Official Everytown for Gun Safety Poll … Should Congress ban assault weapons? [More]
I wish those saying “Absolutely” would flesh out what they estimate an attempt will cost in human lives lost to “gun violence” and how that compares to reality…
They won’t tally your response unless you give them contact info, so I resurrected a tactic from the old Million Moon March.
I wonder if ATF’s number takes texts?
“Checkout: Have an ActBlue Express account? Sign in to give faster!”
It’s like the Babylon Bee just can’t keep up.
(1) Ban assault weapons? They could in theory, if they were serious about it.
(2) Make all of them “go away”? Not a snowball’s chance in hell.
———
( 1) I wrote “if they were serious about it” because, in retrospect, it’s pretty obvious that they weren’t serious in 1994. All of that donder und blitzen and the assault weapon ban didn’t actually ban any assault weapons. Items already in civilian hands were allowed to remain there. Items already in the pipeline were allowed to be sold. The only thing banned was future production of a few named items and weapons with a few named characteristics. Colt removed the flash hider and bayonet lug and continued to sell the AR15. Springfield Armory opted not to completely machine the slots in the flash hider and removed the bayonet lug and continued to sell the M1A. There were too many other examples of manufacturers doing similar things to list here. You get the idea. The left called that compliance “exploiting loopholes.” Whatever!
(2) “You’re going to need a bigger boat” — Chief Brody in “Jaws”
Remember the Beltway sniper(s)? How about the two brothers who bombed the Boston Marathon? If not, take a moment to read up on those two events. Bottom line is that, in each case, it took a maximum effort by multiple agencies days to find two people. And in at least the second case, they shredded parts of “The Bill of Rights” in the process.
Google AI had this helpful response to a query on assault weapon numbers: “There is no exact, official number, but estimates suggest there are at least 20 million AR-15-style rifles in circulation in the United States, with some sources suggesting the total could be as high as 44 million AR-style rifles if all similar semi-automatic rifles are included.”
IOW, there weren’t enough cops to collect all of the “assault weapons” in the USA even before “defund police” became a thing.
One more point. In a proof of concept exercise, I 3D printed two AR15 lowers. For one I used carbon reinforced Nylon-15 filament. Top of the line stuff. For the other I used plain vanilla nylon string trimmer line from Home Depot. My printer took overnight to finish each job. Both receivers lasted long enough to go through two Magpul 30 round mags of LC headstamped XM855 5.56 NATO without failure. YMMV. Then I cut both receivers in half like something from a parts kit sold in “Firearms News”. They’ve served their purpose and will likely become bookends in my library. They no longer qualify as “ghost guns.” They did what they needed to do to allow me to learn what I needed to learn.
Bottom line? “They” can ban whatever they want. They can’t stop people from making more if they choose to do so.