[Partisan Ranger]

As most of you probably know, the Brady Campaign's...ahem.... 'Facts' page is really good for laughs.

One thing I wonder about - they obviously have no data that shows that 'assault weapons' are used in large numbers of crimes or that crimes have been reduced, so they use a decline in assault weapon 'traces' after 1994 to try to prove that the ban is working. I have a feeling this argument is like saying that the sky is blue, thus fish swim, but I can't really put my finger on it. Does anyone know more about 'traces' and how else that falling number could be accounted for?

Here is the link to the 'Facts' page: http://www.bradycampaign.com/facts/index.asp

[TallPine]

The words "Brady" and "facts" should never be used in the same sentence.

:D

[cuchulainn]

Correlation doesn't equal causation.

Crime has fallen dramatically since 1994, so all crime gun traces would have fallen too, not just AWs. It would be interesting to see if AW traces have fallen faster than other gun traces.

I did a sun dance in March, and now all the snow on my driveway has melted.

[cuchulainn]

The words "Brady" and "facts" should never be used in the same sentence. ...except to say, "The facts show that Brady is loose with the truth

[Bartholomew Roberts]

The neat thing about this ludicrous argument is you don't even have to visit a pro-gun website to debunk it... point someone to VPC where they use similar statistical torture to make the case that assault weapons are currently killing law enforcement at an astonishing rate.

[BowStreetRunner]

well yeah when you call any semi automatic weapon fed my a removable clip, excuse me, magazine, an assault weapon, sure, law enforcement officers are being killed by tons of them!
BSR

[Mark Tyson]

These guns being traced ... are they necessarily being used in crimes? Or are they just being traced to rule them out?

Statistics are a diversion anyway. What matters is this: a society should not practice collective punishment of the innocent for the crimes of the irresponsible and criminal. Unfortunately, some people prefer to fault inanimate objects for people's evil deeds.

[NukemJim]

These guns being traced ... are they necessarily being used in crimes? Or are they just being traced to rule them out?

Traces do NOT mean that a gun was used in a crime. BATFE recently made a press release about that after some anti groups labelled some gunstores as being the " worst 10" in the US because they had the most traces go back to their strores.

Anytime a police agency asks about a gun it is a trace. That does not mean that there is a crime involved or if there was a crime involved it does not mean that the gun was used in the crime.

NukemJim