More politics and the Assault Weapons Ban
The other biased Washington paper writes:
Mr. Schumer said the bill would pass the House as well if a vote were allowed.
“We are simply asking that a vote be allowed on the House floor … and I would put money on it, that it would,” Mr. Schumer said.
Mr. Bush in the 2000 presidential campaign said he supported the ban and would sign an extension if it got to his desk.
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay has said there is no prospect of House passage.
“The House leaders have always been clear: The votes are not there in the House to extend the ban,” Mr. DeLay said last week.
Also, the article says:
Passage of the ban was cited by some analysts as a key factor in Republicans winning a majority in the House in 1994. Nearly every Southern Democrat who voted for the ban was ousted in midterm elections that year.
The National Rifle Association says the ban has done little to protect Americans and has infringed upon the rights of law-abiding gun owners.
The ban does not outlaw the sale of assault weapons; possession of machine guns has been regulated since 1934 by the National Firearms Act.
They were doing so well at reporting what the ban does, then they drop this whopper:
Rather, the 1994 law banned certain semi-automatic replicas that lawmakers said at the time could be easily altered to become fully automatic.
July 15th, 2004 at 12:36 pm
Isn’t that true? Lawmakers Did say stuff like that back then. I’m not a gunsmith so I can’t vouch for its accuracy, but my naive understanding is that it’s not that hard to convert any semiauto to a full auto. No one does it, of course, because it’s a good way to end up in Club Fed, and full autos aren’t all that useful for committing ordinary crimes anyway.
July 15th, 2004 at 1:34 pm
All we’re asking for Mr. Schumer is that a vote be allowed on the Senate floor for certain nominees for federal judgeships…
Hypocritical bastard.
July 15th, 2004 at 2:52 pm
XRLQ,
no it’s not. Most manufacturers go out of their way to make it harder.
Not that i’ve done it, but civilian AR15s for example do not have the hole milled in the lower receiver for the selector switch. Extensive drilling is required that has to be pretty exact.
July 15th, 2004 at 5:39 pm
OK, but it’s still true that lawmakers said it at the time.
July 15th, 2004 at 5:45 pm
Oh, sorry. Didn’t address that. I just assume lawmakers are generally lying. So, yes, you’re correct that they did say that, i think.