1994 CCA: Impotence in Action

The 1994 Crime Control Act (usually referred to as the assault weapons ban) expires today. It was originally written with an automatic expiration if Congress failed to renew it.

Hysterical editorials are predicting deaths by gunshot and gun crimes to skyrocket now that US citizens may, once again legally purchase all of these previously banned assault weapons.

The weapons banned were semi automatic, meaning one pull of the trigger fires only one bullet. Fully automatic weapons, which fire multiple bullets for each pull of the trigger, had been banned long before 1994. Recall the bank robbery in LA where the thieves wore body armor and fired hundreds of rounds out of fully automatic AK47s. Criminals are seldom concerned with obeying our laws (really?) and have been buying and selling all sorts of illegal weapons despite our laws.

The weapons banned under the 1994 CCA were defined as assault weapons by being semi automatic with a detachable magazine and possessing at least two of the following features: pistol grip, folding stock, bayonet mount, flash suppressor or a grenade launcher. True, as a hunter and sportsman I don't need a bayonet mount, flash suppressor or a grenade launcher but it's also true that none of those things on the list above make that weapon any more dangerous than the completely legal deer rifle I have in my closet. The banned weapons just seem scarier because they look like a military weapon. They are no more lethal.

Finally, because this law was passed in 1994 and these banned weapons had been sold legally for years there are enormous numbers of guns and magazines that were "grandfathered" and could still be bought and sold legally. So, legally purchased assault weapons, as defined by the CCA, were still readily available from most gun dealers, if only for a higher price than pre-ban.

There is an old saying about the ignorant mocking what they do not understand. In this case, the ignorant (people who don't know anymore about guns than what they've seen on tv) are susceptible to the deception of those who are turning this impotent law into a political weapon.

The criminals don't care, the law abiding citizens who own "grandfathered" guns aren't the ones committing crimes and only the gun dealers stand to benefit if the law is renewed. You and I stand a much greater chance of dying in a car wreck than being shot by a previously banned weapon.

Crime statistics (Dept. of Justice, FBI) show that murder by gun dropped in the three years following 1994. Taken by itself (as is being quoted by so many gun control advocates) that statistic might support this ban. What is not being quoted are the other crime statistics about murder with knives and with blunt objects which fell at approximately the same rate as gun murders. Perhaps, the most relevant statistic is that the percentage of murders by guns moved less than 2.5% between 1994 and 1997. There are far too many other factors involved to declare the assault weapons ban as having the slightest impact on those figures.

The final word is (it's my blog after all)... the finger on the trigger is what makes a gun fire a bullet. The hand holding the gun is what aims it at another person. I've had guns all my life and not one of them has ever killed a human being.