Don't Renew the Federal Assault Weapons Ban!

In the past few months in the news, we have seen several mass shooting tragedies causing much speculation and attention for an increase in gun control. I am currently writing this post from my gate at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina as I just had a debate at Wake Forest University addressing this issue. This summer in Aurora, Colorado, we saw a horrific massacre in a local movie theatre where James Eagan Holmes took the lives of 12 innocent people, wounding 58 others. Many experts are calling for the renewal of the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban which expired in 2004, allowing criminals to legally purchase assault weapons with two military attachments or some of the specific models. What many experts fail to recognize is that the 1994 law includes several loopholes that gun makers and dealers exploited to continue making and selling assault weapons. As a result, many assault weapons remained available. Some gun companies made inconsequential design changes and gave the gun a new name. The new name got the gun off of the prohibited list, and the minor change arguably put it out of reach of the law's "copies or duplicates" language. Also, all that happens under the ban is the stop of production of assault weapons but pre ban models are still legal to buy and sell, including large capacity magazines which hold over 11 rounds of ammunition. Many experts also argue that crime rates decreased with the ban however, in 2005 (a year after the ban expired) the FBI announced that the number of murders nationwide fell by 4%, the first decline since 1999. This trend was consistent post ban. I strongly believe that there is no reason to ban something if it takes away from people's god given rights (under the second amendment) ESPECIALLY if the ban isn't necessary. It can be clearly seen that these mass murders are a trend that don't stop in a world with the ban, considering that criminals can legally get around the law as well as the fact that murder rates declined post ban. It would be interesting to see if any of my readers have anything to contribute regarding the ban or gun control in general. Any submission of ideas or alternatives are greatly welcomed below. I would love to get a good debate going on my blog. If you have any desire to read further about the ban I urge you to read bits and pieces of this study by Christopher Koper from the National Institue of Justice here.

Citations:

http://www.csgv.org/issues-and-campaigns/assault- weapons/assault-weapons-faq