Weapon Ban

At the Cato Institute Blog David Rittgers talks over a renewed assault weapon ban. In the name of Mexico's war on the drug cartells, the Obama administration wants to ban similar assault weapons banned during the Clinton era.

The ban would be a revival of a law passed in the early years of the
Clinton administration that expired in 2004. The law prohibited the sale
of newly-manufactured magazines holding more than ten rounds of ammunition and
having two of five cosmetic features on semi-automatic rifles. If you had
a pistol grip and a detachable magazine, you couldn’t have a bayonet lug. More recent proposals have attempted
to ban “barrel shrouds,” which the rest of the world calls “handguards” - the
place you put your hand (instead of on a hot barrel) to prevent burning it while
firing.
The emphasis here is on the cosmetic - any rational discussion of the
issue ought to note that an “assault weapon” is any object you use to assault
someone with - and banning the presence of a bayonet lug on the barrel of a
rifle is senseless. Knives, tire irons, and bricks can all serve as
“assault weapons.” This is an instance where quotation marks are not just
appropriate, they are required.

Predictably, both Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have temporarily quashed the issue. Let’s hope
they keep it out of the halls of Congress, and focus instead on a sensible drug policy that impacts the demand created by an illicit drug market.
Pelosi and Reid realize
that this proposal will do is come back to haunt Democrats in the 2010 mid-term
elections, which historically trend against the president’s party anyway.
Many Democrats attributed the flip of the House of Representatives
to Republican hands in 1994 to the first “assault weapons” ban. Numerous
experts believe that the reason Al Gore could not carry his home state of
Tennessee in the 2000 election was his push for broader gun control.
Blue Dog Democrats that ran on pro-gun platforms in conservative districts must
be rolling their eyes. The rest of the country should do so as well, and
send this proposal to the dustbin

.

It seems Ironic that the gun lobby's faith lies in Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid. Apparently staying in power is more important that acting on your beliefs.