VPC's Josh Sugarmann's reaction...

[jfh]

sugarman and 'assault weapon'--

This was the day that galvanized me, so to speak.

It was the day after the Luby Cafeteria shootings. And, the NRA had won some sort of tactical victory in the House or Senate. I was listening to the news on MPR at about 11:30 or so--and the news reader, Gary Eichten, came up with a Luby story and how the shooter used an "assault weapon."

You can imagine my reaction to the term--being an English Major and former (English) Teacher--so I called MPR and got Eichten on the line and started chewing him out for using deceptive language. He protested mightily, and explained he was reading AP copy, or APR copy by way of NPR.

So I got a phone number, and, after several phone calls over the course of the afternoon, chased down the original AP writer. It was a guy based in DC, IIRC, and when I went after him he explained that he'd gotten the term out of the VPC.

AFAIK, that day and date was the first time "assault weapon" was widely used in the MSM. So, while the incident has some looseness to it, I wonder if by now we could Google it back to him.

Who has the Sugarman quote on hand about confusing the public?

Jim H.

 

[starboard]

Time to renew that NRA membership...

 

[Bruce H]

Be a real shame if Sugarmann had to find a real job.

 

[george29]

Which is probably the contributing factor to who he is and the things he says. If he could find a money man that would pay him as much for getting rid of the Christ in Christmas, or the Nuke in Hannuka, that's where he would be, probably never did a hard day's work in his life and that's what really scares that type. I hear there is a support group for those that fear brow sweat.

 

[Creeping Incrementalism]

Thanks for the story on the origin of "assault weapon", jfh, that's good first-hand info.

Who has the Sugarman quote on hand about confusing the public?

http://www.vpc.org/studies/awaconc.htm

The weapons' menacing looks, coupled with the public's confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons—anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun—can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons. In addition, few people can envision a practical use for these weapons.

 

[TexasRifleman]

In addition, few people can envision a practical use for these weapons

Oh trust me Josh, I can envision a couple of VERY practical uses.

It's people like you that that annoying little Second Amendment was written for.