Assault Weapons Ban -- left
Because assualt weapons have no place in a modern civilization. Handguns are necessary for self-defense. Assualt weapons might have a point if you were to be attacked by squads of say, 20-30 people.
I like to think I'm something of an expert when it comes to firearms and their respective laws. Allow me to impart some of my knowledge.
The term "assault rifle" has a technical definition. I believe it is the Army which says assault rifles are selective fire (meaning they can shoot semi or full auto) and utilize an intermediate cartridge. (which is basically a round that is a rung below what those belt fed
medium machine guns and
battle rifles use.
The term "assault weapon" has no technical definition. What makes a rifle an assault weapon is not how it functions, but certain cosmetic features that appear on it. I think it was the head of the Violence Policy Center, back in the '80s, who said that anything that looks like a machine gun will be assumed to be a machine gun by the public. They came up with the term "assault weapon" to try to link the semi-auto only rifles with their fully automatic military cousins.
The ban on assault weapons has nothing to do with machine guns. Those are regulated by a completely different law, the National Firearms Act of 1934. The phrase "assault weapons" is quite inflammatory and conjures up images of AK-47s and M16s blasting people away. I guess that's what it's supposed to do.
Assault weapons look exactly like fully automatic firearms, but that's it.
