Goodbye Kitty - Part 1

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Even though Sarah Palin is adored by many gun rights groups, she is not my political cup of tea at all. It seems that many of her admirers are one issue voters, and I respect their views, but I am not a one issue voter. (Yes, sooner or later I will write about other political issues.) With all the bikini and gun photoshopping of Palin floating around the internet, I feel bad for her. So I would like to address one of her pet causes. And yes, perform a public educational service.

One hears the terms "assault weapon," "AK-47" and "Uzi" thrown about quite a bit, usually with no knowledge of what these terms mean. In its technical sense, "assault weapon" refers to a weapon used in military assault operations. The key features of such weapons are that they are capable of fully automatic fire and lightweight. "Fully automatic" (a "machine gun") means that a weapon automatically extracts and ejects the fired cartridge case and loads the next new one, and that it will continue to load and fire ammunition until the trigger is released or the ammunition is gone. Semi-automatic firearms also extract and eject the fired case and load the next new one, but they fire only one shot per trigger pull.

The manufacture of new fully automatic machine guns for civilian purchase was effectively outlawed by part of the Firearm Owners' Protection Act of 1986. Machine guns properly registered prior to that 1986 Act are still legal, but they command a premium because of the small number available. Machine guns and submachine guns such as the Uzi, whether manufactured before or after the 1986 Act, are not the main subject of this post.

So why did I bother with this tedious explanation? Because when most people see the type of rifle above (even in pink), or hear the words "assault weapon," or "AK-47," they think of the last fully automatic rifle fire scene they saw at the movies. All of the gun control controversy today focuses on semi-automatic firearms as defined above. When I discuss a particular weapon below as an "assault weapon" in the non-technical, political sense of the word, no matter what it looks like, it is not in any way capable of "spraying" shots in a fully automatic fashion, unless it has been illegally modified. Illegal modification has also been addressed long ago, and is not part of any ongoing gun control controversy.

The AK-47 is a Soviet manufactured 7.62 mm automatic assault rifle (different from an assault weapon in very technical ways that would make this post even longer.) As discussed above, new fully automatic firearms like these are not legal for civilians to possess or transfer, except for very limited circumstances not at issue in current gun control debate.

In political discourse, "AK-47" usually means a semi-automatic rifle with a military appearance. The Federal Assault Weapons Ban passed in 1994 and expired in 2004. It prohibited the sale to civilians of some semi-automatic firearms that had certain features, such as a folding stock, a conspicuous pistol grip, and a flash suppressor, among others. It also banned the manufacture of magazines holding over ten rounds as "high capacity."

Tomorrow in Part 2 - Why the Federal Assault Weapons Ban was merely cosmetic and should not be reinstituted.