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Posted on 06/26/2005 8:59:48 AM PDT by Dan from Michigan
Expired gun ban still worries some
Sen. Feinstein wants law reborn, despite no proof of increased crime
By DAVID WHITNEY
Mcclatchy News Service
WASHINGTON - It's been 10 months since the federal assault weapons ban expired, and for an idea of what's happened since then, pick up a copy of a gun magazine.
There you will find ads for semiautomatic rifles and pistols looking like something out of a war zone, with clips holding 30 or 40 cartridges — many features that 11 months ago U.S. manufacturers could not include and gun stores could not sell.
"Since the assault weapons ban was allowed to expire, it has been open season for criminals who want the most dangerous types of military-style assault weapons," declared Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who in March introduced legislation to revive the old ban.
Feinstein said the expiration of the ban she fought for in 1994 "will have deadly consequences on the streets of America."
Hard to measure
But has it really made much of a difference? Are the streets less safe?
There is no hard evidence, one way or another.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has no statistics that would show whether there's been an increase in sales of assault-style weapons, and the Justice Department has no statistics that would show whether there's been an increase in their use in crimes.
Gunmakers say their shops are busy, but only because the ban created pent-up demand.
"It's changed our market a bit," said Mark Westrom, president of Armalite, an Illinois company that produces the military-style weapons. But Westrom said the company is not selling anywhere near the volume that many gun-control advocates forecast.
Sandy Abrams, a board member of the National Rifle Association who owns Valley Gun of Baltimore, said he's seen a drop in sales of the guns at his urban store.
"It's not like there was this groundswell of demand," he said. Abrams said manufacturers never stopped making what are commonly called assault weapons. They just made guns that got around the ban.
Even among advocates of gun-control legislation, there is no agreement on whether the expiration of the ban is a disaster in the making, as Feinstein claims, or the quiet death of a law that had no teeth.
Eric Howard, spokesman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said that just because there are no statistics to prove it does not mean the expiration of the ban hasn't had a negative effect.
What's most disturbing, he said, is that the free-flowing U.S. marketplace for military-style rifles comes as gang violence is reaching horrific levels.
"Now manufacturers are kicking it up and we're seeing things like fingerprint-proof resistant grips," he said. "That's clearly to attract a niche that's not your regular duck hunter."
Hard to enforce
The federal ban outlawed U.S.-built ammunition clips holding more than 10 bullets and a handful of specific models. But mostly it prohibited the manufacture and sale of guns with a combination of specified features, such as a flash suppressor, a folding stock and a bayonet lug.
In the months after the ban's expiration, gun-control advocates took heart that several states began to look at enacting their own laws, patterned after California's, to keep military-style weapons out of gun shops.
Feinstein says there is little support in Congress to strengthen an assault weapons law. So she has reintroduced the old ban on the theory that something is better than nothing. She has the endorsement of many organizations, including police officers associations.
War zone? Where the hell are the burst and automatics then?
Feinstein is a f***ing idiot and a waste of oxygen.
LOL!! Double redundncy alert! As if those couldn't grips couldn't be applied to any weapon. More "2nd amendment is for hunting" drivel.
""Eric Howard, spokesman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said that just because there are no statistics to prove it does not mean the expiration of the ban hasn't had a negative effect.
What's most disturbing, he said, is that the free-flowing U.S. marketplace for military-style rifles comes as gang violence is reaching horrific levels.
"Now manufacturers are kicking it up and we're seeing things like fingerprint-proof resistant grips," he said. "That's clearly to attract a niche that's not your regular duck hunter."""
Nice to be able to make an assertion with absolutely no proof--and admit it.
Odd, two out of three of my "assault weapons" are ban-era weapons (an AR and a WASR --so what, they don't have a lug, big deal) and all of my > 10 rd Beretta and AR magazines were legally purchased during the ban, except for 10 "LEO" stamped AR mags bought legally after the sunset just to stick a finger in Sarah Brady's eye. So I don't know in what reality this quote applies.
Eric Howard, spokesman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said ... "Now manufacturers are kicking it up and we're seeing things like fingerprint-proof resistant grips," he said. "That's clearly to attract a niche that's not your regular duck hunter."
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I googled the same phrase without the redundancy, and this guys quote was second on the list.
But as usual, the obvious facts mean nothing to the hoplophobes. Just another opportunity for twisted hyperbole.
I would be happy with any brand of folding stock that would fit the Marlin.
Damn, that thing doesn't even LOOK like a gun. I'm not sure what it looks like.
Like their toadies on the Supreme Court, Liberals just can't seem to grasp what the Bill of Rights are all about.
The clueless gun-grabbers are at it again. We have to be ever-vigilant, or they'll sneak in another ugly gun ban.
BTW, the other night I lurked on DU and found a gun control thread. Some guy had the temerity to suggest that he could be a liberal and still support the Second Amendment. He said he had just joined the NRA. Boy, the flames immediately started. He learned very quickly from the DUmmies that you always have to sing from the liberal hymnbook. Guess their tolerance and diversity only goes so far.
Democrats are worried that crime will continue to drop.
They need a set number of deaths in order to "claim the issue".
Yeah...it's kind of like hanging around here and saying that a big-government Republican isn't really a conservative. That'll get you flamed right quick.
You wrote:
Yeah...it's kind of like hanging around here and saying that a big-government Republican isn't really a conservative. That'll get you flamed right quick.
Sadly, you are right. Just because an office-holder has (R) after his name doesn't mean he favors individual rights any more than a loony left-winger. Just look at our own John "Captain Queeg" McCain, a sorry excuse for a senator from Arizona. In the last election he got a C rating from the NRA, the same rating as his liberal Democrat opponent. Republicans can take away our firearms just as quickly as Democrats can. That's why I don't trust any of them.
Eric Howard, spokesman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said that just because there are no statistics to prove it does not mean the expiration of the ban hasn't had a negative effect.
Facts? We don't need no steeenking Facts!
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