The state of gun control in the US
The assault weapons ban has expired. 36 37 states have shall-issue concealed carry. Nine states have may-issue (i.e., corrupt systems of) carry. And five four states restrict carry completely. I think three of the no issue states could turn at some point in the future. Most of the asinine gun laws seem to be occurring in locations where the gun laws are already asinine anyway. By those measures, it seems that things are going fairly well for us pro-gun, pro-freedom types as long as we stay in one of our red states. However . . .
By all accounts, it looks like the US military will soon adopt the H&K XM8 assault rifle. This should be significant to all pro-gun folks for one reason: This will mark for the first time in the history of the United States that the standard issue military rifle will not be available to the civilian population at all. Think about it for a moment.
Sure, this has been effectively restricted since 1986 with the Hughes Amendment banning transfers of new machine guns to citizens. There are still some registered and transferable M16s. The M4 carbine has never really been available either but citizens, using already transferable receivers, could convert their legally owned M16s into an M4 configuration. The XM8 marks the first military rifle that there is no legal way for a US citizen who is not a dealer in weapons to own.
I find this terribly disconcerting.
update: My original source neglected Ohio, which recently passed shall issue. Hence, on the update to numbers above.
January 18th, 2005 at 12:29 pm
Military only? Say huh?
Say Uncle has a post regarding the XM8, saying is won’t be allows to civies, quoting its a first. I disagree. First off I don’t think the M1 Garand or M1 Carbine were available to the civilian population until they were decomissioned. I could very w
January 18th, 2005 at 6:03 pm
Which three non-carry states do you think can change?
January 18th, 2005 at 6:13 pm
I can see Wisconcin, Nebraska, and Kansas since they are highly rural.
January 18th, 2005 at 7:29 pm
Ah. I wasn’t aware those were three of the five. I thought WI had actually passed a CCW law, and gotten enough votes to override a veto by their gov. Guess that didn’t happen afterall (I wondered why all the talk stopped on the gun blogs I read).
January 18th, 2005 at 7:30 pm
Er, three of the four. I didn’t notice the update until after I posted.
January 19th, 2005 at 3:13 pm
At what point do you complemate doing illeagal activites to maintain the your rights?
January 20th, 2005 at 9:41 am
Gun Links #30
AK-Pattern Rifles EAA is no longer importing Saigas. The guns will be imported by Remington under the Spartan by Remington brand, and EAA suggests the prices will be higher. SayUncle passes along this link to a deal on a WASR (Romanian AK) with accesso…