David Schechter, a journalist for Dallas, Texas-based ABC affiliate WFAA-TV takes a look at the reasons to own an AR-15 as part of his Verify program, a news segment that takes viewers questions.
With a single shot from his AR-15 rifle, a Lake County deputy sheriff quickly put an end to a large alligator that had a teenage girl trapped in a tree for nearly an hour, authorities said Monday.
Josh Sugarmann, founder and executive director of the Violence Policy Center, laid out this strategy of misdirection and obfuscation in a 1988 report on “Assault Weapons and Accessories in America.” Sugarmann observed that “the weapons’ menacing looks, coupled with the public’s confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons—anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun—can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons.”
He added that because “few people can envision a practical use for these guns,” the public should be more inclined to support a ban on “assault weapons” than a ban on handguns. While handguns are by far the most common kind of firearm used to commit crimes, they are also the most popular choice for self-defense. Proscribing “assault weapons” therefore sounds more reasonable.
Some federal courts have dealt with a different firearm age limit, upholding the 21-year-old age requirement for handgun sales by licensed dealers. That rule passed Congress in the Gun Control Act of 1968, long before the AR-15 became one of the nation’s most popular guns, and doesn’t ban young-adult handgun possession.
Michael Connelly, executive director of the U.S. Justice Foundation, a public interest law firm that supports gun-rights advocates, said, “I think an effort to ban people between 18 and 21 from purchasing AR-15s would be vulnerable to a Second Amendment challenge, particularly in light of the current makeup of the Supreme Court.”
The Supreme Court has refused to hear “assault weapon†cases in the past. However, previous cases were lower profile and the result of narrow readings, not the backwards interpretation exhibited in Kolbe. In its bravado, the Fourth Circuit may have crossed a bridge too far, sparking national debate and possibly forcing the issue to finally make it to the Supreme Court.
The Kolbe court justified their holding through a misplaced reliance on Heller’s discussion of weapons not protected by the Second Amendment: “dangerous and unusual weapons†and those “most useful in military service – M-16 rifles and the like.†This reliance was completely out of context, most obviously because the M-16 and its stablemates are machine guns, not in common lawful use by civilians anywhere. This is a far cry from the pedestrian semi-automatic weapons Maryland actually targeted.
The announcement prompted many gun dealers to head to their favorite shop to purchase a firearm. At the Four Seasons shop in Woburn, there was a line out the door. “We saw the email from Carl who said they wouldn’t be able to sell them after today,” Bruce Sterling said. “It seemed like it made a lot of sense to come and get an AR-15 today.”
Healey says the enforcement notice sent to gun sellers and manufacturers clarifies what constitutes a “copy” or “duplicate” weapon under the state’s assault weapons ban, including copies of the Colt AR-15 and the Kalashnikov AK-47.
The “Militarization of America†report found civilian agencies spent $1.48 billion on guns, ammunition, and military-style equipment between 2006 and 2014. Examples include IRS agents with AR-15s, and EPA bureaucrats wearing camouflage.
“Regulatory enforcement within administrative agencies now carries the might of military-style equipment and weapons,†Open the Books said. “For example, the Food and Drug Administration includes 183 armed ‘special agents,’ a 50 percent increase over the ten years from 1998-2008. At Health and Human Services (HHS), ‘Special Office of Inspector General Agents’ are now trained with sophisticated weaponry by the same contractors who train our military special forces troops.â€
Open the Books found there are now over 200,000 non-military federal officers with arrest and firearm authority, surpassing the 182,100 personnel who are actively serving in the U.S. Marines Corps.
They’re a Texas family-owned company, I heard online that they were pulling ARs off the shelves under pressure from the Left, and I went to one in Arlington Texas to see for myself.
Yep, they pulled all their AR-15s from the display.
I talked to the manager, I was calm and polite, but I said, “You’re a Texas company. You have a responsibility to your customers, to Texas and to America. Show a little backbone. Don’t just cave at the first bit of pressure. I have six kids. I used to buy shoes and clothes here for my family. I’ll be shopping elsewhere. Please relay this message to those in charge.â€
The manager said, “Well, we still sell ARs …â€
Not in my hands. I’ve shot pistols before, but never something like an AR-15. Squeeze lightly on the trigger and the resulting explosion of firepower is humbling and deafening (even with ear protection).
The recoil bruised my shoulder, which can happen if you don’t know what you’re doing. The brass shell casings disoriented me as they flew past my face. The smell of sulfur and destruction made me sick. The explosions — loud like a bomb — gave me a temporary form of PTSD. For at least an hour after firing the gun just a few times, I was anxious and irritable.
The only reason it was loud was most likely due to an indoor range. If it bruised his shoulder it was because he wasn’t holding in properly due to poor instruction or ignorance.
Lawyers for the Department of Justice submitted a memorandum Friday in the United States District Court, Southern District of California, in support of defendant’s motion to dismiss Lycurgan, Inc., dba Ares Armor vs. B. Todd Jones [successor name to be substituted], in his official capacity as Head of the San Diego Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The case involves Ares’ contention that ATF erred and overstepped its authority in declaring the firm’s EP80 polymer precursor receivers (“80 percent receiversâ€) to be complete receivers, and thus “firearms†as defined by the Gun Control Act of 1968.
