Well, it didn't take anti-2nd Amendment types to very long to try to capitalize on Wisconsin's deer hunter murders. According to TMJ-4 TV out of Milwaukee, anti-assault rifle legislation will be introduced as early as January in the Wisconsin legislature. Hopefully the assault weapon ban which the U.S. Congress recently allowed to expire (a horrible piece of legislation) will serve as a lesson to Wisconsin's Legislature as this bill is debated next year.
Just as a reminder, "assault weapon" is a loaded political term. It sounds nasty and scary, and therefore is used in an attempt to ban as many guns as possible. Most people are willing to accept limitations on automatic weaponry, which are exceptionally deadly. The gun used in the murders in Western Wisconsin was a relatively weak rifle. If it falls under an assault weapons ban, most rifles used for sport in this state will as well. If governments can figure out how to legislate away stupidity, I'm all for it. Banning the machines used stupidly hurts no one but law abiding citizens. A ban on the SKS would not have prevented the suspect from coming to Wisconsin with it and committing this crime. What is unfortunate is that the 8 victims only had one gun amongst themselves with which to try to defend their lives.
2 comments:
Apparently the SKS did not fall under the recently expired assault weapons ban. But I understand CBS News is already playing the "blame Bush" game on this.
Drew, you are correct, it did not. I suspect that it will fall under any ban that activists try to introduce in the Wisconsin State Legislature in the coming months, though. The Federal Assault Weapons Ban was a fiasco of a law, though, and I hope Wisconsin's Legislators learn from it.
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