On Sept. 13 a ban on military style assault weapons expired on the floor of Congress. The ban outlawed certain kinds of guns that are capable of firing a large number of bullets in rapid succession. These are guns that are used overwhelmingly by criminals in police assaults, and have been used in school shootings. Given the danger to the public these weapons present, and the fact that a majority of Americans favor it, the assault weapons ban should have been renewed.
Gun control in general is in the public's best interest. The National Rifle Association and other supporters of gun ownership constantly draw the arguments against any gun control measure back to the Constitutional guarantee of "the right to bear arms." In US v. Miller (1939), the Supreme Court found that the right to bear arms is granted only in connection with service in a militia. Thirty lower court decisions since 1939 have affirmed this reading.
We are not roundly opposed to the personal right to possess a firearm, but we feel that certain protections should be conceded to safeguard the public interest. The United States leads the world in firearm violence. Firearms were the cause of 30,708 deaths in 1998. Furthermore, for every death there are two non-fatal injuries. It is estimated that 1 to 3 million guns circulate unregulated in the black market, where many criminals get their weapons.
Assault weapons are the favorites of many criminals because they are extremely deadly and they can be fired with little skill. Finding themselves outgunned by dangerous criminals, a multitude of police organizations supported the ban.
The NRA wants the public to believe that the ban had no effect on crime and thus we are not likely to again see any of the tragedies associated with assault weapons like the Columbine school shooting. However, the facts say otherwise. Crimes committed with these weapons dropped 66 percent after the ban went into effect, according to government statistics.
In the ultimate flip-flop, our self-described "terrorism expert" president failed to actively support the renewal of the assault weapons ban despite having expressed support for it during his 2000 campaign.
But like so many domestic issues, the assault weapons ban has an important national security component that makes its expiration even more dangerous. The Sept. 11 commission found that al-Qaeda training manuals encouraged terrorists to pursue assault weapons in the United States. For the sake of our national security, if nothing else, Bush and pro-gun groups should support this important control of dangerous weapons.
