« Prof. Volokh on DC gun mfr decision | Main | How often do you see a Federal agent admitting perjury on videotape? »
NY Time: end of "assault gun ban" meaningless
(Via Instapundit) The N.Y. Times acknowledges the expiration of the assault gun ban has had no effect.
Despite dire predictions that the streets would be awash in military-style guns, the expiration of the decade-long assault weapons ban last September has not set off a sustained surge in the weapons' sales, gun makers and sellers say. It also has not caused any noticeable increase in gun crime in the past seven months, according to several metropolitan police departments.
Of course, the Times has to claim that the reason the ban was meaningless was that it was too "porous." Hard to reconcile with its admission that assault weapons "were never used in many gun crimes" and "Assault weapons account for a small fraction of gun crimes: about 2 percent, according to most studies, and no more than 8 percent."
Now, I'm NOT claiming that the AW ban had no good effects at all. It played a substantial role in costing the Democrats control of both houses of Congress. One of these days maybe they'll ask whether passing legislation aimed at guns which "were never used in many gun crimes" was worth it.
Comments
Someone really should fact-check Dianne Feinstein's assertion that price of assault weapons increased after the so-called "assault weapons ban"?
And I also noticed that she resorted to the classic liberal logic that because no citizen has a "legitimate need" to own an assault weapon, it is perfectly fine for the government to ban them. And logical arguement that wouldn't even pass the smell test if it was applied to anything else other then fire-arms.
Posted by: Farix at April 24, 2005 07:16 PM