Posted on 04/19/2016 6:52:57 AM PDT by marktwain
Assault Weapon Bans: Can They Survive Rational Basis Scrutiny?
By Clayton Cramer
April 13, 2016
Clayton Cramer has hit another home run with this paper on the irrationality of "assault weapon" bans.
Anyone who has studied the literature knows that "Assault Weapons Bans" have no rational basis. Their basis is an emotional appeal that requires a profound ignorance of the facts of crime statistics and weapons technology. They also require a media that benefits from promoting mass murder for ratings and political gain.
Clayton Cramer does excellent work in the paper. He puts the facts and statistics in a logical order that is irrefutable. The paper is an worthwhile resource to show that there is no rational basis for the various "assault weapon" bans.
Cramer shows that they have been imposed for political and emotional reasons, not to reduce crime or murder. His logic is impeccable and this paper is a fine read for anyone who wishes to understand the irrational basis for these laws. From the paper:
While most AW bans also have functional definitions of the banned weapons, named list definitions based on manufacturers name and model number are a common part of these laws. These are similar to bills of attainder, in which legislative acts punish persons by name for alleged crimes instead of specifying a crime and allowing due process by the courts to determine guilt. While Colt Industries is not a person, and Colts AR-15 is not a person, it is clear that a law banning sale of a named product made by Colt, with no similar ban on sales by another manufacturer would effectively deny Colt equal protection of the law. To make these distinctions in an arbitrary manner is contrary to existing case law.13
Not only does the named list approach lead to equal protection problems, but it makes it very easy to subvert these laws. As an example of the defective nature of named lists, Californias Assault Weapons Control Act (AWCA) banned the Intratec TEC-9 by name. The manufacturer responded by making minor non-functional changes to the gun and giving it a new model number: DC914 (presumably Designed for California). The TEC-9 and TEC-DC9 are otherwise identical.15 When the 1994 federal ban took effect listing the TEC-9: Intratec... manufactured an AB-10 (after ban) model that does not have a threaded barrel or a barrel shroud but is identical to the TEC-9 in other respects, including the ability to accept an ammunition magazine outside the pistol grip. While the federal AW ban prohibited new manufacture of 32 round magazines, ones made before the new law work in the AB-10.16
It is a way for the courts to justify bad law that they want to justify.
rational being the key word...................lib / dems, well, Ain’t.
This is not entirely true. If you make the assumption that the left wants to remove ALL firearms from the hands of anyone who isn't a government JBT (and I think that this is a very realistic assumption), then there is a rational basis for any gun ban - the basis being that this is just another salami slice off our rights.
Yes,it’s not gun control-it’s people control.
Exactly right. The only way a regulation fails "rational basis" is when the court can't even conjur up a pretext/pretense. A false or failed reason is deemed to be rational.
I wouldn’t ever accuse the Democrats of being rational. perhaps spiteful, hateful, arrogant, vengeful, envious, petty, hedonistic, but not rational.
M4L AW Ban
If I’m ever in a bank/store that is being robbed by criminals with rifles, the first thing I’m going to check is whether their weapons have a bayonet mount, flash suppressor, threaded barrel, or a grenade launcher mount. If they don’t have one of those, I’m ignoring the robbery, just like the couple in this video. The robbers didn’t even have a threaded barrel, let alone something even more dangerous like a bayonet mount, so the couple kept kissing.
https://youtu.be/y4Wf9pzeuFs [Love Is Blind: Couple Making Out at Bar Continue to Kiss During Armed Robbery]
Men using womens restrooms. Rational thinking is too hard nowadays. Lets allow gays and tattooed folks to potentially poison the blood supply. Lets have both genders sitting over a log taking a dump during combat actions like ww1
BFL
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