Posted on 08/09/2004 7:30:18 AM PDT by neverdem
The 1994 semiautomatic or so-called assault weapons ban expires Sept. 13. The media drumbeat to reauthorize it has begun, and some politicians are dancing to the familiar tune. Instead of merely reauthorizing the ban, however, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-L.I.) seeks to ban more guns and implement a national registration scheme. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the assault weapons ban sponsor, said on CBS' "60 Minutes," "If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate for an outright ban, picking up every one of them - Mr. and Mrs. America, turn them all in - I would have done it." The gun control agenda has never been stated more honestly.
This new legislation is one step toward that agenda.
The assault weapon debate is ruled by emotion, not fact. That's why in the elections following enactment of the ban, gun owners went to the polls in great numbers and, for the first time in 134 years, unseated the speaker of the House. That's why President Bill Clinton told the Cleveland Plain Dealer: "The fight for the assault weapons ban cost 20 members their seats in Congress." That's why in March 1996, 239 members of the House voted across party lines to repeal the Clinton gun ban.
The debate is not about so-called assault weapons. It's about banning guns. Anti-gun advocates claim, without credible evidence, these guns are the weapons of choice for criminals. It's a lie. A day after the gun ban was signed into law, a Washington Post editorial admitted, "Assault weapons play a part in only a small percentage of crime. The provision is mainly symbolic; its virtue will be if it turns out to be, as hoped, a steppingstone to broader gun control."
The radical Violence Policy Center states: "The public's confusion over fully automatic machine guns vs. semiautomatic assault weapons - anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun - can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons." Fully automatic machine guns were, of course, effectively banned in 1934.
As the drumbeats roll and attempts to dismantle the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans continue, the National Rifle Association will continue to fulfill its 133-year-old tradition of preserving freedom for law-abiding Americans.
Cox is executive director of National Rifle Association's Institute for Legislative Action.
I own and shoot several: AR-10, AR-15 w/ silencer and 1928 Thompson .45cal. Nothing *impractical* about 3-round burst or full-auto, IMO. Please explain how impracticality is related to scarcity.
And to cover the sniper rifle angle, I have a Barrett M82A1 .50cal BMG on order, and am breathlessly awaiting delivery in October. Talk about impractical...
Well said; see my post #41. I've got the *enthusiasm*! Love the sub guns.
Molon Labe, Diane Fineswine beeeeaaaatch.
And I predict that they will find them...but not always in the manner they would prefer.
That provision was part of the Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986, I believe.
BTTT
The U.S. Army marched from Normandy to Berlin into the teeth of fully-automatic fire from MP-40s. Most of our grunts carried 8-round Garands. A good eye, ammo discipline and grim-a&& determination will win the day.
Well, look on the bright side. The porous border with Mexico will make it easy to import anything available on the world market. When the time comes to water the liberty tree with the blood of tyrants, there will be tools available.
Is there anyone foolish enough to think that Americans would come off less well than Iraqis when it comes to battling occupiers?
Bears repeating - over and over..
You have to show id, sign and give a thumbprint to get ammo in Cali.
I wouldn't care to have my name and address on a BTF "full auto" record. Nore would I care to have an ATF agent drop by to check on things. I can do all the damage I need with what I've got now.
Be Ever Vigilant!
Doesn't bother me; I have several (and their wives) as customers at my nursery & garden center, whom I shoot with on a regular basis, plus many LEOs and military.
If you've bought pistols and rifles over the counter, you're already on more *lists* than you know about, EitO.
Hopefully, if it gets that far, we'll have some warning when they do "come ofr our guns" and we'll be able to put up some serious resistance.
In the mean time, lets do what we can to avoid GETTING to that point.
The BATFE will do yearly compliance if you have a license to *sell* NFA-registered firearms, but not just own one.
It's common misinformation that owners of an NFA item must surrender their rights to the 4th Amendment.
I sure as hell wouldn't want to own one (a machine gun.)
Yep. Supported by Mr Cox's NRA, as a matter of fact! To the NRA it was a worthwhile trade-off to ban the full-autos, in order to get the federal law that allows you to transport a weapon from one place it's legal to another, even if you have to pass through a gun-ban jurisdiction.
Meanwhile, local prosecutors in Boston, Queens NY (where Laguardia is) and Albany, have started busting everybody transiting the airports there with a firearm and without a state or local license, which in those jurisdictions is made of purest unobtainium even for the residents -- let alone transients.
Thanks to Patriot Act and other post-9/11 searches, they can identify these people, and it's a lot easier and lower risk than catching actual criminals.
This flies in the face of the McClure-Volkmer FOPA of 1986, but the Bush administration is not asserting federal preemption, or doing anything to assist the people targeted by these local prosecutors (all politically ambitious Democrats -- isn't that a shock, not).
The state associations have done some things but the NRA is, somnolent... they sure did the gun owners a great deed with the 1986 law, didn't they?
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
Yes. If you're my bud.
Perhaps its misinformation.
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