Posted on 04/03/2004 6:41:31 AM PST by Gothmog
Avowing ``there is no greater threat to homeland security'' than urban combat assault weapons, the Rev. Jesse Jackson is calling on victims of violence to fight for gun safety laws.
``There is no socially useful purpose for AK-47s or Uzis,'' the charismatic civil rights champion said yesterday, speaking at a Grove Hall rally for next month's Million Mom March in Washington, D.C.
This year's fourth annual procession, to step off Mother's Day, May 9, will serve as a wakeup call to Congress and President Bush [related, bio]. A federal law passed in 1994 banning the sale of assault weapons is due to lapse in September.
Hand-cannons like the bullet-spraying Intratec 9 mm Luger may seem like nothing more than Hollywood props to the public, but ``this type of weapon is a very real threat,'' Boston police Superintendent James Claiborne said.
Police were more than surprised when they found just such a high-powered pistol - along with a 9 mm handgun - in a prostitute's purse stolen from Dudley Station last week.
Barbara Felton of Orleans, who'll lend her voice of experience to next month's march, admits she was ``ambivalent'' toward guns until her 27-year-old son Mark, an elementary school teaching assistant, committed suicide with a pal's shotgun four years ago. ``I guess I was naive,'' Felton said. ``I know that Mark will never come back. I just hope and pray that I will somehow be influential in saving lives.''
I guess the 1911 is okay; John Moses Browning certainly set the standard which most gunmakers followed. But there's something neat about the Luger's sleek barrel profile, plus the fact that it has no 'visible' ejection port when the action is closed.
As for the 1911 having more deterrent value, I don't think there's much difference in deterrence among different firearms once one gets beyond the 'mousegun' or 'sub-compact' classes. An NAA mini-revolver is sufficiently small that it may be hard for a criminal to fully comprehend that it's a real firearm. Anything larger than a Kel-Tec P-3AT, however, will probably be sufficient to make a criminal decide he doesn't want to get shot.
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