Washington, DC - House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's promise that he will allow the federal assault weapons ban to expire in September 2004 will keep America's police at the highest possible risk, the Violence Policy Center (VPC) warned today (Thursday). The VPC study "Officer Down" -- Assault Weapons and the War on Law Enforcement, which was released last week, reveals that at least 41 of the 211 law enforcement officers slain in the line of duty between January 1, 1998, and December 31, 2001, were killed with assault weapons. More than 20 percent of the law enforcement officers slain by assault weapons during the study period were from DeLay's home state of Texas. DeLay's announcement coincides with National Police Week.

VPC Legislative Director and study author Kristen Rand states, "Majority Leader DeLay has placed his loyalty to the National Rifle Association over his responsibility to protect public safety. With the gun industry openly evading the law, now is the time to strengthen the federal assault weapons ban, not celebrate its scheduled end."
-snip-

"Officer Down" explains how the firearms industry has evaded the current ban, and how assault weapons continue to pose a stark threat to America's law enforcement personnel. The report lists the known incidents of police officers killed by assault weapons from 1998 through 2001, including year, state, manufacturer, model of assault weapon, and caliber. It also offers expanded narratives for 15 of the law enforcement shootings that occurred during this period.

Does anyone know how to get a copy of that report?  

I think it's really sad that we have to ban the "tools" that criminals might use b/c our ability to stop/catch them has fallen so short.  Thus, instead of focusing on catching these criminals, legislaters and numbnuts on the Hill think they can fight crime by simply telling criminals that it's illegal to use certain weapons in crimes.  BOOFuckingHOO.  How deceived are these dipshits that they think they can effect crime by making it illegal to own certain guns?  It should be evident that simply outlawing things really doesn't matter much.  Look at the "War on drugs."  I can buy two dime bags of crack easier than a non-banned gun.  It's a good think drugs are outlawed, b/c if they weren't, people would use them!  

Although handguns claim more than 20,000 lives a year, the issue of handgun restriction consistently remains a non-issue with the vast majority of legislators, the press, and public. The reasons for this vary: the power of the gun lobby; the tendency of both sides of the issue to resort to sloganeering and pre-packaged arguments when discussing the issue; the fact that until an individual is affected by handgun violence he or she is unlikely to work for handgun restrictions; the view that handgun violence is an "unsolvable" problem; the inability of the handgun restriction movement to organize itself into an effective electoral threat; and the fact that until someone famous is shot, or something truly horrible happens, handgun restriction is simply not viewed as a priority. Assault weapons—just like armor-piercing bullets, machine guns, and plastic firearms—are a new topic. The weapons' menacing looks, coupled with the public's confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons—anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun—can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons. In addition, few people can envision a practical use for these weapons.


Check their site www.vpc.org

Although the opportunity to restrict assault weapons exists, a question remains for the handgun restriction movement: How? Defining an assault weapon—in legal terms—is not easy. It's not merely a matter of going after guns that are "black and wicked looking." Although those involved in the debate know the weapons being discussed, it's extremely difficult to develop a legal definition that restricts the availability of assault weapons without affecting legitimate semi-automatic guns. Most likely, any definition would focus on magazine capacity, weapon configuration, muzzle velocity, the initial purpose for which the weapon (or its full-auto progenitor) was developed, convertibility, and possible sporting applications. Any law based on this definition would, however, need to have a clause to excuse legitimate semi-automatic weapons that would inadvertently fall under it. And although legislation could be passed that would ban specific weapons, the world's arms manufacturers are expert at producing weapons that follow the letter, but not the intent, of the law. This often results in products that are virtually identical to the restricted weapon, yet different enough to remain on the market.
Yet, the framework for restricting assault weapons already exists. On the federal level, ATF currently excludes from import handguns recognized as Saturday Night Specials. This is done by application of criteria designed by the agency that takes into account such things as barrel length, caliber, quality of materials, safety devices, and other factors. Any gun that does not meet the importation threshold cannot be sold in the United States. Any manufacturer whose product is refused for import can challenge the decision in federal court. [red]Criteria to identify and categorize assault weapons could be developed by ATF and applied toward restricting the availability of both foreign- and domestically-produced assault weapons[/red].

The state of Maryland has taken a similar approach in banning the sale of Saturday Night Specials. The 1988 Maryland law established a nine-member board responsible for creating a roster of permitted handguns. The nine members of the board include: the superintendent of the state police; representatives of the Maryland States' Attorney's Association, Maryland Association of Chiefs of Police, Marylanders Against Handgun Abuse, the National Rifle Association, and a Maryland gun manufacturer; and three citizen board members to be determined by the governor. After January 1, 1990, the law requires that no person in Maryland may: manufacture a handgun not on the Handgun Roster or sell or offer to sell any handgun not on the Handgun Roster that was manufactured after January 1, 1985. In determining whether a handgun has a legitimate use and can therefore be placed on the roster, the board will consider: concealability; ballistic accuracy; weight; quality of materials; quality of manufacture; and reliability as to safety, caliber, and detectability by standard security devices used at airports and courthouses.[131] States could develop similar rosters to ban the sale of assault weapons.

Since passage of the Maryland law, the NRA has collected enough signatures of Maryland residents to bring the measure to referendum on the November 1988 ballot. The NRA's opposition to such a panel is not surprising. The organization fears giving the government, at any level, the power to restrict the availability of firearms—conjuring up images of a "gun czar." And although such proposals would solve the definitional problems posed by assault weapons, it would guarantee fierce opposition from the gun lobby.

The success of any proposed legislation to restrict assault weapons and their accessories depends not only on whether the American public pays attention to the topic, but agrees that these products are dangerous. Obviously, some aspects of America's fascination with assault weapons and their accessories are here to stay. Publications are clearly protected under the First Amendment of the Constitution. [red]Yet the weapons themselves, and accessories such as laser sights and grenades requiring only the explosive charge, can be restricted and even banned at the local, state, or federal level. The fact that assault weapons are increasingly being equated with America's drug trade may play a major role in motivating the public to call for their restriction.[/red] Yet, recognizing the country's fascination for exotic weaponry and the popular images and myths associated with guns, it may require a crisis of a far greater proportion before any action is taken.

So, 41 were killed by assault weapons.  What killed the other 170?  Why aren't they lobbying to remove from the street the weapons that kill over 4 times as many cops as assault weapons?

Their site actually says that it would be harder to ban handguns but with the proper efforts (media spin) the AWB will be easier to accomplish.

Why dont we work on something else that kills more people, like tobacco or car accidents or SOMETHING A LITTLE MORE WORTHWHILE? This "assault weapons" ban is a bunch of time wasting crap that more and more people are realizing is bullshit. I wish that people would pull thier heads out of thier butts and realize that other problems, such as people's behavior must be changed and not the tools to commit crimes with, or they will never see the root of the problem, which is people's crappy behavior.

Jim, Great post by the way.

AWB will be easier to accomplish BUT what if they fail?? What if it does sunset? What politician in their right mind, later on, dig that dead subject up, dust it off and put its lips on it to give it CPR and try to revive it??

Losing battle for the dems.

I cannot believe that they are that stupid that they DO NOT see if they drop the gun control issue altogether. Gore would have been in office.

But SHHHHHHHHHH!!! we will keep that our little secret.

I gotta wonder how many were killed in auto accidents.


General Population stats... CDC-2000

After typing the above I tracked down [url=http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr50/nvsr50_16.pdf]THE STATS (large PDF file)[/url]

All ages, All races, Both sexes

1) Heart Disease 29.6%
2) Malignant Neoplasms 23%
3) Cereobrovascular Diseases 7.0%
4) Chronic lower respiratory  5.1%
5) Unintended Accidents 4.1%
6) Diabetes 2.9%
7) Influenza/Pneumonia 2.7%
8) Alzheimers 2.1%
9) Nephritis 1.5%
10) Septiceria 1.3%

All other causes  20.8%

Homicide or assualt is NOT on the top 10.


Assault is not in the top 10 of both sex Whites,  and  2.8% (#6)of Blacks.

Suicide is 1.3% (#10) of both sex Whites and not in the top 10 of both sex Blacks.


[url=http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/homicide/leok.htm]HERE[/url] is one set (USDOJ) of LEO death stats.

Remember, the VPC and Brady bunch add in suicide as "violence committed with an assault weapon"...

No not all 41 were killed by assault weapons. VPC and two or three other anti-gun groups use a different definition of assault weapon than the one we all use and the one the ATF and congress used. Their definition includes i think two or three other things that make damn near any gun an assault weapon. For instance a mini14 with it's factory stock would be considered an assault weapon, same with the fixed mag sks, they consider that an assault weapon as well.

Did you read the footnotes at the bottom of the report by VPC?

It states that VPC counted "unknown weapons" as an assualt weapon in these statistics.  They further explain that they also wanted to include all the officers that died on 11 Sept 2001.  I guess a plane flown by a terrorist is an assualt weapon as well.

Just another spin by the VPC.