Posted on 09/19/2007 11:49:54 AM PDT by nin_kasi
Miami-Dade Officer Jose Somohano was shot and killed with a Mak-90 assault rifle three years to the day after the federal law prohibiting the sale of such weapons expired.
The International Association of Chiefs of Police issued a report at noon Wednesday calling for, among other things, a renewal of the ban, arguing that it helps keep police officers safe by reducing the ``firepower available to criminals.''
The report hits home for South Florida law enforcement officers, who have been facing an increasing number of these guns on the street since the ban expired. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez, a former police officer and police director, can't hide his anger when he talks about the fact that lawmakers let the ban expire.
''While I feel very strongly about the Second Amendment, I don't think that our founding fathers had AK-47s in mind,'' he said. ``There's absolutely no reason I can see having these weapons out on the street.''
His voice rising, he brings up Shawn LaBeet, the man who killed Somohano: ``This guy just went to a gun store with a fake ID and bought one.''
LaBeet bought nine guns in the past year, including the semiautomatic Mak-90, which is similar to an AK-47. The gun was covered under the assault weapons ban and was illegal to sell for 10 years until September 2004.
''It's one thing to talk philosophically about the right to bear arms and it's another to see what these assault rifles can do,'' Alvarez said.
Local police say the numbers of murders committed with assault weapons has been steadily rising since the ban expired on Sept. 13, 2004.
In the city of Miami, 20 percent of murders this year were committed with assault weapons, up from 4 percent in 2004.
Local law enforcement say there is little they can do besides ramp up their own arsenals. They're looking to Congress for an answer.
''This is not a local issue. It has local implications, obviously. A police officer was just killed here,'' said Miami Police Chief John Timoney, an ardent gun control advocate. ``The resolution of this is in the nation's capital. But there's no appetite to address that.''
Timoney recently decided to allow his officers to carry assault rifles. Miami-Dade police have plans to do the same, Alvarez said. And last year, the Broward Sheriff's Office allowed deputies to carry them.
''I would think that for all the departments to start changing their viewpoints on allowing officers to carry assault weapons tells you there are more of those out there,'' said Dick Brickman, president of the Broward Police Benevolent Association. ``What's the purpose of assault rifles? As far as we're concerned, an assault rifle is only going to hurt people.''
U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, said he supports a new assault weapon ban and thinks there is pretty widespread support in Congress on the issue.
''It should be renewed. I think the majority of members of Congress would support it,'' he said. ``The president, in a very lukewarm way, has indicated that he would sign it but I'm not sure he really would.''
Klein said he thinks the tide is changing in public opinion, too.
''It doesn't take another law enforcement officer to be killed by assault weapons to persuade people that banning them is just common sense,'' he said.
A bill to renew the ban was introduced in Congress this year, but has not made it out of committee yet.
Here we go again.
Late-model military rifles were precisely what they had in mind.
It's the Moose Limbs St--id !
I posted a story in chat yesterday about an armless man who head butted another man to death. Why don’t these maroons go ahead and ban heads too?
Actually it's exactly what they had in mind.
Klein said he thinks the tide is changing in public opinion, too.
Forgot all about 1994 have you?
L
Democrats banished them from their party years ago.
You're right. If that weapon had existed then, that's exactly what they would have meant.
Why wasn't this person prosecuted for purchasing a weapon illegally?
They didn’t know what an AK-47 was, they had in mind “firearms just like the military uses”. In my mind that means I ought to able to have anything the military has. Period. No, I don’t want a nuke. Wouldn’t do me a lot of good... unless this were planet of the apes or something (/grin)
These guys probably shouldn’t ask me whether I’d rather live without the second amendment or without cops; they probably wouldn’t like the answer...
Police chiefs are almost always anti-gun. They’re politicians, not street cops. There was some harelip chief named McCarthy or something who was always used by the anti-gunners as a spokesman some years back. Now he has some other govt job, and I still see his rodent face on TV, but he’s wearing a suit instead of a uniform.
They are outlaws! You can pass every law and regulation in the world and the outlaws will just laugh about them. Meanwhile the beat goes on. The assault weapons ban won't even slow the bad guys down.
DC Sniper must not have happened. He was using an AR-15 in 2003, which was banned for sale by the AWB.
Q: Why don’t these maroons go ahead and ban heads too?
A: Democrats banished them from their party years ago.
Wrong! Only the contents.
Mr. Mayor, what is an assault rifle?
Citizens: replace LEO that believe the answer to their problems is more gun control
I stand corrected. John Kerry has one of the biggest heads I’ve ever seen; and the most perpetually vacant.
The police have been doing this way before assault weapons were even an issue.
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