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The assault weapons ban
A Times Editorial
Published July 28, 2004
It was the kind of violent outburst that explains why most Americans favor a ban on assault weapons. A man with an assault rifle in Columbus, Ohio, led police on a chase, shooting up homes and cars along the way and wounding three people, including a police officer. "We're just lucky our hospitals aren't filled this morning with people hit by this guy," a police spokesman said.
It is in the nation's best interests to keep such firepower out of the hands of criminals, yet the federal ban on assault weapons will expire in six weeks and there is no indication Congress will renew it. Such inaction runs counter to public wishes. In a recent survey commissioned by the Consumer Federation of America, not only do 81 percent of likely voters in Florida favor renewing the ban, nearly two-thirds of gun owners feel the same way.
So why has Congress given up on the assault weapons ban? The answer is election-year politics.
Republican leaders say they won't act on the ban, which expires on Sept. 13, unless President Bush asks them to. Even though Bush has said he would sign a renewal, the current situation suits him. He can appear to be supportive of the ban without angering its main opponent - the National Rifle Association. John Kerry isn't much better on the subject. While he and congressional Democrats strongly favor the ban, they aren't making renewal an issue for fear it will be used against them by the NRA in the upcoming election.
"This works out very comfortably, politically, for everybody," said a disappointed Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del., a co-sponsor of the bill seeking to renew the ban.
It isn't as though the current law has denied sportsmen the necessary firepower. While it stops new sales of weapons such as the Uzi, AK-47 and TEC-9, those guns are made to shoot people, not animals or targets. The law limits the size of magazines to 10 rounds and restricts the number of other features that make a weapon more lethal, such as a muzzle flash suppressor and folding stock. However, hundreds of legal semiautomatic rifles and pistols are still available.
If Congress and the presidential candidates don't have the guts to push for renewal of the assault weapons ban, Americans know what they can expect - more shootouts like the one in Columbus.
[Last modified July 28, 2004, 01:00:38]
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