Op-Ed: National Assault Weapons Ban Renewal Long Overdue
Colorado shootings more evidence for the need to ban assault weapons nationwide.
In many states, there is no limit on the number of guns, nor on the amount of ammunition, one can buy.
In New Jersey, however, you cannot purchase more than one gun each month and assault weapons are banned.
The state ranked second behind California on the national scorecard of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. According to the campaign, the six states with the toughest gun laws also had the lowest gun death rates in the nation last year.
Now that makes sense, doesn’t it?
Including Friday’s mass shooting in a Colorado movie theater that claimed the lives of a dozen people and wounded 70, including a 23-year-old Sussex County woman, 20 people have been killed and 95 wounded in 22 days.
A timeline by the Los Angeles Times of the deadliest mass shootings (at least five deaths) in the country shows that since the repeal of the assault weapons ban, 122 people have been killed in such shootings. The list includes the shootings at Fort Hood and in Binghamton, N.Y. The two 2009 shootings resulted in the deaths of 13, as well as the 2007 rampage at Virginia Tech, where a student slaughtered 32.
While it is unclear what drove James Holmes to allegedly open fire in a crowded movie theater early Friday morning at the opening of the latest Batman movie in Aurora, Colo., it is abundantly clear that he was able to do so much damage because he used a semi-automatic assault rifle, among other weapons. News reports indicate Holmes allegedly bought four guns and more than 6,000 rounds of ammunition in the last two months.
He bought all that firepower legally.
Variants of one of the weapons Holmes allegedly used in the attack, an AR-15 rifle, was included in a federal ban on assault weapons enacted by former President Bill Clinton in 1994. However, the ban expired in 2004 and was not re-enacted.
Why does the average citizen need a semi-automatic weapon?
These reportedly can fire between 45 and 60 rounds per minute. Why does anyone, except a police or military officer, need to shoot so many bullets so quickly?
Hunters argue they should be able to own guns in order to shoot at wild game. Citizens argue they should be able to own a gun in order to shoot wild robbers who might break into their homes.
The National Rifle Association argues everyone should be able to own a gun because the Constitution says so.
The Constitution also says people have the right to assemble peacefully, but there are rules for protests and police were able to disperse Occupy Wall Street protesters in cities like New York for alleged unsanitary and hazardous conditions.
The Constitution also says Americans have free speech, but that doesn’t give one the right to slander another, or, as U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. wrote, to falsely shout fire in a crowded theater and create a panic.
Yet, thanks to the demands of the NRA, the Constitution gave James Holmes the right to buy as many guns and as much ammo as he wanted. So armed, Holmes caused true panic when he brought his weapons into a crowded theater and opened fire, stealing the life from 12 people, the youngest a beautiful 6-year-old little girl.
Longer ago, and not so far away from Aurora, two students murdered a dozen others plus a teacher and wounded 24 others at Columbine High School.
These shooters always seem to exhibit either serious mental illness or psychopathy or rage or all of these. That won’t stop. But perhaps if such deadly weapons were not so readily available, there would be fewer victims.
Do you think Congress should enact stricter gun control laws? Tell us in the comments.
Michael johm
2:44 pm on Monday, July 30, 2012
They didn't use assault weapons in columbine, he used pistols in va tech, a gun is a gun, it doesn't matter the magazine size, you can learn to change mags fast, when are you media type's who are calling for a new assault weapons ban going to understand. The American people stand tall because we are a nation of respondsible gun owners. There are 147,000,000 million gun owners in this country. Many of witch are women, 34 million guns were sold for Christmas 2011. A gun is a gun doesn't matter what it looks like, what it shoots like, and how it shoots are not what matters. And the last time I checked the media never plays the story about the man or women who saves someone's life. Every time someone gets shot Bloomberg and the media are there with there cameras. Just admit it your an eliteist, you want to take guns away from American families, because your scared, your scared that what you saw in Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, and now Syria, and your afraid someday the American people may decide to reject your almighty powerful state. Your afraid well see you for what you are a socialist, communist, college grad, who never grew up. This is prob what your boss told you to write, because the economy is in shambles and the potus is having a ruff time . So please get a life
Michael johm
2:51 pm on Monday, July 30, 2012
This writer spent 30 years in data analisys, and other stuff not related to personal security, she is nor expert in data or guns, how can she be the one to talk you out of your personal pertection, if it were up to her if someone is robbing your house and rapping your wife she wants you to call the cops no thank I can handle it. We have the right to protect ourselves how we see fit.
Tyler
5:01 pm on Monday, July 30, 2012
"They that can give up liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -Benjamin Franklin
Firstly, In no state is conceal carry of a rifle legal. He did legally buy the weapons, but for those people who believe its legal to carry the weapons he had legally, it is not. Most gun crimes are not committed by legally bought and documented guns. If a criminal wants to get his/her hands on a gun they will. One cannot simply take the power away from citizens, and take away their right to protect themselves. Yes, semi automatic weapons are not necessary but to take away the properties and rights which made this country free is absurd. And NO the second amendment was not created for self protection or hunting it was given to the people to give them power against the government in case they needed it.
Roger williams
1:43 am on Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Not so readily available? Who are you kidding? There are 9 guns for every 10 people in America. Banning them now isn't going to dry up the 250 million+ guns already floating around. California has the strictest gun laws and yet how is our murder by firearm rate? Through the fucking roof. The gangbangers who are accounting for all of these deaths dont have permits for their guns, and they didn't buy them in a gun store. These laws do nothing to curb crime because anyone as set on murder as Holmes would have found a way to kill, gun bans or not. The second amendment isn't about hunting or even protection from burglars. Its about the right of the individual to be adequately armed to prevent governmental tyranny.
Jake
10:30 am on Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Punish the guilty and leave the law abiding citizen alone. Gun owners know we dont need auto matic weapons but if we give those up the politicians will have their foot in the door.
Gee
3:43 pm on Tuesday, August 7, 2012
With modern technology, these guns will never go away. AK-47 and AR-15 technology is 60 years old. You can find complete prints for them on the internet and you can get used CNC machines for a couple of thousand dollars that you can put in your garage and build the rifle cometely from scratch. People are allready doing it as a hobby. Ar-15's used to be 2500-3000 dollars before the tools and equipment became cheap. Now you can literally buy the tooling to make your own from scratch for the same price you used to pay for the rifle alone. The AK-47 was specifically designed to be a rife that was simple to manufacture so that way it could be made in mass quantities very quickly to arm a country, and can be made with the very simplist of tools. In 1994 when the first ban was implemented it had a better chance at slowing the availability of these guns, but that was just at begginig of internet, and machining equipment was still very expensive so the average joe couldnt afford it. In todays time it would just open up a huge black market that would be completely un regulated and anyone and everyone would be buying this guns with no backround checks or questions asked and no records being kept. Just as everything else in our world, when someone wants something they are gonna get it one way or the other. People are too smart and most importantly have easy affordable access to the tooling to build these rifles,