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Originally Posted by Locobot
hrdwareguy: most of your complaints about the article are simple quibbles over the word "ban" and what that entails. If the Assault Weapon ban was so ineffectual then why did you have a problem with it? The gun dealer interviewed on NPR today said that he sold more "assault weapons" and accessories in the two weeks before the ban took effect than in the previous ten years. Also his backstock of pre-1994-manufactured instantly increased in price two to three times what they were previously. I think you could argue that the AWB actually increased the business of weapons dealers by making people more aware of and spiking the price of "assault weapons." Before this turns into another outlet for bashing leftist politicians that the ban passed with Bi-partisan support and that GWBush supported it with words. His actions don't match his words however, he didn't ask congress to extend the ban. I guess W's fabled conviction doesn't extend to positions that might anger his base during an election year.
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If we are going to be talking about a legal document, then yes I think it very important to determine what the words in the document mean. Most of the american people only know about guns what the see on TV and in the movies. Therefore I have a problem with news media writing stories that portray guns as all fully automatic and every Tom, Dick, and Harry being able to get them.
What is the first thing most people think of when they hear AK-47 and Uzi? They generally think of some terrorist with a fully automatic weapon. Now talk about AK-47's and Uzi's in conjunction with the AWB and most uneducated on the subject people think jull autos will become legal and they will "flood the streets". Guess what...full auto AK-47's have been legal for longer than the ban has been in place. The ban did nothing with fully automatic stuff, only semi-automatic stuff. It did not make these guns illegal, it simply prevented the semi-automatic versions from being manufactured. I have a problem with the media using words against the uneducated of a subject to make them fear something. I guess it is true, we only fear what we don't know. I spent a good portion of the day yesterday scouring news sites and emailing them correcting articles they had written about the AWB so don't think I'm just picking on CNN.
I have a problem with the AWB for several reasons. First, it made the anti-gun crowd look good because they did something - ineffectual as it was. Second, it made prices skyrocket for no good reason other than fear. Third, it did prohibit the manufactur of certain things(hi cap mags), therefore driving the price of these items up beyond control. Yeah yeah, supply and demand controls the price but gotta love fear helping it out. I believe part of the reason it passed with bi-partisan support is because it was innefectual and wht the repubs passing it, it took an issue away from the dems.
I do not think it was up to GWB to ask congress to pass legislation. They new it would expire just as well as he did and they (congress) did nothing about it. Mainly because they didn't have the votes to pass it. The reason they didn't have the votes is because they didn't want it to pass and get the gun crowd all pissed and show up in force and vote republican in November.