Clinton's gun-ban has been lifted !

While in office President Clinton banned the sale or purchase of assault-weapons and sub-machine guns but now that he is no longer in control his opponents have repealed this law making the buying of the likes of AK47's and Uzi sub-machine guns legal again.

The gun-lobby said that the banning of such weapons was "damaging to our civil-liberties" !

WELL...I am a Brit and I am proud that we have some of the strongest legislation in the world against the ordinary public owning and using firearms:

As American youth, ( most of you ), do you feel that the free sale of assault weapons or other guns is a good thing or do you think that it is time that America gave up it's love-affair with firearms ?

Whatever they do, it's too little, too late. No matter what legislature crosses the Senate it would be impossible to collect even 50% of the guns out there. They will also be unable to prevent most sales of it and it will be the moonshine years all over again.

I don't own a gun but I don't have anything against people owning them. The town of Kennesaw, Georgia, requires EVERY house to have a gun. I would also like to add that it has one of the lowest crime rates in Metro Atlanta. By the way, Atlanta's crime rate as a whole is atrocious.

The legalization of these weapons will not have a significant impact on society.

I think throughout the next 5 years, shootings will still be at the same rate, only perhaps the body count will rise a little.

A man that works with my father owns a lot of these "illegal" guns and he's glad that the ban is gone. Now he can use more than $4000 worth of guns that have been collecting dust in his closet over the past couple of years.

The kind of people who are willing to register these types of guns and own them legally aren't who you need to worry about. It's the gangsters and low lifes who already own unregistered guns that cause these problems....and they've always had access to these sorts of weapons.

Originally posted by Papaumau
While in office President Clinton banned the sale or purchase of assault-weapons and sub-machine guns but now that he is no longer in control his opponents have repealed this law making the buying of the likes of AK47's and Uzi sub-machine guns legal again.

The gun-lobby said that the banning of such weapons was "damaging to our civil-liberties" !

WELL...I am a Brit and I am proud that we have some of the strongest legislation in the world against the ordinary public owning and using firearms:

As American youth, ( most of you ), do you feel that the free sale of assault weapons or other guns is a good thing or do you think that it is time that America gave up it's love-affair with firearms ?

There still be state laws that will make it hard to own assault-rifles or semi-automatics (Especially in California). Another thing will be cost. These weapons will most likely to have a very high price tag. Even the ammunition won't be cheap. So whoever wants to buy one of these weapons better have a big wallet. Is not going to be cheap. I personally don't mind. As long as the gun owner is required to buy a trigger lock and as long as the weapon is regristrate is fine by me.

it really doesn't bother me. like people have said, the people that bother me by having those kinds of guns have had them and have been using them, despite a ban, so this ban is really just allowing collectors and the like to obtain them.

While I must agree that the number of ILLEGAL weapons available to criminals is a great worry to law-abiding citizens I feel that ordinary people should have no need for the ownership of firearms in a truly civilised society.

I feel that if guns are easily obtained then there will be more of them floating around for criminals to get their hands on and even the well-screened and stable civilian owners of guns can resort to their use very easily in a situation of stress either for suicide or for murder.

I do not know what the figures are for murders or suicides committed by legally owned firearms in Britain or America is but I do know that the horrific slaughter of a whole classroom of 5 year-old children in Dunblane caused the laws here to be severely tightened up as to who could own and use handguns and rifles. ( Thomas Hamilton - the person who committed this atrocity - owned FOUR handguns legally in order to be able to walk into that classroom and murder all those children and their teacher ).

I do realise that the love-affair that America has with handguns in particular and other rifles and firearms in general would make it almost impossible now to withdraw all of the weapons that are in the hands of the population at large but I feel that at some point the American people must realise that in a civilised society there is no need for such weapons.

I don't think that we in Britain will ever go back on the total ban that is in force here now but one thing is sure and that is that we are now having - pro-rata our head of population with America - almost as much trouble now with illegal guns as you are having.

The next job is to get these guns out of the hands of the criminals.

Not an easy job but one to certainly strive for I believe.

The idea of British people getting easy access to assault-weapons never mind shotguns and handguns and hunting rifles is now anathema to the way of life in civilised Britain. Maybe one day it will be the same in America !

For those interested, here is the report on the Dunblane atrocity:

http://century.guardian.co.uk/1990-1999/Story/0,6051,112749,00.html

And I feel that the British people need to realize guns don't kill people....People kill people.

i would stop worrying so much about what the United States does with their fire arms and start worrying about countries that are in serious need of gun control.

It's easier to get a Rocket Propelled Grenade Launcher in Iraq than it is to obtain a licensed gun in America.

You don't hear about "insurgent shoot outs" in America....but you sure the hell hear about it in the middle east.

Take all the gun related deaths in all of the United States over a year, and it still doesn't equal the death rate during one month in some middle Eastern countries.

The ownership of weapons in the Middle East is just another version of gun-law similar to the American one. The only difference is that they are expected to own a Kalashnikov and to fire it into the air in public when they need to celebrate.

I agree that it is people that kill and not the guns...that's a no-brainer....the important point is that the greater the number of triggers that are available to be pulled the more index fingers will be found that want to pull-em !

Originally posted by Papaumau
While I must agree that the number of ILLEGAL weapons available to criminals is a great worry to law-abiding citizens I feel that ordinary people should have no need for the ownership of firearms in a truly civilised society.

I assume you dont hunt much? I personally own a 30-06 rifle that I use for deer hunting and a 20 gauge automatic for dove hunting. I keep them unloaded and locked up in a gun safe when I am not hunting with them and I tend think Im a pretty civilized gal myself.

I look at it like this. When America banned alcahol, organized crime rose through the sale of the boos. They got rich. The ban didn't really stop anyone from getting a drink, they just got illegal boos. If we ban guns, it will pretty much stop nothing, if someone has the initative to kill, they will have the initiative to buy an illegal gun. Most murderers that kill will guns already get them Illegally off the street. We cannot stop the illegal sale of guns by stoping legal sales of guns. Clinton's ban didn't do much, in fact the thing taht determined what an assualt weapon was, was the features on it, like folding stock, color, etc etc. It had nothing to do with caliber and rate of fire. So really if you had a semi-automatic without a folding stock, you could own it, even if it had the same rate of fire. Bush said he would sign something if they made up a new ban but congress didn't want to do it. And also, if someone wants to kill with a firearm, they can do it, even if guns are legal or not. Its not the access to firearms that makes the rate of americas death so high, its all the stupid people. Low-lifes that live in America

First off all, the law wasn't repealed. There was a 10-year limit, then the law had to be re-activated. It wasn't, so the ban is gone. The call for the ban started in 1993, after a deadly shootout between robbers and LAPD. I know banning assault weapons won't get them out of the hands of crimminals and they could steal some if they didn't have any. I'm generally against gun bans, but the ban on assault weapons made sense. Using an AK-47 against a deer isn't very smart. I see no need for people to have these guns.

nothing wrong with taking a gun to a shooting range for target practice.

I've been hunting 2x and to the range 7x....both are equally fun.

true, but if I'm gonna spend a lot of money on a gun, I wanna use it. Going down to the range and holding down the trigger may be fun for a bit, but I want more use out of one.

I never got the big deal about fire arms. And I certainly don't see the point in owning automatic assault rifles. Those are not for hunting, those are used for killing people.

But I don't care, really. Either way guns will always be a problem in this society.

i don't have anything against people owning assault weapons, so long as they register them, it just i dont think owning a semi-machine gun or any assualt weapon is really nessesary...what are you going to use it for?

Originally posted by Agent Elrond
Using an AK-47 against a deer isn't very smart. I see no need for people to have these guns.

Which is why I use a 30-06 😛
and I agree....the average citizen has no business owning a gun like AK-47.

*averge Joe* How do I fire this thing? *winds up shooting everyone and everything around him, including himself* People might think M-16's are cool to have, but unless they've been trained (like army training) then they have no business having them.

AKs and Ozis are still illegal under federal law 😄 the assualt ban was for weapons like M-16 and M-4 Carbines. 😄 Personally i don't like the idea of assualt weapons being sold.... but either way if i wanted one when the ban was up i could still buy one and some other rather nasty weapons.... 😬 come one the found someone selling a stinger 😬 the thing is like 4 feet long... 😂 Considering that the British had an arms ban on us during the revolutionary war and we still had enough arms to wage a war 😛 😂

Okay, first of all, I posted this in the Bush thread a while back, so this is old news. 😬

Second of all, I think it is incredibly stupid that it is not in effect. These guns are made to kill the most amount of people in the least amount of time, period. Hunting? Do you want a deer with half its guts pouring out or meat? Please. 😬

Dude you can pick one up easy off the street... might as well get them registered 😬