Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Why the Confusion on Assault Weapons?

Most of us are familiar w/ the oft cited statement by Josh Sugarman of the VPC:

"The weapons' menacing looks, coupled with the public's confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons—anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun—can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons."

How is this confusion encouraged? Let's take a look at some campaign literature from Brady Campaign endorsed Illinois Representatives Kathy Ryg (now resigned) and Naomi Jakobsson (who also sponsored the local ammo encoding bill).

Assassinations? Legal in Illinois? Nope.

Terrorists? Armor-piercing firepower? Nice scary phrasing.
Military assault weapons? Wait. First it was "Assault Rifle". Why the change?

"Gun Show Loophole"? Of which there wasn't one since all legal sales in Illinois require the possession of a FOID card which IS a universal background check unless the police aren't doing their job.

Nice picture of a Browning M2 Machinegun and associated info. This has to do w/ the topic how? Oh, right, more intentional misdirection.


Hey, that looks a little different from the 'Sniper Rifle" pictured above. Of course the other gun, a real machine gun, is NOT legally available in Illinois. But what's a little dishonesty during a campaign right?
More of those scary words and Brady Campaign talking points.

So are people like these ignorant, confused, or deliberately lying to their constituency?

Either way, this is one of the ways that this myth is kept alive. Since the Brady Campaign endorsed these individuals, they are directly complicit in spreading these distortions which graphically puts into perspective their claims of only wanting 'reasonable common sense' laws.

Images provided by Ol' Coach from Illinois Carry. And as a note, these are not new but were sent out some time ago.


Unorganized Militia Gear

11 comments:

Cemetery's Gun Blob said...

Nothing like apeing the Anti Gun Lobby's silliness.

I've been thinking of redoing this mailer, and inserting large bore muzzleloaders.....they were military rifles back in their day....

Anonymous said...

I'm going to start calling my volvo station wagon an Armored Assault Vehicle.

it's just as valid a statement as these "assault weapon" definitions.

Thirdpower said...

A spoof pamphlet from a Colonial Governor? Keep his majesty's soldiers safe from those dangerous colonials.

Anonymous said...

They lost me at "designed to shoot down aircraft".

If an M4 is designed to shoot down aicraft, I am Mickey Mouse.

Steve said...

HAHAHHAHA. "Taking .50 off the street".

I have never seen anyone wandering around the street lugging a M2 machine gun and belts of ammunition.

How many civilian have been killed by Class III registered weapons? Very few I imagine.

Unknown said...

Thirdpower, Congratulations on all the links to that post. You're right the gun control folks often use exaggerated language for effect, sometimes even language that doesn't make sense. I should know, right?

But about the gun show loophole. You said:

"Gun Show Loophole"? Of which there wasn't one since all legal sales in Illinois require the possession of a FOID card which IS a universal background check unless the police aren't doing their job.

When I double clicked on the picture and read what it said, it seemed to be saying, NOT that there's such a problem now in Illinois that needs to be closed, but that she's the one responsible for having closed it sometime in the past.

I'm not sure. Does that make sense?

As far as purposely confusing people about machine guns and assault rifles and all that, you may be right. But isn't that more a question of salesmanship or presentation strategy than dishonesty? Doesn't everybody do that to one degree or another, even the pro-gun crowd? Doesn't La Pierre say some totally outrageous things for the same purpose?

Mike W. said...

"But isn't that more a question of salesmanship or presentation strategy than dishonesty?"

Nope. It's straight dishonestly MikeB.

I know you hate admitting that your anti-gun buddies are flat out liars. Deal with it.

Tam said...

"How many civilian have been killed by Class III registered weapons? Very few I imagine."

One. By a crooked cop.

Don said...

"When I double clicked on the picture and read what it said, it seemed to be saying, NOT that there's such a problem now in Illinois that needs to be closed, but that she's the one responsible for having closed it sometime in the past.

I'm not sure. Does that make sense?"


That's exactly what she's claiming, but she's lying. As Thirdpower says, there was no "gun show loophole" before she "closed" it. There was simply one set of rules for all "private" sales in Illinois: buyer and seller must each have valid FOID cards (which means both have passed the background checks already) and the seller must keep a record of the buyer's FOID information and the weapon sold for ten years. Illinois' waiting periods (72 hours for handguns, 24 for long guns) must also be observed.
All those rules were in effect at gun shows, the same as everywhere else. Then Ryg sponsored a bill to close a "loophole" by singling out gun show sales for an extra layer of background checks.

That is the opposite of closing a "loophole." She can make all the excuses she wants, but the word "loophole" cannot be used in English to mean consistent, uniform requirements for all situations. It just doesn't work that way.

Drang said...

So, we have photos of a Marine with his M249 Squad Automatic Weapon,a Big ./50, and... what the heck is that next to the .50? Either way, no assault weapons in these pics. And the .50 rifles were developed for (very) long range target shooting, and then adapted by the US Military for use as sniper rifles. I guess if she's worried about "hunting humans", she just needs to make sure there;'s no one in Mordor the military is looking to try to snipe.

Yeah, I know, speaking truth to idiocy, waste of time...

fast richard said...

I think the machine gun in the flyer next to the .50 cal is a version of the FN MG58, the family of guns that includes the M240 used by our troops. I could be wrong as MG designers borrow freely from each other and there are other similar designs.