Moving past the expiration date on safety -- Howard Dean

[Khephra]

This week, the law banning the manufacture of semiautomatic assault weapons for private sale in the United States expired.

Before you read further I should tell you that my father was an avid hunter. I grew up with guns in the house, and although I do not hunt, I own an over-and-under shotgun. While running for office in Vermont, I won eight straight elections with the endorsement of the National Rifle Association. As governor, I conserved hundreds of thousands of acres of habitat by partnering with the NRA to fight off the right-wing property rights advocates who opposed government land acquisition.

I thought Vermont's outdoors should be the way it has been for generations, and now it will be.

However, I have never met a hunter who thought owning an assault weapon was necessary to shoot a deer or a bear. I have met a lot of law enforcement officers who think that the federal assault weapons ban saved a lot of their colleagues' lives.

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http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/opinion/9668862.htm