"Activists mount last-ditch bid to extend gun ban" - Yay, 2nd Amendment, but note Reuters Slant...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Gun control activists, health care advocates and law enforcement groups geared up on Tuesday for a last-ditch effort to prevent a 1994 ban on assault weapons from expiring next week, but even its most ardent backers acknowledge the drive is all but futile.

But the influential National Rifle Association gun lobby, meanwhile, said it would "not take anything for granted" as it works to send the ban into oblivion.

Ban advocates called on President Bush (news - web sites) to intervene and get Congress to act. But Bush, who in his 2000 campaign promised to sign legislation, has been publicly silent for months as the clock ticked.

The ban on such weapons as Uzis and AK-47s will expire at midnight next Monday unless Congress votes to renew it. While warning that high-powered guns and large-capacity ammunition clips could flood America's streets, even the most ardent backers of the ban in Congress admitted that it is almost certain to lapse.

Blech. For the few non-2nd proponents that might read this...

Obviously, "Uzis" and "AK-47s" are, unmodified, fully automatic weapons, and their reference in this article is a blatant attempt to scare the ignorant. (Fully automatic remain under very different regulations - a class III Federal BATF license, plus complying with state and local 'regulation': reports vary, but it is in practice well-nigh impossible for a normal person to get all the licenses required for such weapons in many jurisdictions.)

The reality is that the assault weapons ban banned semi-automatic (one trigger pull = one bullet) weapons based on nothing more than shape (looks somewhat like a military weapon, a pistol that weighs more than 50 oz when unloaded), or cosmetic accessories (folding or telescoping stock or pistol grip on a rifle, a large capacity magazine).

With the exception of the magazine capacity, there is no functional effect on the 'dangerousness' between a so-called 'Assault Weapon', and it's non-assault counterpart. And a reasonably trained person can replace a magazine in less than two seconds.

It also increased the already tight restrictions of an existing ban on 'armor piercing ammunition', where the original (still in force) was "a projectile or projectile core which may be used in a handgun and which is constructed entirely (excluding the presence of traces of other substances) from one or a combination of tungsten alloys, steel, iron, brass, bronze, beryllium copper, or depleted uranium." became "a full jacketed projectile larger than .22 caliber designed and intended for use in a handgun and whose jacket has a weight of more than 25 percent of the total weight of the projectile".

Gun control activists, health care advocates and law enforcement groups geared up on Tuesday for a last-ditch effort to prevent a 1994 ban on assault weapons from expiring next week, but even its most ardent backers acknowledge the drive is all but futile.

"Health care advocates." They couldn't win on constitutional issues, so they spin it on health care.

We're doing it for our kids, after all.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.