Simple visual that clarifies why the Assault Weapons Ban renewal

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

188. Here's the thing....

An "assault rifle" is just a semi-automatic with a detachable magazine. It's no more or less deadly that just about any other type of rifle in common use (and no, I don't count a 50 .cal as being in "common use&quot .

The only remarkable thing about it is the magazine, which can hold up to 100 rounds. This is a legitimate area of concern, particularly for law enforcement officers who could literally find themselves outgunned by one or more suspects with high capacity mags.

But the rifle itself? Nothing particularly special about it. I'll grant that it can look pretty scary (or "way cool" if you like guns) but that's really nothing to build a law enforcement policy around.

Assault rifles are rarely used in crimes (they're hard to conceal) and they account for only about 3-6% of all homicides, depending on how you squish the numbers.

I'm all about making sure that cops and the community are protected from whack jobs with guns, and I think we probably should find some way to put the brakes on the number of these high capacity magazines. But that being said, the assault weapons ban really and truly didn't do anything to reduce the number of assault weapons deaths (the numbers were already low) and so banning these weapons will have a negligible impact on crime -- while pissing off a low of conservative Democrats and Independent voters.