Semiautomatic for the People
In which a MoJo reporter goes to a gun show in search of some serious firepower.
Listen to Gary Moskowitz interview Bruce Falconer.
In a warehouse on the outskirts of the rural Shenandoah Valley town of Fishersville, Virginia, it didn't take long to spot what I was looking for. There were plenty of guns lined up neatly on display tables, everything from Civil War-style muskets to handguns to hunting rifles, but I was in the market for something with a bit more firepower. At a table near the entrance, I found it: a Chinese-made mak-90 semiautomatic rifle, a variation of the Russian AK-47 designed to circumvent federal regulations on the import of assault weapons. "It's the same gun," the dealer told me. "They just eliminated the pistol grip, replaced it with a threaded thumb grip, and took off the flash suppressor." This particular model came with a five-round detachable clip, but the dealer assured me it would accept larger magazines, including a 75-round "ammunition drum." He was uncomfortable trading in handguns, he said, explaining that "there's too much controversy about them," but was willing to sell the mak-90 to anyone with a valid ID and $450.
The reemergence of imported assault rifles on the US market signals a dramatic shift in federal firearms policy. By 1998, four years after a federal ban on assault weapons took effect, gun manufacturers had easily managed to bypass the law by making small alterations to their weapons. To close the loophole, the Clinton administration prohibited the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives from granting import permits for 58 types of assault weapons, adding to an import rule first put in place by George H.W. Bush. These included dozens of AK-47 variants and other high-powered semiautomatic rifles that could accept high-capacity magazines originally designed for military use.
But not only did the current Bush administration allow the 1994 assault weapons ban to lapse, it has also, through the atf, permitted gun manufacturers to game the import rules, effectively reopening American borders to foreign assault weapons. While the import ban remains nominally in force, gun importers are now able to easily skirt it by assembling the guns in the US. Describing the manufacturing process at Florida-based Century International Arms Incorporated, a leading importer of foreign assault weapons, an official in the atf's firearms import branch told me "they import the parts" and combine them with US-made materials specifically prohibited by the import ban. That way, technically speaking, the guns "are made in this country," he said. But according to Kristen Rand, the legislative director at the Violence Policy Center, a Washington-based gun control advocacy group, the atf is simply shirking its responsibility. "They've created this Alice in Wonderland world, where if you take it apart and put it back together then it's no longer an import, but the end result is the same," she says. "They just keep making this their own moving target."
Another loophole was created for the sks semiautomatic carbine, developed in 1945 for use by the Soviet army until it was replaced by the more rugged AK-47. The Bush administration reclassified the sks as a "curio," adding it to the atf's list of such weapons, most over 50 years old and considered collectors' items, that are automatically authorized for import. However, the atf reported in 2002 that the sks was "the rifle model most frequently encountered by law enforcement officers" and noted that the guns "are capable of penetrating the type of soft body armor typically worn by law enforcement officers." Since being added to the atf's curios list, the sks has become one of the cheapest assault rifles on the market—less expensive, at between $89 and $250, than most handguns.
Yet even as foreign-made assault weapons are pouring in, information about their importation and use in crime is no longer accessible. The atf maintains databases both of the firearms-import licenses it has granted and of the traces it has conducted on weapons recovered at crime scenes. But in 2003, at the urging of the National Rifle Association, Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.) attached a last-minute amendment to a spending bill, prohibiting the agency from publishing import and trace data. ("I wanted to make sure I was fulfilling the needs of my friends who are firearms dealers," Tiahrt told the Washington Post.) The nra's motivation, says Dr. Garen Wintemute, an ER physician and director of the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California-Davis, was to prevent atf data from being used against the gun industry in court. "Cities and advocacy organizations were bringing litigation against gun manufacturers for irresponsible marketing and also, in some cases, against individual retailers," he says. "Complete trace data would have helped them in doing that."
In March, however, the Associated Press managed to obtain atf trace data for 2007, which showed a sharp increase in the number of trace requests for weapons, such as the AK-47 and sks, that fire 7.62-by-39-mm rounds—from just 1,140 traces in 1993, the year before the assault-weapons ban was enacted, to 8,547 last year. Already, since the ban's expiration in 2004, the atf has documented an 11 percent rise in the number of traces run on AK-47s and similar weapons—an increase that suggests more AKs are on the streets and are being used to commit crimes.
At the Fishersville gun show, crowd members seemed particularly drawn to the assault weapons on display—hefting them, staring down their barrels, sliding open their metal bolts with a satisfying action-movie click. In addition to the AKs, dealers displayed dozens of AR-15s, a semiautomatic variation of the US military's M-16, as well as a variety of World War II and Cold War-era surplus weapons. At one table, a little boy admired a .50-caliber sniper rifle, capable of downing a jumbo jet, while at another a man held a cheap Romanian AK knockoff to his shoulder. His T-shirt read "'Freedom At Any Cost.'—Randy Weaver, Ruby Ridge, Idaho." The only thing that prevented me from becoming the proud owner of a mak-90 was my Washington, DC, driver's license: The district has the nation's strictest gun rules. (At press time the law was under review by the Supreme Court.) But if I really wanted the mak-90, one dealer pointed out, all I had to do was move to Virginia.
There is, of course, a wide variety of assault weapons on the market. The expiration of the federal ban has essentially thrown the doors wide open—if the gun exists, you can buy it. But it's the AKs that pose the greatest threat, primarily due to their affordability. Police chiefs in cities across the country are involved in something of an arms race, says Scott Knight, chief of the Chaska, Minnesota, police department and chairman of the Firearms Committee at the International Association of Chiefs of Police. "When I started as a police officer, we had our sidearm, and we had a shotgun in the car. Then we moved from the shotgun to a 9 mm carbine or rifle. And actually, I'm just moving from that 9 mm to an AR-15. The reason is that the officer has been encountering a better-armed offender with alarming regularity...a better-armed, better-equipped, more-ready-to-shoot criminal than in the past."
Nowhere, perhaps, has this been more noticeable (and quantifiable) than in south Florida. Speaking at the National Violent Crime Summit, a gathering of law enforcement executives held in suburban Chicago last September, Miami police chief John Timoney described how AK-47s have become the weapon of choice among violent criminals in his city. "Two or three years ago, we had the lowest homicide rate since 1967 in Miami," he said. "Then the homicides skyrocketed with the availability of AK-47s. And it went from 3 percent of all homicides being committed with AKs, up to 9 percent two years ago, then 18 percent last year, and this year it is around 20 percent. And it's going up...We're being flooded with these AK-47s." Garry McCarthy of the Newark, New Jersey, police department agreed. "We've got a 30 percent reduction in shooting incidents this year, but only a 5 percent reduction in murder," he said. "So it is higher-caliber bullets. I hadn't seen an AK-47 in New York City going back 15 years...In Newark, in our first six or eight months, we recovered about 15 of them. [We have had] running gun battles through the streets."
And if law enforcement is noticing an uptick in AK-style rifles, it may soon confront a smaller, more easily concealable version: the AK pistol. According to Dr. Wintemute, police recently recovered one in Newark. "You can hide such a thing easily in your pant leg, and you can put the magazine somewhere else," he says. "You can be walking around the street with, in essence, a concealable rifle with hundreds of rounds of ammunition, ready to rock." Advertising its Romanian-manufactured AK handgun, Century International Arms Incorporated calls it "a real conversation starter."
Correction appended: A print version of this story incorrectly stated that fully automatic weapons in existence can not be purchased or sold. While these weapons can no longer be manufactured for civilian use under federal law, those registered before May 19, 1986, can still be obtained. The language in this piece has been changed to reflect the correct information. We regret the error.
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How is complying with a law a "loophole"? Let's not forget the magic .50 caliber rifle that can stop locomotives and jumbo jets with a single bullet.
There's a good reason to
boycottmotherjones.com
What testing exactly demonstrates that .50 cal rifles (And not just any normal hunting rifle) can bring down a jumbo jet? Honestly, less Fear from the "Fearless" crowd would be nice.
Also, fully automatic rifles are not illegal under US law. How about some honesty too? Crime is almost unheardof amongst NFA Class III weapons, perhaps a clue to meaningful gun control. CCW permit holders likewise are rarely involved in violent crime.
To be sure we should restrict access to firearms by persons with criminal histories, mental illness that indicates violent or irresponsible conduct, and those with a violent history. We should not however infringe the rights of those who have no history of violence or irresponsibility to keep and bear arms as protected by the 2nd amendment. Even fully automatic ones if properly registered.
We must not abandon the presumption of innocence until guilt is proven, and a desire to buy a firearm, even a .50 cal rifle, is not evidence of guilt.
I couldn't find any (yes, slightly) bitter gun owners in this article. I could only find bitter gun banners - and the author when he found he couldn't buy the MAK-90. Well, I'd be bitter too, if I had to live in DC.
Typical PSH liberal BS, tainted, lies and fiction.
"..and noted that the guns "are capable of penetrating the type of soft body armor typically worn by law enforcement officers."
All centerfire rifle cartridges, some rimfire cartridges, and even muzzle loading rifles are capable of penetrating soft body armor - http://fateoflegions.blogspot.com/2008/03/part-3-ballistic-vest-live-fir... .
Already, since the ban's expiration in 2004, the atf has documented an 11 percent rise in the number of traces run on AK-47s and similar weapons—an increase that suggests more AKs are on the streets and are being used to commit crimes.
Just because a gun is traced does not mean that it was used in a crime - http://www.davekopel.com/2A/LawRev/CluelessBATFtracing.htm#ch1b .
There are plenty more holes in your story, but I thought I'd address these two.
Of course back in 94, when the so-called "assault weapons" ban was enacted the same claims were made - that AK-47's (and other "assault weapons" were the "choice of criminals".
This of course, despite the fact, that testimony before Congress, by the ATF, stated otherwise. (see also G Kleck, POINT BLANK, 1994).
In short, the gun-banners were LIEING! As they always do, because the facts aren't on their side.
Phooey! When will you gun-banners give up? You've lost at the SC in your claims that the 2nd doesn't protect an individual right. It's more obvious from the empirical evidence that guns, including those scary "black" rifles (or the AK-47's) aren't the problem.
Give it up for Gd's sake!
The seller checked with a gun dealer and then refused your illeagal purchase.
As in you were breaking the law and the man caught you and sent silly boy home empty handed.
He should have had you arrested,Also at any sale I went to all sales had to be cleared though a dealer. Dealers charged $5 tp $10 to do the check for unlisenced dealers at the show. Your a bad reporter for trying to commit a crime and then pretending backgound checks dont happen at gun shows. I sell firearms and I am constantly bothered by LEO's and "reporters" Asking to buy illeagal things. Crimails dont buy their guns from stores or shows where honset poeple might report their crimes. 40% of stolen guns for sale are cop guns. I think the cops should explain that!
It's BATFE, Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives,dummy. You can't even get that right! One of the worst info articles I have read.
The AK-47 round -- the 7.62-by-39-mm -- is about 33% LESS powerful than Grampa's Winchester lever-action .30-.30 deer rifle, which of course can also penetrate a policeman's vest. (Body-armor is a compromise between protection and comfort, and protection against bullets accelerating in a rifle's longer rifle barrel just isn't practical.) The lapse of the 1994 law cannot possibly be the cause of Miami's greater violence, as the same guns were _still_ availabile after 1994, just without the pistol grips, flash-suppressors, bayonet mounts, etc. (Any criminal willing to violate the law could install these after purchase using only a screwdrivers; doing so was no more against the law than murder or armed robbery.) A more likely explanation for the increase in violence is the growth in hyper-violent Central American gangs that arrived with all the other "undocumented workers."
Yes, manufacturing the receiver (frame) here and assembling it with imported parts gets around the import restrictions -- just as Toyota and Nissan do to avoid limits on imported automobiles. You could also make all the other parts here if you had to; it's just a matter of cost.
Yes, police were safer two generations ago, but not because powerful rifles were unavailable. (The biggest danger a cop can face is an ultra-accurate scoped bolt-action rifle like that used by the villain in "Dirty Harry". A cop can hardly protect himself against a sniper capable of making head-shots from 400 meeters away.) No, what protected cops in my childhood was the gentleman's agreement that any criminal arrested after killing a cop would be "shot while trying to escape." Federal Civil Rights oversight has eliminated that practice, so it's open-season on cops. There are far too many gangsters nowadays for the cops alone to kill; they're going to need you to help out.
It seems to me that the author has an inherent fear of military-style weapons. This is not without reason--weapons should be fearsome. Weapons with extremely powerful rounds or high rates of fire are more fearsome yet. The question worth asking is whether or not that implies that law-abiding citizens should not own such weapons.
It's worth remembering that the founders of the United States of America won their freedom in part by the strength of privately owned firearms. Many of them were immigrants from England, wherein a common citizen could not bear arms--that right was reserved for the nobility. It's not hard to see why those early Americans wanted the ability to stand up and fight at need. Small arms fulfill that intent.
I don't think this implies that there should be no restrictions on private firearms at all--the Second Amendment does stipulate a "well-regulated militia." But it is clear that our founders intended to ensure that the government would not have a monopoly on armed force.
Hey People,
I agree with most of people commenting here... This guy is a whack job, and i REALLY wished he would have been reported to the police.
ANd my deer rifle .30-06 with 180 gr. bullets will take down anyone at 500 yrds. People are scared fo the wrong things. THey should be scared of lieing, cheating, lib's, who would take our guns....!!
BIll
Wow, the lil liberal Gun Ban advocate is all upset that the 2nd Amendment was not overturned.
Too bad. We still have that right, and if you don't like it, move to Cuba or North Korea - two socialist worker's paradise kind of countries where the Eeeeeevil guns are banned!
When I clicked on a link to this site to read this article, and saw all the misinformation, I had to double check to make sure my browser wasn't hijacked to the brady site. Bruce just uses that site to do all his "research". Maybe when he does an article on Obama, he will use the KKK site.
So he saw a ".50-caliber sniper rifle, capable of downing a jumbo jet."
Maybe it can be done in theory, but can it really be done? Does he know of anyone actually having done this? Has he talked to any U.S. military sniper about this?
There are a lot of .50-caliber rifles in Afghanistan and Iraq, how many airplanes have been downed by them? ZERO.
Trace data is not available for the purpose of frivolous lawsuits? BOO
HOO. Just because a gun has been traced does not mean it was involved in a crime.
Miami police chief John Timoney described how AK-47s have become the weapon of choice among violent criminals in his city.
Is this from weapons taken from criminals permanently removed from the streets, or what a political appointee has to say to keep his job?
Can anyone actually get a real ak47?
Garry McCarthy of the Newark, New Jersey, police department agreed. [We have had] running gun battles through the streets."
If this was true, the liberal media would be all over this, yet they seem to be silent----
Looks like this "reporter" got into this magazine's stash.
Only small caveat in this instance is that the argument "until guilt is proven" means "after people get shot a lot with automatic weapons" ...
Assault Weapons: Evil Black Rifles (or perhaps not)
http://hubpages.com/hub/Assault-Weapons-Evil-Black-Rifles-or-perhaps-not
Bruce! Bruce! Bruce!
How could you guys of all communists out there hate the AK47?
I mean your workers paradise created this weapon. Embrace it, Love it.
It is your heritage.
Christian wrote, "I don't think this implies that there should be no restrictions on private firearms at all--the Second Amendment does stipulate a 'well-regulated militia.'"
Read the Supreme Court's Heller v. DC opinion. The militia clause is held not to be a restriction on the "right to keep and bear" clause.
"Well-regulated" means "well-disciplined and trained." The idea was that it would be easier to muster an effective civil defense force, if as many people as possible owned arms (primarily, but not limited to firearms) and were familiar with their use in private life. As was well known throughout history: the Boss was the one with the guns. In the US, the citizen was to be the Boss, and so should not need to ask anybody's permission to keep and bear arms.
Unfortunately, somewhere along the line, people lost track of what "shall not be infringed" meant, and out of fear (and some, out of fear of the crowd, which they wished to control) enacted gun control measures that, over time ended up basically requiring people to ask permission of the government to exercise their "right," which the government was not to infringe. This inverted the constitutionally-intended power relationship. Now, it's not the citizens who are in control, but the so-called "public servants." That situation needs to be repaired. By affirming the individual right to keep and bear arms, unqualified by any requirement for militia service, the Heller decision took a decent step in the originally intended direction.
Now, expect to see a parade of court cases, designed to probe the limits of the meaning of the phrase, "shall not be infringed."
The reason manufacturers were able to make minor changes and continue to import "assault weapons" is due to the very definition--Basically any semiauto with a removable magazine, and more than one scary feature--The wrong handles, a flash suppressor to protect the shooter's vision (but not suppressing the flash from onlookers) bayonet mounts (when was the last time you heard of bayonet crime?) and grenade launchers (to launch grenades that are already illegal). None of these features are necessary for the gun to work, none increase lethality or criminal usefulness.
The SKS doesn't have a removable magazine, therefore has never been considered an assault weapon under federal law.
Every centerfire rifle cartridge is capable of penetrating soft body armor. The round fired by the SKS is less powerful than almost all other military rifles used between WW1 and the Vietnam war.
Information about gun crime use is still easily available to law enforcement--The Tihart amendment only prevents this information from being used for non law enforcement purposes, such as harassing firearms dealers and manufacturers.
Even a bird can bring down an aircraft under the wrong circumstances. A .50 is powerful, but not magical, and nothing about it makes it significantly more likely to bring down an aircraft than other rifles.
This article is terrible. It is an insult to truthful journalism. This coming from an American who does not own a gun.
I hope that If Mother Jones has any integrity left, This reporter will not be writting future articles for them.
This article is a treasure of misinformation. The Russian SKS rifle that is older than 50 years old is a Curio and Relic by BATF definition. I bought one back in 1994 when Clinton was president. It was a Curio and Relic and back then you could even buy one in California and take it home without a background check. So don't say that Bush reclassified it as a Curion and Relic this is a red faced lie. It was already one fourteen years ago.
Holy Mackerel. That is possibly the worst researched article I've ever seen. Mr. Falconer, a simple Wikipedia search would have illustrated that 99% of what you assert in your article is completly incorrect.
Actually, the truth is worse than Bruce describes. He COULD have bought that MAK-90 from a private seller had he shopped around a bit more. Private sellers have no legal duty whatsoever to check a buyer's driver license, much less run a background check on them. I've witnessed such private sales occur at Virginia gun shows, where the seller and buyer don't even so much as exchange names. Kudos to this particular seller, who checked with a licensed dealer and then reneged on the sale, but there was no legal duty to do so (and no accountability had he sold the gun without asking such questions). The system provides the most benefit to those who show little or no responsibility, allowing them to profit without having to account for diverting guns to criminals and traffickers when these guns later show up on crime scenes (that's if authorities can successfully trace the guns, remember that there is no paperwork for a private sale and no oversight by the government whatsoever on these sales).
My AK-47's have not been involved in any running "gun battles". Miami, huh? Imagine that. They have a social problem down there.
Miami's Police Chief is one of the most mistaken and incorrect people I have ever seen. He has been whining about "assault weapons" ever since the ban sunsetted. The funny thing is, the only thing the expiration of the ban did was allow us to throw bayonet lugs and threade muzzle brakes on them. Is he having a huge drive-by bayonetting problem in Miami, now? Those of us in the know, know that we were LEGALLY buring AK-47's, Uzi's, SKS's, etc. during the entire duration of Clinton's Presidency. The ban did nothing.
My local dealer is a very responsible dealer. You should run an article on him. He is profiling gun buyers, and not selling to certain looking individuals. He simply tells them that he will not sell to them, or he lies and tells them that their background checks were rejected. Most of these type of people do not even argue it, and they leave. Wonder why? Profiling works. We don't have a gun problem. we have a "social" problem.
My .270 deer rifle has more power, higher accuracy, and is an all-around more deadly weapon than my MAK-90. This from personal experience, not from talking to government bureacrats.
By the way, I've never heard of a police chief that supports the individual right to bear arms. One police chief's opinion I read several years ago: "If private citizens are allowed to carry concealed weapons, our officers won't know who's armed and who's not!" 'nuf said.
I am a law-abiding citizen that believes in the second amendment right to self defence of my person and my home. Being a supporter of the NRA, let me conclude that "when guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns".
This is just ridiculous. Thank you for wasting my time.
The NRA must have a payrolled list of 'commentors'. Any time a story about guns pops up on this site it takes 10 minutes for the comments page to refresh. There are many other issues that you can monday morning quarterback on that are of more vital importance that whether or not you can own a gun - which you can. All this 'Red Dawn' anticommunism talk is boring.
The commentators have pretty well neutralized your whole article.
Anything to say in your own defense before the judge pronounces you guilty of Yellow Journalism??
"I am a law-abiding citizen that believes in the second amendment right to self defence of my person and my home." You need to read the 2nd Amendment again. Nowhere does it mention a right to defend your person or your home. Your misreading comes as no surprise, considering you ended your comment with a cliche that someone else recited to you. To paraphrase the great Lennie Briscoe, the last original thought you had you left swirling in the bowl.
Robert sez: The NRA must have a payrolled list of 'commentors'."
Do you have some arguments to refute their points, are you just here to say what you consider derogatory things about those who have shredded Bruce Falconer's contentions?
Robert sez: "There are many other issues that you can monday morning quarterback on that are of more vital importance that whether or not you can own a gun..."
Then why are you wasting precious time writing comments here, about the second point in the Nation's Bill of Rights, but to you, NON-vital issue?
FOUR documentaries I recommend:
1. "The After School Arms Club" - 47 min - Aug 7, 2006 Mark Thomas, watch as teens become functioning arms dealers online to protest moronic security & trade regulations.
- http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1051967493712983252
2. "The Arms Fair": watch as Thomas masquerades as a "PR consultant" for Disaster Capitalist war criminals & they admit to warcrimes on video...
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A_B9lB8w5k
3. "Taking Liberties": how the Amerikan Korporate ReichWing is **bigger than just an Americka problem**... so get our there & participate in UNIVERSAL Human Rights struggles... in the Americas, EU & Pacific Rim...
- http://thiscanadian.typepad.com/this_canadian/2008/05/taking-libertie.ht...
4. "The DoomsDay Code": watch Tony Robinson investigate how Amerikan Evangelical DoomsDay 'missionaries' show up in post-Disaster Capitalist banana republics to capitalize on the war crimes & human rights abuses that fester when Amerikan-backed regimes have torn the entrails out of social networks & economic supports... in places like Uganda... where Khristian private mercenaries are hiring former child warriors who've seen nothing but true social collapse that truly resembles "Hell on Earth"
- http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6439295521791525424
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BlueBerry Pick'n
can be found @
ThisCanadian com
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"... tolerance of intolerance is cowardice ~ Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
"We, two, form a Multitude" ~ Ovid.
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"Silent Freedom is Freedom Silenced"
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Hey gun freaks, eat your guns. The rest of would be very happy to see you go.
Hi, liberal gun-owner here. Just a couple of things:
A 50-cal rifle could take down a jet, under the right conditions. Then again, so could a couple of well-placed frozen chickens.
The larger fallacy that the anti-gun crowd continues to desperately cling to is the notion that if all the guns were taken away, there would be no more violence.
Regulating, restricting and banning firearms only ensures that those of us who go through the proper legal channels can't get them. It has no bearing whatsoever for the people who buy via the black market.
More people die each year as a result of drunk drivers than of gun-related incidents, yet I don't see anyone calling for a ban on beer
Rather than blaming the guns, why not take a close look at how so many illegal weapons are able to enter the country every year? How many thousands of shipping containers enter our ports every year without being inspected?
And where do you think those illegal Ak 47's come from??... China! and did you know they have no tracable serial numbers. Why do you focus on one weapon ? the Ak 47 ? are you being fear pimps? So a cop gets shot, big deal goes with the job or as my instructor at the sheriffs academy once said " a dead cop is a good cop, they can get legislation passed and pay raises for us. But a cop that uses his weapon on a suspect and wounds rather then kills is bad news for us." So people have weapons, yes it sucks the illegall weapons and the crazies out there but why should law abiding citizens be punished? People start fires and fireman get killed in arson related fires... what no call to ban gasoline and matches? Quit being fear pimps the citizens have the right to be armed, I have a college degree working on my third degree, a Masters in Criminal Justice, and I am a Sheriff's Deputy. I accept the risks that go with the job.
Gunfreaks writes: "Hey gun freaks, eat your guns. The rest of would be very happy to see you go."
Isn't this just the loving, caring, giving, reaching-out, understanding, "criminals are just misunderstood and underprivileged" Left that's so dear to our hearts?
Quite insightful there Gunfreaks. Insight into the anti-gun "mind", that is.
Liberals and Gun prohibitioners say that a gun is akin to a phallic symbol....
" The fear of a weapon is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity.." Sigmound Freud
Makes you wonder about them doesn't it?
What's the big deal about buying prohibited assault rifles in DC?
When we are selling prohibited to civilian people armor pierced arms to the Mexican Drug dealers? Arms that are more advanced than the ones used for the Mexican army, sold just across the border from Mexico and made in the USA>
It is so nice to see the creativity of American free enterprise at work in the marketplace, assuring our continued worldwide leadership in areas like murder, mayhem, drug dealing, and (of course) the individual's right to own an AK-47 and kill anyone s/he [pleases as efficiently as possible.
Vote Democratic in November: it might help to end some of the slaughter...
''But not only did the current Bush administration allow the 1994 assault weapons ban to lapse'' Uhmmm... doesn't Congress make and renew laws, not the Executive branch?
"sks....are capable of penetrating the type of soft body armor typically worn by law enforcement officers." Uhmmm... aren't all centerfire rifles capable of penetrating soft body armor?? What is you biased point?
"Cities and advocacy organizations were bringing litigation against gun manufacturers for irresponsible marketing and also, in some cases, against individual retailers," Uhmmm...since when is a retailer responsible for what a customer does illegally. Is Chevy responsible for hit and runs?
"Already, since the ban's expiration in 2004, the atf has documented an 11 percent rise in the number of traces run on AK-47s and similar weapons—an increase that SUGGESTS more AKs are on the streets and are being used to commit crimes." Uhmm...since when is an ATF trace directly tied to a crime? The only one suggesting anything is you!
"At one table, a little boy admired a .50-caliber sniper rifle, capable of downing a jumbo jet" Uhmm..where has this actually occurred?? Perhaps you shouldn't repeat unsubstianted facts.
Mother,
It appears that there is much controversey over this authors article and his professionalism and his research methods. I suggest you take a close look at him and his methods.
Typical gun-banner write-up. If you came from DC to VA to attempt to buy a gun, then you committed one or more felonies. Please turn yourself in, or I, a VA resident, may file charges against you myself. I will certainly be sure that the authorities get a copy of your write-up. Maybe they will want to charge your employer with conspiracy, too.
I fail to see how a concealed firearm can be considered to be a deterrent; if you are truly scared of your fellow man, then wear the firearm in the open on your hip; an "open carry" firearm is a deterrent, a "concealed carry" firearm is the sign of the assassin
["...American free enterprise at work in the marketplace, assuring our continued worldwide leadership in areas like murder, mayhem, drug dealing, and (of course) the individual's right to own an AK-47 and kill anyone s/he [pleases as efficiently as possible."]
Where to start...? From the top I guess.
["America..., assuring our continued worldwide leadership in ... murder, mayhem..."]
Not even close. Not in the Top ten, not in the top twenty, not in the top thirty..., hell, we can't even make the top FORTY, if you trust Wikipedia. If not, choose your own site (nationmaster.com is good) and research "homicide rates by country", or "murder rates by country". You might be interested in contrasting the "gun control" laws in countries like Jamaica or Mexico that have much higher rates along with much stricter "gun control". Jamaica particularly, which is #3 (with a bullet) on most lists, and has a total prohibition on private gun ownership, with laws so strict you can get "life" for the possession of a single round of .22 rimfire ammunition.
["...our continued worldwide leadership in ......drug dealing..."]
You've got to be kidding! Why even Bother to bring up Columbia or Afghanistan if you truly believe your own ridiculous contention?
["American free enterprise at work in the marketplace, assuring ... the individual's right to own an AK-47 and kill anyone s/he pleases..."]
Sorry, I don't find this "right" outlined anywhere in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights or in any one of 50 State Constitutions. Matter of fact, (and correct me if I'm wrong) I believe that's actually ILLEGAL in all 50 States.
What else have you got?
Anything that isn't patently false?
Perhaps your publication should stick to protecting our rights, rather than bitching about them.
["I fail to see how a concealed firearm can be considered to be a deterrent.."]
Ask a criminal, who simply can't tell if that 'victim' he's scouting is carrying a 9mm or .357, or not, in a 'shall-issue' State.
["...a "concealed carry" firearm is the sign of the assassin"]
Right.
Over 1.2 million assassins in Florida alone. Scores of millions of assassins in the 46 States that issue permits for concealed carry, or the 2 that require none...
BTW: What would you say our assassination statistics look like?
