Wednesday, March 26, 2008

About that gun control issue ...

It would appear that yesterday's post titled Duck the NRA and GOP? Understandable but ... was timely. AP/MSNBC reports AK-47-type guns turn up more often in U.S.: Marked increase of weapons traced, entered into federal database. Language in the article that I noted follows:

... Since 1993, the year before the ban took affect, ATF has recorded a more than sevenfold increase in 7.62x39mm guns — which includes the original Russian-made AK-47 and a variety of copycats from around the world. The number of AK-type guns rose from 1,140 in 1993 to 8,547 last year. ...

The numbers corroborate what police chiefs around the country have been saying: AKs and other so-called assault weapons are terrorizing their communities and endangering their officers. ...

With AK-47-type guns used in wars and insurrections all over the world, some 250,000 people are said to be killed by such weapons each year, and more than 75 million are believed to be in existence. ...

The AK is an amazing piece of machinery. I was in fact thinking at times of that very rifle this evening while I was setting up a new rack from mostly Tactical Tailor components. As to that weapon however, I'm not so sure that anybody needs one outside of a rather select group. Could regular folks use and enjoy them. Maybe? But I'd make people jump through some serious hoops to get and then use one.

Enter the NRA. They say, as they always do, the following:

The National Rifle Association says the focus must be getting criminals off the streets, not more legislation.

"The basic reason why gun control laws fail is that they require the cooperation of a very unlikely source, and that is criminals," said NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam. "Each time you pass a gun control law, the only people that are going to be affected by that law, the only people that are going to follow that law are law-abiding Americans."

So why not at least narrow the field Andrew? I'd like to think Americans could understand some simple reasoning on the matter of "gun control" and yet right now many in the Democratic Party are satisfied to just let the GOP own the issue by not engaging them on their rather irresponsible approach to the legitimate question of why so many of these killing tools are out there on our streets. Expose their radicalism for what it is and maybe then we'll start piling up some serious wins. John Gunn

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