Posted on 12/14/2007 5:07:40 PM PST by holymoly
I asked this question last week of the candidates for President now campaigning in Iowa, and I think that for most of the American people [pdf] the answer is clearly “no.”
In the last ten days, two states in the heart of the country have sustained mass shootings by people armed with military-style assault rifles – two attacks with assault weapons in less than a week. One shooter attacked a mall full of employees and Christmas shoppers in Omaha. The other attacked a church in Colorado.
Together, they left twelve people dead.
Yet today assault weapons remain perfectly legal to buy in gun stores and gun shows across the country, in unlimited quantities. Perhaps even more shocking, the type of bullet many assault weapons fire (7.62mm full metal jacket) can penetrate four categories of police body armor [pdf]. There is no legitimate reason the public should have this kind of access to military-style assault weapons.
It’s also frustrating that when a UPS employee raised concerns on September 13 about the “multiple boxes” of ammunition the Colorado shooter had delivered to his postal box, police officers said there was nothing illegal. No limits on the number of guns; no limits on ammunition; very minimal limits on the type of guns – no wonder we have problems.
Since the terrible shootings last week, leading newspapers are joining the call. Here is a sample of what they’re saying.
The New York Times: “Until recently, the nation did have a law designed to protect the public from assault rifles and other high-tech infantry weapons. In 1994, enough politicians felt the public’s fear to respond with a 10-year ban on assault-weapons that was not perfect but dented the free-marketeering of Rambo mayhem. Most Americans rejected the gun lobby’s absurd claim that assault rifles are “sporting” weapons. But when it came up for renewal in 2004, President Bush and Congress caved to the gun lobby and allowed the law to lapse.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer: “The troubled 19-year-old in Omaha used his stepfather’s AK-47-type assault weapon to unleash 30 rounds of gunfire on innocent victims, and then killed himself. Who needs a gun like that around the house?”
The Washington Post: “The AK-47 assault rifle that an Omaha teenager pilfered from his stepfather was among the guns outlawed under the ban on assault weapons that Congress and President Bush unwisely allowed to lapse. Why that kind of gun should be so easily available to someone as troubled as that 19-year-old is unfathomable. Eight people shopping or working at a mall died as a result.”
To protect ourselves and our police [pdf], these weapons of war should be kept out of the hands of civilians.
F#$% yes we should. WTF is wrong with these people that they cannot interpret 'shall not be infringed' in english?
A NO GUN policy in the Mall was feel good pablum for sucker soccer moms so they could fantasize they were safe. The Brady bunch looks even more stupid than usual on this one.
As long as we have access to .50 cal’s, they have reason to follow the rulebook.
I stand corrected. . I’ve never seen them, but then again I’ve never looked for them either. I always look for the best expansion characteristics for reloading my hunting rounds. A full steel jacketed NATO type round wouldn’t be very useful for hunting. Then again neither is a bullet that flies apart and ruins a lot of meat. Sometimes it’s not the bullets fault though, it’s the loader making them a little too hot. :)
Ummm... yea.... It's called physics....
That is only a dream- for now. Maybe someday....Or maybe one of my boys will buy one. They are buying up all they can while they can.
Thanks. That's why I put the question mark there. I knew it was somewhere around there.
Terrorists; UN thugs are two more far-fetched, but legitimate reasons.
Most important reason: The U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment gives me the right, and I feel like exercising it.
Just wish I could afford Class III license fees, instead o having to settle for "military assault style" weapons.
I'll never forget the fun I had firing a (legally owned) .45 Thompson on full auto---until it was stolen from my buddy.
Equally as much fun was the quad-40 in the gun-tub on the tin can I took a couple of training cruises in.
Almost as much fun was watching a DI unexpectedly spray a magazine of .45s on the pistol range, when the sear screwed up during a demo.
I guess Paul Helmke the flaming liar does not believe government could ever go bad (conveniently forgetting Adolf Hitler, Joe Stalin, Pol Pot, etc.)
Love my Mossberg 500, with Pachmyer cruiser grip. Eight shots...alternated deer slug and 00. Best damn home security kit I’ve ever deployed, despite all the other toys around the place.
I also like the handy-dandy 1911A1, with ambi safety, skeletonized trigger and hammer, lowered ejection port and ramped barrel. Shot very well at the last tactical handgun course I attended, all 2100 rounds of 200 grain hardball ammo. Had to replace the extractor, but everything else is fine.
The Second Amendment is not a matter of opinion; it’s a matter of fact. Saw that tag line on FR and I quote it often in arguments with lib/dems over gun control.
Wouldn't mind having that one when I get stuck on the LBJ Freeway here in Dallas...
You are describing Switzerland, not Sweden. Sweden is having a Muslim crime wave right now, IIRC.
Don't the SEAL teams still use Stoner Systems? I've never actually seen one in person, but I did see an ammunition box for one at a gun show once. My "brush with greatness!" Eugene Stoner is/was (is he still alive?) a genius.
Mark
Now that is a question best left to the experts, I don’t know. I’m of the VN era and know little of what is in the offing today.
You bet they should, I would snag a krink in a heartbeat, and i dunno if the MP5/10 is in use in Iraq, but I would grab one of those too...:)
Appendix: Surveys
General Social Survey (GSS), 1972-2006: The GSS is a full-probability sample of adults living in households in the United States using in-person interviews. For more details, see Davis, Smith, and Marsden, 2007. GSS gets its main funding from the National Science Foundation. The added questions on the regulation of firearms in 2006 were supported by a grant from the Joyce Foundation.
Oh my, is that a little white lie?
Description & Citation--Study No. 4697 (Davis, Smith, and Marsden, 2007)
Mode of Data Collection:
face-to-face interview
computer-assisted personal interview (CAPI)
National Gun Policy Survey (NGPS), 2001: The NGPS is a random digit dialing sample of adults living in households with telephones. Sample size was 1,176 in 2001. For more details, see Smith, 2001. The NGPS was funded by the Joyce Foundation.
2001 National Gun Policy Survey of the National Opinion Research Center: Research Findings (Smith, 2001)
And who, you may ask, is this Joyce Foundation this guy keeps emphasizing?
Simply searching "Joyce Foundation gun control contributions" will lead the diligent to learn such interesting factoids as this...
Follow the Money
The IACP report, called “Taking a Stand: Reducing Gun Violence in Our Communities,” is nothing more than a rubber stamp, bought and paid for, of the pre-existing agenda for gun ban groups. It is a blueprint the enemies of freedom plan to pursue after the 2008 elections—if they win total control of the White House and Congress.
What compelled the iacp to issue this sweeping report? Follow the money. A note on the cover proudly declares that the report was issued “with support from the Joyce Foundation.” That’s a familiar name to longtime readers. The Joyce Foundation has pumped tens of millions of dollars into the coffers of gun ban groups over the years. The Violence Policy Center (VPC), an unashamed promoter of a total ban on handguns, collected more than $1 million of Joyce money just in 2005 and 2006. In 2000, the Joyce Foundation paid a vpc advisor and former Handgun Control, Inc. board member to edit a “Second Amendment Symposium” issue of the Chicago-Kent Law Review. That slim volume contains nearly half the anti-individual rights articles ever published on the Second Amendment.
The IACP newsletter proudly notes that the Joyce Foundation has “made more than $30 million in grants to groups seeking public health solutions that offer the promise of reducing gun deaths and injuries in America.”
They're sure getting their money's worth of disinformation out.
Sorry it's such a long post.
That’s nice! I live by the state prison, that could come in really handy if somebody escapes from there again.
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