AWB pistol idiocy/question

[Treylis]

So, as we all know, our much-loved Assault Weapons Ban limits pistols based upon whether or not they have three or more of the following:

• ability to accept a detachable magazine (because detachable mags are evil)
• magazine that attaches outside of the pistol grip
• a threaded barrel that can accept a barrel extender or a flash suppressor (because "silencers go on threaded barrels, and you don't need a silencer to hunt deer")
• a shroud that is attached to or encircles the barrel that permits the shooter to hold the weapon with the non-trigger hand without being burned (spray-firing from the hip with your other hand on the weapon?)
• manufactured weight of 50 ounces or more when unloaded
• semiautomatic version of an automatic weapon (I guess they felt that it would be "easier" to convert it to full-auto just because it looks like the real deal?)

Now, I've heard mostly about the rifle issues here, but I'd like to address the bolded ones. Does anybody know the arguments used to justify them, particularly the "magazine that attaches outside of the pistol grip" one? I'm just trying to think of any argument, even a a shrieking irrational emotional one that involves some combination of "schoolyards", "from the hip", and "spray-firing", that would come to the conclusion that such pistols are "bad", and I'm just not coming up with any.

 

[Tamara]

Now, I've heard mostly about the rifle issues here, but I'd like to address the bolded ones. Does anybody know the arguments used to justify them, particularly the "magazine that attaches outside of the pistol grip" one?

Two words: "TEC" and "-9".

Odd that a provision designed to prohibit little maschinenpistole-lookalikes from fly-by-night companies also snags high-end target pistols from the likes of Benelli and Walther...

 

[Kharn]

They look scary and make the antis wet their pants.

Kharn

 

[c_yeager]

Don't forget the Skorpians and the H&K semi version of the PDW among a few other "scary" guns.

 

[flatrock]

Politicians don't justify the laws they pass.

They spin the law to make it sound appealing to the sheep, while the details of the law are meant to satisfy the special interest groups who's agenda they are pushing.

The purpose of the AWB was to make guns sound scarry, and to start chipping away at gun ownership a little at a time.