Bringing On the Guns

[struggle4progress]

Sunday, September 12, 2004; Page B06

PRESIDENT BUSH doesn't care, and neither do the Republican House and Senate leaders. They're content to open up the streets to the pointless and exceptionally deadly gunfire of assault-style weapons. Their cold political calculation: Let the assault weapons ban expire Monday night, and let the police in particular and everybody in general fend for their lives. After all, that's the way people like it -- or so claims Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) who, unlike other doctors who have treated shooting victims, thinks this is what the people want. "I think the will of the American people is consistent with letting it expire, so it will expire," Mr. Frist told reporters last week. <snip>

What's the point of flooding the country with weapons that are modeled for killing people, not the hunters' prey? Why bring back bayonets, flash suppressors and multi-round magazines designed for quick and heavy gunfire that can help mow down a crowd in the streets or kids in a school? Why ignore the pleadings of D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey, who stood together with more than 70 other police executives Wednesday in support of extending the ban? At least 2,000 sheriffs, police chiefs, law enforcement groups and prosecutors from around the country have asked Mr. Bush to help keep these weapons off the market. Joseph M. Polisar, president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, noted that the White House ignored the chiefs' request for a meeting and said Republican leaders in Congress rejected their request for an immediate vote. <snip>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14686-2004Sep11.html

[DivinBreuvage]

1. Easy to understand... they want right-wingers to have firepower!

This isn't 1920s Germany, though. People who provoke war because they think their side is easily going to pull it off usually find that the war soon slips the leash and in fact ends up turning on the fools who thought they could control it.

[slackmaster]

2. A lot of hyperbole there

The Post's position is based on the presumption that the AW ban actually made "assault-style" weapons, bayonets, flash suppressors, and multi-round magazines go away. But all the ones that existed in September 1994 were gransfathered and are in most states fully transferrable with no regulations or restrictions. Used, military surplus magazines that hold over 10 rounds are abundant. Some catalog companies have never raised the price of US government-issue 30 round magazines that fit the military M16 rifle and civilian semiautomatic AR-15 to more than $20 during the entire duration of the ban.

The ban covers bayonet mounts, not bayonets. Bayonets are legally classified as knives and subject to any state and local restrictions on blade length, concealment, etc.

There is no functional difference between true assault weapons (as defined by the ban) and modified versions called "post-bans" that have one or tow of the offending features removed annd have been produced in large number since the day the ban took effect. The authors of the ban naively thought they could rid the USA of all semiautomatic knockoffs of military weapons, but the law they created was written poorly. They failed to anticipate the unintended consequences of the feature-based ban, and did nothing to address demand in the market for rugged, reliable semiautomatic firearms that use inexpensive military surplus magazines and ammunition.

Those who contemplate a new "assault weapons" ban should keep in mind that even in 1994 when Democrats controlled both houses of Congress, the grandfathering of existing AWs and the 10-year sunset clause were compromises needed to get even the present weak ban passed. Getting even the same pointless one renewed is clearly not possible with the present makeup of the House and Senate.

The GPO leaders in the House and Senate are cold, calculating political animals who are not going to be swayed by what they perceive as appeals to popularity or authority. Senator Frist and Congressman DeLay care mostly about their own personal political careers. They're going to do what they think the people of Tennessee and Texas want them to do no matter what anyone else says.