campergeek
Member
The local paper published a letter recently arguing to renew the AWB. I've drafted a response, but would welcome any critique before I send it. The article and my response are below:
Here's the article
Here's the text:
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Letters to the editor: Renew ban on automatic weapons
updated: 08/30/2004 03:51 PM
To the editor:
If the president and the congress do not act now, the 10-year-old federal assault weapons ban will expire on Sept. 13. If that happens, these deadly killing machines will return to the streets of America just as our children are returning to school in our community.
How can this happen? The Senate voted in favor of renewing the ban earlier this year, but opposition from President Bush and the National Rifle Association kept the underlying bill from passing. A recent poll of ten states by the Consumer Federation of America and the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence found widespread and diverse support for the ban. Every major law enforcement organization and nearly 900 police chiefs from across the country support the ban.
Since 1994, the year the ban went into effect, child and teen deaths from firearms have dropped 50 percent. Overall, gun deaths have dropped nearly 25 percent. Still, we have a critical firearms problem. Child and teen death rates from firearms are higher in the U.S. than in twenty-five other industrialized nations combined. Every three hours, a child or teen dies from gunfire in our country. And now semi-automatic weapons will be returned to our streets.
Congress has only five legislative days scheduled in September before the ban expires. President Bush and Congress must act quickly to renew this commonsense law and protect our children.
Tracey Stanton
Crestwood
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Here's my response:
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The letter published in the September 1st Journal under the heading “Renew ban on automatic weapons†highlights several misunderstandings about the federal “assault weapons†ban:
First, the heading incorrectly suggests that the ban affects automatic weapons. Those who can’t distinguish automatic firearms from semi-automatic need to educate themselves before entering the debate on this legislation. This law has nothing to do with automatic firearms, and the editor of the Journal shows either ignorance or a will to mislead by publishing the letter under that title.
Second, the writer of the letter claims that if the ban expires, “these deadly killing machines will return to the streets of Americaâ€. In truth, the arms affected by the ban are usually less powerful than the common deer rifle, and a semi-automatic deer rifle functions in exactly the same way as a military-patterned rifle. This law has nothing to do with how deadly the arms are, but only with whether or not they look scary. In fact, the only things the law bans are certain cosmetic features. The “banned†rifles themselves have been legally available to purchase since the ban went into effect - only with certain cosmetic features removed. They won’t “return to the streets of Americaâ€, because they never left.
Some would argue that for the reasons listed above, the ban should be made more restrictive. However, the author of the letter points out statistics showing that “child and teen deaths from firearms have dropped 50 percentâ€, and “Overall, gun deaths have dropped nearly 25 percentâ€. She doesn’t point out that studies have shown that “assault weapons†were involved in a statistically insignificant number of gun crimes to begin with. Clearly, this law has no impact on the statistics cited. The law is a useless piece of legislation for which there is no justifiable reason for extension, renewal or expansion.
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Here's the article
Here's the text:
=================================================
Letters to the editor: Renew ban on automatic weapons
updated: 08/30/2004 03:51 PM
To the editor:
If the president and the congress do not act now, the 10-year-old federal assault weapons ban will expire on Sept. 13. If that happens, these deadly killing machines will return to the streets of America just as our children are returning to school in our community.
How can this happen? The Senate voted in favor of renewing the ban earlier this year, but opposition from President Bush and the National Rifle Association kept the underlying bill from passing. A recent poll of ten states by the Consumer Federation of America and the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence found widespread and diverse support for the ban. Every major law enforcement organization and nearly 900 police chiefs from across the country support the ban.
Since 1994, the year the ban went into effect, child and teen deaths from firearms have dropped 50 percent. Overall, gun deaths have dropped nearly 25 percent. Still, we have a critical firearms problem. Child and teen death rates from firearms are higher in the U.S. than in twenty-five other industrialized nations combined. Every three hours, a child or teen dies from gunfire in our country. And now semi-automatic weapons will be returned to our streets.
Congress has only five legislative days scheduled in September before the ban expires. President Bush and Congress must act quickly to renew this commonsense law and protect our children.
Tracey Stanton
Crestwood
====================================================
Here's my response:
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The letter published in the September 1st Journal under the heading “Renew ban on automatic weapons†highlights several misunderstandings about the federal “assault weapons†ban:
First, the heading incorrectly suggests that the ban affects automatic weapons. Those who can’t distinguish automatic firearms from semi-automatic need to educate themselves before entering the debate on this legislation. This law has nothing to do with automatic firearms, and the editor of the Journal shows either ignorance or a will to mislead by publishing the letter under that title.
Second, the writer of the letter claims that if the ban expires, “these deadly killing machines will return to the streets of Americaâ€. In truth, the arms affected by the ban are usually less powerful than the common deer rifle, and a semi-automatic deer rifle functions in exactly the same way as a military-patterned rifle. This law has nothing to do with how deadly the arms are, but only with whether or not they look scary. In fact, the only things the law bans are certain cosmetic features. The “banned†rifles themselves have been legally available to purchase since the ban went into effect - only with certain cosmetic features removed. They won’t “return to the streets of Americaâ€, because they never left.
Some would argue that for the reasons listed above, the ban should be made more restrictive. However, the author of the letter points out statistics showing that “child and teen deaths from firearms have dropped 50 percentâ€, and “Overall, gun deaths have dropped nearly 25 percentâ€. She doesn’t point out that studies have shown that “assault weapons†were involved in a statistically insignificant number of gun crimes to begin with. Clearly, this law has no impact on the statistics cited. The law is a useless piece of legislation for which there is no justifiable reason for extension, renewal or expansion.
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- Nice work!