I've never had any desire to buy any surplus Soviet Bloc junk and have no need for a bayonet mount.
I didn't mention the American made stuff I own because the ban is for imports!
Junk? No bayonet?
Its just for fun! LOL!
I've never had any desire to organize a news agency or to become an indentured servant... but I'm rather glad that there are Constitutional Rights and prohibitions that protect me in both cases.
Besides, the AWB isn't about YOU. It is about your great-grandchildren. Look at the differences in the guns laws 100 years ago (virtually none) and today (22,000). Do you seriously think this trend will change if we don't stand up when we have the House, Senate, and the White House?
Do you seriously think that another 22,000 laws won't seriously impact their ability to defend themselves or their nation if/when it becomes necessary?
Have you not noticed that, since 1776, even advanced nations (and most of the others) have had a bloody history thanks to a driven individual taking power? Human nature has not changed since the Second Amendment was written. When one dynamic personality takes more power than has been traditionally given to the head of state of that nation, and that nation's populace lacks the capability to stand against the military and police power of that state, it invariably leads to widespread bloodshed. This is what the Founders wanted to protect future generations of America from. This is why they wanted the common citizen to have the absolute and uninfringed right to carry the same basic serviceweapon as the common footsoldier. What the people lack in training and organization, they make up for with numbers and parity in firepower. (Vietnam has also taugh us that a force that is rarely centralized and can use "guerilla tactics" is very hard to defeat.) It has nothing to do with convenience, sporting uses, public health, or economics. It has everything to do with human nature and rights to self-defense.
Heck, even Equal Protection Rights are in play here... Why can't a citizen be trusted to carry the same basic arms (note: VX nerve gas and smart bombs are not "basic arms") at home that they did (or still do carry) in the service/as a police officer/as a federal officer? And if they can have that service-weapon at home, then why can't I as a fellow citizen? I know of several officers whose training and range-time are far behind mine, and yet they are trusted with weapons that I'm not allowed to even breathe on!
Finally, yet another reason this is a horrible bill is, as always, bureaucracy. Once this law is made permanent, it will only take the slight alteration of the definition of "assault weapon" to make more and more problems for gun owners... and those changes will be made by unelected officials in Bureaus and Administrations, not by accountable elected officials. I don't want to buy a $5,000 gun and have it declared useless and worthless the next day by some desk-jockey. And, when these changes are aggregated over time, you get some real and substantive effects that will fundamentally change a Constitutional Right. Why does this not scare you? Even uber-liberal Alan Dershowitz said that reversing the Second through any means is a horrible idea, because it shows government how to circumvent the others as well.
What about a flash suppressor? Might come in handy some night when and if things go all to snot, either due to a home invader, or a riot.