Posted on 12/21/2012 6:55:00 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
The federal judge who sentenced former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' gunman is advocating a nationwide ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines to take the "mass out of mass shootings." "There is just no reason civilians need to own assault weapons and high-capacity magazines," Judge Larry Allan Burns wrote in Thursday's Los Angeles Times.
Since Jared Lee Loughner killed six people and wounded Giffords with his 31-round magazine Glock pistol, there have been six deadlier mass shootings, Burns wrote.
"But reasonable, good-faith debates have boundaries, and in the debate about guns, a high-capacity magazine has always seemed to me beyond them," he wrote.
He noted that Adam Lanza used a semiautomatic rifle with a 30-round magazine to slaughter 20 first-graders and 6 staffers at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
James Holmes, the accused gunman in the Aurora, Colo., movie theater massacre that left 12 people dead and 58 others wounded, used a rifle with a 100-round drum, he added.
While admitting it might not prevent the next crazed gunman from going on a rampage, Burns said taking away high-capacity magazines could cut down on casualties.
"We might be able to take the 'mass' out of 'mass shooting,' or at least make the perpetrator's job a bit harder," wrote Burns, adding that he is a gun owner and a conservative appointed to the federal bench by former President George W. Bush.
Burns suggested that at a minimum the federal assault weapons ban that expired in 2004 should be brought back "with some teeth this times."
"Ban the manufacture, importation, sale, transfer and possession of both assault weapons and high-capacity magazines," he wrote.
"Don't let people who already have them keep them. Don't let ones that have already been manufactured stay on the market," he suggested, referring to two provisions in the old assault weapons ban. "I don't care whether it's called gun control or a gun ban. I'm for it."
This judge should never, ever be allowed to hear a 2A case ever in his life.
Judge. You are an idiot. You should be removed from the bench immediately. You punk communist tool.
With a 10 round magazine Giffords would still have been shot, another shot, Judge Roll killed and several others killed.
The first three rounds hit three people. A limited 10 rd mag would have made no difference.
You come take them then. Yeah, that's what I thought...
No, just arm them with beanbags like the Border Patrol...
BTW, are armed Mexican cartels 'civilians' too?
Money see, monkey do.
“Mark Kelly takes aim at NRA’s “defiant” statement”
http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/story/20406657/2012/12/21/mark-kelly-takes-aim-at-nras
There will be other mass shootings in the years to come, and this myopic appeal for banning and confiscation will grow louder.
It is the exchange of freedom for safety.
Another judge who has a problem with the Bill of Rights. There’s a lot of that going around these days.
He is entitled to his opinion as wrong as it is.
His being the Judge at the Giffords trial means nothing to me and should mean nothing to anyone else.
He expresses himself as one man, one man who has a right to an opinion as do I.
His trying to use his office as though he should be considered an expert should mean no more than the opinion of any other American, but simply exposes his bias, and Judges should not be biased.
oopsy, didn’t see the post until after scroll. :(
It wouldn't improve safety a whit.
It's the exchange for freedom for the Leftist agenda of control.
reasonable people have absolutely no prolem with high capacity magazines. we have problems with people who don’t understand what the 2a is all about. we have problems with gun-free zones where these idiots go to shoot unarmed defenseless people made defenseless by the libtard idiots themselves.
they won’t they’ll send their minions to take em.
safety? who’s safer disarmed?
They want a war.
if not having guns makes eveyone safer, disarm the police, the secret service, and the military. make government live under the same laws.
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