Have You Jumped on Assault Weapon Ban Wagon Yet?
Over at the Washington Times, Emily Miller—author of an excellent blog feature about legally buying a gun in Washington, D.C. after a home-invasion robbery—runs through Sen. Dianne Feinstein's latest proposal to ban semiautomatic weapons. Miller says that Sen. Feinstein (D-Calif.) is fudging the facts when she says that "assault weapons" that are currently legal are actually "guns designed for military use":
The best illustration of this deception is Mrs. Feinstein's placing of the "Armalite M15 22LR Carbine" on her list of items that she claims have the sole purpose "to hold at the hip if possible, to spray fire to be able to kill large numbers." This particular weapon fires a .22 long rifle cartridge, which has one-tenth the power of the standard military round and is generally suited for plinking tin cans or hunting small varmints. It simply looks like a military rifle, which fits Mrs. Feinstein's effort to eliminate items that look scary to her.
It isn't difficult to both feel sickened by the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Connecticut and recognize that the new ban proposed by Feinstein will have no effect other than to punish law-abiding Americans. Miller again:
In the eight years Americans have been free to buy any semi-automatic rifles, gun ownership has gone up while crime has steadily declined.
According to a survey conducted in 2010 for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, 90 percent of the owners of modern sporting rifles use them for target shooting, 80 percent for home defense and 60 percent for hunting.
About 44 percent of owners are former military or law enforcement, who enjoy using a familiar rifle. The typical owner is over 35 years old, married and has some college education. These good Americans are the ones who will be affected by a ban, not the criminals who will continue to use whatever they want.
Miller is also the source for the Reason TV video "Girls, Guns, and The Problem with DC Firearms Laws." Watch it here.
Related:
"4 Awful Reactions to the Sandy Hook School Shooting."
"What the Hell Is an 'Assault Weapon'?"
"Why Does Anyone Need an Assault Weapon? Because The Want It."
Watch "5 Facts About Guns, Schools, and Violence":