Posted on 08/02/2004 8:47:37 PM PDT by Dan from Michigan
Groups urge Congress to extend assault weapons ban
The Associated Press
8/2/2004, 7:05 p.m. ET
DETROIT (AP) Dozens of anti-gun violence activists were joined Monday by Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his police chief in calling on Congress to renew a federal ban on assault weapons that is scheduled to expire next month.
The campaign to extend the ban, which expires September 13, is led by the Million Mom March and the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. The groups are in the 12th week of their "Halt the Assault Tour" to raise awareness of the looming deadline.
Kilpatrick, Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings and anti-gun violence activists at a Monday rally held at a city recreation center said that Congress must act rapidly to extend the ban when it returns from recess on September 7.
"These types of weapons are used to kill a lot of people in a short amount of time," said Shikha Hamilton, President of the Detroit chapter of the Million Mom March.
"If you live in the toughest neighborhoods of Detroit, it appears that things are going to get even tougher."
Detroit has faced a surge in gun violence in recent months, including a mass shooting during a fireworks show which left nine people wounded. Handguns were to blame for most incidents.
State representative Bill McConico, D-Detroit, has submitted a measure to the State House that mirrors the federal ban on assault weapons. The bill would be considered if action is not taken at the federal level, he said.
The 1994 Assault Weapons Act made it illegal for a person to manufacture, transfer or possess semiautomatic assault weapons, such as Uzis, Kalashnikovs, or the Tec-9.
Earlier this year, an extension to the ban failed to pass in Congress when it was attached to another piece of legislation.
Many law enforcement agencies support renewing the ban, but the National Rifle Association opposes it.
The NRA has said there is no evidence that the ban has reduced crime.
But activists point to Justice Department data, which shows the proportion of banned assault weapons traced to crimes has dropped by 65.8 percent since 1995.
Full auto IS illegal without a nearly impossible to get(In Michigan) Class III!!!!!!!!!
I think that every good American should be REQUIRED to carry an assault weapon.
The Million Moron March...idiots...
And no sissy little look alike assault weapon. Full auto with all of the five nasty items in the ban: flash supressor, bayonet lug, pistol grip, folding stock and a grenade launcher.
I wonder if you get to define the name that the press uses for your group.
I'd call the NRA an "anti-gun violence" group too. In fact, the NRA seems to be a group that understands a little more about how things work, and what doesn't work in life vis-a-vis firearms. In places where the NRA has had policy victories, gun violence is reduced!
hey i've got a great idea! let's do away with guns all together! We can all get little chips in out hands, that way we'll never worry about getting robbed....
Keep the poor ukes out of this:
There'd be a lot less crime and terrorism, wouldn't there? Thugs don't like victims who can return fire...
Blaming an inanimate object for the actions of individuals.
It did not ban possession or transfer, unless the weapon was manufactured after the ban's effective date.
I wonder if you get to define the name that the press uses for your group.
Sounds like they picked a pretty accurate name for that bunch. They're describing them as "violence activists" of the "anti-gun" variety.
I guess that makes their opposition (i.e., "us") "ANTI-violence activists", eh? ;)
And besides the unintended consequences aspect of it, many of them are violence activists in deed. Ask that woman in DC who shot a guy....who didn't kill her son.
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