Rational Basis Analysis of "Assault Weapon" Prohibition (Long, but must read)

Independence Institute ^ | 1994 | David Kopel

[flashbunny]

Does he do this on every thread? He apparently doesn't know what he's talking about but derides anyone who disagrees with him - even if they're right!

[jonascord]

That is such a LAME statement. FDR didn't give a flying Ef for the guns the gangsters used. He was more concerned about disarming the Bonus Marchers, and tipping the balance against the WW1 veterans that were camping on his doorstep.

In 1934, a revolution in the US was about two weeks away. Gangsters and crime were a plausable diversion. Bonnie and Clyde, Dillenger, Floyd all preferred cut down BARs or shotguns. The .30-'06 could go thru a car, and shotguns are designed for close-in. Only Al Capone used Tommys to any degree, and he bought them over the counter. Paramilitaries like the IRA, and South American police, as well as anti-revolutionary forces like the Marine Corps went for the Thompson. Remember that Anton Cermak was shot right in FDR's lap, Huey Long, both with cheap pocket pistols, things were "edgy" in the 30's.

[Crowcreek]

Oh _Jism -- You're getting your money's worth to-nite! *smootch*

[Kenno]

I know what he was referring to: concealed carry. But I've never heard it called C&C, and Jim sounds all around ignorant of guns.

[Crowcreek]

An attention-starved dogcatcher, off his meds, with delusions of federal authority. Poor b*stard . . .

But why does he cr*p all over a perfectly good thread, like a problem wolverine marking it's territory?

[tpaine]

I needed to post this since amazingly, some people even here are actually defending the ban.
-DfM-

Far more than 'some'. I would estimate that we may be nearing the 50/50 mark at FR.
The governments position on such prohibitive 'regulating' of the RKBA's is virtually unapposed by the GOP or the current administration, and those who support them here.
Ashcroft's giving lip service to an 'individual right', as if there were any question on the matter, means nothing. The right will be 'regulated' into meaningless rhetoric, -- slowly..

[2nd_Amendment_Defender]

This isn't an assault weapon, it's my homeland defense rifle.

[flashbunny]

I'm not sure what he has to prove, and his whining to moderators while making his own personal attacks is funny in a very sad sort of way.

[Badray]

Don't let _Jim highjack this thread. It's not about his paranoia or his statist control freak views. It's about our liberty. My advice is to just ignore him.

Repying to him only encourages him.

[Badray]

Dan, great post. Thanks.

[flashbunny]

A visual aid:

[Crowcreek]

He doesn't care how far off base he gets -- as long as he's in the game. Sometimes, like on this thread, he's like a streaker in the outfield !

Then when he starts getting flamed, he digs in to stay. It's the 'Dog in the manger' thing -- You're probably too young and innocent to know that one.

[nightdriver]

"What 'tank cannon'?"

You didn't see the tank that butch Reno ordered into the fray? They used the cannon tube to pump some sort of gas into the compound.

No legend.

[flashbunny]

Don't know the saying, but I know the type. The people who always have to be right even though everybody and their mother knows they're wrong. The internet seems to attract a lot of those. The worst part is that they can stink up a perfectly good thread.

[Crowcreek]

I love that -- Nice one! Truth is sometimes stranger than liberal fiction . . .

[Travis McGee]

Hey, I love it when he keeps bumping these threads up to the top.

[eno_]

Perhaps FR would have an ignore function like most Internet chat and like Slashdot. If ignored by enough people, the jackboot-lickers on FR would fall into the memory hole.

[dinodino]

Hm, not exactly an informed gunowner, are you? You shouldn't post on topics of which you know nothing.

[eno_]

He he, if he isn't a "gun owner" he's probably a mall cop itchin' to get a LEO job where he does carry.

[Atlas Sneezed]

"...including those automatic weapons we saw used ...
like by the gangs during prohibition? No thanks."

During prohibition, automatic rifles were available without restriction. One could buy them at a hardware store or through the mail, and military surplus ones were cheap. yet outside of Hollywood, and one gang-on-gang incident, they didn't seem to cause the mayhem that is assumed today.

Would you have rather the gangs used handguns, or semi-auto rifles (they did, mostly)? Is there any evidence that more innocents died because full-auto was available?

The real fact is that what ended the violence of prohibition was the repeal of prohibition, not the National Firearms Act of 1934, which turned millions of lawful citizens into criminals based on an arbirtary and punitive tax.