Anti-ban editorial

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer (again, the dumbest name of any newspaper) has an opinion piece that shreds a lot of the lies and misconceptions presented by anti-gun groups:

Contrary to myth, guns affected by this ban are not machine guns. They fire one shot with each press of the trigger, the same as many shotguns used by duck hunters, or rifles used by big-game hunters.

Another myth pandered by the MMM is that these rifles use “powerful” ammunition. In fact, they are chambered for cartridges that are near the low end of the energy level spectrum, on par with a deer hunter’s .30-30 Winchester. That bullets from these guns will penetrate a police officer’s protective vest is not a secret, because virtually every centerfire hunting rifle bullet sold today will go through such a vest. Those vests are designed to stop handgun bullets.

Prohibitionists claim that these firearms have no legitimate purpose. Thousands of competitive shooters, who participate in registered matches with these rifles all over the country almost every weekend of the year, would disagree. Most of these guns are suitable for home defense, many are legitimate collector’s items and others are used for hunting.

These guns are not the “weapon of choice” among criminals. Studies at both the state and federal levels, both before and after the ban took effect, have shown that so-called assault weapons are used in less than 2 percent of violent crimes.

Anti-gunners note that crime gun traces on the banned firearms have plunged by 66 percent in the past 10 years. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Congressional Research Service say that trace data is not a reliable indicator of guns used in crimes. Such traces are conducted for a variety of reasons, only one of which is to establish the trail of guns actually used in crimes. A significant number of traces are used to track recovered stolen guns.

Ban proponents claim that after the ban expires Sept. 13, U.S. streets will be “flooded” with these guns. The “ban” only placed a freeze on production. Those rifles are still out there, legally for sale — albeit at premium prices because of all the media hype — and most of them are in the gun safes and cabinets of law-abiding gun owners. Banning their production did not eliminate them, and had nothing to do with a drop in homicide rates, as, apparently, neither do any other gun control laws.

Good for the PI for running it.