Panel kills bill on assault weapons - N.O. lawmaker sought to ban them

The Times-Picayune ^ | May 22, 2008 | Ed Anderson

[neverdem]

BATON ROUGE -- A pro-gun rights House committee Wednesday shot down, 12-1, a bill to impose a statewide ban on assault weapons starting Jan. 1.

House Bill 68 by Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-New Orleans, is dead for the session unless he can amend it onto another bill. The only member of the House Committee on the Administration of Criminal Justice who voted against killing the bill was Rep. Roy Burrell, D-Shreveport.

Richmond was joined in his presentation by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and ranking members of the New Orleans Police Department, who brought confiscated assault weapons and ammunition to the hearing. Nagin said that since Hurricane Katrina, the department has seized more than 600 illegal assault weapons in the city, many used by drug dealers.

Richmond's bill would have required all assault weapons to be turned over to State Police by Jan. 1. It also would have required owners to register their weapons with State Troopers and pass a criminal background check.

Owners who qualify could pay a license fee and get an annual permit. Assault weapons would be confiscated from those who fail the background check. The bill called for a penalty of as long as six months in jail, a fine of as much as $500, or both for having an expired assault weapon permit. Individuals who did not have a permit could be fined as much as $2,000 and face as long as two years in jail, or both.

"There is no sport about these guns," Richmond said. "These guns are made for killing."

Rep. Elbert Guillory, D-Opelousas, said that in his rural district, citizens need weapons to match the firepower of criminals because they are at least 10 minutes away from police help. "They are responsible for their own safety," he said...

[wastedyears]

Yeah, their 3x scopes are also smaller it looks like.

[hiredhand]

Is the ACOGS magnified 3x? One of my buddies is an SRT deputy and he told me they like the Eotech because it's very, VERY easy to see and acquire a sight picture quickly. I've seen them up close and personal. I'm pretty sure the Eotech doesn't magnify. :-)

[wastedyears]

From what I saw on their website, they have a model that magnifies.

http://www.eotech-inc.com/products.php?id=3

Trijicon’s ACOG scopes have from 1.5x to 6x magnification.

http://www.trijicon.com/user/parts/parts_new.cfm?categoryID=3

[hiredhand]

Ah right...magnifiers. :-) I knew about these. The problem with these on the M-4 is that there’s not enough room on the upper receiver rail to mount. There’s “just” about enough room for the electronic sight, and a BUIS (back up iron sight). sooooo....ya end up mounting the magnifier out in front of the HWS on the foregrip. OR...you can remove the rear sight and hang it off the back end, but then you have to extend the butt stock a bit otherwise you get bumped in the face by it. One can only jam so much “stuff” onto an AR carbine. :-) Even so, I’ll be Eotech makes nice magnifiers!