benEzra
benEzra's JournalPresumably a name change would do it...
since wouldn't be banned by the features list. Heck, you could alter the magwell so it takes AR magazines and call it the Mini 223, or upgrade the barrel profile, and then it couldn't be said to be a "copy or duplicate" either. Note that the 2003 Feinstein ban wouldn't have banned the exact same gun in 7.62x39mm (the Mini Thirty).
AR's would have needed a grip shape change to comply with the 2003 proposal, unlike the 1994 non-ban which allowed protruding handgrips as long as the rifle met the Evil Features Count rule. Ironically, the 1994 law didn't even require a name change for most AR's, since "Colt AR-15®" was and is a registered trademark of Colt, so all the other AR manufacturers weren't using that name anyway.
Yup. And the factory stock is brown walnut, not black nylon.
That can be changed in 30 seconds, of course...yank the trigger guard, yank the trigger group, yank the action/barrel out of the stock, drop it in the other stock, pop in the trigger group, close the trigger guard. Of course, that assumes both stocks are fitted with the liners. I actually had three stocks for my mini-14; the standard wooden stock, a Choate fixed stock with a pistol grip, and a Butler Creek folder that I bought after the expiration of the Feinstein non-ban in 2004.
Interestingly, the gun-control lobby calls the wooden-stocked mini-14 both an evil "assault weapon" that should be banned, and a benign "sporting" rifle, depending on how much they think they can get away with at whatever given moment they are talking about it. Feinstein's original non-ban exempted all nonfolding mini-14's, but some of her later Senate bills (such as S.1431, 2003) would have banned all mini-14's by name, even the wooden-stocked ones.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c108:S.1431:
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the `Assault Weapons Ban and Law Enforcement Protection Act of 2003'.
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.
(a) IN GENERAL- Section 921(a)(30) of title 18, United States Code, is amended to read as follows:
`(30) The term `semiautomatic assault weapon' means any of the following:
`(A) The following rifles or copies or duplicates thereof:
(snip)
`(xviii) Sturm, Ruger Mini-14;
Yup. This gun is identical to an AR-15 in every functional way...
http://www.ruger.com/products/mini14RanchRifle/models.html...just less accurate and somewhat less durable, but same ammunition, same rate of fire, same range of magazine capacities. I used to own one; Ram-Line used to make magazines that would fit and function in both an AR and a mini-14. I sold it because I wanted something more suitable for target shooting, but the mini-14 made an excellent HD carbine and was fun to shoot.
What good are they? Well, let's see...
They are by far the most used centerfire target rifles in the nation. Go to a typical rifle range on a typical Saturday, and half the centerfire rifles on the firing line will be AR-15 variants or other modern-looking rifles. .223 Remington/5.56x45mm and 7.62x39mm easily outsell all other centerfire rifle calibers combined.
Go to any practical carbine competition (USPSA sanctioned, IDPA sanctioned, 3-gun) and the overwhelming majority of rifles you see will be AR-15 variants.
The only domains where AR-15's don't dominate are those that favor higher-powered rifles shooting heavier bullets, such as F-class benchrest or big-game hunting.
AR's dominate smaller game hunting (varmint hunting, predator hunting) down to the level at which .22 rimfires take over.
They are an excellent choice of defensive long gun for the home, offering almost as much effectiveness as a shotgun with less hazard to neighbors/bystanders than buckshot or handgun rounds.
So, name a rifle that is *more* versatile than that. A Ruger No. 1 or a .300 Win. Mag are niche tools, whereas a 16-20" AR is a generalist. And that's not even getting into the fact that you can swap calibers by pulling two pins.
FWIW, a friend is trying to talk me into trying deer hunting, so one of these (.308 family) is on my short list. 
I just spent some time with my responsible-gun-owner sister this week...
and showed her my new FNS-9L. We'll probably hit the range together tomorrow.
And my sister designs safety-critical systems for VERY expensive industrial operations, and I dare say is more competent with a handgun than the average non-enthusiast LEO. Neither one of us has ever shot a car, or a transformer, or our floor, or ourselves. Neither has anyone we know.
The Four Rules of Gun Safety:
(1) Always treat a gun as if it is loaded.
(2) Never point a gun in an unsafe direction. (If you say "But it's OK, it's unloaded", see Rule 1.)
(3) Keep your finger off the trigger unless you are on target and ready to shoot. (If you say "But it's OK, it's unloaded", see Rule 1.)
(4) Always be sure of your target and what is beyond it.
Follow these rules religiously, and you won't alter your or your neighbors' anatomy or knock out power to your neighborhood. Generally speaking, you have to break more than one to have a serious accident, although an egregious violation of Rule 2 coupled with an older defective gun could conceivably cause injury or death. Most cases of "the gun just went off" involve a finger or other object resting on the trigger when it shouldn't be, though.
Court rules that stock-owning churches can't interfere in what Walmart chooses to sell.
Wal-Mart defeats bid for shareholder vote on gun sales
(Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Tuesday lifted an injunction that would have required Wal-Mart Stores Inc to let shareholders vote on a proposal to tighten oversight of its sale of guns with high-capacity magazines.
In a brief order, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a permanent injunction imposed in November by U.S. District Judge Leonard Stark that would have required a vote at Wal-Mart's annual meeting in June.
Wal-Mart had objected that allowing a vote on the proposal from Trinity Church, a historic church in downtown Manhattan, would "open the floodgates" to more shareholder proposals, and cause excessive interference in day-to-day business operations.
The church's proposal would have required Wal-Mart's board to more closely examine the sale of products that might endanger public safety, hurt Wal-Mart's reputation, or offend "family and community values" integral to Wal-Mart's brand.
(more at link)
A lot of people who cheered this lawsuit apparently didn't consider the ramifications if the church had won its crusade....if it had been Focus on the Family suing to yank Plan B or the pill from store pharmacies, or if a megachurch were buying healthcare stocks in an attempt to limit what reproductive services could be provided by your local hospital or traded-on-the-NYSE clinics, the problem with that approach might not have been overshadowed by the "ZOMG GUNZ!" argument as it initially was in this case.
Given that the church was suing about the least misused of all guns anyway (Walmart sells *only* long guns), this was a quixotic approach from the get-go.
Massad Ayoob (defensive firearms instructor) often recommended
that all civilians wishing to learn to think and shoot well under stress---both law enforcement and ordinary citizens---go participate in some high-pressure dynamic shooting competition. It's not the same level of stress as in a life or death situation, but it is enough stress to reveal holes in your training and to ingrain competent gun handling under stress and very short time constraints. Some notable members of the NYPD Stakeout Squad used to compete in civilian matches on the side to stay sharp (Jim Cirillo comes to mind) and it showed. I've been in the same cohort as a few local and Federal LEO's during some of the local USPSA matches I've shot, as well as some active duty military who recognized that civilian dynamic shooting competitions are a tougher test of pistol or CQB carbine skill than what the known-distance square range stuff they typically got to do on base was.
Finally, since some of the Bloomberg talking points are regurgitated secondhand or thirdhand from Grossman's On Killing et seq, I'll point out that Grossman's teachings on the inability of bullseye shooters to supposedly shoot in life-or-death situations has been called into question---and that even by Grossman's metrics, shooting IDPA/IPSC/USPSA silhouettes or B21's would not fall under that criticism.
The gun control lobby rode #5 and #3 off a cliff
which is pretty much why the gun control lobby is as irrelevant as they are today.
As to #1, that is probably true, but it is not for lack of trying on the gun control lobby's part. Since they are still fighting to ban many of the most popular guns and magazines in U.S. homes.
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