GOOD News For the Bullet-Proof Vest Industry

[ziggytrix]

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/news/091304_nw_gun_ban.html

Assault Weapons Ban Expires at Midnight

WASHINGTON — Starting at midnight it will be legal to buy many kinds of semiautomatic weapons in the Untied States for the first time since 1994.

On the campaign trail, as John Kerry was endorsed by the National Association of Police Organizations, he blamed President Bush for letting the assault weapons ban lapse.

Kerry said, "George Bush made a choice today. He chose his powerful friends in the gun lobby over the police officers and the families he promised to protect."

President Bush said he would have signed a new ban on assault weapons if Congress had passed it. But Republicans leaders never brought it up for a vote.

Most police organizations support the ban. Gun control supporters predict its expiration will lead to more violent crime.

But, it is unclear whether the ban has helped reduce crime. Loopholes enabled many of the 19 military-style assault weapons to remain on the market because gun makers simply altered their names.

Although, a third of its members support the ban, the powerful National Rifle Association says only 2 percent of gun crimes involved assault weapons.

National Rifle Association's Wayne LaPierre says, "What matters is how a gun shoots. And the guns that are going to be available on Tuesday shoot no different than the ones that were available last Friday."

Many states - including California, Massachusetts, New York, and Hawaii - have passed their own laws curbing the use of assault weapons. Some of those are more stringent than the federal ban.

[FS]

I hope this'll help everyone protect their family as they blindly spray the room with bullets when they hear a strange sound at night.

[conus]

It's also good news for deer hunters, although to continue denying hunters the use of surface-to-surface missiles seems unfair.

[Stark]

It's just like that scenario where you put a thousand monkeys in a room with a thousand typewriters for eternity and one will eventually write shakespeare.

The more bullets fired the bigger chance there is that one will hit osama. It's all a plan by the pentagon to bring an end to terrorism. They call it 'swiss cheese dynamics'.

[FS]

The NRA should organize a "kill Osama with a lucky shot" day by having Americans line up all along the seaside borders and shoot towards other countries.

[Brandon]

JUST AS OUR CONSTITUTIONAL FRAMERS INTENDED, AM I RIGHT?

[The One and Only...]

Woah, woah, woah. This isn't going to make machineguns legal, people.

It says semiautomatic weapons. In other words, you still have the squeeze the trigger seperately for each shot.

[Emu]

Oh, then that makes it all fine.

[Crying Baby Jesus]

I'm gonna go across the border and pick up that Drum fed Shotgun Ive always wanted! And that HK USC thats been taunting me for the last year

[conus]

It says semiautomatic weapons. In other words, you still have the squeeze the trigger seperately for each shot.

I don't know much about guns, but I'll bet you a thousand dollars I could modify a semiautomatic weapon to full auto within an afternoon. I saw an NRA spokesman on PBS news tonight. When asked "How did the ban hurt anyone?" he became so flustered he could barely speak.

[Crying Baby Jesus]

who cares

You can all have the proper weaponry now to take on the Reds when they parachute into your schoolyards and force you and a few friends into the mountains.

[Zhukov]

Can you buy AK's? I've always wanted one.

I think that the lift on the ban is a good idea.

[Anonymous]

Me too. I just wish that gun manufacturers would make 'em cheaper so that everyone could get their own.

Also, I'd like it to be manditory that ammunition be treated with cyanide. I don't want to have to make two trips.

[FS]

Reading an article on the subject this morning, I'm pretty sure you can get AK-74's, the WEAPON OF CHOICE FOR TERRORISTS EVERYWHERE

[Captain Goodtimes]

Keep in mind people that it is still illegal to shoot people with these weapons.

[mew barios]

this ban was stupid. there was never a point during it that you couldn't purchase 50 or 100 round drums simply for their tremendous overstock, and all the affected guns were produced easily within the millions, nothing prevented them from being resold legally. the particular things banned were based on some bizarre definition of assault weapon which had nothing to do with power or lethality or anything at all beyond menacing appearance. most semiauto weaponry was not prohibited, only those with a 'military style appearance'.

ak-47s can't be converted to full auto. fully automatic guns have been heavily regulated for a long time and received no mention in this particular law o.o

this being maintained or lapsed makes not a damn bit of difference :o rightaway people started manufacturing copies of the of guns banned specifically by name, removing the bayonet mountings or shaving a little bit off the weight o.o and giving them a different name.

o.o
i dunno why i'm even bothering to type this out. noone cares :o

[El Blanco]

Originally Posted by conus

I don't know much about guns,

Neither do the people who wrote this ban, otherwise they would have made it more effective.

but I'll bet you a thousand dollars I could modify a semiautomatic weapon to full auto within an afternoon.

Ya, sure. You could do the same with a bolt action rifle.

Hell, you can go into Home Depot and build a fully-auto firing SAW from scratch.

The information is always available.

Wouldn't it be better if we did something about why people think these weapons are needed rather than trying to be their parents and taking away their toys?

[KevinTheOmnivore]

Originally Posted by El Blanco

Neither do the people who wrote this ban, otherwise they would have made it more effective.

You can throw presidents reagan and Ford in that group, along with police organizations across the country.

Just a thought, but sometimes symbolic laws are a good thing to have, and apprently people of all ideological perspectives believed this.....with the exception of course of the NRA and our president.

[conus]

Wouldn't it be better if we did something about why people think these weapons are needed rather than trying to be their parents and taking away their toys?

By that, I suppose you mean that they believe there is sufficient cause to fear government to the extent that they need such weapons. If I were them I wouldn't worry too much if the ban is re-instated. There's always fertilizer.

[The One and Only...]

Just as an added extra to show how truly worthless this ban was, there are hunting rifles stronger than any of the banned assault weapons.

[EisigerBiskuit]

To ban a certain type of weapon instead of all of them is just plain igneramical(?). If a place is so bad that you need to keep guns away from people, possibly causing a riot between rednecks and gun collectors, might as well wipe it out.

[Anonymous]

Originally Posted by The One and Only...

there are hunting rifles stronger than any of the banned assault weapons.

[The One and Only...]

Yeah? So what? Stronger as in the bullet hits harder and faster.

[El Blanco]

I don't think a $15k .50 cal is considered a hunting rifle, OAO, but point taken.