January 24, 2013

The last assault-weapons ban didn’t work. Will the new one be different?

The last assault-weapons ban didn’t work. Will the new one be different?

No confiscation in here.  FWIW

3 comments:

steves said...

It will work in terms of not being able to be circumvented, as it does not appear to have any loopholes.

Will it work to lower crime and increase public safety? I don't know. Considering that in 2009, according to the FBI, 348 people were murdered by rifles (this includes all rifles, not just assault rifles), I don't know what kind of impact this will have. That same year, 9 states reported no rifle murders at all.

Streak said...

Certainly a legitimate question. I have to say that making those rifles harder to get for people like Adam Lanza makes sense to me.

steves said...

True. I don't think we have a really good picture of what he was like. From what I can tell, he did have several mental illnesses and his mother was trying to get him into some kind of program. I am not sure if it was some type of residential program or in-patient unit.

We also don't know what kinds of steps his mother took to secure the guns. Adam didn't buy or own any of them. In hindsight, her measures were inadequate, but we don't know if they were reasonable at the time.