An "Assault Weapons" Primer

Though the video is over twenty years old, the subject is eerily familiar. Decades later, many among us still think that the best way to prevent psychopaths from killing children is to treat all gun owners as potential psychopaths. Didn't work then, didn't work in CT, won't work anywhere else.  

In the wake of the Stockton Schoolyard Shooting of 1989, a police firearms instructor in CA explains the difficulties in defining "assault weapons" and demonstrates how a nondescript hunting rifle can become an "assault weapon" with the addition of a few cosmetic features... with no difference in lethality.  




For those who would disagree with the assertion that gun owners would be treated as potential psychopaths under proposed legislation, please see the below highlights of Senator Feinstein's new bill... straight off her website.  

Following is a summary of the 2013 legislation:

• Bans the sale, transfer, importation, or manufacturing of:
• 120 specifically-named firearms
• Certain other semiautomatic rifles, handguns, shotguns that can accept a detachable magazine and have one military characteristic
• Semiautomatic rifles and handguns with a fixed magazine that can accept more than 10 rounds
• Strengthens the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban and various state bans by:
• Moving from a 2-characteristic test to a 1-characteristic test
• Eliminating the easy-to-remove bayonet mounts and flash suppressors from the characteristics test
• Banning firearms with “thumbhole stocks” and “bullet buttons” to address attempts to “work around” prior bans
• Bans large-capacity ammunition feeding devices capable of accepting more than 10 rounds. 
• Protects legitimate hunters and the rights of existing gun owners by:
• Grandfathering weapons legally possessed on the date of enactment
• Exempting over 900 specifically-named weapons used for hunting or sporting purposes and
• Exempting antique, manually-operated, and permanently disabled weapons
• Requires that grandfathered weapons be registered under the National Firearms Act, to include:
• Background check of owner and any transferee;
• Type and serial number of the firearm;
• Positive identification, including photograph and fingerprint;
• Certification from local law enforcement of identity and that possession would not violate State or local law; and
• Dedicated funding for ATF to implement registration

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.