Help stop the NRA

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-05-2004
Help stop the NRA
2
Sat, 09-18-2004 - 3:51am
On the NRA sight they have a petition going to get the act back and stop the NRA. You can check it out at http://www.stopthenra.com Also here is a video: http://homepage.mac.com/duffyb/nobush/iMovieTheater194.html
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-03-2003
Sat, 09-18-2004 - 8:49am
Why don't we try and stop useless, purely symbolic legislation? How about putting a halt to intentionally misleading statements and claims about the AWB and "assault weapons"? Think that might be worthwhile?

The sites you linked to are chock full of fallacies and misinformation. Examples? From the first site, courtesy of the Brady Campaign and the Million Moron March...

>>>"The Assault Weapons Ban has temporarily expired. So for now, these banned guns -- including Uzis, AK-47s, and TEC-9s -- will be back in our neighborhoods, courtesy of President Bush."<<<

Bush Sr. signed an executive order banning the import of AK-47's and Uzi's. They are no longer available (though similar models are), and that ban does not have a sunset clause. What is being "American made" are not really AK-47's, but altered models.

Want more? >>"In many states kids as young as 13 will be able to buy brand new American-made AK-47s at gun shows and through the classifieds.<<<"

Regardless of what state law says, federal laws dictate that you have to be 18 to purchase a newn longarm, and 21 for new handguns.

>>>"New assault weapons will be advertised over the internet."<<<

Advertised, but you still have to take possession them through a licensed dealer. That pesky federal law again.

>>>"New rapid-fire ammunition magazines that allow guns to fire up to 100 rounds without reloading will be mass-produced and sold on a cash-and-carry basis to anyone, with no questions or background checks."<<<

There is no such thing as a "rapid-fire magazine". Additionally, those exact magazine they're presumably talking about have been available since the ban was enacted. All the ban did was prohibit importation or domestic manufacture of them. Those already manufactured and in the country were grandfathered, and perfectly legal to purchase and possess. I guess the people who scripted that site didn't want to mention that.

Another? >>>"A gas-operated, magazine-fed weapon, it's still general-issue in the armed forces, which adopted it because of its ability to spray a high volume of ammunition within a distance of 100 meters."<<<

That would be the M-16, not the AR-15. And the M-16 was not adopted because of it's ability to "spray a high volume of ammunition", but because the rifle and the cartridge it's chambered for are smaller and lighter than the rifles used before it, allowing a soldier to carry more ammo and other equipment or supplies without being loaded down as heavily.

And of course all of that completely ignores the fact that functionally identical firearms and their magazines have been available the *entire* time the ban was in place. The ban changed nothing of practical note concerning them. But just for future reference in case anyone involved with that site is actually around, it would be far easier to take that site seriously if they bothered to learn what the heck they're supposedly talking about. There's been enough misinformation and misrepresentation without adding to the pile.

~mark~

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-31-2003
Sat, 09-18-2004 - 9:14am
Thanks Mark

I guess it would appear that the Republicans aren't the only ones that can be accused of using fear tactics to boost support.
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