Illinois "Assault Weapons" Battle Looms, Jim Butler

This year the Illinois State Legislature narrowly missed passing a so-called "Assault Weapons" ban to replace the federal 1994 "Assault Weapons" ban, which is no longer in effect due to a sunset provision in it.

Naturally, this latest state attempt to replace the now defunct federal ban had the blessings of Chicago's Mayor Daley's corrupt administration, with help from his stooges in the Illinois State Legislature. The bans supporters, in spite of its earlier rejection this year, want to try again this fall. It now has the support of our absentee Governor, Rod Blagojevich, who has shown his true colors on gun control recently by vetoing several pro-gun bills.

The original federal 1994 "Assault Weapons" ban was passed by only two votes. Since then two of the Chicago Congressmen who voted for it have served time in prison. They are Dan Rostenkowski and registered sex offender Mel Reynolds. Thanks to these two felonious politicians we had to put up with a phony Federal "Assault Weapons" ban on semi-automatic firearms (military look-a-likes) for ten years.

The firearms on the federal ban list were not machine guns nor were they easily converted to machine gun operation, as the anti-gun organizations argued with help from many credulous news organizations, who thought it unnecessary to check with the experts to see if this was true.

Illinois holds the infamous distinction of having a former Governor, George Ryan, who is going to trial in September on federal charges for running a racketeering enterprise while Illinois Secretary of State, and who incidentally, also supported a State "Assault Weapons" ban prior to the federal 1994 "Assault Weapons" ban passage. Ryan even appeared on television to support the measure.

Reporters now openly ask federal law enforcement officers investigating the corrupt mess in Chicago if Mayor Daley is going to be indicted. Chicago is reputed to be one of the most corrupt cities in the United States thanks to the anti-gun Daley administration.

Part of the problem we have had with the phony "Assault Weapons" ban is the slick propaganda put forth by anti-gun organizations, who deliberately twist the definition of an assault weapon. If the semi-automatic firearm had a military look to it, they called it an "assault weapon" regardless of how it operated.

According to the Department of Defense definition an assault rifle is capable of firing both fully automatic and semi-automatic (sometimes in shot bursts of 3-5 rounds).

The military look-a-like semi-autos on the federal 1994 "Assault Weapons" ban list don't spray bullets like a machine gun and are not easily converted to machine guns. They operate the same as a revolver: one squeeze of the trigger, one shot. Semi-automatic firearms have been widely used in the United States for over one-hundred years.

Some anti-gun zealots claim that "assault rifle" wounds are more serious than other gun injuries. This has been contradicted by Dr. Martin L. Fackler, Director of the Wound Ballistics Laboratory at the Letterman Army Institute of Research. He noted that typical "assault rifles" fire smaller-than-average ammunition. He has shown through ballistics experiments that this ammunition has milder wounding effects than civilian hunting ammunition or regular infantry cartridges. Because "assault weapons" fire smaller, pointed bullets they tend to produce smaller wounds which are less lethal.

On January 23, 1989, the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner ran a news story that focused on the AK-47 as an unusually powerful and lethal rifle. In the story a civilian semi-automatic version of the AK-47 was used. Printed along with the story was a photo showing a melon being blown apart. Now for the dirty little secret that the newspaper didn't want you to know. The melon was actually blown apart by a 9mm. 115 grain hollow point bullet shot out of a Beretta Model 92 pistol, after the rifle firing a standard military fully jacketed 7.62 x 39 mm. round failed to blow the melon apart. The rifle had only created a small hole merely cracking the melon. This wasn't dramatic enough for the reporter who requested a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy shoot the melon with the Beretta pistol. The Los Angeles Herald-Examiner has since gone out of business.

"Assault Weapons" on the federal 1994 ban list were available to the general public for the entire ten years the ban was in effect. Manufacturers simply removed some of the military features from them, usually the bayonet mount and muzzle flash suppressor. High capacity magazines were also available throughout the ban. None of these features were a major crime problem either before or during the ten years of the ban. The ban was passed by Washington politicians merely so they could boast they were doing something about crime.

Legislators supporting a Illinois "Assault Weapons" ban need to keep in mind that Democrats lost control of Congress in 1994, when irate gun owners voted their members who supported the federal ban out of office. They were sacrificed on the altar of gun control and the Democrat party still hasn't recovered.

Gun owners don't forget or forgive.

Update 11/7/06. The people have spoken and the Democratic party has two years to avoid the same mistakes they made against gun owners in 1994.

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