Liberalism is driven by emotion, not reason. Can any one explain to me the rationale for banning cetain types of semi-automatic rifles purely on the basis of appearance? They're the same as rifles that don't have a military-style look. I think its goes to liberals' contempt of the military as well as their empathy with the plight of the criminal element. When the right of self-defense is outlawed, society becomes more vicious and cruel. But for the Left, its not people's behavior that causes them to shoot people, its the weapons that made them do it.
"Passing a law like the assault weapons ban is a symbolic - purely symbolic - move in that direction. Its only real justification is not to reduce crime but to desensitize the public to the regulation of weapons in preparation for their ultimate confiscation." - Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, Friday, April 5, 1996, page A19.
Liberals not only can't provide any real reason, they're not even sincere about the emotional hype over the appearance and features. "Assault weapons" were coined to have some kind of gun to demonize since the liberals knew they couldn't demonize hunting weapons...yet. They were dreamed up by Josh Sugarmann and the Bradys and the VPC as an evil bogeyman, thinking if they can just get these banned, they plan to add guns to the ban until they are all gone. Now they are freaking because they realize if they can't even maintain the AW ban, their chances of banning the rest are about zero.