Semi-Automatic Rifle Ban Would Reduce Jobs, Not Crime

According to our new Attorney General, Eric Holder, the Obama Administration will soon attempt to reinstate aban on semi-automatic rifles. The rationale for such aban is that semi-autos are supposedly being purchased in this country and then smuggled across the border to drug dealers in Mexico. Of course, there are existing laws making it illegal to purchase a gun in this country for someone who can’t legally make the purchase, so anyone who does so is, by definition, a criminal.

And exporting firearms without the proper permits is also illegal, and is also covered by laws we already have on the books. So once again, it would seem, the anti-gun liberals want to restrict the rights of the law-abiding in an attempt to control the law-breakers. And, as if the idea of this gun ban could be any more ridiculous, the ban is supposedly intended to keep guns out of the hands of criminals who aren’t even in this country!

I don’t know what the government of Mexico needs to do to clean up the problem of its drug dealers killing each other (enforce their own laws, maybe?), but I fail to see the logic of banning legal weapons in this country to help them do it. Recently, the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) addressed this situation by reminding the members of Congress that such aban would result in Americans losing their jobs at a time when our economy is in recession.

Moreover, the ban would have no effect on reducing crime in this country (and probably not in Mexico, either), and the ban would deprive millions of law-abiding sportsmen and gun owners of their Constitutional right to own the firearms of their choice. Moreover, studies have shown that the Clinton-era ban that was in place from 1994 to 2004 did not reduce crime, and there has been no increase in crime involving semi-automatic rifles since Congress allowed the ban to expire.

The industry and firearms owners were understandably outraged by Holder’s comments’particularly by the use of the inaccurate term "assault weapons." But I personally was encouraged’even delighted’by a quote from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Cal). I never thought I’d see the day when I’d find myself agreeing with Pelosi on anything to do with firearms laws, but even she backed away from the idea of anew gun ban. Pelosi said: "On that score, I think we need to enforce the laws we have right now." Way to go, Nancy!

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