Latest right-wing meme- "No assault rifle used at Sandy Hook"

[markpkessinger]

90. What you say is certainly true, but ...

... a serious discussion of exact definitions is critical to the fashioning of a workable piece of legislation -- one that actually manages to accomplish what we intend it to accomplish. I am absolutely in favor of doing whatever we can by way of better gun control laws in order that we may, to the extent possible, prevent another Sandy Hook. But I'm also in favor of getting it right the first time. What I've seen playing out here on DU in recent weeks is that any attempted discussion of the potential weaknesses in proposed definitions of types of weapons to be banned is reflexively greeted by suggestions that the person pointing out those weaknesses must be carrying water for the NRA (I'm not saying you did that here, btw). That is not only intellectually dishonest, it is harmful to the kind of discussion that needs to take place as we try to arrive at a response to Sandy Hook. For I can promise you, if we don't have that discussion up front, and allow legislation to pass that is in any way ambiguous concerning the definition of any weapons to be banned, then that discussion will play out in some future criminal trial of an unscrupulous gun dealer who is accused of violating that ban, as that dealer's defense attorney will seek to exploit every ambiguity of language or ill-conceived or poorly thought definition in the cause of getting his or her client off. I don't think that's really what anybody wants, is it?