Ravenwood - 10/13/04 06:00 AM
The biggest lie behind the so-called "Assault Weapons Ban" (a/k/a the 1994 Clinton Gun Ban) is the definition of an "assault weapon" itself. In citing their statistics and evidence about the success of the ban, gun grabbers frequently and deliberately included guns that were not defined as "assault weapons" under the ban. Whenever they needed to drum up support, the usual suspects would cite staticists that included the un-banned SKS rifle or show graphic demonstrations of full auto guns, rather than the semi-auto guns that were actually banned.
To whit, this story about a 1928 'Tommy Gun' that was donated to a New Orleans museum.
[Lafayette city police officer, Sgt. Ron Lott] said he couldn't find out where the old gun came from, but the .45-caliber submachine gun is "definitely an assault weapon," but with something of a romantic appeal.In the context of the "Assault Weapon's Ban", the Thompson doesn't even begin to qualify. For starters, this is a submachine gun. It is neither an "assault weapons" nor a "assault rifle". It is a .45 caliber sub-machine gun that shoots 700 rounds a minute. It has been heavily regulated (effectively banned) since 1934. To obtain one legally, would cost you $33,000.
Even if it were the semi-auto version, it still would not fall under the 1994 Clinton Gun Ban because it lacks the "assault weapon" features like a flash hider, folding stock, or bayonet lugs. While the automatic sub-machine gun shoots a lot of rounds at once, the semi-auto version shoots one round at a time just like any other .45 ACP pistol. It merely looks scary.
But blurring the line between already heavily regulated machine guns and their semi-automatic replicas was the whole point of the ban in the first place. Sgt. Lott helps to further the gun control cause through his ignorance or blatant misrepresentation.
hey, that's okay because you don't have to be satisfied with an ineffective law that just bans certain cosmetic features like flash supressors. No, if Mr. Kerry get's elected, and is able to get the bill he co-sponsored through congress, things will change big time. S-1431 would ban all semiautomatic shotguns and most semiautomatic rifles. Specifically it would ban any semiautomatic shotgun with a "pistol grip" (defined as "a grip, a thumbhole stock or any feature that can function as a grip, which souds to me like it means if you can grab it someplace and it is semiautomatic it is banned.) It would ban any semiautomatic rifle that had a detachable magazine of any size and a "pistol grip." It specifically bans a lot of guns by name that were not specifically banned by the Clinton Law, including the popular Mini-14. Also any long gun that has ever been purchased by the military is banned. If that wasn't enough any gun that has a frame or reciver that is "the same or substantially based on" that of a banned gun is banned, even if it doesn't otherwise meet the specifications of the law. For example if someone made a new version of the Mini-14 called the Ruger Mini Sport with an internal magazine so it wouldn't fit any of the definitions in the law, it would be illegal anyway. If someone wanted to get really tricky they could probably say that practically any semiautomatic rifle owes it's design at least in part to the design of the M1 Gerand from WWII.
You can fact check at http://www.banassaultweapons.org/docUploads/s1431%2Epdf
Posted by: Jeff at October 13, 2004 10:54 PM(c) Ravenwood and Associates, 1990 - 2014
