The Liberal Patriot

When Bad Gun Legislation Punishes the Wrong People

Mary MacElveen - March 11, 2005

As a Democrat, you may think that I am anti gun as well as for the banning of guns in this country. But, that is simply not the case. I am an American first and believe in the protection of all of the amendments to our United States Constitution. If those within my party can stand firm in their defense of a woman’s right to choose, then they must equally defend the second amendment and not seek to punish legal gun owners. The same can be said for Republicans who are against a woman’s right to choose yet are for the second amendment.

With that said, I have become aware of two pieces of gun legislation currently being proposed in Albany. They are S. 2445 and A. 2466. Both would make certain semi automatics illegal and re-classify them as assault weapons. The true, honest and fair definition of assault weapon is a fully automatic or burst-fire weapon, the very kind of weapon that is and has been illegal under the National Firearms Act since 1934. The weapons that both State Senator Eric Schneiderman and State Assembly Member John W. Lavelle both Democrats wish to make illegal do not fire in this fashion. With each bullet fired, you must pull the trigger each and every time. Assembly Member Lavelle states that these weapons fire in a “hail of bullets” They most certainly do not. Many of these legal weapons are used at the Calverton Shooting Range where I have gone target shooting with my Ruger Mini 30 one such weapon that they would wish to make illegal.

Within A. 2466 Assembly Member Lavelle uses the Columbine massacre as a fear tactic to play upon people’s fears. In that horrific massacre the weapon used was a TEC-DC9 which is already illegal in this state. So why use as an example an already illegal gun? Within this bill other scare tactics have been used and frankly the FBI statistics do not warrant any fear of the guns both legislators are targeting. The FBI itself reports that in 2003, of the 9,638 deaths caused with firearms in the U.S., 390 of them where with some form of rifle. A pretty telling statistic, considering the 2 million assault weapons he states exists in the US. In that same year, 944 deaths where caused by physical beating and 651 more with blunt objects such as hammers or bats. Amazingly 7,701 of these crimes were committed with handguns, which are very tightly licensed and regulated already and not covered at all in this bill.

What I see coming from these bills is total misinformation and scare tactics that will only punish legal gun owners who are tax paying and law abiding citizens. The people I see down at Calverton which is a Long Island shooting range are not criminals; they are people exercising their right to partake in the sport of their choice. I have seen whole families down at that range and they must not be punished by the passage of these dubious bills. I have been in contact with State Assembly Member Pat Acampora and she has written me that she will oppose these bills. Thank you, Assembly Member Acampora. I have also written these legislators admonishing them for using such tactics to punish people like me. Their time can be best spent by keeping pedophiles in prison for the rest of their life. Who is the bigger threat to our society? I will let you make up your own mind.

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