"We have met the enemy and it is us".....Pogo
The New York TImes printed this:
Note the comments by Lawrence Keane. So we have the National Shooting Sports Foundation making inane statements about the SKS and the suitability of the 7.62x39 round for deer hunting. And the inevitable result is the rest of the media picks up on this and we get the statement as justification for a new ban.
So my question is; Does the NSSF intend to further divide the gun owning public? Are they that stupid that they don't believe that this will feed into the entire sporting purposes justification for a ban? Or, are they seeking to replay what I've heard happened in 1968 and use this as a way to cut imports and foreign competition?
Jeff
The New York TImes printed this:
Rare Weapon to Hunt Deer
New York Times
Published: November 23, 2004
By FOX BUTTERFIELD
The rifle that killed five Wisconsin hunters and wounded three more on Sunday was an SKS 7.62-millimeter semiautomatic assault weapon not normally used in hunting animals.
"This is not a gun you go deer hunting with," said Lawrence Keane, senior vice president and general counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the gun industry trade association.
The reason the SKS is not used by hunters, Mr. Keane said, is that it is designed for combat soldiers and is therefore underpowered for killing an animal like a deer with a single shot, the goal of good hunters.
"The ethics of hunting are you don't want the animal to suffer needlessly," Mr. Keane said.
Mr. Keane said he suspected that the man accused of the Wisconsin killings was not a trained hunter, since with the SKS he was carrying, he would have had to shoot a deer several times to kill it.
The SKS is a precursor of the AK-47 assault rifle. Though it has a longer barrel, it otherwise looks much like the AK-47. It has become popular in the United States among gun collectors, target shooters and some criminals, because it sells for less than $200, or more than $100 less than an AK-47, said Kristen Rand, legislative director of the Violence Policy Center, a gun control group.
By executive order, President Bill Clinton barred the importing of Chinese- and Russian-made SKS rifles. But the Bush administration, Ms. Rand said, has specifically authorized the importing of SKS's from Yugoslavia and Albania.
It is not known where the SKS used in the Wisconsin shootings was manufactured.
Note the comments by Lawrence Keane. So we have the National Shooting Sports Foundation making inane statements about the SKS and the suitability of the 7.62x39 round for deer hunting. And the inevitable result is the rest of the media picks up on this and we get the statement as justification for a new ban.
"ASSAULT WEAPONS: The deer hunter
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/ne...ent&Headline=ASSAULT+WEAPONS:+The+deer+hunter
11/29/2004
IT HAS BEEN LITTLE MORE THAN THREE MONTHS since Congress caved in to the National Rifle Association and refused to extend the federal ban on the sale of military-style assault weapons. This issue takes on added urgency with the incident last week in Wisconsin. There, a deer hunter killed six people and wounded two others after he was spotted on private land and was asked to leave. He claims he was defending himself when he fired at the victims with an SKS 7.62 mm semiautomatic assault rifle.
The SKS is of little value to good hunters but is popular with collectors and criminals. Best-suited for combat, the gun lacks the power to meet an ethical hunter's goal of killing a deer with a single shot. Former President Bill Clinton had barred the importation of SKS rifles from China and Russia, but the Bush administration specifically authorized their importation from Yugoslavia and Albania, according to The New York Times. It's unclear where the SKS used in the Wisconsin shootings was made, but the real issue is the disturbing response of gun manufacturers to the 10-year ban.
In some instances, the gun industry made cosmetic changes to some of its assault weapons in order to circumvent the law. Some assault weapons have not been banned because they supposedly are used for hunting. The SKS should be banned in light of comments by Lawrence Keane, an official of the National Shooting Sports Foundation. He told the Times that the SKS wasn't normally used in hunting animals. Not only was this assault weapon used in the Wisconsin shootings; it was used to kill three Birmingham, Ala., police officers in June. Congress needs to revisit the gun issue and decide which assault weapons and copycats should be banned.
Mr. Bush, who had said he would renew the ban on assault weapons, evaded responsibility last summer by claiming he was waiting for Congress to act, knowing all along that House Majority Leader Tom DeLay wasn't about to allow the measure to come to a vote. The president needs to tell Congress to get serious about renewing the ban.
Congress also must face up to a Justice Department report that fewer than 5 percent of the 104,000 American gun dealers are checked annually to make sure they are complying with firearms laws. Congress has yet to match its rhetoric about heightened concern about terrorism by appropriating money to check dealers and track assault weapons. The president and congressional leaders could take an even more significant step toward making our nation safer by banning these weapons. Again.
So my question is; Does the NSSF intend to further divide the gun owning public? Are they that stupid that they don't believe that this will feed into the entire sporting purposes justification for a ban? Or, are they seeking to replay what I've heard happened in 1968 and use this as a way to cut imports and foreign competition?
Jeff