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The Long Black Train
“There’s a long black train comin down the line
Feedin' off the souls that are lost and cryin'
Rails of sin only evil remains
Watch out brother for that long black train.”
Lately it feels like Josh Turner’s “long black train”
has quietly slipped into our mountain valleys. One violent death
after another has briskly stepped to the platform of our morning
paper. We’re not used to that here. Sure, we’re a mostly
keep to kin and kind bunch in Henderson County, but we pride ourselves
on sharing our neighbor’s burdens as well as their beer and
supper. Perhaps we got so caught up in the yarn ball of our own
lives that we didn’t listen as well as we should. Or perhaps,
given the reports that three of the four murders involved firearms,
maybe there’s just too many guns around.
America is a land of opportunity for guns and bullets. There are
approximately 192 million privately owned firearms in the U.S. of
which 65 million are handguns. In 1998 alone, licensed firearms
dealers sold an estimated 4.4 million guns. Additionally, it is
estimated that 1 to 3 million guns change hands in the secondary
market each year, and thanks to the gun lobby many of these sales
are not regulated. However, there is one class of guns that is regulated—assault
weapons.
Bans on assault weapons have been implemented to protect the public
and law officer’s health and safety. Fully automatic weapons
were restricted by The National Firearms Act of 1934 after they
became the weapons of choice for organized crime bosses like Al
Capone. By the 1990’s, cultural factors and technological
advances had made semi-automatics the hot pick for criminal carnage.
In fact assault weapons accounted for more than 17% of fatal shootings
of police. It was obvious to almost everyone that these new weapons
weren’t for duck hunting unless paté was on the menu.
The Assault Weapons Ban Bill that passed into law on September 13,
1994 and is due to expire this year, required domestic gun manufacturers
to stop production of semi-automatic assault weapons and ammunition
clips holding more than 10 rounds except for military and police
use. Due to the National Rifle Association’s strenuous efforts
against the Assault Weapons Ban legislation in 1994, they succeeded
in getting pre-1994 semi-automatic assault weapons “grandfathered”
in. It was such a “grandfathered” TEC-DC9 semi-automatic
pistol that was used in the Columbine School massacre.
Semiautomatic weapons can be every bit as deadly as fully automatic
machine guns. While a single shot weapon can also easily kill, it
can’t spray the death and destruction that these specially
equipped weapons can. Since semi-automatics automatically load the
next bullet in the chamber, a user can fire up to thirty bullets
in five seconds. Unlike semi-automatic hunting rifles that are designed
to be fired from the shoulder, semi-automatic assault weapons with
special grips and threaded barrels for silencers are designed to
be spray fired from the hip thus maximizing death and injury. Any
weapon, whether semi-automatic or fully automatic that delivers
this kind of fire power is an assault on the life and liberty of
law enforcement officers and the American public. No, these weapons
don’t just “look scary” as the NRA contends they
are scary and 76% of the public doesn’t want them back on
the street. Fifty seven percent of gun owners don’t either.
(consumerfed.org)
With the help of NRA friendly legislators, the firearms industry
continues to manufacture dozens of assault weapons practically identical
to those banned. With a nip here and a tuck there, Colt modified
the banned AR-15 into a new “Sporter” model and Intratec’s
TEC-9 became the AB-10. (The “AB” stands for “after-ban.”)
The Bushmaster XM15 used in the Washington area gun spree is a copycat
of the AR15 assault rifle banned under law. These new “sport”
rifles aren’t the rabbit rifles your Grandaddy owned. Interestingly,
last July’s issue of, Field and Stream, a magazine popular
with hunters, released the results of its readers' poll on the state
of hunting in America. When the readers were asked, "Do you
consider assault-style rifles to be legitimate sporting guns? 67%
responded "no."
What about the NRA’s contention that this legislation has
been ineffective in saving lives? One letter writer to the Asheville
Citizen Times even wrote, “…This legislation is nearly
10 years old and not one law enforcement official can point to a
case where a life has been saved…This law is just hysterical
hype over nothing.” In a 2003 report, "On Target: The
Impact of the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Act," based on Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) crime gun trace
data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and analyzed
by experts at Crime Gun Solutions LLC, a private firm founded by
veterans of ATF, show that the assault weapons banned by name in
the Act have decreased by 66 percentage of overall crime gun traces
since the statute was enacted in 1994. The study concludes “…
that the Federal Assault Weapons Act has contributed to a substantial
reduction in the use of assault weapons in crime, despite the industry's
efforts to evade the law through the sale of copycat guns.”
( Brady Center for the Prevention of Gun Violence.)
We must oppose the heartless horsemen who roam the corridors of
Congress spreading fear and cash. Presidential hopeful John Kerry
was correct when he observed, “"There is a gap between
America's field and stream gun owners, and the NRA's soldier of
fortune leaders." Against the wishes of the law enforcement
community, the NRA succeeded in convincing a compliant Congress
to destroy gun-buyer background records only 24 hours after the
sale. There is both necessity and safety in regulating fully automatic
and semi automatic assault weapons. The Assault Weapons Ban has
saved lives. Million Moms and North Carolinians Against Gun Violence
asks you to contact our Congressmen and Senators to support it’s
reauthorization. Million Mom’s invites you to join us Mother’s
Day in Washington DC as we use our voices and our votes to protect
America’s children from real weapons of mass destruction right
here at home.
To my readers: If you ever wonder if I get
comments on these columns, I do occasionally. What are your thoughts
on the matter?
Email
Eva
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opinions stated in this page are those of Ms. Eva Ritchey and do
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