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| Assault Rifle |
The problem they have by using this incident, is that there is very little that any law short of banning guns could have done to prevent this shooting. Even the banning of guns would not stop the guy from buying a gun on the black market (See Mexican Gun Laws for details.)
You have a person with no criminal record, no record of mental health issues (although those will come to light later, as it is inconceivable that a person can shoot that many people in this scenario without being mentally damaged), who bought guns and ammunition in a legal way.
Of course there are a couple of talking points (and my quick answers) the anti-gunners will try to use:
1. If the assault rifle ban was still in effect, he would not have had a rifle to shoot with. Answer: wrong, semi-automatic weapons are readily available and could inflict the same damage. In fact, we will soon find that the majority of the victims in the Colorado shooting we hit with buckshot from the shotgun he fired in the opening moments of the attack. Shotguns have never been mentioned as needing to be banned.
2. He had over 6,000 rounds of ammunition. That should be illegal or at least trigger an investigation of the person. Answer: Most people have no idea of how much ammunition is purchased and shot by regular gun sport enthusiast. I can probably name 20 to 30 people in Laredo, and they are not gun store owners, who have much more than 6,000 rounds of ammunition at home. This type of regulation would swamp the feds, or whomever was designated to investigate such things.
These are just a couple of things being tossed about by the anti-gunners. There will be much more heard on this issue in the next few weeks as more facts surface.
Even Mexican President Calderon thinks we should abolish the Second Amendment. He has a great knowledge of just how great strict gun control laws work.
I know it is controversial but I tend to agree with you...I've heard folks claim that having concealed carriers in the theater would have mitigated the mayhem, but I think that's a strong conjecture given the chaos and concealment under the smoke. It would be very hard to go backward given our acceptance of right to bear arms in our culture and criminals will always be able to acquire guns and ammo illegally. I do have some opinions about whether anyone should be able to purchase 5.7x28mm FN Herstal armor-piercing rounds...I read this article the other day about the "myth" of the cop-killing round http://www.chuckhawks.com/5-7x28_cop_killer.htm and the author indicates that the high price would make it an unlikely AP round with the FN Herstal Pistol amongst criminals- but simple perusal of Mexican newspapers would seem to imply otherwise....I'm sure you have some good opinions on that, too! Welcome to our little Laredo Blogging Forum, Tom!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the welcome. And I, as do the majority of legal gun owners, do not want to see "special ammunition" sold that are specifically designed to defeat body armor.
ReplyDeleteWhat bothers me most about the gun control debate is how few in the media really know anything about firearms, yet they profess to be experts in how to control gun ownership.
Anyway, thanks for the welcome to the Laredo Blogging Forum. Unfortunately, Laredo blogs are needed to fill in the wide gaps left in reporting the news and opinions of the local citizenry.
You're welcome, Tom! Post your posts in the share threads whenever you post so we don't miss them! :)
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