http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/09/08/assault.weapons.ap/index.html

This makes me very happy. The problem with the law was that the lawmakers at the time went through a book of photographs of popular rifles and banned all of them that looked like "assault" weapons. They did so with absolutely no knowledge on the capabilities or uses of the weapons.

I'll give you one glaring example: my brother owns a mak-90, which is basically a replica of the AK-47. They come with something like 30-round magazines, but you can get something like a 70-round drum if you want to pay extra. So now we have a LEGAL 70-round semi-automatic weapon on the streets. No big deal.

However, Clinton banned the EXACT SAME RIFLE with a DIFFERENT STOCK. Do you have any idea how silly that is? The entire rifle is exactly the same, just the stock is different. The banned one looks more "dangerous," thus they banned it.

Further, they made this ban based on no factual information regarding violent crime statistics. Their reasoning was to get these weapons "off the streets" as if gangsters or something were carrying around assault rifles. HELLO. Gangsters and 99.99999999% (made up percentage, just a guess) of violent criminals who use guns are using small handguns like 9mm and .38s, NOT assault rifles. Since the ban, there has been no noticable difference in violent crime rates that can be attributed to the ban.

The government needs to stop passing laws based on their FEELINGS and start passing laws that will help the country IN FACT.

Ehh... Banning only guns that LOOK dangerous?

What the hell is wrong with these people? Like that is going to do any good...

remind me never to step foot in america again?

You forgot .22's, Brian, many .22's are used in homicides.

(sigh)



Can I move in with one of you in Canada please?


I can make pie.

Does that include blueberry and banana cream pie?

Speaking of pie, it makes great targets for assault rifles! Now stay on topic kakdamnit!

but... pie....

What good is banning guns anyway? All that will do is make a black market for them, and make it more profitable to deal in weapons.. wouldn't that make the problem worse?

I totally, fully, and wholly agree with Brian.

Move in with me. My mom can't make pie



Topic: Haha, silly americans and their guns. If you banned all guns, searched every house and got rid of said guns, the only people who would murder others are like, people in the military. To this day I still don't see why you guys have this "every man has the right to own a gun." thing. Every man, includes every retarded / psycho man. -_- *sigh*

only if you happen to like long barrelled weapons

I look dangerous....maybe they should ban me...

im going to a shooting range monday to relieve some never shooting a gun ever feelings =)

Hardly. There'd jsut be a lot more creative murders. And murders with illegal firearms. And stabbings. Blah blah blah and all that.

I'm sure all of 3 people were killed with AR's in the last 50 years. For some reason it's hard to go any where with an AR and not get noticed. Pistols are what kill people.
Thats not to say we should ban pistols. People get murderd with cars, kinves, hands, and pretty much every thing else you can think of too.

BAN SHARP THINGS! BAN SHARP THINGS!

"If guns are outlawed, then only outlaws will have guns." Trite, I know, but its still pretty much true.

tfti

What really pisses me off about the ban is how the media is pushing to get it reinstated. I was watching both a local and a national news channel and they were talking about this ban, and while they were doing it, they showed famous footage from a bank robbery in LA where the bank robbers had held off the cops because they were firing full automatic submachine guns at them. This pissed me off because it's misleading. Both my dad and I screamed at the TV "That's a full automatic you ****ing retards! The ban is about semi-automatics!". I'm not sure, but I think full autos are banned, though anyone with a bit of knowledge about the gun model can tweak a semi-auto to make it full auto. Or so I'm told.

Anyway, back to the ban. It's not like any one can just go buy assault rifles. There are very strict criteria a person has to meet. They have to be a licensed gun collecter, they have to go through extensive FBI back ground checks, they can't keep the gun in their house, etc.

btw, a lot of the guns that were banned were banned because they had bayonet fixtures on them. Are people afraid of drive by bayonetings now?

I see no need to own a gun where I live, but okay, if you need a pistol or something to defend your family, whatever. That's cool. Long as you're responsible. But what possible reason could you have for owning an assault rifle?



Noooo, they're banned because they're sharp and deadly and unlike a fireaxe or chainsaw serve no purpose other than sticking people.

Owning assault rifles is for collecting purposes only. I suppose you could hunt with them though.

Why use a bayonet when I have an AK-47 or the much more portable knife?

Haha yes silly americans if only they had your breakthrough advice they could just search every house and find all the guns in the states! If only we had thought of this before! So simple!

Guns dont kill people, people do. But I think the gun helps, ya know? I think it helps. I think just standing there going 'BANG!' that's not going to kill too many people is it? You'd have to be really dodgy on the heart.

~eddie izzard <3

A friend of mine, an NYPD police officer, always felt that the assault weapons ban only bothered collectors. Any criminal who wanted one can still get one, he just has to break another law to get it...big deal for someone like that.

He also assured me in a conversation about the ban that semi-auto variants of aks and the like can very easily be converted.

Another thing that annoys me is that 5-round/clip limit that I can't remember was inacted under that ban or similar legislation.

Because... Everyone needs an Assault Rifle?

Some people have seriously been indoctrinated by (mostly) Canadian culture. We need more gun owners, and less restrictions on concealed weapons. If everyone was packing heat, there would be very little crime, 9/11 would not have happened, etc etc. (Think about 10 gunmen vs. 100). I mean, I think we can safely say that a society is in a sad state when people are being bullied around with boxcutters. Don't you?

The AWB doesn't actually ban bayonets or much of anything else related to rifles except for large ammo clips. It includes a list of Deadly Killing Attachements and bans any semi-automatic rifle that has two or more items from the list. The list includes:

* Bayonet mount
* Flash suppressor
* Pistol grip
* Folding stock
* Grenade launcher

So a gun with a grenade launcher is not an Assault Weapon, but the same gun with a folding stock added is.

Damn, I'll have to settle for only the grenade launcher and the flash suppressor now.

at least the government hasn't banned my BFG or my plasma gun...

nothing like a good flesh frying plasma gun

I still don't know why people very much want the ban to expire. An assault rifle or SMG, no matter whether it's automatic or semi-auto, is designed for one purpose, and one purpose only: to kill humans; killing other speicies is a minor side purpose that is better fulfilled with other types of firearms.

As for detterrent to crime, it has been shown that the more handguns, SMGs, and assault rifles are banned, the lower the murder rate (as well as other violent crimes) gets. SMGs, and handguns even more, are more often used because they are concealable, but it has been shown that an assault rifle can be concealed as well, you jsut have to wear the right clothing. If you want a firearm based deterrent to crime, nothing beats a 12-gauge shotgun. This has been proven over and over again. Such a weapon isn't as effective for killing people as a handgun or asault rifle, but is very hard to miss someone with it at close range, and would make any burglar or mugger hesitate to rob someone much more than the possibility of them packing a pistol.

As for the NRA's favorite sayings, they're misleading. Of course, while it is a person that kills (they don't give life sentences to firearms, you know), and they're just going to switch to another weapon, I'd much rather be faced by a criminal that has but a club or knife than an Uzi; one stands a much better chance against a melee weapon than a firearm, and attempted murder statistics show this, if one lacks common sense. As for a ban merely preventing guns from being in the right hands, and that the black market will still be full, allow me to slap you in the face and tell you to wake up: where do the black market guns come from? Most firearms used to commit murder are either used by the NRA's theorietical "law-abiding citizen", in the heat of the moment, or are recently stolen from such a citizen. Guns used in crime see short lifespans, as they're very good evidence for crime, so the black market needs a constant influx of stolen weapons. It apparently isn't enough to tell gun owners to lock them up; if we just remove the human-killing guns outright, we'd see less deadly weapons used by criminals, and making everyone safer; every nation (which ammounts to every western democracy save for our own America) that has tried this practice has shown this to be true. A study on a ban in Washington, D.C. showed that even if guns were availible but in nearby Baltimore, the murder rate was seriously reduced, due entirely to a reduction of murders commited with guns (knife and other weapons killed almost exactly the same number of people bother in and out of the ban)

Just ignore what's written there... yeah. I guess you look dangerous. :p

Err lemme get this right...I understand about more people carrying guns...but on airplanes?? Thats a very very bad idea.

yes but banning guns won't lower the murder rate .... it's not that hard to buy a gun on the street .. and then you have it right then and there without the waiting period or background checks... but you broke a law to get it but since you are going to kill people anyway with your new gun i'm sure you won't give a rat's *** about breaking another law

I suggest reading 'Night Watch'

The argument in there goes something like this: Now, only outlaws have guns. so, we have only criminals having guns, obviously. so all these criminals have weapons no law-abiding citizen can easily defend against. And, the second a law-abiding citizen gets something he can defend himself with, he becomes a criminal, instead of just a person trying to keep his body in healthy workin order.

Oh, and about how 'assault rifles onley have one purpose', that is entirely true, (although i saw a commercial on TV for a "high powered rifle" (read: assault rifle) for clay shooting, but that was simply insane) however, as brian has pointed out above, this doesn't ban all assault rifles, and the crime rates have not changed as a result of this ban, therefor what does this legislation do except ban easily, leagally, replicated guns?

Not only did you not quote the post, you obviously didn't read the whole thing. It has been proven (go look up any of the 1,000+ scientific articles on gun control if you like), that by lowering the gun count among the theorietical "law-abiding citizens" (LACs), you equally lower the level of guns on the black market, because guns used in crimes are often disposed of in an attempt to remove any evidence (why would any criminal kill somebody with a gun, then keep it, since all guns are unique enough to identify?); virtually all guns entering the black market are stolen from LACs. By cutting down on all of a group of human-killing guns, you cut down on how many criminals can use. Got it now?

His dad makes guns, man.

read noble's post...

your opinion was pretty much shot down on the runway...

you need a nice reality check

if you cut down the number of available guns the criminals will adapt and just keep the guns

if guns were banned people would still kill people just the same... it's been people killing people for a very long time...

Haha, I like* how you called them human-killing guns. My step-dad owns an AK-47 (human-killing gun). Post-ban, so it is semi automatic and only has a 10 round clip. Now, in all the years it has been in the house, I have never seen it jump up and kill anybody. Maybe it did it when I wasn't looking.

I've got an idea. I will make a website at [url]www.lolmygun.com[/url] and it will be a webcam pointed directly at the gun (oh I meant, human-killing gun) and it will stream out to the internet 24/7. Your job, nottheking, is you watch this webcam 24/7 and when my human-killing gun jumps up and kills someone, like the name says it does, take a screenshot and email it to me ASAP!

Something must be done about the terrible human-killing guns and whack jobs that make them human-killing guns!

Shifting the blame is where the good stuff is at.

I killed someone because I played Doom3 too.

*find it laughable