Assault Weapons Bans are STUPID

Which of the following two rifles do you think would be banned by an ASSAULT WEAPONS BAN?  

Rifle #1

Rifle #2

If you guessed rifle #2, you have drunk the Kool Aid.  Trick question.  

Rifle #1 and #2 are both Ruger 10-22s, of which millions have been sold and thousands have learned to shoot with.  Rifle #2 has been modified with the ProMag Archangel Kit, a popular modification of the standard 10-22 rifle, which ships with an equally frightening plastic bayonet.  

Though it looks really scary to people who know nothing about guns, there is ZERO difference in the lethality of the weapon itself, it fires the exact same .22 caliber cartridge.  Though fuzzy squirrels nationwide might prefer the smaller ten round magazine of the unmodified 10-22.  

How about this one? 

Rifle #3

Not too intimidating you say?  This is a pair of M14s, which have been in military service since the 1960s and were used extensively in Iraq and Afghanistan as sniper rifles.  Some variants were fully automatic.  It is not a "military style" rifle, it IS a military rifle.  It fires the 7.62x51 cartridge, which is just a LITTLE bit bigger and more lethal than the .22 fired by the 10-22 series, see below...

I'd much rather be shot at with the .22 on the right than the 7.62x51, second from left.  Happily for us and the gun fearing populace, the same characteristics that make the M14 a highly effective sniper rifle also make it unwieldy, heavy, loud, expensive, rare, and therefore unlikely to be used in a crime. Much like millions of Ruger 10-22s, with or without modifications.   

The last "assault weapons ban" banned cosmetic features of weapons, deemed threatening by congress members who neither tolerate nor understand firearms.  Their aim is to ban any type of guns that they are able.  Do you think the president's task force will go after other causes of mass murder as hard as they will go after guns?  Wait and see.