Expired Assault Weapons Ban Would Have Covered Rifle Used In Colorado Shooting
ProudProgressive
2012/07/21 01:14:37
In the wake of the latest example of senseless violence that seems to be all too common lately, people of all political views are asking what can be done to at least try to prevent another tragedy like the one that unfolded in Aurora, Colorado last night. Predictably, many conservatives have taken the view that "if the audience had been armed this could have been prevented", despite the obvious conclusion that with tear gas swirling through the theatre the only thing more guns would have accomplished is more unnecessary death. A number of people have already pointed out that, had the Bush Administration not worked so hard to prevent an extension of the assault weapons ban passed under President Clinton in 1994, neither Jared Loughner nor James Holmes would have had the opportunity to wreak the havoc they did.
Personally, I have never remotely understood the mindset that believes that the answer to senseless gun violence is more guns. But that's just my humble opinion.
Article excerpt follows:
Expired Assault Weapons Ban Would Have Covered Rifle Used In Colorado Shooting
By Zack Beauchamp
Jul 20, 2012
One of the principal weapons used by James Eagan Holmes in the horrific Dark Knight Rises shooting would have been subject to a series of sharp restrictions under the now-expired federal Assault Weapons ban. The AR-15 rife carried by Holmes, a civilian semi-automatic version of the military M-16, would have been defined as a "semiautomatic assault weapon" under the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. If the law was still in force, semiautomatic assault weapons would have been outright banned:
Such weapons were "unlawful for a person to manufacture, transfer, or possess" under section (a)(v)(i).
Though there were several loopholes in the Violent Crime Control Act that allowed gun manufacturers to legally produce slightly modified AR-15s, a new version of the bill proposed in 2008 closed them.
The 1994 Act contained a sunset provision that caused it to automatically expire 10 years after passage, and it was not renewed in 2004, meaning that there are no federal restrictions on the ownership of AR-15s and similar weapons. Both Congressman Ed Perlmutter (who represents Aurora, the site of the shooting) and President Obama proposed a new assault weapons ban during their campaigns.
Today, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg called on the President and Governor Romney to address gun violence, saying "maybe it's time that the two people who want to be President of the United States stand up and tell us what they are going to do about it, because this is obviously a problem across the country."
Update: Holmes' guns, including his AR-15, were all legally purchased since May from two national chains, Bass Pro Shops and Gander Mountain Guns.
Update: Purportedly, the AR-15 used by Holmes had a high-capacity clip, which were banned as "large capacity ammunition feeding devices" in the 1994 legislation.
Personally, I have never remotely understood the mindset that believes that the answer to senseless gun violence is more guns. But that's just my humble opinion.
Article excerpt follows:
Expired Assault Weapons Ban Would Have Covered Rifle Used In Colorado Shooting
By Zack Beauchamp
Jul 20, 2012
One of the principal weapons used by James Eagan Holmes in the horrific Dark Knight Rises shooting would have been subject to a series of sharp restrictions under the now-expired federal Assault Weapons ban. The AR-15 rife carried by Holmes, a civilian semi-automatic version of the military M-16, would have been defined as a "semiautomatic assault weapon" under the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. If the law was still in force, semiautomatic assault weapons would have been outright banned:
Such weapons were "unlawful for a person to manufacture, transfer, or possess" under section (a)(v)(i).
Though there were several loopholes in the Violent Crime Control Act that allowed gun manufacturers to legally produce slightly modified AR-15s, a new version of the bill proposed in 2008 closed them.
The 1994 Act contained a sunset provision that caused it to automatically expire 10 years after passage, and it was not renewed in 2004, meaning that there are no federal restrictions on the ownership of AR-15s and similar weapons. Both Congressman Ed Perlmutter (who represents Aurora, the site of the shooting) and President Obama proposed a new assault weapons ban during their campaigns.
Today, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg called on the President and Governor Romney to address gun violence, saying "maybe it's time that the two people who want to be President of the United States stand up and tell us what they are going to do about it, because this is obviously a problem across the country."
Update: Holmes' guns, including his AR-15, were all legally purchased since May from two national chains, Bass Pro Shops and Gander Mountain Guns.
Update: Purportedly, the AR-15 used by Holmes had a high-capacity clip, which were banned as "large capacity ammunition feeding devices" in the 1994 legislation.
Read More: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/07/20/557811...
The "high capacity clip" he used caused the gun to jam, making it useless since Holmes didn't know how to clear it.
The original AWB was a completely useless law. It was pushed as a bill to reduce crime even though "Assault Weapons" were used in less than 1% of crimes.
Here's a little statistic for you.
More people are beat to death than killed with assault weapons.
Assault weapons are one of the best selling classes of firearms and used more in competitive shooting than any other type.
The AR15's adaptability to other calibers, also make it a very popular hunting rifle.
After all a gun that allows you to swap from a .22lr (rabbit & small game) to a .223 (very popular coyote and varmint round) to a .243 Super Short Magnum (for big game like Elk) by just pushing out two pins, installing a new upper, and inserting a new magazine is very nice.
It's also that ability to customize the rifle with very little work to fit your exact need.
The "high capacity clip" he used caused the gun to jam, making it useless since Holmes didn't know how to clear it.
The original AWB was a completely useless law. It was pushed as a bill to reduce crime even though "Assault Weapons" were used in less than 1% of crimes.
Here's a little statistic for you.
More people are beat to death than killed with assault weapons.
Assault weapons are one of the best selling classes of firearms and used more in competitive shooting than any other type.
The AR15's adaptability to other calibers, also make it a very popular hunting rifle.
After all a gun that allows you to swap from a .22lr (rabbit & small game) to a .223 (very popular coyote and varmint round) to a .243 Super Short Magnum (for big game like Elk) by just pushing out two pins, installing a new upper, and inserting a new magazine is very nice.
It's also that ability to customize the rifle with very little work to fit your exact need.
The manufacturers just worked around it.
So Holmes would of just cut the stock and carried old mags. or more 10 rnd. ones.
Its a useless law.
we have a neighbor boy we are quite concerned about right now. he is 19, lives with his mother, has no job and sits all day playing video games and surfing the net. he is a total recluse.
one day he came over to ask us to help him open a tin of army munitions he bought at a show...that is when we realized that kid has some major weaponry over there. recently he came over to ask my husband for a power tool. my husband does not loan out tools so he said he would do the work.
well...he wanted to alter a gun he has and my husband refused to do that. Is that even legal? anyway, my husband says the kid is accumulating a huge stockpile of weaponry and amunition..he recognized some of the guns that today's killer used over in his stash. He tells me he has quite a large collection of very high powered weapons. why? how?
it concerns me greatly...
i try to stay open minded. i try to understand.
And no, I honestly don't think he would have used that gun if it had been banned. All of the weapons this guy had were legally obtained. There is no evidence to suggest that he had any contact of any kind with illegal gun runners. He went down to the corner gun shop and bought the most destructive weapon he could find there. If he had not found assault rifles he would not have used them. Yes people would probably have been shot anyway, but isn't it better to have a tragedy where five people are shot than one where seventy are?
He spent over $16,000 buying supplies for his attack.
Then again that "dangerous rifle" he used jammed because of the magazine he used, and made it useless.
Big Macs and Whoppers need tp be banned due to the needless deaths they cause people who are too incompetent to manage their own healthy diets. Where do we draw the line?
When it comes to guns, there really are people (not ALL or even a majority of law abiding gun owners, but still...) who are too stupid to control themselves. Whether you like government or not, one of the key functions of a government is to keep the population safe. Allowing the Jared Loughners or the James Holmeses of the country to have access to weapons of mass destruction doesn't keep anyone safe.
And we actually don't have greater safety problems than assault weapons in this country.
As far as the "toxic food industry", you folks way over there on the right are the ones who think that government inspection of food and regulations regarding cleanliness in food preparation is "government takeover of food", not to mention you folks are the same ones who want to abolish the EPA so that not only will you have no assurance that your next hamburger won't kill you, you won't even be assured that the next drink of water or breath you take won't kill you.
I have the highest respect for the Constitution. You seem to be unfamiliar with anything it says.
It just said no new ones could be sold.
Guns made before the Ban were completely legal to own and sell.
In fact machine guns were completely legal to own throughout the entire ban.