Orlando Slantenal at it again

[Flame Red]

And these jerks wonder why I canceled my subscriptions years ago?

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/orl-ed03109feb03,0,1980888.story

EDITORIAL
We think: A renewed federal assault- weapons ban is long overdue

February 3, 2009

An erstwhile federal ban on assault weapons made lots of sense. Allowing it to lapse, as Congress did in 2004, didn't.

How much longer will it take to correct that mindless mistake?

There's no need for ordinary citizens to be armed with such lethal firepower. Hunters don't need them. Gun-toting urbanites don't need them, either.

Those who say that outlawing these lethal rifles will only mean that criminals will have access to them are flat wrong. All that legalization does is make it easier for crooks to get them, and make it necessary for police to play catch-up in a costly city-street arms race.

It's happening right here in Central Florida. Only six years ago, officers in Orlando and Orange County seized 15 high-powered AK-47s and AR-15s. Four years later, that number grew to 79, a jump of more than 400 percent.

These guns are not in the hands of good people trying to protect themselves. No one is trying to trample on Second Amendment rights.

But there do not seem to be many examples where honest citizens stopped a crime, or caught a criminal, by brandishing an AK-47 or some similar brand of assault rifle. However, there are too many examples of the opposite -- criminals using these weapons to kill people or law-enforcement officers.

The latest one occurred in Miami last week, when an unknown assailant fired an AK-47 into a crowd of teenagers, murdering two youths and wounding seven others.

Sound familiar? Last October, two killers fired 58 rounds from two AK-47s during a gunfight in Pine Hills that left two men dead.

Orlando Police Chief Val Demings has seen enough. Getting guns off the streets is one of her top priorities. The same holds true for Jerry Demings, recently elected sheriff in Orange County.

Their challenge is daunting: Almost 10 illegal guns a day are seized in this community.

The lines between a legal and an illegal gun are blurry. In Florida, guns are readily available to anyone without a criminal record. But guns routinely end up in the hands of criminals. All it takes is a "straw purchase," when a friend or relative buys a gun for a criminal.

It's time to make some of that more-potent firepower illegal -- period.

After the latest incident in Miami, Police Chief John Timoney said that the percentage of homicides involving assault weapons jumped to 29 percent of all shooting fatalities in 2008. Mr. Timoney implored Congress to reinstate the ban.

Mr. Timoney and other advocates for outlawing assault weapons are right. Bringing back the ban is long overdue, and Congress ought to place the ban on its "to-do" list immediately.

Yes, lawmakers on Capitol Hill have plenty of other business in front of them. But an assault-weapons ban shouldn't take much debate.

This one's a no-brainer. The ban was once on the books; all that Congress has to do is write it back into U.S. law.

Oh, yes, with one exception. Don't write in a sunset provision this time.

 

[John828]

Wasn't there a ban on ban threads? :banghead:

I know Wal-Mart threads were banned, and I have heard talk that politickle threads were banned.

 

[TexasRifleman]

After the latest incident in Miami, Police Chief John Timoney said that the percentage of homicides involving assault weapons jumped to 29 percent of all shooting fatalities in 2008.

There is no way unless he's using some "fuzzy math" to include these weapon types that were owned by the shooter and not even on site.

29% doesn't remotely come close to the numbers quoted nationwide by the FBI, and Miami can't be that much out of the norm.

The numbers, direct quote from the latest FBI report:

In 2005, 55% of homicides were committed with handguns, 16% with other guns, 14% with knives, 5% with blunt objects, and 11% with other weapons.

So, 16% with "other guns" including ALL rifle types. FBI doesn't break it down into more detail of what would be termed "assault rifles".

Last October, two killers fired 58 rounds from two AK-47s during a gunfight in Pine Hills that left two men dead.

And of course this is my favorite. 2 killlers, 2 victims. This could have been done with single shot rifles and had the same result.

But there do not seem to be many examples where honest citizens stopped a crime, or caught a criminal, by brandishing an AK-47 or some similar brand of assault rifle.

And of course that's because LE agencies refuse to track that kind of thing since if you display a gun to deter a crime it's not "brandishing" and therefore no crime.

 

[Tommygunn]

These guns are not in the hands of good people trying to protect themselves. No one is trying to trample on Second Amendment rights.

Dang! I own an AR! I didn't realize I wasn't "good people!"

There's no need for ordinary citizens to be armed with such lethal firepower.

LETHAL firepower!!??!!?? My .30-'06 fires a more powerful round. I have an M-1 Carbine with 30 rnd. mags -- and that was not an "assault weapon" in the last ban.

I say we ban assault typewriters!!!

 

[CoRoMo]

There's no need for ordinary citizens to be armed with such lethal firepower. Hunters don't need them. Gun-toting urbanites don't need them, either.

Seems like the free market contradicts these statements.
If there were no need for them, they would hold no value and nobody would purchase them. Seems to me like the public does need them given the high demand for them.

 

[expvideo]

Straw purchases are already illegal. "Illegal guns" are already illegal. Enforce the laws that are already in place.

 

[Cannonball888]

Let the Orlando Slantinel know your thoughts at the bottom of the article

 

[AllAmerican]

The Sheriff and his wife or sister or whatever are ignoring the most simplest truth which would help them do their jobs.

They have alot of criminals who do not obey the law living in their once wonderful city.

Thats all it is. They want to blame the guns and so does the writer of this editorial.

 

[bottom shelf]

There's no need for ordinary citizens to be armed with such lethal firepower. Hunters don't need them. Gun-toting urbanites don't need them, either.

Like others much smarter than me have said... We're not protected by a Bill Of Needs. We're protected by a Bill Of Rights.

 

[caseypj]

The Slantinel is the worst paper in all of Florida, hopefully they go under soon.

 

[ny32182]

That article reads like it was written by a 6th grader.

 

[MagnumDweeb]

Ah Orange County. I live in Seminole County. The Orange County murder toll was 123, Seminole was 18 (2 less than last year, all but two of them happened in notorious drug dealing-government subsizdized living-garbage holes, the other two were husbands killing their wives in Domestic Disputes). You want to solve the gun problem in Orange County, cut off the welfare checks, actually re-gentrify the poor areas, and start bulldozing the third world hovels that are called homes near Downtown Orlando.

This isn't a gun problem, it's a pro-mediocrity problem. We need more forests and parks and less poor housing.

IBTL

 

[AllAmerican]

Good deal Magnum... I too lived in Seminole Co. It is as you describe for sure.