3.3 "No one needs an assault weapon, they have no sporting purpose, they're only intended to kill people."
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This article is from the talk.politics.guns Official Pro-Gun FAQ, by Ken Barnes (kebarnes@cc.memphis.edu) with numerous contributions by others.
3.3 "No one needs an assault weapon, they have no sporting purpose, they're only intended to kill people."
See particularly LaPierre,"Guns, Crime, and Freedom,"where
he devotes an entire chapter (Chapter 6) to this.
also
Madison, James, Hamilton, Alexander, and Jay, John,
"The Federalist"#46
Halbrook,"That Every Man Be Armed"
Cottrol and Diamond, Georgetown Law J.
Kleck,"Point Blank,"pp.70-82
Simkin, Zelman, and Rice,"Lethal Laws,"(see above)
"Crime and the Sacking of America: The Roots of Chaos,"
by Andrew P. Thomas, Brassey's, ISBN 0-275-94913-3 (1994)
also
Aymette v. State, Tennessee Reports v.21 (2 Humphreys) p.154 (1840)
cited in
U.S. v. Miller, U.S. Reports v.307 p.174, Supreme Court Reporter
v.59 p.816, Lawyer's Edition v.83 p.1206 (1939)
In summary: So-called "assault weapons" are not machineguns (which
have been heavily taxed and restricted since 1934), and are less
powerful than many commonly used hunting rifles, like the .30-06 .
They only fire one shot per pull of the trigger, not a "spray of
bullets," and operate under the same principle as other semi-automatics.
They are defined in law primarily according to their appearance, which
often resembles a military-issue "select-fire" rifle or machinegun,
including a pistol grip, a folding stock, a flash suppressor or muzzle
brake, a barrel shroud, a bayonet lug, and/or a grenade launcher. None
of these features makes these guns any more deadly, and even the most
ominously named, the "grenade launcher," amounts to a metal clip at the
muzzle of the gun which can hold a rifle grenade (the actual grenades,
however, are considered "destructive devices" and cannot be sold to
individuals without an FBI background check, and the payment of
a hefty tax to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms on the
sale of_each_grenade). So-called "assault weapons", like their
military counterparts, may use the same ammunition as other small
and intermediate sized game hunting rifles, and can accept a magazine
holding a large supply of ammunition. Like their military counterparts,
they are often equipped with lighter, more durable polymer or composite
stocks, which don't require as much maintenance as wood stocks, and
aren't so heavy to carry. These guns are often used for "varmint"
control, competition target shooting, small game hunting, and other
lawful purposes.
In point of fact, their military counterparts were designed primarily
to wound (rather than kill) enemy soldiers; since a wounded soldier must
be carried from the battlefield by others, and continues to consume
enemy resources, without continuing to be a threat. That, combined with
lighter weight both for the gun and its ammunition, made the assault
rifle (which, unlike the term "assault weapon," has a precise military
definition) a military advantage over older infantry weapons which were
often based on heavier caliber hunting guns.
The right of civilians in a free society to possess "military-
looking," or even actual military weapons, is essential if a monopoly
of force is not to reside in the hands of government (see 2.0.a), where
history shows the potential for far greater abuses and crimes exists
than are possible for any deranged individual. Every major genocide
in the twentieth century has been preceded by laws which disarmed the
eventual victims of their ability to resist the progressive imposition
of murderous tyranny. Once granted a monopoly of force, government
acquires power that cannot be readily opposed or revoked. (See 4.0)
And, if government fails to act, as in time of natural disaster or a
riot, the ability to defend against roving gangs or to deter looting
requires a dependable, versatile, and credible deterrent to whatever
threat may appear, and possibly even a means to obtain small game for
survival. Or, if government is too far away to act quickly, for
instance in remote rural areas, or miles from shore out to sea, people
faced with attack by packs of wild animals, human predators, or
hijacking pirates must be able to respond with all necessary force, in
order to preserve their lives from harm.
Rifles of any kind are very rarely used in crime, since they are
more difficult to carry and conceal than are handguns, and "military-
looking" rifles are generally more expensive than both handguns and
common long guns (rifles, shotguns) used for hunting (see 3.5).
Further, the Supreme Court has ruled that weapons having no "reasonable
relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well regulated
militia" may be taxed in interstate commerce, clearly implying that
weapons having such reasonable relationship with the militia are those
which the Second Amendment protects the right of the people to keep
and bear, moreso even than other types of weapons. In other words,
the arms protected by the Second Amendment are those "such as are
usually employed in civilized warfare, and that constitute the ordinary
military equipment."
Prior to the passage of President Clinton's Crime Bill in 1994
(see Appendix I.), which included a controversial (and unconstitutional)
ban on "assault weapons," sales as well as manufacturing of the to-be-
banned weapons increased dramatically, and soon after the ban passed,
it was revealed that Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D - WV), a supporter of the
ban, in fact owned one of the weapons on the ban list, a Colt AR-15.
President Clinton has admitted publicly that he believes that as many
as twenty of the Democrat legislators who supported his gun ban were
defeated for re-election on the basis of their votes. In the November
1994 elections, Democrats lost majorities in both the U.S. House of
Representatives and the Senate. On March 22nd, 1996 the House of
Representatives voted 239-173 to repeal the ban, but the measure was
not taken up in the Senate, where Republicans hold only a slim majority.
In 1996, Republican Presidential candidate and former Senate majority
leader Robert Dole had initially taken a position in favor of repeal,
but later reversed himself during a July 15 appearance on CNN's_Larry
King Live,"saying "Keep the assault weapons ban." Dole's choice of
former HUD secretary Jack Kemp as a running mate further estranged
pro-gun voters, since Kemp had likewise abandoned his long pro-RKBA
record in 1993, saying during an appearance on NBC's_Meet the Press,"
"Ban it any way you can," in response to host Tim Russert's question
about his views on the "assault weapons" law. Dole and Kemp were
subsequently defeated in the general election, losing 32 of 50 states.
For President Clinton's part, it was revealed after the election
that his Arkansas associate, Yah Lin "Charlie" Trie, had arranged a
February 6, 1996 fundraising coffee at which Mr. Clinton met Wang Jun,
who runs the China International Trust and Investment Corporation
(CITIC), parent company of Poly Technologies, the arms manufacturing
concern of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. (Poly Technologies'
AK-47 copies were one of the weapons banned by name in the "assault
weapons" law!) Wang Jun is considered to be one of the "young princes"
heir apparent to the rulership of China, by virtue of his being the son
of Wang Zhen, the late anti-democratic vice-president and general.
Wang Jun is also believed to have met with then-Commerce Secretary Ron
Brown the same day, according to State Department records obtained by
House Rules Committee Chairman Gerald Solomon (R, NY). A day after
the meetings with Clinton and Brown, the Democratic National Committee
recieved a $50,000 contribution from investment banker Ernest G. Green,
who had written a letter in support of Wang Jun getting an entrance visa
to the United States. Four days prior to Clinton's meeting with Wang,
the federal government had issued importation permits to a company called
China Jiang An for a large multimillion-dollar shipment of over 100,000
semiautomatic weapons and millions of rounds of ammunition made by Poly
Technologies and the other well-known Chinese arms maker, China Northern
Industries Corporation, better known as Norinco, which is an ostensibly
civilian-run company formerly known as the Ordnance Ministry. (One of
Norinco's most familiar products is the Colt .45 auto copy bearing the
unintentionally humorous marking "Model of the 1911A1" stamped on the
slide.) None of the China Jiang An shipment made it into the U.S.
market, however, because at about the same time, over 2,000 full-auto
Norinco AK-47s and some 4,000 magazines (read "high-capacity ammunition
feeding devices") were seized by BATF and Customs officials in March
1996 as part of a 16-month sting operation (code-named "Dragon Fire")
targeting the Chinese arms industry. Fourteen indictments were issued
June 4, 1996 (not coincidentally, the 7th anniversary of the massacre
in Tian an men Square) against Norinco and Poly Technologies executives
who had allegedly agreed to smuggle the machineguns to undercover agents
posing as members of organized crime. President Clinton has since
described having met with Wang as "clearly inappropriate."
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