Another broken Bush promise

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-07-2004
Another broken Bush promise
54
Wed, 08-18-2004 - 8:26am
Who Needs Assault Weapons?

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF, NYT



ERIDIAN, Idaho — If you've been longing for your very own assault rifle and 30-round magazine for the next holiday season, you're in luck.

President Bush, sidestepping a promise, is allowing the ban on assault rifles and oversized clips to expire on Sept. 14. So at a gun store here in Meridian, a bit west of Boise, the counter has a display promising "2 FREE HIGH-CAPACITY MAGAZINES."

All you have to do is purchase a new Beretta 9-millimeter handgun and you'll receive two high-capacity magazines - on the condition, the fine print states, that the federal ban expires on schedule.

President Bush promised in the last presidential campaign to support an extension of the ban, which was put in place in 1994 for 10 years. "It makes no sense for assault weapons to be around our society," Mr. Bush observed at the time.

These days Mr. Bush still says that he'll sign an extension of the ban if it happens to reach his desk. But he knows that the only way the ban can be extended on time is if he actually urges its passage, and he refuses to do that. So his promise to support an extension rings hollow - it's not exactly a lie, but it's not the full truth, either.

Mr. Bush's flip-flop is surprising because he has generally had the courage of his convictions. Apparently he's hiding from this issue because it's so politically charged.

Critics of the assault weapon ban have one valid point: the ban has more holes than Swiss cheese.

"The big frustration of my customers is that removed things that were kind of fun and made it look cool, but didn't affect how the gun operated," said Sean Wontor, a salesman who heaved two rifles onto the counter of Sportsman's Warehouse here in Meridian to make his point.

One was an assault weapon that was produced before the ban (and thus still legal), and the other was a sanitized version produced afterward to comply with the ban by removing the bayonet mount and the flash suppressor.

After these cosmetic changes, the rifle is now no longer considered an assault weapon, yet, of course, it is just as lethal.

Still, assault weapons, while amounting to only 1 percent of America's 190 million privately owned guns, account for a hugely disproportionate share of gun violence precisely because of their macho appeal.

Assault weapons aren't necessary for any kind of hunting or target shooting, but they're popular because they can transform a suburban Walter Mitty into Rambo, for a lot less money than a Hummer.

"I've got a ton of customers shooting squirrels with AK-47's," said Kevin Tester, a gun salesman near Boise. "They're using 30-round magazines and 7.62-millimeter ammunition, they're shooting up the hills, and they're having a blast."

I grew up on an Oregon farm that bristled with guns to deal with the coyotes that dined on our sheep. Having fired everything from a pistol to a machine gun, I can testify that shooting can be a lot of fun. But consider the cost: 29,000 gun deaths in America each year.

While gun statistics are as malleable as Play-Doh, they do underscore that assault weapons are a special problem in America.

They accounted for 8.4 percent of the guns traced to crimes between 1988 and 1991, and they are still used in one in five fatal shootings of police officers. If anything, we should be plugging the holes in the ban by having it cover copycat weapons without bayonet mounts, instead of moving backward and allowing a new flood of weapons and high-capacity magazines.

The bottom line is that Mr. Bush's waffling on assault weapons will mean more dead Americans.

About 100 times as many Americans are already dying from gunfire in the U.S. as in Iraq. As many Americans die from firearms every six weeks as died in the 9/11 attacks - yet the White House is paralyzed on this issue.

Mr. Bush needs to live up to his campaign promise and push to keep the ban on assault weapons. Otherwise, we'll bring more of the Iraq-like carnage to our own shores, and his refusal to confront our gun problem will kill more Americans over time than Osama bin Laden ever could.


iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2004
Thu, 08-19-2004 - 12:49pm
Not only have I seen pictures, I have shot some of them, and can say that they are quite fun to target shoot with.

They are already available, and the people that intend to do harm with them are not going through the legal process to get one. This is where the argument that the anti-gun people use loses any credibility.

How can any sort of gun control law prevent criminals from getting their hands on any weapons on the black market? When this question can be honestly answered, then the anti-gun groups can have an open debate. Until then............

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2004
Thu, 08-19-2004 - 12:51pm
You and I are of a like mind on this subject.

Did you read the entire study done by Dr. John Lott? It blows apart the entire gun control agenda with real facts. It is quite interesting.

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2004
Thu, 08-19-2004 - 12:54pm
-- You're saying that since a ban would not impede illegal acquisition of an assault weapon that nothing should be done?

Pretty much.

-- I've heard all the NRA arguments that in the arms race that is American suburbia of today the more firepower, the better, for self protection.

I can say that whay you have heard and what the reality of what the NRA preaches are two very different things.

-- A society that held so much promise should devolve into a weapons mentality not able to decifer between what constitutes fun and what defines insanity

I would choose to live in the United States over Canada on any given day. At least I have the freedom to choose whether or not I wish to purchase a gun, and that freedom is guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States.

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2004
Thu, 08-19-2004 - 12:57pm
The only thing I will say is that I dont see the need for an ordinary citizen such as myself to own a .50 cal machine gun. (especially since the ammunition is $2 per bullet....)
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-03-2003
Thu, 08-19-2004 - 1:31pm
Yeah, mines a pre-ban in .223, I just picked up the .22 adapter when I began running through some serious money shooting every weekend. The adapter wasn't cheap, but it made the difference while getting the equipment to reload the 5.56.

Mine shoots MOA, which means that all things being equal it is probably capable of better accuracy than I am. Sweet rifle in any case.

~mark~

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-05-2003
Thu, 08-19-2004 - 1:33pm
You so tempt me to describe my collecting... but I will not.... lest it provide another sort of ammunition for others :-)
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-03-2003
Thu, 08-19-2004 - 1:36pm
That's fine too, as while most people don't have any real use for them the RKBA isn't "need" based. I wouldn't own a .50 M2 myself (or for that matter any full automatic... costs a fortune to shoot the things regularly). But the single shot or semi-auto .50's are another thing. Got a friend who has a good-sized farm and who has laid out a 800+ yard range for shooting, and the Barrett a guy brings out there every so often is a dream to shoot. Not cheap either, but there's only so many rounds you *want* to fire in a day out of that thing anyway.

~mark~

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-03-2003
Thu, 08-19-2004 - 1:40pm
BTW, did you take a look at the link I posted, the "Legal or illegal" assault weapons site with all those disgusting pictures of evil firearms? Just curious what you thought of it. I found it quite interesting with the distinctions between legal and illegal and explanations for those distinctions. I thought it might be quite educational for many of our reading audience.

~mark~

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-03-2003
Thu, 08-19-2004 - 1:50pm
What? You don't want to be grouped with us Neanderthal Neocons? nt
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-05-2003
Thu, 08-19-2004 - 1:58pm
I'm a contract with america con :-) before that I was always registered independent.