Night On Philly Streets Highlights Dangers Of Assault Weapons

[struggle4progress]

Police Say Job Is Harder After Assault Weapon Ban Allowed To Expire

POSTED: 6:01 pm EDT September 15, 2004
UPDATED: 8:24 pm EDT September 15, 2004

<snip> Within minutes of the shift's start, Costello found himself accompanying police as they rushed through the streets of Philadelphia, past Temple University, to back up officers in a foot chase.

The suspect got away, but not before he dropped one of his weapons -- a modified AK-47, also known as an assault weapon. Each bullet is capable of slicing through a cop's bulletproof vest. <snip>

Police said that the now-expired assault weapons ban was full of holes, but at least is was something and it didn't make any sense to lift it. <snip>

http://www.nbc10.com/news/3734052/detail.html

[NickB79]

1. Did the gun still have the sales reciept with it?

So is this article implying this criminal just bought this gun on Monday, after the AWB expired? Or is it possible (and far more likely) he has been in possession of it long before the AWB expired?

I mean, just WHAT happened on Monday that suddenly opened the floodgates on these guns being more available? Were there airdrops of crates of AK's on the streets (and if so, why wasn't I informed)? The point is that these very weapons have been on the streets for the past 10 yrs since the ban went into effect, and in the past few days since it has expired virtually nothing has changed. AK clones have been fully legal to own the entire time the AWB was in effect, so how has it expiring suddenly put more on the streets?

A more accurate title would have been "Night On Philly Streets Highlights Long-Existing Dangers Of Living in Philly"

[MGKrebs]

2. Repeat for those with short attention span...

"Police said that the now-expired assault weapons ban was full of holes, but at least is was something and it didn't make any sense to lift it."

[FeebMaster]

3. "But at least it was something."

:eyes: Obviously said by someone who never bothered to read it.

[jdj]

10. If a police officer said this I think it needs to be respected.

As one whose ASS is actually on the line, they need to be heard.

[FeebMaster]

12. Even if they're ignorant halfwits?

"Police said that the now-expired assault weapons ban was full of holes, but at least is was something"

Anyone making that claim is either ignorant or lying.

[Occulus]

16. of course you're ignoring

the the impressions of the ban is just as important if not more so than the reality of the ban.

"assault weapons are banned" would make ignorant criminals abandon efforts to get them. Even if the statement itself is wrong.

[FeebMaster]

17. You have got to be kidding.

"of course you're ignoring the the impressions of the ban is just as important if not more so than the reality of the ban.

"assault weapons are banned" would make ignorant criminals abandon efforts to get them. Even if the statement itself is wrong."


There should be a stunned silence smiley.

[NickB79]

19. Don't you realize he's hit onto something profound here?

His hypothesis is that mere impressions make ignorant criminals abandon efforts to commit crimes. So, lets ban murder! Genius I tell you, pure genius. With murder banned, criminals will start to abandon efforts to kill people, right? Right? Anyone?

[FeebMaster]

20. If only criminals

were as ignorant as AWB supporters.

It's sad really. Gun control supporters have gone from a group that gets things like the Gun Control Act passed to a group that gets things like the Assault Weapons Ban passed and they're seemingly happy about the whole turn of events. I think they'd actually prefer getting the AWB renewed to expanding the National Firearms Act to register more guns.

[NickB79]

18. So how did this criminal get an AK clone?

If the AWB was doing something, how did this guy get an AK clone mere days after the AWB expired? Like I said, where were the airdropped crates of AK's into urban areas that I missed? It is far, far more likely he had possessed this firearm long before the ban expired.

And once again, how does removing bayonet lugs, pistol grips or flash hiders from rifles do "something" to fight crime? What does this do to reduce the crime rate?

[mbperrin]

4. Hey, according to another thread this evening, depleted uranium

is good for you, and so we should let these guys buy DU ammo for these "peace-keepers"! (Or is that piece-makers?) (Or blow the meeces to pieces makers?)

So hard to keep track:

Assault weapons - good.
Depleted uranium - good.
Showing up * as a blinding lifelong hypocrite - bad.

I'll work on it.

[Radius]

7. If you were in an Abrams tank in GW1

DU was your friend. It let you kill people who were trying to kill you. DU is used against armor, not people. Tanks don't fire du at buildings, they fire HE rounds.

Have they released figures on how much DU ordinance has been used in the current war?

Check junkscience.com for all the du debunking. The UN report on DU I posted basically calls it a non issue.

It is all relative.

[jdj]

11. "DU is used against armor, not people"

Yeah, when they dropped the nukes on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, they were aiming for armor too. Or something.

[FeebMaster]

13. It figures nukes would get brought up

in an AWB thread. Wouldn't want to break the streak.

What do the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki have to do with anything?

[MGKrebs]

14. I'll jump in here.

I think the point is (or should be) that this statement " DU is used against armor, not people.' is pretty ridiculous. So DU is designed to DISABLE the armor without killing anybody? Is that your position?

[FeebMaster]

15. I've made no claims about depleted uranium.

I was questioning what nuclear weapons have to do with anything.

[Radius]

5. Assault weapon

is a drama word made up by nazis applied to a automatic weapon.

A 30-30 lever action(like roy rodgers had) will "slice" through a bullet proof vest.

Unless the weapon was brand spankin new it was probably purchased legally under the ban, and then stolen, by this cracked out asshole.

[MGKrebs]

6. And your point is?

[Radius]

8. Unless

the person used a new weapon purchased yesterday and bayoneted someone or beat them to death with the bipod it has nothing to do with the AWB. Which didn't ban semi automatic rifles that look like military rifles.

So the story has no point. The bill was always about warm fuzzies.

edit:spell

[MGKrebs]

9. I'm still not clear.

Is the point that since the AWB wasn't perfect, that it is therefore worthless? Since we cannot prevent all criminals from ever obtaining any weapons, there is no point in trying to prevent them from getting even the most demonstrably anti-social?

If you would say that AWB had NO effect, I would say, why are there no new Uzi's here? Why did Intertek (or whatever they were called) go out of business (and noboidy take their place?)

[NickB79]

21. There are no Uzis here

Because the Israeli company that owns the rights to them won't licence the design to anyone else, because they don't want anyone ripping off their weapons design. As was repeated in a previous thread, George Bush Sr, in 1989, banned the import of Uzis, 5 yrs BEFORE the AWB came into effect. The AWB had NOTHING to do with Uzis.

The reason Intratec went out of business was that they sold a firearm (the Tec-9) that jammed, was inaccurate, was heavy, and basically as much of a piece of shit as you could design into one gun (short of actually wrapping it in shit). They didn't go out of business until just a few yrs ago, continuing to operate years after the AWB was passed. How did they hold on for so long if their weapons were banned in 1994? What did they sell?

Ironically, before the AWB, Intratec was struggling to survive because their firearms sucked so hard. With the ban and the publicity that came with it, they saw a boom in sales of their post-ban firearms as everyone wanted one of those "evil-looking" assault weapons everyone was now talking about. The AWB probably bought Intratec a few more years of life, rather than cut it short. Similarly, more AK clones, HK's, and AR-15's were sold in the 10 yrs during the ban than in the 20 yrs before it, putting far more of these weapons into circulation. That's a good gun control bill??