doberman
Member
Well since her embarassing defeat against the MCPPA Rebecca moves on to a local gun manufacturer. 
http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/4783859.html
Gun foes target Inver Grove Heights manufacturer
Kevin Duchschere, Star Tribune
May 19, 2004GUNS0519
One of the best reasons to bolster the federal ban on semiautomatic assault weapons, gun-control advocates say, is right in Inver Grove Heights.
That's the home of Vulcan Arms Inc., a gun manufacturer that has been in business for fewer than two years and that, according to an antigun group in Washington, D.C., sells a greater variety of "copycat assault weapons" than any other gunmaker in the country.
Robert Hesse, a Vulcan co-owner, calls his company's products firearms or battle rifles. He said he doesn't know whether Vulcan offers more kinds than other manufacturers, but said nothing the company sells is prohibited by law.
"They don't like the type of firearms that Vulcan Arms makes, that's their opinion," he said. "The First Amendment to the Constitution says they're entitled to voice their opinion, just like the Second Amendment says we're entitled to make and sell firearms."
Gun-control advocates will hold a news conference this morning in Minneapolis, focusing on Vulcan Arms and the 10-year-old federal ban on assault weapons. The ban will expire in September unless it is renewed by Congress and President Bush.
Not only should the ban be extended, said Rebecca Thoman of Citizens for a Safer Minnesota, it should be rewritten to prohibit more weapons and to close loopholes that allow companies such as Vulcan to deal in firearms that she said are only slightly different from illegal assault weapons.
"The current law lists assault weapons by name, allowing manufacturers to make a few cosmetic changes to the guns and reintroduce them legally," she said. "You have a functioning assault weapon that has a different name."
Vulcan Arms' Web site displays a series of mostly semiautomatic weapons that are based on or copied from military rifles, such as the AR-15 and the AK-47.
They may look different, but they do the same things, said Chaska Police Chief Scott Knight.
"If they proliferate ...[they're] a real threat to the men and women who wear our uniforms, and that extrapolates to a threat to the general populace," Knight said.
Why? "They're designed for one purpose: to kill people," said Knight, president of the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association, who will join Thoman at today's news conference.
John Caile, spokesman for the Gun Owners Civil Rights Alliance in St. Paul, said that hunting rifles are more deadly than assault weapons and that the federal ban has done nothing to prevent a single crime. He cited a 30-year study in Chicago that he said showed only 12 of 24,000 homicides were committed with assault-type weapons.
"The opponents are focusing on the wrong issue. It's always the tools with them, it's never the person holding it. This is our big gripe," he said.
The question of the effectiveness of gun restrictions was raised last year by a task force of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which found no proof that waiting periods and bans reduce firearm violence. The task force concluded that more study was needed to determine whether gun laws work.
It was the Violence Policy Center, an antigun think tank in Washington, that claimed Vulcan Arms sells a greater variety of guns than any other manufacturer.
Kristen Rand, the center's legislative director, said her group based that designation on information gathered at trade shows, the Vulcan catalog and the National Rifle Association convention.
"We can say unequivocally that we've never seen a product line as broad when it comes to assault weapons and military guns as Vulcan's," she said. "Usually, they choose one or another area to focus on.
"This is a company whose entire product line is designed to evade the federal assault ban."
Said Hesse: "Calling that a loophole is completely subjective. If the lawmakers wanted to pass a law that banned the firearms we make, they would have done so."
Many of the gun-control advocates' arguments are emotional rather than logical, he said. For instance, Knight said that rounds from the kinds of rifles sold by Vulcan will pierce an officer's body armor; Hesse countered that most rifles will do the same.
"When you get right down to it, they want to ban the types of rifles we make because to them they look bad," he said.
Kevin Duchschere is at
[email protected]
http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/4783859.html
Gun foes target Inver Grove Heights manufacturer
Kevin Duchschere, Star Tribune
May 19, 2004GUNS0519
One of the best reasons to bolster the federal ban on semiautomatic assault weapons, gun-control advocates say, is right in Inver Grove Heights.
That's the home of Vulcan Arms Inc., a gun manufacturer that has been in business for fewer than two years and that, according to an antigun group in Washington, D.C., sells a greater variety of "copycat assault weapons" than any other gunmaker in the country.
Robert Hesse, a Vulcan co-owner, calls his company's products firearms or battle rifles. He said he doesn't know whether Vulcan offers more kinds than other manufacturers, but said nothing the company sells is prohibited by law.
"They don't like the type of firearms that Vulcan Arms makes, that's their opinion," he said. "The First Amendment to the Constitution says they're entitled to voice their opinion, just like the Second Amendment says we're entitled to make and sell firearms."
Gun-control advocates will hold a news conference this morning in Minneapolis, focusing on Vulcan Arms and the 10-year-old federal ban on assault weapons. The ban will expire in September unless it is renewed by Congress and President Bush.
Not only should the ban be extended, said Rebecca Thoman of Citizens for a Safer Minnesota, it should be rewritten to prohibit more weapons and to close loopholes that allow companies such as Vulcan to deal in firearms that she said are only slightly different from illegal assault weapons.
"The current law lists assault weapons by name, allowing manufacturers to make a few cosmetic changes to the guns and reintroduce them legally," she said. "You have a functioning assault weapon that has a different name."
Vulcan Arms' Web site displays a series of mostly semiautomatic weapons that are based on or copied from military rifles, such as the AR-15 and the AK-47.
They may look different, but they do the same things, said Chaska Police Chief Scott Knight.
"If they proliferate ...[they're] a real threat to the men and women who wear our uniforms, and that extrapolates to a threat to the general populace," Knight said.
Why? "They're designed for one purpose: to kill people," said Knight, president of the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association, who will join Thoman at today's news conference.
John Caile, spokesman for the Gun Owners Civil Rights Alliance in St. Paul, said that hunting rifles are more deadly than assault weapons and that the federal ban has done nothing to prevent a single crime. He cited a 30-year study in Chicago that he said showed only 12 of 24,000 homicides were committed with assault-type weapons.
"The opponents are focusing on the wrong issue. It's always the tools with them, it's never the person holding it. This is our big gripe," he said.
The question of the effectiveness of gun restrictions was raised last year by a task force of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which found no proof that waiting periods and bans reduce firearm violence. The task force concluded that more study was needed to determine whether gun laws work.
It was the Violence Policy Center, an antigun think tank in Washington, that claimed Vulcan Arms sells a greater variety of guns than any other manufacturer.
Kristen Rand, the center's legislative director, said her group based that designation on information gathered at trade shows, the Vulcan catalog and the National Rifle Association convention.
"We can say unequivocally that we've never seen a product line as broad when it comes to assault weapons and military guns as Vulcan's," she said. "Usually, they choose one or another area to focus on.
"This is a company whose entire product line is designed to evade the federal assault ban."
Said Hesse: "Calling that a loophole is completely subjective. If the lawmakers wanted to pass a law that banned the firearms we make, they would have done so."
Many of the gun-control advocates' arguments are emotional rather than logical, he said. For instance, Knight said that rounds from the kinds of rifles sold by Vulcan will pierce an officer's body armor; Hesse countered that most rifles will do the same.
"When you get right down to it, they want to ban the types of rifles we make because to them they look bad," he said.
Kevin Duchschere is at
[email protected]
