Mother shoots home intruder...after he cornered her in attic with her twins, 9

[neighbor]

121. what you request isn't reasonable

there are too many semi-automatic weapons and high capacity feeding devices, millions of each.

Over 80 million U.S. citizens own firearms, that's a lot.
The only people that will turn them in or even register them are law-abiding citizens.
The rest will float freely as they did before. It's a nasty fact, but it's there.

You will only punish law-abiding citizens by making these weapons and their parts illegal.

Do you know that Connecticut already had an assault weapons ban in place? It's left over from the 1994 assault weapons ban enacted under President Clinton.
It listed several different brand names and styles of firearms and features and... it accomplished nothing. The only difference between the AR15 that was made by Bushmaster and the same type made at the Hartford, Conn. Colt firearms factory... was the name.

It was kept in place because it was popular with the people and kept the correct political hands of that state washed, no risky political back-sliding. The status quo was maintained, political goals attained, the norm.
The 1994 federal ban under President Clinton did nothing meaningful to slow or stop the rate of crimes committed with firearms, the Columbine Massacre occurred while it was still in place. There were results that both the pro and con side claimed as victories... but nothing meaningful, nothing you could put your finger on and say "look, it is certain"

The 1994 ban didn't work, it was allowed to elapse as a complete failure after ten years. Ten years where the same weapons were affixed with small (cosmetic) features that allowed continued ownership totally unfettered.

How would you [better] define an assault weapon where you didn't have to completely violate the Constitutional rights of over 80 million citizens of your own country? Is it even possible?
You do it with a ban on high capacity magazines? Do you know how many surplus magazines for assault-style weapons are on the open market?

Do you know what the effect of the 1994 ban was on magazines? The price went up... that's all that happened.

Legitimate new magazine construction ceased for civilians and the price just went up, that's it.
They were still out there and prized even more.

If we look at the other popular example, the Virginia Tech Massacre was accomplished using two handguns. One of those handguns held only ten rounds and was a .22... not very big at all.

Another ban isn't going to do anything. We can keep blaming the tools and beat our heads against the wall (which hasn't worked since 1934) or we can actually look for a solution.



I have three small boys, all under the age of 6. I can strongly empathize with the parents and loved ones of those killed in Newton. I just keep thinking "what if I had a son there?" "There's a bad guy at my son's school, what would I need?"

I'd want a good guy with a gun there too, it's the only solution my small mind can produce.
The only thing I know that will stop a bad person with a gun is a good person with a gun.


I understand that everyone wants to blame the hammer that was swung to kill small children. That's a very strong social taboo, probably the strongest we have... and as hollow as it would be, we won't even get some small satisfaction from putting an already-dead killer on trial.

In the mean-time, we blame the convenient target. The tool used.

It doesn't make any sense.