Assault Weapons
How dangerous are assault weapons?
Assault weapons, semi-automatic weapons, are a lot more of dangerous than guns that go a chamber at a time. When a lot of folks think about hand guns or guns, they think about the old revolver; you take a shot and the chamber has to move and put another bullet there. A semi-automatic weapon, an assault weapon if you will, all it takes a finger twitch, basically, to get the bullet in the chamber ready for firing again. It's that speed of discharge, the number of bullets that you can fire off in a short period of time, really differentiates between an assault weapon - a semi-automatic weapon - and a standard hand gun or a standard long gun, and that makes it dangerous. They are more dangerous because of the number of rounds you can get off before you have to do any sort of reloading, before you pause at all.
What is a semi-automatic assault weapon?
It's all a question of definition. In the 80's the gun industry marketed assault weapons and they were semi-automatics. It's, what people don't understand a lot of times is they don't know the difference between an automatic weapon and a semi-automatic weapon. An automatic weapon is illegal in this country. That's part of the machine gun ban that goes back to 1934. An automatic weapon is one that if you pull the trigger and hold it back it'll keep firing. A semi-automatic weapon, you have to twitch your finger. That's the difference between them. Sometimes, it's fairly easy depending on the make to modify a semi-automatic weapon into an automatic weapon. But any gun, any weapon, that is designed for aggressive use, that is designed not for self defense but for offense in my mind is an assault weapon and that's generally going to be a semi-automatic.
What's the difference between an assault weapon and a semi-automatic firearm?
The 1994 Assault Weapons Ban defined certain characteristics in certain types of guns. The industry, who wanted to push guns into the community, who wanted to manufacture guns and sell them, made slight changes then to fall outside the scope of the ban. They got around the ban by making modifications. Those who opposed the ban talked about some of the criteria being only cosmetic. Now some of them may look cosmetic to the average citizen, but when you're talking about something that makes it easier to shoot more rounds more quickly because of the way that you hold the weapon, the way the heat from the weapon doesn't get to your hand, the grips of the weapon, the flash suppressors on the weapon -- those aren't cosmetic; those are things that basically allow an individual to shoot more rounds more quickly without having to reload. The crucial thing really with the assault weapons, with the semi-automatic weapons, is the fact that they could handle big clips, ammunition clips. The crucial thing to remember is that if you've got a gun that can hold an ammunition clip or magazine that holds a hundred bullets or fifty bullets, that means that that individual is going to be able to get off a hundred rounds or fifty rounds without having to reload. Now that might be cosmetic to some, because that big clip looks scary, but that big clip holds a lot of bullets and it is scary, it is significant. It's dangerous.
How often are assault weapons used in crimes?
It's hard to know how often assault weapons are used in crime because the federal government doesn't share information on that anymore. Before congress restricted this information, it was clear from studies that I've seen, it's clear from people I've talked to, that assault weapons were used in crime. I was a mayor for twelve years. I ran a police department. And one of the reasons I supported the assault weapons ban on the early 90s is my police officers were getting out-gunned by bad guys who has the assault weapons. I remember clearly my police officers responding to a bank robbery in a stripmall and getting into a gun fight. My police officers were hiding behind their police car shooting back and the number of rounds coming from the bad guys through the car was significant. It was clear that assault weapons were being used by the bad guys. It wasn't just in my city but in cities around the country.
Does the ATF crime gun trace data show the assault weapon ban to be effective?
ATF does not release their crime trace data so it's hard to tell what it shows. One of the reasons why it's important that the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms release information on what types of guns are being used in crime and where they're coming from is so policy makers can decide what needs to be done next. Trace data is important to law enforcement in terms of seeing trafficking patterns and developing proactive strategies. It's also important to policy makers at the local level, at the state level, and at the federal level to decide if a certain type of gun, characteristic, dealer or manufacturer are the particular source of the problem. But we haven't had that data since 2003 so it's too hard to tell what is really happening.
Do assault weapons pose a threat to law enforcement?
When I talk to law enforcement, when others talk to law enforcement, they say assault weapons do pose a real threat to them. Again, assault weapons are semi-automatics that are designed for aggressive use for shooting and killing people. They have a spray pattern, they can get a lot of bullets in a quick period of time over a wide area, and that's exactly what a police officer does not want to see when he or she is responding to a crime, responding to a bank robbery, responding to an incident.
