Posted on 09/23/2004 1:29:49 PM PDT by neverdem
The federal ban on semiautomatic rifles — i.e. “assault weapons” — was allowed to expire earlier this month, the collective inaction of both Congress and the Bush administration. The passing of this legislation, however well-intentioned, is hardly lamented.
For starters, the ban was not really needed when it was implemented 10 years ago. Prior to the law’s passage, these so-called “assault” weapons, rifles mostly, were used in fewer than 1 percent of all violent crimes. These numbers have not changed, even though Americans still own more than 30 million legal semiautomatic firearms.
As the law enforcement community has determined, it’s far better to channel one’s energy toward deterring the folks firing the weapons rather than unduly focusing on the firearms themselves. For this reason, such programs as Project Exile, started in Richmond, which vigorously pursues, prosecutes, sentences, and imprisons anyone using a gun in the commission of a crime, have been so successful.
’Tis far better to center one’s attention on the person firing the gun, rather than on the gun itself. That’s why no tears should be shed over the expiration of this ban.
Nobody seems to realize that this issue was one of the main things that motived the huge conservative turnout in 1994. With the Reno inJustice Dept. in full dress and the Clintoons busy meddling with health care, this 'ban' (window-dressing that it was) sent lots of folks to the polls in an off-year cycle. The Dems....are still clueless as to what happened to them....
Geez, I forgot about that! I haven't been paying attention. Since the ban expired, how many thousand people have been massacred on the streets of the country? Surely, the dead must be piled in heaps in some areas! Oh, the humanity...
I stole this from another poster on a thread awhile back.
If guns kill people where are mine hiding the bodies?
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