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EVERY 48 HOURS An
Analysis Of Assault Rifles An Analysis Of Assault Rifles Traced
To Crime In Maryland September
2006 authored
by CeaseFire Maryland Inc. Board Member Susan Peschin 3rd comment on Ceasefire's
"EVERY 48 HOURS" Phil
Lee1 Dec 19, 2006
(rev. 3/8/08) [ Testimony
] Ms. Peschin asserts on page 4: The Mini-14 is a small, lightweight semiautomatic
rifle manufactured by Sturm, Ruger.
One reason for the popularity of the Mini-14 is that it does not have
the menacing appearance that is associated with the AK-47 and M-16. This resulted
in most variants of the Mini-14 being specifically excluded from the federal
and many state bans on socalled “semiautomatic assault weapons,” even though
the Mini-14 was functionally equivalent to, and even fired the same
ammunition as, other banned firearms. It is considered to be more accurate
than the AK-47 and SKS designs that it generally competes with in the
civilian market. After a spate of high profile shootings and incidences with
the Mini-14 rifle,5 along with a number of unsavory associations the Mini-14
had gained with militias and extremist movements during the late 1970s and
early 1980s, William B. Ruger recognized the dangerous firepower presented by
the Mini-14. Notice that this statement shows the intent by Ms Peschin
and CeaseFire to ban rifles "functionally equivalent to and firing the
same ammunition as other banned firearms." Practically any description of functionality that allows rifles
to be banned such as the Ruger Mini-14 will result in a ban of most
semi-automatic rifles currently sold. In the Violence Policy Center document Gunmakers Evading the Federal
Assault Weapons Ban, the Ruger Mini 14 is not even mentioned as an
assault weapon (Ruger is not in the document’s list of AW manufacturers). So, CeaseFire's efforts represent a
significant escalation of their war on firearms. On p5, Ms. Peschin displays appalling ignorance by
saying: The SKS rifle is a “post-ban” version of the
AK-47 assault rifle. A 2002 ATF report labeled the SKS "the rifle model
most frequently encountered by law enforcement officers" and stated that
"these high capacity rifles pose an enhanced threat to law enforcement,
in part because of their ability to expel projectiles at velocities that are
capable of penetrating the type of soft body armor typically worn by the law
enforcement officers."8 ... SKS assault rifles are not
banned under current law. The SKS rifle is a favorite
weapon for criminals11 to use against law enforcement — not only in Maryland,
but across the nation: ... And gives the note on that page: 11 According to ATF firearms
tracing data, analysis by the Violence Policy Center, there were 6,722 SKS
rifles traced to crime in the U.S. from 1998 to 2000 — 2,079 in 2000 alone.
From, A Further
Examination of Data Contained in the Study “On Target” Regarding Effects of
the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban, Violence Policy Center, April
2004. The SKS rifle was developed prior to the AK-47 and
independently of the AK-47. It is no
sort of "post-ban" version of the AK-47. Her statement on this point is an outright distortion and
deception. There will always be a rifle most frequently encountered
by law enforcement officers, but to call SKSs high capacity rifles is absurd
-- their capacity is about that of the M1 Garand (10 rounds vice 8 more
powerful rounds) and they are far less effective than the Garand. In fact, by her words, Ms. Peschin makes
clear that she aims for banning all centerfire rifles since they all have
"ability to expel projectiles at velocities that are capable of
penetrating the type of soft body armor typically worn by the law enforcement
officers." Ms Peschin claims the SKS is favored by criminals and is
uniquely dangerous to Police, but no Maryland Police officer has been killed
by an SKS (or any other rifle) in more than 27 years (ref: http://www.mcrkba.org/LEOsKIA.pdf) while more than 24 have
been assaulted and killed with handguns.
In fact, despite the claims by CeaseFire and company, rifles are not
very useful to criminals. While Ms. Peschin
cites 6,722 traces of SKS rifles as representing the risks from this firearm,
the context for ATF tracing is that more than 600,000 traces of all guns were
performed (most of which were handguns) in the same period and the most
frequently traced gun would be – (drum roll please) the Smith and Wesson .38
revolver. Ms. Peschin
continues to imply that rifles present a unique peril to police officers, but
over the last 25 to 30 years, fewer officers are being killed (FBI data) and
about the same proportion were killed recently with rifles as died 30 years
ago from rifle fire (ref: http://www.mcrkba.org/LEOsKIA.pdf). It simply isn't true that criminals use
rifles to kill police officers more frequently these days and use ugly rifles
uniquely to do so. 1 Phil Lee has a PhD in Mathematics. |