Liberal Media Attacks the Truth on Assault Weapons
from the mind of Unknown.
On ABC News last night, the intro montage showed several scenes of gunfire. The first scene was of a firefight in Iraq shown in night-vision green, with the loud rap of automatic fire echoing loudly. The next scene was from an unidentified movie, showing an action star firing a compact machine gun and spraying the room with automatic fire. Several other scenes were shown that contained automatic weapon fire. (This is all from memory, so I may be slightly off on the details.)
So, what story was this leading into? Nothing other than the looming 'sunset' of the assault weapons ban. One of the news clips of the story showed a representative of an anti-gun group standing at a lecturn saying: The American people need to know, the assault weapon ban ends soon. There will be assault weapons on the streets once again.
(Again, I refrain from quoting her, as I don't have a transcript from the story and ABC News only offers transcripts for a fee. I want TIVO!)
Now, is it responsible journalism to show automatic weapons, then have someone saying that assault weapons will be back on the street? We must remember that Ichiro Suzuki is a baseball player, but just because you play baseball doesn't make you Ichiro.
The truth of the matter is that automatic weapons have been under legislation since 1934, and the assault weapons ban of 1994 did nothing to change that. When the assault weapons ban expires, the 1934 legislation will still stand. Some people will aruge that you can just 'file down the firing pin' of a semi-automatic rifle to make it fully automatic. Now, this is mostly a boy-scout rifle range myth. The skill and resources required to do such a thing would be immense. The chances are much, much greater that a rifle will never fire again, or jam to the point of uselessness rather than be machined into an automatic firing machine. Also, it is very illegal to do so. If a gunsmith was caught doing something like this, the he would get a very unpleasant visit from ATF agents.
What the assault weapons ban covers is mostly cosmetic and superficial details. This page at the Brady Campaign Site talks about how a 'pistol grip' facilitates firing a gun from the hip. I'm not sure what you've all heard, but that is an unbelievably inaccurate way to shoot. Not only do you not have a horizontal guide to control your left to right aim, you lose your vertical aim as well. I have yet to see any trained military or police member ever fire from the hip. I have seen it in movies, though. And we all know that movies are a great barometer of reality. ( ed.--As noted by a comment, I've corrected the word 'inaccurate', which was originally typed as 'accurate'. My intentions are correctly shown now. I am not wealthy enough to employ an editor... so the current process will have to do.)
This page does a good job of explaining exactly what the assault weapons ban accomplished any why it is so inconsequential. Very few people are set on purchasing a certain type or certain model of rifle or handgun other than collectors and gun enthusiasts. Criminals will take any weapon that suits their purpose. I'm sure that some criminals are vain, and want a cooler looking weapon, but the reality is that the assault weapon ban will not reduce crime, it will only be a headache for collectors and enthusiasts.
Maybe we need legislation against certain types of golf clubs, or certain stamps, or baseball cards. If we had laws in those areas, the gun collectors wouldn't feel so singled out.
As a side note, first we had the CBS 60minutes thing to deal with, and now we have this blatant anti-gun 'news' story by ABC. We are running out of options here folks. It won't be long before people are using their parental control blocking on the television to block CBS, ABC, and NBC, just so their children aren't exposed to the dangerous politicized stories that these 'media' outlets are showing.
Perhaps Zeke will chime in on this one. He seems to be an expert on the issue.
So, what story was this leading into? Nothing other than the looming 'sunset' of the assault weapons ban. One of the news clips of the story showed a representative of an anti-gun group standing at a lecturn saying: The American people need to know, the assault weapon ban ends soon. There will be assault weapons on the streets once again.
(Again, I refrain from quoting her, as I don't have a transcript from the story and ABC News only offers transcripts for a fee. I want TIVO!)
Now, is it responsible journalism to show automatic weapons, then have someone saying that assault weapons will be back on the street? We must remember that Ichiro Suzuki is a baseball player, but just because you play baseball doesn't make you Ichiro.
The truth of the matter is that automatic weapons have been under legislation since 1934, and the assault weapons ban of 1994 did nothing to change that. When the assault weapons ban expires, the 1934 legislation will still stand. Some people will aruge that you can just 'file down the firing pin' of a semi-automatic rifle to make it fully automatic. Now, this is mostly a boy-scout rifle range myth. The skill and resources required to do such a thing would be immense. The chances are much, much greater that a rifle will never fire again, or jam to the point of uselessness rather than be machined into an automatic firing machine. Also, it is very illegal to do so. If a gunsmith was caught doing something like this, the he would get a very unpleasant visit from ATF agents.
What the assault weapons ban covers is mostly cosmetic and superficial details. This page at the Brady Campaign Site talks about how a 'pistol grip' facilitates firing a gun from the hip. I'm not sure what you've all heard, but that is an unbelievably inaccurate way to shoot. Not only do you not have a horizontal guide to control your left to right aim, you lose your vertical aim as well. I have yet to see any trained military or police member ever fire from the hip. I have seen it in movies, though. And we all know that movies are a great barometer of reality. ( ed.--As noted by a comment, I've corrected the word 'inaccurate', which was originally typed as 'accurate'. My intentions are correctly shown now. I am not wealthy enough to employ an editor... so the current process will have to do.)
This page does a good job of explaining exactly what the assault weapons ban accomplished any why it is so inconsequential. Very few people are set on purchasing a certain type or certain model of rifle or handgun other than collectors and gun enthusiasts. Criminals will take any weapon that suits their purpose. I'm sure that some criminals are vain, and want a cooler looking weapon, but the reality is that the assault weapon ban will not reduce crime, it will only be a headache for collectors and enthusiasts.
Maybe we need legislation against certain types of golf clubs, or certain stamps, or baseball cards. If we had laws in those areas, the gun collectors wouldn't feel so singled out.
As a side note, first we had the CBS 60minutes thing to deal with, and now we have this blatant anti-gun 'news' story by ABC. We are running out of options here folks. It won't be long before people are using their parental control blocking on the television to block CBS, ABC, and NBC, just so their children aren't exposed to the dangerous politicized stories that these 'media' outlets are showing.
Perhaps Zeke will chime in on this one. He seems to be an expert on the issue.
posted by Unknown at 9:49 PM
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