I once had a psychotic boss that truly believed all Americans should have the right to possess nuclear weapons, if they so desired. I tried to explain to him that even if we agree that kind of killing power was reasonable to have proliferated that it was physically impossible to insure folks could house the weapons safely. Yes, I actually tried to reason with the wacko.

Assault rifles are something else. It’s semantics. It’s when you have a rifle that has a particular shape and the word “assault” attached to it, people flip. Truth is, if you have excellent bullet placement, you will kill a man with a .22 as fast as you would with a .45. A 12 gauge slug to the head is pretty much as big a problem as a AK47 round to the dome. Granted, a trained person could conceivable kill more people with an MP5 than a pistol, however, there are plenty of other ways to effectively kill far more people than standard firearms. Ways that the government could not legislate out of existence. But politicians have latched on to this one. It’s a great talking point, I guess?

Outlawing things insures that criminals will be the only people with something. Obama’s answer to the American South West & Mexico’s decent into drug cartel hell is to push for an assault rifle ban? No, you cure an illness by dealing with the cause, not the symptoms. Is the root of Mexico’s destabilization M16’s? No, it’s America’s hunger for drugs that the government outlawed that created a black market. The void is filled by people who care about nothing but money and will do anything to get it (please view my blog on drug legalization).

Why should the gang bangers be the only people in this country with that type of fire arm? Why should your neighbor be permitted to own something that you are not allowed to? It gets down to the core of the Second Amendment — no one should be allowed to hold a better position to defend themselves or their property than you or I. Remember the Asian guy protecting his store by perching on top of the building with an assault rifle during the LA Riots? When people ask, why would you ever need an assault rifle I often give them a perplexed look and typically say, “You must have a very short memory”.

I guess I better go recycle some cans and buy my rifle before the Constitution gets butchered.