Gun Control Presser
In light of yesterday’s mass shooting in a state where citizens are prohibited from carrying firearms, near a city where handguns are banned, on a school campus where firearms are prohibited (unless you have a note), The Brady Bunch and friends released a presser. It has some policies to reduce the carnage:
o An effective ban on all semiautomatic assault weapons. In addition, the Bush Administration should act immediately to better enforce the existing federal ban on the importation of foreign-made assault weapons.
There is no such thing as a semiautomatic assault weapon. The shooter did not use a weapon that was covered by the expired assault weapons ban. And the better enforcement of the existing federal ban on the importation of foreign-made assault weapons is something I’ve never heard them bleat about before.
o A complete ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds.
The Illinois shooter reloaded his shotgun a few times.
o Ensure that all gun sales at gun shows are subject to a background check.
Sales at gun shows are subject to the same federal laws as sales not at gun shows.
o Establish a system whereby university officials are notified when a student purchases a gun from a gun dealer.
That’s a new one. And, man, is it a doozy. Next, they’ll want to publish lists of gun purchases in the paper.
By the way, The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership ranks Illinois 9 out of 50 states in terms of gun control. I don’t think they’ll be bringing that up, though.
February 15th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
There is no such thing as a “foreign made assault weapon”. ATF regulations require that rifles assembled from foreign made parts must contain 10 or fewer imported parts to permit them to be legally sold in the USA. That’s been the case since 1968.
In 2005, the BATFE changed the regulations and expanded the ban on importation of foreign made parts from not just receiver but barrels, action parts and the like. As a result, the supply of parts kits minus receiver has stopped effective Dec 31, 2005.
This is one of the reasons the costs on AK pattern rifles will only continue to rise as the last supplies of parts kits dry up and then US builders will be forced to manufacturer US components that used to be drawn from foreign sources.
There is already enforcement on the so-called “federal ban on the importation of foreign made assault weapons”. More like foreign made parts and it was a regulatory change, not a legislative one. It’s already enforced. If you didn’t have an order or contract for parts in place prior to Dec 31, 2005, you aren’t getting any more foreign parts.
Talk about deception and pointless bleating.
February 15th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
That last one about notifying Northern Illinois University would have worked real well. This shooter wasn’t a student at Northern Illinois. He had been an honored student there but had graduated and was, until yesterday a graduate student at the University of Illinois.
February 15th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Let’s analyse that last one.
It requires a national database of every college student. The privacy issues alone are immense, not to mention the difficulty in getting staggeringly incompetent colleges to participate usefully. (And then there’s the “unfunded mandate” problem.)
Matt: That’s not quite accurate, historically; there were, after all, plenty of Norinco AKs imported with no US parts at all, and the “10 US parts” law is much newer than 1968 – it dates to 1990.
The NRA-ILA has some history of the evolution of 18USC922 and 18USC925 here.
So, there are “foreign made assault weapons”, but they’re all grandfathered in from before the AWB (if we grant their use of “assault weapon”; even if we don’t, there are a trifling number of honest to god foreign made Assault Weapons around. They just cost 10 thousand dollars or more and live in class-3 collector vaults.)
February 15th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
I don’t know why they say 10 rounds. They scored NJ well for having a 15 round limit.
February 15th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
once again they are pushing things that would have done nothing here. In addition to what others have said, I’ll add that he bought 3 of the 4 weapons at a gun shop in Champaign the Saturday before.
February 15th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
But, err, doesn’t Illinois already require background checks on all sales at gun shows anyway?
February 15th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
They still get Washington State wrong on two counts:
1. it is legal to sell handguns to persons 18-20. Just not for dealers, but that’s a federal, not a state law.
2. We do have “shoot first,” it’s just that we’ve had it for so long that nobody knows about it.
February 15th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Fuck. That. Shit. The last thing I need is to be yanked out of class to be questioned why I bought my latest hunting rifle by some tin pot nanny college administrator.
And imagine if the reason I was yanked out of class got around? Or if the administrator decided to share this information with my teachers or fellow classmates, some of whom may be anti-gun or criminals? Not only is my reputation unfairly tarnished, my grades may suffer as well, and my apartment may be targeted for robberies while I’m in class. Screw that.
February 15th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
The Brady Bunch has no shame whatsoever; they sent me an email telling how this shows that the “gun show loophole” needs to be closed. I think they actually get excited anytime some guy falls out of his tree and goes on a rampage.
February 15th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
That’s why we call it “Dancing in the blood of the slain.”
February 16th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
There is no such thing as a foreign-made assault weapon. That’s why we have to deal with 922r compliance. Not to mention, the Ill. shooter used a shotgun, a Hi-Point .380, and a Glock.
Oh, and did they mention he used to be a corrections officer, and thus may have retained HR218 priveleges?
February 16th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
The Brady police state solutions are not acceptable.