Assault Weapons ban - working or not? SEN. CRAIG flip-flops both lips

[radfringe]

Lou Dobbs had a segment about the weapons ban (9/13) -- below is an e-mail I just sent.

Dear Lou,

Regarding the story you recently did on the expiration of the Assault Weapons ban - SEN. LARRY CRAIG (R) first pooh-poohed the notion that the ban was working.

"CRAIG: Well, Lou, I don't question the polls. I might look at some of the way the questions were asked. But I do know that since 1994 when the ban was put in place, it has made no difference in law enforcement and/or the times in which this style of semi-auto is used: less than 3 percent before '94, less than 3 percent today."

His next statement he contradicts himself: "CRAIG: (snip) They don't use these kinds of weapons in this country. If they chose to, they could buy them off the black market and out of the back streets of America, but darn few of them are available there, simply put."

If terrorists are unable to obtain assault weapons on the black market or back streets because there are "darn few of them available there" isn't that an indication the Assault Weapons Ban was working? Just my opinion - but SEN. LARRY CRAIG is flapping both lips in different directions.

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transcript link: http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0409/13/ldt.00.html

[WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot]

1. He could be referring

To the black market that sells fully automatic weapons. I mean hell, if one s going to break the law and buy black market, why not by a rifle with a happy switch instead of a semi auto.

If that's not what he's talking about, he's just a typical uninformed politician talking from his behind.

[radfringe]

2. just seems to me

maybe I'm wrong - but I'm under the impression that you can get anything on the black market

soooo if you can't get these assault weapons on the black market is it because it's not a "marketable item" or is it because even the black market has a hard time getting them?

I realize that there are easier ways to buy and modify weapons - like through gun shows and picking up converson kits... yet somehow Craig seems to be contradicting himself in the effectiveness of the weapon-ban law

just because terrorists do not seem to use these weapons as a weapon-of-choice at this point - by letting the ban expire wouldn't this make it that much easier for people to buy and use these weapons in the future?

[enfield collector]

3. not a marketable item in the criminal market. why buy an illegal

semi-auto to commit a crime with when you can buy an illegal full-auto for the same price?

[slackmaster]

4. Your link doesn't go to the correct transcript

I heard part of the interview. I believe the senator's second remark "They don't use those kinds of weapons in this country..." was referring to fully automatic weapons, which are scarce and difficult to obtain in the USA. They've been regulated since 1934.

It's not surprising that many don't understand the difference. A decade of misleading propaganda has fooled a lot of people.