Posted on 05/20/2004 10:50:25 AM PDT by neverdem
Morning Editor
(CNSNews.com) - Gun control activists have launched a coast-to-coast tour intended to generate support for an "assault weapons" ban that is scheduled to expire in September -- unless Congress passes an extension of the ban.
The Million Mom March's "Big Pink Rig" (a pink recreational vehicle) rolled into Richmond, Va., on Tuesday, motivating people on both sides of the gun issue to speak up.
While gun control activists want to extend the ban on certain semi-automatic weapons, Second Amendment supporters want to clear up what they call "blatant hype and deliberate misinformation" about those guns.
Steve Canale, president of the Virginia Shooting Sports Association, the state affiliate of the National Rifle Association, accused gun control activists of engaging in a "desperate and deceptive" political campaign. His group wants Congress to let the "Clinton gun ban" expire as scheduled on Sept. 13.
Uzis, AK-47s, and 'high-powered' rifles
The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence (which is now affiliated with the Million Mom March) says on its website that "Uzi and AK-47 assault weapons" -- are "coming this summer to your neighborhood courtesy of George W. Bush unless you do something about it."
That's not true, said Canale.
AK-47s and Uzis were prohibited in 1989 under federal firearm importation law, five years before the enactment of the Clinton gun ban. "The expiration of the Clinton gun ban will not in any way affect this previous law," Canale said in a press release.
He said the Million Moms' pink RV tour is more about politics than it is about sound policy, and he said, "the gun ban lobby, including the Brady Campaign, is lying."
"What works is locking up violent criminals, not taking away the rights of law abiding citizens," Canale said. He offered the following list of "facts" about semi-automatic firearms -- "that the gun ban lobby does not tell the public":
-- Firearms branded as "assault weapons" have been used in no more than 1.2 percent of violent crime, according to police reports and surveys. Even a congressional study found that semi-automatics "were never used in more than a modest fraction of all gun murders."
-- Millions of Americans use semi-automatic guns for hunting, target shooting and protection. The Virginia Shooting Sports Association offered the following examples: Popular deer-hunting rifles include Remington Models 7400 and 7600 and the Browning BAR; Remington's Model 1100 and Beretta's Model 391 shotguns are widely used for hunting and sport shooting; the Colt AR-15 and Springfield M1A are the nation's most popular rifles for marksmanship competitions. Ruger Ranch Rifles and 10/22s are popular hunting and plinking rifles.
-- The Brady Campaign claims the federal "assault weapons" ban has reduced crime, but the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said it can "in no way vouch for the validity" of that claim.
-- FBI reports indicate that semi-automatic guns are rarely used to kill police officers.
-- Semi-automatic guns are not machine guns. Machine guns have been regulated by the National Firearms Act since 1934. By comparison, semi-automatics, like other guns, fire only one shot at a time.
-- Semi-automatics are not "more powerful" than other guns. Semi-auto rifles and shotguns use the same ammunition as other guns. Semi-auto pistols use ammunition comparable to, but shaped differently than, revolver ammunition. The AK-47, which anti-gun groups call "high powered," is less powerful than the modestly-powered .30-30 Winchester, the most popular deer rifle in American history, the Virginia Shooting Sports Association said.
'Public should be frightened'
According to the Brady Campaign, "sporting rifles and assault weapons are two distinct classes of firearms."
The group's website says semi-automatic hunting rifles are designed to be fired from the shoulder and depend upon the accuracy of a precisely aimed projectile, while semi-automatic assault weapons are designed to "maximize lethal effects through a rapid rate of fire."
Assault weapons are designed to be spray-fired from the hip, the website says, and because of their design, a shooter can maintain control of the weapon even while firing many rounds in rapid succession.
Furthermore, the Brady Campaign says assault weapons are equipped with combat hardware, such as silencers, folding stocks and bayonets, which are not found on sporting guns. Assault weapons are also designed for rapid-fire and many come equipped with large ammunition magazines allowing 50 more bullets to be fired without reloading.
"So there is a good reason why these features on high-powered weapons should frighten the public," the Brady website says.
Police chief welcomes Moms
The "Big Pink Rig" is scheduled to stop in Raleigh, N.C., on Thursday, to rally in front of the city's police department. Raleigh Police Chief Jane Perlov will join the gun control volunteers, the Brady Campaign announced.
"The police chief and volunteers will speak to the public about a looming development that could bring an even heavier toll of gun violence to Raleigh and other American communities," the Brady press release said.
That looming development is the expiration of the semiautomatic gun ban -- unless President Bush "lives up to his campaign promise" by pressuring Congress to renew the law, the Brady Campaign said.
"Raleigh already suffers from too much gun violence," said the Rev. Rachel Smith, a volunteer with the North Carolina chapter of the Million Mom March. "We don't need Uzis and AK-47s back on our streets."
The Million Mom March's "Halt the Assault" tour is scheduled to stop in 20 states and dozens of cities over the next four months.
The gun issue has so far failed to gain traction in this election year. Neither President Bush nor Sen. John F. Kerry has made guns -- or the assault weapons ban -- a campaign issue.
And as CNSNews.com reported earlier, a Million Mom Mother's Day "March on Washington" held on May 9 drew only 2,000 people -- less than half of the number expected to attend.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson was one of several political figures to attend the anti-gun event. His address touched on anti-war themes and the need to dump President Bush, in addition to restricting gun use.
BANG
The other day at my kid's homeschool enrichment center end of the year program, The high schoolers put on a play that they wrote, acted, and directed. It was a comedy/crime drama that played pretty well, but at the end of the program some left wing nutcase Mom got up and started haranguing everybody about "guns are evil, blah blah blah." She also went in to how her son, the only black child in the drama class, happened to be the perpetrator (he asked for the part) and how that was stereotypical blah blah blah. I was not there for the whole thing because I was out in the foyer with my two little girls (4/2) but when my kids came to the car, my ten year old son was the first to say "That lady was a moron." (Beaming with Pride)
Homeschoolers have to watch out for freebies offered to them by what turns out to be lefty groups. I've seen it, I've walked out with my kids.
Some thoughts from former president Clinton:
"If the personal freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution inhibit the government's ability to govern the people, we should look to limit those guarantees."
-- President Bill Clinton, August 12, 1993
"And so a lot of people say there's too much personal freedom. When personal freedom's being abused, you have to move to limit it."
-- Bill Clinton on MTV's "Enough is Enough", 4/19/1994
Some Brady Bill backers' thoughts:
"We must be able to arrest people before they commit crimes. By registering guns and knowing who has them we can do that. If they have guns they are pretty likely to commit a crime."
-- Vermont State Senator Mary Ann Carlson
"I am one who believes that as a first step, the United States should move expeditiously to disarm the civilian population, other than police and security officers, of all handguns, pistols, and revolvers...No one should have the right to anonymous ownership or use of a gun."
-- Professor Dean Morris, Director of Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, stated to the U.S. Congress
"We're bending the law as far as we can to ban an entirely new class of guns."
-- Rahm Emmanuel, senior advisor to Bill Clinton
"If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States for an outright ban, picking up every one of them. "Mr. and Mrs. America, turn 'em all in," I would have done it. I could not do that. The votes weren't here."
-- U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D/CA) speaking of her authorship of the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban on "60 Minutes" 2/5/95
"We must get rid of all the guns."
-- Sarah Brady speaking on behalf of HCI with Sheriff Jay Printz & others on "The Phil Donahue Show" September 1994
Our main agenda is to have ALL guns banned. We must use whatever means possible. It doesn't matter if you have to distort facts or even lie. Our task of creating a socialist America can only succeed when those who would resist us have been totally disarmed."
-- HCI President Sarah Brady to Senator Howard Metzenbaum, The National Educator, January 1994, p.3
"I don't care about crime, I just want to get the guns."
-- Senator Howard Metzenbaum, 1994
"We're going to hammer guns on the anvil of relentless legislative strategy! We're going to beat guns into submission!"
-- U.S. Representative Charles Schumer (D/NY) on NBC 12/8/93
"Waiting periods are only a step. Registration is only a step. The prohibition of private firearms is the goal."
-- U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, December 1993
Personally I think all hunting weapons taken into the field should have environmentally-approved spark arrestors, great big quiet ones. It's the right thing to do for mother Earth.
"Uzi and AK-47 assault weapons" -- are "coming this summer to your neighborhood courtesy of George W. Bush"
Thanks, Dubya!
I'll take one of each.
After 3 years of being polite and listening quietly, I'm tired of being polite to the MMM's.
The proper response to most of their blather is "are you delibertly lying or just ignorant?"
Why is everybody being so damned polite?No sane individual living in the last days of the 20th century would knowingly welcome Nazis, the KGB, the Khmer Rouge, the ATF, or the FBI into their homes. We've learned too much from what happened to Jews in Germany, Kulaks in Russia, "landlords" in China, everybody in Cambodia, and victims of state terrorism at Ruby Ridge and Waco.
But let the Jackbooted Thugs' Ladies' Auxiliary slap on makeup and broomstick skirts, let them prattle in squeaky little girl voices and breathe their vegetarian breath all over us, and for some reason we think we have to ask them in and offer them chamomile tea.
These libs nothing but vile, bottom-feeding pond scum whose sole objective in life is to impose upon the American people the tyranny or an oppressive socialist government. If these putrid scumbags continue with their agenda then they will come face-to-face with me, because I WILL NOT allow my country to become the gulag these pukes wish it to. These morons are statist pigs, whose goal is to subjugate the American people and enslave them. Damn it, I've had it. To the barricades!!!
Thanks for the quotes, good reason to bookmark the thread.
I thought Sarah Brady was described as a loyal pubbie, only breaking ranks on the gun issue. Now she wants Socialism?
That's a polite way of saying are you evil or stupid. I don't think you can reason with hard core lefties. I think time would be more wisely spent trying to reason with the so called moderates and independents.
Oh, brother. The MMM's rally in DC was a bust. This is all they have left, I guess. Go to www.2asisters.org for a report about OUR rally in DC on Mother's Day. Yahoo!!
Thanks for the quotes. Good information.
and the war would have been over no later than oh.. `97 or so.
I wonder if any of the anti-guners have a clue just how close this country got to open resistance and overt action when the AWB came along.
We have a gun show coming up here in Knoxville this weekend and I do want some more ammunition. Fortunately, I can't think of any gun I really want that I don't already have.
For those with short memories or were not born yet, the reason for the 1968 gun control act and it's ban on bolt action army surplus rifles was,
Army surplus rifles were "military".
They had bayonette lugs.
They didn't look like "sporting" rifles.
They were "military ".
They were designed to kill people, not animals.
They were "military".
Police rifle good! Military rifle Bad! Even though they were the same rifle.
They had poor sights.
They were "military".
Thankfully, that sillyness has past and the bolt actions re reurning to the market.
"Today, we make America safe by taking the guns out of he hands or criminals."
...................Lyndon B Johnson when signing the 1968 gun control act.
Oh yes, in 1960 Thomas J Dodd and Emanuel Cellar tried to get federal law passed to register handguns. Long guns would not be affected they said. They also wanted a ban on army surplus rifles as these were cutting into the sales of American made sporting rifles.
About 1980 Handgun Control Inc. issued a pamphlet stating they were only interested in controling handguns. Long guns would not be affected.
What a difference a few years makes!
***I'll take one of each.***
From an old Jimmei Durantie movie:
I'll take one!
I'll take two!
Wait a minute buddy, what's the matter with you!
Ah, a sunflower! Swish, sister swish!
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