From ca-firearms-owner Tue May 10 14:14:33 1994 Received: from localhost (chan@localhost) by jobe.shell.portal.com (8.6.4/8.6.5) id OAA21722 for ca-firearms-outgoing; Tue, 10 May 1994 14:10:56 -0700 Received: from nova.unix.portal.com (nova.unix.portal.com [156.151.1.101]) by jobe.shell.portal.com (8.6.4/8.6.5) with ESMTP id OAA21703 for ; Tue, 10 May 1994 14:10:54 -0700 Received: from mailer (mailer.ug.eds.com [134.244.3.234]) by nova.unix.portal.com (8.6.7/8.6.5) with ESMTP id OAA22556 for ; Tue, 10 May 1994 14:10:52 -0700 Received: from DECNET-MAIL (SYSTEM@VXD) by UG.EDS.COM (PMDF V4.2-11 #4) id <01HC6DK98CJ4008S3Y@UG.EDS.COM>; Tue, 10 May 1994 14:07:12 PDT Date: Tue, 10 May 1994 14:07:11 -0700 (PDT) From: Royce Myers -- CAM Development 10-May-1994 1340 Subject: Essay on assault weapons To: ca-firearms@shell.portal.com Message-id: <01HC6DK98VTU008S3Y@UG.EDS.COM> X-Envelope-to: ca-firearms@shell.portal.com X-VMS-To: MAILER::IN%"ca-firearms@shell.portal.com" X-VMS-Cc: ROYCE MIME-version: 1.0 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Sender: ca-firearms-owner@shell.portal.com Precedence: bulk Status: R I know this is a discussion list, and some of you have seen a revision of this on t.p.g, but here is an essay about why assault weapons should be banned. I should mention that the author holds a hunting license and does not own any weapon affected by the ban :)). Feel free to copy, distribute, etc with proper attribution. If you put this in a newsletter, I'd like to get a copy. Feel free to comment also. This is revision 3. "Assault Weapons" Should be Legal by Royce Myers - What are "assault weapons"? In general, so called "assault weapons" appear to be semiautomatic copies of military assault rifles, however, no general definition works well. The Feinstein amendment to the Senate Crime Bill defines assault weapons in several different ways: specific models, action types and features attached to the weapon, like pistol grips and bipods. This definition does not specify the power, range, accuracy or any other functional atribute of a firearm. Under the general guidelines of the definition, almost any semi-automatic hunting weapon would be banned; therefore, over three hundred models of centerfire rifles are specifically exempted from this bill. There are also lists of rimfire rifles and shotguns. - Why should assault weapons be left alone? The first rule of medicine is "do no harm", and this should apply to government, too. Banning these weapons will not improve public safety in any way, and therefore there is no reason for government intrusion. o Assault weapons are no more dangerous than hunting weapons. 1. Both hunting and assault weapons have the same magazine capability. When hunting there are laws limiting magazine capacity, but there is nothing to prevent a hunting weapon from accepting a high capacity magazine from an aftermarket company. 2. A hunting weapon is designed to kill a game animal as quickly as possible. Military weapons are designed (1) to suppress fire and movement of the enemy and (2) to wound the enemy, because this does as much immediate good in getting the soldier out of the fight, and it costs three times as many resources to treat a wounded soldier as to take care of a dead one. Military ammunition, therefore, is usually smaller and weaker than hunting ammunition. Most assault weapons are semi-automatic replicas of automatic military rifles, and are therefore actually less deadly than comparable hunting rifles. Therefore, hunting weapons are more deadly or equally deadly when compared with assault weapons. o Assault weapons do not give criminals an advantage over police. 1. Police have access to fully automatic weapons, yet hardly every carry them due to their limited utility. If police have access to any weapon they want, how can they be "outgunned"? 2. Assault weapons are not widely used to kill police. About seven percent of police killings since 1977 were with a _potential_ assault rifle (military caliber rifle or caliber not reported). Of the police killed by guns in 1993, over half were killed with their own weapon. 3. Assault weapons are used in a fraction of a percent of crimes. Assuming that all crimes committed with assault weapons would not have been committed if they were banned, the ban would have prevented less than 1% of violent crime. If these weapons were banned, few actual crimes would be prevented because criminals will either ignore the law or substitute a more lethal weapon. 4. Top Ten guns used in crime: - S&W .38 Special - Raven Arms .25 - Davis P-380 - S&W .357 - Ruger .22 - Lorcin L-380 - S&W semiautomatic handgun - Mossberg 12 gauge - Tec DC9 * - Remington 12 gauge * -- a listed assault weapon. - There are legitimate reasons to own assault weapons. 1. They are cheap and fun to shoot. I.e., recreation. 2. They are collectibles from war. Some owners acquired their guns while serving in the armed forces. 3. They have a unique self defense use: they are good "riot" guns for civilians. So-called "assault weapons" are not much different than any other kind of gun, yet there is a furor over them. Before the government enacts a law which infringes on a right, it must be able to show that the law advances compelling interest, and there is no such reason to ban assault weapons. Their value in recreation, memorabilia and defense far outweighs any danger they pose to the public.