Was assault-weapon ban a dud? (no rise in weapons sales or crime after its expiration)

IHT/NYT ^ | April 25, 2005 | Deborah Sontag

[Waco]

"Actually we should have banned pinocle and golf also, and the law would have worked great!" S/Off

[GOPJ]

bump

[Buffalo Head]

"Bill Ruger didn't know when to keep his mouth shut."

It's much worse than that. All of the major gun control legislation, including the GCA1968, were sponsored by the American arms industry. Each was supported by the industry and SAAMI as short sighted protectionism. Colt was not a member of SAAMI, Ruger was (and is). The GCA1968 was written by, and sponsored by SAAMI, then passed to Senator Thomas Dodd as a means to keep WWII surplus weapons from being imported and competing against the American arms industry. I have documentation if anyone is interested.

The "Assault Weapon" and "High Capacity Magazine Ban" restrictions were written by the National Shooting Sports foundation, the parent of SAAMI. Draft copies of the proposal were circulated within the arms and ammunition industry before it was handed to Senator Finstein. I saw copies of them. Does anyone really believe that the senator from California wrote them? The Mini-14 was deemed a good gun and the Colt AR-15 a bad gun, simple by virtue of SAAMI membership. The guns are identical in function. The true purpose was to keep SKS's and semi-auto AK-47's from being imported. None of the SAAMI members sold weapons with 20 or 30 shot magazines.

Their short sightedness let the genie out of the bottle and they now don't have the means to put it back.

[Buffalo Head]

See post #43

[rellimpank]

--thanks-

-I have realized since the '60's that there is always more than meets the eye on any of this type of legislation.

Bill Ruger had sense enough to stay as tied into national politics as was necessary--after all, his original partner-Alex Sturm-was married to Theodore Roosevelt's granddaughter---