Ban Aid: The real point of the "assault weapon" law

Reason ^ | 9 May 2003 | Jacob Sullum

[45Auto]

The Federal AW ban must be defeated. It will be much more than a symbolic victory. It might set the stage for removing the several states' bans also; it certainly would have a "chilling effect" on those states which are now considering passing such laws.

[Joe Brower]

[SJSAMPLE]

The wife has already been informed that I've been "saving up" and not to "get in my way." ;)

[Badray]

bump

[Squantos]

It will be defeated . Even the socialist grabbers don't like it as they want a Kali style ban and turn in of "all" SAW's. I predict it'll die on the vine with a political back stage agreement to pass a new and improved version of their unconstitutional socialist sh*t and shineola show.

We have to stay on this fight the rest of our lives IMHO until SCOTUS fence sitters get off their fat asses and do their job. Then we can get on with life ....hopefully :o)

Stay safe !

[facedown]

In 1996 Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer, who favors banning gun possession by civilians,

I found this unbelievable but found some of the article:

"Ultimately, a civilized society must disarm its citizenry if it is to have a modicum of domestic tranquility of the kind enjoyed by sister democracies such as Canada and Britain. Given the frontier history and individualist ideology of the United States, however, this will not come easily. It certainly cannot be done radically. It will probably take one, maybe two generations. It might be 50 years before the United States gets to where Britain is today."

I've always been a fan of Mr. Krauthammer but he couldn't be more wrong on this issue!

The last sentence is particularly startling as even in 1966 crime was on the rise in Britain. Now it's epidemic.

[TLBSHOW]

bump

[templar]

All of these "assault weapons" have seem to have one thing in common. They're black. Why don't we just ban all black guns and be done with it for good. Everyone should end up happy that way. Black is a lousy camo color anyway.

[joesnuffy]

The "real" point of the AW ban is "INCREMENTALISM".......creeping up on the STATED anti gunner/totalitarinists goals of complete elimination of all firearms in the hands of the little people...

While they (the elite) are protected from crime..

Basically "feeding" the little people to the violent criminals until they cry out for a dictatorship and turn over all freedom to the elite...who will gladly take their rightfull place on the throne...

The elite being rilled ever since 1776 and chomping at the bit to PROVE that the commoners are incapable of ruling themselves and it is the place of the elite to rule over them in a benevolent (if they have to) or not so benevolent (thats entertaining as well) manner

[Petruchio]

Now you did it. You went and made it a race issue. Now we are going to have to put up with Jessie (the jerk) Jackson.

[wcbtinman]

The "elite" wouldn't be doing any of this if they were truly afraid of the consequences.

[chudogg]

VPC is now claiming that from 1998 through 2001 "one in five law enforcement officers slain in the line of duty was killed with an assault weapon."

This estimate is padded by the inclusion of weapons that Congress does not define as "assault weapons" but that the VPC does.

Does anyone know how the VPC defined "Assault weapons" in their statistic?

[ImpotentRage]

I am really surprised to read this. Whenever I hear of the citizenry being deprived of guns the Warsaw Ghetto comes to mind.

[coloradan]

To get around the fact that "assault weapons" are rarely used by criminals, the VPC is now claiming that from 1998 through 2001 "one in five law enforcement officers slain in the line of duty was killed with an assault weapon." This estimate is padded by the inclusion of weapons that Congress does not define as "assault weapons" but that the VPC does. In any case, it indicates that the vast majority of cop killers use guns that no one considers to be "assault weapons."

Many cops are killed by their own guns, when criminals get ahold of them in a scuffle. To be sure, cops carry "assault weapons" but to twist the fact that cops sometimes lose their own guns in scuffles, and have superior firearms rights/powers than we citizens, into a call to further restrict such firearms to we citizens, is despicable - in other words, just what we would expect from the VPC.

[chudogg]

Well it says that the VPC modified the Congress's definition of "Assualt weapon" to suit their own purposes. What if instead of using congress's defintion of "Assualt weapons" as containing multiple cosmetic features, and instead used only one of those cosmetic features, such as pistol grips, and in their view, all weapons with pistol grips became assualt weapons. Does an "assault weapon" have to be a rifle? Or can the VPC claim that a handgun is an assualt weapon because it has a pistol grip, thus explaining the inflated statisitic.

[punster]

Race has nothing to do with it. Jesse Jackoff engages in race baiting because he is power hungry, in fact power mad.

[RogueIsland]

Does anyone know how the VPC defined "Assault weapons" in their statistic?

The only way I can even conceive of getting these numbers is if they are counting handguns with high-cap mags. There are plenty of Glocks and Berettas with pre ban hi-caps. They don't meet the legislative definition of assault weapon, but I'll bet that's what VPC is doing.

[coloradan]

AWs certainly don't have to be rifles, consider the TEC-9 and for that matter Glocks. However, I don't the the VPC includes all handguns in its own list of AWs because otherwise the number would be a lot higher than 20%. For example, I don't think they include revolvers. To answer your earlier question, I don't know if anyone knows how the VPC came up with that number, and I don't think anyone will easily be able to find out, however. But, it would be nice to say that >21% of citizens defending themselves from criminals did so with AWs, people which the VPC would apparently prefer were killed instead of having the ability to fight back.

[Joe Brower]

"All of these "assault weapons" have seem to have one thing in common. They're black."

Let's face it, folks. Anti-gun hysteria is the new racism.

[green team 1999]

bump