Posted: 2/25/2005 7:33:54 AM EDT
Outgunned
Critics of the recently expired assault weapons ban say it was toothless law anyway. Advocates say that it at least was something.
By Michael Summers
[email protected]
Fort Wayne Reader
2004-12-06 — We’ve heard a lot about a “divided nation” recently, about how on certain issues, US citizens differ distinctly along political ideologies, with little common ground. There are a few hot button issues where the contrast is at its most striking, and one of the hottest is gun control.
In 1994, President Clinton signed into law the Violent Crime and Control Act, which included the first-ever federal Assault Weapons Ban, banning the future manufacture and importation of military-style assault weapons. The ban named 18 assault-style firearms in particular, including the AK-47, the TEC-9, and the AR-15.
On September 13, 2004, in the middle of a close and contentious presidential race, that ban was allowed to expire.
Yet gun control seemed conspicuous by its near absence during the campaign. It came up a few times, but the candidates themselves didn’t talk about it much. During the third debate, Senator Kerry stated that he was a hunter and gun owner and that he supports the Second Amendment. A photo-op during the campaign even showed him hunting. He may have looked like something out of Brideshead Revisited rather than Field & Stream, but that was an honest-to-goodness rifle in his hand.
President Bush said in that same debate that he supported the assault weapons ban, though by then the ban had already expired. Earlier, he had said that he would extend the 1994 ban if it came across his desk. Of course, it didn’t come across his desk (he said that he “was told it was never going to move”), and the National Rifle Association endorsed him shortly after the expiration date.
The ban expired without ever really becoming the lead story in the news. After a flurry of media attention, everyone turned their gaze back to the latest poll numbers.
Why, during a time when Americans are being asked to tolerate some government intrusion on civil liberties for the sake of homeland security, was a law seemingly aimed at keeping semi-automatic assault weapons off the streets allowed to expire? Especially since the 18 assault-style firearms named in the ban — the AK-47, the TEC-9, the Street Sweeper — are not typically used for hunting or home defense.
The answer may lie in some serious questions about the effectiveness of the law, which came with a few loopholes large enough to drive a tank through.
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