down your pants. and i bet any officer in florida that sees a person with a black overcoat in our weather will take extra precautions when we approach them. My point is…I only know of ONE officer that was killed with a long gun and it was a bolt action. that person held the swat team and almost 30 other officers at bay for over 4 hours until he was killed by the swat team. I would also bet that 99 percent of our states murders or violent crimes are not done with firearms.. mostly knives or hands. let the government try to ban the knives next. just my 2 cents.
April 14th, 2004 at 9:15 am
as you notice the first posting only listed one incident but i remembered the case in tampa acouple of years age where a suspect disarmed two detectives in their unmarked car and shot and killed them both with one of the detectives side arm. he then got into the truck of the police vehicle and removed his mini-14 which he earlier used to kill his juvenile son. the suspect then stole the police vehicle and was being chased by the trooper when the suspect blocked the troopers vehicle on a curve and was waiting for him. before the trooper could stop his vehicle he was shot three times in the uper torso killing him instantly
April 14th, 2004 at 9:17 am
Thanks for the info, randy. I’d say police more often confront small, cheap handguns than anything else.
March 22nd, 2004 at 10:21 pm
Pennsylvania to Get Assault Weapons Ban?
Man, GeekWitha.45 is gonna be pissed! (Via Say Uncle) The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that Pennsylvania Legislators consider extending assault-style weapons ban.
“This is commonsense legislation,” [state Rep. Dan] Frankel said yesterday at a new…