Mass AWB?

Freedomsight discusses Romney's lack of Republican street cred in a recent post of his called Mitt Romney - RINO Socialist. In that post he links to a story about Romney signing & praising a Massachusetts "assault weapons" ban. But it seems the "assault weapons" ban wasn't as thorough as they'd have liked since New Bedford Mayor Scott W. Lang is pushing for a more extensive statewide AWB.

"Mayor Scott W. Lang is asking the city's legislative delegation to push for a statewide ban on the sale of military-style weapons — including the AR-15 semiautomatic rifle used by a gunman last week to kill two employees and himself at the Foxy Lady SouthCoast.
'I'd like our local delegation to sponsor a bill that takes that type of weapon out of civilian hands ... any type of military weapon,' he said. 'This is not an appropriate weapon for a civilian to have.
'It's a killing tool. ... It's a weapon that's used to destroy an opposition army. We don't need a battlefield in the middle of our city."

The article goes on about the incredible firepower of the AR-15 & how the police were outgunned. They did include some actually decent quotes form the opponents of the AWB:

"The gun itself isn't evil,' Mr. Folco said. 'It's an inanimate object."

But in speaking of the shoot-out at the strip club they return to the hysterics:

"According to Chief Teachman, the bullets cut through the cruiser door panels 'like a hot knife through butter."

An AR-15 in presumably 5.56x45 NATO seems to amaze them with its power. I'd hate see how they'd have reacted to a .30-30 Winchester or a .30-06 Springfield.

"Mr. Medeiros' rifle had a range of '1,000 feet and is deadly accurate,' far greater than police-issue handguns, Mayor Lang said. The gunman hit police vehicles that were hundreds of yards away, according to police."

1,000 feet huh? 330 yards is longer than most handgunners can hold on a decent sized target but damn near any out of the box rifle should be able to hit paper at that distance. Most should be able to put down deer sized game, though the 5.56x45 NATO isn't recommended for that kind of task - it's not powerful enough to ensure a reliable kill on game at such distances. Groundhogs yes but not deer.

Anyway read the article. I'm sure most folks who read this will be able to fisk the remainder themselves. What's interesting though is the Mayor seems to be optimistic about his chances of getting a strengthened AWB through the state legislature & he's 'talking" with some federal legislators to possibly do the same nationwide. It hopefully will come to naught but it does bear a bit of watching.

Posted by Publicola at December 23, 2006 04:08 PM | TrackBack