Assault Weapon Ban

The assault weapon ban is now officially off the books. The NRA is applauding this to be a win for gun rights while every anti-gun activist is lauding this to be the biggest lapse for lawmakers.

How could they not have seen that the day after the ban expires, thousands of prospective assault weapon owners would line up for their opportunity to buy an Uzi. Or is that really the issue here?

There are indeed going to be a subset of folks who are going to go down to their local gun shop to get their hands on an assault weapon that they could not have done previously. But what is the number going to be like? Do the people who want this ban not to expire really think that suddenly everyone Tom, Dick and Harry is going to want to own an assault rifle just because they can?

There is something to be said about the Bill of Rights that gives each American the right to bear arms, but how many people will actually choose to put that right to use? Most people realize that assault weapons are a lot more dangerous than pistols. Any parent worth anything will do everything humanly possible to ensure that their children are never in a position to be next to an assault weapon.

So what’s the big hoopla about? You’ve got me! I, personally, believe that the fact that this law has lapsed does little to make our crime situation in this country any worse than it has already gotten. Seldom can I watch the nightly news for more than 10 minutes before having watched half a dozen stories relating to someone losing their lives. People will find ways of harming one another, they hardly need an assault weapon to do it.

Like everything else, this has now become political fodder for the candidates and their campaign folks. One more thing to point fingers about and show how better you would’ve handled it. Had this not been an election year, I think this entire issue would have garnered a simple byline in a newspaper and quietly died like most other stories. But it would seem that since it IS an election year, everything is a hot-button issue.

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