Why assault weapons?
Richard Fulton
I use to often ask what could possibly be the use for assault weapons in the hands of civilians within a civilized society. They are weapons of war. Now I have my answer.
They can be used to kill multiple, nay, dozens of innocent people all within a nine-minute time window. Citizens going about their business of having a good time and enjoying the fruits of their labors.
One man can accumulate 40 some weapons and plan to use them however he wishes. He can buy them within a three-state area completely legally. No one checks whether or not he has accumulated that many and how much ammunition he has purchased.
It’s all legal. Even when, as in Nevada, laws are passed to try and limit the purchase of such weapons, the Attorney General of the state can just decide not to prosecute those laws.
Reno is a nice place to live, they say. Obviously, it is full of beautiful people willing to go so far as to risk their lives to help others. Heroism can flourish there, we’ve seen it. The officials in the town are well trained and do their jobs efficiently and respond quickly and bravely to emergencies.
Reno is also a town where there are gun fairs virtually every weekend. It is easy to get weapons without background checks at these gun fairs. Reno is a wholesale marketplace for them.
It’s all legal because Americans say they do not want to limit the rights of individuals to protect themselves. The Supreme Court has said that we have the right to have hand guns in our houses for protection. They have not ruled on automatic assault weapons.
Congress is horrified by the specter of hundreds of people being shot by a single man with multiple assault weapons. But they won’t do anything about it because the gun lobby has too much clout.
They give millions to members of congress. Roy Blunt has received over $60,000 dollars from them. Congressman Graves tens of thousands. To be sure they have constituents who favor the ownership of weapons, but are there no limits?
There is a thing called, I think, a “shunt” that can turn a single shot weapon into a quick repeating weapon not unlike a machine gun. Congress won’t ban it. There is a bill before the legislature now to allow silencers on guns. Republicans are working against it.
How about a multiple repeating assault weapon being used with a silencer? What about someone using a silencer on his pistol so that no one can tell where a shot is coming from.
Several times each week there are multiple shootings in America. Every week. Three, four, 20, 59, each person killed is a tragedy. Luckily, heroes trying to stop them and/or help the victims are often there too.
Why make it so easy for someone to kill many in minimum time frames? I’m not talking about taking away hand guns or hunting rifles. Let’s just concentrate on making it harder for multiple murders to be accomplished in seconds or minutes.
There is no simple solution. Banning the sale of assault weapons still will leave a lot of them in a black marketplace and in the hands of those already available. It would be a long-time solution to ban their sale now. But eventually thousands of lives will be saved. If banned, would one man be able to get 40 or 50 of them?
Every one of the rights in the First Amendment has been given limitations by law and by the courts. It would not be outside constitutional principles to put reasonable limitations on the right to have arms.
The sole purpose of assault weapons is to kill people, many people. As we have seen all too clearly this week.
Richard Fulton is an emeritus professor of political science.
