Gun Control Myth 12: Automatic rifles and Assault Weapons are Too Dangerous to be Left in Private Hands
The root of this myth is another myth entirely – one that anti-gun types even perpetuate. This is that assault weapons are in fact fully automatic and/or military firearms. This is a myth within itself and one we’ve covered in our “Media Misinformation” posts.
But another facet of this myth is another myth as well. Movies and TV shows seem to imply that criminals mostly are armed with machine guns. Again, the truth is far from the fiction. Most criminals don’t have machine guns – although as the situation in Mexico has shown, it isn’t for lack of trying, and sadly fiction could become reality.
However, this still doesn’t let the anti-gun crowd off the hook in regards to this myth. As we’ve noted, automatic rifles and machineguns have been tightly controlled since 1934, and since 1986 all importation and manufacture of these weapons for private use has been prohibited. To own a machinegun one must go through deep background checks, and the guns are very expensive. You don’t go to a gun show to buy a machinegun as these cost tens of thousands of dollars.
Despite this fact, more than 100,000 machineguns are in private hands to collectors. And yet these guns pose little if any danger to anyone. Over the past 50 years no civilian has ever used a legally owned machinegun in a violent crime.
Likewise, the semi-automatic versions that are available are not true “assault rifles,” another point we’ve long tried to make. These firearms also fire a less caliber bullet than most hunting rifles – so they may look menacing but again there is a mystique as part of this myth. It is virtually impossible without special tools and a lot of man hours to convert a semi-automatic to fully automatic.
In other words this is about banning something by appearance and spreading fears by myths that actually are closer to outright lies!
Hartford Gun Buy Back “Takes Guns (including collector’s items) Off the Street”
Among several gun buybacks held this past weekend, the reporting on the one in Hartford, Conn. caught our attention. The CT Mirror reported:
The New Haven haul included 34 handguns, 26 long guns (including three sawed off shotguns), two fully automatic assault rifles and one Uzi. Police gave out gun locks free of charge to anyone turning in a weapon, and individuals were asked to fill out a questionnaire explaining the history of the gun and their motivations for bringing it in. All participants agreed to complete the survey.
“A number of elderly people came in,” said Pina Violana, injury prevention coordinator for Yale-New Haven Hospital. She helped coordinate the event. “They said they just wanted the guns out of their house — they had grandkids and worried for their safety but didn’t know how to get rid of them,” she said.
Some of the guns could have been considered collector’s items.
We are scratching our head s on this one. We aren’t sure if this is a mistake in the reporting, but if someone handed in two fully automatic assault rifles, would they really fill out the questionnaire?
But we make special note of the final line above, “some of the guns could have been considered collector’s items.” Despite that fact it is likely those firearms will still be destroyed, reportedly crushed and melted down. What a sad fate for “collector’s items.”
Mexican Cartel Wanted MILITARY Weapons
Last week Wired ran a piece titled, “Cartel Plot: Use U.S. Guns for Massive Mexico City Attack,” which offered this passage:
“Twin, you know guys [in the U.S. military] coming back from the war,” the lieutenant’s son, Jesus Vincente Zambada Niebla, told Flores. “Find somebody who can give you big powerful weapons, American shit. We don’t want Middle Eastern or Asian guns, we want big U.S. guns, or RPGs [rocket propelled grenades].”
This does not sound like the cartels planned to do their shopping at gun stores or gun shows, but rather were looking for military guns. And yet many still blame “lax American gun laws,” and not a military source!
The Atlantic Notes: “How the War on Terror Has Militarized the Police”
A not uncommon sight in New York City is a police officer in riot gear carrying an H&K MP-5 submachine gun or possibly an M-14 rifle configured for a sharp shooter (we won’t make the erroneous mistake of calling them a sniper). The point is that the police are well armed, and yet many anti-gun types commonly suggest only the police and military should have guns. This is a strange concept as The Atlantic noted earlier this week that “Over the past 10 years, law enforcement officials have begun to look and act more and more like soldiers.” The piece also noted, “Here’s why we should be alarmed.”
The story, titled, “How the War on Terror Has Militarized the Police,” suggests this is not likely to change:
(P)olice departments have employed their newly acquired military weaponry not only to combat terrorism but also for everyday patrolling. Before 9/11, the usual heavy weaponry available to a small-town police officer consisted of a standard pump-action shot gun, perhaps a high power rifle, and possibly a surplus M-16, which would usually have been kept in the trunk of the supervising officer’s vehicle. Now, police officers routinely walk the beat armed with assault rifles and garbed in black full-battle uniforms. When one of us, Arthur Rizer, returned from active duty in Iraq, he saw a police officer at the Minneapolis airport armed with a M4 carbine assault rifle — the very same rifle Arthur carried during his combat tour in Fallujah.
The article later suggests:
Americans should remain mindful bringing military-style training to domestic law enforcement has real consequences. When police officers are dressed like soldiers, armed like soldiers, and trained like soldiers, it’s not surprising that they are beginning to act like soldiers. And remember: a soldier’s main objective is to kill the enemy.
This should be required reading for anyone who suggests that only the police and military should have guns in America. And as The Atlantic has suggested this week, they are becoming one and the same.
Gun Control Myth Eight: Gun Control Laws Keep Criminals From Obtaining Guns
The loudest voices for gun control claim that it will keep guns out of the hands of bad people. What is generally not explained or possibly considered is that criminals don’t care about the law. If they’re going to break the law to commit a crime, then why would a law against owning a gun be a problem for them?
In fact, according to Morgan O. Reynolds in his study Myths About Gun Control, less than one percent of firearms involved in a crime and used by felons is obtained through licensed channels. In other words, criminals aren’t punished by gun control, yet law-abiding citizens are.
Some figures that Reynolds included show exactly what little impact gun control has on keeping guns from criminals:
-Just over half of the felons (compared to one-quarter of the general population) said that they owned handguns
-Fewer than one in six had purchased their guns from a retail dealer
About the only gun control law that really had an impact on gun ownership and crime was the 1934 National Firearms Act, which tightly controlled the ownership of fully-automatic or machineguns. And yet today, machineguns are legal to own with very special permits and background check. However, criminals seldom – if ever – bother with these checks and many drug cartels and other criminals do manage to obtain illegal fully-automatic firearms, suggesting that the law may have had an effect but criminals still found a work around.
Who Guards the Guards: LA SWAT Team Robbed of Submachine Guns
Several outlets are reporting that the Los Angeles SWAT team has had a “cache of high-powered weapons” stolen from its training site. The Los Angeles Times reported:
“The weapons, which include 21 MP-5 submachine guns and 12 large caliber handguns, were moved Wednesday night to a multistory building at 14th and San Pedro streets downtown and stored in a locked box on the building’s first floor, said LAPD Deputy Chief Michael Downing.”
This is a shocking turn of events and once again shows that criminals don’t go to gun shows or gun shops when they can instead just steal them from the police. The LA Times added:
“It was no secret that the facility, named the Kennedy Building after its owner, was used by SWAT for training. The officers could be seen coming and going and sometimes put on public demonstrations there. That raised the possibility that the thieves had been surveilling the site.”
It was added that these guns were modified to only fire blanks, and were meant to be used in training, but could be converted back:
“Gun experts and online tutorials suggest, however, that the process is relatively simple and requires only a few parts. The company that manufactures the conversion kits used by the LAPD has an instructional video on its website that walks a viewer through the steps of returning an MP-5 to its original form in about five minutes. The parts required to change the MP-5 back to live firing were for sale on a gun supply website. It was unclear, however, what documentation or background checks would be required to purchase them. The idea that nearly three dozen high-powered submachine guns and .45-caliber handguns could make their way onto the black market or be put to use by criminals worried LAPD officials enough that they notified law enforcement agencies in the region.”
There was other coverage of the story, including this passage from The New York Daily News:
“A stash of high-powered submachine guns and handguns was stolen in a brazen overnight heist from a Los Angeles Police Department SWAT unit training facility.”
We would also like to add that while those are dangerous weapons to have on the streets, technically the MP-5 is not high-powered. It is submachine gun and by no means a toy, but as it fires a 9mm pistol cartridge it is far from “high-powered.” This just shows a basic understanding of the issue. Yes, the guns are very dangerous, but again, high-powered they are not.
Who Guards the Guards: Indiana Police Officers Sell Machine Guns
“Three Lake County police officers have been indicted for allegedly selling machine guns and laser sights they misued their positions to obtain, the U.S. attorney’s office said Thursday.
“Sgt. Joseph Kumstar and Officers Ronald Slusser and Edward Kabella are accused of allegedly lying about buying machine guns for the Sherriff’s Department, then intercepting the weapons and taking them to Slusser’s house to sell online. According to the indictment, 74 machine guns were illegally acquired and 92 laser sights were acquired and sold.”
This is a Fast and Furious style debacle but in Indiana! It is shocking that law enforcement would try to obtain 74 machine guns!
The Post-Tribune, a Chicago Sun-Times publication, added these facts:
“U.S. Attorney David Capp said the three men started scheming in September 2008 to use their positions with the Sheriff’s Department to purchase 74 H&K machine guns, known for being military-grade weapons. Individuals are banned from owning fully automatic machine guns; only the military and law enforcement agencies are allowed to purchase them.”
First, it is actually accurate to describe the H&K arms as “military-grade” as they are fully automatic. However, it isn’t accurate to say that individuals are banned from owning fully automatic machine guns. The point is that these are legal to own in many states with special background checks and paper work.
What is shocking is actually how easy it was for the three men to forge paperwork and obtain the firearms, which were reportedly sold to criminals.
Once again we must note that a common argument used by anti-gun types is that all illegal guns start out in legal channels. Here is a case where the police bought the guns illegally and passed them on to criminals. If gun control were in place this would have still been possible, and criminals would have still been armed. This could very well be the future if gun control ever becomes universal.
More Anti-Gun Bias From Time Magazine
While the gang war south of the border continues, Time magazine once again managed to point the finger at American guns. In a story titled, “Mexico’s Gangster Send a Grisly Message on Crime” there is not one mention of Fast and Furious or the ATF. Instead the article offers this passage:
“President Felipe Calderon was in New York telling the United Nations General Assembly that ‘organized crime is killing more people and more youngsters than all the dictatorships put together’. Since Calderon took office in December 2006, more than 40,000 people have died in drug related violence. The president also struck out at the United States for failing to stop guns sold in the U.S. from reaching Mexican criminals, and urged the U.N. to take on the problem. Tests show that a majority of the automatic rifles in the hands of Mexican criminals were purchased in gun stores north of the border. ‘For what reason do criminals have access to AK47s, grenades and rocket launchers?’ Calderon asked. ‘The U.N. has work to do on this.’”
The problem with this reporting is that it essentially backs up the notion that the United States is the source of illegal guns. But let’s look closer at that sentence:
“Tests show that a majority of automatic rifles in the hands of Mexican criminals were purchased in gun stores north of the border.”
This is Time magazine, not some high school newspaper. Shouldn’t the fact checkers be doing their jobs? Even most high school newspaper editors would probably catch the point that you can’t buy “automatic” as in “full automatic” weapons at gun stores in the United States. The second problem is that this statement is based on evidence that has been widely debunked. In fact, tests show that the majority of guns do NOT come from gun stores.
Finally, what about the grenades and rocket launchers? Time doesn’t take the time to even address that these are not the types of items one can purchase at any gun store in the United States.
Forbes’ Larry Bell Sets Record Straight on Fast and Furious and 90 Percent Number
Few in the mainstream media bother doing enough digging, sourcing, fact checking or other confirming key numbers when it comes to guns in Mexico. That 90 percent – sometimes 80 percent or even a mere 70 percent – comes up time and time again.
As we’ve noted, imagine if that number was used for other industries, other events or other figures? Wouldn’t you expect the media to do its due diligence? Wouldn’t you expect someone to say, “this figure is wrong.” Well, fortunately there are guys like Larry Bell, writing for Forbes who did note those facts this week. Bell writes:
“…that 90% statistic is highly inflated because it “represents only the percentage of crime guns that have been submitted by Mexican officials and traced by U.S. officials.” Mexico actually recovers many more guns than it submits to the U.S. In December 2008, Mexican Attorney General Eduadro Medina Mora put the number of the country’s recovered crime weapons over the preceding two years at 29,000. Assuming that the total reported 10,347 guns seized and given to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) for tracing by Mexican authorities during 2007 and 2008 is an accurate number, only about 36% of all recovered crime weapons in Mexico came from U.S. sources.
But Bell notes a point that the U.S. media has also been silent on… namely, why would cartels go to the trouble of coming to America to buy most of their guns? These operations spend a fortune smuggling drugs around the world. Couldn’t they do better than merely heading to some gun shop near the border? Bell offers this thought:
“A friend of mine who owns a gun store in Houston raises an important question: ‘Why would anyone pay $500-$1,000 in the U.S. for semi-automatic rifles (legal civilian weapons that fire only one time with each trigger squeeze), when they can get original fully automatic military versions (that fire continuously when the trigger is held back) on the black market from other countries for $75-$100? They are readily available in Africa for $25. In fact nearly all U.S. firearms dealers had been voluntarily cooperating with ATF all along, routinely and immediately reporting suspicious multiple purchases.’”
So the question of course is why isn’t this reported more often? But that’s just one of many questions.
To recap, we see that the media doesn’t follow up to confirm that 90 percent number, and instead just accepts it. And yet few ever ask why the photos show grenades and grenade launchers, or bother noting that many of the weapons are fully automatic. The truth is that the media shows its anti-gun bias in its regular reporting.
NJ.com Does Bang Up Job Covering Local Gun Buy Back
Not exactly what we expect to see at a gun buy-back
First, what is wrong with this photo at the left? To be fair, it is credited by AP, but we have to ask what does it have to do with the NJ.com story titled “Jersey City buy-back program exceeding expectations” – because if these were the guns that were part of the buy-back we’re impressed.
But the truth is that this AP photo is just a stock image. It is likely an image of guns in a museum. This essentially discredits the entire story.
Second, the article from this past weekend offers this passage:
“Today, gun owners can go to two sites in Jersey City and receive $100 for every rifle and shotgun, and $150 for every handgun and automatic weapon.”
What exactly is meant by “automatic weapon” was have to ask? This implies that automatic weapons are common place and either the paper or the organizers show that this is really a major misunderstanding of the situation. How many illegal automatic weapons are on the streets, even in Jersey City – and more importantly, how many show up at buy-backs?
Together it shows that very thought went into this “feel good” anti-gun story.
