Assault weapons ban round up – Gone for a week
I think today marks the first time I have seen more articles against the assault weapons ban than for it. A few examples:
Good little read on the politics involved and some truth about the ban:
Slipping in the polls, Senator John Kerry deceitfully accuses President George Bush of not pushing for an extension of the 1994 federal ban on so-called “assault weapons,” which has just expired. Bush deceitfully responds that he supported the ban’s extension and would have signed it but for Congress’s failure to pass it. Both Kerry’s and Bush’s statements are half-truths calculated to mislead voters.
It has been clear for many months that Congress would not bring the extension of the “assault weapon” (AW) ban up for a vote. Neither Congress, the Democrats, nor Bush were willing to make this a major policy issue for the same two reasons. The first reason is purely political.
In the election two months after the AW ban was originally enacted in September of 1994, gun-owners were so successful in retaliating against its supporters (mostly Democrats) that the Republicans gained control of Congress for the first time in 50 years. Then in the 2000 election, Al Gore lost his own state, Tennessee, and had close contests in others, because gun-owners viewed the Democrats as anti-gun.
[snip]
The second reason for non-support of the extension of the ban is that there is no such thing as an assault weapon. This is why the courts have regularly held ”assault weapons” bans as unconstitutionally vague unless specific guns or features are named.
Anti-gun advocates have confessed that they deliberately used the term “assault weapon” to confuse people into thinking that semi-automatic civilian firearms are the same as assault rifles (i.e., machine gun-type weapons that are used by the military and have long been illegal to manufacture and sell to civilians). In fact, armies don’t use AWs because, being only civilian-type arms, they are far less lethal than actual assault rifles.
Just go read the whole thing. It’s good to see the point many bloggers make actually in the press.
Another truthful article about the ban:
Only evil people purposely use weapons against their fellow citizens. Primitive Stone Age tribes were afraid of things such as curses, spells and black magic whatnot. But they did not know any better. We do. Or at least we should.
One of the most absurd gun-grabber advertisements opposing the end of the assault weapons ban featured Osama bin Laden with the caption “Terrorists of 9-11 can hardly wait for 9-13.”
Presumably, terrorists are just as law-abiding as you and I.
Bin Laden probably had every “i” dotted and every “t” crossed on his application forms to purchase the guns. He probably spent the night before the ban ended camped out outside a gun store to be first in line to exercise his re-won Second Amendment right.
How stupid do they think we are?
They (and the press) obviously think people are quite stupid about the ban. Actually, the press is probably just stupid too.
Finally, this one:
Last week, the ten-year-old Federal assault weapons ban expired amid much hype from gun opponents and the national media that the law’s disappearance would suddenly escalate gun-related crime in America. These alarmists claims ring hollow when one looks at the actual facts about the gun ban. The U.S. House leadership has already made it clear that this weapons law will not be renewed.
Gun rights opponents have long made no secret about their intent to limit Americans’ ability to exercise their Second Amendment right to bear arms. Any way they can block gun access and ownership is a victory for them and a defeat for law-abiding citizens who wish to have guns for their own protection and recreation. The 1994 Federal assault weapons ban is a classic example of why gun control does nothing to stop violent crime.
Yup.
