“If this bill had been in effect, there would be little girls and boys still alive today in Newtown.”
“Connecticut’s two U.S. senators are joining forces with California Sen. Dianne Feinstein and other key senators, proposing a retooled federal ban on assault weapons in the wake of the deadly Newtown school shooting. Sen. Richard Blumenthal told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the proposed legislation, to be unveiled Thursday in Washington, D.C., will more narrowly define what’s considered an assault weapon under a resurrected ban. The bill, he said, will also prohibit high-capacity magazines, limiting them to a capacity of up to nine rounds of ammunition.’ [AP]
There’s an important question still hanging in the air. Many activists have said that Adam Lanza used the Bushmaster in the school. The initial reports said the Bushmaster was in the car, not in the school. I have also seen an NBC news clip that seems to say the Bushmaster was in the car.
If Adam Lanza used two to four handguns with 10-shot magazines, then the Sandy Hook incident fails to support any of the gun ban measures being bandied about.
Loughner was swarmed during a magazine swap partly because the 30-round magazine was very hard to handle. No one expects 6-year-old children to be able to deal with an armed assailant, of course.
It’s true that determined mass killers will find ways even if guns are hard to get. It’s also true that guns are the favored weapon of the rare public-shooter killer. I define this type of killer as one who attacks strangers in a public area as opposed to gang attacks, family murders or murders in the course of robbery. I would include terror killers like Hassan at Fort Hood.
That isn’t a statement in favor of the gun ban crowd, it’s just an acknowledgment of a fact.
So the 6-year-olds should be armed with weapons sufficient to overcome chest protectors?
How can anyone believe that slightly limiting the legal availability of firearms will deter a determined mass murder?
We don’t have to accept tragedies. We have to accept that self defense is mandatory to avoid tragedies.
Lanza swapped out his magazine at least twice as I understand. Would more swaps have slowed him down? Who knows? A shooter can be swarmed during reloads as was the Arizona nut. In Newtown, a bunch of 6-year-olds couldn’t do much. Without a significant reduction in guns in total, we just have to accept tragedies. The specter of 20 little caskets haunts me.
Don’t give them any ideas they are already trying to get lead ammo under the EPA and make guns in total a health issue.
There is data available from the last assault rifle ban to address the general question and it supports a conclusion that these Senators are liars. And how many fewer victims do they project would have occurred with the law n place and the shooter armed with 9-round clips? The data from past experience again supports an answer of zero and the same concluson about these Senators. 2 for 2. That doesn’t prove they’re liars, it just supports that conclusion. It does prove they’re not helping, that their help is beyond lame, and that they are in effect only attacking a tradiion and freedom by punishing the innnocent. So, when does this fall under regulation by the EPA?