> Assault on weapons ban
> 
> URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/06/06/ED111618.DTL
> 
> Friday's SF Chronicle included a contributed op-ed promoting
> continuance of the Assault Weapon ban. It appears to be riddled
> with not only invectives but errors. If you write a Letter to the
> Editor, please copy it to info@ggnra.org-nospam .


Here's what I just sent.

Terry

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: LTE response to Ian McCuaig's 6/6/03 rant about "assault" weapons
Date: Sun, 08 Jun 2003 16:40:13 -0400
From: Terry Wintroub 
To: letters@sfchronicle.com-nospam

Dear Editor,

In response to Ian McCuaig ["Assault on weapons ban"
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/06/06/ED111618.DTL]:

Ian may be a writer, but either he needs to fire his fact checker or the
San Fran Chron needs to fire whoever left Ian's facts on the editing
room floor.

Ian claims House Majority Leader Tom DeLay threatens to block an
extension of an "assault" weapons ban. DeLay has made no such threat. He
has observed that there are not enough votes in the House to pass an
extension of this law.
http://search.epnet.com/direct.asp?an=WPT183391050803&db=nfh

Ian refers to "explosive Winchester Black Talon bullets". Black Talon
ammunition did not contain explosive bullets. See
http://www.firearmstactical.com/briefs2.htm#Black-Talon

Ian claims that DiFi shepherded through Congress a "ban that removed
from circulation guns such as the particularly heinous TEC-DC9". The law
she got passed removed NOTHING from circulation. It prohibited the
MANUFACTURE of certain firearms after September 13, 1994, and it
prohibited the sale or possession of those selected firearms IF they
were manufactured after September 13, 1994. All pre-9/13/94  versions of
those firearms remained legal and "in circulation".
http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles1/173405.pdf

Ian claims "No responsible person would have any use for these weapons
other than to wreak the same havoc Ferri did." If we can stipulate that
"responsible" is an empirical description rather than a mere subjective
opinion, then it seems obvious that a responsible person would have at
the very least one use for these weapons: to defend himself and others
against another Ferri or gang of Ferris.

The fact remains that there is nothing special about the TEC-DC9. It's a
semi-automatic handgun, larger than most but otherwise just like the
ones carried by cops and by thousands of licensed, law-abiding citizens
and just like the ones owned by millions more law-abiding citizens. Like
Officer Friendly's Glock and like my own Kimber Classic -- but unlike,
say, a Beretta Tomcat .32 caliber pocket pistol -- the TEC-DC9 can take
a 30-round magazine.

If you're going to give ink to McCuaig's falsehoods, please give plenty
of ink to those of us who take the time to correct them.

Terry Wintroub
Lawrenceville, NJ