← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Faust
Thread ID: 14938 | Posts: 17 | Started: 2004-09-09
2004-09-09 13:57 | User Profile
"assault weapon" ban to sunset
The information resource for the expiration of the 1994 semiauto ban! [url]http://www.awbansunset.com/[/url]
[QUOTE]Nation's decade-old ban on assault weapons about to end Republican-controlled Congress unlikely to renew law, whose expiration will not affect Jersey's tough measure Wednesday, September 08, 2004 BY ROBERT COHEN STAR-LEDGER WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- The 10-year-old federal ban on the manufacture and sale of 19 types of semiautomatic assault weapons will expire next week, with little prospect the Republican-controlled Congress will extend the law.
"It's not on our radar screen right now," John Feehery, a spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), said last week.
The GOP's unwillingness to renew the law is a victory for the National Rifle Association and evidence of the diminishing influence of the gun control movement in Washington. Its expiration will not affect assault weapons bans in seven states, including New Jersey, which has the most comprehensive law in the nation.
"Given the extensive national debate 10 years ago and the amount of political energy extended then, it is remarkable the ban will sunset with hardly a notice," said James Jacobs, a New York University law professor and author of the book "Can Gun Control Work?"
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry supports strengthening the ban but has seldom raised the issue on the campaign trail. Proponents say he is fearful his position could cost him votes in such important battleground states as West Virginia, Michigan and Pennsylvania, where hunting is popular.
In Congress, which returned yesterday from its summer recess, the issue is no longer a priority for Kerry's Democratic colleagues.
President Bush, traditionally an ally of the NRA, has said he would sign a bill extending the current law but has not pressed GOP congressional leaders to act. In March, Bush opposed adding an amendment banning assault weapons to an NRA-backed Senate bill designed to protect the gun industry from lawsuits.
"The president has consistently said one thing on assault weapons and then done nothing," said Blaine Rummel, a spokesman for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. "Unless the president makes a phone call to House leaders, it looks like the ban will expire."
NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said he sees "no appetite for renewal of the law within the Congress." He said the reason is that the ban is "bad policy and bad politics," adding that gun owners are a motivated and "savvy block of voters" who "understand gun control laws only affect law-abiding Americans."
Arulanandam said the ban has had an insignificant impact, but that gun control proponents want to use it as a steppingstone to "ban thousands of more guns."
"If you want to reduce crime, the full burden of the American criminal justice system and the full burden of our laws should be focused on the criminal," he said.
Even among gun control advocates, there is disagreement over whether the ban has been effective.
The law prohibited the manufacture, sale and importation of 19 specific semiautomatic weapons. It also outlawed the sale of ammunition clips holding more than 10 rounds. But manufacturers have redesigned their products in ways that allow them to sell firearms that are virtually identical to those prohibited by the law.
The Violence Policy Center, a gun control group, issued a report in July estimating that "more than one million 'post-ban' assault weapons have been manufactured in the United States since the passage of the 1994 law."
The group, which is pushing for a stronger law that will close the loopholes, contends there are more assault weapons makers and assault weapons for sale than ever before.
"The ban really hasn't worked," said the Violence Policy Center's Kristen Rand.
But the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence says the law has been effective in getting some dangerous firearms off the streets. Peter Hamm, communications director for the group, said government records show "a 66 percent decline in the incidence of assault weapons linked to crime."
The Brady Campaign, like other gun control groups, backs legislation sponsored by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) to expand the reach of the current law and is planning a rally in Washington today at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial with police chiefs from Atlanta, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Washington.
Lautenberg said there is no reason for assault-style firearms to be so readily available on the streets, but he offered little hope of extending the ban, let alone strengthening the law.
"The Republicans have the majority, and we don't have full support of the Democrats," Lautenberg said. "It's pitiful."
James Lindgren, a law professor at Northwestern University who has written on the issue, said there are no hard data proving whether the assault weapons ban has had an impact.
"Generally, the best evidence suggests gun control laws have a small net positive effect in reducing crime and violent crime," he said.
The assault weapons ban was approved in 1994 during the Clinton administration as part of an often bitter debate over a $30 billion anti-crime bill. Two years later, Republicans had gained control of the House and voted 239-173 to repeal the ban but the measure died in the Senate.
Earlier this year, the Senate took up a House-passed bill to shield gun makers and sellers from lawsuits related to gun violence.
But when the Senate voted 52-47 to add an assault weapons extension to the bill and 53-46 to close a loophole relating to unlicensed private sellers at gun shows, pro-gun senators withdrew support and voted down the entire bill.
[url]http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-17/109462069023080.xml[/url] [/QUOTE]
2004-09-09 14:02 | User Profile
Weapons ban set to expire next Monday
(Washington-AP) September 9, 2004 - The Consumer Federation of American says the gun industry is getting set to market military style firearms if the federal ban on such weapons expires as scheduled next Monday.
The consumer group says it checked with sales people, as well as manufacturers' catalogs and Web sites. ArmaLite, a gun manufacturer in Geneseo, Illinois, is advertising a "Post-PostBan Rifle Program," offering consumers attachments to convert their firearms to pre-ban configuration.
The 1994 law, signed by President Clinton, banned 19 types of semi-automatic weapons. It included a "sunset" clause that it would automatically expire in 10 years if Congress did not renew it.
President Bush has said he supports the ban, but a number of attempts to extend it in Congress have failed.
The National Rifle Association wants the law to expire.
[url]http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2278061[/url]
2004-09-09 20:30 | User Profile
Bush is pro-gun...
"Addressing another major issue, LaPierre said the NRA is so confident Congress and President Bush will allow a federal assault-weapons ban to expire on Monday that it doesn't plan to run any ads pushing for an end to the 10-year-old ban."
Kerry is anti- gun...
"WASHINGTON - The National Rifle Association mocks John Kerry's attempts to portray himself as friendly to hunting and other gun sports, putting the Democrat in its sights with a $400,000-a-week television ad buy in several presidential battleground states.
"There's a 20-year record he's trying to run away from," said NRA chief executive Wayne LaPierre, who announced the ad buy in an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday."
[url]http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansa.../9610978.htm?1c[/url]
2004-09-09 20:34 | User Profile
The ban will expire next week on Monday.
2004-09-09 20:47 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Gabrielle]Bush is pro-gun...[/QUOTE] Yes, he is, for exactly as long as it is politically expedient. He doesn't have position he wouldn't change if the wind shifts.
2004-09-10 03:10 | User Profile
Quantrill,
If it were not for the election being so close the ban would not be sunsetting. Bush knows if he bring s it back to life gun owners will stay home and John Kerry would be moving into the Whitehouse next year. Maybe Bush is smarter than we thought, I thought he pass a new anti-gun law and kill his chances to win. But hey the GOP has the weekend to do something stupid!
2004-09-11 14:39 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Quantrill]Yes, he is, for exactly as long as it is politically expedient. He doesn't have position he wouldn't change if the wind shifts.[/QUOTE]
"Washington -- Sen. John Kerry charged Friday that President Bush was helping terrorists and caving in to the National Rifle Association by not pushing to extend the 10-year-old federal assault weapons ban that expires at 12:01 a.m. Monday.
The Bush campaign reacted angrily to Kerry's charge.
"For John Kerry to infer that the president is helping terrorists is a clear example of a desperate candidate that prefers the politics of personal destruction over a substantive debate on the issues,'' campaign spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt said.
"President Bush's record of enforcing gun laws is nothing short of exceptional,'' Schmitt added.
The Bush campaign said federal prosecutions for violations of firearms laws had risen 68 percent in the last three years, which it said was evidence of the president's position that criminals shouldn't be able to get guns.
Kerry plans another public session about guns Monday, when he will appear with police chiefs.
While the federal law will expire Monday, California's stricter ban on assault weapons will remain in force. Seven states have assault weapons bans. "
[url]http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/09/11/MNGO68N6P91.DTL[/url]
2004-09-11 14:42 | User Profile
"LLENTOWN, Pa., Sept. 10 - Senator John Kerry said on Friday that the refusal of Republican Congressional leaders to consider extending the assault-weapons ban showed that the president and his party were not serious about fighting terrorism.
"America's streets will not be as safe because of the choice George Bush is making," Mr. Kerry said Friday morning in Missouri, a state where he is struggling to maintain support.
"This is common sense,'' he said, referring to the extension of the ban, which expires Monday. "We've got to protect this country; we've got to protect our streets. I don't understand the philosophy that says you're making America safer when you take cops off the streets and put assault weapons back on them."
[url]http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/11/politics/campaign/11kerry.html[/url]
2004-09-11 15:18 | User Profile
The pro-gun folks are effective in the short run, because they hold the pols accountable, but in the long run they're going to lose if they don't start working to seal the borders. We see how gun rights are faring in the areas where the immigrants are taking over and the news is not good. If the NRA were serious about preserving the Second Amendment, they'd be throwing their weight behind immigration reform, and not backing an open-borders traitor like Jorge Bush.
2004-09-12 02:18 | User Profile
1 day 1 hour AND 43 mins. left!
:cowboy: :gunsmilie :cheers:
2004-09-12 18:55 | User Profile
9 hour AND 6 mins. left!
:gunsmilie :cowboy: :gunsmilie
:cheers: :cheers:
2004-09-12 20:27 | User Profile
Faust? Nothing will change, the criminal will still be able to buy unregistered guns and the honest people will have to register their new "assault" weapons in order for the government to know where to go in order to confiscate them.
The only way to get prepared for what is to come is to act as a criminal.
Think of your wife, think of your kids, think of your country,,,,,no one can do anything for them but you.
If you don't have a firearm don't worry, is very easy to take one from one who has one.
2004-09-12 22:45 | User Profile
Ponce,
Sadly you Right! If you buy any gun from an FFL it registered with the ATF when you buy it.
Take them, make them as you said.
[QUOTE]The only way to get prepared for what is to come is to act as a criminal.[/QUOTE]
But magazines can be gotten without paperwork. The Magazine was the only part of the law that did anything anyway. So time to buy some, the prices should fall like a stone in a few weeks time.
2004-09-13 18:14 | User Profile
So-called "Assault Weapons Ban" Ends.
Stock up on high cap mags.
2004-09-13 23:01 | User Profile
having a bayonet lug doesnt mean much to me, but the mere fact the gvt would ban such frivolous items has bigger implications. its a matter of rolling back "incrementalisim"
now if we can just make null and void that damned emancipation proclimation... :=)
2004-09-14 00:40 | User Profile
Never had any problems finding high cap mags,,,,,, go to "Cheaper than Dirt", "Sportsmans Guide" and so on,,,,,, you will always find them.
But of course, I don't have any of those nasty high cap mags, ufffffff they are a danger to the bears and deers and cops and birds and snakes and so on.
It is also very easy to make one big one out of two or three of the small ones, all you need is the "I want syndrome".
All you need is a good tazer and wait for a cop to to to the bathroom, or join the National Guard or stand on any coner in LA and they will come to you.
2004-09-15 12:31 | User Profile
This does not hurt anything.
New Bushmaster 30R Rd. Magazine $19.95!
Bushmaster 30R Rd. Magazine [url]http://www.bushmaster.com/shopping/magazines/8448670.asp[/url]
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